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MEET ROBIN, A very helpful robot.
He lives with 94-year-old Italian woman Lea Mina Ralli – also known as Grandma Lea – who could not live on her own anymore but wanted to stay in her own home. An EU-funded team has developed the GiraffPlus system; a robot which connects older people to their family, friends and healthcare professionals.
Wearable devices and sensors throughout the home also keep an eye on the person’s health and activities.
The system is expected to be in commercial production by the end of 2015 and the EU market for robots and devices assisting our older people is estimated to reach €13 billion by 2016.
“People ask why I don’t just live with my daughter, but she has grandchildren of her own and many new responsibilities. With this valuable assistant that I call ‘Mr Robin’ I’m more relaxed about the years ahead, and so are my children and grandchildren,” Gradma Lea explained.
She has been using the system for five months and writes about ‘Mr Robin’ in her blog frequently.
€3 million of EU funding has been invested in GiraffPlus to test how robotics and other devices could help older people live safer, more independent lives. Robin’s sensors are designed to detect activities like cooking, sleeping or watching television and monitor health – blood pressure or sugar levels for example.
They allow the person’s carers to monitor their wellbeing remotely and to check for falls. The robot moves around the home on wheels and allows family, friends and carers to see and speak to the person.
Project co-ordinator Amy Loutfi said the robot will be in fifteen homes by the end of the year.
“So far we have had six homes in Europe – two homes each in Spain, Sweden and Italy – that have lived with the GiraffPlus system,” she said. “We currently are in the middle of the evaluations, but we see that various aspects of the system are appreciated differently by the different users. This goes to show that a one-size fits all approach to technology at home is not necessarily the best, and technology should be both adaptable and tailored to user’s needs”.
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There needs to be somewhere for the 80,000 workers to live if we’re bringing them in which then worsens the housing problem all over again so that’s not the solution. Affordable social housing is the only hope now plenty of people on good salary can’t get a mortgage no matter how hard they try. Stop selling council houses and houses previously acquired by the state they need to remain in state control should have never been sold off years ago.
@Paddy C: Did you bother to read the article, Paddy? Or did you just read 80,000 workers in the headline, and assume that they would all be new entrants from outside the state?
@N D K: careful now…
Down with this sort of thing…
@Paddy C: We need to build all of this, doesn’t matter how you move the ball around, those three cups can never fix it. Infrastructure now.
@Paddy C: that’s about the number of long-term unemployed.
So will our leisured classes be asked to get their asses out of bed in the mornings, to do a bit of work?
No government has ever tackled the dole-suckers, so is that going to change?
@N D K: You didn’t get the memo from Darwin? You know, the one about evolution…
@N D K: Yeah, lies.
@John Mulligan: I doubt it incentive isn’t there the more you work in this country worse off you are I’m paying a mortgage nearly 20 years havent had a holiday in that length either. Maybe 3 nights out a year at best I know plenty getting every allowance going plenty of holidays better cars less stress and financial pressure in the end I don’t blame them its not worth it no life this way and now no choice but to stay going. Hit the working man every time and those on low salaries are hung out to dry allowances taken away. People on carers allowance can even get heat allowance but if you’re on the dole you can sane with working family payment no heat allowance the benefits aren’t there working may aswel count the birds stress free lifestyle.
@Paddy C: people on carers allowance CAN’T get heat allowance which is very wrong and needs to change immediately. I see people struggling looking after the people they care for they need it badly.
@Paddy C: don’t know your particular circumstances, but 20 years and no holidays… Seriously? If you are an employee, you have a legal minimum of 20 days’ holiday per year. So none in 20 years is not the truth. Unless you’re self-employed, then that could explain.
And please, next time use more punctuation where needed in your paragraphs, it makes for better reading for everyone else.
@Jerry LeFrog: Are you seriously trying to lecture somebody on their punctuation? Perhaps you should ask a grown up to read through your comment with you and give you some informed feedback. Then ask them to explain the whole “throwing stones in glasshouses” thing.
@Jerry LeFrog: I bet he meant he had no holiday outside of the country and not no holiday from work.
@Paddy C: dole-suckers are looked after, to the extent that they can often be better off not working.
@Jerry LeFrog: holidays as in holiday abroad not days off never mind the punctuation it’s not an article just a response to one.
@Paddy C: a holiday in Ireland doesn’t count as a holiday?
@lesidees: 2 or 3 days down the country wouldn’t count no, but maybe you can enlighten us all any holiday you book abroad is generally 7 days +. That’s not the argument the argument is the benefits of working in a lot of cases don’t benefit social welfare,rent allowance,fuel allowance etc. The benefits left over after mortgage/high rent aren’t there nothing against anyone getting it hard to convince them otherwise that’s plain to see.
@Mike: you completely missed my point on holidays, but I won’t take offence. The main point here is that lots of people think they *have* to take a foreign holiday to feel they had time off work. “Ireland is too expensive”, “pottering around and enjoying your area is not a holiday”, etc.
As for the punctuation, I had to read twice to actually get his point. Not everyone is as perfect as “grown-up Mike”. Slight dyslexia doesn’t help me though.
@John Mulligan: thats a lie if ever I read one. Why don’t you live on the dole for three months and see how well you do.
@John Mulligan: bigot
@John Mulligan: Unfortunately, I sincerely doubt it!!
@Jerry LeFrog: I didn’t miss your point. I chose not to address it, as I believe you missed the original poster’s point and your opinion on is irrelevant. If you really have dyslexia, you should know better than to try putting people down over their writing skills. Shame on you.
We already have 80,000 men here,doing nothing,living in free modular housing,getting free money from the state,living the life of Riley,there called refugees,put them to work,at least soon of them economic migrants they said they want to work,now your chance lads,the government will say we need to bring 80,000 more workers into the country,there already here,where’s the planning for this to get done
@Billy Power: ffs, there is merit in tapping into that potential labour resource, but spouting dog whistle nonsense about refugees in Ireland is not the way to go about it
@Billy Power: Literally the point of least importance, you’re the reason theres nothing Billy, easily distracted by click bait.
@Billy Power: LIES.
@Billy Power: ask not what you can do for ireland but what ireland can do for you. Land of a thousand welcomes step over those homeless in the street and enter paradise just say can’t speak English can’t get job sorted can’t blame them it’s the system tick to the core.
@Billy Power: refugees are allowed and do work. Asylum seekers are not allowed work. Education is a good thing.
@Paul C: refugees do work, and are anxious to work and pay their way.
Unlike our home-grown dole-suckers.
Don’t we have hundreds of thousands walking around every village and town in Ireland that came here in the last 2 years, but of course FFG will invite more
@N D K: no, we don’t
@N D K: they love a country road with no high vis as well
Could we repurpose the various asylum plantation barracks into housing for construction workers? Free accommodation for foreign construction workers, maybe add in some tax breaks.
@Freda Peeple: plantation!!! Where is the lol emoji when you need it?
Aren’t we building a children’s hospital…the best and most expensive in the world. Makes me proud that building…
The real problem is that there are way too many people in the world now , 8 billion . Far too many . 2 billion should be maximum number of humans . So many of those 8 billion people are quite simply the WRONG TYPE OF PEOPLE . So what’s needed now is a combination of events , natural disasters on an epic scale , famines , disease (incurable/untreatable would work best) , and war , real war that will kill MILLIONS , not these low level bits of wars that drag on and on and on and end up killing maybe a million if one is really lucky . Yes that’s what’s needed to get human population down to a manageable level .
@Jim Ryan: just vote for the fascist Green Party Jim and you will get what you want. Another decade of their policies should put us back 50 years and then the real fighting will start as there won’t be enough food to go around. The real Greens want a planet without Humans
@Jim Ryan: Totally agree, but capitalism needs the population growth to keep the machine running
@gregory pym: one of the most ridiculous statements of all times
Pretty damning how inept we are at building the things we need. We were once world renowned for our building prowess! But that was when we had a ‘boss’ to tell us what to do, we’re not able to be that boss is the problem, it’s like the kids have taken over and are just arguing about sweets. Nothing will be built here for for at least the next 30 years. it’s shameful.
I think most nations will be out on the Moon by the time we enter 21st century standards of transportation.
This report highlights just how deep Ireland’s infrastructure issues run—housing, healthcare, transport, and energy are all stretched thin. But adding 80,000 workers to tackle these deficits brings up a huge issue: where will these workers live, given our current housing crisis?
Unless we fix our planning system and prioritise value for money, it’ll be tough to attract and retain the workforce we need. Without real reform, we risk piling on short-term solutions instead of building a long-term plan that actually meets Ireland’s needs.
This report really hits home on the scale of Ireland’s infrastructure shortfalls—especially in housing, healthcare, transport, and electricity. The call for nearly 80,000 additional workers speaks volumes, but with our planning system as slow as it is, it’s clear we need a coordinated, multi-year strategy to make real progress.
Boosting productivity in construction would ease the pressure on workforce demand, but without bold reforms and smarter, value-focused spending, we’re at risk of just treading water. This isn’t just about more funding; it’s about sustainable investment that actually delivers on Ireland’s future
This is a report protecting the interests of the vested parties, like the CIF & Developers. There are enough workers but most leave as the abuses of workers by the Construction industry is well known, the bogus self employed contracts, not paying Apprentices or fulfilling their apprenticeship, bringing in labour on work permits from outside the EU countries & paying them cheap training rates. This is all about maximising the profits of the big players. If you want to know where we are in infrastructural builds, just look at the NCH, Oireachtas Bike Shelter & Security Hut, everybody must get their cut & the links between our Political Class & Developers/CIF is interwoven. Other countries can build infrastructure but crooked Ireland can’t, our Builders are building infrastructure elsewhere.
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