Parents 'must educate themselves' about e-business

LEIXLIP, 5 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. Parents owe it to their children to educate themselves about the 'brave new world' of e-business and high technology, according to the public affairs manager of Leixlip's Hewlett-Packard high technology campus. Una Halligan says this is particularly important against a scenario where the career guidance services are 'vastly under-resourced' and where 'little has progressed' in the last 20 years.

"We are seeing a large increase in the dropout rate of students in their first year of college," she warns, "often because courses are selected on the basis of highest CAO points attained at Leaving Certificate rather than on the understanding of the career chosen."

Ms Halligan says that parents are often unaware of how their own perceptions and attitudes can and do affect their offspring in their career choices. "Many of us who grew up in the non-computer and technical age are wary of jobs we know little about. Coming from a background of high unemployment in Ireland, we tend to steer our children, sometimes unintentionally, into what we consider the 'safe' jobs ... such as medicine, law and banking."

Noting that she is not advocating that all graduates should be computer scientists or software developers, Ms Halligan says parents should 'open their minds' and those of their children to all the opportunities, so that they don't end up as square pegs in round holes after years of study.

She also warns that many companies are now looking to eastern Europe and Asia to find the skills required for the new e-business world. "It would be a great tragedy if, having attracted the top blue-chip technology companies into Ireland because of the availability of educated and suitably skilled workers, we were to discover that the skills needed and being offered in the marketplace were not the skills being acquired by our students," she says.

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GAA club's development draw for launch

KILCULLEN, 5 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. Kilcullen GAA Club is launching a draw tonight aimed at raising £40,000 towards the cost of its current development programme, which totals £419,000.

The development programme involves the building of a new clubhouse, storage shed, outside toilets, a sideline fence and dugouts, and represents the final stage of a two-part operation which has already seen the purchase by the club of land and the development of a full-size playing field and car park, at a cost of £150,000.

Eventually, when a recreational gymnasium and a 200-seat terrace are built, along with a training track and lights, the complete development will have cost £595,000.

Finance already available for this year's needs includes a £100,000 donation from Kilcullen Development Association, £60,000 from the National Lottery and £40,000 from the club's own development fund. The launch of the Development Draw will take place in the Town Hall at 8.30pm and all are welcome.

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Notes ... Notes ... Notes ...

CELBRIDGE: Kildare County Council is to relocate a controversial wall at St Wolstans inside the footpath. The decision will also ensure that there is a public footpath from Celbridge to Killenlea. Further talks have yet to take place between the Department of Education and Kildare County Council but Cllr Geraldine Conway expressed the hope that this will pose no difficulty for the relocation of this wall.

CELBRIDGE: Funding is to be provided for the provision of an Adult School Warden at Scoil na Mainistreach, Oldtown Road, Celbridge. Over 584 children attend the school. The post will be advertised this month.

DONADEA: The minister for the marine and natural resources is to be asked to transfer the ownership of Donadea Forest Park to either Kildare County Council or Duchas. This follows the circulation of a report on the future of Coillte, which currently owns the woods, in which consultants have recommended that the forestry company remain in public ownership for five years. Deputy Emmet Stagg said this suggestion indicates that public access to the park is now secure for some time. He wants the minister to further consider the issue of public access to forsts now that the report has been produced.

CELBRIDGE: Remedial works on footpaths, kerbs and roads in both the Grove Estate and Crodaun Forest Estate will begin soon, according to the development control officer in Kildare County Council. The works will be carried out by a private contractor on behalf of the council, which has already agreed to take in charge the Grove, and will begin the process for Crodaun Forest in the autumn.

LEIXLIP: More sophisticated equipment to try and identify the source of very high sulphur dioxide levels in Leixlip is to be installed in the area, following consultations between the Eastern Health Board, the EPA and Dublin Corporation.

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Protest march over asylum-seekers

KILDARE, 4 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. Children carrying placards expressing concerns about health, education and security in relation to locating more asylum seekers in Kildare led a protest parade through the town last evening, in advance of a public information meeting organised by the Department of Justice.

Local people heard the department intends to locate up to 400 new asylum seekers at the abandoned Magee Barracks (above), which already houses 300 Kosovar refugees who were put up there in mobile homes last year.

The marchers, estimated at around 300 in number, carried signs asking passing motorists to ‘beep’ in support of their opposition to accepting further asylum-seekers. Many motorists responded.

The public meeting was addressed by officials from the Department of Justice who said that up to 15,000 asylum-seekers would be arriving in Ireland this year. A local doctor expressed his concerns about medical screening and said a ‘stretched’ health service would be bad for the town and for the asylum-seekers located there. He disagreed with officials’ suggestions that such people had so far not carried serious health risks, and he wanted to know what measures would be put in place to address any possible TB or Hepatitis B risks.

The need for extra gardai and teachers in the event of an increased refugee population in KIldare was also raised at the meeting.

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Pool field car park proposal unsupported

NAAS, 4 May 2000: by Trish Whelan. A proposal that the Swimming Pool Field in Naas should be developed into a public car park received no support at a recent meeting of Naas UDC. Proposing the motion, Cllr Pat O’Reilly (left) said the town needs more car parking spaces, particularly during the development of the proposed multi-storey car park in Corban’s Lane car park. The field belongs to Kildare County Council.

“Providing this car park at the Swimming Pool Field would lessen the danger to children from traffic on Corban’s Lane while attending school,” he said. “Going into both schools on the road past the Fire Station or via a new entrance on the Craddockstown Road, where coaches and parents could drop and collect their children would be a lot safer. The Swimming Pool will be closed to the public from January while major renovations take place, so the car park could be built when this is taking place.”

Cllr O’Reilly said he was disappointed that the motion did not receive the support of councillors. Cllr Mary Glennon felt it would be taking away a green area in the centre of the town and she wanted to ensure the field wasn’t sold off.

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Removal of Tote facilities decried

PUNCHESTOWN, 4 May 2000:

Dear Editor,

I think its a great shame that the "outside tote" has been removed by the Punchestown management. It is not always possible for the whole family, to go "inside". Perhaps Naas UDC councillors, in the corporate boxes, could "put in a word" to have this decision reviewed.

John Everan, Elmwood, Naas.

 

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Estates names planning conundrum

LEIXLIP & COUNTY HALL, 4 May 2000: by Trish Whelan. The problem of names of new housing estates like ‘Cyber Plains’ in Leixlip was a bone of contention at a recent meeting of Kildare County Council when a recommendation was made by Kildare Area councillors that names for new housing estates should go before Area Committees before planning permission is granted.

The official response was that the motion, as worded, would ‘create difficulties in that the naming of a scheme is not normally proposed until after a decision for planning permission has been made’.

“Quite often developers submit proposals to name their schemes shortly before they are due to release the first houses onto the market,” housing official Phil Hickey explained. “In this situation developers require an urgent decision from the council on the names suggested.

She said it had been the norm in recent years to require by way of conditions on planning permissions that a naming and numbering scheme for housing developments be agreed with the planning authorities. “The conditions of planning permission seek to encourage the use of local historical names in new developments - and this has worked reasonably well.”

But Cllr Sean O Fearghail (left) said he was unhappy with the official report. “You’re talking at least a six-month period from when an application is submitted to approval,” he said, adding that the issue also applies to the council’s own housing estates. “We don’t deign to refer to our Area Committee when naming our own local authority estates. It’s essential we do this and should stick by the motion as presented,” he said.

Cllr Catherine Murphy said names like ‘Cyber Plains’ in Leixlip were hardly in keeping with the townlands. “It was quite definitely used as a selling ploy,” she said.

Assistant county manager Terry O Niadh said that Cyber Plains had not been the name approved by the council but there’s ‘not much we can do about it.”

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Schools site completely revamped

LEIXLIP, 3 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. The ScoilNet official educational website, devised in conjunction with Intel Ireland of Leixlip, has been completely redesigned. For the first time ever, Leaving Cert students will be able to change their CAO course choices right up to the final cutoff date of July 1st, as part of the major revamp, which includes a new online Examinations Centre that will eventually hold all the past papers in every subject.

The Department of Education and Science, partnering with Intel Ireland and the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) have just completed a major redesign of the content and presentation, adding lots of new curriculum and community content specifically targeting students, teachers and parents, making it simpler and easier to use.

Ease of navigation has been greatly improved, with a significant reduction in the number of mouse clicks required to access content.

New features and improvements include content re-classified and re-organised to make it easier to find and better targeted at the different age groups; a new, more targeted Search Engine; six Channels of Information: Age 4-8; 9-12; 13-15; 16-18 as well as for Teachers and Parents; a unique look and feel for each channel; improvements to ScoilNet's Publishing Tools to make it even easier for everyone to post their own material; the new Examination Centre will include previous exam papers, sample questions and answers, tips and guidelines and an Exams Discussion Group; the CAO 'Change of Mind' facility will allow students to change their mind as often as they like up to the July 1st deadline - expected to dramatically reduce the numbers of errors occurring in CAO applications' a regular update listings in the 'Lifestyle' channel, for sport, TV, cinema, concerts, news and travel.

"We re-designed ScoilNet because we listened carefully to what the pupils and teachers have been saying to us, " said Michele McCabe, Product Marketing Manager, Intel Ireland Net Business Group. “We're committed to continuous improvement, through phased development, so as to keep ScoilNet and Ireland at the forefront of online educational resources.”

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Canal crocodile anger, superloo and verbal diarrhoea

NAAS, 3 May 2000:

Dear Editor,

In your note on the U.D.C councillors’ comments on the fact that buildings can be built on an amenity zoned area along the canal. Councillors express anger at discovering that building can take place in an amenity area and say they didn't know this could happen. These are the same councillors that allowed the building of the leisure centre in Monread on a site originally zoned as amenity. (I take no issue with the centre just the comments of the public representatives.) Is there an anger version of crocodile tears?

I also note the building of a superloo in the town close to a perfectly good facility already there (existing one has come to my rescue when a crisis occurs while up town with my daughters). When are these people going to get priorities right. What about finishing the park in the town, or putting in a play ground for the children of the town rather than repeating a facility that is already there, or putting in devices to slow the traffic down? - I was undertaken (taken on the inside) at speed last Thursday by a silver Merc in the 30 M.P.H zone coming into Naas, the woman then continued at the same speed into a housing estate.

While Kildare Coounty Council was actively promoting the National Spring Clean what were Naas UDC councillors doing? Look at the state of the harbour for an answer. (I think no end of praise should be piled on the efforts of the two Kildare County Council litter wardens. One of them I have heard a little bit more of recently. This man is an example to public servants everywhere. He seems to be constantly striving to do his job as best he can (Newbridge bypass for example).

There are times when I wonder is a superloo needed in the council chambers to deal with the verbal diarrhoea.

John Kavanagh, Kingsfurze.

ED'S NOTE: Pictured is some of the debris recently to be seen in Naas Harbour. KNN understands that it WAS cleared during the National Spring Clean.

 

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Department 'sitting on its hands' over school

MAYNOOTH, 3 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. The Department of Education is 'sitting on its hands' over a much-needed extension to Maynooth Post Primary School, according to local representative Deputy Emmet Stagg.

The present school, built to cater for 630 pupils, now has 712 students and has a longterm needs projection of 900. A request for additional accommodation made to the Department of Education last August has not elicited a response.

"The Department must arrive at a decision in the near future to allow the necessary planning and architectural processes to be dealt with," he said.

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Group from Newbridge twin town enjoyed Bealtaine

NEWBRIDGE, 2 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. A group of representatives from Bad Lippspringe in Germany spend the Bank Holiday weekend in their twin town of Newbridge and took part in the highly successful Bealtaine Festival activities, including the historical walk on the Curragh, a visit to the Army Museum, and the ‘Pig Lunch’ event in Georges St.

Other events of the weekend included the Norman/Celtic ‘battle’ on the Strand, the Bealtaine Dance to the music of the Glenn Miller Legacy band, and a day at the Curragh Races.

The twinning with Bad Lippspringe was originally organised by town commissioner Spike Nolan and a friend from Germany, Ludwig Mikos (left). “I think it opened the doors of our towns to each other,” Ludwig said at the weekend as he and Spike took a rather back seat to proceedings while the respective twinning committees did their thing. “We hope that the young people will come together and learn about each other ... German children in schools learn English so there is no problem in terms of language, and we are happy to have taken the basic steps for this twinning development”

Spike recalled how, when he first went over to Bad Lippspringe, he and Ludwig ‘gelled’ immediately. And when he saw the potential for the young people in the respective towns to get together, he was very impressed with the possibilities. “I'm thrilled with what has happened - it's very close and very strong and it can only get better and better.”

Any individuals or groups who want further information on the twinning between the two towns should contact Twinning Committee Chairman Ray O’Brien at 045 431130 or June Kelly, secretary, at 045 434274.

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Seeks cycle path link Naas-Sallins

NAAS, 2 May 2000: by Trish Whelan. Naas UDC is to ask Kildare County Council to look into providing a cycle path linking the town with Sallins for people cycling to catch the train to go to work. Cllr Pat McCarthy said many people now cycle to Sallins Station and a cycle lane would be of benefit to them.

A report from officials said a cycle path is included in draft proposals for the improvement of the Sallins Road from Hennessy’s Garage to the Monread Road junction, required to facilitate the development of the Oldtown Estate and Millennium Park. And the road servicing the Millennium Park and linking the Sallins Road with the Caragh Road also includes for a cycle lane as does a planning application for a housing development at Oldtown Estate.

The report said that the 1999 Naas Plan provides for cycle ways, where feasible, around the town and in particular new residential areas and public open spaces. Officals were not aware of any plans by Kildare County Council to provide a cycle path from the Monread junction to Sallins village.

Two areas to be considered for cycle paths include Monread District Park and the old railway line walkway.

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Millennium fountain gift switched on

NEWBRIDGE, 2 May 2000: by Brian Byrne. A new fountain for the Strand park in Newbridge was switched on at the weekend, a Millennium gift from local businessman Oliver Murphy and his wife Frances (above) to the town. The fountain was started up by the chairman of the town commission, Cllr John O’Neill.

Oliver, who has worked most of his life in Newbridge and now has his own business in the town, recalled how when he was in school the students of the VEC planted a grove of trees which now form a shaded area where the fountain has been installed. “Then, about 10 years ago when I was president of the Chamber of Commerce, we rejuvenated this park. I'm delighted at the way it has progressed, through the good offices of the Tidy Towns Committee and funding provided by the Town Commission, and we have a lovely park here now.”

He welcomed particularly a group of visitors from Bad Lippspringe to the switching on ceremony. “We don't get many opportunities to talk about our town ... but we like it and we're proud of it. We have all the fundamentals here for good future growth.”

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