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Council Journal
INFORMING LOCAL GOVERNMENT LEADERS
www.council.ie
SPRING 2016
FLOOD PREVENTION
Finding the Right Solutions
DATA SECURITY
The Growing Imperative to
Protect Information
03
09
DATA SECURITY
The growing imperative to protect information.
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FLOOD PREVENTION
Finding the right solutions.
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#GE2016
Will this be Irelands first digital election?
44
46
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Rowlands
Rowlands
& Construction Services
Civil & ConstructionCivil
Services
Ltd Ltd
Project Management
Utilities
Services Installation
rowccs@gmail.com
www.rowlandscivil.ie
Roads Construction
Foul Sewer Drainage
Surface Water Drainage
Ancillary Building Works
Drainage Solutions
Surface Carparks
Underground Car Parks and Basements
Civil Engineering
Site Development
Project Manangement
2 Council Journal
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meet the increased cost, and the eBay success story started from
there. What is interesting about eBay is that it is really a facilitator
rather than a conventional provider of services. Ebay provides
a location and a user-friendly platform where its various clients
provide the products and conduct the sales themselves.
Ebays greatest achievement, as in many sharing economy
businesses, was to harness a whole network of potential business
and commerce that merely needed to be connected in a convenient
way. In any market-place there is always an abundance of potential
commercial activity that isnt happening because nobody has found
the right way to connect the various dots; the challenge of the
shareconomy is to do precisely this.
In the past few years, some of the most exciting, rapid-growth
global companies have all utilized similar strategies, opening up
business networks across every sector: accommodation (Airbnb),
transport ( Hailo, Uber), and food (Just Eat, Deliveroo), These
companies are quickly altering businesses operate.
A service like Deliveroo allows restaurants to operate takeaway
services by simply providing the food; eBay allows regular
consumers to be retailers, and Airbnb allows average property
owners to operate as landlords for short periods of time. Real-time
and on-demand phone apps make consumers more aware of the
choices which are available to them. We will now look at some of
the success stories and up-and-comers of the shareconomy.
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Airbnb
Like eBay, Airbnb started out from very humble beginnings.
Founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia were college friends
who had once vowed, idly enough, to form a business someday.
Chesky got a call out of the blue from Gebbia years later to say he
had a room available in his San Francisco apartment. Impulsively,
Chesky quit his job, threw a foam mattress in his car, and drove to
San Francisco. There was only one problem: they couldnt afford to
pay the rent! That weekend the Industrial Design Conference was
being held by the Designers Society of America nearby. Noting
that all the local hotels were booked out, Chesky hit on the novel
idea of turning their apartment in a temporary bed and breakfast.
The pair managed to accommodate three guest on their living
room on air-mattresses, making $1, 000 dollars in the process.
What was more interesting was the feedback they got back.
Rather than viewing the pairs make-shift B&B as a necessary
evil, guests enjoyed the low-cost, friendly and down to earth
atmosphere provided. In February 2008, Chesky and Gebbia
were joined by architect Nathan Blecharczyk to form a company
proper called AirBed and Breakfast. Initially, the company focused
on capitalizing on high-profile events where accommodation
was scarce, but gradually the company began to move into more
general accommodation. While the company was expanding
rapidly, and still being operated from their San Francisco
apartment, Chesky was pushed out of his bedroom, and used only
Airbnb accommodation himself for a year.
Today Airbnb is a massive global success, with over 1, 500, 000
listings in 34, 000 cities and 190 countries. Like eBay, Airbnb is
primarily a facilitator of existing potential business networks. It
provides a platform where people who want to rent out their
properties on a short-term basis are connected to potential
customers. Prior to the existence of Airbnb, many of these
casual landlords would never have taken the plunge because a
convenient method of doing so simply didnt exist.
For the consumer, it opened up new avenues of choice and
affordability in terms of accommodation. This is the key to success
in a shareconomy model: spotting a synergy, a mutually beneficial
network of relationships, that only needed the platform to bring
them together.
Deliveroo
Traditionally, food delivery was a limited market which offered
only minimal choice to the consumer. The restaurant itself had to
run its own delivery service, and the online world only impacted
the market in terms of advertising existing delivery services. This
meant that the quality and diversity available to order home was
sorely limited, with fast food pizza chains and Chinese restaurants
dominating the market.
The innovation of Deliveroo was to do all the delivery and
marketing themselves, thereby offering the opportunity to
restaurants that dont traditionally deliver to get into that market
with minimal investment. All they have to do is provide the food.
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Laundrie
Conclusion
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0RELOH
www.kennedyinternational.ie
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This year will see the National Broadband Plan getting underway. Up
to 500 million will be used to bring high speed broadband to 300,000
homes and 100,000 businesses by 2020. Up to 85% of premises in
Ireland will have access to high speed broadband 2018. The plan will
not only bring rural Ireland up to speed with its urban centres but it
will create a digital infrastructure that could ultimately change the
definition of rural itself. With ubiquitous connectivity, the threshold
between urban and rural will suddenly not be such a deterrent for the
tech industry. This was the thinking behind a new digital hub set to
open in the West Cork town of Skibbereen.
Ludgate Hub, like its urban predecessor in Dublin, the Digital Hub,
will be there to provide the resources necessary to innovators and
entrepreneurs who want to call West Cork their home. Located in the
refurbished Old Bakery building, the Ludgate Hub will provide 10,000
Council Journal 9
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Comhairle Chontae na M
Meath County Council
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From left: Callum Donnelly, Adam Walsh, John Field, Sean ODriscoll, Anne OLeary, Alex White
TD, Dee Forbes, Leonard Donnelly, Oliver Farrell, Kevin Buckley, Grinne Dwyer
Council Journal 11
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Slieverue, Co Kilkenny
087 274 0599
rocketteng@eircom.net
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Most jarring of all, Sonys electronic security was no worse than that
of any other companys. It was weak and outmoded but it was the
norm. It should have been a wake-up call to companies everywhere.
Greater security measures needed to be put in place to safeguard
sensitive data or there would be more hacks, more security
breaches. However, the lessons of the Sony hack went ignored.
It was seen, just like the thousands of recorded hacks before it,
as the anomaly; an exception to the rule. They were targeted for
specific political reasons and therefore most thought it unlikely
that it would happen to anyone else. It would take another year
of crippling cyberattacks before data security would be taken as
seriously as it needed to be.
The aftermath was even worse. Not only was the data destroyed
from Sonys computers, it was now in the hands of the hackers. Over
the following weeks batches of confidential files were dumped onto
public file-sharing sites. Movie scripts, personal emails, salary scripts
and social security numbers were all released. So too were four of
Sonys upcoming film releases, which the hackers made available
on piracy websites for free viewing. The multinational technology
company was reduced to using fax machines and sending
communications through the post.
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Cardea Building
Our Services
Contact Us
Phone
(087) 782 4336
Email
info@cardea.ie
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At the other end of the scale, large companies can become soft
targets for hackers when they become too complacent to take
appropriate security actions. Though they have the advantage
over SMBs in that they can afford to enlist help from established
IT security vendors or by contracting an experienced data security
expert, they often fail to implement appropriate procedures
amongst their own staff to enforce endpoint security.
So how does a company prevent being hacked? The short answer is,
well, they cant. No matter what security measures are taken, there
is no fool-proof way of preventing sophisticated and determined
hackers from infiltrating a network. However, this is not to say that a
company should just accept its faith and carry on using the safe old
prevention measures that it has been using all along. As previously
stated, criminals want a return on their investment. The harder it
becomes to hack a network, the more likely they are to give up.
With this in mind, we have compiled a list of measure that should be
taken to secure private data that should be put in place no matter
what the size of the company.
Council Journal 17
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18 Council Journal
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Data Assessment
One of the first things a company needs to do when it comes to data
protection is assess the data that it is storing. They need to determine
what data is most vulnerable; what data is most likely to be targeted by
attackers; what safety measures have been put in place to protect it; and
who will be affected if it gets infiltrated. Assessing data is the best way to
avoid the pitfall of over-investing in Personally Identifiable Information
(PII) security. PII protection is a serious matter, but its prioritisation
has often led to the neglect of other digital assets, such as intellectual
property, executive communications about sensitive matters, private
conversations, as well as other important business and financial
information. Any of these can cause an equal amount of damage to a
companys reputation or value if they are breached by hackers.
A data assessment can also help identify and track what data is being
collected and stored. This will also encourage more careful thought
about what kinds of data is being stored. Up to now, companies have
been cultivating the notion that data and information are always an
asset, and so they have collected it diligently and indiscriminately.
However, sometimes data can be more of a liability that an advantage.
Consider the example of the Target hack in 2013. Hackers attained
the four-digit pin numbers of Targets customers debit cards. This was
information that that no reason to be collecting. And yet they did,
causing irrevocable damage to their reputation.
Encrypt Data
Most people feel fairly safe shopping on Amazon. They may not
know it, but their peace of mind can mostly be attributed to the
fact that their card numbers are being protected by encryption.
Encryption is one of the best ways to keep cybercriminals away
from sensitive data. If data is encrypted, then even if there is a data
breach, the information taken will be unusable. This is especially
useful if information is stored on the cloud. Ultimately, companies
that dont use encryption will be the less attractive option when
compared to those that do.
Council Journal 19
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RM CLEARY
TARMACADAM
Est. 1979
miclearytarmac@gmail.com
CE Approved for
Structural Steel
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THE EPA
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Tiling
Extentions
Painting & Decorating
Complete Bathroom Renovations
Garage Attic Conversions
TImber Flooring
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SkyTec Ireland specialises in delivering high definition imagery for use in industrial inspections,
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26 Council Journal
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This is the new reality we have to deal with. How we proceed with
our adaptation to this reality over the coming years will be the
difference between a few flooded homes and thousands of homes
abandoned.
Soon Ireland will be receiving a 200 million loan for flood
prevention from the European Investment Bank (EIB). This money
will go towards some of 30 flood-related projects the government
have in mind, nine of which are flood prevention schemes. However,
full details of the projects have not yet emerged.
When considering how we can prepare for the next inevitable bout
of flooding it is important to weigh up the options very carefully.
Flood defense such as flood gates are not infallible. In fact, such
defenses can often increase vulnerability in more extreme cases:
some British communities found themselves unexpectedly flooded
behind their defenses despite the high level of precaution they
took. Even where flood defenses do work, they often just pass the
problem further downstream. What we need is not a single defense
plan that relies too heavily on bulwarking flood water but a range of
initiative that can make a combined effort to alleviate the potential
for destructive flooding and to prepare those who must face it. The
first step is to properly assess the risk and accurately identify the
problem areas.
Pictured: An elderly couple in Boyle, Co. Roscommon , struggle to keep flood water from breaching their home.
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tipptoptreesurgery.ie
BORRISOLEIGH,
THURLES,
CO. TIPPERARY
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larryhenry@eircom.net
OUR SERVICES:
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Room for the River is an agency that was set up in 2006 to reduce
Hollands four main river flooding. With a budget of 2.2 billion,
it has been busy lowering floodplains, widening river and side
channels, and moving 200 families. The overall aim is one that may
seem counter-intuitive to an Irish observer: rather than try to hold
back their rivers, they want to give them more space.
The prospect of relocating families is one that nobody wants to face
and even the Dutch were initially hesitant. However, when floods
in 1993 and 1995 saw more that 200,000 people evacuated and
hundreds of farm animals killed, they soon saw that it was the only
viable option. They knew that they had to find a way to live with
water rather than fight it.
The Dutch have been fighting back water for an incredibly long
time. Their first mount dwellings dates back to 500BC, their first
dykes were built 1,000 years ago, and their windmills have been
pumping water off the land since the 14th century. Its fair to say
that the Dutch think about their flooding prevention in the long
term. Of course the main reason they have been so successful at
dealing with the flood problem is because of the very real threat
water is to most of the population. 26% of the country is below sea
level and 29% is susceptible to river flooding. For this reason, when
a new flood prevention measure is introduced there are very few
oppositional voices. Though flood prevention spending in Holland
is very high the population are in favor of it because their survival
depends on it. So when farmers are asked to relocate they do so
compliantly, knowing that their sacrifice will ensure the safety of an
entire city further downstream.
In Ireland we are still only learning the most lessons about flooding.
We must stop building inadequately prepared developments in
flood zones. Developmental planning not only needs to account
for the risk of flooding one year down the line but ten years, fifty
years, and one hundred years. We also need to think beyond flood
gates a solution that is barely one step above sandbags and start
thinking about how to employ a variety of measures to prevent
flooding. Dredging is a start but not a solution in itself. Dams can
regulate water flow; smart ecology can be used to manage water
absorption and release; and adapting the Dutch philosophy of
leaving space for water can ensure that when the floods do come
that they dont go where theyre not invited.
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C&N Fay
www.candnfayenvironmental.ie
Industrial Services
Drain Jetting
CCTV Surveying &
Drain Investigation Service
Localised Repairs
Interceptor & Forecourt Maintenance
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Emergency Call Out Services
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Septic / Bio Tanks Emptying
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Email: info@acorntreeservices.ie
or oliver_coughlan@yahoo.ie
Phone: 086 604 8610 or 057 862 4115
Mountmellick Co Laois Ireland
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The amount was agreed with by the Minister for Public Expenditure
and Reform, Brendan Howlin TD. The money will be used to to
fix roads and bridges, along with rail networks that have been
damaged by the winters storms.
Minister Donohoe said: The most extensive impact of the recent
severe weather on the transport sector has been on the road
network through both pluvial and fluvial flooding. There has also
been some damage to rail infrastructure. This resulted in serious
disruption to daily life in many areas and in some cases, the isolation
of small communities and households across the country.
The funding will be allocated based on projects nominated made
by local authorities. County councils have been providing the
Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport with lists of projects
for both short-term releif and long-term repair. The scale of the
damage, along with the susbtantial costs accrued have required a
cross-Departmental response, with the Department of Environment,
Community and Local Government taking the lead in responding
the immediate call for relief from Local Authorities following the
storms and flooding.
Minister Donohoe said that his officials are currently in the
process of reviewing estimates submitted by local Authorities.
My Department will be engaging closely with Local Authorities to
put together work programmes. This funding will also include for
preventative works on key roads across the country. The aim will be
to ensure that critical repairs are addressed as quickly as possible,
he said.
The minister acknowledged that roads between Avoca and
Rathdrum in Co. Wicklow, and around Crosskeys in Cavan as being
in urgent need of repair, along with a bridge in Stradbally and Four
Masters Bridge in Leitrim.
Minister Donohoe said, the Government fully recognises the scale
of the damage and the disruption to peoples lives. In affected areas,
damage to transport infrastructure has included road subsidence,
failure of bridges and culverts, failure of embankments and serious
ravelling of road edges and pavements. Local authorities need
assistance to deal with all of this and the money earmarked today
will provide that financial support.
I would like, once again, to acknowledge the tremendous work
of all concerned during the storms and flooding to ensure that
warning signs were in place, diversion routes organised and
signposted and information and advice made available to the public
via websites, social media and local radio together with the great
work done at community level.
Above: Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe
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ARTS
County Donegal has been extensively promoted over the last two in
January at the Holiday World Shows in Belfast and Dublin reaching
an audience of an estimated 60k potential visitors. The events have
been hailed as a great success with much interest from visitors in
coming to County Donegal this year.
The Holiday World Shows are two of the most significant tourism
travel shows in Europe that take place annually with visitors
attending from around the world including Europe (including UK
and ROI), the Middle East, Asia and America.
The Holiday World Shows 2016 have shown that Donegal is a
destination that is growing in popularity with visitor numbers this
year forecast to increase on the previous year thanks to marketing
activity from within the sector and the Wild Atlantic Way initiative.
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The Chair of the Arts Council Sheila Pratschke said: The Arts Council
has a new strategy focused on the artist and public engagement
our grant from Government in 2016 will enable us to begin to
deliver on this strategy, investing public resources strategically to
ensure more high quality art for the people of Ireland.
The new strategy will help ensure that the arts are not a privilege
reserved for people living in Irelands cultural capitals but
something that can be enjoyed throughout every part of the
country.
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CLIMA
The renewed agreement will see a fixed payment of 3,000 per acre
being paid to landowners on all lands and associated areas acquired
for national road improvement works in accordance with the terms
of the agreement. I thank everyone for the work they have done in
getting to this stage and ensuring continued co-operation..
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Pictured on right: Professor John Fitzgerald, Chair of the Climate Change Advisory
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The measures announced today will see that growth continue. This
also ties in with our recently launched National Physical Activity
Plan and shows this Governments commitment to sustainable
transport modes. Im pleased to see, for example, that Limerick is
continuing to seek to improve its sustainable transport provision
under this scheme, following on from 9 million granted to them
under my Departments Smarter Travel Area funding stream. The
commitment to funding urban regeneration also ties in neatly with
my responsibilities for tourism as these funds will make these towns
and cities more attractive not only to live and work in but to visit.
The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local
Government, Alan Kelly TD said: There is a strong correlation
between healthy and vibrant urban centres and the creation of an
attractive environment and enterprise development within the
wider region. Strong urban centres enable their regions to realise
their potential in attractiveness for business investment for Foreign
Direct Investment for talent and for tourism and to create conducive
and attractive locations for investment and for people to live and
work in.
This investment in sustainable urban development recognises
our cities and towns as the engines of the regional economy. This
scheme will provide grant assistance to designated local authorities
for urban capital projects. I am delighted that sustainable urban
development is being prioritised for funding, and that the
investment being leveraged by these projects has the support of
40 million ERDF grants as announced today.
Pictured: Dn Laoghaires Victorian baths will be one of many sites to benefit from the European
Regional Development Fund
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Better Energy
Solutions.ie
This puts the public sector about halfway towards its 33% energy
efficiency target for 2020, against a backdrop of increasingdemand
for public services as the economy recovers.
The report includes annual returns from 281 public bodies with
an energy spend of around 600m, which represents 87% of total
public sector energy spend. Overall the report shows great progress
with four out of five bodies more energy efficient and over half are
already on track to reach their energy savings target by 2020.
Alex White TD, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural
Resources said: I want to congratulate the public sector bodies
and staff who have worked to get us to this important milestone
of being halfway to our 2020 energy efficiency target. Their efforts
mean we are saving money, cutting harmful emissions and making
our public sector more efficient. With less than five years to go there
is still a lot to do, but I am confident that our ambitious 33% target
can be met.
The forthcoming Public Sector Energy Efficiency Action Plan will
give added impetus to this important work. Speaking at the launch
hosted by Iarnrd ireann at Dublins Heuston Station, Minister
White said the transport sector would play a major role in Irelands
transition to a low carbon energy system.
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RSA Chief Executive, Ms. Moyagh Murdock said that, 2016 will be a
challenging year. It is vital that we build on the success of 2015 and
not regress as we did in 2013 and 2014.
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A 14% DECLINE.
ROAD SAFETY
REVIEW
VEHICLE OCCUPANT
FATALITIES
103
0%
NO CHANGE
IN DRIVER
DEATHS
(76)
31%
DECLINE IN
PASSENGER DEATHS
DOWN FROM
39 TO
27
32
22
22% DECLINE
ON 2014
8% DECLINE
ON 2014
31% DECLINE
ON 2014
29%
OF DRIVERS AND
PASSENGERS KILLED WERE
NOT WEARING A SEATBELT
77%
(down from 13 to 3)
(*14 years and under)
SUN
SUNDAY WAS THE
MOST DANGEROUS DAY
OF THE WEEK
(32 FATALITIES)
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saving loaf end slices to use as raw material for bread crumbs. This
reduced waste costs by 7,500/annum and generated an income
of 8,000 from sale of the product. Another example is Sodexo, a
large IT company in Cork. By simply switching from using disposable
paper cups in the canteen to issuing thermal mugs free of charge
to all 2,000 members of staff they were able to save 120,000/
annum. Such efficiency measure seem almost like old wives wisdom
(Eat your bread! Dont throw out a good cup!) and in a way, thats
precisely what it is.
James Hogan is the Programme Manager for Green Business. He has
20 years experience in the field of environmental science, having
worked as waste minimisation officer with the pharmaceutical
industry and more recently as environmental consultant with the
Cleaner Technology Centre, CIT where he has worked on a wide
variety national resource efficiency programmes and on a number
of international cleaner production and carbon management
projects under the EU LIFE,Tempus and Asia Pro Programmes.
With Green Business James now sets his sights on improving the
efficiency of Irish businesses by helping them reduce consumption
of resources such as energy, water and raw materials. We talked to
him about the service and how it works.
CJ-3.1-Magazine.indd 42
Pictured: Sofrimar Kilmore Quay, Co. Wexford improved water efficiency by 30%
2/18/2016 2:40:21 PM
businesses. People tend to fall back on what they know rather than
trusting in a new machine, product or method. It is our job to help
them see the benefits of making the switch. zAnd of course finance
is seen is a significant barrier. Getting the upfront capital for energy
efficiency investment is not an easy thing, even when the long term
savings are attractive.
I also find that companies often dont fully understand their energy
bills many dont realise that they are needlessly paying too much
for their energy and dont know how to read their bills. There is also
a lack of transparency in the breakdown of the costs in bills. We can
help them understand this.
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active users, Enda Kenny has 41,400 followers, Leo Varadkar has
30,000, Fianna Fil 20,000, and Labour 28,000. Then there are the
other social media platforms: Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat, Vine.
The question is not whether voters can be reached through digital
media but how they should be reached.
The main political parties have adapted well to the new digital
campaign paradigm. The key is direct engagement that encourages
people to comment and share with their peers. Labour used a
fantastic graphic during the Fianna Fil Ardfheis comparing the
respective records of both parties on employment. Tipperarys
Fianna Fil candidate Jackie Cahill posted a Facebook video that
reached over 21,000 people there was nothing revolutionary; he
simply introduced himself on camera.
Fine Gael are using many graphic based posts to attack Fianna Fil,
its main rival. Labor ran a series of short videos that purport to show
the improvements made to the lives of everyday people. In one
video, a woman welcomes builders into her home saying: Its great
to be able to finally do the kitchen.
Effort and production cost varies across all platforms. On one end
of the scale, there are 140- character Tweets, which are free to send
out; they can have a wide reach but there is a limit to the amount
of information that can be communicated. On the other end of the
scale there are videos , graphics and infographs. These are often
sent out as sponsored content through Facebook. The advantage of
sponsored content is that it doesnt require users to be following a
parties page in order for them to see the content. It is a paid for ad,
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www.davidlaw.ie
Mobile: 086 820 6811
Phone: +353 (0)21 466 7687
Email: david@dltreecare.com
Dromada Beg, Ladysbridge, Co. Cork, Ireland
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SIAC is ready to advise you on the product most suitable for you application.
Further information and technical details for specifiers please contact SIAC BP Ltd
at the following:
Phone: 01 4033 3111
Email: siacbp@siac.ie
Web: www.siac.ie
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