Originally Posted by alonso
No it wasnt rhetorical. I have no party affiliation or contact with any parties hence this board is my probably my only means of asking questions about answers I dont know.
So these 'councillors' meet and discuss issues which affect our lives even though they arent' elected ? Do they get paid ? Is it an appointment for cronies system similar to my understanding of the Senate ?
they are elected in local elections fionn. you have yer chance next year. Are you new, .like really really new, to politics?
Yeah I suppose I am new which accounts for how many questions I usually have. History interests me and I would have studied it if I hadnt' studied engineering. However I have no interest in becoming a politician. I just like to argue with people
so the finance spc was given the report on the jcdecaux advertisement on Thursdays, i wonder of dermot lacey (who requested it) has found anything interesting in it?
Last edited by lostexpectation; 5th December 2008 at 08:32 PM.
LE i was hoping cllr would pop by and give us some opinion on this and on the ringsend incinerator. Has he left P.ie?
Hi Alonso,
I hope I have not been that quiet that you think I have gone missing from Politics.ie
As for the Incinerator I have opposed it ffrom the beginning - not on Incineration grounds per se but on the madness of putting a major Industrial Plant in the heart of the City beside a Nature Park and adjacent to Dublin bay where he have spent nearly E500million cleaning the Bay to Blue Flag status - acknowledging the smell problem and all that which hopefully will be resolved totally soon. The impact of about 400 truck movements per day through narrow roads in a largely residential area also reason to object. I have today sent letter to the Irish Times on this and if they do not publish it soon will put it up here.
On the JC Decaux issue we agreed at the Finance Committee to send the whole financial side element of it to the newly established Audit Committee that is comprised of four external reps and three Councillors ( I am one of the Councillors so was happy enough with that procedure.
Hope that answers all for the moment.
Dermot
ok when?, what about the info reported in plan ireland.
That was part of the motivation for tabling the motion and then having the matter referred to the audit Committee. What is important is that:
a) we have a streetscape policy that benefits the City and people who use it
and
b) the City gets the best possible financial deal from such transactions.
I hope to pursue this efficiently through the structures referred to above.
will you ever get proper look at the contract?
I said I would post this here if the IT did not publish it. Hope it adequately explains my position.
The Editor,
Letters Page,
The Irish Times.
Dear Editor,
The comments from the new Green Party candidate for Pembroke-Rathmines (letters 5th December) show that while he seems to be slow on learning the facts he has been far quicker at acquiring the Fianna Fail art form of selective memory.
The Waste Management Plan as adopted in 1998 provided for the role of Incineration to be explored. It did so in the context that the power to draft and subsequently amend the Plan was within the powers of the elected City Councillors. Disgracefully that power was removed in the ironically titled Environmental Protection Act introduced to the Dail by the present Green partners in Government- Fianna Fail. At every single step of the way Labour Councillors on Dublin City Council have opposed the madness of locating an Incinerator at Poolbeg. Some have done so because of an outright opposition to Incineration as a solution and some because of the enormous environmental problems imposed through the implementation of this crazy plan.
At every stage we have said NO to this plan and sought to identify alternatives. Previously we were always joined by Green Party Councillors and now TD's. At times we were supported by colleagues in the other Parties.
At all times I stressed that, given the alliance of Local Authority Management and Departmental Mandarins to the Incinerator, it could only be stopped through strong Political intervention. That is why, among other reasons, I was glad to see John Gormley re-elected to the Dail and had high hopes on his appointment as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
I do not doubt the sincerity of the Green Partys opposition to the Incinerator at Poolbeg. Clearly John Gormley would not wish for it to happen on his watch. However it their political ability and clout that now matters and the lack of evidence of same that is of concern. Politics, like all trades, requires a learned apprenticeship. Sadly it would appear that while the Green Party were important to Fianna Fail in the art of Cabinet making the Foremans job and real authority lies with that Party still.
Sometimes we clain that we live in a democracy. It is a concept that gives me real cause to doubt virtually every day of the week. In this instance the elected members of Dublin City Council have democratically and repeatedly rejected a proposal promoted by Management at the behest, no doubt, of the Mandarins in the Custom House. The Minister in charge of that Department tells us he is against the proposal and yet the project proceeds on its merry way. The Minister for the Environment is not prohibited by any act passed by the Oireachtas to tell the City and County Managers not to proceed with this unwanted Incinerator. It is time that Minister Gormley and the new Green Party Representative for Pembroke-Rathmines realised that being in office means also being in power or at least in a democracy it should.
Yours sincerely,
Councillor Dermot Lacey
