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Unions opposed to cuts are subject to law, says KennyTeacher unions and others that remain opposed to €300m public sector pay cut proposals will be subjected to laws cutting higher salaries and other work changes, Enda Kenny said yesterday.
UCC plan will save taxpayers millions University College Cork intends to be largely self-funding within five years, saving the Irish taxpayer millions of euro a year.
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Woolwich terror killing: Security services face probeThe British parliament is to investigate if security services could have done more to prevent the murder of a soldier hacked to death in a London street after it emerged that his suspected killers were known to intelligence officers.
Woolwich killing: Further arrests as spotlight turns on security servicesBritish police arrested two more people yesterday in a hunt for accomplices of two British men of Nigerian descent accused of hacking a soldier to death on a London street in revenge for wars in Muslim countries.
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Noonan examining ways to capitalise banks It is believed the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the IMF that he will look to Contingent Convertible Capital (CoCo) Notes if the banks need additional capital buffers following the stress tests.
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The magic is in the anticipationULSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL:Donegal v Tyrone For too long, we've been decrying the anti-climactic starts to thevarious provincial championships. Now we have a genuine no-holds barred contest in Ballybofey.
O’Brien out for final as Schmidt takes issue with Gatland Joe Schmidt has opted against speculating whether Sean O'Brien will miss the opening weeks of the British and Irish Lions tour after omitting the injured flanker from his squad of 23 for today's RaboDirect Pro12 decider.
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A woman of mettle: how Iron Lady rose to powerFirst volume of Margaret Thatcher's authorised biography is predictably flattering, but not a hagiography, says Shaun Connolly
Best of the Week's TV (Saturday, May 25 - Friday 31)Highlights include Colin Stafford Johnson's new series on the Shannon, and highly-rated new spy drama The Americans.
Breaking stories
Rabbit netting machine is fast and accurate
By Mike Donovan
“You must be running out of really ingenious ideas,” say farmers who know that I have been publishing farm-built innovations for 20 years.
They think that there is some kind of end to human, and therefore farm, ingenuity, which, of course, is far from the case.This week I want to show you a machine developed by a contractor who started his business with a single small Kubota tractor, then bought a mini digger. He found himself laying a lot of rabbit netting, which involves burying it a foot or so into the soil. The job was slow. He thought up this machine which does a continuous job, and made the machine in the farm workshop — and the remarkable thing was that the machine was made from all spare parts.
He loads a roll of netting, and the machine puts the netting in the trench, bends the base horizontal, and then fills the trench back.
You can see it in action on my website. It’s just one further illustration that there’s no end to our imagination and ability to devise solutions to problems, and these themselves are far from static. Rabbits are an increasing farm problem in many parts of the globe.
Coupled with restrictions, both moral and legal, on more traditional methods of control, many farmers are solving the problem with netting.
Rabbits are adept at digging under it, so the base needs burying to a depth of six or more inches, and the base of the net must be bent horizontal towards the burrow where they live. (This means they hit buried netting even if they start some way back from the base of the netting.)
Chris Osborne used to manage to lay 1,000 metres a day of rabbit netting with his mini digger. The machine he made does 300 metres an hour — a huge increase in work rate.
Chris has laid miles of netting with his machine over the past three years, and farmers have been queuing for his services, as the work rate means he can quote a very competitive price.
As far as he knows, his machine is the only one around, and is unlikely to be replicated by manufacturers, because a factory-built machine would be quite expensive.
The machine has a plough body which opens the soil outwards to create the trench, and then lays the netting in the trench, which is then filled by a large disc, followed by a large wheel to press the soil down.
Many of the parts are mounted so they can be adjusted, but once set up, there’s little need to make changes.
In work, the machine will lay in quite tight curves as well as along the straight, and will work on sloping ground as well.
It leaves the netting flat on the ground with the base correctly buried, and then Chris knocks in supporting stakes — positioned on the field side so the bend isn’t damaged — and staples the netting in place.
He then normally adds a strand of barbed wire to the top.
You can see the machine in action by going to the www.farmideas.co.uk website and clicking on the video.
It’s another illustration of farming innovation — and I invite you to send me innovations you know of.
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