North/South: New Irish President
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Michael D Higgins has taken over from Mary McAleese as Irish President, while Irish citizens in Northern Ireland will not receive voting rights for the foreseeable future. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Michael Daniel Higgins, the first intellectual and poet to reside at Áras an Uachtaráin, was elected Ireland’s ninth President on 27 October, receiving 701,101 first preference votes, which increased to 1,007,104 with transfers. This equated to a 39.6 per cent share of the total vote, well above Cavan entrepreneur Sean Gallagher’s 28.5 per cent. Gallagher came second with 628,114 first...[full story]
Energy: Ireland’s offshore opportunity
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Offshore power can boost economic recovery and Northern Ireland has the edge over the Republic, NOW Ireland’s Brian Britton tells agendaNi. Northern Ireland has a key part to play in exploiting Ireland’s offshore renewables opportunity, according to NOW Ireland Secretary Brian Britton. NOW Ireland (the National Offshore Wind Association of Ireland) was set up in 2007 to promote the industry. At present, the island has one offshore wind farm on Arklow Bank (25MW), a joint partnership between Airtricity and GE Energy and 2,670 MW capacity in shovel-ready projects in existing project...[full story]
Energy: The Crown Estate and renewables
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011Dermott Grimson discusses the Crown Estate’s role in renewables with Peter Cheney. “A property company” is the best way to sum up the Crown Estate, according to Dermott Grimson. As Head of External Affairs for a unique organisation, he is increasingly involved in preparing the seabed for renewable development. The Glaswegian explains that “like any other property owner, we want to invest in our property in order to make the most of our assets and help others make something of the asset too.” Profits have totalled £1.9 billion over the last 10 years. It generates money from...[full story]
Politics: SDLP conference – seeking recovery
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011Peter Cheney sums up the SDLP conference, where Alasdair McDonnell got off to a shaky start as leader. The party has dipped to a new low but members are determined to increase its standing again. Posters of Patsy McGlone and Conall McDevitt greeted arriving delegates along the approach roads to the Ramada Hotel, while inside McGlone’s team was conspicuous in their green T-shirts. This promised to be a livelier SDLP conference than the norm. In her final speech as leader, Margaret Ritchie claimed that “the people at the top have lost touch,” accusing Peter Robinson of being “too...[full story]
Politics: Green party conference
Tuesday, December 20th, 2011The Green New Deal needs more than £12 million from 2011-2014 but it does act as a roadmap to a “social economy with green values at its core,” Green Party leader, Steven Agnew told his annual Northern Ireland conference on 29 October. With 6,031 votes (0.9 per cent) the party gained a single seat. However, with 41,039 votes (1.8 per cent) in the Republic, the Greens lost all six seats in the Dáil following their unpopular coalition with Fianna Fáil. A motion from the Antrim branch to create a Northern Ireland party rather than remain a region of the Irish Green Party was rejected....[full story]
ICT: Digital island – Irish Government plans
Monday, October 10th, 2011Developing Ireland as a ‘digital island’ was cited as a priority by the Irish Government when it came to power in March. agendaNi examines its ICT priorities. The Republic’s Programme for Government committed to making Ireland a “first-mover” in information technology by making more progress on e- government, moving government services online, and investing in ICT in schools and the healthcare sector. Currently, citizens can engage with government through the gov.ie website which includes links to the 16 departments, plus eight e-government websites (see box). At the end of...[full story]
North/South: Environmental co-operation
Monday, October 10th, 2011Ministers from North and South spoke of enhanced co-operation at this year’s Environment Ireland conference. Stephen Dineen summarises the main themes. There was a strong theme of North/South co-operation to Environment Minister Alex Attwood’s address at this year’s Environment Ireland conference. The conference, in its seventh year, saw the environment ministers from the two jurisdictions attend for the first time. One of the themes taken up by the new Environment Minister in his speech was the potential for Northern Ireland to tap into funding for environmental research, and he...[full story]
North/South: Economists in government
Monday, October 10th, 2011Economists are increasingly being called upon to help ministers make policy decisions a senior Northern Ireland civil servant has told a Dublin audience. Meadhbh Monahan reports. Ministers realise that their projects won’t go ahead without approval from the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) and are therefore turning to economists for economic research, briefings and policy development, rather than just cost-benefit and appraisal analysis. One hundred economists make up the Northern Ireland Government Economic Service. They are employed as DFP civil servants and are seconded...[full story]
North/South: Environmental regulation and trade barriers
Monday, October 10th, 2011A new InterTradeIreland report shows that regulations from EU directives have little impact on companies who trade across the border. InterTradeIreland’s report has found that companies are not impacted significantly by environmental regulations. The report, which examined the impact of regulatory burdens arising from several EU environmental directives, said that only the trans-frontier shipment of waste (TFS) regulations were proving significantly burdensome. It recommends: • reporting requirements arising from environmental regulations should be examined; • electronic and web-based...[full story]
Politics: Sinn Féin ard fheis – Towards a new Republic
Monday, October 10th, 2011Meadhbh Monahan reports on the Sinn Féin ard fheis, where a sense of ‘getting on with it’ pervaded the proceedings. Republicanism is not about “a line on a map”, it is about people, fairness and equality, Martin McGuinness told delegates at the annual Sinn Féin ard fheis in Belfast’s Waterfront Hall. ‘Towards a new Republic’ was the slogan of this year’s event; the first to be held in Northern Ireland, where an address by a Presbyterian minister was the biggest talking point. Despite the fact that Sinn Féin is an all- Ireland party, there remained a slight sense of...[full story]
