Press Releases

Monaghan County Council is delighted to announce the opening of a new community climate action fund which is being made available to community groups interested in developing projects and initiatives which relate to the challenge of addressing climate change. The programme is funded by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications.

The overall objective of the Community Climate Action Programme is to support and empower communities to shape and build low carbon, sustainable communities in a coherent way to contribute to national climate and energy targets. The programme aims to support small and large, rural and urban communities to take climate action. This programme will help communities to both promote and assist in the scale up of community climate action from the respective starting points of the communities. The funding is for investment in small, medium, and large-scale community climate action projects.

There are two funding streams available:

• Strand 1: Action: Building Low Carbon Communities:

Monaghan has been allocated a total of €392,000 under this strand to work in partnership with communities, small and large, rural and urban, within County Monaghan to build low carbon communities in a considered and structured way.

• Strand 1a: Shared Island Community Climate Action:

In addition, a total of €3 million nationally is available to support cross-border and all-island community climate action partnerships between community organisations in County Monaghan and in Northern Ireland.

There are five themes that apply to projects. Community groups must carry out projects that fall under at least one theme but are encouraged to address as many of the five themes as possible.

The themes are:

• Energy
• Travel
• Food and waste
• Shopping and recycling
• Local climate and environmental action.

The Community Climate Action Programme will support the delivery of the new five-year Climate Action Plan for County Monaghan, which is due to be adopted in February 2024. The plan aims to position County Monaghan as a national leader in climate action and strengthen the delivery of effective climate action at local and community levels, through place-based climate action.

The application process for the Community Climate Action Programme will be made available through the Monaghan County Council website from 9:00 am on the 13^th of December.

Ahead of the launch of the Community Climate Action Programme, Cllr David Maxwell, Cathaoirleach of Monaghan County Council, said, “It is great to see application for the Community Climate Action Programme open. This programme places community leadership at the heart of local climate and environmental action. The programme will enable local community groups, supported by Monaghan County Council, to play a key role in helping Ireland to achieve its national target to become a climate neutral economy and resilient society by 2050.”

Chief Executive of Monaghan County Council, Robert Burns said, “The Community Climate Action Programme will aid community activation and will empower community groups to develop projects that will lead to real and meaningful climate action. We are looking forward to working alongside local communities in County Monaghan to drive the change needed to address climate adaptation and mitigation.”

For more information on the Community Climate Action Programme visit https://monaghan.ie/environment/community-climate-action-programme2/ or scan QR code below:

or, contact the Community Climate Action Officer on climateaction@monaghancoco.ie.

After being suspended for almost two years, the N2 Clontibret to Border Road Scheme has secured EU and Department of Transport funding and is now back up and running.
The N2 Clontibret to Border project is a 28km road scheme which will upgrade this section of the N2 Dublin-Derry Road to make it safer, reduce journey times, and to bypass towns and villages along the route. It is an important project to enhance key North/South and Regional connectivity. At the Northern Ireland border, the project will tie-in to the A5 Western Transport Corridor, which proposes to upgrade 85km of the Dublin-Derry Road to a dual carriageway standard in Northern Ireland.

The project first commenced in 2008, but was suspended in 2012 due to a lack of funding during the economic downturn. Funding then became available in 2018 to progress the planning and design of the scheme again, however due to changes in environmental legislation, design standards and the Public Spending Code it was necessary undertake all stages of the planning and design process again.

Jacobs Engineering Ireland (Jacobs) was appointed as the engineering consultant for the project, and in late 2018 they started the design of the project, following a framework set out by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) called the ‘Project Management Guidelines’. The guidelines break the design of major road projects into phases, and by early 2021 Phase 1 and 2 of the design process were complete, and a 400m wide Preferred Route Corridor was published. The project proposes a new road alignment, which will bypass Monaghan Town, Emyvale Village and the settlement of Corracrin. In the early stages the cross-section design was anticipated to be a dual-carriageway, however this has yet to be confirmed through the design process.

The Phase 3 design process (Design & Environmental Evaluation), commenced in Spring 2021. This phase of the design process would have seen the road alignment designed, the landtake identified and an Environmental Impact Assessment Report prepared for the scheme, and was scheduled for completion in late 2022. The 2022 TII allocations noted ‘There is a need to balance available funding across the national road’s programmes, projects and operations having regard to the NDP. The rate of progress on the delivery of Major Projects is dependent on the availability of funding resources on a multi-annual basis….’, and the scheme received no funding to progress the design in 2022 and 2023. This resulted in a suspension of the project, and no design work has taken place since the early 2022.

The project remains a priority for Monaghan County Council, and alternative sources of funding have been explored. In January 2023 the Council made an application to a European Union fund called the ‘Connecting Europe Facility’ (CEF), which aims to promote growth, jobs and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment. The project passed the evaluation stage in June 2023, and in October 2023, CEF funding of €2.335m was approved through the fund, with match funding to be provided by the Department of Transport. This will allow the Phase 3 design process to recommence, and subject to match funding should ensure the Phase 3 design is completed.

Jacobs continue to be the engineering consultant, and the Jacobs team will remobilise in the coming weeks to recommence the Phase 3 design process. Due to the time that has lapsed since the project was suspended, Jacobs may need to review or repeat some previous work, for example environmental surveys may need to be updated. The project team will be in contact with landowners along the route to request access to lands for these surveys.

Another important element of the design work is undertaking ground investigation. Ground investigation provides important information about whether land can support a new road or bridges, or whether rock or stone can be used as building materials for the new road. As ground investigations typically involve some element of disturbance, landowners are entitled to compensation payments, in line with rates agreed between TII and the Irish Farmers’ Association. The project team will be in contact with relevant landowners in Spring 2024, and will provide details of any ground investigation proposed and the likely compensation payment that might be due.

After the N2 Project Team has substantially completed the necessary surveys/investigations, they will prepare an initial design of the proposed road and will be in a position to meet with directly affected landowners to discuss the potential impact of the scheme. Feedback will then be considered before a design is finalised. Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) documentation and an Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) can then be completed – it is expected that this element of the project will be complete by Q4 2025. Subject to further funding, approval and Government consent, the project could then be submitted to An Bord Pleanála as part of the statutory approval process.

Monaghan County Council and Jacobs would like to thank all of the landowners and stakeholders along the route for their co-operation to date, and the project team is looking forward to recommencing and progressing this important infrastructural project. Over the coming months more updates and news about the project can be found on www.N2MonaghanLouth.ie

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monaghan County Council’s ongoing commitment to enhancing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) throughout the organisation has been recognised with a maximum 3-year reaccreditation by Engineers Ireland, acknowledging the quality of, and commitment to, it’s CPD systems and practices for engineering and technical staff. The award recognises the ongoing drive of the CPD committee and the entire organisation, noting:

All the signs are that the organisation has excellent, well integrated CPD systems, processes and practices in place with clear evidence of top level and cross functional commitment to CPD. These systems are constantly reviewed and aligned to the organisational goals showing the strategic importance of CPD in achieving business objectives and benefits.

Monaghan County Council has demonstrated advancements in two of the Engineers Ireland Reaccreditation Programme’s criteria, (from the last reaccreditation in 2020), with the rollout of a pilot Mentoring Programme across all grades and with the adoption of an Innovation Strategy, Innovation Team and pilot programme.

The CPD Committee has also ensured the recognition and value of professional qualifications of staff and has progressed a policy approval for the reimbursement of professional membership fees.

‘I am delighted that Monaghan County Council has received reaccreditation from Engineers Ireland for the Council’s CPD programme which recognises that we as an employer value the ongoing personal and professional development of our staff.  Reaccreditation was obtained following a rigorous audit by Engineers Ireland and the achievement is testament to the hard work and constant striving for improvement by the Council’s CPD Committee and staff,’ said Robert Burns, Chief Executive.

An EPA assessment report titled “Focus on Local Authority Environmental Enforcement – Performance Report 2022” which was published on November 14^th indicates that Monaghan County Council is among the best performing Local Authorities nationally in the area of Environmental Enforcement. Each year the EPA, under the Local Authority Performance Framework, assesses the environmental performance of each Local authority against specific Environmental Enforcement priorities in the waste, water, and noise/air thematic areas.

Every  February, the Environmental Services unit in Monaghan County Councils prepares  an annual RMCEI inspection plan for submission to the EPA which details the proposed environmental enforcement and inspection work for the year ahead. In addition, RMECI returns detailing inspection and enforcement work carried out during the previous reporting year are also submitted to the EPA, and both the RMCEI plan and RMCEI returns form the basis of the annual EPA assessment. The EPA assessment indicated that Monaghan County Council achieved an 85% score whilst the national average was 59%. Only Kildare and Meath County Council scored higher than Monaghan County Council in the national assessment report.

Chair Of the Climate Action and Environment Strategic Policy Committee Councillor Noel Keelan welcomed the positive assessment result for Monaghan County Council and acknowledged the work of all involved.  Cllr. Keelan said that achieving a clean, safe and sustainable environment is a key objective of Monaghan County Council and environmental enforcement and regulation have key roles to play if the Council is to achieve this  objective.

Kieran Duffy A/Senior Executive Engineer in the Environmental Services Unit also welcomed the positive Monaghan findings in the EPA report but stressed that there was still very significant work to do in the Environmental area, with many national environmental indicators trending in the wrong direction. He noted that overall, water quality is in decline nationally, whilst in the waste sector, there are challenging and onerous targets that need to be met.