Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the call by Senator Mullins for a debate on Springboard. I attended the launch of Springboard yesterday. It is something in which I have been involved for a while. It is a great success and a wonderful story. It is aimed at people who have degrees but who are not able to use them. It may be somebody connected with the construction industry, for example, an architect, an engineer or a quantity surveyor. Springboard arranges for them a dual course of one or two years to give them a higher degree in an area where a job is going. It has been a huge success, and some of the stories I heard yesterday are well worth hearing.
In the North of Ireland, there have been vaccination programmes against shingles for the past year. We can do that now, but we are not doing it. I gather that an information campaign is being started. The condition generally applies to older people and a huge effort is needed in this area. A number of places on the Continent have developed the vaccination. They have been able to do it in the North for more than a year. I understand it is only for people who are over 60 or 70, and I gather that half the population over 80 will get it. We now have a vaccination that will enable us to overcome shingles. It is worth drawing to the Minister's attention that if this can be done in the North, we should do it as well.
There is a lovely little shop on Lincoln Place called Sweny's. It is mentioned in James Joyce'sUlysses. Leopold Bloom visited it at 11 a.m. on Bloomsday 110 years ago next Tuesday. It was a pharmacy, but it closed in 2009 and has since been taken over by a group of volunteers who meet there to study Joyce and to talk and read. It is a glorious story. They pay for the rent, the heat and everything else but, even though they are a charity, they now have to pay rates. I do not know whether an exception can be made for them but, if nothing else, we should all at least drop in and support them.