On Thursday's Déise Today, Damien was talking to Aodhan O'Riordan, Labour party senator who is also their spokesperson on education and skills.
Aodhan and the Labour party want to ban the as they call it "anything but voluntary" school payments which amount by their estimates amounts to 45 million in payments by families each year to their schools.
He says that this cost adds extra stress onto families where maybe parents might struggle to pay this.
If you want to listen to that interview you can just click here.
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/deise-today-9th-may-2019-the-labour-party-and-the-idea-to-ban-voluntary-payments-in-schools?in=wlrfmwaterford/sets/deise-today-2019
On Thursday’s version of ‘Déise Today’, Damien was also chatting to Jac Sinnott, Blaise Managa and Glenys Mahlangu of Waterford Sanctuary Runners on the great work that the group is doing for people that are in direct provisions centres.
Blaise Managa is from The Democratic Republic of Congo and is currently resident in direct provision at Viking house centre in Waterford since April.
Meanwhile, Glenys Mahlangu is from Zimbabwe originally and is currently a direct provision resident at Ocean View in Tramore.
Jac explains that the group was set up and currently have 55-60 members in it and the group is always growing.
Blaise and Glenys both said that the group has helped them so much in terms of getting out of the house and meeting new people and helping to clear their minds. “I find that going out and running gives me space to clear my head, I suffer from sleep insomnia and going for a run helps me to sleep better”.
Jac says that even if you are not in direct provisions that people are more than welcome to come out and join them. “We meet up every morning in Tramore and if people want to come along and meet new people that they are more than welcome to join!”.
If you want to watch that interview you can just click here!
If you want to watch the full version of 'Déise Today', you can just click here
https://soundcloud.com/wlrfmwaterford/deise-today-thursday-9th-may-2019?in=wlrfmwaterford/sets/deise-today-2019
