Progress made on offshore wind plans as surveys on Wexford beaches begin
Engagement is ongoing between councils, local communities, and landowners with EirGrid in relation to these works as some of the landfall surveys are on private lands, however surveys are also scheduled on public beaches at potential landfall locations. The beaches where non-intrusive surveys will take place are Ballycroneen and Ballycrenane in County Cork and Carnivan, Long Gap and Blackhall Beach in County Wexford.
These surveys will enable progress on EirGrid's Powering Up Offshore - South Coast project, which aims to deliver the grid transmission infrastructure needed to connect 900 MW of offshore wind generation to onshore grid connection points along Ireland's south coast.
Fugro will perform comprehensive geophysical, geotechnical, environmental and metocean surveys within Maritime Area A, or Tonn Nua of the Irish Government's South Coast Designated Maritime Area Plan, as well as intertidal, non-intrusive landfall investigations involving geophysical and environmental surveys.
Ahead of the beginning of the survey works, the Chief Transformation and Technology Officer at EirGrid, Liam Ryan said: 'These surveys are key for assessing seabed conditions, soil properties, and environmental impacts across the landfall, intertidal, nearshore, and offshore zones related to cable corridors for the project.
"The insights gained as a result of this work will play a key role in informing plans for the installation of the transmission infrastructure for offshore wind energy and will guide how EirGrid progress the project in a way that is best for our marine ecosystem and local communities.'
Powering Up Offshore – South Coast is an integral part of the Irish Government's climate action plan targets to expand Ireland's renewable energy capacity to 80 percent renewable energy, including at least 5 GW of offshore wind energy.
For more information about the Powering Up Offshore - South Coast project visit eirgrid.ie/offshore.
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Sunday World
a day ago
- Sunday World
Firm owned by former CAB target paid over €4m by government to house asylum seekers
Former CAB target Bernard Byrne and his brother John Paul alleged to have made €750k from laundering fuel and cash A firm owned by a suspected fuel smuggler and former target of the Criminal Assets Bureau has been paid more than €4 million by the Irish Government to house asylum seekers. Bernard Byrne is the director and owner of Tenzing Ltd, which is listed as receiving funds from the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. In 2005, it emerged that Byrne, along with his brother John Paul Byrne, had holdings worth £750,000 in Northern Ireland which was targeted by the UK's Assets Recovery Agency (ARA). The case was referred to the ARA by HM Revenue and Customs in 2004 after a joint investigation with CAB into fuel smuggling and laundering on both sides of the border. Bernard Byrne at his Go service station on the Kylemore Road Bernard Byrne speaking to Samuel Mansfield In its case in the High Court in Belfast at the time, the ARA alleged that the assets of both brothers were from fuel laundering and smuggling, together with excise fraud and associated money laundering activity. An interim receiver was appointed over two filling stations in Co Armagh and Co Down, a house in Newry, an apartment in Belfast, vehicles, farm machinery and bank accounts. Bernard Byrne's Tenzing Ltd was set up in January 2023 and is registered to an office in Lucan, Co Dublin. That year, the company received payments of €876,000, €553,350 and €366,000 for 'accommodation and/or related costs'. In 2024, the payments from the Department totalled €2,382,000 with €186,000 paid out in the first quarter of 2025, bringing the overall total to €4,363,350. According to a Dail question reply, Tenzing Ltd operated an emergency accommodation centre at Redbank Guesthouse in Skerries, Co Dublin in 2023. Responsibility for the €1.2 billion accommodation budget has been moved to the Department of Justice since May this year. Bernard Byrne's company has been paid more than €4m by the government Bernard Byrne is also a director of other firms involved in the retail fuel business and owns the Go filling station on the Kylemore Road in Ballyfermot, Dublin. The land on which the business is located is owned by Arcount Ltd, which is controlled by Vincent Cosgrave, a Dublin-based businessman. Cosgrave's property portfolio includes the Sheldon Park Hotel across the road from Byrne's filling station business. His daughter, Donna, married Jim Mansfield Jr and the couple's son, Samuel Mansfield, was previously photographed by the Sunday World meeting with Bernard Byrne in 2016. There is no suggestion that Samuel Mansfield is involved in any criminal activity. Jim Mansfield Jr was jailed for 18 months in February 2022 for attempting to pervert the course of justice by directing that CCTV footage be destroyed. The Special Criminal Court acquitted Mansfield of conspiring to have a man kidnapped by a criminal gang but convicted him of directing that the footage be destroyed. Jim Manfield Jnr, was jailed for for attempting to pervert the course of justice It was also heard in a CAB case that Jim Mansfield Jr was previously given €4.5 million of Kinahan cartel cash to launder through property investments. As a result of the 2004 CAB investigation into fuel smuggling, Bernard Byrne's father, John Byrne, paid €1.6 million to the Revenue Commissioners. During a search of John Byrne's home in June 2004, authorities discovered €200,000 in cash and cheques concealed throughout the property. Investigators concluded he had operated a significant grain delivery business for several years. He faced charges over failing to file tax returns at Dundalk Circuit Criminal Court in 2007. The court heard at the time Byrne Snr had 157 previous convictions across both Northern Ireland and the Republic, including a £1.3 million fraud conviction in Northern Ireland. Judge Pat McCartan had deferred sentencing to allow Byrne Snr to finalise his tax affairs. The judge described Byrne Snr as someone who had lived 'completely outside the good order of things' and imposed a two-year sentence, suspended on condition of good behaviour. The Sunday World recently reported on two other firms which have received payment for providing accommodation. One firm had been owned by John Gill, the father of alleged gangland figure Jonathan Gill. According to figures published by the Government, Astervale Ltd was paid €414,505 from 2022 until April 2024. Another firm which has been awarded emergency accommodation contracts has links to the Drogheda gang feud. Ben O'Brien resigned in May as a director of Secure Accommodation, which has been paid €10.2 million since it was set up in September 2022. O'Brien (31) was among several people named in evidence in the 2022 CAB case against gang bosses Owen and Brendan Maguire. Bernard Byrne News in 90 Seconds - Tuesday, August 5th
Irish Times
a day ago
- Irish Times
How upcoming price changes will affect your EV running costs
The ESB 's e-Cars electric car charging service has recently raised its prices, across each cost band, by 7c per kWh. That's a roughly 15 per cent rise, and it means that in some cases you could be paying €40 or more to charge an average family EV on a public charger. Such costs are a serious barrier to EV uptake, as a huge part of the sales pitch for the switch to electric cars, quite apart from the climate change imperative, has been how much cheaper they are to 'fuel' than a diesel or petrol-powered car. That price advantage, which has also been something of a reward for the less convenient nature of an EV (at least with the current charging network), is starting to be eroded now. True, charging at home still allows you to make some fairly dramatic savings compared to the cost of running a combustion-engined car. READ MORE As one EV expert recently told us: 'You might double your electricity bill, but you'll still be quids-in compared to the price of petrol or diesel.' There's a looming issue on the horizon, however. The cost of domestic electricity is being kept somewhat under control by the fact that, in the energy cost crisis which followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Irish Government cut the VAT on electricity from 13.5 per cent to 9 per cent. That cut has been renewed over and over, but it's due to run out on October 31st this year, which means people might be waking up to not only a Halloween hangover, but higher electricity – and therefore EV charging – costs. How much extra is this going to cost you? Well, let's take as a baseline Electric Ireland 's headline per-kilowatt costs for domestic electricity. Those are, currently, 30.53c per kWh on the day rate (8am to 11pm), 15.05c for night rate (11pm to 8am), and there's a 'night boost' rate of 8.84c per kWh between 2am and 4am. [ EV Q&A: How do I know if I'm getting good economy from an electric car? Opens in new window ] So, let's take a couple of popular electric cars. There's the Volkswagen ID.4, which uses a 77kWh battery; a Hyundai Inster, which uses a 49kWh battery, and a Kia EV3, which in its basic form comes with a 58kWh battery. So, at current rates, a 0-100 per cent charge in the VW will cost you €23 on the day rate, and €10.6 assuming you're making the most of that 'night boost' two hours worth of charging. The smaller Inster's costs are €14.95 on the day rate, and just €6.44 overnight. The Kia EVs's charging costs are €17.70 on day rate, and €7.63 on mixed night rate. So, what happens to those figures when/if the VAT rate goes up? Prices per kWh would rise to 31.79c for the day rate, 15.67c for the night rate, and 9.20c for the night boost. It means a full day-rate charge of the ID.4 rises to €24.47, and €11.10 on mixed night rate. The Hyundai's figures become €15.57 day and €6.71 night, while the Kia's rise to €18.43 day and €8.12 night. Are these rises enough to nullify EV running costs versus petrol or diesel? Not even slightly. On a full charge, the VW ID.4 can generally offer around 450km of real-world range. The Hyundai should manage about 320km on a full charge, and the Kia about 360km. The most efficient diesel- or hybrid-engined cars will return about five litres per 100km fuel consumption, which means you'd need to spend €39 on petrol, or €38 on diesel, to equal the VW's range; €28.32 in petrol or €27.04 in diesel to match the Hyundai; and €31.86 in petrol or €30.42 in diesel to match the Kia. Clearly from those figures, you're making a significant saving when charging on the day rate, and cutting your fuel costs by between a half and a third on night rates. When it comes to public charging, however, the cost calculation of running an EV is entirely turned on its head. A return to 13.5 per cent VAT for public charging will mean that the standard ESB e-Cars rate for 'slow' kerbside chargers, of between 7.4 and 22kW AC power, will rise from the current 59c to 61.4c per kWh, while using a 'fast' charger of between 50kW and 150kW on DC power will climb to 66.6c per kWh, and 'very fast' 150kW+ DC chargers will rise to 68.72c per kWh. This will be particularly bad news for anyone without access to a driveway or other off-street parking that allows them to charge overnight at home, such as those people who live in terraced housing, and who rely on public charging. It means a full charge of the VW ID.4 on a kerbside 'slow' charger will, in October, rise to €47.27, considerably more than you'd have to pay if you were running on petrol or diesel. For the Hyundai, that cost would be €30, and for the Kia it will rise to €36.22; again, both are in theory more expensive than an equivalent combustion-engined car for the same notional mileage. For fast charging, the news is also bad. Most users will use fast chargers to top up their batteries as a 'get you home' measure, so the amount of energy, in kWh, taken on each time will vary considerably between one driver and another. However, we can use the baseline 10-80 per cent charge to give us an idea of the potential costs. In the VW, a 10-80 per cent charge, assuming you're using a 150kW charger, and assuming that the VAT change goes through, will cost you €35.89, for an estimated 315km of range (assuming that 450km real-world range figure). For the same distance, assuming once again average fuel economy of five litres per 100km in the most efficient diesel or hybrid cars, that would cost you €27.87 in petrol or €26.60 in diesel. For the Hyundai, the charging cost on a 150kW charger will be €22.80, gaining you about 224km of range, which would in theory cost you €19.80 in petrol, or €18.90 in diesel. For the Kia, the figures are €27 of charging for about 250km of range, which would cost you roughly €22.10 in petrol, or €21.12 in diesel. You can reduce the cost of charging at an ESB public charger by signing up for a €4.79 monthly subscription. This would bring down the cost, assuming a return to the 13.5 per cent VAT rate, to 56.1c for slow chargers, 61.44c for fast chargers and 63.5c for very fast chargers. That means a 0-100 per cent slow charge would cost €43.19 for the VW; €27.48 for the Hyundai; and €32.53 for the Kia. Fast charging, assuming you use a 150kW charger and charge from 10-80 per cent, would cost €32.50 for the VW; €21.07 for the Hyundai; and €25.12 for the Kia. In terms of other providers, a return to the 13.5 per cent VAT rate would push the price of charging at Ionity, on its very fast 350kW chargers, from 73c per kWh to 76c per kWh (or from 53c to 55.18c per kWh if you have a monthly Ionity subscription). That would mean a cost of €40.96 for a 10-80 per cent charge in the VW (€29.70 with subscription); €26 for the Hyundai (€18.92 on subscription); and €30.08 for the Kia (€22.40 on subscription). [ EV Q&A: Why doesn't Ireland use roadside furniture for charging electric vehicles? Opens in new window ] It is, of course, worth remembering that those are notional figures, and your actual experience of electric range versus petrol or diesel fuel economy may vary considerably, but it should give you some idea of just how expensive public charging of an electric car has become, and what an important factor it is to have home charging. It also underlines the cold corner, in EV terms, into which those with no access to off-street parking at home have been pushed. The Irish Times has been told by Cork City Council , for instance, that when it comes to figuring out what to do for people who can't charge at home: 'The strategy does not make provision to allow private electric vehicle charging cables either in pavement or overhead to be installed across public footpaths or roads to facilitate home charging.' In other words, those people will just have to rely on a public charging network, which is becoming so expensive that it makes no financial sense to switch to an EV. Whether or not VAT on electricity returns to 13.5 per cent in October, that's a serious bar to EV adoption, which will have to be tackled.
RTÉ News
2 days ago
- RTÉ News
NI minister to appeal High Court ruling on A5 upgrade
Stormont's Infrastructure minister is to appeal the decision of a Belfast court to overturn permission for Northern Ireland's biggest roads project. In June, Belfast's High Court found in favour of landowners who had opposed the redevelopment of the A5 road through Tyrone and Derry. The judge said there was insufficient evidence that the project complied with Stormont's own legally binding climate change legislation. Stormont's Climate Change Act of 2022 puts an onus on Stormont departments to ensure Northern Ireland meets its emissions targets and carbon budgets on the way to net zero by 2050. Mr Justice McAlinden said he had seen insufficient evidence that the building and operation of the new A5 fitted with this legal requirement. The £1.2 billion upgrade is an important link for the wider northwest, including Donegal, and is being supported with €600m of Irish Government money. In July, Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins flagged her intention to appeal but needed the support of her Executive colleagues. Today she said she had secured executive approval, and the case could now proceed to Northern Ireland's Court of Appeal. "I have instructed legal counsel to submit an appeal, and that will be done imminently ahead of the deadline for appeal, which is Friday 8 August," she said. She added: "So that is be it currently being finalised. I think it's fair to say that the officials and myself and my team have been working night and day to ensure that we are submitting a very robust appeal, whilst also looking at all of the other options, and we continue to work through that in parallel to the appeal that we will be lodging." The High Court decision to quash permission for the project was greeted with dismay by supporters. They had campaigned vociferously on behalf of the new road, citing safety concerns on what is an existing single carriageway that carries a large volume of business and farm traffic. The huge upgrade is a flagship project of the Northern Ireland Executive. Since the scheme to build a dual carriageway was first proposed, more than 50 people have been killed along the road. It has been dubbed the most dangerous road in Ireland. Landowners have successfully challenged the project three times, predominately on environmental grounds. They are opposed to the impact on farms and homes and say the existing road could be improved rather than building a new one. The land vested runs to more than 3,000 acres and affects more than 300 farms. Niall McKenna of the A5 Enough is Enough group said the news of the appeal comes as as a relief to the families of victims of this road and will be very much supported by them. In a statement, he said that "enough people have died on the A5. It is high time the courts stopped future lives being lost on this cruel road."
