Removefiannafail
end corruption,stroke politics, &incompetent administration
Farmers don,t plant forests on bogs no more-they build houses.!
The "Phoenix Magazine" is always provocative and usually first with the new shit before the fan is switched on.This delightful "stealth " scam to prepare bogland for building is a stroke worthy of Bertie himself. January edition 2005;
"Matt Dempsey, the editor and ceo of the Irish Farmers’ Journal (IFJ), who is a real mover and shaker in the agricultural establishment, has been having planning problems of late in relation to lands adjoining his magnificent country pile at Griffinrath in Celbridge, Co Kildare. Last year An Taisce complained to Kildare County Council, claiming that a 20-acre site owned by the IFJ editor was being used as a wastedisposal facility. However, Dempsey, who is also chairman of the RDS management committee and is a director of Kildare Hunt Club Ltd, gave short shrift to all of these allegations. An Taisce claimed that construction, landfill and hazardous waste was being the past four years for which proper planning permission and a waste licence were required. They also claimed that Dempsey has farmed out the alleged landfill operation to a contractor. An Taisce referred the matter to Kildare County Council under Section 5 of the Planning and Development Act and requested that the !
local authority should determine whether “the filling on site constitutes development or is an exempt development”. The County Council decided last May that it was not an exempt development and that it required planning permission. Dempsey appealed this decision to An Bord Pleanála, denying all of An Taisce’s allegations. The RDS chairman claimed in his appeal that “bona fide land reclamation works” were being carried out on the lands and, while he accepted that builders’ waste, rubbish and debris had been deposited on the lands, he said that the material was for the purpose of land reclamation. He also claimed that “at no stage has any landfill been undertaken to warrant it being a commercial activity”. He obtained a licence for the purpose of land reclamation from Kildare County Council and he claimed that the “filling” on the site was in accordance with the permit. that all of this infilling was for the purpose of transforming boggy lands into good arable land, interest!
ingly Kildare County Council’s executive planner’s report concluded that;
“it is doubtful that agricultural or forestry reclamation is the primary object in this case”. It also noted that the “developer does not appear to be the person dumping the waste and there is no evidence that those dumping the waste are land reclamation contractors”.
An Bord Pleanála ruled before Christmas that the “deposition of material on the land constitutes a material change of use … by reason of the materials deposited” and that therefore it was not an exempted development. Matt Dempsey is not giving up. The IFJ editor told Goldhawk that he intended to submit a formal planning application to Kildare County Council for land reclamation in the coming weeks."
Building on more bogs in Laois: Fianna Fail & Fine Gael, lining one anothers pockets agains the will of the people who elected them.Can Gormley reign in the greed of councillors and their farming friends and developer cronies.?
INDEPENDENT councillor Michael Moloney has this week (January 2008)pointed to the extensive flooding of areas in Portarlington last week as vindication for his position that councillors who voted to rezone flood plains in the town were reckless.
He accused other councillors from all parties in Laois of engaging in reckless behaviour when they voted last October to allow developments on some of the town's flood plains.
He said they had disregarded concerns from the OPW and from the Minister for the Environment John Gormley about voting to allow developments on these areas.
He went as far as saying the other councillors who voted in favour of the move were out of touch with the felling of local people on the issue.
"In the context of the extensive flooding of the flood plains in Portarlington last week I have to insist that my comments last week regarding Minister
Gormley's move to curb councillors' powers in zoning lands must now be apparent to anyone that might have been skeptical of my position.
"Flood plains are a natural holding area in time of extensive rainfall that holds back waters from destroying homes and businesses. When councillors ignore professional guidance from the highest levels and zone such areas they allow themselves to be viewed in a very poor, if not cynical light.
"When one looks at the context in which the zoning of these flood plains last October by Laois councillors took place, one can see that in a very short period of time the population of Portarlington has exploded from 4,000 to over 6,000 and that this will rise towards 7,000 by the time all the developments now being built are complete. This being the case no excuse can be made for such actions by my fellow councillors. With 23 councillors in the council chamber on the day not one councillor seconded my objection to zone the flood plains.
"Dealing with such disregard to proper planning Minister Gormley is left with little option but to impose new guidelines on councillors and in the process curtail our remit in land zonings."
Joe Barrett
© Laoise Nationalist 18.01.08
BnM gets $150m loan to expand waste unit.
BORD na Mona has raised $150m in the United States to cover the cost of a major investment programme which will expand its interests in the energy and waste management industries.
The decision to go to the US for the funding was based on the reaction it received from institutions during an investment roadshow undertaken earlier this year.
Bord na Mona's director of finance Michael Barry said that while there had been a positive reaction in the UK, the US offered better value.
The funds were immediately swapped from dollars into117m worth of fixed rate euro loans with an interest rate of 4.4pc.,a lot more than joe Nobody gets for his savings in the local bank or credit union.!
Mr Barry said the funding is key to the implementation of Bord na Mona's Government approved strategy for future development, through business expansion and diversification. "It enables the company to fund the first stage of its planned investment in renewable energy, power generation and waste management projects," he said. Mr Barry said the issue had been heavily oversubscribed, a fact which will allow the company to return for further funding when needed - probably in a little over two years if all goes well.
With regard to its investment plans, the Bord has already secured planning permission for a 320MW wind station in Mayo as well as planning for a new land fill waste management site at Drehid in Co Kildare.
Apart .from landfill, Bord na Mona will engage in waste collection, recovery and recycling at the site.
The decision to seek private funding is a clear signal that the privatisation of the company is not on the agenda, at least in the short term. It is also a sign of the commercial health of the business that the issue was snapped up so quickly, with a clear appetite for more from the financial institutions involved, drawn mainly from the insurance and pensions sectors.
The loan notes carry no state guarantee,but the fact that a semi state company is borrowing is security enough in itself.
The funding has three separate maturity dates, comprised of seven, 10 and 12 year Senior Notes, meaning the notes are repayable in full in 2013, 2016 and 2018.
Pat Boyle
Irish Independent
