Should we drive over our history?

This business about the M3 road being run through the hill of Tara is nothing new. It is however back in the news again. This time because a protester has chained herself inside a tunnel under which the roadworks are taking place. Her life is now in danger as the traffic of diggers passing over the tunnel puts it at risk of collapse. What I am finding difficult to understand however, is why this issue has gone on for so long. The simple fact is that these sites are part of Irish history, and perhaps more importantly, they are part of our heritage! So if there is any question of them being put in danger the project should either be closed down, or at the very least be re-routed, so far from the site as not to cause an issue.

Work at the site had to be halted yesterday because one protester has chained herself inside a tunnel, a tunnel which is as already stated, is at risk of collapse from diggers passing overhead. If the ground in the region is this unstable then surely the building work is putting the ancient site at risk as building surveyor Peadar O’Ceallaigh has already stated when he told the courts that damage to the site had already been caused in a survey he had already carried out. The fact is that the site of both the rath, and the road are on an esker, which means that the foundations for both will be very unstable if the development continues.

Minister for the environment John Gormley placed a preservation order on the site and also placed a buffer zone around it last month. Why did it take until last month for the minister to issue this order, as this can be seen as an environmental issue as much as it can be seen as an issue of transport. There have also been questions raised as to whether the buffer zone is in fact the size that the Ministers office originally stated it at 100 meters from the rath, which was then shortened to 25 meters and now 20. If this is the case, then surely the fact that building work has taken place on the rath itself, is in breach of this order. Why then has the minister allowed this development to continue? Or is it simply that he has no interest in this case?

It has also been made clear to both the NRA and the government that there is sufficient land in this area to re-direct the road away from the site which would prove less costly in the long run as maintenance to the road would not need to be as extensive as it will be in its current route. Also by altering the route it would diminish the risk of further damage to the site and to the potential risk s of the protesters. If this were any other country the question of potentially demolishing a historical site for the development of a motorway would be laughable, so why then is it the common practice in this country to go ahead and proceed until it is brought to the governments attention by the public?

This is just another example of the Irish governments policy of sitting on its hands and hoping that the problem goes away. Unfortunately by the time the government intervenes as always the plans have already begun development. This is the perfect opportunity for John Gormley to regain some credibility as a “Green” representative, and prove that his goals are to protect the environment rather then to simply introduce green related taxes as his office has put forward since the election.

A simple solution to a not so simple problem

John Gormley, leader of the Green party and recently appointed minister to the environment. He hasn’t really had much to say since the election, until now. Clearly Mr. Gormley has done a lot of research into engine emissions and knows a lot about how engines work. I say this because he has plans for an up to ten per cent tax increase on vehicles carrying a 1.6 litre engine or higher. What a genius!! Actually this plan isn’t entirely without merit it’s just terribly misguided. I say this for two reasons, the first being that higher tax on larger engines, in theory does make a kind of sense. The second reason being that higher tax on larger engines is a simplistic, and lazy attempt at reducing emissions. For a start, cars across the board, it doesn’t matter what the brand is tend to be rather efficient in a 1.6 litre engine once they’re maintained. It is a far better engine, with respect to the mile to the gallon then a 1.8, which is obvious, but whats not so obvious and a little surprising is that the 1.6 tends to be much more echo friendly then a 1.4, an engine which is not being chastised purely for its capacity. So here is my proposed solution for the clearly well informed minister, instead of slapping a tax increase based on engine capacity, go out and find out what the efficient engines are, and what the inefficient ones are. Take the facts from the specific manufacturers and discriminate against the heavy offenders, so for example if an Opel 1.3 has higher emissions then say a Ford in a 1.6, surely the Opel deserves to be in a higher tax bracket. To be fair this does sound like far too much work to go into a government policy, it wouldn’t be fair to ask for legislation that can’t be written, read and re-read inside someones lunch hour (it’s not like government officials are over-paid or don’t deserve an increase or anything). If the government wants a simple solution then they don’t have to look very far to get it. Motor tax in France is far more efficient then the system we employ here, and oh yes its much more democratic. Those crafty French, they don’t actually pay the tax on their cars, they pay it on the petrol! So if a persons car is very economic then they don’t get stung with a heavy tax burden, however if they drive a big gas guzzling SUV, then they have the luxury of paying through the nose in tax just to ensure that they can run it. Why then could we not adopt such a policy in Ireland? Because it would be too efficient and make too much sense thats why! Seriously though, does the notion of pay as you go driving not seem appealing to anybody? It would make so much more sense then blanket tax increases on specific motor classes. So to the minister, I implore you, wake up! Don’t make polices because they’re easy, make them because they serve the public, with this pay increases you’ve just received, the least you could do is earn it.

When Christmas was just one month a year

So before I start, I don’t want anyone to misunderstand this piece. I’m the first one to say that I love Christmas, or at least I did before I started having exams in December. Seriously though, it is a great time of year, there’s a buzz, an atmosphere, and it’s a time when we can all let our hair down and enjoy the spirit of things. I’m not complaining about Christmas as such, just what it has become. I’ve never really been particularly interested in the whole religious aspect of the holiday, but that’s more to do with my opinions on religion in general, and I’m not going to go on that particular rant right now. No this is to do with something I’ve noticed around this time of year, for a couple of years now and I saw it again last night when I went into work (I work in Liffey Valley shopping centre in case anyone who doesn’t know actually bothers to read this). Anyway, I walked in and there to my discust, were all the Christmas decorations hanging from the ceilings etc. Seriously, when did Christmas start in November?! If anyone knows please tell me because I must have missed that episode!! Christmas, last time I checked started about half way through December (remember the Twelve days of Christmas?), and like I’ve already said I’m not all that taken with the whole religious side of the affair, but I still don’t think that retailers should be allowed to exploit Christmas by making it into a two month shopping frenzy. It seems to me however that our two month Christmas shopping bonanza is only perpetuated by the greedy consumerist portion of society that I like to call, the middle class. A group who it seems would be only too delighted to see late night shopping all year, and not only at Christmas. The fact is that retailers across the nation are allowed to get away with turning Christmas into their own private money making racket in a way which they can’t do during the rest of the year in a bid to achieve the ultimate goal, 24 hour shopping. Which by the way many stores do now partake in around this time of year. I honestly cannot understand what this obsession that our society has with the need to buy things we don’t need. Christmas only amplifies the consumerist needs of the mob and is exploited by these parasitic retailers who’s only aim in life is to part us from our hard earned. Oh how I long for the days when shops didn’t open on Sundays or bank-holidays. To be honest, the whole notion makes me sick just thinking about it.

Should he fall, or will he be pushed?

So after last weeks debacle with Noel Dempsey and his little announcement over provisional licence holders not being allowed to drive without being accompanied by a full licence holder of more than two years, who thinks Mr. Dempsey should be asked to fall on his sword? Personally I think that he should made to jump on it, from the top of a very tall building! The mans career is littered with bad decisions during his time in office. We all remember his plan to reintroduce university fees, what a genius idea that was! If people were calling for his resignation over the Aer Lingus move from Shannon issue, then they should be demanding it now. The fact is that this latest announcement was simply a ploy by the minister to take peoples attention away from the Shannon move. This is more evident with the postponement of the decision until June (a move which people still argue is a mistake) it has given him some breathing room as nobody is asking why he did nothing about the Shannon move back in June of this year. Or why if as he claims it was not brought to his attention, why was it not brought to his attention. This argument in itself seems to be rather dubious to me personally, as I find it hard to believe that the civil servants in the department of transport failed to notify the minister. So this announcement should not be used to divert peoples attention, it should be used by the media and the public to show Mr. Dempsey’s incompetance as a minister, and it is just another decision in a long list as to why this man should not be allowed to hold office.

Are pharmacists only out to line their pockets?

Ok. So I thought it was about time I started writing on this thing, if not for any other reason then to get my own thoughts in order! So theres something thats been bothering me about this whole pharmacies withdrawing methadone prescription services from patients debacle. As we all saw yesterday the IPU announced that its members were set to resume the service, and don’t get me wrong this is a good thing. But my issue is why it took the threat of court proceedings and criminal action being taken against pharmacists in order to get them to resume filling prescriptions. The simple fact is that pharmacists have a duty to their patients and heroin addicts are arguably the most vulnerable of these. It would appear that pharmacists feel that they could exploit this group, a group who all have serious problems, not least of all that thy are addicted to such a vile drug. With the proposed cut in mark up by the HSE they felt that they could get away with the withdrawl of this service, an action of which the consequences they either did not consider or else they simply didn’t care! For example addicts would have to que at clinics in order to get their methadone, this would mean that the one’s who are trying to get their lives back together would have very little hope of achieving this. Simply because of the ques and the incapacitating nature of this treatment, it would make it impossible for them to hold any kind of employment. It would also mean that they would have to face the pushers and people they no longer wish to associate with in the car park, all because pharmacists refuse to take a price cut. This is an absolute disgrace that the pharmacists could consider such an action. While I may not be the biggest fan of the HSE either and it is clearly not without blame in this instance either it is good to see that it is taking measures in an effort to resolve this issue, quite an uncharacteristic step for the HSE. The IPU has however announced that its members will resume the service, although it did point out that it could not guarantee that all its members would, the ones that do resume filling prescriptions will now have backlogs to clear and so normal services will take a few days. So the greed of the pharmacists leading them to take actions which were not only being a futile exercise has done nothing except hurt the people the service was in place to help.