A round-up of today's other stories in brief
Local authorities required to promote travel by bicycle
Local authorities are to be required to include specific policies in their development plans to encourage travel by bicycle and to enable the creation of safe and efficient networks of cycle routes, especially in urban areas.
Minister of State for transport Ciarán Cuffe has designated the National Cycle Policy Framework 2009-2020 to be related to proper planning and sustainable development under the Planning Acts. The policy requires that all local authority development plans must seek to minimise travel distances and create high-quality cycle and pedestrian networks.
Minister to sleep rough for homeless
Green Party Minister of State for Human Rights Mary White is to sleep rough on Tullow Street, Carlow, from eight o’clock tonight to raise awareness of the issue of homelessness.
“I want to send a strong signal of support to those in vulnerable positions, particularly during this very cold weather. One person sleeping on the streets is one person too many,” she said.
Power cut at over 100,000 homes
More than 100,000 homes in south Dublin and north Wicklow were left without power yesterday following a fault at an ESB sub-station.
An ESB spokesman said a cable fault occurred at the Carrickmines station at about 1.15pm. He said it was not caused by the weather.
The outage affected supply to some 150,000 properties between Donnybrook in Dublin and Greystones in Wicklow. Transmissions from RTÉ’s Montrose studios were also interrupted.
The ESB spokesman said most homes had their power restored within 15 minutes and that full supply was restored shortly after 2pm.