Following our presentation to the VEC board in December they advised that there were getting legal advice and would get back to us. There was a VEC board meeting last Monday January 16 and are awaiting a response from VEC - we don't believe that this legal advice was discussed at this meeting.

We have asked for an indication from the VEC when we would expect to get a response and are awaiting their reply. When we get more info we will pass on to the residents.

• the 2 maps from the presentation
• bullet points of our argument
• the model agreement
• drafts 5 & 7 of the enrollment policy
• email from Fr John Daly to Marie Griffin

Thanks to all who were able to attend the recent update meeting wrt the Join Enrollment Policy.

At the meeting we went through at a high level the steps that the Residents Association has made in particular since the Dail Meeting arranged by Minister Joan Burton.

In recent weeks there has been significant development - this follows a meeting between a member of the Riverwood Residents Association subcommitee with Dr Marie Griffin. We were looking for clarification around the denomination of both schools as their websites seemed to refer to a difference in denomination. Dr Marie Griffin updated us that the designation of each school is different, CCC is a designated school and operates under the Model Agreement as agreed between the VEC and Archdiocese of Dublin.  In this agreement specific reference is made to religious worship, religious appointments and in the case of CCC from their website they clearly reference the chaplain, meditation facilites and support for students via their chaplains. LCC on the other side is a non designated school and does not subscribe to this agreement and ais not bound to provide any equivalent facility or practices, the ethos of both schools are fundamentally different. This difference in designation has not been referenced in the Draft Enrollment Policy and hasn't been made clear, we believe that there can't be a joint enrollment policy between 2 schools which are different at this level.

The effect of the Joint Enrollment policy will be that some children  who wish to continue their education in a designated environment have had that choice removed under this new policy. The VEC have already admitted this in terms of the numbers of people who will be subscribing to CCC - this not only applies to children from Riverwood but for any children from catchment area A.

We have raised a complaint with the Children Ombudsman and made contact with the Equality Authority and have consulted with some solicitors on advice around the validity of a joint enrollment policy with schools of different designation. We have spoken to Anne McDonagh, head of Education at the Archdiocese and Rev Fr John Daly, parish priest of St Mochtas. All those we have spoken to acknowledge differences between the 2 schools and can't see how there can be a joint enrollment policy on that basis.

We have been invited to a special VEC Board meeting on Dec 5th where we will have a presentation and Q&A session.

Links to the Model Agreement, Joint Enrollment Policy Draft 5, Joint Enrollment Draft 7

The Fingal Joint Policing Committee will host a public meeting for the Residents of the Dublin 15 Area on Tuesday, October 25th 2011 at 7.30 p.m. in Castleknock Community Centre, Laurel Lodge, Dublin 15.

The Fingal Joint Policing Committee (JPC) provides a forum for An Garda Síochána, the Local Authority Members, Oireachtas Members and community interests, to get together in a regular and structured manner. At public meetings of the JPC an opportunity is provided for local residents to make observations, and address questions to the members of the JPC on matters relating to crime and anti-social behaviour, with a view to improving public safety within their local community. This provides a unique opportunity for members of the community to feed into the partnership approach afforded by the existence of a JPC within their area.

With the bye-election scheduled for October we would like residents to remind any prospective candidates of the following key issues for Riverwood:

• Exclusion of Riverwood from the catchment area for CCC and the lack of engagement from the VEC in accommodating Riverwood.
• More visible Community Policing presence in Riverwood and the Carpenterstown area.
• Support with requests made to Fingal County Council.

Fingal County Council has announced that it has sold his waste collection service to Panda Waste Management.

Panda will take over black and brown bin collections from November 1st. Green bins will continue to be collected by Greyhound Recycling until the end of the year. Panda will take over from January 1st 2012.

The annual charge and bin tag charge will remain unchanged for 2012. Those with waivers will continue to avail of the waiver for 12 months. After that point there will not be a waiver scheme.

FCC has published a FAQ document on the transfer.