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Work is in progress to assign two permanent staff members to Thurles’s Social Welfare Office because of the increased number of claims for jobseeker payments.
Deputy Noel Coonan Fine Gael speaking this morning to Thurles.Info stated:
 “One temporary member of staff has been approved for the Thurles local office pending the assignment of permanent staff. The number of posts allocated to Thurles Local Office since June 2007 has risen from 17.6 to 19.2 but may need to be increased further with 1,417 Jobseeker’s Benefit applications made, up until mid June. North Tipperary’s social welfare staff provide an excellent and efficient service and as their workload increases it’s only right that additional staff are recruited to ease the load. The total number of applications for Job Seeker’s Allowance last year was 2,789. However, 2008 application were received up until 14th June of this year for the same allowance. This is 72% of the total received last year so I can only imagine what the figure will be by year’s end. It is a similar situation with the number of Jobseeker’s Benefits applications received. Three full time and four part time staff have been operating in the Roscrea office since 2008. This number has not increased this year. In Nenagh, one extra member of full-time staff has been allocated this year to bring the number to five. Recent Central Statistic Office figures show that the number signing on continues to rise steeply in North Tipperary. Additional staff are needed to help deal with the rising claim load for jobseekers payments,” concluded Deputy Coonan
In response to a parliamentary question, the Minister for Social & Family Affairs Thurles born Mary Hanafin TD stated:
“Offices in Roscrea and Nenagh are branch offices and operate under a contract for service to the Department. Branch office managers are therefore responsible for recruiting their own staff”.
Deputy Coonan’s remarks are bourne out by recently confirmed official figures.
North Tipperary had the highest percentage increase of people joining the Unemployment Register nationally in the month of June. An additional 489 people signed on, representing an increase of over 8% on the figures for the month of May. Fine Gael Deputy Noel Coonan TD has again called on the Government to immediately adopt Fine Gael policies in order to halt this growing problem.
Deputy Coonan stated:
 “North Tipperary fared worse than any other county last month. We had the highest percentage increase in the number of people joining the dole than in any other area of Ireland. There were 6,024 people on the dole in May. By the end of June an additional 489 had joined this list. Approx 207 joined the dole in Nenagh, 177 in Thurles and 105 in Roscrea. People under the age of 25 are being particularly badly affected. Almost 1,000 people in this age group joined the dole over the last two years in North Tipperary. This represents a 202% increase. CSO figures also show that over the last two years, a whopping 4,051 people have joined the dole in North Tipperary. In the same period, 1,657 more people signed on in Thurles, 1,647 in Nenagh and 747 in Roscrea. A growing number of national and international organisations have criticised Fianna Fáil’s approach recently and with due reason”.
The recent criticisms referred too by Deputy Coonan include:
- The IMF, which described Ireland as ‘the most overheated of all advanced economies’ and warned of the collapse in Irish exports, pointing the finger of blame firmly at Brian Cowen
- The CSO‘s national quarterly accounts, which revealed a staggering 12% slump in Gross National Product
- The OECD, which warned that GDP will have fallen by 14% by 2010;
Deputy Coonan further stated that the Government must now adopt Fine Gael’s policies to restore competitiveness and stimulate consumer demand.
Fine Gael is calling for reductions in spending to allow cuts in VAT and employers’ PRSI, the abolition of the Travel Tax, the creation of a National Recovery Bank to restore credit lines to small business and home-buyers, and a plan to reduce Government-imposed costs on small business.
Cashel Community School, a County Tipperary school based at Dualla Road in Cashel is named among a list of 78 post-primary schools across the country to receive High-Speed Broadband as part of a new Government initiative. The 100 mpbs Post Primary Schools Project, will deliver high-speed broadband connectivity to second level schools across the country.
Green Party Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan, speaking at the launch of this project, at the Digital Hub Learning Studio, stated:
 “Today we are laying the foundations of Ireland‘s new Knowledge Society. Providing our schools with high-speed wireless connectivity opens up a whole new world of learning for our children and our students will be connected to every corner of the globe. We are taking online learning out of the confines of the computer room. In classrooms and corridors, students and teachers will potentially be able to carry out interactive chemistry experiments and access demonstrations and exhibitions from all over the world. A class learning French in Dublin could talk in real time with a class in France. A leaving Cert Physics student will be able to take part in Ivy League lectures and experiments. With this level of connectivity, the opportunities for interaction and collaboration are unlimited. We must equip our students with the skills and creativity they need to thrive in the new digital world we are entering. There is no surer way of preparing them than by bringing the Internet right into their place of learning and allowing them to experiment and interact online. Today’s announcement opens a door to them, to take part in Ireland’s digital future.”
Under the existing Schools Broadband Programme, primary and post-primary schools in Ireland can access a basic level of broadband connectivity. The 100 mpbs Post Primary Schools Project marks the next phase in the Government’s ambition to develop our schools as world-class centres of e-learning and to educate the next generation of knowledge workers and digital entrepreneurs.
Schools have been selected against various criteria including geographical location, and an adequate mix of schools to ensure broad social inclusion. The speeds available are similar to those that are being offered to high-end national and multinational companies that operate in Ireland. They allow for the quick upload and download of material, instant connection to websites, and the increased and varied use of online applications.
This project is the result of co-operation between the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Education and Science, the Higher Education Authority, HEAnet and the National Centre for Technology in Education.
The Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has begun a tender process for broadband service providers. It is expected that numerous service providers will be involved. The tender will be accessible at: www.e-tenders.gov.ie
The now long awaited multi-storey car park has finally been approved for Clonmel, Co.Tipperary.
An Bord Pleanala has upheld planning permission granted by Clonmel Borough Council for the development of the former Clonmel Arms Hotel site.
The plans, by BORC Partnership, had been appealed by both An Taisce and the Departmentof the Environment due to the impact on the Main Guard heritage site.
The permission, which includes mixed development, has been welcomed by the majority of Clonmel’s local population.
The Council had granted planning permission to the BORC Partnership to build a 500-space car park over nine levels, a 2770 sq m shopping centre and an 80-bedroom hotel on the one-acre site in the town centre, currently occupied by the old Clonmel Arms Hotel.
The hotel was a listed Georgian building and the proposed development would have involved its partial demolition. Councillors in Clonmel, Co Tipperary had already removed this Georgian building from the Record of Protected Structures (RPS) in order to allow the development of this multi-storey car park, hotel and shopping centre, which was refused by An Bord Pleanála. An Bord Pleanála had upheld appeals by the Department of the Environment and An Taisce against the then controversial €40 million development, which had been approved by Clonmel Borough Council.
An Bord Pleanála had originally objected to the development on the grounds of excessive scale and height of the development in the historic town centre and that there were no exceptional circumstances that would permit the demolition of a protected structure. In its earlier ruling the board had stated that the development would have an adverse impact on a nearby national monument, the restored 17th century customs house, the Main Guard, and was contrary to council’s own development plan for the town.
Then, Bord Pleanála inspector Graham Carlisle had stated:
“The monolithic nature and scale of the proposed development would be out of keeping with its surroundings and would significantly detract from the historic centre of Clonmel in general, and the setting of a national monument,”
The town had been devastated by An Bord Pleanála’s decision, which had been prompted by the unnecessary interference by the Department of the Environment and An Taisce.
It is understood that some changes to the original plans have now been agreed with this new approval.
Small businesses throughout North Tipperary will save around €50,000 each under a new 18 point plan proposed by Fine Gael. Deputy Noel Coonan believes small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of North Tipperary’s economy but the current Government is failing to support this vital sector.
“SMEs across the constituency are having an increasingly tough time due to rising costs imposed by this Government. Fianna Fáil, the Greens and Independents have hiked up the VAT rate which has driven customers North of the border. Small businesses have had to lower prices to compete and they have witnessed a fall in demand for their services. However, Fine Gael represents the light at the end of tunnel for businesses with ‘A Fresh Start for Jobs in Small Business’,” said Deputy Coonan.
Fine Gael’s proposals will save the average small business owner in the region of €50,000 per year in costs by cutting energy costs, cutting regulatory red tape and making savings driven by VAT reductions.
Combined with the Rebuilding Ireland stimulus package launched earlier this year Fine Gael’s plans will deliver 100,000 new jobs and protect 80,000 existing jobs in small businesses.
“We need to support businesses in North Tipperary in order to save jobs. That is Fine Gael’s plan. I believe that we can not tax our way out of recession and we need to keep a low-tax economy to increase consumer spending. While big multinationals like Dell in Raheen get the headlines, North Tipperary’s SME sector is also constantly hemorrhaging jobs. We desperately need to stop this flow of unemployment because North Tipperary’s economy simply cannot sustain it,” said Deputy Coonan.
Fine Gael’s proposals include:
1. PRSI exemption for staff employed over the next two years, or an alternative of a €6,000 wage subsidy per employee over the same period
2. Reduce energy costs
3. Freeze local authority rates and government charges
4. Reduce VAT rates
5. Ensure prompt payments to businesses from Government and creditors
6. Make it easier for SMEs to win public tenders
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