LATEST DUBLIN CITY NEWS

• “Proposed changes to retail guidelines will cost jobs, compromise main streets and cause more dereliction - An Taisce”

  03-01-2012

  Jobs will be lost and main streets will suffer if Forfas gets its way on Retail Planning  according to a recent An Taisce  Press Release

• Rejuvenating Dublin's Tourism Product

  23-12-2011

  Dublin City Business Association commissioned Jerome Casey and Felim O’Rourke to undertake a study of tourism in Dublin and to make least-cost recommendations for its rejuvenation. The World Tourism Organisation concluded (in relation to Ireland) that "there appears to be very little correlation between marketing spending by National Tourism Organisations and international arrivals". 
  

  Within Ireland, there is a mismatch between the Irish tourism market and the public resources devoted to it. 

  33 existing tourist attractions in Dublin were reviewed, and low-cost initiatives suggested for their improvement.

  From 2000 – 2010 Ireland’s share of world tourism visitors has fallen sharply. In 2004, Ireland changed from being a destination country for incoming tourists to an origin country for Irish, outgoing tourists.

  Dublin must move from passive approval of tourist activities to an active development of tourism as a priority industry in regenerating the city’s economy. 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

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The Irish Prison Reports

Tuesday the 16th of May 2006

2005 will be recorded by the Irish Prison service as a year of significant change in the development by the State of a more modern and responsive prison system. The Prisons Authority Interim Board has been very pleased to play its part during 2005 in helping to support, lead and encourage change within the existing prison system in this country.

In 2005 the purchase of a 150 acre site at Thornton Co. Dublin was made to facilitate the replacement of existing prisons on the Mountjoy Campus. Board members remain firmly of the view that construction of the new facilities needs to commence with urgency in order to cease the deplorable conditions in which prisoners are currently housed in Mountjoy Prison.

The most substantial of other significant prison projects in 2005 was the proposed new prison facility on Spike Island to replace Cork Prison. A delay that was encountered in acquiring the land needed to build a bridge to the island disappointed the board; however, the provision of new education, medical and other facilities at Limerick Prison and the replacement of prison accommodation at Portlaoise Prison was reason for satisfaction.

Sound financial management is essential if overall prison costs are to be controlled and managed in the interest of diverting a greater proportion of the prison services and facilities. The Interim Board continued to closely monitor Prison Service expenditure in 2005 and were pleased that significant progress was again made in capping prison costs. In 2006 further progress in the control of costs as, the cost saving measures of the Proposal for Organisational Change and the design of the new prison complex at Thornton opens up greater scope for operational efficiencies.
The Board welcomed the Minister's proposal for a new drugs policy for prisons, including a commitment to introduce mandatory drug testing, physical barriers to prevent the flow of drugs to prisoners and measures to reduce prisoners demand for drugs and further implement options.

Summary of some key performance indicators:

• Persons aged between 21 and 40 years accounted for 67% of committals 
   under sentence in 2005 (3,390 people)
• Persons sentenced to two years or more accounted for 13% of all committals
   under sentence (2005) compared to 11% in 2004.
• 2,185 non-nationals were committed to prison, of whom 860 (40%) were
   committed for short periods of detention under immigration laws.
• The number of persons sentenced to more than one year was up 35% to 1,144 in
   2005 as compared with 845 in 2004.
• At any given time in 2005 65% of persons were serving sentences of two years of
   more.
• The average cost of keeping an offender in prison in 2005 was €90,900