CREED CALLS FOR HEIGHTENED LEVEL OF DEBATE ON FORTHCOMING REFEREDUMS

Fine Gael TD for Cork North West, Michael Creed, has called on the Government, the Opposition and the media to engage in a proactive and visible debate on the forthcoming referendums on judge’s pay and on the powers of Oireachtas committees.

 “It’s regrettable to say the least that these referendums have been so sidelined that the public are barely aware that they are taking place in less than twenty days time. Amendments to the Constitution are matters of significant national importance and deserve to be receiving as much attention and publicity as possible, so voters are in a position to make an informed decision at the ballot box.

 “I am calling on the Government, the Opposition and those media commentators who have previously called for political reform to become more proactive in bringing this debate to public attention. Apathy only creates a culture of ‘if you don’t know – vote no’. The issues before the people are important and warrant a large scale public airing before polling day.

 “While I acknowledge the role of the Referendum Commission in informing the public on these matters, it is a faceless entity which the public may not relate to. These referendums need personalities to come forward and show leadership on how they believe people should vote.

 “These two referendums are by no means trivial. The issues that arise from the referendum on judge’s remuneration include the relationship between the Oireachtas and the judiciary and the traditional separation of powers. The referendum on Oireachtas committees grants significant powers on Oireachtas members which must be examined and considered in full before the public can decide whether they are in favour of them.

 “We are currently surrounded by a media clamour pertaining to an office with a primary role of protecting our Constitution. It would only be fitting that significant changes to the same Constitution should receive some level of attention, which has been absent to this point.”

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CREED URGES STUDENTS TO APPLY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE FOR STUDENT GRANT SCHEME

The Department of Education and Skills has announced details of the further and higher education Student Grant Scheme for the 2011/12 academic year. Commenting on the announcement Deputy Creed said;

“Up until now, there were four grant schemes. In the first major step to overhaul the student grant system, the four schemes have been replaced by a single unified scheme this year. This will make it far easier for students to apply for a grant.

Almost 38,000 students, well over half of the expected number of applications, will be able to apply online for their grant this year. The grants online facility has been rolled out to an extra 24 grant awarding bodies giving a total of 35 in all now using the system. The system is available through studentfinance.ie.”

This facility will be available to all students next year when a single grant awarding authority will become operational. The CDVEC was recently announced as that authority after a competitive process.

“With the Leaving Certificate finished, the Department is urging students who may qualify to apply as quickly as possible for a grant and to ensure that forms are correctly completed. This will prevent log jams in the system or delays to decisions. Previously, those who wait until very late in the process, frequently only after a CAO offer, faced delayed decisions”.

 “In addition, up to 60% of applications in some areas have to be returned because they are not fully completed, they are inaccurately completed or don’t have the necessary supporting documentation. Again, this contributes significantly to delays”.

“The grantsonline system will play an important role in reducing application completion errors because the system is intelligent to the information being input”.

“The Department confirmed that income limits to qualify for maintenance grants and payment of the student contribution remain unchanged for the new academic year.  However, students should be aware of a change introduced to the scheme under the last government’s Budget 2011 which reduces the qualifying distance criterion for the non-adjacent rate of grant from 24kms to 45km”.

Details of the scheme together with the application form and guidance notes are available in the grants section of the http://www.studentfinance.ie.website.

The Department of Education and Skills has announced details of the further and higher education Student Grant Scheme for the 2011/12 academic year. Commenting on the announcement Deputy Creed said;

“Up until now, there were four grant schemes. In the first major step to overhaul the student grant system, the four schemes have been replaced by a single unified scheme this year. This will make it far easier for students to apply for a grant.

Almost 38,000 students, well over half of the expected number of applications, will be able to apply online for their grant this year. The grants online facility has been rolled out to an extra 24 grant awarding bodies giving a total of 35 in all now using the system. The system is available through studentfinance.ie.”

This facility will be available to all students next year when a single grant awarding authority will become operational. The CDVEC was recently announced as that authority after a competitive process.

“With the Leaving Certificate finished, the Department is urging students who may qualify to apply as quickly as possible for a grant and to ensure that forms are correctly completed. This will prevent log jams in the system or delays to decisions. Previously, those who wait until very late in the process, frequently only after a CAO offer, faced delayed decisions”.

 

“In addition, up to 60% of applications in some areas have to be returned because they are not fully completed, they are inaccurately completed or don’t have the necessary supporting documentation. Again, this contributes significantly to delays”.

“The grantsonline system will play an important role in reducing application completion errors because the system is intelligent to the information being input”.

“The Department confirmed that income limits to qualify for maintenance grants and payment of the student contribution remain unchanged for the new academic year.

However, students should be aware of a change introduced to the scheme under the last government’s Budget 2011 which reduces the qualifying distance criterion for the non-adjacent rate of grant from 24kms to 45km”.

Details of the scheme together with the application form and guidance notes are available in the grants section of the http://www.studentfinance.ie.website.

RURAL BROADBAND SCHEME

The Rural Broadband Scheme has been established to enable a basic broadband service to be provided to individual rural premises which are not capable of obtaining a broadband service from existing internet service providers.

The Scheme has been set up in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture as a measure under the Rural Development Plan using funding from the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development.

There are certain criteria for applications under the scheme. These are:

• You must be living outside of the areas covered by the National Broadband Scheme, click here for details, http://www.three.ie/nbs/
• You must be living in a rural area in accordance with the Rural Development Plan – the following are excluded from the Scheme:
  1. Places within the City Council boundaries of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick
  2. Places within the Borough Council boundaries of Kilkenny, Sligo and Wexford
  3. Places within the Town Council boundaries of Athlone, Ballina, Castlebar, Cavan, Dundalk, Ennis, Killarney, Letterkenny, Mallow, Monaghan, Mullingar, Tralee, Tuam and Tullamore.

• You must be unable to obtain a service from the service providers operating in your area

There will be a number of phases in the Scheme. This first phase involves inviting and processing applications. The Department will be accepting applications from 9 May 2011 until 29 July 2011.

In the second phase of the Scheme, the Department will check with existing internet service providers to see if they are willing to provide a service to the premises concerned. If they are willing to provide a service, we will write to you and ask your permission to be contacted by the companies concerned. If a service can be provided to you in this way, your application under the scheme will be closed.

If none of the companies concerned are prepared to offer you a service, then your application will progress to the next phase in the Scheme. We will write to you at that stage and let you know. We expect the second Phase of the Scheme to be completed by January 2012 at the latest.

In the third phase of the Scheme, the Department will engage an internet service provider who will offer a basic internet service to applicants. We will pass the details of all applicants to this service provider who will contact the applicants and offer them the service. While the Department will be paying part of the cost of the infrastructure necessary to provide a service under this Scheme, the applicant will be responsible for paying the costs of the service itself. This may include some upfront connection costs as well as monthly charges for the service. Further details of the service and related costs will become available once the Service Provider has been selected. You will not be obliged to take up the offer of a service under this Scheme.

We expect roll out of this service to commence in early 2012. The Scheme should be completed by the end of 2012 at the latest.

The easiest way to apply is through our online application facility.

 

Click Here to Apply Online

 

Alternatively you can print an Application form, complete and sign it and send it to us by post.

 

Click Here to Print an Application Form

 

You can also contact the Department by Phone on 1850 678 100 or on 01-678 2020.

Please note that the actual cost of calls to CallSave 1850 numbers varies depending on your phone company.

CREED ANNOUNCES €40,000 FOR BALLINGEARY FLOOD RELIEF

Cork North West TD, Michael Creed has announced the allocation of €40,000 to Cork County Council to undertake flood relief works in Ballingeary, which will help alleviate the flood risk in the area. Announcing the funding Deputy Creed said;

 “This announcement will come as a welcome relief for residents of Ballingeary village, who suffered extensive damage and loss during the major flood incident of November 2009. This funding will allow Cork County Council undertake mitigation works in the area which should prevent against any significant flooding in the short term”.

 “This allocation will not however provide a final long term solution to the flooding problems in Ballingeary and Inchigeela. The OPW has recently received a draft report from the Lee CFRAM consultants which revisits the initial study findings for a number of locations in the wake of the flooding event of November, 2009. This report is currently being examined by the OPW. It is expected that the flood risk in both villages (Ballingeary & Inchigeela) will be fully identified and, if appropriate, a preferred option will then be identified to alleviate the flood risk determined”.

 “However, given the flooding that the area has suffered in recent years, and in order to provide some interim relief to residents, I am pleased to state that total funding of €40,000 has been allocated to Cork County Council to undertake mitigation works at the locations concerned. The commencement and progression of these works will be a matter for the Council and the other stakeholders including the Fisheries board and landowners, who, I trust will work to progress these works as soon as possible in the public interest”.

 “I am aware of the hard work undertaken by the public in Ballingeary and my colleague Cllr Michael Creed, to pursue solutions to the flood risk in the area. They should be congratulated for their hard work and dedication in their pursuit of this funding”.

CREED CAUTIONS AGAINST SUPPORT FOR LAGARDE

 

Fine Gael TD Michael Creed has urged the Government to show caution in supporting the candidacy of Christine Lagarde as the new head of the IMF. Commenting on recent reports suggesting Ireland and the EU were supporting Lagardes candidacy Deputy Creed said:

 

“We should be very cautious in showing support for a less than sympathetic ally in the shape of Lagarde. If we have learned anything from our recent dealings with the EU and the IMF, it is that the IMF has been a far more pragmatic and understanding partner than the ECB the EU and in particular France when it comes to finding solutions to our debt crisis”.

 

“By supporting Lagarde we could be welcoming a Trojan horse into the IMF, that might further exacerbate our situation. The French Governments continued insistence that we review our corporation tax rate and their refusal to review the terms of the bailout agreement can be taken as indications as to what a Lagarde lead IMF, might be like”.

 

“Within the EU 27 we should be seeking a candidate from the smaller nations which form the Union as opposed to cheerleading the further enhancement of the influence of the larger States”.

NEW RURAL BROADBAND SCHEME TO FINALLY EXTEND BROADBAND TO ALL

Cork North West TD Michael Creed has welcomed the launch of a new National Broadband Scheme, which will extend a broadband connection to areas not covered by the current scheme.  Commenting on the launch of the new scheme which forms part of the Governments jobs initiative Deputy Creed said;

“The Scheme aims to ensure that universal broadband access is provided in Irelandby the end of 2012. While the completion of the Government’s National Broadband Scheme (NBS) means that broadband services are now available throughout the country, there are remaining un-served rural premises which could not be included in the NBS or which are difficult to reach for mainly technical reasons. The Rural Broadband Scheme is designed to identify those premises through a public application process and, ultimately, to bring a broadband service to them either through existing private sector service providers or through a service provider procured by Government”.

“The combination of private and public investment in telecommunications infrastructure has meant over 99% broadband coverage for the whole country,” said Deputy Creed. “We are now launching this Scheme to identify the remaining small percentage of premises that have not been able to procure a broadband service and to provide broadband to such premises which cannot be served by the existing market. My Department will be accepting applications for a three month period starting now, so there will be ample opportunity for people to come forward with details of premises that cannot obtain a service”.

The Scheme aims to identify the premises that cannot currently obtain a service and once all of these premises have been identified, to ascertain whether existing telecommunications operators can provide a service directly to these premises. If an existing service provider cannot be identified, the Department will seek to procure such a service. The combination of private and public sector programmes in the broadband market will ensure thatIrelandreaches the EU target of ubiquitous basic broadband access ahead of the 2013 deadline”.

“The Rural Broadband Scheme will help promote economic and social development in such areas. It will be of particular importance to small scale rural enterprises who will be able to trade their goods and services over the internet. This Scheme will ensure that the remainder of rural premises will be able to get a broadband service and will make broadband available to anyone who wants it by the end of 2012.”

In tandem with this development, the Government announced that it intends to push ahead with discussions with the telecommunications sector with a view to establishing a roadmap for the delivery of next generation broadband in Ireland in line with the commitments in the Government’s National Recovery Programme. Under the NewEra proposals in the Programme for Government there is a commitment for NewEra to co-invest with the private sector and commercial semi-State sector to provide next generation broadband to every home and business in the State. Consideration on how best to advance these proposals, for which Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd has responsibility, is being advanced”.

Full details of the Rural Broadband Scheme are available on the Department’s website www.dcenr.ie and follow the link for the Rural Broadband Scheme.

CREED WELCOMES NEW BETTER ENERGY PROGRAMME

The Better Energy Programme makes it easier for homeowners, irrespective of financial means, to access energy efficiency measures, be it through the energy suppliers or other contractors. There will be one point of contact for accessing Government supports in this area, including advice on what measures are best for any home.

A typical family, spending maybe €1000 every year to heat the home, can choose from a range of measures, from attic or wall insulation, to upgrading the boiler and heating controls. The cost of the work will range from €2000 for a simple upgrade to more than €15,000 for a complete package. Grants of up to €5500 are available. The family can shop around among contractors to select their actions and get the best price, and then a simple online application process gives them the grant. Their home will be noticeably much more comfortable as soon as the work is complete, and they will also save as much as €500 in annual heating bills.

Details of the scheme are available through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland website at www.seai.ie or alternatively contact my office at 026-41835