Community Matters 21jan2025

Dermot Good from Total Health Cover discusses the increase in private health insurance costs. He mentions that between December and February, nearly half the market is due to renew their cover, with January being the busiest month. Increases in premiums range from 8% to 25%, with significant price hikes expected. He advises people to shop around for better deals and highlights the availability of corporate plans to all consumers. He also recommends contacting the insurance company to negotiate a lower premium. Dermot suggests that basic plans cost around €500-€600, mid-level plans cost around €1200, and decent corporate plans cost around €1500-€1600 per adult. He advises people not to spend more than €2000 per adult unless there is a clear reason for it. Community Matters is kindly sponsored by Connemara Credit Union Ltd, incorporating Clifton, Tullipoth and Carnda branches. Connemara Credit Union is here to serve the people of the Connemara area. Main office, Clifton and Tullipoth branch, 19521101. And you're very welcome to this week's programme of Community Matters. My name is Mary Faherty and on the desk with me I have Dermot and Tommy and I'm just going to give you a quick line up to what we have in store for you this evening. Shortly we're going to be talking to Dermot Good from Total Health Cover and he's going to be giving us advice and tips on renewing or taking out health insurance for the year. After the ads we'll talk to Aoife Cummins, HIV activist and nurse, and she is going to be talking to us about the launch of a new campaign around the stigma of HIV. After that Eileen Keeleham, Communications Officer from the Central Applications Office, the CAO, will have tips and advice for leaving third students as the CAO deadline approaches. I think that's the 1st of February. And lastly we have Paul Leamy, he is Head of the Centre here at the ATU at Connemara and he's going to be giving us some general updates for the new year. But first and foremost, Dermot, I believe you're on the line. Good evening Mary, how are you? I'm very well and yourself? I'm not bad, not bad now for Tuesday evening. Oh that's good, I hope the new year has got off to a good start. So I believe there have been more increases in the cost of private health insurances as of January 1st? Yes, so Mary this is a kind of crazy busy time for health insurance. So between December and the end of February nearly half the market, so one and a quarter million people are due to renew their cover and actually January alone about 600,000 people. So it's the single busiest month of the year for health insurance, particularly for VHI members. A lot of VHI members renew in January and I suppose if I get the bad news out of the way, there are huge increases coming everybody's way. Anybody who has private health insurance right now, if they're lucky, they're going to get away with maybe an 8% increase. Most people are seeing increases of around 13 to 15% and for people on the oldest plans their increases could be as high as 25%. So you know a lot of let's just say price hikes, I mean look there have been significant price hikes through 2023 and then last year and we're seeing, well maybe not on the same scale in terms of the actual size of the increase, but there will be more increases. Irish Life just went up on the 1st of January by an average of 3.75% I think it was and I think VHI, we're expecting VHI and Layer to announce further increases in the coming months. So I suppose a lot of financial pain coming and just when people are due to renew and then just when people thought it couldn't get much worse, we have a lot of plans being retired particularly VHI, I mean some of your listeners may remember the old Plan B and Plan D option schemes, they're now called Health Plus Extra by VHI, but those plans VHI are now phasing those plans out. So there are thousands of people, probably about 150,000 people on those plans with VHI and you know they're going to be told by VHI that that plan is no longer available. So they will have to shop around and look the good news is there are similar plans available from VHI, but the bad news is the increases will be quite staggering and you know if they want similar cover and then look I suppose just to cap it all then we have a lot of benefits being changed. So VHI have started reducing the outpatient benefits on across a number of their plans and Layer Healthcare have followed suit by reducing or increasing the excesses when you go into a private hospital. So I suppose if I was to describe all of that it's like a perfect storm for people with health insurance and really what it means is that everybody who has health insurance you need to shop around and there are amazing deals out there particularly for people who have been on the same plan for five years or more or people who have never actively shopped around or they're not on a corporate plan and you know so there are fantastic deals but I think if anything is going to prompt people now to really engage and start digging at those deals I think these increases will prompt that. Now you mentioned corporate plans there, are they accessible to everyone? They are, so just to explain the terminology we use all the time so there's about 350 plans in the market you know arguably possibly half of those plans are what we call corporate plans. Now that just simply means they are plans that the insurance companies have designed to look after all the company paid schemes. So these are the multinationals, the pharmaceutical clients, all the employers out there who basically pay the full cost of health insurance as a perk for their employees and obviously if you're in one of those companies it's a great benefit to have. So the insurance companies obviously want to reciprocate so they basically give them fantastic plans with great benefits, great pricing but here's the thing the law is very clear it doesn't matter what the plan is called, it doesn't matter who it was designed for, it is available and can be purchased by every consumer. So regardless of your age, your gender, your medical history, anything like that, anybody whether you're working, retired, it makes no difference everybody can join every plan on the market. So for example Mary right now some of the really good semi-private schemes and some of your listeners may never even have heard of these plans so BHI have a plan right now called PMI 5210, it's an amazing value, €1450 and then Leia Healthcare have a fantastic plan called Simply Health Extra which is £1577 and that plan gives you 75% back on all GP expenses. Irish Life have a plan called Health Guide 2 which is £1678. Now the new provider and this is the one bit of I suppose good news for people is there is a new player in the market now, Level Health came into the market back in November. Now they don't essentially have corporate plans as of yet but they have a plan A, B, C and D and I have to say all their plans are very well priced versus the competition which of course they have to be if they're going to gain traction and gain new members. So you know if ever there was a good time to shop around with a new entrant coming in of course now there's never been a better time really to shop around but those plans that I just mentioned, those plans have really good hospital cover, they give you what we call day-to-day cover, day-to-day cover means you get 50% back on all of your outpatient expenses, no excess to pay so if you go to a physiotherapist or you go to see a consultant you could be getting 50% back or close to it on those plans with no excess to pay whatsoever and they also have really good cardiac cover so they are plans that are definitely worth checking out for anybody maybe who's on the same plan for a long time or maybe looking for good value and as I say we're 350 plans out there and here's one of the things Mary, people will often say to me oh it's ridiculous we have so many plans. Now the number of plans is really a function of the legislation, the legislation requires the insurance companies if they want to change one benefit on an existing plan then they basically have to launch a new plan to facilitate that. So what I would say to all of your listeners is that look, yes there are a huge number of plans but that means there are plans that suit everybody's budget and everybody's requirements and I remember the days 25 years ago when there were only 15 plans so there was no competition whatsoever and I would encourage even if your listeners do one thing, even after this evening or tomorrow or whatever if they phone the insurance company just phone your existing insurer and just tell them that you can't afford your existing renewal and challenge them to find you a similar plan that gives similar cover but at a lower premium and don't be afraid to disclose the premium to them, that's one of the biggest mistakes people make you know they can't bury the premium because you played your hand so tell them what your budget is and then they have to come back and make them look through all their hundreds of plans to find the one that suits you best. Yes because I was going to ask that actually because I know earlier on you quoted the price of a few of the plans and they tended to be around the 1500 mark but is there a point where you should question your cover, is there a limit that you should not go above? Yes, I mean what I would say to people right now is look, an entry level plan, basic plans cost 5-600 Euro so that's just basic plans covering public hospitals only like the University Hospital in Galway or Castlebar or so on and mid-level plans which will cover you in all the public hospitals but all the private hospitals like the Galway Clinic or the Bonds they tend to cost around 1200 Euro so they are double the premium because they are double the cover and then the corporate plans that I mentioned to you you know decent corporate plans are roughly 1500-1600 Euro per adult but you know we would always say to people if you were paying 2000 Euro or more... Now unfortunately we seem to have lost Dermot there and I was just making furious notes here and making great plans for the insurance company tomorrow so I'm hopeful that we can get him back and I think we may have... Dermot are you back to us? Hello Dermot? Yes sorry Mary the gremlin is in the system I was in full flow and then I realised I was on my own. That's ok. No what I was just going to say to Mary was that if anybody is spending more than 2000 Euro per adult then there should be a very clear reason for that and often there is but in the majority of people or cases or people whose cover we review the only reason they are spending that money is because they have what we call auto-renewed every year. They just let it roll over. There are people right now I can tell you spending 3722 with BHI on the advanced care extra, they are spending like 4194 on the level 2 health with Irish Life Health, they are spending about 4100 on the essential plus schemes with Laya. Anybody spending that kind of money, Mary I'm just telling you 99% of them are over insured and they are throwing money away and here's the crazy thing they can basically potentially save significant sums of money and move on to a more up to date plan and still stay with the same insurance company. See a lot of people when they hear me discussing switching they think well he's going to suggest I switch away from BHI or Laya. Not at all. Any good advisor will always confirm your requirements and then they will try and find you the plan that fits those requirements with your current insurer and only then recommend switching if that isn't possible but there's something far better value with the others. But look, anybody on the same plan 5 years or more, anybody spending more than 2,000 Euro, anybody who has everybody on the same plan, so you can have a family on your policy but they shouldn't all be on the same plan. Yeah, it's good to ask. Are there benefits to split cover? Absolutely. I mean there's a couple of things that people can do to reduce their cost and still keep super cover in place. One is splitting your cover and that means looking at each person individually and basically picking a plan that matches their personal requirements. So for example, if you have older adults on the plan, they're higher risk so it makes sense they have better cover. But if you have younger adults or young adult dependents or children under 17, they really should not have the same cover as the older family members unless there's an underlying condition that there's a particular reason for that. So you can absolutely have everybody on the one policy but all on different plans. I mean even right now if I give one example, Leia, for any families listening, Leia have a free cover offer for families, for children under the age of 18 right now. So what you do is with Leia, if you have a family and you would say three children under 18, you phone Leia, put the eldest child maybe on a plan like Inspire Plus, 359 Euro, and put the remaining two children on Flex 125 Explore. Now Mary, that plan is free for the next year. So you could potentially save 800 Euro by just moving your young children on to a plan like that where you get free cover. So spending the cover is a great way of saving money. And the other thing that really is a good way to do that is by taking on a small excess. So a small excess means that if I go into the Galway Clinic or the bonds in Galway, I might only pay the first 75 or the first 100 Euro per claim. It's never per night, it's on the total bill. But for people who are on old policies with no excess, that single tactic can often reduce your cost by 10 to 20%. And it's a great way of reducing your cover and still potentially staying with the same insurance company, albeit maybe with even identical cover. I mean, the ridiculous thing is that for people who are listening who are on the really old plans, those plans that cost close to 3,500-4,000 Euro, often they can switch to a more up-to-date plan with the same insurance company. They can get better cover and pay significantly less simply because they're on a very dated plan. I mean, if I can throw out some more examples of this, Mary. Anybody who's with Leia on an old plan, and if you have a 17-year-old child who's just turned 18, so if you're on the Flex 125 Explore with Leia, that 17-year-old probably costs 480 Euro. Once they turn 18, that plan goes up to 2,675. But if you put that child with another plan with Leia called the Inspire Plus, and you get a young adult raised, you'll get better cover for your 18-year-old, and I think the premium is about 860 Euro. So if ever anybody sees a significant jump on their premium, or if they haven't fully reviewed their cover, or if they're not on a corporate plan, or they don't have a small excess, or if the premium has just become unaffordable, they just need to review their cover. And yes, there are loads of advisors around the country, Mary, who will do that, but often one phone call to your current provider, and I would say to everybody now, block out half an hour, have a strong, big mug of coffee, and just sit back, and before you phone them, decide what your budget is for the coming year, for you or for your family. How much can you afford to spend? And then you phone your existing insurance company, and you challenge them, and you keep them on the phone, and the challenge is very simple. I want you to find me a similar plan to what I have, don't care what it's called, don't care if it's a corporate plan, but something that gives me similar benefits, and my budget is, we'll say, 3,000 Euro, whatever the budget might be, and sit back and let them do all the heavy lifting, and let them work through their plans to try and find you a better deal. And here's the next thing, I beg your pardon, Mary. The next thing is, if they come back to you with a proposed alternative, you need to keep them on the phone, and the next question is, great, now tell me, how does that plan compare to my current plan? What am I losing? What am I gaining? What stays the same? And sit back, and they have to go through everything, because those calls are all recorded. And the people who do that, and who have the patience and persevere, Mary, they save a fortune on their insurance cover, and some of your listeners now will be thinking, well, you should never tell an insurance company what your budget is. But unlike car insurance and other insurances where they can vary the premium, so you should never tell them what you're planning to spend, with health insurance, the rates are all set. So if the plan costs 1,000 Euro, it is 1,000 Euro whether you disclose your budget or not, they can't vary the premium, so you're not in any way compromising or undermining your negotiating position by telling them what your budget is. Well, Jeremy, that's some really rock-solid advice there, and unfortunately, we have to end it there, but thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. That's definitely invaluable information for anybody who's either in a position where they're renewing their insurance or getting insurance for the first time. Thank you so, so much. I think Jeremy's gone again there. Okay, we're going to go with the ads, and when we come back, we're going to be talking to Aoife Cummins. Job Spot on Connemara Community Radio. Full and part-time positions are available in Cairns of Manbridge, which is located at H91 VN82. Positions are available in both the shop and the bar. There's an attractive pay with all entitlements. Experience is essential. Please contact joecaines at gmail.com for further information. Job Spot on Connemara Community Radio. It's sale time at Broderick Electrical, Castle Bar and Westport. Our January sale has started, so call in and grab yourself a bargain. With everything reduced, now is the time to upgrade your kitchen appliances or treat yourself to the latest technology. So, if you're looking for the best brands at the best prices, make sure to call in to Broderick Electrical or look us up online at broderickelectrical.ie. 09828130 for Westport, 0949044735 for Castle Bar. www.cliftonsupplycentre.co.uk Clifton Supply Centre, Galway Road Kitchen. Provide building supplies, plumbing and heating supplies, fuel merchants, DIY and general hardware. Contact the Clifton Supply Centre on 09521476. Oh, and you're very welcome back. And now with me on the line, I have Aoife and Pat Cummins. Aoife is a HIV activist and nurse and she's on with her dad, Pat, this evening. Aoife, you're very, very welcome to Connemara Community Radio and you too, Pat. Thank you. Okay, so you've come on to talk to us about the launch of a new campaign around the stigma of HIV. So can you tell us, first of all, how this came about and why it was deemed necessary? Well, I, my friend Robbie and Veda have a podcast and I joined their podcast, it's for people living with HIV. And then I, they contacted me afterwards and said, oh, we're doing this National Stigma Campaign and we'd love for you and a family member to come on and, you know, take part in this ad that you, that will basically, you know, go out to the whole, you know, nation and everyone will hear about your story and would you bring on a family member so that they can basically break down the stigma and let people know that they can tell their family and they can talk to their mum and dad and things like that. So that's how it kind of came about. And then I asked my dad whether he'd come on in with me. Oh, and he did. So fair play to you, Pat. So sticking with you Aoife for a minute, can you tell us a little bit about your story? Yeah, so I got diagnosed in Sydney in 2020. I'd been seeing a partner for about six weeks and we both decided that we were going to get tested before we had unprotected sex for the first time. He had gotten tested just before we started seeing each other. So he was like, oh, I don't need to get tested again. But I got tested and everything came back clear for both of us. Unfortunately, though, about the same week that we got tested, the same week we had unprotected sex for the first time, he went to donate blood with me and his blood test actually came back HIV positive. So we were curious as to how that happened. And it turned out that it was a six-week window period of HIV, which I never knew about even as a nurse. I didn't know about this. So he actually tested positive because he tested two weeks after exposure and the antigens and the antibodies in his blood hadn't built up enough. So when he tested, it actually came back negative, but it was false. So when we actually decided to have unprotected sex the first time, I was exposed and I got infected. Now, going to Pat for a minute, I mean, we all remember when people heard about HIV first and going back to those times, it seemed very, very scary at the time. So when you initially heard about IFA test and HIV positive, what was your reaction? I suppose there was sadness, worried for IFA, worried about her health, her career, how it would impact her future life if she wanted to have a family, etc. And as you said yourself, I grew up, or I was aware of the HIV AIDS epidemic in the 80s, 90s, when basically it was a death sentence, basically. So that's probably what went through my mind. And going back to you again, Aoife, being a nurse, when you received that diagnosis, it possibly wasn't as worrying for you as it might be for somebody who didn't have the knowledge to know that everything would be okay. Yeah, I mean, it was still very scary. And as I said, I didn't know a huge amount about HIV. I thought it was really effective treatment, but I didn't ever know about the U equals U, the undetectable equals untransmissible. So I wasn't sure if I could have future partners, if I was always going to have to use condoms, that I'd have to go through special treatments to have kids. It was a lot unknown to me. I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole thing was when I actually got told, you can have future partners, there's no need for extra cautions. If you want to have children, you can, the children won't be infected. It was really relieving when I went into the clinic and they explained that to me because it was very daunting. I knew it wasn't going to be a dead sentence and I wasn't going to get AIDS and I wasn't going to die, but I definitely didn't know as much about it. So it was definitely a big learning curve, but it was amazing how much information I learned and then you just have to deal with all the stigma. And did you find that very, very hard? I mean, were you surprised at the level of stigma you encountered? Definitely within healthcare. I mean, I should have known better because, as I said, I didn't know a huge amount, but I was very surprised at the amount of misinformation and myths that a lot of doctors and nurses didn't know about within HIV and nurses saying they wouldn't touch a patient without gloves on and I always knew you couldn't get HIV through touching somebody so I was surprised when I heard a nurse saying that. Just little things like that where, you know, I would know never to put a patient who has HIV in an isolation room in the hospital, but there were people still doing that to people with HIV. It's just like, you know, we can get it from breathing the same air as them. I was surprised at how much we still need to do within terms of healthcare. That's actually very worrying, isn't it? Yeah, it's actually really sad, isn't it? It's not as bad as it was. These things happen very few and far between now. You know, we have a great HIV team in the hospital that go around and do education sessions and if anything does happen or does crop up where we're not happy about it, you know, she goes and talks to the nurses and the doctors and she tells them they can't do that. But yeah, it's because we didn't get enough information on it. In college, I don't remember learning about HIV at all. We did like an STI, you know, maybe one slide on a panel about STIs and that was it. It's not something to focus on because you wouldn't see a huge amount of it on the wards anymore because people aren't coming in with a lot of HIV-related illnesses because so many people are on treatment now and they're well, so we're not seeing such a huge amount of people coming in with HIV or AIDS-related illnesses. So I guess people just kind of don't learn it because it's not something they see a lot. And I suppose the fact of the worry about the stigma isn't so much, well it is how people are treated but also as well that people might be afraid to come forward themselves for diagnosis. Yeah, that's how bad the stigma can be. People are actually afraid to test and then they test and they don't come in for treatment and they fall out of care because it's kind of like they're really in denial, they don't want to talk about it, they don't want to think about it, they're so scared to tell anyone and have a support system. So I mean, until we break down all this stigma, we're never going to get everybody on an effective treatment, we're never going to eradicate the illness and it's just really sad and that's why I think I was so passionate about doing something like this because I just think when we get rid of stigma, I wouldn't have been so upset or worried when I got diagnosed. You know, stigma affects everyone. And Pat, do you feel much more reassured now because no doubt you're a lot more educated now on HIV than you would have been in the past? Without a doubt. I think it's worth mentioning that Aoife didn't tell us for about two years that stigma was one of the issues and for her to have to keep that a secret for two years and afraid to tell must have impacted on her mental health and she suffered a little bit from anxiety so I suppose for her to have to go through that on her own for two years must have been horrific. I suppose to answer your direct question, once we, and Aoife told us, Nicola Boyle, a nurse specialist in the hospital and within three or four minutes she had reassured us that HIV is immensely treated. You take one tablet a day, you cannot pass it on by using utensils, you cannot pass it on by kissing, you cannot pass it on by touch and you also can go on to live a very normal life. They have a better health outcome because they are tested and anything that may go wrong they will be aware of in a quicker time frame. So I think the information from a health professional in the context of how they can be managed and managed carefully I think is fantastic. So the reassurance is great. I know there has been a HIV fact check that has been put together which I think is absolutely brilliant. Aoife, could you just guide us through the main misconceptions that are on the fact sheet? I think Dad mentioned a few there. You can't pass it on from touching, you can't pass it on from kissing, you can't pass it on from sharing utensils. The only way that HIV is transmitted and vertical transmission from mother to baby this is only if someone is not on treatment. So once someone is on treatment the medicine basically reduces the viral load of the HIV virus so low in their blood that it's almost undetectable. I think if it's less than 20 mls per teaspoon of blood it's considered undetectable so it's so minuscule. It's hard to explain but basically when you're undetectable you can't pass it on, you're untransmissible. A lot of people say why aren't you cured when you're on this medication but HIV can hide in your cells in these little reservoirs and the medication can't get to them when they hide but once the HIV comes out of that hidden cell the medicine will attack it straight away and bring you back down to undetectable but it's just so unfortunate that you can't cure it yet once the viral load is so low it can't attack our immune cells it can't destroy our white cells so that we can't become infected with all these rare illnesses that people were dying of AIDS lots of different illnesses it's what's called acquired immune efficiency syndrome so with people dying because they were getting these really minuscule infections because they had no immune system left so it stops us from developing AIDS it stops us from passing it on to partners it stops us from passing it on to children it's just incredible and the medicine is so easy that I don't have any side effects I take it every night before I go to bed and if I forget, which I never do people are like what happens if you forget your medicine it wouldn't bring your viral load up straight away it would take a few weeks probably of being off your medication it's just incredible we've come so far medically but it's hard to get that information out there because there's still so much that people aren't talking about anymore because it's kind of gone away people aren't dying anymore and it's not this big scary thing anymore so people stop talking about it you can pass it on if you're on medication and it can only be passed on through sex and I think one of the major things as well in the past people just seem to think that HIV and AIDS were the same thing yeah, that's something that is very common to this day people always just say AIDS, AIDS, AIDS it's very frustrating for me because when people say to me oh it's awful that you have AIDS I think the day I told mum she was like I can't believe you have AIDS and I was like I do not have AIDS it's what happens if you don't treat the virus it builds up in your system, attacks your immune cells until you get, your immune cells are so low they basically can't do anything, they can't protect you from anything and then you get all these illnesses it's basically just when your immune system is so destroyed you can't fight off any basic infections that to any of us we wouldn't even know they were in our body because our body would just fight them off instantly you're doing a lot of work then around this campaign to try and bring increased awareness to everyone what kind of reception have you received from the campaign so far? oh my god it's been incredible, I've done a few media interviews before I was on Tommy Tiernan and I've been on TV a few times so I was like oh this won't be that big compared to those, but it's just been non-stop I've had countless emails, countless whatsapps, instagrams blown up just people being really really supportive and loving and have nothing but positivity to say and people reaching out to me that are also positive and thanking me for talking out and chatting to me about their diagnosis which is lovely it's just brought me together with so many different people and it's just given me more opportunities to share my story getting to talk on different radio stations getting to do different public speaking events, it's just incredible he's got a lot of loving messages as well so he'll probably talk about that too well I was going to say, Pat, the main question I have for you on a scale of 1 to 10 how proud of you are you of her? Dad? he's muted himself I think glad you're muted there's a bit of an echo so I was trying to, my apologies can we use the same phone because there's a bit of an echo, is that an issue? I'm sure that'll be fine, yeah what I was saying there was on a scale of 1 to 10 how proud are you of Aoife? I think I could go 11 her mum and I, her mum Mary and I are exceptionally proud, Aoife has been put herself out there quite some time ago to raise awareness of HIV, to raise awareness amongst the general public, amongst the medical profession that HIV is eminently treatable, it's like any illness unfortunately, even when she told us I'm sorry to say this, I was a little bit embarrassed because I was told there was a stigma attached to it and I think what Aoife and her colleagues and this campaign by the HNC is doing to raise awareness in relation to HIV and people can live a normal life I think is fantastic so absolutely over the moon and so proud of her. But what you're doing there as well is absolutely fantastic, where you said there that initially you had to admit that you felt some embarrassment and I think that would probably resonate with a lot of people if they were honest for their initial thing, where they don't yet understand fully just how far it has come, so I think that's very honest of you to say that as well. Only today I met a few people and they were saying while people knew about HIV it's only when they heard Aoife and I speaking that they said oh my God there's a huge source of information out there it's only when it hits your own door that I think you become aware of it and certainly I'm a bit embarrassed No, but it's a very honest thing and I think it will make that so much easier for a lot of other fathers out there and mothers as well, whose child receives a diagnosis so fair play to both of you. Thank you. I was saying that I don't know if I've said this to dad but a few people have said your dad admitted being embarrassed and I was like I'm really proud that he admitted that because that's not an easy thing to admit and it's true, as I said stigma affects everyone and that's the whole point, it not just affects me, it affects my family, it affects my partner because I'm sure people have come up to me saying oh my God you're dating someone with HIV, it affects everyone so I think it's really important that we highlight those issues and dad was embarrassed but he's now completely eradicated all of that and he's doing this campaign with me so it's just amazing really. Exactly it's where education takes you isn't it? You only need to be informed about a topic for a year. But no, I think what you're doing is fantastic Aoife and you're going to hopefully make it so much easier for people to come forward and to get tested and to realise that there's a great life beyond diagnosis. Yeah, I hope so. So listen, thank you both for coming on this evening and continued success with the campaign. For anybody who would like to get more information on the topic, where would you direct them to? So there is the HSE page, I think it's www.hse.ie forward slash HIV and that will give you all the information about the campaign we're doing. But a quick Google search will also do the job. I mean there's so much information now on Facebook and Instagram like within our social media sometimes and there's lots of stuff I've shared online there as well but even just a quick Google search you'll be able to get a lot of information on the campaign and yeah, reputable websites, good NGOs like Care and Tickets Trust in the UK is a brilliant website if you need information about HIV and how to support loved ones, things like that. Yeah, there's just loads of information but make sure you're going to the correct websites because there's also a lot of misinformation out there too and that's the danger really. Aoife and Pat, thank you both for sparing the time to come on and talk to us this evening. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Well that was Aoife Commons and her dad Pat there and they were talking about the launch of the new campaign around the stigma of HIV and it's great work they're doing. Okay, we're going to go with a quick piece of music and when we come back we're going to be talking to Eileen Keelehan Communications Officer with the Central Applications Office. Come back to me baby, come back to me baby I want to play house with you Well you may go to college You may go to school You may have a pink Cadillac but don't you be nobody's fool And I'll be ready to come back the way we come Come back the way we come Come back to me baby, I want to play house with you Listen to me baby You know what I'm talking about Come on back to me little girl so we can play some house Come back the way we come Come back the way we come Come back to me baby, I want to play house with you Well this is the one thing baby That I want you to know Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come back the way we come Come back the way we come Come back to me baby, I want to play house with you Listen to me baby You know what I'm talking about Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Come on back and let's play a little house So we can act like we did before Yeah, that's correct. So we had a discounted deadline which was yesterday at 5pm but anybody who hasn't applied yet still has until the 1st February which is next Saturday at 5pm to make an application Ok, so can you talk us through the process of applying if that's ok Yeah, so it's actually pretty straight forward I know that the three letters CAO can strike fear in some people but the process of obtaining a CAO application number is straight forward So what applicants need is just their personal details and the name address, email address, date of birth and just a note on the email address just make sure it's one that you check regularly because we will communicate with applicants from time to time as with colleges and then the applicant is asked to let us know if they want their qualification to be assessed so for a lot of applicants it might just be leaving certificates that they're presenting for some they may have QQI further education qualifications or you may have mature applicants applying who have a number of different qualifications and experience that they need to share so when you're selecting that category on the application form entering your payment details and all going well your CAO application number should appear on screen so as you see, no course choices asked for at this stage and I suspect that might be why some people put off making an application because they're not fully sure of their final course choices but to obtain the CAO number you don't need to enter your courses it is straight forward and then obviously you have to go back into your account and update your qualification details and update your course choices by certain deadlines I know you said you don't have to but can you put in the courses at this stage? Yes, and I would advise applicants to put some courses down they don't have to be your final your definitive final list you can put in some courses, you can go back in so if you made your application this evening for example you can log back in as many times as you like up to the 1st of February to add courses, remove courses change the order of them and so on and then you'll also have other opportunities to edit that course choices list so it's good to become familiar with how to add the courses and kind of focus your mind a bit by putting some course down there but just remember you can revisit it in the summer time when a facility called the Change of Mind facility opens it opens in May and that closes on the 1st of July at 5pm and you can use that as many times as you like but there are a couple of restrictions so it will be open a good month? It's open nearly 2 months most of May and all of June so plenty of time, but obviously the exams are in the middle of that as well and what's the initial cost then of making an application? So the discounted fee which finished yesterday was €30 and now the fee goes up to €45 up to the 1st of February at 5pm and there is a late application facility for anybody who might miss that 1st of February deadline and that has a fee of €60 so that opens in March and closes on the 1st of May at 5pm there are just a couple of restrictions if I have time to run through them anybody who is thinking about applying for a restricted course I think there are about 70 restricted courses on the CAO system and these are courses that might have an additional assessment so they might require an audition or a portfolio or something extra these courses usually have to be on your application by the 1st of February at 5pm so I always say to people if they are unsure about a restricted course the best thing to do is to pop it down on your list you can always remove it at a later date but you cannot introduce it after the 1st of February so just watch out for that if there are any of the courses that you are applying for that are restricted and will it be clarified on there which courses are deemed restricted? Yeah, so in the handbook you will see restricted, see page 3 beside the course title the other restriction is for any mature applicants normally the college is assessing mature applicants in March and April so you do kind of have to have your application in and your course is finalised by the 1st of March at the latest but ideally by the 1st of February at 5pm but for the majority of applicants you will be able to use the change of mind in the summer time and what then about anybody that wants to apply for the HERE scheme or the THERE scheme does that have to be applied for at this stage? Yes, you have to have applied to CAO by the 1st of February in order to apply for either HERE and THERE or for both schemes so you couldn't apply for them if you were using the late application facility so applying for the HERE or THERE schemes you do it through the CAO application form so first step you make your CAO application and you fill out your CAO application form and within that you will see an application form for HERE and an application form for THERE and then send in any supporting documents that you need to supply to CAO they have to be with us by the 15th of March at 5pm and those deadlines are really final they are strict deadlines so if you are thinking about applying for either of those schemes you would really want to get cracking on gathering any of that supporting documents and filling out the extra additional form Can that be got after the 1st? Say you put in your application for either scheme and they get back to you and request more documentation would that too have to be in before the 1st of February? Well, the 1st of February would be to get your CAO application number and then you have up until the 1st of March but everything does have to be with us by the 15th of March and it is the applicant's responsibility to make sure that all of the documents are sent in and that they are complete and correct so there are checklists and there are guides handbooks on the CAO website and there is also a very important website it's accesscollege.ie that applicants need when they are completing either the here or there applications Right, well, that's a lot to be getting on with so anybody who hasn't put in their application at the moment they have missed out on the €30 fee so it's now up to €45 and they have to get cracking by the 1st of February Ok, well, thank you so much Eileen Is there anything else you wanted to add? Just for anybody who hasn't started yet or has any queries on anything the handbooks can be accessed at cao.ie forward slash handbook which has all of the advice on helping you complete the different sections of the application form and there's lots of other resources available on cao.ie Brilliant, well Eileen, thank you so much for taking the time to come on and chat to us this evening so hopefully everybody will be getting busy with those forms to have them in for the 1st. Eileen, thanks so much Thank you Ok, that was Eileen Keelhan there from the Central Applications Office the CAO and like you heard there, applications should be in by February 1st Ok, we're going to go with the ads and when we come back we're going to be talking to Paul Leaney from the ATU here in Connemara Get off to a great start and enjoy a fun day out at Calmar Abbey. Open 7 days a week discover 1000 acres of beauty, history and serenity Join one of our history talks or simply take a stroll through enchanting woodland paths stopping for a moment to pause and reflect in the neo-gothic church indulge in homemade delights at the Calmar Kitchen and explore the best of Irish brands and local crafts in our craft and design shop Create timeless memories at Calmar Abbey Plan your visit now at calmarabbey.com Calmar Abbey, these stories so timeless are still being written And you're very welcome back to Community Matters this Tuesday evening and with me on the line now is Paul Leaney and he's going to talk to us about how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started and how we can help you get started So what's happening in the A2 Calmar? I know you had a TY Taster advertised there I know you had a TY Taster advertised there which has filled up, hasn't it? It has indeed, so we do a TY Taster week every year and it's where we open up the college for a week and TY students can come in and we put on a program for them to partake in for the week and we put on a program for them to partake in for the week It's very popular, it fills up very quickly and we do different things, so we bring them in at the start of the week and just kind of give them a little bit of a talk about what happens in the college and the different types of programs and courses and everything and then we get them to do a different variety of projects throughout the week and then we get them to do a different variety of projects throughout the week so they might spend maybe a couple of hours with one of our CAD lecturers doing some computer-aided design on the computers doing some computer-aided design on the computers We organise our tree planting event to coordinate with when they're on campus They generally do a design challenge, something like give them ten sheets of paper and design a structure that will hold up a brick over a gap and different things like that so lots of different fun challenges They do a glass workshop, laser engraving They go down to the sawmill and we put up a number of logs They go down to the sawmill and we put up a number of logs You can see how timber is converted into planks There's a whole suite of different things like that It's quite a practical, hands-on, fun week for them It just gives them a flavour of what college life would be like in Lennaprack if they chose that as a college option in Lennaprack if they chose that as a college option How many do you take in over the course of the week? Usually we take between 16 to 18 students We had it advertised online there It has filled up and we have a waiting list at the moment It has filled up and we have a waiting list at the moment It generally tends to be very popular Some students from Clifton, from Uchtdorad, Westport Some students from Clifton, from Uchtdorad, Westport Some are travelling from right around the country Some from far over in the east, Mullingar and all over Work gets out and we find the students who engage with it Work gets out and we find the students who engage with it We've been running it for a few years We've been running it for a few years We've had students in who have been on the TYT the week We've had students in who have been on the TYT the week who have come to us in college and have gone through and graduated It's a good means for them to get a flavour of what happens It's a good means for them to get a flavour of what happens So for parents of students who are currently third year So for parents of students who are currently third year We try to keep an eye out in our socials around Christmas time We try to keep an eye out in our socials around Christmas time We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form We send out the links for people to fill in a very simple form Over the years and originally we would have had one machine hall Now we have three machine halls and we have a number of bench rooms Now we have three machine halls and we have a number of bench rooms with a lot of different machines and most of the machines we use create wood chippings and wood dust and we have all of those connected to a wood dust extraction system and we have all of those connected to a wood dust extraction system So it's a big piece of equipment and a big piece of machinery And some of the additional rooms are on smaller independent extraction systems And some of the additional rooms are on smaller independent extraction systems So it's not ideal It's been an ongoing project for a few years We've had to get a team of design consultants in to design the whole extraction system We've had to get a team of design consultants in to design the whole extraction system So once that was complete then we had to go out to a European-wide tender So once that was complete then we had to go out to a European-wide tender and delighted that an Irish company won the tender and they're working on the installment now So the final phase of the installment will be next summer But there's a lot of pre-planning and different things going on But there's a lot of pre-planning and different things going on So basically this is like a huge big vacuum that has pipes going to every machine that we use So basically this is like a huge big vacuum that has pipes going to every machine that we use that creates dust or chippings and sucks it out into a central silo for efficient disposal that creates dust or chippings and sucks it out into a central silo for efficient disposal And we're also upgrading our power tool extraction So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's a different type of system So it's 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