Galway Bay FM Newsroom – There has been a 15 percent drop in the number of people in hospital in the past week.

The country’s five day moving average is now 1,325, down from 1,479 last week.

Meanwhile 86 percent of people over the age of 12 are now fully vaccinated, with walk-in centres open again this weekend for first and second doses.

A further 1,456 Covid-19 cases were reported by the Department of Health.

There are 261 covid patients in hospital, down 27 in the past 24 hours.

Figures for Galway Hospitals show that Galway University Hospital have the second highest number of patients with Covid-19 with 23 receiving treatment.

However, this is a reduction of eight on a week ago.

Portiununcla Hospital in Ballinasloe have 1 patient receiving treatment.

Of that number in Galway University Hospital, 6 are in ICU. This is an increase of 2 on last week.

Galway Bay FM Newsroom – Over 7,000 sites in Galway city and county are derelict or vacant.

The matter was brought before the Dáil this week by Sinn Féin TD for Galway West Mairéad Farrell who asked Taoiseach Micheál Martin to commit to addressing this housing issue in the Budget for 2022.

Deputy Farrell said Galway city has been plagued by derelict and vacant sites for a long number of years.

She also welcomed the demolition of the Corrib Great Southern Hotel but said it’s only taking place some 15 years after it closed and years after it was added to the derelict sites register.

The Sinn Féin TD told the Dáil students are deferring courses because they cannot find accommodation and there are thousands on council waiting lists.

She made an urgent plea for action in relation to derelict and vacant sites:

Galway Bay FM Newsroom – NUI Galway has announced the appointment of the University’s new Head of the School of Law – Professor Martin Hogg.

Professor Hogg will take up the new role in November, having joined from the University of Edinburgh, where he served as Head of School and Dean of Law.

Professor Geraint Howells, Executive Dean for the College of Business, Public Policy and Law at NUI Galway, said: “We are delighted to have Martin joining us. He is a leading contract law scholar and an experienced leader.

“Our Law School has an outstanding reputation for its teaching and scholarship. Martin is an ideal person to help us build on our strengths and develop new initiatives to meet the needs of our community.”

Professor Hogg said: “I’m honoured and very happy to be joining NUI Galway’s Law School as Head of School and Established Professor in November.

“The Law School is an inspiring centre of learning and research, whose students and staff are widely known for their commitment to justice and the rule of law. I’m looking forward to meeting as many of them as I can in the coming months, as well as alumni and practitioner communities.

“The whole NUI Galway community has already extended to me the warmest of Galway welcomes, for which I am very grateful.”

Professor Hogg’s research interests lie in all aspects of the law of obligations, including comparative obligations theory, contract and promise, and fundamental structural language in the law of obligations. He has published widely in this field, including Promises and Contract Law and Obligations: Law and Language with Cambridge University Press. He is the Scottish Reporter for the European Tort Law Yearbook.

Professor Hogg spent two years qualifying as a Solicitor with Dundas & Wilson CS in Edinburgh, before being appointed Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Edinburgh in 1995. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in 2004 and in 2013 he was appointed to a Chair in the Law of Obligations. Professor Hogg is a (non-practising) member of the Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish Bar).

Professor Hogg brings with him a wealth of experience, having previously held office as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Law, Director of Undergraduate Studies, Director of Teaching, Deputy Director of Research, and Convener of the Board of Studies. He took office as Deputy Head of the Law School in Edinburgh in 2014, and became Head of School and Dean of Law in 2017.

Professor Shane Darcy, Interim Head of the School of Law, said: “On behalf of my colleagues at the School of Law, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Professor Hogg. We are very excited to have him join us as Head of the School of Law and very much look forward to working with him in this role at NUI Galway.”

NUI Galway’s School of Law delivers innovative legal education in a dynamic school dedicated to impactful, high quality legal research. It hosts the internationally renowned Irish Centre for Human Rights and the Centre for Disability Law & Policy.

The School has introduced several new programmes in recent years, including the undergraduate degrees Law (BCL), Criminology and Criminal Justice and Law (BCL) and Human Rights. It also offers a suite of postgraduate LLM programmes and is home to a vibrant doctoral community. Further information www.nuigalway.ie/law