2010 has been a busy year on the City Council. Work centered on the new City Development Plan where I pushed for positive constructive planning policy with real public engagement. Work also took place on the Regional Authority to adopt new Regional Planning Guidelines. Given the collapse of the Public Finances there was the difficult task of agreeing a Budget for 2011 without affecting services too much. My belief remains that, if let, a reformed Local Government system can transform Ireland. My hope is that Labour commits itself to that task in Government. It is, in my view, impossible to have real Political Reform without Local Government Reform.<\/p>\n
Pembroke-Rathmines<\/strong><\/p>\n Locally, there was some progress on a new Voluntary housing scheme I am working on. The Herbert Park Users Group was finally established and much was accomplished through the Rathmines Pembroke Partnership Company. It was particularly good to see the new Rathmines Swimming Pool and Centre open and much credit is due to Mary Freehill who pursued this vigorously over the years. Despite considerable odds I was delighted to win my appeal to An Bord Pleanala against an appalling development that UCD wished to impose on the area. I have remained a member of the Lansdowne Road Stadium Monitoring Committee.<\/p>\n City Council<\/strong><\/p>\n On behalf of the Council, I continue membership of the Dublin Regional Authority, the Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly and the VEC. During the year I was elected to the Executive of the Association of City and County Councils and continue to serve as a Commissioner of Irish Lights and a member of the Protocol and Finance Committees of the City Council. I also joined the Traffic Committee during the year. I have continued as Chairperson of the South Inner City Local Drugs Task Force and the Board of the Royal Hospital Donnybrook Voluntary Housing Association. I am continuing to push for the opening of Fitzwilliam Square Park.<\/p>\n Thanks<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of people gave me a lot of help over the year for which I am grateful \u2013 to all the members in Pembroke \u2013Rathmines and particularly my colleagues in the Donnybrook Branch for their assistance. Denise, Gerry and Ian in Leinster House who do far more than any of you will ever believe and I hope will have an even more fruitful year ahead. Working with Ruairi, Mary, Oisin, Kevin and Maria makes life interesting and I believe together we have made a difference. Special \u201cthanks\u201d must go to Jill for her support. Last year, at the AGM, we were asked for \u201cone year on one page\u201d. I have tried to do that. Thanks to you all. I believe it has been worth it. Hope you do too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 2010 has been a busy year on the City Council. Work centered on the new City Development Plan where I pushed for positive constructive planning policy with real public engagement. Work also took place on the Regional Authority to adopt new Regional Planning Guidelines. Given the collapse of the Public Finances there was the difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs"],"yoast_head":"\n