Finance - Thurles Information

Thurles Shopping Centre Takes Lead In Displaying Christmas Decor.

With just seven Saturdays left to Christmas Eve, 2022, Thurles Shopping Centre, have begun displaying their new Christmas decorations.

**Thurles Shopping Centre, Slievenamon Road, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.**
*Pic: G. Willoughby*

“Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.
Please put a penny in the old man’s hat.
If you haven’t got a penny, a ha-penny will do.
If you haven’t got a ha-penny, then God bless you.”

N.B. The decimal halfpenny coin, latter the smallest denomination of our Irish pound, was first issued when the Irish currency was decimalised on February 15th 1971.
It was removed from circulation and demonetised some 16 years later, on January 1st 1987.
In the same year, 2.8 million of our halfpenny coins were melted down, leaving the halfpenny Irish coin (particularly the 1985 coin) now particularly rare, and of value to coin collectors; so give the ‘old man’ one Euro and save and keep your halfpenny’s dry.

First €200 Electricity Credit Due Tomorrow, Tuesday November 1st.

The first of three promised €200 electricity credits are expected to be made tomorrow, Tuesday, November 1st, to more than 2.2 million domestic accounts to offset rising energy costs here in the Irish Republic.
This €200 credit will be paid out automatically, and customers are not required to make any application in order to acquire same.

This money will be paid directly to all domestic electricity accounts, including both ‘bill pay’ and ‘pay-as-you-go’ customers.

The payment will appear on bills from the start of November and into December, depending on each household’s electricity supplier and their particular billing cycle.

The second and third €200 payments will be made to cover the January/February and March/April billing periods.

The total package of €600 in energy credits will equate to around 25% of the estimated annual bill for consumed electricity for the vast majority of typical domestic households.

Changes To Payment Date For Social Welfare Recipients Ahead Of Halloween.

Recipients of some Social Welfare payments will see changes to the date of when they receive their payments for the upcoming October Bank Holiday weekend.

Since the Halloween bank holiday falls on Monday October 31st this year (2022), it should be noted that Banks and Post Offices across the Irish State will remain closed from Sunday, October 30th and will not re-open again until Tuesday morning, November 1st next.

With this in mind, those who are listed to benefit, will now see their Social Welfare payments paid earlier as a result, due to this holiday season.

Any payments that are due to be paid into accounts on October 31st, will now be paid earlier on Friday, October 28th instead.

All Payments will be paid as normal, as of Tuesday, November 1st next.

Thurles Local Councillors Shift Responsibility For Thurles Flooding To Someone Else.

Councillors at a Thurles Municipal District Council Meeting on Monday last were calling for ‘a plan’, latter to be drawn up 40 years too late, in an effort to tackle unprecedented flooding in Thurles on Sunday night.

Fianna Fáil Councillors Mr Seamus Hanafin and Mr Sean Ryan; the former confirming that the issue was a 40 year old inheritance problem and blaming Tipperary County Council; while the latter councillor acknowledged that this was the 3rd such incident over the last 18 month period.

As non-red faced Councillors verbally “passed the political buck” yesterday, local dissatisfied residents were seriously asking the question; “What were both above named, paid and elected public representatives doing for the past number of years, while both were members of this same Tipperary County Council, led by Chief Executive Mr Joe MacGrath?”

The answer of course they already know, same being; “Mostly talking party politics and further destroying Thurles town’s valuable, rich, history, to the detriment of our local tourism industry”.

Meanwhile, according to a recent ‘Press Release’, Irish Water yesterday outlined its investment in water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the Premier County, since 2014.

Surprise, surprise, Thurles is not targeted for future upgrading except under the “Leakage Reduction Programme”, but we learn that between 2014-2019, the utility invested €69m into various projects in Tipperary, with an estimated €65m, once again being ‘pumped’ (pardon the pun) into other un-named projects, up until 2024.

[None of which I might add, includes even a sandbag or a sewage blocker, being offered to Thurles town businesses or residents, and OMG, do you think, with local elections occurring in 2024, will the local electorate remember?]

Pending the ‘Commission for Regulation of Utilities’ approval; a further €136m will be also invested beyond 2024.

Speaking after a meeting with Tipperary County Council’s elected representatives yesterday, ‘Operations Lead‘ speaking for Irish Water, Ms Catherine McDonough said; “Irish Water is committed to providing quality water and wastewater services for the people of Tipperary. There is a strategic and targeted approach to infrastructure developments and proper investment is allocated for improving water and wastewater treatment plants, strengthening networks, supporting housing and economic growth, and protecting the environment. All of which are providing a more quality service for now and years to come.

As part of the Leakage Reduction Programme, almost 30km of old and problematic watermains across the county have been replaced in Newport, Kilcommon, Garrykennedy, Ballyglass, Tullakeady, Clonmore, Thurles, Clonmel and Templetouhy; and next year we plan to replace approximately 17km throughout the county.

This year has been challenging so far for certain parts of Tipperary with the warm weather and drought we experienced. This put some water supplies under immense pressure and resulted in some water restrictions, outages, loss of water pressure, and in some cases, Boil Water Notices.

I want to thank the people of Tipperary for playing their part in conserving water throughout the Summer and for having patience while we tried to restore their water supply. We have invested a lot in the local infrastructure to limit the impact this can have. We have accomplished a significant amount with our colleagues in Tipperary County Council over the last number of years, and we have more work to do as we continue providing a quality service for the people of Tipperary “.

Irish Water are also investing €65 million to upgrade and standardise disinfection systems across Ireland. In Tipperary, 21 Water Treatment Plants have had upgrades of their disinfection systems to date and upgrades at the remaining eight plants will be completed by the end of 2023.

The National Water Resources Plan is Irish Water’s plan to identify how we will provide a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable water supply to our customers for now and into the future whilst safeguarding the environment.
It will set out how we will balance the supply and demand for drinking water over the short, medium, and long term and ensure we have a safe, sustainable, secure and reliable drinking water supply for everyone.

North Tipperary is included in the Regional Water Resources Plan for the Eastern and Midlands region – and was recently adopted by IW. The remaining parts of Tipperary will be included in the Regional Water Resources Plan for the south-east which will be published for public consultation in 2023.

More limited details on the plan are available HERE.

Community Safety Grants Of €2 Million To Be Reinvested From Proceeds Of Crime.

22 community projects to receive grants between €5,000 – €150,000
Community Safety Innovation Fund reinvests proceeds of crime, as seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, back into communities
Funding will support delivery of innovative projects to build stronger, safer communities
Fund increased to €3million next year under Budget 2023 – a 50 per cent increase

Minister for Justice Mrs Helen McEntee has today announced the allocation of grants totalling €2 million, to successful applicants to the Community Safety Innovation Fund.

It is the first round of grants given out since Minister McEntee and Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath established the Community Safety Innovation Fund which reinvests the proceeds of crime seized by the Criminal Assets Bureau, in local projects to build stronger, safer communities.

22 community projects across the country are set to benefit from grants ranging from €5,000 to €150,000, which will support the delivery of innovative projects to improve community safety in their local areas.

The Community Safety Innovation Fund was established in April 2021 and €2 million was allocated to it under Budget 2022 – and this will increase to €3 million next year under Budget 2023.

Minister McEntee stated: “This fund reflects the successes of An Garda Síochána and the Criminal Assets Bureau in identifying and seizing the ill-gotten gains of criminals. Equally, people across Ireland are working tirelessly in their communities to prevent crime from taking hold and make their local areas safer.

Working together, we will build stronger, safer communities. By putting this money back into the community, we can show that there is a direct link between the activities of law enforcement and improving community safety.

Based on the high quality of proposals received, I believe the successful projects have the potential to have a real impact on their respective communities.

I also want to encourage those who applied this year but did not receive funding to apply next year – we are increasing the size of the fund by 50 per cent under Budget 2023. My Department will provide guidance on how to achieve a successful application”.

The funding call for the Community Safety Innovation Fund invited applications from community safety initiatives as well as groups co-funded with local authorities, NGOs and community organisations working on issues relevant to community safety and youth justice.

The fund opened for applications in April 2022 and a total of 124 were received by the deadline of 8 June.

Minister McEntee added: “Community Safety is about people being safe and, just as importantly, feeling safe within their communities. It’s vital that we empower our communities to proactively address concerns and build stronger and safer communities.

One of the objectives of this fund was to encourage the development of innovative ways to improve community safety from those people who best understand local community safety needs. Each project has detailed how best the community wants to prevent crime and their proposals reflect community priorities and local safety issues“.

Minister McEntee will today visit the Dublin North Inner City Local Community Safety Partnership based in Dublin’s North Inner-City and the Meath Travellers Workshop, two organisations that will receive funding for projects to improve community safety under the initiative.

The Dublin Local Community Safety Partnership have received funding for a Community Safety Warden Scheme, which will help people safely enjoy the recreational space in Wolfe Tone Park and its environs through the employment of local community safety wardens.

The Meath Travellers Workshop engages with young members of the Travelling community who may be vulnerable to falling into crime across Meath.

The development of the Community Safety Innovation Fund was a key commitment under Justice Plan 2022, as part of the broader objective to drive community participation in a new approach to make communities safer, and work across government and with State agencies to support this goal.