Minister for Energy, Communications and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, visited Carrick on Thursday last.

The Minister met with members of the local Chamber of Commerce, and the Tidy Towns Group, who have appealed to all to be litter aware during the month of June, during which judging takes place.

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Beyond where its use is necessary (eg when there are problems with mains supply) I really wish we could get over our love affair with bottled water.

Millions of gallons of this stuff are being driven all over Europe every day, adding to carbon emissions, transport congestion, waste, litter and unnecessary energy consumption. The PET plastic that is used to make the bottles also takes up enormous capacity in our recycling capacity, when it actually finds its way into our recycling system.

This is really bizarre to me. In most cases, the water is these bottles in the same water that comes out of our taps, except that its not as fresh as the water in out taps, because it generally sits in a vat or a bottle for weeks on end before it is consumed.

We really try to avoid using bottled water in our house. We have a UV filter on our well supply and we know our water is safe. We keep a few bottles of tap water in the fridge at all times and take these with us when we go out somewhere.

Obviously, not everyone is this lucky, but a lot of us are, and cutting down on our use of bottled water is an excellent way to contribute to a more sustainable future.

Click here for an interesting article on the subject.

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There seems to be a view about, promoted largely by members of Sinn Fein and Fine Gael, that the Mobile Broadband service that will be provided to Co. Leitrim under the National Broadband Scheme will not adequately serve the county’s broadband needs.

This might have been true 5 years ago, but these days, the development of mobile broadband is advancing far more rapidly than wired broadband, to the extent that mobile broadband will most likely the normal mode of delivery for residential customers within 5-10 years.

This makes sense, particularly in Ireland, where are network of telecommunications cabling is very old and where we have abundant space in our radio spectrum (because we don’t reserve big chunks of it for the military).

The cost of upgrading our network, particularly in rural areas where settlement is so dispersed, would be enormous, and by the time we completed it, mobile broadband will probably have outstripped wired broadband in terms of the speed it can deliver into a residential home.

Another advantage of mobile broadband is that it is portable: you can take it with you when you leave you home, or when you leave the country.

From that point of view, it would be ludicrous for the State to invest hundreds of millions of euro in upgrading the eircom network, particularly in rural areas, where it is over 30 years old.

Instead, we will extend the mobile reach in Leitrim through more masts and better signal management, so that Leitrim residents can avail of improvements in mobile broadband as they come on stream.

This is the same model of rural broadband delivery that is being used in the UK, Australia and the US.

To learn more about the National Broadband Scheme, go to http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/nbs

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NAMA is the National Asset Management Agency. It has been set up by the Government to manage the bad debts of Irish banks. It will work as follows:

NAMA will buy bad loans from the Irish banks.

It will pay for these loans with Government Bonds, not cash. The banks will hold these bonds for a fixed period of time. During that time, the Government will pay interest on the bonds to the banks, and at the end of the life of the bonds, the Government will pay back the capital amount of the bonds to the banks.

The amount of Government bonds issued will be decided by a panel of international experts who have previous experience in dealing with the bad debts of banks.

The banks will take these bonds and place them with the European Central Bank. In return, the ECB will give the Irish banks cash. This cash will be used to recapitalise the banks so that they can start lending to business and consumers again.

In the meantime, NAMA will start to manage the loans it has bought from the banks. This will involve pursuing the people who took out the loads to ensure that they are repaid. In some case, this will involve acquiring the assets (land) against which the loans are secured, and re-using or selling this land in order to realise its value. This process will occur over a 10-15 year period. Any value realised will be used to pay interest on the bonds, and invested, so that NAMA has sufficient funds to pay back the capital amounts of the bonds.

At the end of NAMA’s existence, if it transpires that NAMA hasn’t realised enough value from the loans to fully pay back the banks, a levy on bank profits will be introduced to make up the difference.

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Green Party Environment Minister, John Gormley, will publish new planning legislation this month which will make specific reference to the issue of unfinished estates.

The Bill will contain provisions to allow planners refer to a developers record of completion before that developer is granted permission for subsequent development.

This was not the case in the past, when developers could move from one estate to the next prior to having completed previous developments.

The effect of this will be place the onus for completing development back on the developer. They may not be planning any new development in the immediate future, but they will know that completing any existing development will be key to their commercial viability in the medium term, which should focus their minds in relation to their current responsibilities.

We’ll update here as soon as we know more.

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When it was originally announced, one of the more difficult aspects of the Pension Levy was that it applied to all income of all workers who were members of Public Sector Pensions Scheme.

This affected a lot of part-time workers, who were either in a scheme or who were entitled to a retirement gratuity, like retained (part-time) Firefighters. All such workers were required to pay a levy of 3% regardless of how much they were earning.

This was addressed in the Supplementary Budget in April, when the Minister changed the arrangements in relation to the Pension Levy such that the first €15,000 of income was exempted entirely from the Levy.

This was a welcome change, but it appears to have been overlooked somewhat by the media, to the extent that a lot of part-time workers are not aware of it.

I thought I’d do my bit to redress this by publishing the change here.

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