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Evening Echo, Tuesday, April 11, 2017
INSIDE TODAY News Pages 2-17 3,500 passengers cruise in Cobh 12 Charities benefit from Lord Mayor’s Christmas Concert 13 Features Pages 21-28 Ford in Cork in the 21st Century 25 Horoscopes and puzzles 26 Young people need to wake up to bowel cancer 27 TV 54-55 Opinion /Letters 18-19 Your Stars/Puzzles 26 Deaths/Family Notices 30 Classifieds Pages 29-33 Sport Pages 33-53 Soccer: Wenger vows to put things right 44 Basketball: Neptune are U17 favourites 33 Soccer: Caulfield: Maguire isn’t for moving 38 Lotto: Daily Million: 5, 19, 22, 24, 36, 38. Bonus 18. Daily Million Plus: 5, 9, 17, 24, 33, 35. Bonus 20.
Coveney defends Irish Water ■ From page 1. “I regret that some have decided to turn your work and conditions and pay into a new political story again this week,” Mr Coveney told staff at the event. He argued that details of the payment structure had long been in the public domain following a WRC ruling in 2015. “The truth is back in 2013 Ervia as a whole decided to move away from an incrementally-based payment model, which would have been the norm at the time for most state-owned companies, and to move towards a performance-related pay model,” Minister Coveney outlined. “That was good practice at the time and was going to save the company significant amounts of money. After that decision was made, because of a whole range of political con-
siderations around water, there were no performance-related awards in Irish Water at all in 2014, 2015, or 2016 despite the fact that in many other state-owned companies there were.” Minister Coveney said efforts “to try and create public outrage” was inappropriate. “This is not new, it is not a new story, this is simply the roll out and implementation of what has been agreed which is a new approach towards pay which is about efficiency and performance delivery as opposed to anything else. “Yet again, unfortunately, as an organisation, you are being dragged into politics which is something that we need to end. I intend on working hard to try and do that this week and in the coming weeks to try and settle the water issue once and for all.”
ICELAND EXPANDING OPERATIONS ACROSS COUNTY CORK is set for a jobs boost with food retailer Iceland announcing the opening of three new stores in the city and county. Stores will open in Douglas, Fermoy, and Ballincollig, with between 30 and 35 jobs being created in each one. The Douglas store has been pencilled in for opening in June but dates for the Fermoy and Ballincollig stores are yet to be confirmed. Exact locations for the stores have not yet been announced by the retailer. The company is set to create 270 new jobs nationwide with nine store openings this year, bringing the number of outlets across the country to 21 as part of a €12m investment. Tallaght, Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick, Gorey and Shannon are the remaining new store locations. Managing director of Iceland’s Irish operation Ron Metcalfe said: “We have been back in Ireland for
■ Rob McNamara four years now and have been committed to expansion from day one. “This new investment sees 2017 as our biggest year yet with our nine new stores opening. “We’re looking forward to bringing great value and a brand customers can trust across the country this year, as well as welcoming new team members to the Iceland family. “And as always, we’re looking forward to expanding and delivering the Power of Frozen to more Irish customers than ever before,” he added. Iceland currently has 13 stores in the Republic of Ireland but it only had one store in Cork up to now, based in Midleton. The rollout of three more stores is expected to increase competition in the highly competitive supermarket industry, which could bring down prices for consumers.
Ron Metcalfe, MD of Iceland Ireland, says the company is committed to expansion. Picture: Robbie Reynolds
Traders angry at new parking hours TRADERS in Cork city’s Middle Parish area have reacted angrily to changes in parking times which will see parking charges apply for an extra two hours a day. Businesses were made aware of the changes, due to take effect from April 18, in a letter from Cork City Council yesterday. Parking charges will now be applied from 8.30am to 8.30pm on Mondays through Saturdays. Previously parking had been free after 6.30pm. North Main Street multi-storey car park will now open seven days a week and will have its opening hours extended from 7.30am to 9.30pm on Mondays to Saturdays and from 11.30am to 9.30pm on Sundays. The measures are in addition to on-street pay parking being reduced from two hours to one hour in order to facilitate spaces for local residents. The letter from City Council read: “Onstreet parking spaces are provided for
■ Rob McNamara those who wish to park for a relatively short period of time. Maintaining a turnover of these spaces is critical and is achieved by mixing time and rate to ensure some level of available spaces, to reduce congestion on the street network and to support the needs of residents.” The City Council said they had consulted with local residents and businesses on the changes. The owner of Fenn’s Quay restaurant on Sheares Street, Kate Lawlor, said the extended pay parking hours were another blow to traders who have seen rates increase and would be counterproductive in attracting people into the city. “I’d like to know what businesses they actually consulted on it. We weren’t consulted on it and we have parking all around us,” she said. “I understand that residents are angry and they need the change from one hour to two hours so that they can actually get parking, but to add two hours on to paid parking on top of
Tourist train gets go-ahead ALL aboard! Cork’s long-awaited tourist train is finally set to hit city streets in the coming weeks. Members of Cork City Council last night signed off on the initiative which will boost the city’s tourism offering. The tourism road train will service a route throughout the city that includes the likes of the historic Red Abbey, Elizabeth Fort and Nano Nagle Place, none of which are on regularly served bus routes. It is expected that the train will hit Cork streets by May. Similar initiatives have been successful in tourist towns like Cobh and Clonakilty, with city officials optimistic that the move will boost tourist numbers at a number of city attractions. The train business will be operated by businessman Pat Flynn, with city officials working with Mr Flynn to get the project off the ground. It involves a series of monthly payments from Mr Flynn to the city for the use of the train, with a final cash payment to be made at the end of a five-year period. Paul Moynihan, director of corporate and external affairs at Cork City
■ Kevin O’Neill Council, said the train ‘answers an obvious gap’ in the city’s offering. Including the cost of the train itself, the city will have invested some €100,000 in the project over the next five years. Officials anticipate that they will see at least half this sum come back in the same period. Mr Moynihan said, “If it is operating successfully after five years then it can be seen as having embedded well and we will have done our job to kick start something new in the city.” The agreement with Mr Flynn is also dependent on Cork City Council contributing €10,000 to the cost of insurance for the train’s first year of operation. Mr Moynihan said, “There was an unexpected surprise in relation to the charges for insurance at the end of the process, so we have proposed to offer this sum in the form of grant aid.” City officials added that the route will be kept ‘under review’ after the train is unveiled.
that doesn’t make sense for the area at all. “I don’t know how it’s supposed to encourage people to come into the city. “They are trying to encourage people to use North Main Street car park but it’s very out of the way... If you’re coming into the city at night you want to know that you’ll be able to walk to your car and not have to walk into a multi-storey car park late at night. People don’t like that because it’s secluded and it’s dark.” Cork Business Association chief Lawrence Owens said the changes were part of the City Centre Movement Strategy. “They have extended out the disc parking timeframe to try and put better controls on parking mechanisms up there for the residents,” he said. “There is a methodology and a logic behind. The streets affected are Adelaide St, Anne St, Bachelor’s Quay, Coach St, Grattan St, Grenville Place, Henry St, James St, Liberty St, Little Hanover St, Moore St, Peters St, Prospect Row and Sheares St. Washington St and Dyke Parade’s parking remains as it was.
Dublin not hit so strike dragging on ■ From page 1. Mr Moloney added: “We thought that this strike could be over a long time ago. The fact that it is not affecting the capital seems to be why it is dragging on. “Our drivers see that their function is just that, to bring kids to school, to bring people to the hospital. All we want to do is to deliver transport.” In a statement released this morning, Bus Éireann management stated: “While progress was made and agreement was reached to eliminate many work practice inefficiencies, an offer made by the company that would help to deliver financial viability was rejected by the Trade Unions representing the driver grade.” Cork Business Association president Pat O’Connell said: “The situation is absolutely and utterly frustrating.” “I am absolutely frustrated with this company, whether it be the management or the staff. They need to get their internal affairs in order. They are holding the public to ransom.”