Community Matters 15oct2024

Conor Coyne, CEO of Kylemore Abbey, discusses the success and growth of the abbey as a tourist attraction. He mentions the opening of a new monastery and retreat center, renovations to the neo-gothic church, and the refurbishment of Fordham Hall for events and exhibitions. He also highlights the importance of the tourism revenue in supporting the community and creating job opportunities. Finally, he mentions the election of the 20th abbess of Kylemore Abbey. Community Matters is kindly sponsored by Cunnamara Credit Union Limited, incorporating Clifton, Tully Cross and Carnda branches. Cunnamara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Cunnamara area. Main Office, Clifton and Tully Cross branch, 19521101. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Community Matters program here on Cunnamara Community Radio with me, Maureen Corbett and with Dermot Dunyon on the tech desk this evening bringing you the program between now and eight o'clock. So as always, we have a lineup of guests that we'll be interviewing throughout the program. My first guest this evening is local man Connor Coyne, who is the CEO of Kylemore Abbey and he's giving us a general update on how the season went and the plans for the coming months and also the news about the new abbess that was elected recently to the Order of Benedictine Nuns. Then I have an in-studio guest. I am pleased to have Maureen Maloney. She's a pensions advisor, recently retired from University of Galway and she'll be in studio talking about a new automatic enrolment retirement savings system or pension act that came in in 2024 and its implications for employers and employees alike. And then Coach Neal, who is the newly elected president of the Galway Chamber and she's going to join me on the line to talk about her plans for the new role and focus on the future and also to tell us about the upcoming business awards 2024 that are coming up in November. And last but not least, I'll be speaking with Noleen Blackwell, who is the online safety coordinator with the Children's Rights Alliance on the record-breaking year for reports of online abuse and exploitation that was in a recent hotline.ie report and the need for more resources to tackle this situation. So, let's go to my first guest. Now, my first guest this evening is Conor Coyne. He's the CEO of Calmore Abbey and I'm delighted to welcome him to Community Matters. Hello, Conor. Welcome to the program. Thanks for inviting me on, Maureen. Delighted to have you. Conor, Calmore just seems to be continuing to thrive and grow and develop and it's wonderful with record-breaking visitor numbers last year and several new additions taking place. How does that feel and what is it like and what's been going on there? Well, it feels good. It's always better to be on a rising tide than a sinking ship, so that's good. I suppose we've really bounced back strongly post-Covid and we're delighted to be in a position where we're probably seeing the same amount of visitors as we did pre-Covid, if not a little bit more. So, there was a recent piece in the paper which referenced our visitor numbers in 2023 in comparison to 2022 and there's positive growth there and I'm delighted to say as we've ended the peak season for 2024 that actually there's been a significant amount of growth in the visitor numbers in 2024 compared to 2023 as well. So, that's good. It's good for a number of reasons, I suppose. There's been 152 people from the local region and local area that have been gainfully employed in Kylemore as a consequence of these visitor numbers and ultimately Kylemore Abbey is a charity, so the funds that are derived from the tourism business are reinvested into the estate, into Kylemore Abbey itself, into the buildings and to support the benefitting community there as well. So, it's always good that when we have a kind of a prosperous year that we're able to kind of reinvest more not only into the buildings but to the overall estate itself and I think that's good not only for Kylemore Abbey but for the region as well. Yeah, congratulations on that. It's great to see and we've also been sort of flagged as being the most popular tourist attraction now having those record visitor numbers last year and I'm sure that position will still be held as you say the numbers for 2024 are looking like it's going to even be 2022 which is fantastic news and as you say it's good for not only the estate but for everyone employed and everyone associated with it. Now, you mentioned there the funds created and brought in the revenue that there's been an opportunity for exciting and new developments taking place. What sort of new developments have taken place and what are the new additions at Kylemore Abbey this year? Okay, well I suppose there's some that are kind of part of the visitor experience and there's some that are kind of more maybe monastic in nature. I suppose the one that's the most obvious to anyone that comes into the estate now is that we have about 6-8 weeks ago opened a brand new purpose-built monastery and retreat and education centre right off to the lake on the periphery on the way up to the Abbey and that's the first time in 103 years since the nuns have actually been in Kylemore Abbey that there's been a purpose-built building which is appropriate for monastic life which has actually been on the site. Before the community would have initially lived in the Abbey and then would have lived for 17 years in the farmhouse which is about a kilometre back the cliff in direction past Kylemore Abbey. So it's great now that we're actually able to be in a situation where we can have the Benedictine community, the 15 nuns in Kylemore Abbey right at the beating heart of the estate and that monastery as well is open to the public so anyone who comes to visit Kylemore can pop in, say hello and whether they want to meet with a member of the Benedictine community or whether they want to kind of explore some aspects of monastic life or enquire about going on retreat or whatever, there's an opportunity for them to pop in any time they're passing by so that's probably the largest and most obvious element that's been bolted on to Kylemore. But furthermore there's a couple of other things as well so for people who are familiar with Kylemore Abbey and I'm sure most of your listeners have at one stage or another come across the bridge into the estate they'll see that actually the neo-gothic church's steeple is surrounded by white plastic sheeting and scaffolding because there's an 18-month project in order to safeguard the overall building from the amount of water that was coming into it. So thankfully we've been successful in terms of fundraising and got donations in order to do that piece of work and that piece of work will be complete towards the tail end of 2025. I suppose when you go up to the Abbey then, we recently reopened Fordham Hall which initially was a ballroom during the John Henry's time and then during the nuns' time in the Abbey and especially when the school was open there was a chapel up in this ballroom at the back of the Abbey and now it's been refurbished and renovated and it's a multi-purpose venue where it can seat up to 100 people in terms of being seated for entertainment activities whether they be concerts or plays or whatever and also it's multi-purpose whereby we will hopefully in the not too distant future have national or international art exhibitions and things of that sort there as well as potential conferences as well so I think it's great for the region and for the locality to have something of that standard in the area where hopefully people from internationally, people domestically and people locally will be able to utilise it into the future and as I mentioned all of these things, it's important for me to reinforce the fact that people from the locality and from Clifton to Mancross and that horseshoe out to Palmore and back to Ed Bylin again we all see as kind of locals and as a consequence we see as people who have complimentary access to the estate during opening hours so anything that we add on to the attraction piece there is a complimentary benefit to anyone from the locality and then the first event that was there in Fordham Hall as well since it's been reopened we had an opera which was part of the tail end of the Clifton Arts Festival so it was one of the culminating events and it was lovely to have that there as an opening event for the refurbished Fordham Hall and it was great as well that we had maybe a person from the locality who was one of the performers there as well so that was a lovely little additional piece That evening sounds lovely I was actually still at that table, my wife was there and said it was a lovely day and on the feedback as well, it was so favourable from everyone over there so I think it went very, very well and the acoustics are superb there as well and then if we go back to the gardens, there was two elements of updates put into the gardens as well at one stage nearly 100 years ago there was over a dozen glasshouses back in the old gardens now there's a lot less but over the last year or so we've renovated two of those glasshouses and binaries so they've been fully refurbished and renovated because they were in a place of just repair but also we've put a small indoor interpretive and audiovisual experience which tells the history, the story and the importance of the old gardens for all the visitors who go back there as well so actually for people coming from an international location it tells them of the story and kind of the magnitude of having such a pristine garden in an area where the land wouldn't necessarily have been suitable for such planting but for people from the locality it's nice as well because it actually tells the story and gives the names of people from the locality who were involved in driving particularly the renovation of that garden which happened 25 years ago so it's great actually to see the acknowledgement that people from the locality are getting as part of that exhibition as well so of course as you can see there's lots of things going on in terms of things being built on the estate and then probably one of the most important things that happened a couple of weeks ago where we had the election and appointment of the 20th abbess of Cornmoor Abbey where Mother Carol O'Connor who's coming on 50 years now in Cornmoor was duly elected as the new mother abbess of Cornmoor Abbey as well so a big event for the community there, the existing community and congratulations to Mother O'Connor when is the formal Baisha blessing taking place? So the formal Baisha blessing is happening mid-week in the first week of November so the Archbishop is coming to do the blessing and I think there's been some fantastic goodwill and feedback with the news as well because Mother Carol has been somebody that's kind of synonymous with music in the locality and has been a good friend of our people in the region and the locality as well so there seems to be very very careful feedback with the aspect of goodwill Yes she's well known as you say, she's so involved in music in the community that a lot of people would know her through that as well so a lot taking place, it's been a great year It sure has Maureen, I suppose we're involved in a couple of other things then as well You have the mid-term break coming up soon haven't you and the Halloween festival What's taking place then? We do, we do, so just to get the dates off to the right so from the last weekend in October right from October 26th up to November 3rd there will be little events but essentially there's activities that are really targeted at the kids that will be off for Christmas and involve trails where kids can come and see the animals and the pigs and the ponies but also learn about night sky objects and woodland creatures and so on so it's really about kind of immersing kids during that period in kind of the flora and fauna around them and kind of giving them an opportunity to while away a couple of hours and maybe give their parents a bit of a break if they can hop into the tea house or the restaurant and have a cup of coffee and some sweet while the kids are going around and getting a bit of a diggle into the estate so that's something to look forward to as well and I suppose we've other little bits and pieces going on as well I suppose it's ok to say to our local friends that we're in the middle as well of shooting a documentary on a kind of a year of the life of Pilemore Abbey as well and that will be a multi-part series which hopefully will be hitting the airwaves later on in the end of next year but it's giving a great opportunity to tell the story of Pilemore Abbey to a national and international TV audience and through the eyes of the different characters on the estate whether they be the nuns, whether they be members of the team who have been there for decades at this stage and just seeing Pilemore through those different eyes and those different prisons and all those different stories we think it will be a great showcase on TV next year Is that an association with RTE, Conor? It's an association with RTE but also we hope it will be put to other international stations as well so I think that will be good for the locality and the region as well and not only just for Pilemore Absolutely, that sounds very exciting I hadn't actually heard about that so that's wonderful to hear and I'm sure a lot of our listeners will be waiting for it with a basic breath when it hits the screens next year and it's fully completed So as you say, a lot happening Now if anyone, just to touch back there on the activities for mid-term and for Christmas if anyone wants to take part, do they need to make a booking or did they just arrive out? Are there tickets available or how does that work? So just check our website or our social media channels have all the details as well but most definitely our website will have any of the details and we'll be able to cater for any level of crowds that come on any given day so there's no need to pre-book but we'll be working with open arms if you arrive on the day and again, a lot of these things, we operate all about two days a year open to the public anyway but I know some people might come on drier days or whatever but there's no need to pre-book or they'll be available at any given time So now you're open every day of the week as you say but did the opening hours change now coming into the winter and the shorter daylight hours or did they stay the same? Yeah, coming in after the mid-term we'll probably be reducing our hours in line with daylight savings and things like that but we're open basically apart from two days around Christmas and the day after the Christmas party for another reason altogether we stay open for a couple of days around the year Apart from the documentary which you mentioned for next year is there anything else in the pipeline for next year as a new addition or are you taking a break from all the innovative development work that's taking place this year? Well, at some stage you kind of need to take a pause I suppose the significance of 2025 is 2025 will be the 25th anniversary of the refurbishment of the garden so we're going to really bring that to the fore in terms of the history experience and really acknowledging how big an event it was actually to refurbish six and a half acres that had become very much overrun and bring them back to their splendour and grandeur from 150 years before that so that will be at the forefront of a lot of our campaigns in 2025 and I suppose what we're going to take the chance to do in 2025 as well is to do a little bit of a pause and think about what's the next 10, 15, 20 years to come and kind of maybe build a plan around that as well so we've been trying to get projects complete and working with all those donors and supporters of Kymor across the world to kind of enable this to happen so we're now over the next 6 to 12 months taking a little bit of a pause to figure out how do we reassess things and how do we kind of set ourselves up for the next 10 to 20 years Going forward, ok Perfect, listen Conor it's been a pleasure chatting to you and thank you so much for taking the time out to come on Community Fashions this evening and giving us all those exciting updates on the developments there at Kylemore Abbey and we wish you and the team there continued success going forward and into the end of this year and all to next year as well Good, I'll meet them out this morning and hope to talk to you soon Will do, ok, take care, thank you Conor And that of course was Conor Coyne, the CEO of Kylemore Abbey but do stay with us because we have lots more interesting guests coming up but first we're going to take the ad break Job Spot on Connemara Community Radio King's Paper Shop Clifton are looking for part-time staff Applicants must be over 18 To apply please send your CV to john.king at hotmail.com or drop into the shop Experience is preferred but not necessary as full training will be 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If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge amount of drugs If you have a huge 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started There's a reason behind everything But why do you think that people should be particularly interested in pensions then? Is there a lesson in there for us all? Well, I suspect that even the most frugal listener Finds it difficult to live solely on the state pension And the household benefits package Between 2020 and 2023, the inflation rate was considerably higher Than the increase in the state pension Anyone living on a fixed income like the state pension Knows that their money now doesn't go as far as it did in 2020 So the household benefits package Which comprises an electric or gas allowance And a pension license are means tested For those who are less than 70 years old But then available to anyone after the age of 70 But the electric or gas allowance Is 35 euros per month And that's exactly the same as it was in 2012 So the state pension and the household benefits package Are reducing in value This means that other sources of retirement income are going to be important So it is important to us all to pay attention And look into it a little bit more Now, the auto-enrollment retirement savings scheme For 2024 has already been passed And I know we're going to be discussing it here on Connemara Community Radio This week and next week But let's start with maybe introducing it What exactly is it, the auto-enrollment pension scheme? Okay, so government plans to introduce this new retirement savings scheme For employees who are not already part of a workplace pension scheme It's going to be called the future fund It will be implemented by a new national authority The employee's contribution will be deducted through payroll And then the new authority will collect the employee's contribution The national contribution from the employer And from the state So the authority will then invest that money on the employee's behalf So why is it being introduced? Well, the Irish population is aging People are living longer And the average number of children per family is decreasing So the ratio of people working and paying taxes To those who are retired and collecting the state pension is falling So given these pressures It's unlikely that state benefits for pensioners will increase So also employers are required to give employees access to a pension plan But neither the employer nor the employee Is required to contribute So in general, it's only the large employers And some medium-sized employers who offer pensions to their employees As a result, there's almost a million employees Who are not members of an occupational pension plan Most of these employees work in the private sector And small and medium-sized businesses So the state wants to provide an easy method for employees To save for retirement in a way that is also easy for employers Does auto-enrollment replace the state pension then? No, it will not replace the state pension The government is committed to the state pension However, the view of this government And the last government Is that the state should provide enough to keep pensioners out of poverty The government believes that having an adequate income At retirement is the responsibility of the individual So you mentioned that there's a lot of pressure Meeting smaller businesses and employees That are not currently paying into any occupational pension So will they be automatically then auto-enrolled? Is that how it will work or how will it work? Well, it's going to affect all employees Who are not pension plan members And it will also affect all employers Who do not offer an occupational pension plan To all their employees So then, just as an example What about an employee who is then over 60 years of age Or makes less than €20,000 per year Will they be automatically enrolled into it? Well, so first of all, let's just talk about What are the conditions of the people That will be automatically enrolled So if you're between the ages of 23 or 60 If you earn €20,000 a year or more And if you're not contributing to a pension Through your company's payroll Then you will be automatically enrolled If it happens that you are over 60 If you're earning less than €20,000 a year You can request your employer to enroll you And then you will be allowed To get your employer and the state contributions So it's by request then if you fall into that situation? If you fall outside of the conditions you do So how exactly will the contributions be made then? Will it be automatically deducted from your payroll Or from your pay packet? Exactly. So your employer will make the arrangements With the payroll provider and your contribution Will be deducted from your gross pay And then sent to the new authority And how will the contribution be calculated? So it's going to be introduced at a slow pace So if you're employed on the 30th of September 2025 And you meet those requirements that I told you about Your initial contribution will be 1.5% of your gross earnings This is the pay before your taxes are deducted In 2028 this is going to increase to 3% Then 4.5% in 2031 And by 2035 you will contribute 6% of gross pay to your future fund So for employees who begin to work in 2035 6% of their gross pay will be deducted And in other words Only people who begin working before 2035 Will be gradually introduced Into this savings plan Okay. So it's going to be introduced gradually And over a number of years For those people who are the first ones To be automatically enrolled So for the first 10 years it will be gradual after that Everybody that comes into the workforce 6% of their income will be taken And is the employee the only person to contribute Or is there a percentage matching contribution from the employer? There are contributions that will be matched by the employer And by the government Your employer will contribute 1.5% of your gross pay And government will contribute A half of a percentage So this means the total contribution to your pension Will be 3.5% of gross pay In 2035 you and your employer and government Will make full contributions That will be 6% for you, 6% for your employer And 2% from the government So the total contribution to your pension Will be 14% of gross pay That's a significant percentage amount, isn't it? It is, yes it is And with the rising cost of living and inflation As you mentioned at the start, it's probably not a bad thing Yeah, I think that as your income would go up So would also your pension contributions So yes, by the time that you retire It's daunting as it might seem for those who are reaching retirement age now And may not have those higher contributions paid Or any contributions paid So can you give an example of how this all will work then? Or do you want to just remind us all again how it will work? Sure, so let's say you earn 30,000 Euro a year Or 2,500 per month In 2025 during the first month of auto-enrollment You will pay 3,750 per month Your employer will match that with another 3,750 per month And the government contribution will be 12.50 Euro per month Which is a total of 87.50 At the end of the first year, you will have 1,050 Euro in your future fund In 2035, your employer and the government Will make full contributions So let's say you're earning 30,000 a year Your employer will each contribute 6% of gross pay And the government will contribute 2% At the end of the year, a total of 4,200 will be contributed To your future fund Now what happens if an employee changes jobs? Does it automatically move with them? Or do they have to reapply? How does that work then? For auto-enrollment, the pension pot follows you And your new employer and the government Will resume contributions to your future fund Within a few weeks of starting your new job So it just travels with you from employer to employer You don't lose out on any benefits or a gap The government has said that it will be no longer than 13 weeks Of a gap, if there is a gap And what happens if there is an emergency And the employee has to stop saving? You can suspend your contributions Now if you suspend your contributions So does your employer and the state And after two years you will be automatically re-enrolled Now I know we're just coming to the end of this particular slot But I know you're returning next week What are you going to talk about next week or what are you going to cover next week? Have you got more information in relation to this That you think listeners should listen to next week as well? From the employer's perspective So employers should tune in And definitely the employers tune in Now if anyone listening is already interested or it's perched their attention Where can they find out more information in the meantime? There are a few websites for employers and employees on the radio Facebook page Also if you have any questions Email InfoEconomarFM.com With pension as the subject So anyone listening if you have any questions Especially if you're an employer but even if you are an employee And today's topic refers to you Drop an email or get in touch and you can find out all of the Website information on the radio page Listen Maureen thank you so much for popping in this evening And telling us the information about the auto-enrollment pension scheme It's been a pleasure having you in the studio and looking forward to being back again next week Thank you so much Thank you That was Maureen Maloney a pensions advisor who was recently retired from the University of Galway We're going to take a little track now We're going to listen to Simply Red and Money is Too Tight I've been laid off from work my rent is due My kids don't need brand new shoes So I went to the bank To see what they could do Let the snow look like that Love's got a hold on you But it's too tight to let go I kiss you But it's too late I kiss you But it's too late But it's too tight to let go I went to my brother To see what he could do He said brother I'd like to help you but I'm unable So I called my father So I called my father He said but it's too tight to let go Oh honey But it's too tight to let go But it's too tight to let go I kiss you But it's too late But it's too late But it's too late Oh Lord down in the concrete It's touching all kinds of things From down on Capitol Hill We're riding But it's too tight to let go I kiss you But it's too tight to let go But it's too tight to let go Oh honey We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money We're talking about money, money So two years ago the chamber approached me and co-opted me onto the council just that I had some expertise and some experience that I could bring to the table and then last year I went for election at the moment elections are every year and last year I went for election and the incoming president last year, Evanna Ryan reached out to me and asked me if I would serve as her deputy I've only been in the chamber myself representing APUs for a couple of years so it's all happened quite quickly but it's such a privilege and I get to work alongside amazing colleagues from the business community across Galway County and City so we're all learning from each other I hope How long is the term of president for? No, I'm actually going to do the two years so we have a choice to do one or two years It's a difficult time for Galway Chambers at the moment in my opinion unfortunately our CEO recently stepped down his contract was coming to an end and a very ambitious colleague Kenny Deary and I imagine he's going to go on to do many great things across the region and indeed this island so we are in the process at the moment of recruiting a CEO and with new leadership obviously comes new opportunity so I've decided I'm going to do the two years to really help the chamber maybe we have to develop a new strategic plan and we'll do that with a new CEO but also as well look at our goals in terms of growing our membership and growing hopefully our reach across the county so we're very lucky at the moment we have members indeed from across Galway County but we'll be looking to maybe do more work on that and we're also looking to reach out to other chamber organisations in the county and businesses in the county to see how we can better collaborate and work together because I think one strong voice for Galway is critically important going forward So that's going to be high on your agenda then as your goal list for the two years Yeah absolutely, it's one of my main objectives we're very lucky we have an amazing county council represented by many great councillors including many in Connemara Eileen Mannion has always been a great colleague to work alongside and many others and we also have the same partnership with Galway City Council so for me going forward it's really important that we work together in a collegiate manner and we look to make sure that we are that strong voice for Galway at government at representation where we advocate for business for enterprise, for communities and having one voice is very important as we all know if there's multiple voices in the mix sometimes the messaging can get a little bit lost so there's a great commitment across the region for us to really come together and have that one voice and advocate for this wonderful county And do you have a deputy then to work with you on that objective? I do indeed, we have a fantastic council and we're going to have to vote in all of those positions later this week but I'm incredibly lucky my deputy president is a colleague who's probably very well known in Connemara her name is Gemma Costello Gemma is the Bank of Ireland Manager in Galway and Sturgeon is part of her area as well so Gemma has been on council longer than I has lots of amazing experiences Gemma and I are supported by an amazing council that comes from the world of business from community and indeed from education and of course we're all really well supported by an amazing but very small chamber team so Gerda McLaughlin is currently serving as our Interim CEO and she's supported by Elaine Murphy who's the Chief Operating Officer and Elaine has been with the chamber for quite some time and we have two other colleagues, Keishon and Fiona so we're a small team of four but they're really dynamic so together we work as a team and collectively we're trying to make a difference and move forward with our objectives and our agenda So everybody's coming from, as you say, with a lot of experience and diverse backgrounds which brings different dynamics to the table and you need that sort of positive energy and input across the board from business to social to cultural to industry, you need all of that input in order to make it work and for the cohesion to become actually practical on the ground. It's not an easy task trying to amalgamate everyone under one leadership of one organisation, I'm sure it has its challenges as well It sure does but I see it more as an opportunity I'm incredibly lucky to work at ATU, I have worked in ATU and GMIT for almost 17 years now and while my role is as the head of the hotel school I also work across other function areas and now that we've become ATU with nine campuses across the West North West of Ireland so I really can look to my own leader, Dr Orla Flynn, the President of the University who provides phenomenal leadership to all of us across the organisation and I'm also working with amazing managers across, including our colleagues in ATU Cullamara, so we're always learning from each other but also we're there to support and work with each other and I think that's critically important because leadership is always a learning journey as well and none of us are ever there I think so I feel very privileged but I also feel incredibly lucky that I have this opportunity and I also feel I have great support and great connections in terms of a network of people I can reach out to And as you say, if the vision and the goal and the end goal for everyone is the same and everyone is unified on that then that's the secret to success as well in driving it all forward together Absolutely, the mission of Galway Chamber is very clear to provide members with opportunities to connect to promote, to engage, to influence the development of Galway really as a world class location for business, for investment and also for people to come together in an inclusive and sustainable manner so we're all really focused on that very key objective which is part of our mission and collectively we can be so much stronger than trying to work as small silos or individual units Okay, again thank you Cotch for taking time out and congratulations again on your recent appointment and the best of luck to you and all in the Chamber there as you drive it all forward in the next few years and I'm sure we'd be delighted to have you back over the course of that so you can bring us updates on anything you have. Now just before I let you go just briefly, and I know we only have about a minute if you want to give a mention to the upcoming Galway Chambers 2024 Business Awards are taking place next month what date, when and where? The Business Awards will take place on Friday the 29th of November in the Galway Bay Hotel and I just wanted to put a call out to people in Connemara to go to the Chamber website GalwayChamber.com and have a look at the website there's lots of different categories there including marketing excellence, customer service, SMEs innovation and business. I would love to see applications coming from across the county so just encouraging people to check that out and if there's any questions they can get in touch with the Chamber staff they'll be able to guide people. Perfect, sorry we ran out of time, it's been a pleasure and the best of luck with everything going forward and thanks for coming on Community Matters Thank you so much for the opportunity Thanks Cot, that is Cot, the newly elected President of the Galway Chamber ConnemaraFM.com Now, Noelene Blackwell is my next guest and she is the Online Safety Coordinator with the Children's Rights Alliance Organisation Good evening Noelene and welcome to Community Matters Thank you, thank you Maureen Noelene, we might just begin by just giving a very, very brief overview of the role and the work of the Children's Rights Alliance in relation to how the Children's Rights Alliance is working in relation to how the children's rights are respected and protected under the organisation Yeah, and thank you for that chance as well. So the Children's Rights Alliance is an umbrella, or a grouping of almost 160 organisations I think we're going to get our 160th soon it'll be nicer than the 159 we have now but there are organisations all over the country that deal with the rights of children in many different ways whether it's children in education, children living in poverty, children in the juvenile justice system, children who are thriving and children in the arts so across the way, and the Alliance then tends to focus in on some of the things that are clearly troubling Alliance members right across the system so it focuses in on child poverty, it's now focusing in on children who are marginalised because they're from minority groups or they're asylum seekers, and one of the areas that has come up as an area where we really need to put as much resources as we possibly can is the whole area of children's rights online children's rights not just in the sense of children always being fearful about them but making sure that given that we live in a digital age where the digital world is all around children, that they get their right to education to entertainment, to communicate with each other but also, and in I suppose the context of this conversation, that children are not made unsafe online and that they are protected from harm online and we would hope to do offline as well so for children today, it doesn't matter whether they're online or offline, it's all their world but a lot of the focus has to be on how do we keep children safe in this new fast-moving global world where digital is all around them Now I'm just going to refer to the hotline.ie report the National Centre of Expertise Countering Illegal Content Online, namely Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, Non-Consensual Sharing of Intimate Images and Videos, Racism and Xenophobia etc. and they have just recently raised concerns about the significant surge and the rise in the volume of reports of child sexual abuse material and it has increased 110% in 2023 compared to 2022 Now that has to be troubling and shocking and alarming across the board for everyone. Yes, it is on the one hand and on the other hand, and we always make this point as well, it's great that hotline is there but there is somewhere where if someone comes across child sexual abuse material, they can immediately get on to the hotline.ie number and they can help to get it taken down. But it is, what's alarming about it is that 29,000 reports in 2023 of child sexual abuse material which is always illegal always wrong and always abusive of children. So there are people, including other children to be frank, but also people who are making a whole heap of money from abusing children and posting and spreading abusive material online and it's one of the ways in which the internet and the digital age is shockingly good at spreading criminally abusive material because it can be done so fast. Before people were sharing photographs perhaps or things like that but they might have had to be handed over person to person. Now a person can abuse a child in their own space anywhere in the world and that abusive material can end up in any other part of the world as well and can be shared by people and it is being shared by people in our communities as well as in other parts of the world. And we can't ignore that at the heart of each of these reports of child sexual abuse material is a child or children who have been directly harmed by this. That's it. There was a time where I used to see and hear of reports in the courts where somebody would be brought before the courts for abusive material around children and they would say well it was a victimless crime because they hadn't physically abused a child but a child had to be abused for that material. A child somewhere in the world and we know from the reports that the guidee give to the policing authority that some of those children are Irish children but even if they weren't Maureen it's just not acceptable that anyone would post or share or make money from abusing children. Now you mentioned and you're putting a call out that these offences must be investigated, they must be stopped and by concerted police activity from the guidee and their colleagues internationally. What are you calling out for on Garda Siachona to possibly look into doing in order to try and counteract this and to reduce it and to hopefully eliminate it number one and secondly to prosecute who are guilty of these crimes? So the guards have a really big part to play. I will mention later that the tech platforms also have a huge role to play here but in terms of the guidee I mean this is criminal material and the trouble is that the criminals who are doing it are well resourced well paid and it is a very lucrative criminal activity. So we need our guards to have all of the resources that they need in order to identify and in order to share with their colleagues around the world. So for instance they must be able to find where children are being abused in Ireland and they must be able to stop that here and they must bring those people to account. But where people in Ireland are also sharing such material where they are using websites and platforms based in Ireland the guards need all the resources they can and for a lot of the guards some of the younger guards now are growing up in what you might call a digital age but even once you are a guard you are probably too old to know the horrors of the feeds that it can happen at. So we need them trained, we need them resourced, we need enough guidee and we need them to be able to have the resources that they need to share information around the world to stop this awful crime wherever it happens. And then when it happens in Ireland they too must be able to bring these cases before the courts because the truth is people are benefiting out of the abuse of children and so the guarder response is one of the things that is within our powers we can as a country we can invest in proper policing of child sexual abuse material. We would say there is a step even before that Maureen though we would say that a lot of this material goes out on, most of it, goes out on big technological platforms platforms that we may even be on ourselves we may not be catching that kind of material going out on a lot of platforms and we are saying to the tech companies you have all the resources you have all the knowledge, you know very well what is coming in and out of your platforms you need to have, instead of reducing the number of moderators you have looking for this kind of material, you need to increase it because it should never get to the stage actually that a report goes to hotline. It should be caught by the tech companies first, they say they catch a lot of it and that is fine but 29,000 reports in Ireland means there is a lot of it they aren't catching as well so there is that dual responsibility for the companies to catch it before it comes out, to report it because it is illegal, report it to the Gardaí and to make sure that the people who are spreading it don't have access to their platforms and then when it does get out, yes it is great to make the reports and it is important those reports are made but then the Gardaí has to have the powers, the resources and the technical expertise and knowledge and equipment that they need in order to follow through and find those who carry out this material deal with them if they are in Ireland and stop the abuse of children in Ireland and through their networks around the world stop the abuse of children anywhere. It is an absolutely disgraceful crime and there is no excuse for it whatsoever. So we have run out of time there unfortunately, I am sure it is a topic we could talk about for a lot longer than the few minutes we have this evening but if anyone listening has any concerns that they have come across any material of child sexual exploitation or abuse images go to hotline.ie and the facility is there for you to report it to them directly and it will be picked up from there. But for now we will have to leave it there. So thank you very much Noleen Blackwell for coming out to meet you this evening. Thank you. So that was Noleen Blackwell the Online Safety Coordinator with the Children's Rights Alliance. Now that is bringing us up to the end of the programme. Before I go I would like to thank this evening's guests who were Connor Coyne, the CEO with Kylemore Abbey Maureen Maloney, the Pensions Adviser recently retired from the University of Galway. Coach Noon the newly elected President of the Galway Chamber and Noleen Blackwell there, the Online Safety Coordinator with the Children's Rights Alliance. Coming up at 8 o'clock we have the casual news with Bernard Lee and then at 8.20 we have our usual and regular citizens information slot and then at 8.30 Colin Wolf will be here to bring you to a closer broadcast until 9 o'clock this evening. So lots still yet to come so do stay listening. Thank you to Dermot Dunyon for doing the tech desk. Thank you to Bridget O'Malley for producing. Thank you to Tommy Rowe for assisting with all things technical and thanks to everyone here at Connemara Community Radio and thank you for listening most importantly. And from me Maureen Corbett have a very good evening and talk to you soon. Community Matters was kindly sponsored by Connemara Credit Union Ltd. Incorporating Clifton, Tully Cross and Carnegie Branches. Connemara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Connemara area. Main Office, Clifton and Tully Cross Branch. 09521101