News From the Hill

Posts Tagged ‘Contemporary Ireland’

This is where I was today….

Snowy Road

This is where I would have liked to have been…

Irish Protest Nov 2010

This is why I would like to have been in Dublin today…

Irish Economic Crisis Explained (short wee you-tube piece, well worth watching!)

I thought that it was worth posting this information on behalf of a group called CUBE (Campaign to Use Buildings that are Empty)

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Carbery Housing Association was set up ten years ago by local West Cork residents, who could see that local people and new arrivals were unable to find affordable housing to rent in West Cork. As a result they were obliged to emigrate, or to live in unacceptable conditions, dependent on state Rent Allowance. Because of this CHA has made several attempts to progress sustainable housing projects, notably in Bantry (Kinaith-Fineen and Slip) but on all occasions our proposals have been rejected by Cork County and Town Councils.

Today the housing situation nationally is in shambles. A recent University College of Dublin study has found that there are around 345,000 empty homes in Ireland that are standing empty and unused. Some are in need of repair, but the majority would be immediately habitable. At the same time Local Authority housing lists have grown to over 80,000 households.
In view of this, CHA has decided to concentrate on trying to bring empty properties into use. The Government has recently introduced a new scheme to lease private empty properties, where the DEHLG will pay up to 80% of the market rent to the property owner, on the basis of a 10 to2 0 year lease. The tenant pays the equivalent of a Council rent, to cover the management and maintenance of the property.

CHA is now actively looking for privately-owned properties that can be used under this Scheme. So far we are following up the use of 2 properties in West Cork, but we aim to secure many more properties for rent to persons on our housing list in the coming months.

We would like to invite you to join CHA. We need your help to keep looking for homes, and to help raise funds. We currently receive no grants of any kind. We need to carry out surveys of properties we are offered, we need to carry out essential repairs, we need to administer and publicise the Scheme. We want to get as many property owners as possible to understand that letting their houses to us for use by people who cannot afford to buy or rent is a win-win situation.

We are also currently looking for Volunteers, who can help out for one day in the forthcoming West Cork Music Festival, to be held in Skibbereen on July 31st. We need Volunteers to act as Stewards on the day, and for each Volunteer, the Festival organisers will contribute € 100 to CHA for every Steward found.

If you are willing to help out in this, or in helping to identify empty houses and their owners, then please contact me, on 028 21890 or 086 8224429, or by e-mail at jose@carberyhousing.eu
Many thanks,
Yours sincerely

Jose Ospina
Secretary.

I am really excited about having moved my blog to a new server courtesy of a local business – Irish Solar.

My blog posts have always been written using renewable energy  because that’s the energy I have – we use a home made wind turbine and a photovoltaic array to provide our electricity.

I was always keen to have this blog hosted on a server that also uses renewable energy however it was not easy to find a solution that I was happy with – until now…

Yesterday was  lovely day for a drive and it just so happened that I had some wee jobs to do that necessitated a drive through part of beautiful Co Fermanagh.

The sun was shining and there was still snow on the tops of the  hills and mountains, mountain waterfalls were glistening in the distance and the lakes were like mirrors.

Lough Melvin

The Boardwalk

The Picnic Table

I am thinking about changing my blog template. Actually I have been contemplating this for awhile and kept putting it off for the simple reason that I really like this template.
I like the photo in the heading, the page-style layout and the overall colour and texture.
The final decision was made last night as I tried to play with google analytics and realised the template is too old to work well with it – a line of code appeared over the banner – not an attractive look!
So I will start to play with designing a new template for myself – what an exciting prospect!
Keep an eye on what happens here and please feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think about the changes – when they happen….
It could take awhile – don’t hold your breath!
I do love to get comments – even if it just to say that you passed by for a moment so don’t be shy – drop a line….