17/08/2011 BBC Newsline

Good evening. This is BBC Newsline with Donna Traynor & Noel Thompson.

The headlines this Wednesday evening: Unemployment hits a 14

year high. It means the early one in five

young people cannot find work. You think a degree guarantees you a

job. Of the fact is that you get out there and you cannot jump half

the way up the job ladder, you start at the bottom like everyone

else. Budget cuts delay improvements to

the Belfast to Londonderry well byline.

Electricity prices are set to go up by 20%.

BBC Newsline uncovers the phone scam was trying to get hold of your

credit card details. And it will turn chilly overnight.

I will have all the details later. If you want to be reminded how

fragile our economy is at the moment, all you need to do is look

at the latest job figures. The number of people signing on the

door has passed the 60,000 mark for the first time since September 1997.

The number claiming unemployment benefit in due live rose to more

than 60,000. -- in July. Almost one in five young people looking for a

job cannot find one. It is not all rosy for those who do

find work. For some graduates it is a case of taking what they can get

and not a job connected to their qualification. There any sort of

employment that would go to school leavers. Earlier today I spoke to

graduates his study had not got them on to their preferred career

path. Clare at South -- McClure study law

and politics and graduated two years ago.

I am working in a coffee bar at the moment. I studied law and politics

but I am not sure if either of those avenues is open to me. I am

very interested in artistic pursuits. I would like to do

something in that but achieving it is another thing.

Peter graduated three years ago. He studied English literature and film

studies and did a Masters in advertising.

I am taking temporary jobs where I can. I am doing admin and office

but work. -- and office work. Nickie studied English. He

graduated in 2009. I want to work in advertising or

marketing. After years of study, how

frustrating it is it the line-out in jobs you have not plan to do? --

and that you are now in jobs. It is frustrating. I am doing jobs

I was threatened with the type of jobs I do now. I was told that if I

did not work hard I would have to do this kind of job. People make

you feel bad about in that kind of work.

There is nothing wrong with working in a bar or coffee shop. You have

to do it again money coming in. I think it is about keeping your

spirits high. You need to keep applying for the job you want.

Many will be under the impression that you get a third level

education, you should be guaranteed a job.

For a you issue a decree guarantees you a job. The fact is, you get out

there and you cannot jump halfway up the job ladder. You have to

start at the bottom like everyone else. The degree comes into play

halfway up the job ladder. You can go a bit further. There is a sort

of pride issue as well. You think that because you have the degree

you deserve to start off at a better job or a higher-paying job.

You have to fight that mentality. There is just a sort of panic mode

at the minute because there is a recession. Everyone is neglecting

the facts but will it takes people 15 or 20 years at times what they

want to do with their lives. I do not think people need to panic.

If you find yourself in a similar position, we would like to hear

your story. You can get in touch with us

through our Facebook page. That's facebook.com/bbcnewsline or contact

us on Twitter. That's twitter.com/bbcnewsline. And

there's also our email: I talked to just a sample of

graduates there. A lesson to all of us not to expect too much in regard

to job prospects at the moment. People are not being put off going

to university. A degree is no guarantee of a job but more people

than ever are applying for places. Our Education Correspondent is with

me. More are replying but are they choosing more vocational courses? -

- more are applying. Some people have applied for are a

number of courses. There is a run on places because of the possible

increase in tuition fees. However, some of the changes are due to

recession and not tuition fees. There has been a drop in the number

of people going for Jobson relating to the built environment,

architecture, civil and structural engineering. A lot of people in

those jobs were emigrating to get work. Other popular jobs are

nursing and business and communications studies. People see

a job at the end of those courses. Many people get their A-level

results tomorrow. A new mode of delivery this year?

This is the first year that people will be able to get their results

online if they wanted from about 7am. There were pilot schemes last

year. This year, the lower and upper 6th will be able to get their

results if they log on with a pin number. Not every school has signed

up for this. About 60% have. We expect about 25,000 students to

sign up and login to find out what results they have. Then a key go on

to the universe the clearing sites to find out what places they can

get. About 40% of schools have decided that they want pupils to

come in for a reassuring hug. Lots of decisions will be made

tomorrow, not least about tuition fees. The website has a question

and answer section of on tuition fees.

Safety work on the railway line between Belfast and Londonderry

will mean quite a lot of disruption for passengers for the foreseeable

future. The line is due a major upgrade but the transport Minister

says the money for that will not be available for three years. In the

meantime, the safety programme will affect many services with

passengers being taken by bus between Coleraine and Sterry. --

Coleraine and Londonderry. The move has provoked anger.

This well why has been described as one of the most picturesque train

journeys in the world. Michael Palin even made a programme

celebrating its beauty. Single track and stately speed to show

where the transport priorities lie in Northern Ireland.

It is also a key economic link between the two big cities of

Northern Ireland. Translink says it needs to carry out essential

maintenance but when this happens the frequency of services on the

line will be reduced by six trains a day.

A third of all the trains will terminate hearing Coleraine.

Passengers from Belfast will have to get up and make the rest of the

journey by bus. That could take up to two years. -- that could

continue for ought to two years. The trains that will continue on

the original route will take even longer.

I come down to Derry quite a lot. The train line is very scenic. I

think it will be quite disappointing if it becomes a bus

service. Why when they spend the money on

this side of Coleraine? I prefer to take the train, to be

honest. The money for a comprehensive

refits of the line is not available. That is due to the public sector

spending cuts. Work on a major upgrade was a poster start next

year but has been delayed. It remains a promise of a

embarrassment of �75 million. We now have a Minister saying this

change represents an improvement to services. It is an indictment of

the service that Translink currently offers. If the buses work

well, well a perhaps council the trains altogether?

The transport minister, Danny Kennedy, says he has no plans to

allow on the line so close. Derry will be the UK city of Culture in

2014 and will be pushing for more tourism.

The public service union NIPSA says it intends to ballot its members on

whether to take strike action after meeting the education minister Jon

O'Dowd. The union has predicted that budget cuts could cost 1000

jobs in his department. A spokesman said the minister described the

situation as bleak and was unable to give them assurances that job

losses could be avoided. Two men have appeared in court on

charges linked to the murder of Marc Williamson who was stabbed to

death in Portadown on Sunday morning.

The parents of Marc Williamson leave Lisburn Kirk House. -- Court

House. He died after being stabbed near his flat in Hartfield Avenue

in the early hours of Sunday morning. Today 26 year-old Denvir

Cardwell was charged with his murder. He steered with his head

bowed and only nodded to confirm that he understood the charge

against him. Alongside him in the day up -- in the dock was David

Stuart McCullough. He is accused of intimidating a witness and

assisting an offender. The police particularly want to hear from the

driver of a silver Vauxhall Vectra or that was parked outside a house

at around us for 20 am on Sunday. The two men will appear in court

again next month and have been remanded in custody.

Still to come. I am alive in Omagh and there is

something in the air that is not pleasant.

And one man's recipe for getting off the dole. Once a pretty, now a

chef. If you are a customer of our

biggest home electricity supplier, you are about to face a price hike.

The increases by Power NI I ate will be announced next week by the

utility regulator. All across the British Isles, power

companies are hiking up tariffs, blaming increases on the rise of

the cast of the coal, oil and gas are needed to produce electricity.

Power NI will have to convince the utility regulator that a sharp

increase is justified. The final figure will not be made public

until next week but there is well- founded speculation that it could

be as much as 20%. That would add around �99 per year to the average

bill. Prices are rising on the wholesale

markets. We are concerned about how this will impact on consumers,

especially the 40% of consumers who are in fuel poverty in Northern

Ireland and struggle to pay their bills.

Consumers may feel they can ill- afford a 20% increase in their

edges of the bill. The power company has frozen prices since

2008 and the last price move was down when Pat -- went Harris were

cut by 15% in 2009. Details of the price increase will be made public

next week. The price rise is likely to apply from 1st October.

While electricity prices are set to move up, heating oil has become

cheaper in recent weeks. The question is how long will that

continue? From around �550 a few weeks ago, a

similar amount will cost around �500. The market does remain

volatile. At the moment I'll prices have

fallen and they have come down by 10% during the summer. It is hard

to predict what will happen in the future. We hope they will come down

further. An increase of up to 20% of will

ports many household finances under For one of our viewers has got in

touch to tell us about a telephone scam, in which fraudsters tried to

get people's credit card details. John Ellison became suspicious when

he got a call from someone posing as a market researcher. He has told

his story in the hope that no one will fall for it.

Phone of fraudsters often operate overseas, but they can reach us in

our living rooms. John Ellison from Newry received a scam call two

nights ago. The caller said he was carrying out a consumer survey, but

John became suspicious. I was able to ascertain that the call was a

call about which I had questions, I came to the conclusion that this

could have been a telephone scam to elicit responses which could be

used for a credit card scam. So with that in mind, I ended the

conversation. For last night, he received another call, this time

the caller hung up when he started questioning him. John contacted BT

to tell them what was happening. The response I got indicated that

there appeared to be a planned and systematic background to this, and

therefore I contacted your selves in the BBC so that this message

could be related to people across the province, so that people would

not fall victim to this particular scam. John got in touch with BBC

Newsline because he was concerned that other people might be more

vulnerable to the fraudsters. According to the Trading Standards

service, this sort of scam happens often. It is obviously a very

common scam, we get a lot of complaints from consumers who are

contacted directly from someone telling them there is a problem

with their computer when things like that. There is a variation on

a theme, people are just looking for credit card details so that

they can take people's money. BT have told us about another

common scam. Fraudsters phone customers pretending to be from a

phone company. They claim there is an unpaid bill, and they threaten

to cut off the line. As a result, several people have handed over

their details. The advice for anyone who suspects they are

receiving a fraudulent call is that they should not engage the caller,

and their aim is not under any circumstances give out personal or

financial information. The Nationwide Building Society has

removed adverts from its branches which make reference to the

financial problems of the Presbyterian Mutual Society. The 14

posters revert to the collapse of the PMS, of which went into

administration in 2008. In a statement, Nationwide said the

advert was not meant to cause offence and was trying to highlight

the building society as a safe place to save.

Earlier, we heard about another rise in the jobless total. To get

off the dole, many people are thinking of making a radical change

of career. But it is some late -- week to go from being a bricklayer

to a chef. That is exactly what a man in Newcastle has done. France's

Gorman et Paddy McAuley. Crabmeat, prom, soft cheese, lemon

zest. One of Paddy McAuley's starters at the bar and a hotel.

But he was not always a chef. For 20 years, he was a bricklayer.

got to the stage where I had no work in six weeks. It could not pay

the bills. He decided it was time for any other job. He looked for

one year, and washed dishes at minimum wage for another. Them,

promotion to chef. A I am enjoying it. Then I know that when I come to

work, I am not under get turned away. And you have been back to

college to study and take courses in catering? Yes, I took a course

in cookery. It was difficult, sitting with the young ones. And it

-- it was not like that at all. boss is Paddy Boyle. He recalls

giving the former bricklayer a six- week trial in the kitchen. He took

to it like a duck to water. He loves it, we like him. He is always

on time. You can depend on him. is he an exception? His boss says

it is very difficult to recruit and keep local people in the kitchen.

lot of then you cannot depend on, they want to come and say that they

want to do this, do that, they will stay for two or three weeks, and

then they get paid and they go drinking on Friday and leave you

without a chef at the weekend. We have three people that week when

three an agency to get, they came from India. To meet the demand for

chefs, the Mattel is building its own training kitchen, designed to

attract school-leavers. Paddy is planning a more cooking

qualifications. But there is one thing he does not need to learn.

Quite often when you go into a restaurant and get your main course,

everything is stacked one on top of the other. It is easy for me to do

that! Creating dishes like these is a far cry from building walls. But

Paddy has turned a corner, and is planning to stay in the kitchen.

As our floor manager said, that these will be setting in 10

minutes! Residents of part of a map are

raising a stink over a smell they say is blighting their lives --

Omagh. It has been worse with the warm weather and they are calling

for an investigation. Louise Cullen is getting to the bottom of it.

I am here in Omagh. Residents have been played for the last four years

with a bad smell. Some of it has been due to industrial discharge,

but last year, Northern Ireland Water carried out sewage works, and

residents say it has not helped, it has only shifted the smells. You

have a business and have had to turn away clients because you're

worried about the smell. What impact is it having on your live?

It is dreadful, you can no longer enjoy the use of your home, you

cannot put out your laundry or even open your windows. You invest a lot

of money, you expect to be able to use it. It has been awful.

Northern Ireland what to say they are carrying out investigations,

but they do not know what the source of the smell is or even if

they are responsible. You are a councillor here. What have Northern

Ireland what had been saying? spoke to them yesterday, and they

told me they do not know what the source of the smell is. They have

sent out engineers and scientists to investigate. I am also meeting

the water service at a meeting tomorrow, and I will be asking them

to have an immediate resolution to the problem. Thank you. Northern

Ireland Water is carrying out further investigations. Residents

say the smellers mile today. I have to say that for me, it is very

strong. It is rotten eggs, sulphur, methane. It is pungent, and it is

certainly not pleasant. You would not even be able to open

the window! Sport, and Stephen Ferris has made the Ireland subs

bench for this Saturday's World Cup warm-up game against France in

Dublin. He has not played since January and is one of four Ulster

players likely to feature in the match. It is a last chance to

impress David -- Declan Kidney, who will name his squad on Monday.

The French trained at their County Meath hotel this morning, with

almost an entirely different team. They had been 13 changes made for

Saturday's game against Ireland. But this time, the French face a

strong Ireland team, possibly the strongest available to Declan

Kidney. And that side was announced here earlier today. 33 players have

been tried and tested throughout the summer series. But with two

defeats, pressure is beginning to mount on the Allen's team. If we

did not win a warm-up game, it would not be ideal. But it is not

the World Cup. That is in three weeks time. So let us try and look

at having as good a performance as possible, and hopefully the result

that we are looking for, and I think we are going into the game

with an attitude off really wanting to win this game, and we will see

what happens. Rory Best and Andrew Trimble are for Ireland. Stephen

Ferris is listed among the substitutes, and Declan Kidney is

hopeful he will not feature against the French. He has been going well

in training, but we said at the start that we would not wish anyone

back. Play two, lose two, that is the current record for Ireland in

the summer series. And was one month to go until the World Cup,

this is the time for winning. The Director of Portadown Football

Club has resigned after shareholders rejected his proposals

to help tackle the club's debts. Yalcin Chew-book had wanted to

become chairman and was offering major investment. Austin

O'Callaghan and is with us. What is the financial picture? They have

substantial debt, �1.1 million, much of it is to do with the

redevelopment of the grounds, Shamrock Park. And they are trying

to get out of that debt. A local businessman, Yalcin Chew-book, on

the left of this picture, he has been involved with the club for

around 18 months. He came with the proposal to bring investment to the

club, which involved an link-up with at Football Club in Turkey.

But that offer was rejected on two occasions by the club's

shareholders. Some of them were concerned about the nature of the

investment. So this evening, they have announced they are dropping

their plans. Where does that leave the club? At in a financial

quandary. �1.1 million is not small beer. They are appointing a in

alternative board to try to deal with the immediate future. On the

pitch they are doing well, but there is no obvious solution to the

there is no obvious solution to the financial problems. Let's take a

look at the weather. It was not as bad Day Today, the kind of day that

would take you outdoors for a stroll on the beach for a walk in

the park. There are some great photographs, the deer were enjoying

the sunshine. As for today, the sunshine it gradually disappear

during the course of the afternoon. And for this evening, it will be

largely cloudy. The odd bright spot breaking through. But it is largely

dry as well. And it will stay dry overnight. But with the cloud

melting away and a light breeze, another chilly night. Temperatures

dropping to four or five degrees Celsius, perhaps even lower in

rural areas. And there is the chance of the odd shower. At a

glance, tomorrow looks very similar to today's. I day of sunshine and

showers. But there will be subtle differences. It will not be as

sunny tomorrow morning as it was this morning, there will be patchy

cloud to greet us first thing. So we are talking bright rather than

some to. And a few showers rolling around as well. They will get going

quite early in the day. So some showers during the course of the

morning, and they will continue during the course of the afternoon.

But it should also brighten up, sunshine will have temperatures to

around 16 or 17 degrees Celsius. Most of the shares will be light in

nature. So it will not feel too bad. The breeze will be quite light. The

showers will take -- fade away as we head through the day. So by the

time we get into the evening, most of them should be gone and it

should be a largely dry story. A little bit of sunshine in most

places to finish the day. On Friday, a bright start, but you cannot

depend on that day. The clouds will pick up, the breeze will pick up,

and will -- it will not be long before you see rain pushing in from

the West. Sunshine and showers for the weekend.

A reminder of our main stories. Unemployment has hit a 14 year high,

especially affecting young people. Nearly one in five cannot get a job.