The winners for National Community and Council Awards 2017 were announced at a gala awards ceremony held over the weekend. The awards, now in their eleventh year, recognise and celebrate community and councils working together. They provide an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the work done within our communities, to reward our unsung heroes and to acknowledge […]

Would you like to help promote and protect this area of outstanding beauty? Dublin City Council is seeking volunteers to help with management of North Bull Island. A unique attraction within Dublin City centre, North Bull Island (NBI) achieved status as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1981 due to its rare and threatened habitats and […]

The Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport, Shane Ross T.D. has announced funding for a new national cycle training standard – Cycle Right. Cycle Right was developed by a partnership steering committee consisting of a wide-range of stakeholders including the Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport, the Road Safety Authority, Cycling Ireland, An Garda Síochána,

The EPA has released waste data about end-of-life vehicles and waste tyres managed by Authorised Treatment Facilities or other waste management organisations in Ireland in 2014. In 2014, 82 per cent of end-of-life vehicle material was reused and recycled, meeting Ireland’s EU End-of-Life Vehicle Directive recycling targets for the year. New regulations, published in

Following Status Yellow weather warnings issued from Met Eireann, Donegal County Council are reminding road users to check their Winter Gritting map which is an interactive map that is linked to the Council’s social media platforms and provides information on routes and length of routes to be gritted on any given night as well as […]

Undermined by financial problems, Ireland’s Institutes of Technology have a powerful role yet to play in the country’s entrepreneurial journey, writes John Kennedy. by John Kennedy At the end of the working week, I had time for one more phone call. I spoke to David Whelan from a company called Immersive VR Education. I had […]

Fáilte Ireland today welcomed a €500k revenue boost for Limerick as it was announced that Ireland will play host to the World BBQ Association World Championship 2017, the largest international BBQ competition. 100 teams from across the globe will compete for the ultimate titles of World Grand Champion and Reserve World Grand Champion. Welcoming the […]

The EPA’s ‘State of the Environment’ Report gives Ireland a good scorecard when compared to our European counterparts. However, the EPA Director General warns that transformational changes are needed to deal with climate change and other risks to our health and natural environment. The EPA today launched its sixth State of the Environment Report.  The […]

With rat infestations becoming an increasingly serious problem across Dublin’s north inner city and Clondalkin area, a radical new solution may be needed – an experimental new product on the market might be that solution. A shop owner in Monkstown Crescent reported last month that rats were emerging en masse from a rat hole that had only recently […]

Fianna Fáil has “genuine concerns” about several aspects about the Government’s rental strategy, the party’s spokesman Barry Cowen has said. Minister for Housing Simon Coveney will be forced to make changes to his rental plan in order to have it passed by the Oireachtas this week. Fianna Fáil has objected to aspects of Mr Coveney’s […]

A new survey suggests that Fianna Fáil enjoys more support from voters than any other party in the country. An Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll has found that 30% of respondents said they would vote for Fianna Fáil in a general election, while 27% said they would support Fine Gael. October’s poll had Fine Gael and […]

President Michael D Higgins has no plans to travel to Havana to attend memorial services for the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro this week. A spokesman for the President confirmed on Sunday that Mr Higgins would not be travelling to Cuba for any of the memorial events planned for this week. Government sources Sunday night […]

A spokesperson for the Olympic Council of Ireland has said it will not be paying the €410,000 bond which Pat Hickey is required to pay as a condition of having his passport returned and being allowed to leave Brazil on medical grounds. The OCI says it is a personal matter for Mr Hickey. The OCI […]

The British government has no overall plan for Brexit due to divisions in cabinet, a leaked Cabinet Office memo seen by The Times newspaper says. The government there may need another six months to decide on Brexit priorities due to splits within cabinet, The Times newspaper refers to the leaked memo as saying. The memo, […]

President Michael D Higgins has begun a State visit to Vietnam with a welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. The State visit marks 20 years of diplomatic relations between Ireland and Vietnam. The blossoming southeast Asian state is a Key Partner Country under the Irish Aid programme, with a population touching 90 million […]

Parliament must vote on whether the UK can start the process of leaving the EU, the High Court has ruled. This means the government cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty – beginning formal discussions with the EU – on their own. Theresa May says the referendum – and existing ministerial powers – mean […]

CCTV cameras with night vision are to be introduced in the Dublin and Wicklow mountains to help combat the rise in illegal dumping. The move is to be overseen by the Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments (Pure) Project, a group which has removed almost 3,000 tonnes of litter from the area in the last 10 […]

Like Galway, Cork is also in the midst of an amalgamation conundrum, in the first of two articles we take a look at the background to the current situation. Last year’s report, released in September 2015 by a working group under the chairmanship of Alf Smiddy, recommended amalgamation of both Cork City Council and Cork […]

Following on from last year’s judicial review, which was sought by Cork City Council, after an independent review recommended the amalagamation of both the City and County Councils, Galway is in the heat of a similar battle. In recent years, Tipperary, Limerick and Waterford have all undergone amalgamation. As early as March 2015, it was […]