Government 'wastes' €1m on translations into Irish

By DANIEL McCONNELL Chief Reporter
Sunday December 27 2009

Cabinet ministers are "wasting" hundreds of thousands of euro a year on expensive, unnecessary translations of official documents into Irish, new figures reveal.
Despite having in-house translation services within government departments, figures given to the Sunday Independent show that most have been reliant on highly expensive external translators to provide copies of documents in Irish.
In total, almost €1m of taxpayers' money has gone on producing copies of documents in Irish.

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Fingal to reduce commercial rates by 10.5%

Pro-business initiative from a pro-business Council a boost for employers

Fine Gael Councillor, Kieran Dennison, has welcomed the committment made on Monday by Fingal County Council to reduce rates by 10%, saying the draft budget is a much needed shot in the arm for local businesses and local jobs.

“The decision to drop rates by 10% is to be commended and shows Fingal County Council as the pro- enterprise Council it is. Special tribute must be paid to the County Manager and the staff in bringing this initiative forward. Fingal traditionally has the lowest rate increases and has avoided borrowing for day to day spending. Had the Government been as responsible, it too might have been in a position to introduce a stimulus plan similar to the one being introduced in Fingal.

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Translating documents into Irish costs €3,000 a week

By John Walshe Education Editor
Irish Independent Friday December 18 2009

THE government department charged with reviving Irish in schools is spending €3,000 a week getting documents translated into the language.

The Department of Education and Science spent more than €426,000 over a two-and-a-half year period on translation services, the Irish Independent has learned.

The lack of language and administrative capacity was blamed last night for the outsourcing of so much work.

School inspectors are expected to have a competent level of fluency but administrative staff in the department are not obliged to have Irish.

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Prime Ministers pay - how they compare

Irish Taoiseach Brian Cowan (salary €310,000; pop 4.1m)
US President Barack Obama (salary €279,000; pop 301.1m)
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (salary €268,000; pop 60.5m)
Norwegian PM (salary €122,000; pop 4.7m)
Belgian PM (salary €192,000; pop 10.5m)
Australian PM (salary €210,000; pop 20.4m)
Dutch PM (salary €123,000; pop 16.5m) 
Slovakian PM (salary €39,000; pop 5.4m)
French PM (salary €240,000; pop 64.1m)
German PM (salary €261,000; pop 82.3m)
Polish PM (salary €49,500; pop 38.5m)

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Snowtopia Appeal Fails at Planning Board

An Bord Pleanála has upheld Fingal County Council’s rejection of the proposed Snowtopia development at Tyrrelstown. The reasons given were that it would conflict with local land zoning objectives (ST1 - Science and Technology), would draw custom from the nearby Blanchardstown cinema, and was poorly served by public transport.

The €100m indoor ski resort would have created 1,000 permanent jobs. Twinlite and Cobalt  Developments , who planned the 32,000sqm development, claim it was a fully funded project and had hoped to begin work next year. They have already spent €300,000 on planning and had the backing of an English venture capital company.

It was intended that Snowtopia would feature two ski slopes, a rock and ice climbing area and a high-level adventure playground. The company expected up to 1.5 million visitors a year to attractions including a paintball centre, digital theatres, a gym, restaurants and retail outlets.

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Bin Tags Change Colour

Fingal County Council’s Bin Tags have been re-designed, with yellow being replaced with purple and red being replaced with green.  The new stock will be on sale in shops from Monday 30th November 2009.
Yellow and Red Tags will be accepted at our Recycling Centres and on our black bins until January 4th 2010.

For Customers who have a surplus of the yellow or red tags, they can be exchanged as follows.
Customer to write their full name, address and telephone number on each tag to be exchanged.
All returns to be sent to

Teresa Cusack
Senior Staff Officer
Waste Charges Section,
Finance Department,
Fingal County Council
County Hall
Swords,
Co. Dublin.

For queries please email wastecharges@fingalcoco.ie or telephone 01 8905009 or 01 8906250

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