Swords Newsletter

Alan

Farrell TD Working for you in Swords

www.alanfarrell.ie

Swords Newsletter

Swords Reunited in Dublin Fingal Swords and the Rivervalley area will be reunited within one constituency, Dublin Fingal, as a result of a review by the Constituency Commission.

As a resident of Swords and former councillor for seven years, I joined hundreds of residents to campaign for the reunification of the town with the

Dublin North Constituency since the boundaries were drawn in the previous review.

Prior to this review, I ensured that the Chairman of the commission was fully aware of the genuine feeling of disenfranchisement that residents of this part of Dublin West felt from their representatives on the basis that they are mainly based in the Castleknock, Blanchardstown and Greater Dublin 15 area.

I have no doubt that this will have a positive result for the representation of Swords now that all residents will be within the same constituency to that which houses their schools, community groups, parishes and local businesses.

‘I look forward to the opportunity of representing Kilsallaghan, St. Margarets and Dublin Fingal, including the full town of Swords, Rivervalley will now be reunited in the future. For regular updates please email with Swords in Dublin Fingal. ‘subscribe’ to alan.farrell@oir.ie

Alan Farrell TD alongside current representative for Dublin West Minister, Leo Varadkar.

Weekend Voting I have recently introduced a Bill to the Dáil to provide for the holdings of elections and referenda on Saturdays or Sundays.

Currently, election and referenda and the resulting counts take place on weekdays which results in a number of problems such as the interruption of our children’s education and the inability of people to return home to vote.

Over 1,162 primary schools and 67 secondary schools were used as polling stations in our most recent referendum. This resulted in the schools being closed for the day. For example, four schools in Swords were disrupted, St.

Cronan’s, St. Colmcille’s, St. Nicholas’ and Scoil An Duinninigh.

Nationwide, this disrupts tuition for hundreds of thousands of pupils and forces parents to make alternative childcare arrangements. Extra school days are then added to the end of the the school year.

Weekday polls also directly impact the delivery of our local services.

Many of those who man polling stations and count centres are local authority staff who are seconded from their work to perform electoral duties.

Holding of polls during the week impacts the work of these

CONTENTS - INSIDE THIS NEWSLETTER • An Taoiseach visits Swords Pavilions Shopping Centre • Education - What is the future for Swords?

• Action Plan for Jobs - Focus on Self Employed • Useful numbers and information

teachers and local authority staff.

Ultimately, it is the taxpayer who foots the bill.

In addition, holding polls on a Saturday or Sunday would also allow more people to vote.

Many people from rural areas who are working or studying away from home cannot get to their polling stations to vote during the week.

Weekend polls would enable these people to get home to engage in the democratic process.

I look forward to the response from Minister Hogan on this issue which will, I believe, help improve our democracy.

Alan Farrell TD - Working for you in Swords

Order of Business – Alan Farrell TD introduces Bill to the House to legislate for weekend voting

€55,000 in funding for Dublin North will help tackle litter and graffiti Fingal County Council has recently been allocated €55,000 by the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to help tackle the problem of litter and graffiti in Dublin North, as part of the provision of more than €2 million in grants to local authorities nationwide.

The funding being provided by Minister Hogan will help local authorities to tackle littering through awareness raising, enforcement and the maintenance of tourist areas.

1. Anti-Litter and Anti-Graffiti Awareness Scheme.

2. Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant

3. National Litter Enforcement Scheme

In a bid to ensure that locations that A further €750,000 is being made available are popular with tourists are kept clean, nationally under the new Litter Enforcement €20,000 is being provided to Fingal under Scheme, to help crack down on littering and the Tourist Season Anti-Litter Grant. This illegal dumping. This money can be used will help with the maintenance of visitor by local authorities to deploy mobile CCTV locations such as beaches, scenic areas and cameras and other measures to identify approach roads to access points like airports those responsible for these activities. and ferry ports.

We all have a role to play in the upkeep of our own communities. Local authorities, community and voluntary groups all do excellent work to maintain the appearance of streets, roads and scenic areas; this funding from Minister Hogan will help to support them in this work. €55,000 has been allocated to Fingal under the Anti-Litter and Anti-Graffiti Awareness Scheme. Using this money, local authorities will be able to select projects that promote greater public awareness and education in relation to litter and graffiti.

For regular updates please email ‘subscribe’ to alan.farrell@oir.ie

Taoiseach pays a visit to Swords Pavilion Shopping Centre In May, Alan Farrell TD and Minister James Reilly TD, along with the Fine Gael Dublin North Constituency, invited An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to visit the Swords Pavilion Shopping Centre. An Taoiseach arrived at the busiest time on a sunny Saturday afternoon to meet the people of Swords. Many shoppers and workers, young and old, took the opportunity to speak first hand with An Taoiseach, discussing various issues such as small business, special needs and education.

me eilly welco R s e m a J r te ll and Minis Swords Pavilion Alan Farre h c a to An Taoise

old In good hands - people young and . say to had something

An Taoiseach discusses vita l ingredients o business with f chef Rory Mo rahan

meeting rtunity of o p p o e h t take issues Shoppers o discuss t h c a e is o An Ta

Alan Farrell TD - Working for you in Swords

Swords School Updates!

Despite our difficult economic circumstances, the Government is determined to prioritise school building projects to cater for the projected increase in pupil numbers over the coming years. Nationally, a total of 275 projects will be completed between 2012 and 2016, creating 18,000 jobs. At least 15,000 direct jobs and 3,000 indirect jobs will be created during the construction phase over the next five years.

New Schools

St. Finian’s Community College

There are two new primary schools planned for Swords between now and 2015.

Holywell Educate Together will be completed this year, and there will be an additional school built between 2014 – 2015.

St. Finian’s Community College is due to be extended in 2014 – 2015 to allow for a greater capacity of students.

Alan at Holywell Educate Together

Deputy Alan Farrell at St. Finian’s Community College, Swords

National Plan to replace prefab buildings Prefab units should have been a short term solution for expanding schools. Instead, it became government policy to continue to rent or buy units for the long term, becoming a serious source of worry for schools as conditions in prefabs deteriorated over time.

The commitment by the Department of Education to replace these prefabs will be a welcome development for all students and teachers who have had to learn and teach in sub-standard conditions, and is one of many

schools in the country who will benefit from the announcement, including six in Dublin North alone, including St. Colmcilles.

This is one of the biggest initiatives taken on by the Department of Education nationwide and will cost €35 million, separate to the School Building Works fund that was announced late last year.

This investment in young people is a remarkable achievement for the Department of Education amongst strong budget limitations, and will be of enormous benefit to children across the country.

This list will be continually updated over the next 5 years.

St. Colmcille’s Primary School

Due to a major investment announced by the Department of Education recently, prefabs in St. Colmcille’s will be replaced with permanent buildings. For regular updates

please email ‘subscribe’ to alan.farrell@oir.ie

Holy Family Senior National School Holy Family Senior National School in Swords has recently been added to the list of schools who will receive new permanent classrooms to replace prefabs in addition to the initial schools mentioned in the scheme.

Alan Farrell TD at St. Colmcille’s, where prefabs will be replaced with permanent classrooms

Upgrade to Swords Sewerage Scheme will alleviate pressure on local infrastructure Funding of €23 million has been awarded this month to Fingal County Council by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan TD to upgrade the Swords Sewerage Plant as part of the Water Services Investment Programme, to expand capacity from 60,000 population equivalent, to 90,000.

This investment bodes very well for the

Swords area as there will be a huge potential for job creation, as well as alleviating pressure on local infrastructure.

On completion, this will bring Swords and the Fingal area back to the forefront of business, and will allow us to consolidate our existing community.

The ongoing population growth in Swords,

Alan Farrell TD - Working for you in Swords

which is fast approaching city status, has required an upgrade to the waste water treatment facilities for some time and I welcome Minister Hogan’s stated intention to ensure that Fingal County Council can press ahead to construction at the earliest possible date. For regular updates please email ‘subscribe’ to alan.farrell@oir.ie

Action Plan for Jobs – Focus on; Running your own Business Swords has one of the largest business communities in Dublin, and access to credit along with the burden of red tape, are two of the biggest challenges facing all businesses in the area.

Every week I meet local business people who express their frustration and dismay at their inability to access credit from the banks.

Here are some initiatives that have recently been launched by the Government as part of the Jobs Action Plan to help struggling business and start-ups access credit and cutting costs through reducing red tape.

150 separate links to information, guidance and contact details. This includes practical advice on how to start up a business, how to comply with regulations, and sector-specific information.

Website to cut red tape

Temporary Partial Loan Guarantee Scheme

New and very small viable businesses can lack the collateral and credit track record to access normal bank credit. To combat this Minister Bruton has announced a €20 million investment fund to lend funds of up to €25,000 to viable small businesses and entrepreneurs.

This will help commercially viable Small Medium Enterprises struggling to get finance.

It will support businesses that have insufficient collateral, and those that are

Fund for Female Entrepreneurs

In Ireland we currently have a relatively low level of female entrepreneurs. For this reason, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Mr Richard Bruton TD announced the establishment by Enterprise Ireland of a €250K Competitive Feasibility

Fund aimed at stimulating high potential business start-ups by female entrepreneurs.

The Female Entrepreneurship Competitive Feasibility Fund is designed to assist female entrepreneurs to investigate the viability of a new growth orientated business that can succeed in global markets. The focus is on developing new businesses that can move beyond the domestic market and demonstrate real potential for internationalisation.

Full details of the Fund including the Application Form are available on the Enterprise Ireland web site: www.enterprise-ireland.com/ femaleentrepreneurship The closing date for applications is 4th September 2012.

Please visit www.djei.ie for more information on the Action Plan for Jobs

• Swords Garda Station - 666 4700 • FAS Employment Office - 840 5252 • Social Welfare Office - 704 3942; Swords, Donabate, Portrane, Kinsealy, Waterside, Oldtown, Rolestown • Community Welfare Officer and Opening Times - 890 2200 (Tues, Wed and Thurs, 10am - 11.30am) • Fingal County Council - 890 5000 • MABS - 5 Forrest Mews, Swords - 076 107 2550 • Fingal Dublin Chamber - 890 0977 • Swords Health Centre - 890 2200 • HSE Dublin North Local Health Office - 816 4200

On the first Thursday of each month I hold my constituency clinics in Swords Senior Citizen’s Centre from 8.00 – 8.30pm, excluding August.

Alternatively if you wish to make an appointment you can contact my office on 01 618 4008 or visit my Constituency Office at 11 Old Street, Malahide.

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Politics in our country is changing and the driving force behind this change is individuals. If you would like to get involved and have your voice heard, please visit www.alanfarrell.ie or contact my office.

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Alan Farrell TD

For regular updates please email ‘subscribe’ to alan.farrell@oir.ie

Chairperson, Internal Committee for Public Expenditure and Reform

Dáil Éireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01 6184008 alan.farrell@oir.ie www.alanfarrell.ie www.twitter.com/alanfarrell

James Reilly TD Minister for Health Tel: 01 890 1300 james.reilly@oireachtas.ie

For more information see www.alanfarrell.ie

Alan Farrell TD - Working for you in Swords

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Clinic times in Swords

Local Contact Numbers

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www.businessregulation.ie The concept is very simple; the less time employers have to spend on red tape, the more they can spend on growing their business.

Businessregulation.ie provides over

Micro Enterprise Loan Scheme

operating in sectors with which the banks are not familiar. Under the Scheme the State will provide a 75% guarantee to banks against losses on loans they give to firms with growth potential.

This will allow for tens of millions of euro to flow into Irish businesses across Ireland, which, in turn, can strengthen and expand their operations and create jobs. Initially, the Scheme will facilitate an extra €150 million in lending per year – that will benefit more than 1,800 businesses across the country.