30 km/h speed limit

When it was proposed that Cork would follow in the footsteps of Dublin and introduce a 30 km/h speed limit in the City Centre, I asked myself one question; is this good for Cork? I entered politics with one goal: to serve my City to the best of my ability and for the betterment it’s Citizens. When proposals relating to the City have come before me as they do weekly at Council, the overriding deciding factor is what benefit it will be for the people of Cork City. No matter which avenue my train of thought took me I came to one conclusion; this would be a disaster for the City Centre.





Cork City Centre is already crucified by clamping and bad parking policies. There is already a perception that we are Ireland’s clamping Capital. These are problems which have forced businesses to either close down indefinitely or try to relocate to the suburbs to salvage business which they lost in the City Centre due to some of the worst parking policies put in place by Cork City Council.








The ultra-low speed limit is one of the worst decisions ever made this will frustrate ordinary traffic and infuriate careful motorists. The 30km/h zones only work when they are engineered properly in traffic-calmed areas, which are self-policing. Applying them en-masse on roads engineered for high volumes at flowing speeds is absurd. This is beginning to become a bit beyond the joke that we are continually being spoon-fed these measures of over regulation and being told they are good for us and that they will keep us safe. I believe that we need to step up and become more responsible about our driving and take heed of those around us, rather then have this legislated for us by local government.



Other City Councils in Limerick and Waterford have no plan to follow Dublin’s failed lead, I see no reason why we should play little Sir Echo and try and imitate the Capital in the interests of what some see as progress. I think if we are to be imitating policies it should be policies of cities which make a positive difference to the lives of people. So maybe we should look to Waterford and Limerick and say no to this proposal to introduce the speed limit that has failed in Dublin and has become a huge source of contention by a variety of sectors across Dublin City.



In this City I do not want us to adopt proposals that are bad for residents, business people or motorists who want to come in and do business the City. It begs the question is this City open or closed for business due to the crippling over regulation our business people are burdened with.



I would much prefer to see the €45,000 which has been allocated to the Council by the Department of Transport to be spent on introducing other forms of traffic calming measures and signage across the City.

HSE committed to developing health services for people living on the Northside of Cork

 
The HSE South has today (Friday, 14th May 2010) reiterated its commitment to developing health services for people living on the Northside of Cork city.
Regional Director of Operations HSE South, Mr Pat Healy said, “The HSE invested more than 91million Euro in community health services in North Lee in 2009; ranging from child and family services, mental health, disability, drug and alcohol addiction services; to services for older people. That investment included more than 18million Euro in primary health care services for the Northside; and 3.6million Euro provided to 140 Community Groups in the area.

Several new buildings that received funding from the HSE also opened last year, including the Knocknaheeny Senior Citizens centre and nearby Family Resource Centre. Family support services in Knocknaheeny; together with the Neighbourhood Youth Projects in Mayfield and the Glen received HSE funding of more than a million Euro; as did the Health Action Zones in The Glen, Mayfield and Churchfield; together with the NICHE Project. The HSE was also involved in funding ‘The Hut’ community facility. A further two million Euro was used to provide addiction services in the northside of the city and 30million invested in mental health service provision. More than 1,000 people with a disability accessed services from HSE multidisciplinary teams in North Lee, last year.


A sixth Community Day Care Centre for older people in North Lee opened in 2009, in Mayfield – the fourth such facility to open on the Northside in the last three years (between 2007-2009), bringing the total investment to more than 4 million Euro.
Every part of North Lee, from Knocknaheeny to Mayfield, Farranree to Blackpool, Gurranabraher to Dillons Cross and Glanmire, is now covered by a local community-based healthcare team. These Primary Care Teams include family doctors and a range of HSE professionals like physiotherapists, psychologists, occupational therapists and speech and language therapists.”


The HSE is moving towards providing more health services in local communities, so that people can access services locally, closer to where they live, and avoid unnecessary stays in acute hospitals for services they could get elsewhere, more easily.


Yesterday, (Thursday, 13th May 2010) the HSE South announced plans to relocate orthopaedic services from St. Mary’s Orthopaedic Hospital to the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital.

Speaking at the announcement, Regional Director of Operations HSE South, Mr. Pat Healy said he was confident that the relocation of orthopaedic services from a stand alone site at SMOH to the SIVUH, an acute hospital with other complimentary orthopaedic specialities on site, such as rheumatology and anaesthetics, will best serve patients’ needs.


“We have given assurances that there will be no job losses for the 220 staff who will be affected by the relocation. The HSE South has already had contact with staff representatives and there will be full engagement on the relocation of services.”
He said he wholeheartedly acknowledged the contribution of the staff at SMOH, both past and present, in looking after patients in a most caring and professional manner.
There will be no loss of orthopaedic beds as a result of the transfer of services to the SIVUH.

The HSE is fully committed to maintaining and further developing the SMOH site as a health complex maintaining existing services on campus including mental health, intellectual disability, ambulance, outreach maternity and health centre services. The newly built community nursing unit on site is due to open this year.
The HSE vision for the SMOH site is not only the maintenance of existing services but also the expansion of a range of health facilities such as a Primary Care Centre and other health and personal social services.


In this context the HSE had had discussions with Cork City Council as part of the review of the Masterplan for the area and we are working with them on the future use of the site to accommodate our future requirements.

It is the HSE intention that that the opening up of the site will lead to the health facilities at the SMOH site becoming an integral part of the communities and the provision of health services in a town centre will bring services closer to the local communities of Knocknaheeny / Gurranabraher / Churchfield and provide health services in a manner which provides a positive outcome for the community in the area.

Economy is turning – Fine Gael’s policies will hold it Back” says O’Flynn

Economy is turning – Fine Gael’s policies will hold it Back” says O’Flynn



Fianna Fáil County Councillor, Kenneth N O’Flynn has today criticised the financially reckless policies in the Fine Gael Jobs Documents entitled ‘ NewEra’


Central to the Fine Gael proposals is to raid the National Pension Reserve Fund and to borrow more money to implement policies that are already substantially contained in the Government’s own ‘smart’ economy plan. In their document, Fine Gael says that we should ‘introduce smart meters, electric Vehicles and green energy proposals.’



‘Perhaps if they listened to recent government announcements, they would realise that all of these proposals are being implemented by the Government. This is classic Fine Gael strategy – pretend that you are coming up with ideas but just steal them off Fianna Fáil’ added Cllr. O'Flynn.



Fianna Fáil in Government is focusing on priority areas such as competitiveness; human capital; innovation; infrastructure; green economy; and trade in order to reenergize the jobs market. This is part of the Government’s ‘Jobs and Growth 2010’ strategy.



The economy is stabilising. Consumer sentiment is back to levels last seen in early 2008; exports have been incredibly resilient and are now driving our economy and the latest exchequer returns showed that revenues were now on target for the period to the end of April. Now is the time for smart thinking not reckless Fine Gael policies concluded Cllr O’Flynn

Environment

Wind is the way forward

Wind energy is environmentally friendly and helps us make wiser
choices with our precious natural resources. Compare wind to
conventional forms of electricity generation like thermal power,
which burns fossil fuels and contributes to climate change or
to nuclear power, which uses vast quantities of fresh water and
leaves behind toxic waste.

Wind power is a pollution-free and endless source of energy.
It’s clean and limitless and leaves a small environmental footprint
on our planet. Wind is the natural choice.

Wind: a power unlike any other.

An environment with fewer emissions.
Electricity is a necessity of modern life. But modern life also means making wise choices. Wind energy is that choice. It helps diversify our energy mix and gives us a cleaner way to generate power for all.

Let’s take a look at conventional ways to create the electricity used in our homes and workplaces.In many parts of ireland, most of this electricity comes from power plants that burn fossil fuels like coal or natural gas. An inevitable by-product of burning these fuels is air pollution. When considering electricity generating options, we need to consider the full range of costs – including those associated with environmental impacts like air pollution andits long-term health effects.
With wind, there is a change in the air!



Wind energy generates no air emissions at all. Turbines are powered by wind, naturally, and generate no air pollution. Wind energy doesn’t contribute to
smog, acid rain or climate change. Adding wind to Ireland energy mix is a smart
choice for the future – and the right one too.



According to Environment studys
18% greenhouse gas emissions
are created by burning fossil
fuels to generate electricity.

Where there’s wind energy there’s less impact on water.

Fresh water is a precious natural resource we all want to preserve. Adding wind energy to Ireland energy mix is a great way to help us accomplish this goal.
Some hydroelectric power plants can disrupt existing water flows and flood vast areas
of land.Coal-fired power use over 500 times as much water, per unit of energy, as wind. Thermal power production in Irelands withdraws more fresh water than the manufacturing, municipal, agriculture, and mining sectors combined.2 other than occasionally washing the blades in regions with extremely low rainfall, wind farms require no water to operate.

Footprints in the wind.

So what is the environmental impression wind energy leaves behind? Minimal.That’s why the time is right for wind energy. Generating energy from wind doesn’t contribute to climate change, leaves behind no hazardous wastes and uses no water.
This might explain why this low-impact4, renewable, environmentally friendly source
of “green power” is a rapidly growing component of Irelands energy mix.
That’s why wind is the right choice right now.

The real cost of energy.



When we evaluate the cost of energy, we also like to consider the total environmental
impact of getting energy from its initial source to you. This includes site construction, mining, transporting fuel, and the cost of closing down the power plant. Known as a lifecycle analysis, it helps us understand the real environmental
and economic cost of energy. Wind energy has very low lifecycle environmental costs – largely associated with producing and installing the turbines – and that’s a good thing.

Conventional sources of energy have higher environmental lifecycle costs1 because of all the activity it takes to turn these natural resources into electricity. For instance, coal and natural gas must first be extracted from the ground before being shipped by truck or train or sent by pipeline to power plants for conversion into electricity. All this uses energy and creates air pollution.

Whereas a wind turbine generates electricity whenever the wind blows with no need for extraction, transportation or any other environmentally damaging process. Just the pure movement of air is all it takes to powerthe turbines.air is all it takes to power the turbines.


E N V I R O N M E N TA L B E N E F I T S

According to the Renewable
Energy Policy Project3, a
coal-fired power plant’s
lifecycle costs are over twice
as high as a wind farm’s, per
unit of energy produced.