Kildare Focus 09.09.21

Kildare Focus

Thursday, 9 September 2021 - 31 minutes

Coleen Dube
Chief Executive Officer, National Adult Literacy Agency
• Critical importance of literacy – not CAO points
• Min Harris yesterday launched a 10-year adult literacy strategy

Paula Byrne
Chief Executive, Merchants Quay Ireland
• MQI launch report calling for female-only homeless and addiction services

Michelle Murphy
Economic and Social Analyst, Social Justice Ireland
• Mitigating impact of Covid-19 learning loss requires long-term resourcing – Social Justice Ireland responds to launch of Covid Learning and Supports Scheme

Prof. Ella Arensman
Director of Research with the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) and Adjunct Professor with the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College Cork
• 340 recorded suicides in 2020 – lowest level in at least 2 decades
• But Prof. Arensman notes figures should be taken with caution - given coroners’ inquests postponed for much of 2020, with many postmortems delayed