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THE GOVERNMENT HAS published its sixth Action Plan for Jobs progress report – a plan they implemented to help rebuild the economy after 250,000 jobs were lost following the collapse of the economy.
It shows that 160 out of 180 measures they promised would be delivered in April, May and June this year have been implemented – a success rate of 89 per cent.
Among the measures delivered were:
JobsPlus – a scheme to provide regular cash payments to employers to offset wage costs where they employ people who have been on the Live Register for over 12 months.
A new €175 million ‘Seed and Venture Capital Scheme’, aimed at leveraging private sector funds to provide a total of €700 million in funding to Irish companies with the potential to grow employment.
The start of a roll-out of 31 local enterprise offices across the country.
Additional reviewers for the Credit Review Office recruited to help improve credit supply for small business.
The launched of a ‘National Step Change Initiative’ for manufacturing businesses, as part of a plan to supply 20,000 additional jobs in this sector.
Minister for Jobs Richard Bruton explained that of the 20 projects which did not meet their targets, a few missed it “by a whisker”.
Since the Action Plan for Jobs was rolled out in early 2012, official employment figures show that the private sector has been adding an average of more than 2,000 jobs per month.
The figures also show that the unemployment rate has dropped from 14.1 per cent to 13.7 per cent – the first time since 2010 it has gone below 14 per cent.
The numbers of people unemployed has dropped below 300,000 for the first time since 2010, while the long-term unemployment rate has fallen from 9.5 per cent to 8.4 per cent in the past year.
The Minister Bruton said they are starting to see real progress with the plan to rebuild the economy after 250,000 jobs were lost during the collapse of the economy but he acknowledged that “many people have yet to feel the effects of this progress and that many people are really struggling”.
Since the Action Plan for Jobs was first put in place an average of 2,000 jobs per month are being created in the private sector. Irish and multinational exporting companies had record years in 2012, and recent figures show that this strong performance is continuing in 2013, with major announcements by companies like Glanbia, eBay and Symantec, added the jobs minister.
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Getting away from fossil fuel, has to be progress. Windmills can be an eye sore to some,Iam not a nimby either, I’d have no problem having one in my back yard.
Here’s the problem stephen, you automatically think a turbine can be placed anywhere and each will work the same. This isn’t the case. Wind doesn’t blow the same equally in the whole of Ireland. What wind you get at the back of your house is completely different to someone living a couple of miles away from you. As i said before I honestly do believe the country will end up been littered with turbines and it will take a few years for people to do the figures before all hell breaks loose. By the time that happens the ones who are getting them installed will have a hefty bank balance and me and you will pay for it. Time will tell.
Laois coco refused the planning abp inspector advised against and abp give the go ahead anyhow ? 3 out of the 5 decision makers in abp have interest in wind energy company and have been put there by the government . That sound like a fair judgement alright ! Steven 8 turbine of 140 m each coming at 500 m of my house . Would you like to buy it ?
There are a few turbines near me and to be honest, whilst they are visually dominating on the landscape, I have to say that there are no noise issues, they are actually very quiet, at least these ones are anyway
With 40k they could start their own wind farm. This is what the locals in Holland do ! They own there local wind farms and get free power as well as profits !
If the Government wasn’t so interested in profiteering out of this they could easily bring in schemes which are currently in use in a lot of Europe with community energy farms. By giving locals responsibility and a financial incentive to pursue wind energy projects you cut out most of the objections in one move. Of course the Government can’t make huge profits on this so don’t expect to see it any time soon. Anything that helps the people on the ground in this country seems to be automatically rejected by our great leaders.
Wake up pylons are their to link the ugly wind farms to the grid ! Nothing wrong with them ? Appart the fact than their huge ugly and noisy come in a 500 m radius of people houses and highly inefficient and come with a substation the size of a football pitch
I would imagine Japan would be willing to sell the good folks in Laois a nuclear power station,slightly used for around 40k if they need an alternative to wind power
Anyone who wants to understand the true scale of these new bigger turbines needs to visit mount Lucas,then if you would be happy to live beside one yourself you can call it nimbyism! The whole wind turbine scam has already been exposed in Germany where it has proved completely ineffective at reducing CO2 emmissions, this is another developer led disaster waiting to happen here! Wake up and smell the coffee people, do your research!
Personally I couldn’t give a rats arse about turbines because they won’t be any in my area. But Barry is right, most of these turbines will work at a loss. Everyone has been fooled into thinking different. I’ve always been for them coming into the country and then I got a crash course on what they have to do to be profitable. I can’t see the turbines been stopped but I can say this in a few years time when everyone cops on that they are a failure some serious shit is going to hit the fan. (Pardon the pun) a lot of heads are going to roll
Tough one this. There ate reports that these cause tinnitus and migraine type symptoms for people living near by. Not to mention the effect on sleep cycles. Are there alternatives? Why not throw 1000 of Em on a windy island off the west coast away from people.
Here’s a double picture of the new Mount Lucas wind farm taken from my house 5klms away from the turbines. I airbrushed the top part of the photo to show what the view used to be like. The bottom half of the photo is in no way photoshopped.
Too many people too busy watching their soaps and figuring out Garth Brooks next move to give a damn. You can only see 13 turbines in that photograph, There’s 28 there now, and in a year or so when i turn the opposite direction and take another photo there will be 32 more if planning goes ahead.
If these people have money to spend protesting clean energy we don’t have to import then despite their protests to the contrary we are clearly not taxing them enough.
Those people use their hard earn money to fight a lobbied government who doesn’t take in consideration local residents well being flora fauna or cultural heritage into consideration , wake up people those monsters are going up all over the country without any proper taughts been given and your electricity bill will keep rocketing since YOU tax payers are subsiding them ! Country all over Europe are backing up on them and Ireland goes full steam ahead ! Don’t say you weren’t warned in 3 years time when they ll be everywhere you look and you pay the biggest price in Europe for electricity
I flew from the south of Spain to England last week. The landscape had lots of wind turbines all the way. People in these countries don’t have a problem with them. Ireland seem to have a problem with everything.
It’s amazing to see the outright ignorance displayed in this thread. Having lived in Holland and near many wind farms all the arguments the anti-wind crowd are putting out there are complete and utter tripe. They make no noise, they don’t impact the environment, and to be honest you don’t even know they are there. Don’t take my word for it, travel there and check it out first hand.
Personally I don’t have a problem with wind turbines, I don’t think they’re ugly (that’s a matter of opinion) but they’re certainly not noisy. 3 turbines are within 1 km of my house.
People who are opposing the construction, what’s the alternative? Nuclear?
As a country, we protest against almost every form of progress. Severely in need of economic stimulus, how about 5 concerts with a estimated worth of €50 million to the capitols economy? Era no, it’d be awfully noisy wouldn’t it? How about that wind energy deal with the UK that went south a few months ago that would have been financed primarily by the British tax payer and employed hundreds of irish people while making us a net exporter of electricity? Those turbines are a bit ugly actually so we’ll hold off on that one.
Jesus, we’re our own worst enemy and we’ll turn a blind eye to anything that’s not in our back yard.
Sorry about the rant but vocal protest groups who claim to represent the majority grind my gears!
Sites like Mount Lucas breach World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on night time noise – they also breach World Bank and European Financial Institution guidelines – FACT.
There is peer reviewed evidence that noise in general and infrasound(which is every where but importantly is modulated at blade pass frequency to make it rhythmic by a wind turbine ) does effect a certain group if people. Wind farm infrasound has harmonics – roughly 160hz is common – and this is audible and highly penetrative (i.e closed windows or a pillow over your head will not stop it). To say “it does not bother me” is like saying hay fever is not a bother – it is dependant on the receptor and not the transmitter. Some people are more sub-settable. Take peanuts – today it would be unacceptable to sell a product without a warning “it may contain nuts” but is ok to install wind farms saying people subset-able to low frequency noise are NIMBY or psychologically (in the brain) rather than physiologically ( in the muscles/cells/bones) upset by wind farms.
The ISO model used by wind farm developers to predict noise levels is flawed – at least two peer reviewed docs talk about issues where land falls away from turbine site leads to a 3db error. I.e it’s 3db louder in reality.
Additionally the ISO model was never written for 80 or 100 or 120 meter high noise sources.
Today the Irish government will allow 47db(A) as a reasonable external noise level at a noise sensitive location. This may be a location which prior to the wind farm being built enjoyed a 32 to 35 db(A) noise level . Db’s are logarithmic so 3 db(A) increase is a doubling of sound pressure level. This is such a massive increase that you have to experience it – and please do so not for a minute or an hour or a day but at least a week but better still a month or two.
Many foreign governments ( the Germans particularly) are waking up to the noise related issues from wind farms – their TA LAM standard is under review due to inadequacies in is prediction capability.
There seems to be two camps in this country
A) allow as many wind farms as possible
B) allow none
Empirical numerical analysis should be used backed up by solid medical evidence that there are no issues prior to construction – and this is not happening.
I have 3 months of evidence showing where a prediction is way off – the sluggishness of this being addressed is indefensible.
It will come to pass – probably too late – that some(not all) wind farms were granted planning incorrectly and have forced people from their homes – which as an aside violates both constitution and human rights – and a redress scheme will be required paid for by the tax payer.
It took 80 years for vibration white figure to be identified and classified as a serious industrial hazard – and the similarities to wind farm noise are stark – every drill, chain saw, jack hammer now has to comply with the relevant EU directive to protect the operator.
Let’s hope it does not take 80 years before the relevant vs irrelevant issues with wind farms is identified and addressed
Whether the issue is concerts in Croke Park or Wind farms in Laois the interests of the NIMBY sector should be considered but not automatically given precedence over the greater good for the larger population of the nation.
This also goes for city dwellers who think their waste and power can be taken care of “down the country”- build the incinerator in Poolbeg…!
There also needs to be a geographical limit and qualifying criteria for objecting to planning as there are too many “career objectors” involved in these protests who travel all over Ireland objecting to everything we call progress.
When the local coco and abp own specialist refuse the application but abp goes ahead regardless I think there is cause for great concerns over the planning application process
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