Water cutoff at Castlecurragh

Work has commenced to install a PRV (Pressure Reducing Valve) at Castlecurragh. The work is expected to be complete by Friday 30th November 2012.

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€15 Million Investment and 35 Jobs at The City Bin Co

Waste collection operators, The City Bin Co, has announced the creation of 35 new jobs following major investment from averda the largest private environmental solutions provider in the Middle East, Gulf Cooperation Council and North Africa.

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Clonsilla Water Cutoff

There is a major burst watermain in the vicinity of Shelerin Road. Water supply in this area was initially disconnected for safety reasons and in order to assess the damage. At this stage supply should be restored to the majority of consumers but it is likely that consumers directly on Shelerin Road may be affected. Indications are that it might take until late afternoon before the repair can be completed and supply restored to normal.

Fingal County Council apologise for any inconvenience caused by this unexpected outage.

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The Dublin Airport Stakeholders Forum November Meeting

Please find attached the Activities Reports from DAA and Fingal County Council for the DASF MeetingThe Agenda and Meeting Reports are issued two weeks in advance of a meeting. Significant questions arising out of these reports can be notified to the Secretariat in advance of the meeting with a view to having a better, more informed debate at the meeting.

The Forum is required to hold a minimum of four meetings in a year; meetings will be of two hours duration maximum.
 

 Members are required to represent the views of their organisation at meetings of the Forum and not their own personal viewpoint. However, the fact that an organisation is represented on the Forum does not preclude that organisation from making their own representations to the Dublin Airport Authority, Fingal County Council or any other body on the Forum.

As an advisory body the Forum can only give advice, and this advice can be taken, or it may not be taken. Irrespective of this the Forum will always ensure that the advice it gives is of the highest standard possible and of a timely nature. 

 

Dublin Airport Activities Report for November 2012

 

Noise & Flight Track Monitoring Report November 2012  

 

Dublin Airport Environment Activities Report November 2012

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Road Closure at Clonsilla and Barberstown

Fingal County Council has made an order temporarily closing the following roads:

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€5 million Government-Funded Cloud Computing Technology Centre

The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, has launched the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce (IC4) – a new government-funded technology centre in Dublin City University to drive cloud computing innovation in Ireland. 

· The centre’s aim is to accelerate the development and adoption of cloud technology in Ireland, develop and showcase Ireland’s capabilities in this field and ultimately benefit the Irish economy through job creation and increased revenues in the ICT sector. 

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County & City Enterprise Boards - Public Consultation

The Government this week gave the go-ahead to begin drafting primary legislation to dissolve the existing County & City Enterprise Boards and to create an enhanced national micro enterprise support model. This will be delivered through Local Enterprise Offices to be established in each Local Authority office.

 A four week public consultation on the Government’s reforms of supports for the micro-enterprise and small business sector has been launched by Ministers Bruton and Perry and the views of all stakeholders, in particular small businesspeople and small business representative groups, are being sought.

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Government Moves to Control Scrap Metal Dealing

The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., has published for public consultation proposed new regulations on the trade in scrap metal – the Waste Management (Facility Permit and Regulation) (Amendment) Regulations 2012. These regulations would impose new obligations on operators of waste facility sites.

As one of a number of Fine Gael councillors who raised this issue with the Minister earlier this year I am pleased he has moved quickly to introduce the proposed regulations

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Water off to Corduff, Brookhaven and Warrenstown

Water is currently off to Corduff, Brookhaven and Warrenstown in order to facilitate a "tie in". Surrounding areas may experience low water pressure. Water is expected to be turned back on by 4pm. Fingal County Council apologise to consumers affected by this outage.

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€3.78million Extra Funding for Small Businesses to Create 505 Jobs

The Minister for Small Business, John Perry T.D. has announced the provision of an additional €3.78million to the County and City Enterprise Boards (CEBs) directly to fund job creation projects in the remaining months of 2012.

The additional funding is provided in response to specific requests from CEBs to meet identified demand. The funding is additional to the €15million in capital funding already provided to CEBs in 2012.

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More home help and special needs assistants not more councillors

Last month Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, announced “the most radical, ambitious and far-reaching governance reform plans ever put forward by an Irish government". 

The proposals, called 'Putting People First', included the abolition off all 80 town councils and their 744 council seats. This left 31 integrated local authorities with 883 councillors.

This week he established a committee to review the local electoral boundaries and the number of councillors in each area and each county. This reform is long over due. As populations have changed over the decades, imbalances have grown in representation levels. In Leitrim the ratio of councillors is as low as 1 per 1,800 population compared to 1 per 11,400 in Fingal.

However, instead of reducing the number of councillors in less populated areas, the Minister has decided to increase the numbers in the higher populated commuter belts around Dublin and in Cork. The total number of county and city councillors will increase by 67.

The terms of reference for the boundary commission state that where possible there should be one councillor for every 4,830 population. Fingal, with a population of over 273,991, would see numbers increase from the current 24 to 56. However, the Minister has set the maximum number of councillors at 40 per council which seems the likely outcome for Fingal (1 per 6850). Dublin City is to get 11 more councillors at the next local elections in June 2014 bringing the total from 52 to 63.
 
He has also signaled that there will be more councillors in each area as each electoral ward should typically have 7 councillors with a maximum of 10 and a minimum of 6.

In Dublin West, with a population of 99,923, there are 5 Councillors in the Mulhuddart Ward and 4 in Castleknock. At the next local elections there will likely be at least 4 to 5 additional councillors, bringing to 14 the number turning up at every pothole and broken footpath. What we really need are smaller wards not large ones with more councillors.

There will be much head scratching among the ratepayers and taxpayers at all of this. There are a lot of things we need from the government right now but more councillors is not one of them. I am often asked for additional special needs assistants in our schools, care assistants and police officers, but not more local representatives. 

It is no secret in the corridors of Leinster House that all of this is being done at the behest of the Labour Party. The Party is languishing in the polls and is expected to take a thrashing at the next local elections. Doubling the number of council seats in the commuter counties where they have the most seats and allowing larger wards is designed to save as much of Labour’s bacon as possible. Some might even consider it a gerrymander.

With nine or ten seats up for grabs in each ward at election time the likelyhood is that all sorts of oddballs will end up representing us, from Sinn Fein and the Green Party to Independents like Ming Flannagan and Mick Wallace. Roll on next May.

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Terms of Reference for the 2012/13 Local Electoral Area Boundary Review

Mr. Phil Hogan, T.D., Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, announced today (15th November 2012) that he has established a Local Electoral Area Boundary Committee.

The Committee will review and make recommendations on local electoral area boundaries in the context of the results of census 2011 and the Action Programme for Effective Local Government published on 16 October 2012. The Minister has asked the committee to report to him as soon as possible and in any event no later than 31 May 2013.

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Children's Referendum Results for Dublin West

Well done to Fine Gael Team Dublin West for a dynamic Children's Referendum Campaign. Dublin West had tenth highest YES vote in the country. The only constituency in Dublin to do a complete tally which turned out to be extremely accurate and gave us some very interesting data.

The campaign here was marked by the complete absence of Fianna Fail, Greens, Sinn Fein or Socialists. Fat cat NGO bosses tweeting from Ivory Towers had no impact on the ordinary voters that we met.

Final results for Dublin West

Total Electorate	62,066
Total Poll	22008	35.46%	(46.47% of eligible voters)
Invalid Papers	84
Total Valid Poll	21924
Votes For	13,338	60.80%
Votes Against	8,568	39.20%
	Yes	No
Mulhuddart Ward	51%	48%
Caslteknock Ward	70%	30%
Swords	61%	28%
Blakestown Box No #		78%	Highest No
Clonsilla Box No#	83%		Highest Yes

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Children's Referendum Turnout for Mulhuddart Ward Dublin West

My thanks to the staff who manned the polling stations for supplying final turnout data after what was a long slow day for the Children's Referendum.

Bear in mind that at some stations up to 35% of the electorate are non national and cannot vote in a referendum. Where possible I have included the valid poll data.

Here is the data for the Mulhuddart Ward of Dublin West:

Polling Station	Turnout as%Total Poll	T/O %Valid Poll
Tyrrelstown	20.50%	28.00%
Ladyswell	21.90%
Corduff	33.46%
Huntstown	27.30%
Hartstown	33.50%
Mountview	29.18%	34.44%
St. Mochtas, Clonsilla	27.60%	31.70%
Ongar	21.60%
Littlepace	29.00%	38.00%

Note: Corduff had a turnout of 55% for the stability treaty referendum

Turnout at two of the stations in the Castleknock Ward: 

	Turnout as%Total Poll
Blakestown	27.00%
St. Patrick's NS Diswellstown	36.00%

Sinn Fein's contribution at Ongar today..

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Disruption to Water Supply in Blanchardstown and Castleknock Area

Fingal County Council intend to install a Pressure Release Valve on the trunk main serving Blanchardstown and Castleknock. This is a major piece of work and it will be necessary to close down the trunk main for a period of time.

The disruption is planned to commence from 7.00 p.m. on Tuesday 13th November, with work commencing at 8.00p.m. It is anticipated that work will be completed by 2.00a.m. on Wednesday 14th November and water supply fully restored by 7.00a.m at the latest.

Residential areas affected stretch from Corduff to Ashtown on the North of the M3 and from Blakestown and Coolmine to the Phoenix Park on the South side of the M3.

Please see attached link with a full list of areas that may be affected by this disruption DMA List Dublin 15

Other areas affected will include James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown Town Centre and Coolmine Industrial Estate.

Following the installation of the PRV some areas may experience a slight reduction in pressure for a short period of time while the Network is recharging.

Fingal County Council apologises for any inconvenience that may be caused while these very important major works are undertaken.

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