Minister Phil Hogan has approved the necessary funding to allow Dublin City Council to award €5.84m contract for the Dublin Region Watermains Rehabilitation Project. This contract is being financed under the Department of the Environment’s Water Services Investment Programme 2010-2013.

This contract, which is an element of a coordinated approach to arrest water leakage in the Dublin Region, involves rehabilitation works in the Gardiner Sreet., Camden Street Upper, Clanwilliam Place, North Strand Road, Terenure Road North and Sean Moore Road areas of the city. Work on the overall scheme is being carried out in a number of tranches and, with 135 kilometres of watermains already replaced from the target total of 250 kilometres, the outcome should be improvement in the quality and reliability of the water supply to the public, supporting commercial and industrial activity so crucial to economic recovery.

Mains rehabilitation work is a key priority under the Department of the Environment’s Water Services Investment Programme. Minister Hogan’s approval of the funding for this contract reflects both the need to deliver to consumers a drinking water supply that is reliable and fully compliant with drinking water standards and the priority being given to water conservation and to addressing unsustainable levels of unaccounted for water in the distribution system.

This approval clears the way for work to commence. I will be asking Dublin City Council to get construction underway as quickly as possible.

Important Notice – Disruption of Water Supply

Sunday 28^th April

6.00am – 12 midnight

Dublin City Council advises that due to essential works there will be disruption to water supply resulting in a reduction in service with reduced pressures and loss of supply in some areas on Sunday 28^th April 2013. The areas likely affected are listed below:

Castlewood Ave, from Rathmines Rd to Ranelagh Rd and

Chelmsford Avenue from Ranelagh to Leeson St Upper and all surrounding areas.

The  map below indicates the areas which will most likely to be affected by the water shut. If you click once on the map it should automatically zoom in. You can zoom in further by changing the view to 100%.

Dublin City Council will provide a number of water tankers. There will be mobile tankers available to go to the areas where they are most needed, in response to requests from the general public or from businesses. We will also have a stationary tanker located at Belgrave Square. This tanker should remain at Belgrave square all day leaving only to refill if necessary.

All efforts will be made to carry out the work in the optimum time and to minimise disruption as far as is possible. Dublin City Council apologises for the inconvenience caused. With your co-operation and understanding we hope to keep the disruption to a minimum.

For a map of areas affected please click here.

For further information please contact:

Dublin City Council

01-2222222

01-6796186 (After hours)

The Dublin City Neighbourhoods Competition is an annual competition for communities, schools and businesses in the city organised by Dublin City Council. It is an Area based competition with categories judged initially on an Area basis. The best entrants from each of the 5 City Council administrative Areas are selected to go forward to a citywide competition.

Applications are invited under the following categories: Residential competition, special categories, business competition, schools competition. The prize fund for this competition amounts to €75,000.

It is hugely important that all residents and business association work together to encourage people to improve their environment.  It is the existence of an effective and enthusiastic City Neighbourhoods Committee that improves our local areas and the quality of life of the residents and develops good relationships with the local authority, schools and other business associations.

The closing date is the 3^rd of May. If you’re involved with your Residents group, recycling at school, managing waste for your business or simply just like to do a bit of gardening, why not fill in an entry form.

– Application Form

Check with your local Area Office for an entry form or email bernie.lillis@dublincity.ie

The South Inner City Local Drug Task Force has once again announced the introduction of a small grants fund.

This fund has two main objectives:

1.To financially support local Sports Clubs and Complex’s in a time when the raising of additional funds is becoming increasingly more difficult.

2.To create a much closer links between our Task Force funded Projects and the local community.

The deadline for Small Grants Funding from the South Inner City Local Drugs Task Force is Friday 26th April.

For further details on the application process please click here.

The second series of six lectures organised by St Andrew’s Resource Centre and Trinity College Dublin, will begin today at 7pm in St Andrew’s Church, Westland Row and will continue until the 16th of May. The theme of the series is Science, Health and Society in Modern Ireland. For more information on this lecture series click Trinity and its Neighbours

The Spring Count 2013 on the number of persons sleeping rough in Dublin will take place on Tuesday April 16th into the early morning of Wednesday April 17th 2013.

The count provides a robust measure of the minimum number of people sleeping rough on the night of the count and ensures that homeless services can plan effectively in terms of service provision for people who are rough sleeping. It also enables further engagement with the Regional Contact and Outreach Service (RCOS) to ensure that people can be supported in accessing homeless services in the Dublin area.

Without your cooperation and assistance, this very important Count would not be able to proceed.

The Count takes place from 1am to 5am across Dublin City Council’s Administrative Area. All participants would need to arrive in advance at 11.30pm for briefing session and coordination of street count areas. The meeting point for briefing session will be Parkgate Hall, 6-9 Conyngham Road, Dublin 8.

If you are interested in getting involved please contact Tadhg Kenehan on 01 2226826 or email tadhg.kenehan@dublincity.ie

Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD announces that Zurich is to establish two IT Hubs in Dublin with the creation of 112 new high quality jobs.

The Taoiseach today announced that Zurich Insurance Group, a leading global insurer, is to establish two IT hubs in Dublin with the creation of 112 new hi-tech, high-value jobs. The IT hubs represent an exciting and innovative approach to IT service management and security for Zurich in Europe and globally. The investment is supported by the Irish Government through Industrial Development Agency (IDA) Ireland.

The two new IT hubs will provide services to the Zurich businesses globally and in Europe. One hub will support Zurich’s IT service management and the other will support Cyber Security Management. Recruitment will commence immediately for graduates, senior specialists and management positions covering a wide range of areas from change management to cyber analysts to disaster recovery specialists.

Making the announcement, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, “The further expansion of Zurich with the creation of 112 new high quality jobs is excellent news for Dublin and Ireland. The Government’s Action Plan for Jobs has a specific focus on financial services and the digital industry. The new investment by Zurich in two new IT Hubs demonstrates the value of keeping Ireland at the cutting edge of the expanding digital industry and maintaining our strong financial services industry. The Government is delighted to support a global company like Zurich as it builds on its established European HQ in Dublin. Ireland remains a stable and attractive location for inward investment as we work to improve our competitiveness even further.”

Commenting on the announcement, Patrick Manley, CEO of Zurich’s General Insurance segment in Europe said, “Robust IT systems are critical to facilitating fast business decisions and speedy customer delivery. By establishing these hubs we at Zurich can significantly upgrade our IT capabilities and deliver ‘round the clock security monitoring of our IT assets globally. We highly appreciate the support that we receive from IDA Ireland for this project.’’

Late last year the Government launched the Momentum Initiative which will provide funding for 6,500 jobseekers who have been unemployed for 12 months or more to gain skills and access work opportunities in identified growing sectors.

The green economy is an emerging job space and a key area for growth and investment. Green pathways is a free programme that has been launched as part of the Momentum Initiative and is available to jobseekers under 25 who would like to gain training and experience in the sustainable development, environment or green business sectors.

Participants will receive FETAC accredited training and undertake a period of work experience. More information on the programme and details on how to apply can be found here.

The Aviva Stadium Project Monitoring Committee is inviting applications for this year’s Community Grants Scheme which awards funding to projects that benefit the community in the area around the Aviva Stadium.

This Community Grants Scheme aims to support environmental maintenance and improvements in the local area, and social and educational activities benefiting the local community.  The local area is defined as that area limited to within 1km radius of the Stadium.

Grants will be awarded to Community/Voluntary Groups/Schools and other non-profit associations for projects of benefit to the local area. Such projects include community events, sports clubs, environmental improvements and heritage projects. The grant will cover a maximum of 50% of the cost of the project.

Full details of the application process, eligibility criteria and an overview of the Community Fund can be found here.

Facebook has announced that it is creating 100 new jobs by further expanding its European Headquarters on Hanover Quay in Dublin 2. This announcement has further cemented the Dublin docklands’ position as a world class IT hub.

We want Dublin to be the high-tech capital of Europe, and having companies like Facebook anchor their European Headquarters here is an essential part of that.

I had the opportunity to meet with senior executives from Facebook when visiting their Headquarters in Palo Alto. They were very excited about their operations in Dublin and it’s great to see them expanding their European headquarters here, boosting their workforce in the capital to 500. This is a very strong endorsement from the company, and sends out a hugely positive message to other potential investors.

The Government’s strategy for this sector – in particular Minister Richard Bruton’s dedicated efforts in promoting Ireland and attracting so much inward investment – is clearly paying off.

Facebook is one of the world’s biggest internet companies. Its presence alongside Google, LinkedIn and Twitter, helps to attract further inward investment into the area. Dublin has now become known as a hub of high-tech talent; this is a reputation the Government is determined to build on.

This announcement isn’t just a boost for the tech sector though. While the expansion means 100 new jobs in ICT, research from Sean O’Sullivan and OpenIreland shows an additional four spin-off jobs will be created for each of those tech jobs, here in Dublin. And if that happens, that will be a major additional boost.

With the Action Plan for Jobs 2013 due in the next few weeks, I’m expecting further measures to help build this sector. This will hopefully include a technology visa, to make it easier for foreign talent to come here and help expand international players like Facebook, and also build up our own indigenous enterprise.

These new jobs in Facebook are across a range of disciplines and hiring is already underway. Anyone interested in applying can check out www.facebook.com/jobs.