Dermot will be on the Pat Kenny show today at 10am to discuss the current FÁS stories and how public boards operate.  Listen in at rte.ie/live

True to form, as we approach the Christmas holidays, a planning application has been submitted for the UCD/Jefferson Smurfit (Smurfit Kappa) HQ site.  The timing will pose difficulties for many residents, who will be short on time to respond appropriately. However, you can be sure that I will make a comprehensive submission following a full [...]

At a time when young people and community activity is often criticised it give me great pleasure to be able to Congratulate three local Groups: St. Joseph’s Junior Traveller Education School, Milltown: As Chairperson of the school I am so proud to be able to announce that the pupils in St. Joseph’s secured a 100% [...]

I have been pushing for the development of an overall master plan for the Dodder and am pleased to say that the draft River Basin Management Plan has now been published and is available from Dublin Council: www.dublincity.ie. The City Council’s “River gang” will be available to carry out on the spot local clean ups [...]

The campaign to secure Scully’s Field as part of the Dodder Linear Park is ongoing and I have used every opportunity to continue to raise this at City Council level. Following the publication of new regulations about building on floodplains the City Manager has agreed to write to the Minister for the Environment seeking funds [...]

A little piece of Ranelagh history is to be marked following agreement by the City Council to re-erect the name plate for Moran’s Cottages. The Cottages are a small enclave just off the Ranelagh Triangle and were once owned by the local Moran family. While the area is not in charge of the Council and [...]

Letter to the Editor of The Irish Times, published 12th November 2008 Madam, – Your Editorial “Planning laws and best practice” (November 7th) displayed as balanced an approach to planning and the role of councillors that I have seen in a long time. I will leave it to others to defend those “greedy builders”; I [...]

As some of you may know, the new areas for the Local Elections have now been determined and Donnybrook is now part of the new Pembroke-Rathmines area.  That area will elect six City Councillors, and Labour has selected Councillor Mary Freehill, Councillor Oisin Quinn and me to contest. We believe it is possible to retain [...]

While we have had some political success in forcing the Government to reverse the removal of the automatic entitlement to a Medical Card for the Over 70s, we have not so far been able to persuade them to reverse the cuts in education expenditure.  These cuts will seriously impact on the ability of schools and [...]

As many of you will know, the Beech Hill estate is now more than fifty years old.  In conjunction with the local History Society, I am hoping that we might put together a short history of the area along with reminiscences from some of the longer serving residents.  If you have old photographs or old [...]