Mayor Therese Ridge on behalf of the Members of South Dublin County Council to Present Certificates for residents who participated in the Environmental Awareness Programme Drumcairn, Tallaght on Tuesday 27^th June at 8pm in the Katherine Tynan Suite Plaza Hotel Tallaght.

Following on from the success of the Kilcarrig Environmental Project 2005,and Kilmartin Environmental project 2004,the Estate Management Section, South Dublin County Council ; Vincent de Paul Society and Fettercairn Residents Association have designed an Environment Awareness Programme for Drumcairn Estate, Fettercairn to take place during May 2006.

The over all aim of the programme is as follows:

(A)           To give all residents of Drumcairn an opportunity to have their gardens cleaned up and landscaped.

(B)           As a consequence of (a), to improve and enhance the physical environment of Drumcairn.

Course Participants

The course is aimed at the residents of Drumcairn Estate. The joint sponsors of the course will be the Vincent de Paul Society and the Estate Management Section of SDCC . Fettercairn Residents Estate Management Committee will also play a lead role in this programme. The other agencies involved will be St. Marks Social Project, Fettercairn and Conservation Ireland.

Background

The course runs for four weeks and starts on Tuesday 9th May with the first of four evening sessions, each lasting for two hours. The group consists of twenty participants from the estate. Each participant will have the opportunity of having their garden landscaped as part of the project. For those interested there will be an opportunity to receive a garden composter from South Dublin County Council, under its new composting initiaitive. There will also be a number of planting/clean up days on the estate involving local residents.

Introduction St Marks Social Project will make a presentation on planting and environmental works .SVP and SDCC to give an outline of the programme being offered and what role they will play. A vision for the estate will be placed before the participants and we will have a question and answer forum.

Session Two: May 16

Billy Flynn from the National Environmental Educational Centre will give a presentation on Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. This will involve discussion on the proper use of black and green bins and also an introduction to composting.

There will be a planting /clean up day on Drumcairn estate on Saturday May 20 . The shrubs and summer bedding plants are being provided by St Marks Social Project, Fettercairn who operate a locally based nursery. There will also be staff from St Marks on hand to help and advise residents with the planting process.

Session Three; May 23

This will involve a day trip for all participants to the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin to view a variety of community gardens and ideas for environmental and estate management works. Also there will be information given on composting of garden and food waste..

Session Four; May 31

To coincide with European neighbourhood day, the Fettercairn Estate Management Committee will give a presentation re Community participation. There will also be a presentation by Tallaght Gardai highlighting the issue of drug prevention in the area.

Session Four ;June 27

This will take the form of a review of the project with a view to continuing the good work and also a presentation of Certificates to those who have completed the Course successfully.