New Louth County Councillor James Carroll has welcomed French online retail company CDiscount’s announcement that they are to set up their regional headquarters for the UK and Ireland at the IDA Business and Technology Park in Dundalk.
“The decision will create 50 new jobs over the next two years,” Cllr Carroll added.
CDiscount is the online trading arm of Groupe Casino of France, one of the world’s largest retailers with global revenues of over €28.7 billion. Groupe Casino’s retail brands include Monoprix, Casino Supermarkets, Libertad, Big C and Leaderprice. It has more than 10,000 stores and operates in Europe, South America, North America and Asia. It employs more than 200,000 people in 15 countries.
“A priority of mine when I became elected is to get new jobs based in the county for people from the county. Today’s announcement is very welcome and is a start in the right direction.”
The Dundalk headquarters will be one of two distribution centres for the UK and Ireland. It will also be the business support and management centre with activities including finance, marketing, supply chain management and IT.
The new business is a joint venture between CDiscount and NCBH Limited, an investment company owned by Dutch venture capital firm RIG Investments and Dundalk businessman Ciaran O’Donoghue.
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New Louth County Councillor James Carroll welcomed a commitment from the Minister for the Environment John Gormley to extend the current five year timeframe in which people must commence building if they have been granted planning permission.
The Drogheda East County Councillor who attended his first ever County Council meeting on Friday 19th June has been pushing for a number of months for the inclusion of a section in the new Planning and Development Bill extending the five year time-limit of planning permission.
Councillor Carroll states that “In the current economic climate, it is vital that people who have struggled hard to get planning permission are not penalised because the permission might lapse because they now find that they cannot get a loan”.
Section 23 of the new Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill 2009, which Councillor James Carroll has been pushing for, amends section 42 of the 2000 Act so that holders of planning permission may apply for an extension of the five year period where necessitated by “considerations of a commercial, economic or technical nature beyond the control of the applicant which substantially mitigated against either the commencement of development or the carrying out of substantial works pursuant to the planning permission”.
“This Section takes into account the reality of the current tough economic climate and introduces a much-needed and necessary flexibility in the planning permission process”, concluded the 25 year old new County Councillor.
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Hmmm, 5 hours later, my first County Council meeting is over. I nearly didn’t answer my first vote when “Cllr Carroll” was called out. That will take a long time to get used to. Ha.
I have got elected to the County Louth VEC Board, County Louth Enterprise Board, Louth LEADER Partnership Board, Association of County and City Councils, the Rural Water Monitoring Programme and the HSE Regional Forum. It is great to be directly involved with the County Enterprise Board that can do something really tangible about creating jobs in Louth. The HSE Regional Forum will be an opportunity to see where we are at with health reforms in the North-East and trying to ensure that the new A&E in Our of Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda is a success. The Louth LEADER project has substantial moneys for developing the rural areas over the next 4 years so hopefully, we will see innovative projects that will attract people to Louth’s beautiful history, culture and tourist locations.
The two south Louth electoral areas meet on the first Monday of every month with the regional planner, roads engineer and Drogheda Town Clerk Des Foley. Then, on the third Monday of every month, the main County Council meeting takes place.
A new time for me but I think that’s what politics needs locally and nationally, new, young people who want to make a difference and change the way that we do business as a community, county and country.
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South Louth County Councillor James Carroll has welcomed the decisions taken at last Friday’s (19th June) Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets in Brussels. The Committee decided to increase export refunds for butter, skimmed milk powder and whole milk powder and to accept into intervention all quantities of butter and most quantities of skimmed milk powder offered, while maintaining the intervention purchase prices.
In effect, the result means that a further 1,611 tonnes of butter (23 tonnes Irish) and 18,993 tonnes of SMP (3,978 tonnes Irish) were purchased into intervention bringing the totals since the commencement of these schemes to 81236, tonnes (14,940 tonnes Irish) and 202,915 tonnes respectively (26,744 tonnes Irish). In addition, some 96,124 tonnes of butter has been aided under the Private Storage Scheme of which Irish butter accounts for just over 5,100 tonnes.
As regards export refunds the SMP tender refund was increased, from EUR240 to EUR258 per tonne allowing the export of 3,694 tonnes. Common refund rates for SMP and WMP were increased commensurately while refunds for butter was maintained at EUR650 per tonne and cheeses were maintained at EUR220 per tonne. The tender refund for butter was maintained at EUR700 per tonne allowing for the export of an additional 2,841 tonnes.
“The Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith TD said that the milk market situation would be discussed at next Monday’s Farm Council and he would press hard for the prolongation of the public and private storage schemes, which are due to close in August. He also intended to press for the removal of impediments to support for the export outside the Community of cheese products and for a more aggressive level of support for the export of butter products,” Cllr James Carroll concluded.
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Unemployed workers will have access to 2,500 new places on part-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses from September as part of the Government’s efforts to retrain and upskill the labour force, according to new south Louth County Councillor James Carroll.
“These part-time courses are aimed at preparing the workforce for jobs in sectors that are key to tackling the recession.”
Cllr Carroll added: ‘The third-level sector has a critical role to play in helping unemployed workers develop the type of skills they need to get back into the labour force. Of the 2,500 new part-time places that will come on stream in September, 1,500 of them will be on a range of undergraduate certificate and degree-level programmes and the rest will be available for unemployed graduates to undertake part-time postgraduate diplomas or conversion programmes.
“All 2,500 places will be on courses that support the goals of the Government’s ‘smart economy’ plan and particularly those relating to specific skills needs of exporting sectors identified by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. These include sectors such as medical devices, biopharmaceuticals, international financial services, the food sector and others.
“Part-time courses, which will be of varying duration, are more suited to the circumstances of workers who are unemployed and want to be able to re-enter the labour force as soon as possible,” added James Carroll.
“Workers must be unemployed for at least six months on 1 September 2009 to be eligible for a place on the undergraduate or postgraduate programmes”, Cllr James Carroll concluded.
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NOTES:
In the coming weeks, Minister O’Keeffe will announce details of the third-level institutions providing these places and how to apply for a place.
This information will also be made available through local FÁS and Department of Social and Family Affairs offices.
Tuition fees will not be charged for these undergraduate and postgraduate courses though postgraduate students may be required to pay a nominal charge.
“Wow, what an emotional rollercoaster” – my sister’s words were so apt. Watching the boxes being dumped out onto the table and where the votes were going. You would get 5 number ones and be high; then nothing for 5 votes and you would be distraught. Hilarious sitting here reading it now. It sounds so weird but when you put so much time and effort and money into something, it is so satisfying when it all comes to fruition.
The County Council tally count was great……at the end. At the start of the County Council tally, I was sitting around 7th after the town County Council boxes were opened. I was happy with that. My core boxes were going to be Harestown NS and Tinure NS, the 2 main Monasterboice boxes. Parts of Monasterboice were in the Sandpit NS 2 boxes. I had put a lot of work into Walshestown and Tullydonnell boxes which cover the Togher and Grangebellew areas as well. These 6 boxes were going to be crucial. However, I also needed to hold my own in Clogherhead’s 3 boxes and Termonfechin’s 3 boxes where my Fine Gael rural-based opponent was going to do well. Again Drogheda East County Council area was a 6 seater so being just outside the top 6 after the town part was ok but only if the rural areas turned out as I hoped. And they did. In Harestown NS box, I got 267 first preferences which was over 60% first preferences; in Tinure NS, I got 194 first preferences which was about 50%. Togher pledged me first place also with 86 votes as did Grangebellew with 74 votes. I also got a great turnout from the Sandpit area (over 100) and to my surprise, I also got over 100 votes in Aston Village’s polling station on the Termonfechin Road which was very satisfying after I had brought my campaign team in to help with their National Spring Clean event in late April. It was great that they appreciated this and came out to vote for me in force.
So there I was at 4pm on Saturday afternoon with the tally figures showing me in 2nd place on 1,451 votes. There was 5 of us over 1,000 and the 2 battling it out for 6th place (Independent Frank Godfrey and my FF running mate, Tommy Byrne) were around 700 so I knew then that I had it. Super feeling….
I didn’t actually get my first preference count announcement until 8.30pm on Sunday night due to there being recounts for both Drogheda North and Drogheda South Borough Council areas. That was a very weird Sunday; just sitting waiting, knowing that I was elected but having no official result for definite. When it did come, what a thrill. To be elected on the first count with 1,495 (the tallies were obviously a bit off) votes in this tough climate really was testament to my campaign team and all the work that was put in. From my Saturday afternoon regulars to my Sunday night organisation crew to my weekly afternoon canvassers, they got me elected and I am so proud to have such a great group of people to call my friends.
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The Drogheda Volunteer Centre is to receive a Government grant of €118,406 to support them in their work according to south Louth Fianna Fáil local election candidate, James Carroll.
“The Drogheda Volunteer matches volunteers with local organisations who can use their energy and expertise.”
“It is important that we do all we can to encourage a spirit of volunteerism as it helps to build communities, friendships and strengthens local organisations who are working for the benefit of local people.”
“I am delighted that the work of the Drogheda Volunteer Centre is to be supported with these Government funds,” concluded James Carroll.
At Drogheda Volunteer Centre you can find out about volunteering opportunities, get information on hundreds of different volunteering opportunities and talk to someone on the how, why and where of volunteering.
Contact Senator James Carroll, Seanad Eireann, Leinster House, Dublin 2
Tel: 01-6184374
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