Villagers: Letters to the Editor 2006-04-20
Dáil voting - TDs should act responsibly
Most people believed a TD had a difficult job and worked very hard. That was until the report published recently in the Irish Independent revealed quite the contrary. The Dáil sat for just 92 days in 2005. Of that, voting took place on 61 days. Anybody would imagine voting on important issues and crucial bills would be the basic and most fundamental part of any TD's job. Nevertheless, the report shows all deputies, on average, missed up to one third of the votes.
Missing out on voting because of important meetings or official engagements, particularly in the case of ministers, would be acceptable. But it should be looked upon as the exception rather than the rule. Constituency work should not be put forward as an excuse for absence. TDs have already 273 days and every weekend, outside of Dáil term, for this groundwork. A cavalier attitude such as "the Opposition never wins a vote" is a lame excuse and would not hold water if the Government hadn't a majority. One vote can be the difference between defeat and victory and two votes have brought down governments. What if the public exercised that attitude at election time? Those TDs wouldn't even be elected.
MEPs, on appointment, should cease as Dáil members. All non-voting deputies should produce authentic written explanation or medical evidence; failing to do so should be penalised by a cut in salary, with continuous offenders being ineligible for future election. In view of the indifference to the job, I think serious consideration should be given to cutting the number of TDs by half – 83 would be more than adequate and save the taxpayer a lot of money. Local government would be quite capable of reporting back to the Dáil and agitating for their specific requirement, often carrying more clout than representation by individual Dáil deputies. No private company or business could sustain this absenteeism from duty and lack of responsibility – why then should the Irish voters unquestionably accept it?
James Gleeson, Co Tipperary
Aarhus Convention - Environmental litigation
The Irish Times reported that the President of the High Court, Justice Joseph Finnegan, indicated that the Rossport Five's "continuing refusal to purge their contempt would be a factor which would influence the court's discretion in relation to making other costs orders in the forthcoming hearing of a challenge to the Corrib gas field development." (8 April.) These costs could run into the hundreds of thousands of euro, as they did in my recent case involving the Hill of Tara and the M3, estimated to be in the region of €600,000.
The imposition of a large award of costs on a failed litigant, in a case involving a test of environmental law or a public environmental decision, is contrary to the spirit and letter of the Aarhus Convention.
Article 9.1 of the Convention, entitled Access to Courts, states: "In the circumstances where a Party provides for such a review by a court of law, it shall ensure that such a person also has access to an expeditious procedure established by law that is free of charge or inexpensive for reconsideration by a public authority or review by an independent and impartial body other than a court of law." However, Ireland is the last EU country to transpose this agreement into national law, as required under Article 29.5.1 of the Constitution of Ireland, which states: "Every international agreement to which the State becomes a party shall be laid before Dáil Éireann."
What is alarming to me as a litigant is that when one reviews the time-frame, it is clear that at the very same time the Minister was a respondent in environmental cases such as Corrib and Tara, which were being handled directly by the President of the High Court, he approached that same judge and initiated private negotiations regarding the future handling of these "types of cases".
It would be wrong to impute any impropriety into the mere fact that the two officials met to discuss proposed legislation. But, under the circumstances, it would also be naive to pretend that these meetings do not give at least the appearance of impropriety, which alone is cause for concern. Certainly, if one of the Corrib litigants or I had approached the President of the High Court to discuss anything at all, it would have done our cases no favours.
If the Aarhus Convention were implemented in Ireland, wouldn't the contents of these conversations between two State officials be available to the public?
Vincent Salafia, Dublin 14
Lack of respect for psychics - Some psychics are genuine
Recent newspaper and magazine articles imply that all people who claim to be psychic are liars, frauds, and charlatans. These outbursts were prompted by controversy surrounding the various "dial a psychic" activities, which have nothing to do with genuine psychic ability.
There are dishonest operators in all spheres of life and in all lines of work, but to condemn every man woman and child in the world who appears to have an extra-sensory gift or ability is utterly unfair. Throughout history there have been people who could see and communicate with the spirits of the so-called "dead" and who could relay messages from them, which in many cases contained information that could not have been fabricated by the psychics themselves or procured from other sources.
Psychics have been tested in controlled or laboratory conditions and when you consider the evidence provided by the thousands of compelling cases of near death experiences (NDEs), I suggest that at the very least you have a good reason for not denying that life continues after death. People from a variety of nations and cultures who have been revived after being pronounced clinically dead have described in very similar terms how they were greeted by deceased relatives and angelic beings and told their earthly lives were not yet over. Upon awakening, they were utterly convinced that they had experienced a world beyond this one.
Police forces in the US call in psychics on a regular basis to help solve serious crimes. I cannot imagine that such down to earth, level-headed men and women would waste their time on "frauds, liars, and charlatans". It is because they know that psychics can see and hear things that are inaudible or invisible to the rest of us that law enforcers avail of their services.
Genuine psychic healers can likewise be helpful to people who have been let down by conventional medicine. I hold no brief for fanatical religious fundamentalism that seeks to impede scientific progress and ram its ideas or beliefs down people's throats. However, blind hostility to any consideration of paranormal phenomena is the opposite extreme. Surely it makes sense to approach these issues with an open mind, and not a scathing, dismissive attitude? What we refer to as psychic powers may well seem to flout all the known laws of science. But that may be because science has not yet reached the point where it can claim to have solved all the mysteries of the universe.
John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny
Broken promises - Meath needs railways
Under Transport 21, Navan's rail link is due to be reinstated by 2015. This is five years later than promised by the Government in Platform for Change, where the people of Navan were told the railway would be back in place by 2010.
Under that promise in Platform for Change, the people of Meath were also told that the design of the Navan rail link would meet a 2003 deadline, and that the railway would have reached Dunboyne by 2006 – this year.
The 4.7 miles of railway to Dunboyne will now not be complete until 2009; Navan will be 2015 and Kells will be reopened by... never, according to current plans.
The population of this country is due to increase by almost two million to seven million by 2020. Immigration is to continue at 70,000 people per annum. And all previous population estimates are out the window as far as county Meath is concerned. As Dublin is almost at capacity in terms of housing, it stands to reason that Meath's towns are going to continue growing apace. Navan alone is due to increase in size by two thirds in the coming decade.
As much of the commuting population of Cavan passes through Kells en route to Dublin each day, it is time to start considering a Kells rail extension. Thinking beyond Transport 21 is essential if the planners of counties Meath and Cavan are going to reach a point where they are ahead of the game in place of constantly playing catch-up.
Recent difficulties in water shortages in Stamullen and Yellow Furze exemplify the reactionary strategy of Meath's planners and our elected representatives. Navan's water supply can go at a moment's notice as the county struggles to keep up with development, rather than planning for it.
At the very least, the Government should recognise that Kells once had a rail link, and that the people of Kells will at some point start to demand its return. And that time is approaching. Meath on Track are calling on Meath's planners, the County Council, the chambers of commerce and our elected representatives in Dáil Éireann to recognise this and to take initial steps for the extension of rail services to Kells for the benefit of people in north Meath and Co Cavan. It is time to start thinking beyond Transport 21.
Proinsias MacFhearghusa, Navan, Co Meath
Media issues - Change of face for media
Looking at the age profile of any organisation will give a very good sense of who is open to the new and whether there is a willingness on the part of the old to share opportunities with the next generation. When we look at our media, for instance, we have been watching the same faces and listening to the same voices for 20 years. Surely there must be talented young people with the ambition to do these jobs or has our education system suppressed their unique abilities so much that there is no spark left in them?
When I read the massive salaries media presenters receive for gossiping about who did what to whom, it's hardly surprising they stay in the job for so long. Do they not realise that most of us are turning to I-pods and the internet for choice and stimulation? It is refreshing to see a new publication like Village prepared to report all sides of a story and not just the usual chewing gum for the brain or US-led propaganda.
The lack of new opportunities creates problems for the young who will be near pension age before they get a chance to show what they can do. Meanwhile, all the resources are being spent on the same few who are probably bored with their jobs anyway and lack the drive to bring about change. The executives on top salaries want to stay that way.
They have reached their positions on the back of their achievements when they were young and daring enough to make groundbreaking changes.
An executive making two million a year could provide opportunities for hundreds of bright minds. After all, what could any one individual need million a year for, unless he was running a school or a feeding programmes for the disadvantaged? If greed is going to be the way of the future then there will be a lot of lean days ahead for those without the generosity of heart to share the spoils and make way for new ideas.
Pearl Finn, Salthill, Galway
Village reporting - Liz McManus not so innocent
So the shrill Liz McManus gets irritated when she is called "Lady Wicklow". That makes her as thin-skinned as her potential coalition partner Michael McDowell, assuming he gets re-elected.
But that is all just political amusement here in Co Wicklow. What I find more worrying is Village's lapse of editorial rigour. In your article about Liz McManus (Village, 6 April), your reporter writes, "she knew nothing about the 'special activities' – murders, beatings, armed robberies, counterfeiting and other criminality". That is quite a bald assertion made by your reporter Emma Browne. And it certainly does not withstand the kind of scrutiny Vincent Browne normally applies in his journalistic endeavours.
In the Irish Times of 15 December 2004, Vincent Browne wrote, "Later that year the Official IRA went on what it called a 'cease-fire', but over the next decade and a half at least – ie well into the late 1980s, during all of which time Pat Rabbitte was a member of its political arm – the Official IRA murdered scores of people, terrorised areas in Belfast, shot people in the legs and beat them with crow bars."
Vincent Browne also said that "On 5 October 1977, the Official IRA was responsible for the murder at North Strand Road, Dublin, of a leader of a rival political and military organisation, Séamus Costello, president of the newly-formed IRSP and leader of the paramilitary organisation, the INLA." Liz McManus was first elected to Bray Urban District Council (UDC) in 1979 as a member of Sinn Féin The Workers Party. Costello was chairman of Bray UDC at the time of his murder by the Official IRA, the military wing of Liz McManus's Workers Party. How could she know nothing?
I do not accuse Lady Wicklow of any involvement in any of this criminality. But surely she knew Costello was murdered by the Officials! She also stayed on as a member of the Workers Party during a particularly active Official IRA period. They got off lightly because, as Vincent Browne wrote, "... RTÉ didn't probe into this area then or, come to think of it, subsequently – I wonder why." That is why the current Labour Party run by Pat Rabbitte, Eamon Gilmore, Lady Wicklow and other former Official sympathisers has made a cottage industry out of Shinner bashing.
The current Labour leadership – all former Official IRA politicos – "rely on the youth of much of the electorate" or "rely on the amnesia of the rest of the electorate" to have a go at Sinn Féin, according to the Irish Times' introduction to Vincent Browne's 2004 column. The rest of us rely on the very few sources of informed journalism in Ireland. Looking up those quotes above took no great length of time on the internet. Please do not let Village become part of the lazy journalistic pack.
Cllr John Brady, Bray, Co Wicklow
Easter Rising commemorations - Selling out 1916
The sell-off of artefacts related to the 1916 Rising to private interests, many of them abroad, says a lot about the Government's priorities today. Any self-respecting government in the world would have taken such important items into State ownership and made them available to historians, students, writers and to the general public.
Rather than living up to the "common good" ideals of the 1916 Proclamation, this Government is all too willing to sell off, or give away to well connected private interests, valuable national assets such as Aer Lingus, Eircom, toll roads and offshore oil and gas.
It is not surprising that the re-commemoration of the 1916 Rising has been restricted to an unimaginative military march and a few photo opportunities for Government ministers. It has been left to community, republican and socialist groups to organise more inclusive public meetings, workshops and debates on how the ideals of 1916 have (or have not!) been realised so far.
Dessie Ellis, Finglas, Dublin 11
1916 - 1916 and democracy
How much longer will Maurice O'Connell keep stating the obvious about 1916 – that it is was not democratic? (Rising was noble but undemocratic. Village, 13-19 April). It is getting rather tedious.
Rebellions are never democratic. They are either successful and retrospectively sanctioned by the people concerned or they are failures and are never heard of again except as footnotes in history. 1916 was clearly one of the former.
Democracy did not apply in Irish politics in 1916. Home Rule was the democratic choice of the people (and of Patrick Pearse) but it was killed off by the Unionist armed revolt in 1912 and the Government accepted that reality. The Unionists were brought into Government in 1915 which copperfastened the death of Home Rule, as they would most certainly ensure it was never implemented.
Moreover, the government that was in power in the UK in 1916 was not an elected government because it had suspended electoral government when its mandate ran out in 1915 and therefore the issue of democracy does not apply.
These are rather important "democratic deficits" – to use the jargon of the moment.
In view of these basic facts, democracy was for the naïve and the ineffectual. The Government had shown clearly how politics operated in Ireland and democracy did not come into it. They remained consistent in this because, when democracy did again enter the equation in the 1918 election, they ignored the result in Ireland and thereby caused the War of Independence.
All these matters were as clear as daylight nine decades ago and are even clearer in hindsight. Why is Maurice O'Connell determined to ignore them? While he does so he will produce a kind of history that is like something along the lines of one handed clapping, and equally pointless.
Jack Lane, Millstreet, Co. Cork
Radio column - Twittering and chattering
In the radio review (15-19 April) Maggie Kennealy complains about Lyric FM's "ponderousness". She wishes for more "fun" and the "humour" from Lyric. At the same time she unfairly uses words like "lobotomy" and "twittering" and "chattering" about mainstream radio. If she does not know that it is to get away from the mainstream "fun" and the "humour" that most of us listen to Lyric, then she misses the point. She should go back to the "twittering" and "chattering" and leave Lyric to us fuddy-duddy dullards.
Anthony Leavy, Sutton, Co Dublin
STATEMENT - Oppose double taxation
The Householders Against Service Charges (HASC) are accusing some members of Waterford Co Council of promoting a fairy tale of New York if they believe that their recent St Patrick's Day junket to the city will yield tangible benefits to Co Waterford. Despite their attempts to hoodwink people into thinking that this trip will bring potential investment into the county, the reality is the visit of our local councillors will have no impact on American overseas investment policy.
The New York trip was a local authority sponsored junket for councillors and unelected local government officials. The joke is that they are now trying to convince the hard-pressed taxpayer of Co Waterford that some time soon an avalanche of Yankee dollars will flow into county.
It beggars belief that funding can be found for this junket as our local services fall apart from want of investment. This Fianna Fáil-led Government has in recent years wasted over €8 billion on projects that have eaten up the benefits of the Celtic Tiger. Projects from E-voting to PPARS have shown that our politicians are incompetent, reckless and in hock to a golden circle of friends and cronies. The fact that funding for local government nowhere meets the actual financial needs results in the imposition of local taxes, wrapped up in a blanket of service charges, on already heavily taxed individuals.
HASC maintains that local refuse charges are an unfair and unjust tax that should be abolished. It believes there would be no need for waste service charges if local government were properly funded. HASC renews its call for householders in Co Waterford to refuse to pay local service charges. It believes that these charges are double taxation imposed by unelected local government officials. The HASC says that householders should continue to present their tagged wheelie bins for collection even if they have not paid the local service charges. The failure to collect will rest with the local authority and not with the householder.
HASC will be holding a public meeting at Lyn's Bar (formerly known as Keating's Bar), in Kilmacthomas on 25 April at 8pm. An invitation is extended to all those opposed to this form of double taxation to attend.
Eddie Walsh, Chairperson, Householders Against Service Charges