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Tips and advice. Where do we go from here. Aftermath of Election 11
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05-03-2011 12:05am#1
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Moderators, Category Moderators, Politics Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators, Regional East Moderators Posts: 12,110 CMod ✭✭✭✭
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Definitely jobs. We can all do our bit by shopping locally as far as possible and supporting NCD traders, producers etc.
The thing is that we're depending on the government/banks/forces outside our control to get us out of this mess. But we have the srping and summer to look forward to, and we live in a great spot with beaches and parks so we can get out and enjoy life without spending a lot of money
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Jobs.
And looking after each other.Nobody else is going to do it for us.
It's past time to start putting it right.
Agree here. Jobs to N.C.D are going to be vital in the next few years. We do need to look after ourselves and promoting whats good aropund N.C.DDizzyblonde wrote: »Definitely jobs. We can all do our bit by shopping locally as far as possible and supporting NCD traders, producers etc.
The thing is that we're depending on the government/banks/forces outside our control to get us out of this mess. But we have the srping and summer to look forward to, and we live in a great spot with beaches and parks so we can get out and enjoy life without spending a lot of money
On my rounds during the week the colour was coming back into hedgrows and I just got a feeling maybe things are going to improve slowly this summer. People appeared to be in better form
I think to an extent we can over rely on outside help and we need to insist on more Irish produce in our shops for a start. We can generate a substantial amount of money to circularise by shopping locally and buying Irish. I would have been one to critise shops for the price of some of the products but I think they have become a little more competitive. There are great special offers in Eurospar, Centra and Supervalu
You are bang on in your last few lines Dizzyblonde,
We have a wonderful coastline with superb beachs, parks and gardens like Ardgillen, Newbridge, Malahide and Howth head. All these have great walks some have playgrounds where between walking and playgrounds its easy to spend a day without having to dig into your pockets.
Perhaps posters will use the event thread a little more to get more people out and about. And maybe a thread to promote where good value can be had around N.C.D. (Without it being hijacked by shop owners)0 -
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10belowzero wrote: »There's a lot to be done ,Rush Lusk and Skerries need's a new main rd badly from the M1, the Blake's Cross road to Lusk and on to Rush via raheny /effelstown / whitestown rd is possibly , one of the most dangerous road's in the country (and i have worked on and about road's for 32 year's), it's certainly one of the few road's i know off , where a slow moving tractor or cyclist can bring the traffic to 3 large town's to a standstill.
FCC's contribution of a tightrope (i mean footpath) from Lusk to to the station is another example of the priority Lusk/Rush merit from this rotten council .
If Enda and Eamonn want to clean up local politic's and government ,they should start here .
But there is a lot that can be done ,the local enterprise board , should set up a company to take unemployed builder's,labourer's etc off the dole and employ them on local projects ,such as footpath's road's etc , esp in Rush , where decent road's and footpath's , were totally omitted from any planning or development plan's passed by FCC.
Also , it should be a mandatory condition of any council/government /semi state or agency , that all employment being used on a contract , should be sourced within the area ,where the work is being carried out in conjunction with FAS ,the enterprise board's and local unemployment group's etc , as the majority of these contract's end up with company's that bring in labour from outside the NCD economic area.
The fishing industry is almost extinct on the north east coast , with little or no promotion of the leisure angling asset's that abound in NCD.
Wind generation is very viable in NCD , as Country Crest can testify , with proper investment , I don't see why the town's and village's of NCD cannot avail of this free resource , and become totally sufficient or certainly reduce greatly ,it's energy bill's whilst at the same time providing employment to local people.
Local b/b's have been savaged by the explosion of zombie hotel's , this is a country wide issue , but something need's to be done to help this vital area of the local economy.
The farming and grower's sector need's to be assisted more , as there is a huge opportunity for employment and market growth , if the right government policy's are put in place.
FCC commercial rate's and the commercial rent's being charged by landlord's also need to be tackled .
Broadband infrastructure also need's to be improved (Lusk/Rush has recently being upgraded to NGB) but this is a stepping stone , with proper broadband , worker's can work from home , cutting cost's for the employer and employee , saving on office rent's , transport , rate's etc.
A proper broadband infrastructure did not go down well with Fianna Fail, because if a national b/band scheme had been in place , the hundred's of office's that now lie empty , would never have been built in the first place ,as people could have worked from home , the developer's were never going to have any of that.
Business need's proper transport infrastructure , it's the life blood of industry and business.The dart need's to be brought to Balbriggan -A.S.A.P - before any money is spent on Metro Nth or any other transport project, the current rail service to NCD is a disgrace in this day and age , how the H.S.A allow's Irish Rail get away with the overcrowding of train's on the northern line need's investigating and of course , no body is too blame for the collapse of the viaduct.
Leo B is right , when he say's we have too start at a local level, we need to start asking question's of our local representatives , and not only getting answers , but getting action's ,instead of hand wringing.10belowzero wrote: »Also , it should be a mandatory condition of any council/government /semi state or agency , that all employment being used on a contract , should be sourced within the area ,where the work is being carried out in conjunction with FAS ,the enterprise board's and local unemployment group's etc , as the majority of these contract's end up with company's that bring in labour from outside the NCD economic area..
This has been a bug bear of mine for quite a while, not only are these contracts going outside N.C.D but cheaper eastern european workers are getting a lot of work and from what I see and hear their standard of workmanship in quite a few cases is not up to scratch. Some of these workers are good but unfortunatley some are just jokers employed by greedy developers so their margin of profit would go up. A lot of school kids cant get part-time jobs in supermarkets as they are nearly all gone to non-nationals. Ok we have some of our own who would be hard to employ but we need to look at the benefits to our local economey by employing more locals. We would also need to give incentives for some to take up jobs. Let them keep their S/W for 6 months then reduce it by say 20% and gradually scale it back. Same would apply to medical cards.
The idea of a local enterprise board is very good and should be pushed to get local people back working and get our local economy moving, this should happen all over the country.10belowzero wrote: »the current rail service to NCD is a disgrace in this day and age , how the H.S.A allow's Irish Rail get away with the overcrowding of train's on the northern line need's investigating and of course , no body is too blame for the collapse of the viaduct...
This has been mentioned here before and its a disgrace what Irish rail are getting with. We could have a very serious tragedy on our hands if something goes wrong. Barry Kenny will come onto the Radio with Pat Kenny or Joe Duffy and tell us about the great investments in our rail network and off he goes. Is there an onus on station workers to stop people getting on trains when they are so over crowded? Has anyone taken a video and posted it on youtube? They might finally wake up!!!10belowzero wrote: »The fishing industry is almost extinct on the north east coast , with little or no promotion of the leisure angling asset's that abound in NCD.
Wind generation is very viable in NCD , as Country Crest can testify , with proper investment , I don't see why the town's and village's of NCD cannot avail of this free resource , and become totally sufficient or certainly reduce greatly ,it's energy bill's whilst at the same time providing employment to local people....
I mentioned to someone when taking photos in Skerries one night last week that back in the 1970s the Harbour was so alive with a very vibrant fishing fleet. It was a very busy place but sadly last week a handful of boats were tied up with little or nothing else happening. Surley we should be giving some breaks to the boat owners on fuel costs or V.A.T to try and revive this industry.We have heard on the "Skippers" programme about the amount of hassle they get from fisheries protection yet big French and Spanish boats are constantly coming in to our waters and nothing is being done.
There is a great possibility to develop the angling side of things as well which would have a spin off for local Guest houses and B&Bs.
The wind farms have been mentioned here recently on Boards and its shameful we are not investing in them. Each village should be looking at generating their own supply and cut cut costs for families. Out behind Lambay and the islands off Skerries. But we will no doubt have objections before it even gets started. To many of us look for reasons not to do things instead of reasons to positive reasons.
The local produce of growers and Irish produce in general is all that should be stocked in local supermarkets once we have it in season and available. We have a great range of food that is produced here and it should be a priority for everyone to get it on our plates not produce that has been frozen and transported accross Europe. So the next time you or me or our families goes into a supermarket we should ask where the veg was grown.
I think a serious investigation of our social welfare system needs to be undertaken asap to see where the money is going. Despite what some public reps say there is still a huge welfare tourist problem and we simply cant afford to let this continue. We have people claiming all sorts of payments who say they are persecuted in their home country yet they go home for 6 weeks holidays
. A look at the traffic of western union and Fed Ex will also show Millions of €uro going out of Ireland every week. FACT. Its all very well cutting social welfare payments but we ned to careful where we cut them and who we are really hitting.
Time to start contacting our newly elected T.Ds and see how they propose to help revive and develop N.C.D and Irish produce and Industry.0 -
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10belowzero wrote: »The farming and grower's sector need's to be assisted more , as there is a huge opportunity for employment and market growth , if the right government policy's are put in place.
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This has already happened, we gave the majority of EU grants to one of the largest Produce companies in Ireland, great what you can get when you have a team of accountants and lawyers to fill out your paperwork. They now have a state of the art production unit like the one in the youtube vid in this post.
Barriers to Horticulture Industry Recovery in NCD
Fuel Costs
With growing fuel bills unless you can provide a cheap source of energy for glasshouse production your already not competitive. Wind Turbines can provide electricity for supplemental lighting or refrigeration but not effective for heating crops in greenhouse production units. Spain has the climate that we do not. Just to show the scale of production in parts of Spain click on the below link of Almeria in the South of Spain and zoom in around El Ejido
http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&q=satellite+map+of+almeria&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Almer%C3%ADa,+Spain&gl=ie&t=h&ei=HPd0Tc3kMc6DhQeL_Y1L&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBsQ8gEwAA
Yes all that white area is glasshouses or polly tunnels.
Labour Costs
Labour is a major cost so if you invest to increase mechinisation you reduce jobs in turn. Another reason why so many of our European cousins work in the industry here is that its hard work that Irish are unwilling to do, yes with todays sunny weather it would be a great day to work outside but not many want to be up at 5 am cutting cauliflowers by tractor headlight, cold and wet with swelling fingers.
Skills Level and Demographics
Horticulture Colleges such as Warrenstown have closed in recent times and the industry has failed to replace the lost skills and knowledge levels, average age of growers is 40-50 plus. Unless you have major capital its a hard industry to break into if you haven't grown up in it.
Environment
The industry has been in decline since the mid 50s in Fingal, glory years was WW2, entry into the Common Market and the Oil Crisis in the 1970s provided further body blows, encroachment by housing in the last 20 years hasn't helped, the land around Rush use to be good but is middling to poor haven't been flogged to death with intensive farming, the traditional early crop fields now have houses built on them and more often the same crops are grown in the same fields year after year using artificial fertilisers. The land in NCD is a patchwork quilt of small fields that struggles to accom modern large machines designed for fields of 100acres plus. Economies of scale of the large european operations is way ahead of Irish growers, some of the UK producer companies move their harvesting machinary between the UK and their winter operations in Spain.
Past Iniatives
Various governments have tried schemes over the years to stop the decline, the big building at Blakes Cross which is now the pallet company was the Old Co-op ran by a certain Michael Woods(ex TD) in a European style Co-op producer group, it turned into a disaster with some farmers still not paid today. Another scheme was to move glasshouse growers down to the Bogs as peat was a major growing medium then and the peat power station could provide heating, didn't work, very few would move.
Potential Ways Forward
Power stations- most of the new large scale Greenhouse developments in the World involve moving growers to a dedicated growing park, modern greenhouses no longer grow crops in soil, basically the greenhouse is a glass warehouse/factory. At the centre of the site is a power station that provides heating to the units and sells excess electricity into the local grid.
Vid of the technology now required in a what the Dutch consider is a small commercial production unit. Notice the emphasis on efficiencies to max labour costs.
Landbank,- regulated system to allow growers to swap land to aid crop rotation.
Buying group -were growers are encourage to buy items such as seeds, fertilisers, gas etc together as a group to make use of economies of scale. The scheme would need government aid to admin. Hopefully build up a level of trust as Growers in NCD have a history of cutting each others throats for short term gain hence the reason the supermarkets and the Big 3 produce companies dominate the market.
Education- commercial horticulture course and apprenticeship system in place. Local schools perhaps run a module on commercial horticulture in Ireland, any of us that have grown up in the area don't really question the industry because we mostly worked in it at sometime or know someone that has but I can see difficulties in future were the new people to the area might question why farmers are allowed to apply pesticides to fields beside housing developments, bird bangers etc.
Seasonality- one of my favs topics, eat in season as much as possible. Its cheap, more nutritional and fresh and supports local.0 -
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Fuel costs. I would imagine that in itself the wind turbines would save quite a bit of money and its a starting point.
Agreed....I would definitely love to see more wind turbines around the place. It's a medium term endeavour and a serious investment during tight times though. Those large turbines take a whopping 15 years to pay for themselves (after that, it's basically free juice until they die though). That kind of investment is well beyond the lifetime of any government.Seasonality.
Agreed. Is this not all the more reason come summer we should make a stand and refuse to buy anything that is imported if it is not grown on this island. I would also black list the supermarkets who buy outside produce when we are dumping our own. Mind you the supermarket people will say the housewife wants cheaper produce and we are just providing a service.
It's a trade off alright. Not necessarily a big one though. I try to buy local produce when I can (obviously if I want banana's I'm screwed
). Gerry's is very good for this. The guy who runs the stall up at the farmers market is very good too. He grows and sells a lot of his own stuff and for next to nothing, as does "the egg man" (that's what he's called by the little one). In fact, the egg man has been giving away free, locally grown, organic turnips the last two weeks when you buy his organic eggs at the market. Best eggs I've ever had.
I would definitely like to see some kind of initiative aimed at eating mostly (or even entirely) locally produced food during the summer and autumn months. I think that could be done without any real hardship at all.
Beyond those things that have already been mentioned, I'd like to see more community oriented stuff going on. Anything at all that emphasises a sense of community. I think a lot of people these days don't even know their neighbours and I think that's a serious change for the worse we're seeing (and not just in NCD obviously).
I'm sure there's other stuff. I need to give this a bit more consideration....0 -
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The Scientician wrote: »I don't think tourism in NCD is properly exploited either. The main international airport on this island is on our doorstep but I don't think the tourist traffic through it is properly exploited here. How many tourists must hit the M1 and go straight for the Boyne Valley without stopping off anywhere in between.
For example, Swords Castle could and should be a tourist amenity but it's been a building site for the last decade or more. I know coastal towns are generally nicer but contrasting Swords with other NCD towns, Swords is the brutal looking ugly sister of the bunch even though it has several historically interest buildings etc. The tourism industry isn't as glamorous or exciting as some other industries but tourism exploits something that isn't offshoreable. You can't have a cheaper here in some other country. However, our tourist amenities do have to compete for dollars/pounds/yuan/euro with every other similar signficant tourist destination on Earth.
Newgrange and the West and Kerry are the big tourist draws that tourists have on their list as must see venues when visiting Ireland so it would be a hard sell for Fingal. Swords Castle and Malahide Castle etc can perhaps benefit from direct tourism to Dublin, inclusion in bus tours iternary. Another revenue stream might be to use beauty spots as wedding venues like in the UK were you can be practically married anywhere but I think the law would have to be changed here. Swords Castle would be attractive for the Harry Potter nuts The new Cricket Stadium at Malahide will hopefully be a tourist attraction and Malahide Castle is an attractive concert venue do the council have only used that option once I think. Ardgillen would just be too much of a trek unless they could put in a temperory seasonal train station like Mosney.
Sligo and Donegal already had food festivals why not a Fingal Harvest Festival with the best of Fingal produced food? Perhaps tied in with a sporting event that draws teams from each of the major towns so you bring in a wider audience than just the foodies.0 -
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10belowzero wrote: »Great idea , for a Harvest Festival , maybe linked with an international horticultural expo for grower's/gardener's etc or the reintroduction of the beach racing in Skerries/Rush like the Laytown event.
We already have the Bloom Garden Festival in the Phoneix Park every year, Tullamore Show too when its not bogged down in mud so you need a different spin such as the Harvest Festival were its a celebration of that years bounty.
I never knew there was beach horse racing in Skerries/Rush, the South Beach in Rush isn't ideal with the soft sand areas while the others look tight for space and Laytown is a hell of a long beach. Marketing might not be too good either if after the first year some horses have to be put down.
International Kite Surfing event? Good spectator sport and seems popular in the area.
Estropadak event which would draw teams from all the major towns in Fingal racing up the Fingal Coast line over a weekend from one seaside town to another? For anyone that hasn't heard of the Estropadak before it is a series of rowing boat races in the Basque country that is derived from when the Basques use to hunt whales. Fiercely competitive and draws a crowd of 12,000 to its largest event.An international sea angling event or a NCD ,gathering of the clan's , a genealogical annual event , rotated around the town's , allowing for family reunion's from home and abroad
Sea Angling could work, downside its not a spectator sport but good revenue for boat hire and B &Bs. Gathering of the clans works in Scotland etc in the Highlands or the Isles because of the high emirgration from those areas, while Fingal has had a steady loss of people to far shores nothing like those areas and lets be honest it an area full of blow ins from other shores:) Armstrong, Seaver, Sweetman, Harford etc.The Fingal area, north of Dublin, derives its name from the Gaelic words 'Fine Gall' meaning 'land of the fair haired stranger' in reference to the Vikings who settled in the area from the 8th Century onwards
We have the Dublin Viking Festival in the City Centre in August.
http://www.dublinvikingfestival.ie
but perhaps a spin of staging an Up Helly Aa(Viking Fire Festival like they do in the Shetland Isles, it might be best if the harbour used doesn't have a Marina that might get in the way of a burning torch! Ideally a winter festival.
http://www.uphellyaa.org/Also in line with NCD's strong motoring club's + heritage , a car rally (like the Donegal circuit),would be a great crowd puller.
Might not work, we already have two motorbike races that arn't far off getting crippled by public liability insurance and Donegal is more rural area to stage this event so less traffic headache. The heritage festival in Lusk does well and hopefully will continue to grow every year as it builds up its profile abroad.I was wondering how the light aircraft sector ( training etc ) is catered for now, since the demise of Iona Airway's at Dublin airport some year's ago, there was alway's a large light aircraft enthusiastic's sector, with very a strong aviation history in NCD , indeed since Collinstown Aerodrome became Dublin airport.
Take a tourist look at this, the Red Bull air racing events are popular but ideally they like to be based in harbours of major cities for spectator value. I don't know if they still do the Red Bull Gives You Wings event in Dublin were competitors jump off the dock in their own homemade planes but you could "borrow" the idea for one of the harbours in Fingal. Trim has the Balloon festival so that niche is taken, perhaps microlight aviation?
Fingal Tourist site for anyone interested
http://www.fingaldublin.ie0 -
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Corsendonk wrote: »Newgrange and the West and Kerry are the big tourist draws that tourists have on their list as must see venues when visiting Ireland so it would be a hard sell for Fingal. Swords Castle and Malahide Castle etc can perhaps benefit from direct tourism to Dublin, inclusion in bus tours iternary. Another revenue stream might be to use beauty spots as wedding venues like in the UK were you can be practically married anywhere but I think the law would have to be changed here. Swords Castle would be attractive for the Harry Potter nuts The new Cricket Stadium at Malahide will hopefully be a tourist attraction and Malahide Castle is an attractive concert venue do the council have only used that option once I think. Ardgillen would just be too much of a trek unless they could put in a temperory seasonal train station like Mosney.
Sligo and Donegal already had food festivals why not a Fingal Harvest Festival with the best of Fingal produced food? Perhaps tied in with a sporting event that draws teams from each of the major towns so you bring in a wider audience than just the foodies.
Food for thought there Corsendonk:D
Newgrange is a world famous site so that will be on a lot of tourists list while the West and Kerry Cork apart from their natural beauty have huge amounts of people who emigrated and as a result every sees a growing number come back to trace their roots. Did you hear Niall Tobín talk about "The Blue rince brigade from Tuskalusa" looking for their roots
I would think possibly Drummanagh could be developed to become a decent tourist site. I know there are a number of protection orders on it but so has Newgrange. A playground at the Skerries Rd end there is ample space and a decent walk around the headland. Come to think of it does anyone remember the costal walk thread? That could be a good iniative.
The idea of a harvest festival has ben spoken about around here for a while now. Rush had its last harvest ball only about 3 or 4 years ago. The harvest festival could be tied in with a revival of the prawn festival in Skerries, the breakaway in Balbriggan and the fair maid in Loughshinny.
There are some photos on www.st.maursgaa.ie of the Harvest ball which was held in the palladium for many years and I believe it was quite a big event.10belowzero wrote: »Great idea , for a Harvest Festival , maybe linked with an international horticultural expo for grower's/gardener's etc or the reintroduction of the beach racing in Skerries/Rush like the Laytown event.
The idea of a temp stop at Ardgillen , would be ideal , esp for concert's etc , as Ardgillen is a natural amphitheatre much like Slane castle.
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Thats a great idea to have a temporary stop at Ardgillen from April to October and I think it would be a great venue for a concert. But also just a wonderful day out for people who dont have cars and would not have a way of getting there.
NOW.
How do we set about putting in place what is achievable for any N.C.D town or village? Community councils? Fingal combined Communities? Where would the support come from F.C.C? We are aware our business people are already under big pressure and do a fair bit for local clubs and groups.0 -
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Good local news story, supporting and creating jobs in NCD by smart innovation, well done.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jH0ZU4jHSU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pmybtqp7EY
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