Category Archives: Dublin City Council

Property Tax deadline looming

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Dublin City Council advises that making contact with their offices or the NPPR Bureau by e-mail before the deadline can freeze any additional penalties that might otherwise come into effect on 1st September 2014.

The six month period during which further NPPR late penalties cease to accumulate in respect of non compliant properties is due to expire at midnight on Sunday 31st August 2014. Persons wishing to settle their liability can still do so online at www.nppr.ie

Significant numbers have paid the NPPR liability since the 1st March and many more payments are being processed at present. Dublin City Council is aware that many more people want to settle their NPPR liabilities before the expiry of the deadline on 31st August. Some people may need to clarify aspects of the liability and as a consequence significant numbers of people are making contact by telephone to our offices. Due to the huge increase in the numbers calling local authority offices, not all callers will get through and we apologise for this inconvenience.

Any person who wishes to settle their NPPR liability and cannot get through to local authority offices by telephone can have further late penalties frozen by making contact with either the National Bureau by e-mail at support@nppr.ie or by making contact with Dublin City Council by e-mail at nppr@dublincity.ie before the expiry of the deadline on 31st August 2014 indicating the property for which they want to settle the NPPR liability and giving their contact details. Any person who doesn’t have access to e-mail may correspond in writing with us at NPPR Unit, Block B, Blackhall Walk, Queen Street, Dublin 7, by the deadline of 31st August 2014. Staff dealing with the NPPR liability will make contact as soon as possible after 1st September to make the arrangements for settling the liability.

Dublin City Council will deal with all cases presented to them on an individual basis taking into account the circumstances of the property owner.

Lord Mayor opening book of condolence for Gaza

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TDR The Liffey

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Christy Burke, has announced that the City of Dublin will open a book of condolence for victims of the current conflict which has resulted in loss of life in Gaza and Israel.

The public will have an opportunity to sign the book at The Mansion House, Dawson Street, as follows:

Friday, August 1st : 10a.m. to 5p.m.

Saturday, August 2nd: 10a.m. to 5p.m.

Monday, August 4th: 11.a.m. to 4p.m.

The Lord Mayor says “I have opened a Book of Condolence to allow the public express their feelings for all victims of this tragedy and to highlight our concern at the loss of life on all sides of this conflict.

I call on all the protagonists to refrain from any action which may result in more civilian casualties and would reiterate that the conflict can only be resolved through negotiation.”

Dublin House Project

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Dublin City Council will launch the Dublin House Project on Monday 21st July at 11 a.m. on the site to be advertised for sale at 29/30 Fishamble Street, Dublin 8.  The Lord Mayor, Christy Burke and the City Architect, Ali Grehan will be attending the launch.

Dublin House is an initiative of the Housing Department through the City Architects’ Division to promote the potential of small-scale residential development in the inner city and inner suburban areas. It is a trial initiative to enable people to be citizen developers by facilitating them to design and create their own bespoke homes for themselves in the city.

The Lord Mayor said ahead of the event: “I am delighted that Dublin City Council is introducing the Dublin House project as another initiative to encourage and enable families to live in the city centre. I look forward to seeing this initiative succeed in this historic part of the city.”

Ali Grehan, City Architect, said: “Promoting diverse owner-occupied city centre family- friendly homes is the underlying aspiration of the Dublin House project. This offers households an opportunity to come together as a group to design and develop the site in a way that suits their housing needs today and into the future. Through this innovative project Dublin City Council also wishes to address the under-provision of this type of housing delivery in the city centre and hopes that this can be replicated elsewhere.”

 

Sports Centres holding Open Day

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Dublin City Council has announced an Open Day at a number of its state of the art Sports and Fitness Centres around the city on Saturday, 7 June 2014 from 10am to 4pm.

 

The Council’s Sports and Fitness Centres at Ballymun, Markievicz, Dublin 2, Ballyfermot and Finglas and Irishtown Stadium will open their doors with FREE sport for all.  Activities such as swimming lessons, spin classes, a tag blitz in Irishtown and much much more will be the order of the day.

 

Promotional offers will also be available on Saturday.  For example at our leisure centre in Ballymun an 11 month membership deal will be available at a fantastic rate of €210.  This centre provides a 4 lane 25m pool, a children’s pool, waterslides, saunas, steam room, aerobic studio and gym. All activities are supervised by our fully qualified sports staff.

 

At our Markievicz Sports and Fitness Centre in the heart of the city you will find everything you would expect from a modern fitness facility.  A 25m pool providing regular aquafit classes, a fully equipped gym and fitness studio will help you with your fitness regime at lunchtime –  all supervised by qualified sports personnel.

 

Our Irishtown Stadium is the proud holder of the Ireland Active White Flag Award, a quality award offered to the leisure industry in Ireland.  The Stadium boasts an 8 lane x 400m international running track, fully equipped gym, aerobic studios, 5 all weather pitches, an Astroturf pitch and a full size grass soccer pitch.  Yet another great city centre location to get your work out!

 

“Dublin City Council is holding this Open Day to let everyone know about the great sporting facilities available to them on their doorstep. Getting fit and staying fit has never been easier with our wide range of fitness classes. Our enthusiastic and dedicated fitness instructors will guide you through each workout, helping you stay

motivated and focused on your fitness goals. There are also few skills more important to children than learning how to swim. Whether for sport or fun learning how to swim properly in a safe and fun environment will provide them with a lifelong skill they’ll never lose.  Check out our link http://bit.ly/opendayleisure   and pop down on Saturday to your nearest Sports and Fitness Centre” said Jim Beggan, Sports and Fitness Services Facilities, Dublin City Council.

 

For further information on what is happening on the day in your area and indeed in all Dublin City Council Sports and Fitness Centres please log onto http://bit.ly/opendayleisure

 

IRONMAN coming to Dublin in 2015

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The Lord Mayor, Oisín Quinn and Leo Varadkar TD, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and Dublin City Council, will announce today that Dublin will be the venue for an IRONMAN 70.3 set for August 2015 and Dublin will also host a full distance IRONMAN in 2016.

IRONMAN 70.3, based in Dublin, will take place in August 2015 and will provide an early opportunity for athletes to secure points for the 2016 World Championships.

Since its inception in 1978, IRONMAN has developed into the largest user-based endurance race series worldwide. Every year over 200,000 athletes participate in IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 races.

Speaking at the announcement the Lord Mayor said:- “Today’s announcement is of tremendous importance to Dublin in terms of the economic value of an IRONMAN for the host city. Thousands of athletes from all over the world take part in these races and I am delighted to have been instrumental in bringing these two events to Dublin and realising one of my primary objectives during my term of office as Lord Mayor of Dublin.”

Minister Varadkar said: “I’m delighted that Dublin will host an Ironman event for the next two years. Triathlon is one of the fastest growing sports in Ireland, and the Ironman brand is world-famous. Hosting this global event will boost Ireland’s reputation as an outdoor adventure destination, and showcase Dublin city and its mountains and scenic bay.  It will also be a boost to our efforts to get more people involved in sport, and grow the profile of triathlon inIreland.”

Thomas Dieckhoff, CEO of IRONMAN Europe, Middle East and Africa commented, “We are extremely proud and excited to be expanding the IRONMAN European Tour to Ireland. Dublin has a heritage of hosting major sporting events and offers a perfect platform for IRONMAN. Full details of the race will be available later in the summer but with the popularity of IRONMAN events meaning athletes are committing to races now to secure a place in the most popular events for 2015, both parties wanted to announce the event early, to allow athletes to plan Dublin into their 2015 season.  We look forward to a long and successful partnership as we grow IRONMAN in Ireland – with the option of adding a full distance IRONMAN triathlon in 2016.”

Our photo is from IRONMAN Lake Tahoe.

Bloom Festival expecting large crowds

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This year Bloom, in conjunction with Dublin City Council and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has taken major steps in ‘greening’ Ireland’s largest garden festival. This initiative is part of the EPA’s National Waste Prevention Programme.

The Bloom festival takes place over the June Bank Holiday – Thursday 29th May to Monday 2nd June with an expected audience in the region of 120,000 coming to Phoenix Park over the weekend.

Last year, a large amount of festival waste was recycled, with remaining waste being converted to energy. This meant that nowaste from Bloom 2013 was sent to landfill.

This year a major step in extending its green credentials will be ensuring that food waste and packaging will be composted. All food vendors will be using certified compostable packaging.  As a result, all food service packaging will be commercially composted and used in landscaping.

To ensure Bloom 2014 is as waste friendly as possible, this year we are introducing a three bin system, to allow segregation of waste by visitors at the festival. There will be 1 bin for food and compostable packaging waste, 1 bin for recyclables and 1 bin for general waste.

Green ambassador volunteers will be assisting and discussing recycling/composting and food waste prevention to members of the public throughout the festival

Bloom 2014 – Show Garden

In Ireland over 1 million tonnes of food waste is disposed of per year. On average 1/3 comes from homes, which means that each person is throwing away 80kg of food waste per year. This is the weight equivalent of 80 bags of sugar needlessly discarded per person per year. Food waste is a real problem and is costing Irish householders on average €700 each year. Most of our wasted food ends up in landfills where it has significant local environmental impacts.

2014 is the European year against Food Waste and to coincide with this programme, Dublin City Council, in conjunction with the EPA has commissioned a ‘waste garden’ at Bloom 2014. The main focus of this garden must be on food waste prevention, recycling and composting of food and garden waste.

This is the national launch of the programme which will be rolled out across the country throughout the remaining part of the year.

 

 

 

Conservation plan launched for Merrion Square Park

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The Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn launched a Conservation and Management Plan for Merrion Square Park at the Irish Architectural Archive, Merrion Square, yesterday.

The Plan is a comprehensive study of the historical development of the ‘garden’ of Merrion Square from its beginning as a private garden to being one of the most important public parks and spaces in our City today.

“The focus of the Merrion Square Park Conservation Study is on the conservation, preservation, protection and management of this wonderful Square at the heart of the South Georgian Quarter. Many challenges lie ahead including maintaining a high level of service to the many visitors to the park but there are also many exciting new possibilities” said the Lord Mayor.

The Plan recommends how the historical integrity of the Park can best be conserved for the future and considers what future changes would be appropriate to interpret the heritage of this wonderful Square and also to accommodate first class visitor facilities.

The Conservation and Management Plan for Merrion Square Park can be viewed here.

 

 

 

UN Human Rights Day honour for Václav Havel

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Tomorrow 20 December 2013 at 12 noon, Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn will dedicate a living memorial bench at St. Patrick’s Park to the playwright, dissident and Czech president Václav Havel. The Lord Mayor will be joined at the ceremony by His Excellency Mr. Tomas Kafka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic, Professor Borek Sipek, friend of Havel and renowned architect and designer of the memorial, and Karel Schwarzenberg, politician and close adviser to Havel.

The memorial called “Václav Havel’s Place” was designed by Borek Sipek and comprises two seats intertwined around a lime tree, the national tree of the Czech Republic. The idea behind the memorial bench is to create a meeting space for democratic discussion and to encourage freedom of speech. The first “Václav Havel’s Place” was unveiled in Washington in October 2013 and Dublin is the second city to honour Havel in this way. Dublin’s sister city Barcelona proposes a similar memorial for 2014.

The Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn said: “I am delighted and honoured to dedicate this living memorial bench to the great and inspirational Václav Havel. St. Patrick’s Park is a fitting and contemplative setting for “Václav Havel’s Place” as it complements the “Literary Parade” which honours many world renowned Dublin writers such as Jonathan Swift and Samuel Beckett. Indeed Beckett dedicated a work called “Catastrophe” to Havel. I hope this memorial will stimulate not only Dublin citizens but the many visitors to this park, to chat, dream and develop ideas. I would like to thank Dublin City Council, H.E. Mr. Tomas Kafka, and the Czech Embassy, Bill Shipsey and the friends of Havel for their generous gift to this city.”.

H.E. Mr. Tomas Kafka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic said:” For any Czech citizen, let alone a representative of our country; it is a great honour to be associated with the legacy and example of our late President Václav Havel. I am very grateful to Bill Shipsey of Art for Amnesty, Dublin´s Lord Mayor Oisin Quinn as well as several Irish friends of Vaclav Havel, including the support of Skoda Ireland, that, thanks to their generosity, we can unveil “Václav Havel´s Place”, for Czechs better known as “Václav Havel´s bench”, on Human Rights Day in Dublin. This bench symbolizes Václav Havel´s fondness for dialogue and communication as one of the crucial foundations for a kinder and more tolerant society. I wish to dedicate to this new monument in Dublin a slogan as unpretentious as President Havel himself: “Let´s hope the world may change/ on Václav Havel´s bench”

Bill Shipsey, Art For Amnesty said: “It is a proud day for Amnesty International and the cause of universal human rights for which Vaclav Havel dedicated his life, that Dublin is dedicating the first ‘Havel’s Place’ in Europe and the first in a public space anywhere in the world in his honour. Vaclav Havel came to Dublin 10 years ago to receive the inaugural Amnesty International ‘Ambassador of Conscience’ Award from the hand of Seamus Heaney whose poem inspired the Award. We remember both Seamus and Vaclav on this proud day.”

“Václav Havel’s Place” memorial was funded by Dublin City Council, H.E. Mr. Tomas Kafka, Ambassador of the Czech Republic and the Czech Embassy, Skoda Ireland, Bill Shipsey and the Friends of Václev Havel. The lime tree was provided by SAP Nurseries.

Olive tree to be dedicated to twin city

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On Monday 11 November 2013 at noon, the Lord Mayor of Dublin Oisín Quinn will formally dedicate a 300 year old olive tree situated in Cow’s Lane to the City of Barcelona.   Deputy Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Ciurana and Bill Shipsey, who donated the tree to the City of Dublin, will also be in attendance.

Lord Mayor Oisín Quinn said:- “It is a great honour for me to dedicate this olive tree to the City of Barcelona.  The Cities of Barcelona and Dublin are twin Cities since 1998, and we in Dublin are happy to mark the 300th anniversary of the Siege of Barcelona, a very important time in the history of our sister city.  It is also dedicated to the cause of human rights which is a cause strongly promoted by Bill Shipsey through his global artist engagement programme, Art for Amnesty.”

Deputy Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Ciurana said:- “I am extremely grateful for the dedication of this three hundred year old olive tree to my city, Barcelona, and to human rights.  With this simple event we are two cities committed from today to extending the cause of freedom and Human Rights.”

The 300 year old olive tree was donated by Bill Shipsey to the City of Dublin in 2006 and it has been situated in Cow’s Lane since then.  He donated an olive tree as a symbol of human rights and as a living testament to man’s desire for freedom.

 [googleMap name=”Cow’s Lane Dublin” description=”Cow’s Lane” width=”300″ height=”300″]Cow’s Lane Dublin[/googleMap]

BOD to get Freedom of the City

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Brian O’Driscoll and Fr. Peter McVerry are to be awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin. The Lord Mayor’s nomination of the two men was warmly welcomed by all Councillors and subsequently ratified at this evening’s Dublin City Council meeting. The award of Freedom of the City of Dublin acknowledges the contribution of recipients to the life of Ireland’s capital city. It also bestows honour on important visitors to Dublin. The Freedom of the City will be awarded to both men in early 2014.

 

Brian O’Driscoll and Fr. Peter McVerry will join an illustrious list of Freemen and Freewomen including former US presidents John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, U2, Kevin Heffernan and Aung San Suu Kyi.

Louis Le Broquy and Thomas Kinsella were the last people to be awarded the Freedom of the City of Dublin in 2007.

 

Lord Mayor of Dublin Oisín Quinn said:- “It is a great honour to be able to propose two of Dublin’s most inspirational citizens for our highest award, the Honorary Freedom of the City of Dublin. Brian and Fr. Peter are from different generations but they share much in common.  They are both inspirational leaders.  They set a remarkable example to us all by the way they apply themselves to their challenges.  They are people who lead by the example they set.  In their own way and in their own fields, they are both individuals who walk the walk.

 

I am delighted they have agreed to accept this great honour and I know that all Dubliners will be both proud of, and find inspiration into the future from, these two remarkable men. They are and will continue to be great ambassadors for Dublin.”

 

Fr. Peter McVerry SJ has campaigned tirelessly for the rights of Dublin’s young homeless people for more than 40 years.  The Peter McVerry Trust provides a wide range of services to young homeless people and Fr. McVerry has always used his voice to speak on their behalf.  He approaches each individual he encounters with immense respect and works tirelessly to help them overcome the often immense personal challenges they face.

 

Brian O’Driscoll is one of Ireland’s best ever rugby union players and has frequently been named as the top player in the world during his playing career.  His achievements as player and captain for Leinster, Ireland and the British and Irish Lions include Under 19 World Cup, League Cups, Heineken Cups, Triple Crowns and the historic Grand Slam in 2009.  He is one of the most respected rugby players in the game today. Dublin City Council is proud to honour him as a player in the blue of Leinster and the green of Ireland.

 

Amongst the ancient privileges afforded to a Freeman or Freewoman is the right to bring goods into Dublin through the city gates, without paying customs duties; the right to pasture sheep on common ground within the city boundaries; and the right to vote in municipal and parliamentary elections.