The Arts Council today launched their new policy Paying the Artist. This sets out a vision and plan to create change over the period 2020–2022. We, in Visual Artists Ireland, welcome this firm show of support for individual artists, and recognise it as part of the on-going support that the Arts Council has given our work in this area, particularly since our 2011 campaign Ask! Has the Artists Been Paid! which led to the concrete changes that have been building over the years, and impacting all art forms. We want to thank all of the supporters that we have had over the years on this campaign, especially those who worked with us on developing our approach that is aimed to benefit all artists. We are also very grateful to our sister representative organisations, all of whom bring the experiences and realities of their own artists and organisations. Listening to them and learning from them has been truly an amazing experience. We want to thank the Arts Council for their open ear, and thank them for the acknowledgement of our reports such as The Social, Economic & Fiscal Status of the Visual Artist in Ireland, which formed the basis for our campaign, and the role that we and other representative and resource organisations have played during the consultation process and will play into the future roll out and support of this policy area. read full story / add a comment

James Coughlan, the Workers’ Party candidate in Cork North Central has accused Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin of trying to sell an impossible dream of home ownership to people on the housing waiting lists which would merely make their situations worst by steering them into the arms of banks and vulture funds. read full story / add a comment

Release of Biomass Power Station records halted
€474 million in public money depended on Commissioner for Energy Regulator decision

The release of documentation concerning the Commissioner for Energy Regulation’s [CER] decision not to renew a 100% certificate of High Efficiency to Mayo Renewable Power Supply Ltd. for a proposed €255m high-efficiency biomass combined heat and power plant [HE CHP] in Killala, County Mayo was halted at the last moment by the Commissioner for Environmental Information [CEI]. read full story / add a comment

Turf cutting on protected raised bogs reported to the European Commission.
22 of Ireland’s 53 protected bogs still being openly cut breaching EU law

Ireland’s failure to protect the 53 bogs designated for protection under the Habitats Directive in 1997 has been reported to Virginijus Sinkevicius, the newly appointed Director General for Environment. [1] read full story / add a comment

An environmental group has issued a ‘Call to Arms’ targeting the Government’s newly published Housing and Planning and Development Bill 2019, recently opened for Public Consultation.

The Bill, which imposes restrictions on citizens bringing Judicial Reviews of planning decisions, has been in part triggered by delays in the planning system leading to the withdrawal of plans for Apple at Athenry and the referral to the European Court of Justice of the US New Fortress Energy Shannon LNG terminal as well as a number of cases taken by environmental campaigner Peter Sweetman. read full story / add a comment

The exploitation of tax funds for private personal gains by state sector employees, particularly at universities.UCC as example.
The public is funding things like applications for human gene patents. This means that we all have to pay to have access to our genetic coding and bodies. The people applying for the patents stand to benefit personally in any future income generated by such patents because despite being paid a publicly funded salary, the universities also pay the employee a percentage in future. read full story / add a comment

N11 Improvement Scheme ‘undermines Climate Action Plan 2019’

Promised ‘deep level of collaboration across government’ absent from road considerations

In a submission to the public consultation on the N11/M11 Junction 4 to Junction 14 Improvement Scheme, Friends of the Irish Environment claims the proposal undermines the ‘Climate Action Plan 2019’ requirement for a ‘deep level of collaboration across government’. read full story / add a comment

People Before Profit TD says Dáil debate on housing solutions should receive as much media attention as No Confidence drama

Grass-roots housing protest in Dublin today demands urgent solutions to housing and homeless crisis

In a statement, Richard Boyd Barrett TD for People Before Profit said the Dáil debate on housing solutions should receive as much media attention as the Dáil no confidence debate in the housing minister earlier this week. read full story / add a comment

Award-winning group calls for scrapping of proposed planning restrictions
Justice must be ‘free, full, and speedy’

An award-winning environmental group has called for citizens to oppose the recently published Planning Bill 2019 which imposes further restrictions on the ability of citizens’ groups to bring legal actions before the Irish Courts. read full story / add a comment

Industrial peat extraction at risk as EU Court triples fines requested by Commission

Ongoing weekly fine of €100,005 by EU Court highlights ‘a matter of indisputable seriousness’

An angry European Court of Justice ruled today that Ireland’s conduct shows that it has ‘not acted in accordance with its duty of sincere cooperation to put an end to the failure to fulfil obligations’ under the EU Directive on Environmental Assessment.

The Judgment arose out of the failure to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment for a windfarm in Derrybrien County Galway that led to a massive landslide on October 16, 2003 during which tonnes of peat were dislodged, polluting the Owendalulleegh River and killing 50,000 fish. read full story / add a comment

On Wednesday a Solidarity- People Before Profit Dáil motion will be debated to unblock over 50 opposition bills currently stuck in limbo because of the governments use of what is called ‘The Money Message’.

The motion which will be debated in the Dáil on November 6th would change current standing orders that govern the progress of opposition bills.

This motion will recognise the right of the Government of the day to have control, over the appropriation of public monies but it will stop the misuse of the constitutional clause that standing orders is based on. It will remove the use of incidental expenses and indirect costs of implementing a Bill from the reasons that the Government can impose a ‘Money Message’. read full story / add a comment

LEADING ENVIRONMENT GROUPS OPPOSE €7m DURSEY ISLAND MASS TOURISM PROJECT
Wild Atlantic Way ‘undermining quality and experience of Ireland’s wild coastal landscape’

An €7m Failte Ireland flagship project has attracted the opposition of three of Ireland’s leading environmental organisations.

An Taisce, Birdwatch Ireland, and Friends of the Irish Environment have all submitted extensive objections to the application by Cork County in partnership with Fáilte Ireland to An Bord Pleanala for a €7m development on Dursey Island off the west Cork coast.

The current 6-person cable car is to be replaced by a state-of-the-art two-way cable car system capable of carrying up to 300 people each way every hour. The project includes an extensive Visitor Centre with restaurant and gift shop on the mainland. read full story / add a comment

The Palestine Podcast showcases a selection of lectures, talks and interviews featuring leading experts and social justice activists active on the Palestine-Israel issue. Brought to you by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign. read full story / add a comment

Sinn Féin Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has commented on the publication of the Department of Housing’s official homeless figures for September, which show for the 8th month in a row the number of people in homeless accommodation is over 10,000. read full story / add a comment

Minister urged to intervene to protect birds from €7m Dursey Island tourism development
Bird Study shows 30% decline in protected choughs

Minister for Arts, Culture, and the Gaeltachta Josepha Madigan, TD, has been asked to intervene on the proposed Dursey Island Cable Car and Visitor Centre Project in west Cork. read full story / add a comment

This is poem responding to Bloody Sunday 1972 and published in collection "Mac Baintrí - Widow's Son". (I have two other publications: Macalla Maidu(Coiscéim) and Sifting(Liberties Press)). I have copyright.

Relating material to Thomas Kinsella's "Butcher's Dozen" and Séamus Deane's response and certain other poets lack of response. read full story / add a comment

Dear Friends

A general meeting of IMPERO will take place on Saturday 12 October 2019 at 14:00. Fr. Stephen Duffy PP, Lordship and Ravensdale, has kindly given permission to use the meeting room in our Lady of The Wayside Church, Jenkinstown, Co. Louth, for our meeting. We will meet there.

Agenda

1. Read minutes of the previous meeting
2. Confirm officer board for 2019/2020
3. Sean Crudden will read his thread on the UNDP (United Nations' Development Program) Global Development Hub. The recent on-line consultation was around the question of digitalisation and the sustainable development goals of the UN
4. Equality
5. Finances
6. Fix dates and venues for meetings for the next year
7. Strategy

Due to unavoidable circumstances the meeting scheduled for mid-June was let slide but, hopefully, this will not happen again. The meeting on the 12th is important for IMPERO. It is also taking place at a time of universal change. Is there any way technology can be turned to the advantage of the mental patient?

The meeting is open to everyone. But, if you are coming to the meeting, let us know beforehand so that we can make proper provision for all those attending.

Yours faithfully

Seán Crudden
Secretary
IMPERO

Lower Jenkinstown
Dundalk
A91 A092

0858636391
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State faces further legal challenge to Shannon LNG terminal
Fracked gas as ‘Projects of Common Interest’ challenged

The State has been warned that it cannot approve the proposed Shannon LNG terminal as a ‘Project of Common Interest’ [PCI] without undergoing a Strategic Environmental Assessment [SEA] and a period of public consultation.

PCIs are key cross border infrastructure projects that link the energy systems of EU countries. They are intended to help the EU achieve its energy policy and the long-term decarbonisation of the economy in accordance with the Paris Agreement. read full story / add a comment

In the High Court today, Justice Garrett Simons granted Friends of the Irish Environment's application for a judicial review striking down regulations made by Ministers Eoghan Murphy and Richard Bruton in January which exempted industrial peat extraction from the planning system and granted them a period of unlicensed operation in the EPA licensing system. The Court found that the regulations were in breach of EU environmental law and were outside the powers of the Ministers who made them. read full story / add a comment

Saudi Arabia has just now begged Iran for gasoline after the sudden cut of Saudi domestic supplies due to the new Yemeni drone attacks on Saudi major oil facilities on Tuesday.Saudi was once the world's largest crude oil exporter read full story / add a comment