Dublin Gay Pride Parade

I will be joining Ogra Fianna Fail tomorrow for the Dublin Gay Pride Parade which starts at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square at 2pm.

In the tradition of a true republican party Fianna Fáil has had a ground-breaking record of achievement for the LGBT community, from the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1993 to the Civil Partnership Act 2010.

There is still a lot to do if we are to achieve full equality in our society but a good turn-out tomorrow will put pressure on our political leaders to take the issue seriously and to deliver greater equality in society. Mary

Creative & Vacant Spaces in the City

Dublin City Council is working with landlords of vacant buildings and creative artists in the City to match their needs.  The pilot project includes three properties in the Central Area and the City Council is inviting  property owners right across the city to contact them and get on the register of Vacant Spaces.  Mary

City Bike Week

Join the City Cycle today, 12.45 Grand Canal Square.  I did this last year and it was great to get cycle around the city wtih the roads cleared of all cars, vans, buses, trucks..even if only for half an hour. 

NWIC Policing Forum

The next meeting of the North West Inner City Community Policing Forum is the 2nd May 2012 and will be held in the Jameson Distillery at 7.OOPM. All residents and property owners in the area are invited to attend to discuss with the Gardai, Dublin City Council and Elected Representatives any issues in the area.

Regards, Mary

Five Lamps Art Festival

In its fifth year, the Five Lamps Art Festival will run from 19th to the 26th of April 2012.  There is a great programme organised, for more information click HERE. (I will try and get a photo of me at the five lamps this week, so hold off posting this)

North Inner City Community Policing Forum

The next meeting of the North Inner City Policing Forum will be held on Wednesday 7th of March at 7pm in Store Street Garda Station.  This meeting is open to any member of the community to attend so if you have any issues you would like to raise with the Gardai, Dublin City Council or your elected representatives please come along.  Alternatively please feel free to drop me an email and I will come back to you on the matter. Mary

Inner City Policing Forum

The date of the next North West Inner City Policing Forum is the 22nd February 2012 and will be held in the Jameson Distillery at 7.OOPM. The NWIC forum covers the area west of O’Connell Street and North of the Liffey as far as the North Circular Road. The forum is attended by local Gardai, Dublin City Council officials, members of the community and elected representatives. Please feel free to attend the meeting and if you have any issues you would like addressed at the meeting please drop me an email before February 14th. Thanks, Mary.

Labour & The City Manager

Labour in chahoots with City Manager to privatise bin collections.

Dublin City Manager has held secret meetings with Labour City Councillors regarding the privatisation of domestic bin collections in the city. Despite a request from Fianna Fail and Independent Councillors for a special meeting on this issue we were neither invited nor informed to meet the City Manager. How many other secret meetings have been held?

Furthermore Labour’s Lord Mayor of Dublin Cllr Andrew Montague has prevaricated in responding to my request on behalf of Fianna Fail and Independent Councillors, for a special meeting of the City Council to address the real concerns. He has rejected our email request and is insisting that at least five councillors make a written request and has said he will only consider the request after the signatures have been verified!

It beggars belief in this day and age that the Lord Mayor of Dublin, a Councillor that promotes himself as modern technology champion would be peddling such a line. What is more bewildering is that the Lord Mayor does not himself see a need for a Special Meeting of the City Council to address the serious issues that have arisen and must be addressed. In any event, we have delivered the letter as demanded.

Clearly the Labour Lord Mayor and Labour group on the Council have been working very closely with the Manager to privatise the bin service in Dublin but they need to admit that they have made a right mess of the city. We are on day four of the switch over and still homeowners haven't received letters from DCC and/or Greyhound and bins remain uncollected.

We will continue to pursue this issue and I have today contacted the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee to consult with him on the issue. I will let you know when there is a further update. 

Mary

Bins - Special Meeting Request

In light of the serious issues that have arisen with DCC's withdrawal from the collection of domestic waste in Dublin City, last night with the support of the FF councillors and a number of Independent Councillors I formally requested the Lord Mayor to immediately convene a meeting with the CEO of Greyhound and the City Manager to address the following issues:

• Late notification to customers of DCC's withdrawal from the collection of Domestic Waste
• Up-front payment of €112 is unreasonable 
• Fixing of charges for only six months is unreasonable
• Payment arrangements 
• Clarification on continuation of the brown bin service 
• Tags collection
• Alternative operators in Dublin City (i.e. the Manager to identify what competitive operators/choice is available to homeowners in each area of Dublin city) 
• Details of the contract should be disclosed to the elected representatives 

I will update this site when the Lord Mayor replies.

Mary
Click HERE for later updates on this matter.

Domestic Bin Collections

From Monday January 16th 2012, after more 140 years, Dublin City Council will no longer be responsible for collecting domestic rubbish in the city.

Over the past few months I strenuously opposed DCC’s withdrawal from the domestic bin collection service but unfortunately the majority Labour/Fine Geal Councillors supported the City Manager’s plan.

I again raised my concerns with the City Manager on Monday this week and in response the Manager arranged to make information available today on the DCC website HERE.

I hope this information provides you with the information you need about your bin collections but if it doesn’t and you have any other questions please drop me an email and I will be happy to try to help.

Mary.
Click HERE for later updates on this matter.

Bin Collections

As and from next Monday 16th Jan 2012 Dublin City Council will no longer collect household rubbish in Dublin City. Dublin City Council, under the control of Labour and Fine Geal, awarded the contract for domestic bin collections to Greyhound.

I objected at City Council to Dublin City Council withdrawing from the collection of household rubbish in the City.

Under the new contract householders should receive a letter from Greyhound this week advising them of the new arrangements for their bin collections. Greyhound will be responsible for collection of green, grey and brown bins as well as tagged bags.

Greyhound will require householders to pay in advance for their bin collections. Greyhound has agreed to honour the waivers that were already in place with Dublin City Council so Households that were approved for a bin waiver in 2011 will continue to get the a waiver on the standing charge. There is no obligation on Greyhound to accept or grant any new waiver applications. Greyhound will require all customers to clear any arrears owing to Dublin City Council and will require customers to pay in advance for their collection service.

The City Manager has agreed to provide a detailed explanation of the new arrangements for bin collection over the next few days, when he does I will post them to my website.

Mary.
Click HERE for later updates on this matter.

Capuchin Day Center

It was great that Pat Kenny used his radio programme on December 14, 2011 to highlight the great work done by Br Kevin, Teresa and all the staff and volunteers at the Capuchin Day Center on Bow Street. The work they do is truly inspirational. They feed approximately 600 people a day and give out over 1000 food parcels every Wednesday. Many of the people coming to the day center are homeless but increasingly there are also people attending who just can’t make ends meet. It has been a real honour for me to help Br Kevin and I was truly flattered that he wanted me to participate in the discussion on the show and raise the issues I have been raising for him at City Council. You can listen to the show on RTE by clicking HERE but most importantly you can make a donation to Br Kevin by clicking on www.homeless.ie. 

Mary.

DCC Flooding Update

Since the flooding on the 24^th of October I have been following up with Dublin City Council regarding specific flooding events in our area.  At the DCC Engineering Strategic Policy Meeting held on December 15^th I addressed the issue and the RTE 1 news covered some of my comments.  You can watch the full meeting by clicking HERE. It was a long meeting but you can skip to my comments by using the index (1:47) or read my initial contribution below.

Areas in Dublin Central have been repeatedly flooded over the past decade dating from the Tolka flooding in 2002, 2005 and more recently 2008, 2009 and now again in 2011.

Accepting that the Manager says that no location in the city is free from flood risk and that the report identifies a minimum of 142 locations that were flooded on the 24^th of October I find the report to be too high level, too strategic and all to vague. It is significantly lacking in detail, solutions and timelines for action.

I have specific questions about East Wall, Glendhu park, Ashington, Cabra west, Cabra East, Phibsborough, Drumcondra, Glasnevin, East Wall, Ballybough, North Strand.  I have put those questions directly on email, I have raised those issues as questions to the City Manager,  I have put questions to area committee and city council meetings for written reply. 

The reports I have received are high-level and strategic in nature.   I have received replies that don't convey to me or residents that any real progress is being made.  At its worse I would consider the replies to have been a waste of what we are told are limited resources.

This forum of the SPC is not suitable for addressing local issues.  

The city council is refining its message on what it cannot do.  It cannot meet with residents. It cannot provide sandbags. It cannot solve the problem. The network is inadequate,insufficient resources are available,  it is the OPW, the DoE or some other bodies responsiblity etc.  More than anything, no pun intended, the overall effect of this approach is leaving me with a sinking feeling.

Over €120million has been spent over the last decade, the Tolka.  Another €100million will be made over the next decade. While this is less it is still very welcome and every effort must be made to ensure that Dublin City gets its fair share of those funds.

From a homeowners perspective in Dublin City today they do not feel that DCC is being responsive.   Clearly our approach is not working and we need to recognise this and address it.  Clearly there is a plethora of organisations dedicated to protect funding streams and hopefully the Government that has promised much change and greater efficiencies and economies will maybe take this issue of flooding and streamline the various organisations and channel all flooding and drainage activities in one body.

Dublin City Council has significant resources when it comes to long term strategic flooding and drainage expertise however we need to bridge the gap between that strategic long-term approach and the  real life events of ordinary homeowners and business owners in the city. 

We  have to do something to move DCC from appearing  like it is hiding behind big words, dense reports , legislation and convoluted procedures and instead move to establish a clear channel of communications between the city council and residents and business owners. 

Dublin City Council is the planning authority. Dublin City Council is the drainage provider.  Dublin City Council must take the lead on this issue. Dublin City Council needs to take action to establish a Dublin City Flood Forum now.

Finally, I wish to propose to this SPC that dealing with these matters at the SPC is wholly inappropriate and we should call on DCC to establish without any further delay Dublin City Flooding Forum.    DCC should make an application for funding for a Dublin City flooding fund immediately.

Fully accepting that mother nature will always have the power to overwhelm our efforts we need to be more proactive and the City Council needs to take a partnership approach with home and business owners in the city to protect their properties.

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Aqua Aerobics

Aqua Aerobics classes are re-commencing in Sean McDermott Street Pool on Tuesday 8th November 2011 at 8pm, the cost will be €5 per person, per class. If you would like further information please contact Ger Toner on 086 - 3828331. Mary.

North Strand Bombing

As part of Dublin City Council’s “lets walk and talk” programme, on Tuesday 31st of May you can join historian Pat Liddy as he visits the sites that were bombed by the German Luftwaffe on the fateful night 70 years ago (May 1941) and get a taste of the horrors of World War ll in Dublin. The tour will last 90 minutes and will include eye-witness accounts of the bombing. Meet at the Charleville Mall, Library, North Strand, Dublin 1 at 12.00noon. For more information click HERE. Mary.

Docklands Annual Booksale

 

The 2nd Docklands Annual Book Sale will commence on tomorrow Thursday 26th May 2011 in the National College of Ireland and continue to three days. The Sale will be opened by Mr John Lonergan @ 1pm on the 26th. All proceeds from the sale will be distributed to the five partnering organisations which make up the forum to help provide critical services for older people living in the Dockland’s area. There will be over 30,000 books to choose from, all for €1 each. 

Click HERE for more information.

Mary

North Wall CTC Surprise

Here's a message from Trevor Moore, General Manager at North Wall CTC. Well done to Trevor and the girls for having their work published on The Irish Times !!!

A group of learners from North Wall CTC had their creative writing published in today’s Irish Times! On Page 18 of the supplement titled ‘Fighting Words’ there is a short story called ‘Surprise, Surprise’. This was written over a period of time by a group of girls who were taking part in the LifeSkills programme. Creative writing support was provided through workshops offered by volunteers (including Roddy Doyle) at the Fighting Words Centre. It is a huge achievement for those young people, some of whom had literacy difficulties, to see their work published in a national newspaper.

Click HERE to see the online version (if you are not automatically routed to the story, on the main page www.irishtimes.com, near the search section at top, click "Select Title ...", then "Fighting Words Supplement" and then to page 18).

Regards,

Trevor Moore

General Manager

North Wall CTC

Tel: 01 - 855 4033

Mob: 086 - 3314 744

Fax: 01 - 855 4839

email: tmoore@nwctw.com

Green Bin Easter Monday

Please note that any Green Bin collection due on Mon 25th April (Easter Monday) will take place on Sat 23rd instead. All other collections as normal. See www.greenbin.ie.

For opening times of Bring Centres and Recycling Centres, click HERE. For more information contact DCC Cabra Area Office on (01) 2227400. All the best, Mary.

Tai Chai in Cabra

Senior Citizens, why not try out Tai Chi. These are gentle non-impact exercise classes which will improve flexibility and good health. Sample Class next Tuesday, 19th April at St Finbarrs GAA Club. All seniors welcome. For more information please contact Cabra Community Development Project on 085-1519972. Grand stretch in the evening, Mary.

Graduates, Snr Developers

Asset Control, a global provider of data technology for financial institutions, is to create 50 new jobs in Dublin with the expansion of its financial technology operation. Opportunities open to a mix of graduates and senior developers. Click HERE for more on the announcement. 

The company will shortly post specific opportunities HERE (none showing at present), but in the meantime get ahead of the queue by calling their Human Resources department at +31 (0)512 389 100 or emailing your CV to careers@asset-control.com. 

Best of luck, Mary.