User:rorynoonanDate:27/05/2013Time:08:30:56Edition:27/05/2013Monmonecho270513Page:1Color:
EE - V1
MONDAY, MAY 27, 2013
EDITION NO. 34,922
Serving Cork for 120 years
Rent rises driving people into poverty Charlie top of the Over-60s
A delighted Charlie McAllister from Midleton after winning the Over-60s talent contest at City Hall last night.
Picture: Ger Bonus
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27.05.13 Recommended retail price €1.50
ONE of the founders of a choir in Midleton was the overall winner of this year’s Over-60s Talent Contest. Charlie McAllister, aged 62, won the competition last night with his performance of 0\ +HDUW DQG ,. Organiser Paddy O’Brien said Mr McAllister loved music and song, and was a founding member of the Irish Meat Packers choir in Midleton. He is a father of three grown-up children and this year is his second year taking part in the competition. He said last night was one of the happiest nights of his life, after finding out he had won the competition. Charlie was presented with the perpetual trophy and €1,000 by the Lord Mayor, Cllr John Buttimer. ● See page six.
County Council under fire over doubling weekly rate
RENT increases being imposed on Cork County Council tenants will drive more and more people into poverty. That is according to Fermoy resident Noreen Cody, who says her rent will almost double when the local authority introduce a new regime to standardise rents across the county. As a result of a rent review of 5,000 Cork County Council properties, many tenants will have to pay more than €25 a week extra in rent. But Noreen, a mother of two teenagers, said she was already struggling to pay rent and provide for her children at her home on the Duntaheen Road. Her rent will be increased from €32.50 to €61.50 a week. Until now, the county council had operated three separate housing rent schemes for each of its three divisions — north, south and west — with tenants in north and west availing of cheaper rents because of their more rural locations.
By PADRAIG HOARE AND RONAN BAGNALL Of the 2,474 tenants in the council’s south Cork division, covering Midleton, Blarney, Carrigaline, Glanmire, Kinsale, Bandon and Douglas, 1,037 tenants have already had their rents increased, following a review of household income. However, it is in the north and west of the county that the most severe increases are planned, even if the household income hasn’t changed. Noreen, a part-time special needs assistant on a schoolbus said that as she would not be paid during the summer months while schools were shut, she would have to rely on €150 per week in state assistance. “I was advised unofficially by council officials to contact the St Vincent de Paul and MABS. I knew there would be a rent increase but to be almost doubled is hard to take. ● Continued on page two.
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