Cllr. Kieran Dennison: April 2012

Fry Model Railway Returns To Malahide

Friday, April 27, 2012

Minister Leo Varadkar has announced the return of the Fry Model Railway to Malahide. It's new home will be the Casino.

Fundraising for the Hospice

Tomorrow the Taoiseach will climb Croagh Patrick with Giovanni Trapattoni in aid of five different charities. The climb will commence at 12pm and more information is available at www.hospice.ie. The assembly point is Murrisk if you are at a loose end.

Congratulations to the Laurel Lodge Branch of Fine Gael for organising a pub Quiz in Kavanagh's and raising €2,355 for the local St. Francis hospice at Connolly Hospital.

The St. Francis hospice was built through local fundraising and already provides a home based hospice service. Minister Reilly is hoping to make funding available in teh coming months to staff the hospice for inpatient care. In the meantime the day care rooms are being fitted out and should be open shortly.

€14m School Prefab Replacement Programme

189 schools received offers to replace prefabs with permanent classrooms during 2012. This represented one third of all schools with prefabs. They have all been involved in conversations with the Department over recent weeks.

Enhanced Rural Development Programme to Drive Recovery

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Extra allocation of €10 million assigned to Basic Services

Rate of aid for private promoters will increase from 50% to 75%

Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government announced today a number of changes to the LEADER elements of the Rural Development Programme that will see increased availability of funding for both private promoters and community groups in rural Ireland.

The enhanced concentration on enterprise support in RDP will drive the recovery process in rural areas.

Council Urged To Lease Spare Office Space.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

From the Fingal Independent:-
Fingal Council Council is in the process of reviewing the available office space at its two main buildings in Swords and Blanchardstown following the exit of a sizeable amount of staff in February.

Outbreak of Norovirus at Connolly Hospital

Visiting restrictions are in place at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown due to an outbreak of Norovirus. Visiting is restricted in all areas of the hospital and is permitted only at the discretion of the Ward Manager.

€1m funding for N3 Mulhuddart Interchange Upgrade

Work on the N3 Mulhuddart Interchange Upgrade can now begin after the Department of Transport today provided €1m in funding. The upgrade will ease traffic congestion at this busy junction which provides access to the Blanchardstown Town Centre and to some of our major business parks.

Planners identify nine possible sites in Fingal for new National Childrens Hospital

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Fingal County Council has made a submission to the Hospital Review Group in respect of nine possible land parcels within Fingal which may be appropriate for the proposed national children’s hospital.

Voting in the referendum on the Stability Treaty on 31 May

Mr Phil Hogan T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government yesterday took an early opportunity to encourage people to vote in the referendum on the Stability Treaty due to be held on 31 May 2012 and to encourage those who are not registered to vote to make the necessary arrangements to do so.

“It is important for our democracy that people go out to vote and have their say. I want to remind and encourage people who are entitled to vote, but who are not registered to do so, to take the necessary steps to get on the supplement to the register”, the Minister said.

Porterstown Link Road opens to traffic

The new Porterstown Link road opened to traffic today. Congratulations to Kilwex the contractor and to Caroline Butler from Clifton Scannell engineering consultants for getting this project completed on time.

Work began last autumn thanks to the €1.5m made available from Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar. The project had been designed and approved by Fingal County Council in 2008 but for some reason the Fianna Fail/Green Party government never provided the funding.

The new road will make life easier for commuters and local drivers alike. It will help relieve traffic at the Clonsilla rail crossing and on the Clonsilla road and improve the quality of life in the general area.

There were some delays at the traffic lights on the first day it opened. At my request the lights were tweaked this morning (April 19th) and will be kept under review for the next few weeks.

The original plans were for the roundabout to remain. However, given that a secondary school and possibly two primary schools will be accessed from the junction, it was decided that traffic lights would provide more safety for pedestrians.

The old Porterstown road will now be closed to vehicular traffic at the railway crossing so all traffic between the new Porterstown Link road and the Clonsilla road will have to travel over the Dr. Troy Bridge.

The junction of the Luttrellstown road and the Lucan/Clonsilla road at the main gates to Luttrellstown Castle will be changed to give priority to Luttrellstown/Lucan traffic, effectively making the road to the Clonsilla rail crossing a side road.

The Porterstown Link road works entailed:

550m link road from Luttrellstown to Diswellstown Roads;
Realignment/reconstruction of section of Luttrellstown Road;
Footpaths and cycletracks;
Location and protection of existing HP gas main;
Diversion of ESB and telecommunication services;
Large concrete attenuation tank;
New drainage, water mains, gas mains and ducted services;
Traffic lighting and public lighting;
Landscaping and boundary treatments;
Road markings and signage.

Public Consultation Report on Wastewater Treatment Plant

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Greater Dublin Drainage Project Team today published the Public Consultation Report ‘Alternative Site Assessment Phase One: Preliminary Screening Outcomes Report, October 2011 on www.greaterdublindrainage.ie.

It outlines all the issues raised in the more than 10,000 submissions received from local people and other stakeholders during the project’s non-statutory public consultation held from October to December last year as part of the process of finding the most suitable locations for a new regional wastewater treatment works, a new marine outfall and a new orbital sewer.

Every submission was reviewed by the Project Team and their specialists to identify the key areas that need to be taken into account before a preferred location is identified for the vital new wastewater infrastructure, which will be needed in addition to the existing regional wastewater plant at Ringsend, which is currently planned to be extended to its full capacity.

Among the issues raised in the submissions received to date are: archaeology and cultural heritage, community impact, construction impacts, ecology and protected habitats, shellfish waters, health and odour impacts, livelihood concerns, agronomy, agriculture and horticulture, the need for the project, overburdening property and land values, road infrastructure and traffic/road safety, technologies and treatment levels, sludge treatment, water quality, the outfalls, and the planning process.

Peter O’Reilly, Project Engineer, Fingal County Council said today that the Greater Dublin Drainage Consultants hope to be ready to announce the next stage of the Project, which includes 3 emerging preferred sites and the associated pipeline and outfall corridors next month, down from the nine land parcels identified last October.

These emerging preferred site options are currently being examined in further detail. “The announcement of the shortlisted preferred sites will mark the start of another eight weeks of public consultation with people living in the communities affected and all other stakeholders.

This non-statutory public consultation will continue for eight weeks and everyone will be invited to take part and to give their views on the sites that will be on the shortlist”, Peter O’Reilly said. Extensive further studies will be carried out over the summer and autumn on the emerging preferred site options, before one preferred site, outfall location and pipeline route is selected towards the end of the year, as being the most suitable to go forward to seek planning approval from An Bord Pleanála.

At that stage, An Bord Pleanála will carry out its own statutory public consultation, so there will be opportunities for people to be consulted and involved again at that stage, before the final decision is made by the independent Bord,” Peter O’Reilly said.

The new regional wastewater treatment plant is needed in addition to the Ringsend plant, which is currently planned to be extended to its full capacity at which it will be able to treat wastewater from the equivalent of 2.1million people.

The regional plant in north Dublin will initially be one third the size of the Ringsend plant. It will treat 350,000 population equivalent in 2020 when the plant opens and will be capable of treating up to 700,000 population equivalent when it is at full capacity by 2040. (Population equivalent includes wastewater from industries, hospitals, schools, offices, businesses etc as well as homes.)

Water outage in the Boroimhe, Ridgewood,,Boru Court and Rivervalley area.

There is a water outage in the Boroimhe, Ridgewood,,Boru Court and Rivervalley area. An inspector investigating the problem has found that a valve on the 30" watermain serving the area has shut down. A crew is there at the moment to repair the problem but they have not got a timeframe of when water will be restored.

€2m for Anti-Litter Scheme

Friday, April 13, 2012

Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, today(13 April 2012) announced the provision of €2,150,000 in grants to local authorities, €900,000 under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme, for public education and awareness initiatives in relation to both litter and graffiti, €750,000 for a new Litter Enforcement Scheme, and a further €500,000 under the Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant Scheme (details attached).

Fingal County Council will receive €35,000 under the Anti-Litter & Anti-Graffiti Awareness Grant Scheme and €20,000 under the Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant Scheme.

Changes to the 76 Bus Route

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Details of changes to route 76/76a/76b & 210 as part of Network Direct, a redesign of bus services in the Dublin area.

Service Revisions

Following a period of Consultation Dublin Bus is pleased to announce that it will be introducing a series of service revisions for the Tallaght, Chapelizod, North Clondalkin and Blanchardstown areas covering the existing Routes 76/76a/76b and 210 from Sunday 15th April 2012.

These revisions are part of Network Direct a redesign of bus services in Dublin City. Revisions include Route 76 and 76b will be amalgamated and will operate as a revised Route 76. All journeys will operate from The Square, Tallaght to Chapelizod via Liffey Valley Shopping Centre and Ballyfermot.

The bus stop for this revised service will be located at the Western Side of Liffey Valley Shopping Centre (Near the Vue Cinema), which is also served by the high frequency, cross city Route 40, which travels to Finglas Village and the orbital Route 239, which provides links to Lucan and the Blanchardstown Centre.

As a result of the service redesign, the revised route will be more reliable, direct and will operate customer focused clock face timetables. These significant improvements have been undertaken to make customer timetables easier to understand and will ensure greater ease in planning journeys. Route 76a will connect The Square, Tallaght with The Blanchardstown Centre.

The service will be more direct and will operate via Ballyfermot and the M50 and Blanchardstown Village to the bus interchange in The Blanchardstown Centre. Connections can be made here to Ballycoolin Industrial Park.

Key Routing Changes

All the revised services will operate from a new terminus in The Square, Tallaght. The Route 76a extension to Fettercairn and Balrothery will be withdrawn. The revised routing will take a more direct alignment from The Square, Tallaght to North Clondalkin via Ninth Lock Road and straight through to the Neilstown Road via the Neilstown Bridge.

All journeys will serve the bus interchange in Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.

In Blanchardstown the Revised Route 76a will follow a more direct routing and will operate from the M50 via Blanchardstown Village, past the Blanchardstown Garda Station and straight through to the bus interchange point in Blanchardstown Centre. Route 76a will no longer operate via the Clonsilla Road and Hartstown.

Routes 76b and 210 will no longer operate as part of these changes. Full details will be posted on www.dublinbus.ie.

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