Royal Canal Day

Everyone is invited to the ROYAL CANAL DAY, a dynamic event planned by the Dublin City North Volunteer Centre.  The Royal Canal Day will take place on October the 12th along the banks of the Royal Canal with the main objective being to get local people to come out, have some fun and to clean-up litter all along the Royal Canal from Dublin’s city centre all the way out to Blanchardstown.  There will varioius activities and events related to the canal and its history, such as Walks with Botonist Declan Doogue, Pat Liddy walking tour and Dublin Cycling Campaign social ride.  Further information including the schedule and the meeting points for the canal clean-up can be found on the facebook page or contacting the Centre by tel.872 2622 or email: royalcanalteam@gmail.com.   I encourage as many people as possible to come along and participate in this family friendly event and enjoy the wonderful Royal Canal.  Mary

Drumcondra & Glasnevin Local Policing Forum

As chair of the Dublin Central Joint Policing Committee I work with the Gardai, Dublin City Council and the local community to fight crime in our area. Since the closure of Whitehall Garda Station the Gardai operate a weekly clinic in Corpus Christi. Gardai and Dublin City Council attend the Drumcondra Glasnevin local policing forum that was established as part of the roll-out of local forums in Dublin Central under my chairpersonship. The next meeting of the Drumcondra Glasnevin Forum will take place in The Maples Hotel on Wednesday October 2nd @ 7.30pm. Anyone living in the area is invited to attend the forum to address issues of concern with the Gardai, Dublin City Council and your elected representatives.

Pay & Display Parking

Dublin City Council Parking Enforcement has confirmed that the Pay and Display

and Permit Parking Schemes for Iona Park, Iona Crescent and Iona Drive will come into effect on Monday, 2nd September, 2013. Mary

Violet Hill & Griffith Parks

Violet Hill’s beautiful meadow style park and Griffith Park, both with the Tolka river running through, are lovely places to spend time and great amenities for our community. Unfortunately when the good weather started the parks were subject to anti-social behaviour and vandalism. Cllr Mary Fitzpatrick raised the issue with the Gardai and Dublin City Council’s parks department and arranged to have the fire debris in Violet Hill Park cleaned-up and the damage repaired. Following Cllr Fitzpatrick’s representations Garda foot and bike patrols were dedicated to the parks and signs erected by Dublin City Council asking people to respect the park and to report any anti-social behaviour in the park to the Gardai. Please report any anti-social behaviour in the parks to the Gardai on 999. Mary

Drumcondra Street Signs

A number of roads between Walsh and Ferguson Road are without street signs indicating the road name. Following my representations Dublin City Council added a request for appropriate road signage in June 2013 to its roads maintenance system and the situation will be addressed. Mary

Royal Canal

Na Fianna Spring Fair

The annual Na Fianna Spring Fair takes place on Sunday 3rd March 2013 from 1pm.  As well as being a great day for the family the Spring Fair is a very important fundraiser for the club.  The club is accepting any donations so if you can bake a cake, have a spare bottle or some suitable gifts please bring them to the club house.  Mary

Community Grants Deadline

REMINDER DEADLINE APPROACHING

Dublin City Council is currently accepting applications for funding under their Community Grant Scheme. Key priorities for funding 2013 are community development, social inclusion, children and young people, digital inclusion, integration, marginalised groups and local issues.  To download an application please click here.  Please note that the closing date is 5pm Thursday the 31st January 2013. It is expected that successful groups would receive their award by end of May/beginning June 2012. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of any assistance. Mary

Car break-ins

I was woken early one morning recently by our friendly postman who noticed that our car had been broken-into over night.  Now to be totally honest they didn't actually "break-in" because the car had been left "unlocked" (don't ask who is to blame for that, needless to say I am admitting nothing).  They had gone through the car and because there was nothing of any real value the only thing they got was our driving licences.  I reported it to the Gardai and they confirmed that there has been a large number of such incidents in the area. 

May I humbly remind you not to leave any valuables in your car and report any suspcious activity in your area to the GARDAI @ Cabra 01 6667400 or @ Mountjoy 01 6668200 or @ Bridewell (01) 666 8200 or @ Store Street 01 666 8000.  Mary

New Mater Car Park

As part of the New Mater General Adult Hospital a 436-space basement car park will open at noon on Sunday 27th January 2013.
This car park will service staff, patients and visitors to the Mater Hospital. There is direct access from the Car Park to the Whitty Building. Vehicle access to this car park is from Eccles Street beside the Mater Private. There are 18 disabled car parking spaces and 156 bicycle parking spaces.  Euro Car Parks manage this car park. Click here to find out more about opening hours, tariffs, contact details, etc.
This should make visiting the hospital more convenient and hopefully relieve some of the pressure for on-street parking in the area.  Mary

Royal Canal

At the January meeting of Dublin City Council I requested an update on the plan, I have for many years championed, to upgrade the Royal Canal tow path from the IFSC to Ashtown.  The Manager advised me that the project is currently divided into three sections;
1. Sheriff Street to North Strand at Newcomen Bridge

2. Newcomen to Cross Guns Bridge

3. Cross Guns Bridge to Ashtown

The good news is that the preliminary design is being finalised on sections 1. and 2.  Once the preliminary design is complete and public consultation has been done, they will be progressed to Final Design and Contract Documents.  On Section 3., preliminary design work has been progressed by the QBN Project Office. This work is now being taken by the Traffic Department with the purpose of progressing to Final Design and Contract Documents.  The NTA has agreed that this overall project should proceed subject to finance.
I will continue to work to make this project a reality and to open up this unique green route all the way from the docks to Ashtown.  In the meantime I encourage anyone living or visiting our area to take advantage of the canal as an alternative route.  It is a real oasis just off our busy streets free for us all to enjoy.  I thank the many responsible dog owners who clean-up after their canine companions on the canal banks and ask all other dog owners to do the same.  Mary

Street Cleaning

Since Dublin City Council withdrew from the collection of domestic waste and the provision of a bin waiver in the city they also abandoned the policy of sweeping streets after bin collections.

I have raised this issue with the City Council because it is having a negative impact on the city's image.  It is really important that residential streets in our city are properly cleaned. All property owners are responsbile for the cleaning of paths in front of their own property.  I encourage residents to take pride in their area, to clean their paths and to monitor cleaning of their roads by Dublin City Council.  You can check Dublin City Councils schedule for cleaning your street by clicking here.  You can report areas in need of attention from Dublin City Council by calling the Litter Hotline 1800 248 348.  Mary

Iona Road

Following the road accident and tragic death of an elderly person on Iona Road at the junction of Crawford Avenue in December 2012, I made renewed calls to Dublin City Council at the January 2013 Meeting of the Central Area Committee to upgrade the street lighting on Iona Road.

Dublin City Council advised me that "The Public Lighting Section will examine the lighting on Iona Road and any improvements deemed necessary will be considered for inclusion in a future lighting programme subject to the necessary finances being made available."

 I will continue to follow-up on this issue with Dublin City Council and hopefully we will see an upgrade of the public lighting on this busy road soon. Mary

Claude Road

In December 2012 I requested Dublin City Council clean the area under the pedestrian bridge from Claude road to Lindsay Road, Dublin 9.  There was a large accumulation of rubbish under the bridge but also along the tracks. Dublin City Council cleaned up under the bridge and also contacted the Environmental Officer for Irish Rail with regard to having the area adjacent to the rail tracks cleaned also.  It is disappointing but not surprising, considering the failure of Labour Councillors to provide a waiver,  to see an increase in the level of illegal dumping of domestic waste in our area.  Please report any illegal dumping to 1800 248 348.  Mary

New Mater

The new Mater General Adult Hospital opened its new main entrance in the Whitty Building on the North Circular Road, Dublin 7 on January 14th 2013.  This replaces the old entrance on Eccles Street.  The new entrance is open from 6.30am to 8pm. All public access via the main entrance on Eccles Street ceased from January 14th 2013. Check out www.mater.ie for further information.  Mary

How to spend €2.2m ??

2013 has started with some good news for Dublin City. The City Council has an extra and unexpected €2.2m to spend this year and I want the money to be used wisely to support services to citizens and employment in the city.

On November 26th, 2012 the Lord Mayor and City Councillors of Dublin met in City Hall and agreed a budget for 2013. At that meeting, as leader of the Fianna Fail group and in the interest of good governance, I proposed that the meeting be deferred until after the National Budget was announced and the City Council advised of its funding allocation from National Government.

A majority of Labour and Fine Gael Councillors rejected and defeated our proposal to defer the meeting and they approved a budget for the city without having all the relevant information available to them. Now it transpires that Dublin City Council had over-estimated the cut it was to receive to its funding from National Government and has in fact an unexpected €2.2m extra to spend this year.

This is good news and all Councillors should engage with Dublin City Council management to ensure that the extra funding is spent wisely and used to deliver better services to the people of Dublin and support employment in the city.

As leader of the Fianna Fail group of Councillors I have requested the Lord Mayor of Dublin City to convene a special meeting of Dublin City Council so that we can make a new city budget for 2013.
I am interested to hear from constituents on how they would like the extra money to be spent, already some ideas include Homeless Services (DCC already spends more than €40m on Homeless Svces.), Bin Waiver for elderly, sick and unemployed, Tall Ships Festival in 2016, Moore Street/1916 Museum....how would you like to see the money spent ?  Drop me an email and let me know.  Mary

Greyhound Recycling

In late November I became aware that Greyhound stopped supplying customers in Dublin central with free bags to recycle materials and that they intended introducing a charge for bags. I immediately raised this issue with the City Manager and asked that he ensure that customers are provided with bags to recycle their goods as soon as possible. Additionally I sought confirmation that Greyhound do not propose to charge for collection of green bins.

Following on from my representations DCC met with Greyhound and advised me that Greyhound confirmed that they will continue to collect ALL bags up to and including Friday 18th January 2013 free of charge. While this is welcome it doesn't go far enough because many customers had already ran out of bags and were being asked to pay €9 for six bags.  I have asked that Greyhound provide customers with bags free of charge from now until January 18th and they re-consider the proposed €9 charge which is very expensive.

I have also asked Dublin City Council to ensure that Greyhound collect any additional recyclable waste that is presented by customers over the Christmas period e.g. wrapping and packaging as was always the case with Dublin City Council.
In response to my query about charging for green bins Greyhounds has indicated that it's introduction of charges for recycle bags is not a precursor to a charge for collection of the green bin. Lets hope this is the case.

In the meantime a list of licensed operators for Dublin City is available here and a new company called City Bin has recently entered the market with what appears an attractive offer.  Mary

Drumcondra & Glasnevin Forum

The next Drumcondra and Glasnevin Community Policing Forum  meeting will take place on Wednesday 5th December 2013 at 7pm in the The Maples Hotel, Iona Road, Dublin 9.  This is an opportunity for people living and working the area to meet with the Gardai, Dublin City Council and elected representatives to discuss and address issues of concern. As Chair of the Dublin Central Joint Policing Committee I encourage people from the area to come along as these forum meetings feed into the priorities for the Dublin Central Joint Policing Commitee. Mary

Extend HGV ban ?

When the 5+axel HGV ban was being introduced in Dublin City in 2007 I succeeded in getting the Navan Road, Cabra, Phibsborough, Drumcondra and East Wall included in the cordon or exclusion zone.  Now Dublin City Council is considering extending the current operating hours of the HGV 5+ axle Cordon in Dublin City, and are asking the public for their views on the proposal .

Currently the ban operates from 07.00hrs to 19.00hrs, while the proposed changes would see the Cordon extending from either 06.00hrs or 07.00hrs to 12 midnight.

Since the HGV 5+ axle Cordon came into force in February 2007, over 4,000 HGVs per day have been removed from the City’s streets. The current proposal would see an additional 120 trucks approximately diverted away from the City’s streets.

Detailed information on the HGV Management Strategy, together with a copy of the report can be viewed here.   Submissions can be made to Dublin City Council and should be emailed to traffic@dublincity.ie before 5.30pm on Friday, 7th December 2012. Mary

Metro North illegal Levy ?

At this yesterday evenings monthly meeting of Dublin City Council I requested an opinion from the Law Officer on whether Dublin City Council is acting legally by continuing to collect Section 49 Development Levys for the Metro North Project.

I was alarmed to learn that the City Manager had not already sought legal advice on the matter and asked that he do so because not only is the continued collection of the levy’s removing cash from the city economy but it is also potentially exposing the council to liability.

The section 49 Metro North development levy scheme was created by Dublin City Council in 2007 for a period of 30 years. Already more than €13m has been collected by Dublin City Council and Fingal County Council under this scheme. The scheme is projected to collect more than €100million over the next thirty years if it continues unchecked. This is real money that could be otherwise invested in the city.

I have repeatedly asked Dublin City Council to suspend the levy scheme and to refund the levy’s already collected. The scheme states that the Metro North Project was to be completed in 2012 and it states that if the project does not proceed the levys will be refunded. I believe that City Council is potentially acting in conflict with it’s own scheme.

The collection of this levy must be suspended immediately. It is bad practice for Dublin City Council to collect a levy for a project that has been indefinitely suspended, it is damaging the city economy and it undermines Dublin City Councils ability to collect legitimate charges. Mary