Environment Minister Gormley lets us down [again]

[The Field Marshal]

This winter the country experienced severe flooding and the current cold snap.

The flooding problems were partly caused by Dept of Env inaction wrt arterial drainage of the Shannon basin tributaries.
The response to the flooding crisis was poorly handled and the statutory bodies reacted in a uncoordinated manner.
eg.The army ought to have been brought in much sooner and this was not done.

I drove from Dingle to Drogheda during the big freeze of last Tuesday and saw no gritting on the main roads despite a clear requirement for same.

Early this morning 1/1/10 [1am] I drove the full length of the m50 ,thence to Fairview and then out to Mt.Merrion via Booterstown returning by the M50 from Stillorgan to Blanchardstown.
[The journey took 3 hours.]

There was no evidence of gritting either in the city centre or on the m50.

All these main roads were in a lethally dangerous condition due to serious icing up.

What is this Gormley Minister doing? Absolutely nothing it seems.

I suspect along with his co-Green mad zealots he hopes that serious road icing problems will reduce traffic flows and hence carbon emissions.

[COLOR="Navy"]This is the new Green policy ;Do not grit the roads ,this will discourage travel and save the environment.
So what if a few people get killed or seriously injured in skids.
They should not be on the roads anyway[/COLOR].

[Digout]

Gormless has pretty much broken every promise he made. Cant wait till he faces he polls and we see the back of this charlatan.

[consultant]

Gormless and Ryan are too busy prosecuting delinquent bankers to bother with their ministeries.

[Digout]

Gormless and Ryan are too busy prosecuting delinquent bankers to bother with their ministeries.

Prob on the beer with the FFers and have a good laugh at the paddys for letting them off the hook.

[Destiny's Soldier]

Well, simply, there is no freezing weather. That is just a conspiracy theory you read on the internet.

Mr Gormley and Mr Martin, and ALL the opposition believe that the Earth is getting warmer and therefore we will not need to be gritting, or wasting public money buying Calcium Chloride to put on the country's roads.

I mean how can you hold a strong opinion that the Earth is getting warmer and at the same time, set lots of money aside to grit the roads in winter. Frost and Snow are not part of the equation. Warmer only, matters.

I'm glad to see Gormley being true to his convictions where it's better that people die rather than him being found pushing two conflicting policies simultaneously.

Well done Gormley. Climate Change is a life and death matter after all.

[Congalltee]

Gritting and flooding are Local Authority matters. Not ministerial.

[Rocky]

Gritting and flooding are Local Authority matters. Not ministerial.

The Local Authorities budgets are controlled by the Minister though. On top of that most power in Councils is in reality in the hands of the County Manager who works for the Minister. The buck does stop with Gormley.

Also can people stop referring to Gormley as Gormless, it is very stupid.

[Sailor]

Gritting and flooding are Local Authority matters. Not ministerial.

In Ireland? - We say TD's should concentrate on national issues but do we really mean it?

[Malbekh]

Have you guys nothing better to do? I can't stand Gormley because he's a hypocritical individual who has sacrificed his morals for retention of power + he hasn't got the balls to stand up for what he knows is right.

But.

With regard to the flooding, this was down as a one in 100 years event.
With regard to the current cold snap, this is already the worst for 40 years...so far.

You cannot legislate for bad weather on this scale because the cost to do so is prohibitive. Keeping enormous stocks of rock salt for 40 years in succession to be proved right in one year is not a recipe for sense or finance.

With regard to flooding, as I have found out to my cost Gormley has on a regular basis gone out of his way either to criticise excessive planning or in some circumstances overturned it. One of the reasons given being the development was on flood plains.

By all mean criticise him on the N3, Shell to Sea, Ringsend incinerator and the moronic LTEV in NAMA. But moping on about lack of gritting on roads down to under resourced county councils and extreme weather (in this country) does this site a disservice.

[The Field Marshal]

Gritting and flooding are Local Authority matters. Not ministerial.

You clearly know nothing concerning how Local Government is controlled in Ireland


The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government has responsibility for local authorities and related services.

Minister Gormley is the responsible political head for all local government actions in Ireland.
The buck stops with him.

If roads/rivers etc are unsafe due to icing or flooding it is Gormleys responsibility to step in and assure the public that action will be taken . He is the political boss for all Irish local authorities

His complete failure in this regard is completely in accord with his attempted manipulation of public opinion concerning climate change.

He is not doing the job he is paid for ie caring properly for the end users of the Environment and should resign immediately