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28th May 2013 • Volume 20, Issue 19 • Leader House, North Street, Swords, Co. Dublin. • Tel: 8•400•200 • info@northcountyleader.ie
Tourism Fears As Blue Flags Lost The failure of the North County to hold on to it’s four blue flag beaches is set to have a detrimental effect on tourism in the area. The Blue Flag is a well-recognised, well respected eco-label, awarded to beaches and marinas with excellent environmental management. A Blue Flag was awarded to Portmarnock beach, Portrane beach, Skerries South beach and Donabate beach in 2012, but none were retained for 2013. A spokesperson for An Taisce confirmed to the County Leader that, “Unfortunately, no Fingal beaches are in receipt of Blue Flags for the 2013 season. The beaches failed the water quality criteria,” said the statement. This, however, is at variance with the view of local councillor Peter Coyle (Lab), who maintains that Portmarnock has been hard done by in An Taisce’s decision. He told the County Leader, “Portmarnock has been robbed of a Blue Flag, because of a single result on 2nd July 2009, which should have been discounted. It’s now imperative that the water quality issue is attended to immediately.” He continued, “Portmarnock’s Velvet Strand has had a Blue Flag for the past three years. The beach has been
By Patrick Finnegan meeting the EU water quality standards, as monitored by the EPA every year, however when the Blue Flags were decided upon in 2009 (these related to the old EPA standards), Portmarnock lost out, thanks to a single result.” Local residents and tourist official will view the loss of the four blue flags as a huge blow in their efforts to attract visitors to an area that has so many lovely places to visit and where tourism should be a bye word. The North County area is rightly regarded as having one of the most beautiful coastlines in Ireland, where visitors avail of marine activities, like boating, fishing and swimming at our beaches. For many years, the North County has attracted car and bus loads of visitors from Dublin city and beyond to Portmarnock, Donabate, Rush and Skerries, with the resultant boost to the local economy. Indeed, many residents will recall the number of people from north of the border, who regularly visited Red Island in Skerries. Indeed many of these former visitors are now resident in the area. The ease of access nowadays means that travel by road and rail is much easier, but the fear is that, without any blue flag beaches, this vital lifeline of tourists may come to an end, as they seek, what they perceive to be, safer places to bathe. The controversial decision of the County Council to locate a monster sewage plant in the area, with a marine outfall off the shoreline, has long been regarded as a retrograde step in the effort to
Local Enterprise Office Opens In Swords As part of the reforms of local authorities, a new Local Enterprise Office (LEO) has been officially opened at County Hall in Swords. The opening ceremony was performed by Ministers, Richard Bruton, Phil Hogan and John Perry. They announced the details of improved new service for micro and small enterprises in the North County. As part of the reforms, the County and City Enterprise Boards will Pictured at the opening of the new Local Enterprise Office at County Hall are local Cllr Tom O'Leary, Minister for Jobs and Enterprise Richard Bruton and Chairman of Fingal be dissolved and the County Enterprise Board, Joe Harford. LEOs will draw and build on the successful County ments, Enterprise Ireland and the them. In fact, once the proposed Enterprise Board (CEB) model. local authorities to effect the Local Enterprise Offices are fully Effectively this means that the proposed changes and ensure a operational, their stated aim is to local authority will assume smooth transition to the revised provide an ‘enhanced’ service to control of Fingal County institutional arrangements. micro-enterprises.” Enterprise Board “The thousands of small business “Our doors will remain open for Oisin Geoghegan, CEO of Fingal owners and new start-ups that business throughout the restrucCounty Enterprise Board told the are supported by the Enterprise turing process and that’s an County Leader, “The Enterprise Boards can rest assured that the important message for small Boards continue to work closely restructuring changes will not business owners and new startwith both Government departmean a reduction in supports for ups,” he concluded. attract tourists and many will feel that the days of blue flags on our beaches will now be a thing of the past. This provoked an angry outburst from local councillor, Tom O’Leary (FG), who told the County Leader, “An announcement on the site selection for the Greater Dublin Sewage Plant is due in six weeks and I would not Continued on page 6
Coyle Announces Retirement The County Leader has learned that Portmarnock based Labour councillor, Peter Coyle has submitted his notice of retirement from public office, with immediate effect. In his letter to County Manager David O’Connor, Coyle said, “I would like to take this opportunity to thank you, and all present and former County Council staff for all the support received over the past nineteen years. The
Council staff, at all levels, have been exceptionally helpful and courteous over the years.” There is no doubt that this poll topping councillor will be sadly missed by Peter Coyle people in the Malahide and Portmarnock areas, where he was a tireless campaigner for improved facilities in the area.
Peter Coyle was always a willing contributor to this newspaper and we wish him and his family much happiness in the future. The position of a replacement will be on the Agenda of the Fingal County Council meeting on Monday 10th June, by which date a nominated replacement will have been made by the Labour Party.
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