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AN BORD PLEANÁLA has given the go-ahead for the first phase of an international trading hub to be built in Athlone, Co Westmeath.
The development will be constructed on a 137-hectare site at the Creggan, east of Athlone and will cost around €175 million for the first phase.
The grandiose development even anticipates there will be an ‘Athlone International Airport’ that will completed “at the end of 2018″ and will be a 20 minute drive away from the Europe China Trading Hub (ECTH).
This morning, the planning board has given the go-ahead for the first of a five intended stages which will be financed by private equity, and pre-sales of concessions spaces according to the developers.
It rejected half-a-dozen appeals including one from An Taisce which warned that a similar Chinese trading hub was being built on the Wirral peninsula opposite Liverpool in the UK.
The ECTH intends to provide a demonstration space for Chinese manufacturers and traders to sell their goods to European and international buyers with a view to generating bulk orders.
The development will span across 1,000,000 square metres and some of the facilities that are intended to be constructed during phase one of the project include:
It is estimated that 1,500 jobs could be created as part of the project as well as 1,200 during the post construction phase. It is envisaged that as many as 9,000 jobs could be created through further developments of the remaining four stages.
The Europe China Trading Hub as envisaged by the project’s developers according to its official website.
As well a the trading hub the website for the ECTH (you have to click through to see the artist’s impression of what it will look like) says there there will eventually be culture and leisure facilities that will include:
The website also states that Athlone International Airport will be completed at the end of 2018 though it is not clear if this is part of the development or a separate enterprise.
The project is the brainchild of the Athlone Business Park Ltd which is owned by two local developers Aidan Kelly and Michael O’Sullivan. A former Roscommon county manager John Tiernan is acting as chief executive.
Last December local Fianna Fáil councillor Frankie Keena told TheJournal.ie that the development was a positive one for transport links in Ireland.
He said: “The Chinese’s target market would consist of business people on the east coast of America and European people as well. Up to about 3,000 people a week would be coming into Ireland so it’ll be positive for the airports as well.
“Athlone is ideally located for this project, it’s in the centre of country. With a new motorway you’d make Dublin Airport in an hour-and-a-half easy – easily to Shannon airport as well. It’s something we badly need to give us a stimulus.”
An Taisce declined to comment on the decision by An Bord Pleanála this morning but said it would be releasing a statement later today.
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The German Interior Minister was recently reported as saying that he reckons that there is going to be a new influx of migrants into Germany which will be even bigger than the one in 2015.Consifering that a lot of these will be from Syria it’s fair to say that a good number of them will be ex ISIS or head hacking “moderate” rebels. Will Germany be so welcoming of them this time around?
@CBD Suppliers: It won’t effect the political class living in their gated communities, with armed security paid for by the taxpayers.
@CBD Suppliers: awful lot of conjecture based on no facts
@CBD Suppliers: This is because of the imminent Turkish invasion of Syria, they are gearing up to ethnically cleanse Rojava, the Kurdish self governing region of north Syria. The Turks see them as an extension of the PKK. If there is a wave of refugees over this, time it will be Kurds, and Kurds fought ISIS.
And here some of the 9000 Kurdish fighters and Western volunteers who lost their lives fighting ISIS:
@CBD Suppliers: You might post the link which identifies the attackers as Syrian…
@CBD Suppliers: You might post the link which identifies the attackers as Syrian…
@CBD Suppliers: You might post the link which identifies the attackers as Syrian…
@Brenda Malloy: Conjecture? https://www.thelocal.de/20180313/three-syrians-jailed-over-is-sleeper-cell
You’d want a hole in your head to think that this isn’t happening.https://www.thedailybeast.com/isis-smuggler-sleeper-cells-and-undead-suicide-bombers-have-infiltrated-europe
Ask any clued in security, police or intelligence offical or analyst if IS and other terrorists are infiltrating Europe and you will get an affirmative answer every time.
IS are exploiting the fold of migrants into Europe to put their people in place. Immigration officials are overwhelmed with refugee requests and so it is easier for IS sleepers to slip through the cracks. At least in Ireland, the Syrians that we grant asylum to are checked out as thoroughly as possible. Germany on the other hand just let anyone and everyone in. Some of them are even going back on holidays to the countries that they claimed they are being persecuted in! Germany is facing an increasing threat of imported terrorism and there is no conjecture about that.
@David F O’Connell: I never said they were Syrian, I said that ” a lot of these will be from Syria”. IS is made up of a melting pot of nationalities but the main nationalities in Syria/Iraq are made up of Syrians and Iraqis. The rest are from Central Asia (AF/Pak), the various “stans”, Bangledesh, along with Europeans and a handful of other countries.
IS has a very well-financed intelligence network that is expert at producing false documents for its infiltrators. So even if someone arrives into the immigration office claiming to be Syrian, Iraqi or any other nationality the chances are that they could be from anywhere.
Hell, in Ireland you don’t even need a passport to get in here. https://www.independent.ie/regionals/argus/news/man-used-fake-passport-to-seek-irish-citizenship-38548088.html
“The defendant left war-torn Somali as an asylum seeker. He didn’t have a passport or documentation when he came here in 2011.”
How did he manage to get on a flight from Somalia (min 2 stops) and waltz into Ireland without a passport or any sort of documentation? IF that’s just one guy in Ireland then how is Germany going to cope with hundreds of thousnds probably doing the same thing in the future?
@Brenda Malloy: common sense I would say.
@CBD Suppliers: 30K people get killed in the US by guns alone every year…..so please so explain what exactly is your point?
@Peter Hughes: This story is about a shooting in Germany and you are going on about gun deaths in the US. Why don’t you explain your point?
@Peter Hughes:
60% of those would be suicide. So what’s your point?
@➕The Gray➕: Rubbish but even if it were true it still leaves 10K…….whats your point?
@Peter Hughes:
10k, accidental & homicide. What has that got to do with this article?
@Peter Hughes: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/08/16/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/
“Though they tend to get less attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2017, six-in-ten gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (23,854), while 37% were murders (14,542), according to the CDC. The remainder were unintentional (486), involved law enforcement (553) or had undetermined circumstances (338).
Considering that you commented “Rubbish but even if it were true” the fact that you are unsure of yourself and didn’t bother to do a simple bit of research, is it any surprise that you are confusing an article about a shooting in Germany with gun deaths in the US?
I see the racists and xenophobes are out.
@CBD Suppliers: Again, where’s the link that identifies the murderers as being IS, or immigrants..?
@David F O’Connell: I presume that you are totally ignoring my previous reply rebutting your assertion that I ever said that the attackers were Syrian or are members of IS. Oh no wait, you must have read it because now you have dropped your claim that I said they were Syrians and you are now focusing on IS and immigrants. So after been shown up for trying to put words in my mouth you have now put your head down and changed tack!
Ok, lets see who might possibly have attacked a synagogue. We haven’t heard much from the Judean People’s Front for a while but I doubt it’s them. It could be neo-Nazi’s/Far-Right extremists, however, most of their attacks are arson, stabbing and pipe bombs so if it is them then this is a major departure and upscale in violence on their part. The most obvious culprits are Islamists aligned to IS or AQ.
Whoever carried it out it’s a fair bet that is was Islamists seeing as how they have carried out twice as many attacks as FR/neo’s. It could be a copycat of the Whitechurch shootings. My money is still on Islamists.
@CBD Suppliers: So you still can’t identify them – here this might help: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-shooting-synagogue-attack-latest-twitch-livestream-gunman-holocaust-jews-a9149381.html
@David F O’Connell: He sounds like a lot of the lads that post on here.
@Lisa Saputo: Straight in with the “it must have been migrants”
@CBD Suppliers: You lost your bet so. It’s a German lad.
@Patricia Mcnamara: I guess you were wrong.
@CBD Suppliers: I guess you were wrong.
RIP to the victims. Other reports say that the shooting happened outside a synagogue and that an explosive device was thrown into an adjacent Jewish cemetery. One suspect has been arrested apparently. Today is Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jewish folk.
So much hate directed at Jews nowadays. You have a lot to answer for Mr. Corbyn.
@Darren B: ISRAELIS???
@Darren B: LOL. You’re blaming Jeremy Corbyn for some nutter shooting up a synagogue in Germany! Why don’t you just blame Brexit and the Russians while you are at it?
@Darren B: A good day to troll hard, it seems
@Patricia Mcnamara: interesting anti semitism. Not all Israelis are Jews. Not all Jews are Israeli. Corbyn is in part to blame but so is the rampant anti semitism in Europe which is always a sign bad things are coming.
@Darren B: You can be opposed to Israel and not be anti-Semitic. It’s not anti Christian to oppose European actions, it’s not Islamophobic to disagree with Isis.
@Darren B: Ive read some tripe on here but this takes the biscuit.
@Darren B: You’re blaming Corbyn? You are an absolute *Insert expletive here*
The Jewish people settled here after the war, they were refugees from the Camps and others. They buckled down, worked hard, mixed in, were gracious and mannerly and yet went to their synagogue. There was never any ‘Jew hatred’ for them.
They went on to be some of the biggest clothing companies employed hundreds of Irish people of all religions. What’s the problem ? corbyn is not an anti semitic.
@Rosie:
His Hezbollah and Hamas friends would disagree.
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