Fergus has created problems for me in Fine Gael in his bid for the presidency. I will have to ask Enda’s permission to campaign for my longtime friend unless he’s an agreed candidate. Difficult one that, you’ll all agree. Maybe Enda and Phil Hogan will develop temporary blindness and deafness for a few weeks.  What would you do if your friend ran for president? Campaign against him/her? I don’t think so. Anyway, Michael D may make the whole thing irrelevant. PS, my personal vote should not be interpreted as a vote for Eamonn Gilmore.

Anyway, Fergus is exercised by a few issues, as you can imagine. Why, if we have been driven out of the bond market, was the last small tranche oversubscribed by a factor of four? Why does the media give the impression that it is up to Fine Gael and Labour to save the country right now but leave the state wreckers at the wheel? Media! Is that not a form of antisocial behaviour by you lot? Surely, there should be huge headlines across all the papers demanding an Election? It seems that the press expect Fine Gael and Labour to underwrite Fianna Fail in the national interest. Fergus claims that in the Dail debates in 2008 October, Labour said that they would have guaranteed the existance of AIB/BoI but not Anglo and Irish Nationwide??? I told him that Honohan did some academic manoeuvres to get Anglo into the systemic column in his report. I also said that FG should not have given a blanket guarantee. I would not have. But Richard Bruton’s bank policy after that was probably the best. Maybe still is.

I told him that I was proud of Team Fine Gael in the past two weeks. Meaty numerate and good sense. Noonan playing a blinder. Fergus thought Enda Kenny was good after the Leaders meeting.

I suggested to Fergus that we have to get the budget deficit down below 10% GDP immediately and then negotiate to avoid an economic wasteland. I think that fergus is in the ICTU camp.

It is noteworthy that Enda Kenny also listed a jobs stimulus as necessary in his responses.

Launch of the the security cameras in Ballymun which have gone live. These will heighten the security of the people and should prevent crime.

The power of the cameras makes the identification of faces relatively easy, so hoodies may be outdated. There are more than 50 operational cameras all over the estate. In the pictures are Lord Mayor Gerry Breen of Dublin Baywatch, Assistant Commissioner Michael Feehan, Minister for Justice Mr Dermot Ahern of Dundalk and in the group is Councillor Dessie Ellis of Dunsink, Councillor Paul McAuliffe feel and fall, and Antoinette Doyle of Coultry. 42 extra cameras were installed over the summer to add to the original 7 cameras. The system will be live and manned and there will be a dedicated phone number attached.The project was kicked off by €1 million grant from the then Justice Minister Brian Lenihan in 2007.

]]> http://www.billtormey.ie/2010/10/14/security-cameras-in-ballymun/feed/ 0 http://www.billtormey.ie/2010/10/12/beijing-and-dublin/ http://www.billtormey.ie/2010/10/12/beijing-and-dublin/#comments Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:26:04 +0000 ExSite http://www.billtormey.ie/?p=2668 I am in favour of increasing our relations with China. Getting closer to Bejing is part of that. Chinese language in schools is another step we should pursue.

Report to the Chairperson and Members of the Protocol Committee

The Protocol Committee at their meeting held on the 1st of July 2010 agreed the following motion; “That Dublin City Council adopts a policy of adopting bi-lateral relations with Beijing”. The motion had previously been agreed in principle by the City Council who asked that it be referred to the Protocol Committee for follow-up with a further report to the City Council in due course.

It is envisaged that a twinning relationship with Beijing would produce significant benefits to both cities politically, educationally, economically and culturally in the future.

There are many advantages in having a relationship with Beijing:

• Support our international education offering – All our Universities are actively recruiting students in China and our education system is promoting Chinese as a foreign language. It would help our Universities if Dublin was linked with the Chinese capital Beijing. There is an Irish institute for Chinese studies at UCD and an Irish Study Centre at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BEIWEI). There are at present approximately 3,500 Chinese students in higher education in Ireland.
• Assist social inclusion of Chinese in Dublin -There is now a very significant Chinese population living in Dublin. The majority are from mainland China and all have deep cultural, lingusitic and social roots to the Chinese nation. It would strengthen the bridge culturally and socially if Dublin was linked to the capital of China. While the official census for 2006 states there are 11,161 Chinese people living in Ireland, other sources indicate that this figure could be as high as 100,000.
• Help develop economic opportunities – Dublin and Irish companies are competing for access to the Chinese market. It would enhance the position of such companies if Dublin had bi-lateral relations with the Chinese capital. There are approximately 300 Irish people living in Beijing. 250 Irish SMEs are engaged with trade in China and 107 of them have offices there. There are 115 Irish companies with an interest in China, many of them in the education sector. China is Ireland’s seventh highest trading partner. Enterprise Ireland have identified opportunities for Irish companies in the following sectors:

• Software and I.T.;
• Environment;
• Education;
• Medical devices;
• Food and Drink.

• Develop opportunities for cultural exchange – China has a rich cultural heritage and bi-lateral relations with Beijing would help us develop cultural exchanges.
• Enhance our international positioning – Having a bi-lateral relationship with a major world capital such as Bejing would greatly enhance our international standing.

Over the last 3 years we have hosted visits from a number of Chinese cities including Beijing. The work being done by the Office of International Relations identifying cities across the globe that Dublin should link with, identifies Beijing for economic, social and cultural reasons. Twinning would facilitate having a formal programme with Beijing supporting educational exchange and co-operation, economic development, cultural exchange and exchange of different view points. Twinning with Beijing would significantly enhance and promote Dublin and Ireland’s identity and recognition with Beijing and within China.

Beijing has expressed its interest in having Dublin, as Ireland’s capital, twin with them. Cork City Council is formally twinned with Shanghai since 2005 and this twinning arrangement has been very successful for both cities in recent years.

A decision to enter into a twinning arrangement under Section 75 of the Local Government Act 2001 is a reserved function of the City Council.

Peter Finnegan,
Director – Office of International Relations and Research.