You probably saw the news that an ESRI study found that children who owned phones at 9 scored 4 per cent less on average in reading and maths tests at 13 than their phoneless counterparts.

It grabs the attention. Are phones stunting our children’s development? Are we raising a generation of screen addicts? Should we ban children from owning mobiles?

These aren’t without merit but distract from a bigger issue. Children at “socially disadvantaged” schools are more likely to have mobiles, while children whose parents have higher incomes and higher levels of education are less likely to own one.

The future for a service for vulnerable families is uncertain unless it can secure funding from the government.

Based in Shankill, The Cottage Home Child and Family Services is a voluntary child care organisation and has worked with more than 100 families and 150 children since it opened in 2012, which it said has kept children from going into State care.

It provides programmes such as counselling, play therapy, parenting programmes and advocacy.

The family support service has been self-funding for almost seven years but said their funds are running out and they will have to close in the coming months unless funding can be secured.

The service needs €400,000 a year to remain open. They said that residential care placement costs the State close to €200,000 per client per year and it “seems logical that funds should be found to retain the service.”

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Green Party Representative for Killiney-Shankill Una Power said: “This weekend at his party’s Ard Fhéis, the Taoiseach stated that compassion is a key value of Fine Gael. If that is true, then providing the €400,000 per year funding needed to keep Cottage Home open should be an easy decision for his government.”

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Green Party Killiney-Shankill representative Una Power told Dublin Gazette the government need to “stop dragging their feet” on the bill.

“We know the damage done by plastic waste to our wildlife and biodiversity – we cannot afford to continue to delay.

“Just this Saturday, I led a clean-up of Killiney beach. In the course of one hour we gathered over six large bags of rubbish. The majority of it was plastic, particularly bottles.”

SANDYCOVE could be affected by offshore oil drilling that would damage local “delicate habitats”, according to local Green Party reps.

Una Power, Green Party Representative for Killiney-Shankill is calling on the government to cease further exploration for fossil fuels off the coast of Dun Laoghaire.

Oil exploration is set to start at Kish Bank, just 10km from Killiney Beach.

“This must be stopped,” Ms Power told the Dublin Gazette.

Providence Resources Plc, the Irish-based Oil and Gas Exploration Company, holds a licence, granted by the  Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment to allow for the planning, consent and drilling of an exploration well on the Kish Prospect.

Ms Power said that it is “incredibly worrying that the Government are continuing to grant licenses to explore for fossil fuels, knowing the challenges Ireland faces in meeting our climate change targets, and the negative environmental and health impacts fossil fuels have”.

“We’re calling on the Government to stop the granting of licenses. Oil exploration is set to start at Kish Bank, just 10km from Killiney Beach – this must be stopped.”