In Short

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

A round-up of today's other stories in brief

Midwest Brothers of Charity may face €300,000 pay bill over ruling

The Brothers of Charity in the midwest could be facing a bill of more than €300,000 in response to a Labour Court ruling over its withholding of incremental pay to staff, writes Gordon Deegan.

This follows the court’s ruling that incremental payments which the service in Limerick has withheld from workers must now be paid.

READ MORE

Impact assistant general secretary Andy Pike said the dispute involved between 100 and 200 workers in Limerick, with average payouts of about €2,000 due.

Mr Pike said unions had lodged a similar claim with the Brothers of Charity service in Clare concerning 80 workers.

“With this Labour Court ruling, I would be very confident that the outcome will be the same in Clare, as the grounds of the claim are exactly the same,” he said. The Brothers of Charity in Limerick declined to comment yesterday.

The services in Limerick and Clare face a bill of more than €300,000 in relation to the claims, with between 200 and 300 workers affected. They provide a range of services to people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Call for special needs clinics

A call has been made to the Government to roll out a countrywide network of clinics dedicated to providing therapies for children with special needs.

Manager of the Clare Crusaders Clinic Ann Norton said yesterday the clinic would lodge a submission with the Department of Health calling for the roll-out of similar clinics on a county- by-county basis across the State.

The clinic in Barefield, near Ennis, was established in 2007 by parents of children with special needs and today provides therapies to 170 children with a range of special needs, including cerebral palsy, autism and Down syndrome.

The charity was established by a group of parents from Clare in 2005.

Man remanded in Laois murder case


A 40-year-old man charged with the murder of Diane Burroughs (30) in Mounthrath, Co Laois, last Saturday has been remanded in continuing custody, writes Tim O'Brien.

Jason Daly (40), PJ Delaney flats, Main Street, Mountrath, appeared at Cloverhill District Court yesterday.

He was remanded in custody to appear at Cloverhill again on May 17th.

The remand was to allow for directions to be received from the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The body of Ms Burroughs, who lived in the same complex as Daly, was discovered by gardaí at 8pm on Saturday.

She died as a result of strangulation, a postmortem found.