Sir, – Your editorial on the reform of the planning system (“The Irish Times view on the planning system: proper resourcing is essential”, January 4th) and Pat Leahy’s “Government needs to switch to crisis-mode on housing” (Opinion & Analysis, January 4th) on how the incoming government should rise to the challenges it faces, particularly on housing, are both well-considered analyses of what must now happen if we are to succeed in addressing the climate emergency, the infrastructure deficit and the housing crisis. In contrast, the letter by David McRedmond (January 4th), restating the proposed panaceas of the Taoiseach’s Taskforce for Dublin, blames the citizen for our planning ills. There were no references in the taskforce report to any blockages to Dublin’s development. Some commentary in his letter cannot go unchallenged. He states: “The biggest blockage to the transformation of Dublin is constant planning objections, and the gross abuse of judicial reviews”. This is simply untrue.
Planning observations do not add any time to local authority planning decisions. An Coimisiún Pleanála will now have statutory timelines, so planning appeals will be decided more quickly. Lack of resources causes delay. The words “gross abuse of judicial review” are very disturbing. The facts are that of 325,000 planning decisions over the last 12 years, 22,500 have been appealed, a rate of below 7 per cent; there have been in total some 600 judicial reviews, less than a fifth of 1 per cent and An Bord Pleanála has lost or conceded the majority of them.
The “major developer” that he quotes is correct, but the implication in his letter that objections to planning applications result in only circa 20 per cent of apartments being built is false. That circa 20 per cent figure is for apartments for which planning permission has already been granted. The other circa 80 per cent with planning permission, which will never be built, are presumably for the purposes of land speculation. There are over 100,000 housing units which have planning permission, but they are not being built.
Warsaw’s recent development is based on a shared vision for the city, which includes its residents, based on a coherent plan (Derek Scally, “As Dublin stagnates, Warsaw reinvents itself as a modern European capital”, World, January 1st). This is common in Europe, unlike our own system of wild-west planning, where nobody knows what to expect on any given site.
Some continue to blame the inhabitants of our cities for blockages. This simplistic view ignores the real factors of inadequate water, drainage, roads, transport, energy and waste infrastructure; finance; resources; workforce; skills shortages – to name but a few. Until this false premise persists, we will not succeed in solving the existential emergencies of climate and biodiversity, the provision of adequate physical and social infrastructure, nor the challenge of affordable housing.
We can only do this together, through proper analysis of data, rather than at the whim of lobbyists, which appears to have been the case up to now. – Yours, etc,
ROBIN MANDAL,
Chair,
Dublin Democratic Planning Alliance,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Occupied Territories Bill
Sir, – Paul Colgan (“How should Ireland prepare for Trump’s second term in the White House?”, Politics, Analysis, January 4th), quotes former Irish ambassador to the US, Anne Anderson, as saying “we absolutely can’t be quiet on our core values”. Given Israel’s mass killing and destruction in Gaza and throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), one area where we can’t be quiet is in ensuring that the Occupied Territories Bill is passed early in the new Dáil. Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling of July 2024 is a game-changer in this regard while all political parties included passing the Bill in their general election manifestos. The ICJ ruling is an authoritative statement of what is actually long-established international law. The central point of the ruling is that Israel’s presence in Palestinian territory (the West Bank including East Jerusalem and Gaza) taken in 1967 is existentially illegal and must be brought to an end as rapidly as possible. It is a violation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination and of international law on the use of force. Israel is rightly criticised for its (also) illegal conduct as an occupier such as building settlements, home demolitions and forcible transfer, resource extraction and apartheid, as well as crimes in Gaza which may amount to genocide. This usual sole focus on how Israel conducts the occupation is no longer enough as its very presence in Palestinian territory is illegal and all its actions there are, therefore, legally invalid.
The ICJ ruling also brings into sharp focus the hypocrisy of the EU given its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its abject failure over decades to do anything meaningful to defend the Palestinian people and vindicate their fundamental rights. In this context, passing the Occupied Territories Bill is a modest and long-overdue measure in keeping with our core values. – Yours, etc,
ÉAMONN MEEHAN,
Chair,
Sadaka, the Ireland-Palestine Alliance,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Ireland in the 1980s
Sir, – I was amazed to see pushback in these pages (Letters, January 3rd) to Michael McDowell’s assessment of Ireland in the 1980s (“Ireland in the 1980s was backward, poor and stagnant. Some politicians want to bring us back there”, Opinion & Analysis, January 1st).
I am of a vintage that recalls well the economic mismanagement and myopia that characterised the era, not to mention the corruption.
Every major economic body and observer of note at the time (domestic and international) highlighted the uneven tax landscape, the pressing need for deregulation and privatisation of State monopolies, as well as a reduced role for certain public advisory bodies that tended to reject any solutions not involving a central role for them. Mr McDowell was also right to cite the trade unions and their particular interests as being central to the problems confronting the country.
That the prime minister of our nearest neighbour also advocated certain of these measures I agree played a strong role in perpetuating the malaise, even though reforms taking place in New Zealand during the same period (a comparably-sized economy with an agrarian background) provided a far better benchmark. As ever, politics won the day and the slur of “Thatcherite” was too great for any reforming party to withstand (ask the Progressive Democrats), even though it afforded the Iron Lady way too much credit. She did not invent the notion of an enterprise economy.
On the back of such warped perspective and a large dose of self-interest, Ireland’s leaders of the time delayed effective economic development by at least a decade. To acknowledge such failures is not to suggest all is perfect now, especially regarding homelessness, crime and healthcare. But it is equally important not to take even one step back to those days of extraordinary political incompetence. – Yours, etc,
RONAN DONOHUE,
London.
Storms and power lines
Sir, – Recently both Storm Darragh and this latest snowstorm have caused the loss of electrical power to many thousands of households, and consequently the loss of water supply and the ability to either heat or cook in many homes (especially in the modern home with a heat-pump, no chimney and an electric cooker) while the power remains down.
With a major upgrade of the electricity grid planned, in order to allow the increased use of renewable energy, resilience needs to be built into the grid by putting the power lines underground rather than on large pylons, where they remain vulnerable to high winds and freezing snow and rain.
The smaller lines delivering power to households also need to be cleared of nearby trees which could fall on those lines.
With the likelihood of more frequent and more powerful storms in the future, this must be a priority.
There should also be a rethink on the requirement to not have a chimney for a room-only stove on new builds or to remove an existing chimney if receiving a grant to install a heat-pump on older houses.
Not being able to heat a room or cook a meal because of electrical outage for up to a week is a serious matter, especially in inclement weather. – Yours, etc,
DAVID DORAN,
Bagenalstown,
Co Carlow.
The Irish Freedom Party
Sir, – Conor Gallagher gives his opinion that the Irish Freedom Party is “far right” (“The rise of anti-immigrant ‘community watchdogs’ across Ireland”, News, Analysis, January 3rd). I asked that two new members be expelled because I don’t wish the Irish Freedom Party to have any association with vigilante groups. But to suggest that the Irish Freedom Party is “far right” is so incorrect as to be almost comical.
We are the party that campaigned steadfastly for the right to free speech and the equality of all citizens before the law while Minister for Justice Helen McEntee wished to introduce laws to ban free speech, ie speech that the government hates, and to also ditch equality by giving additional or preferential legal rights to certain identity groups which the government choses.
The Irish Freedom Party also held rallies and campaigned against the draconian government-imposed Covid lockdown because we don’t believe it is for the government to tell citizens where and when they can travel, go to work or see their families, even to attend funerals.
We are a libertarian not a state authoritarian party. This cannot be claimed by those who wish to curb free speech or even hanker for the days of Eoin O’Duffy and the Blueshirts, ie the precursor to the Fine Gael party, if I am not mistaken.
We’re not far right, we’re just right so far. Maybe Conor Gallagher could keep up to speed. – Yours, etc,
HERMANN KELLY,
President,
Irish Freedom Party,
Dublin 4.
Making the world a better place
Sir, – Una Mullally (“Ireland can make the world a better place. But first it must look in the mirror”, Opinion & Analysis, January 6th) says that “Ireland can make the world a better place”. I agree. We should start by committing the Apple billions to projects that will make a global contribution, bearing in mind how vigorously we asserted that the money wasn’t ours in the first place. We might also reflect on how we became rich by raiding the tax base of our allies and how, shamefully, we still shelter under the security blanket paid for by the citizens of those same allies.
We could simply give away the Apple billions, or we could use them to transform Ireland into a global centre of expertise in development, democracy building, peace and reconciliation studies, cultural education, technology adaptation, environmental protection, migration and integration. We could change who we are and how we are perceived. But will we? – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL O’REILLY.
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Through the grapevine
Sir, – I note a report in your Business Today section (“Wine decline: sober GenZers threatening future of French vineyards”, January 4th).
Is this the beginning of the end of the reign of terroir? – Yours, etc,
TOMMY MADDOCK,
Carlow.
50 for the Future
Sir, – I read with interest this year’s instalment of “50 for the Future” (Magazine , January 4th) and it seems the eclectic selection are generally disadvantaged by relative youth. It’s a tad dispiriting that none of your predictors failed to find anyone over the age of 50, suggesting that that cohort’s (undefined) future is behind us. I mean, incoming taoiseach Micheál Martin is 64 and US president Trump is 78 – surely two for the future? – Yours, etc,
TOMÁS FINN,
Cappataggle,
Ballinasloe,
Co Galway.
Assad’s flight to Russia
Sir, – David McWilliams asks if anyone in Damascus believed that the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 would cause Assad’s regime to be toppled (Opinion & Analysis, January 4th). Before he fled to Russia, President Bashar al-Assad had taken the precaution of airlifting $250 million in cash (two tons of $100 bills and euro notes) to Moscow to buy luxury apartments and secure his family’s future, thereby confirming his own insecurity and his confidence in the American dollar. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.
The Shipping Forecast
Sir, – 2025 marks the centenary of the Shipping Forecast broadcast by BBC Radio. Like many Irish people, I regularly listen to the daily forecasts wherever I am in the world and have done so since childhood. Something is reassuring about the sound of those regular, measured, matter-of-fact scientific reports of peculiarly named areas that eventually become familiar without ever knowing the exact location of each. Long may the Shipping Forecast continue. What an enduring riposte to the low signal-to-noise ratio of social media and its forecast of moderate to poor, falling rapidly. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Blanket dilemma
Sir, – The application of mathematics in the world of commerce and product design clearly is not as important as we are taught in school. My height is five feet, four inches, the heating element in my brand-new, high-tech electric blanket is four feet. Therefore, the choice is chilblains in my toes or freezing shoulders. Go figure. – Yours, etc,
EVE PARNELL,
Dublin 2.
Swimming pools and etiquette
Sir, – I thoroughly concur with Clare Moriarty’s observations on behaviour at swimming pools (“Planning to join a swimming pool this January? Read this first”, Opinion & Analysis, January 5th). Let us issue a collective call to swimming pool staff nationwide to please implement lane etiquette, lest we all make seething enemies of our erstwhile nodding acquaintances. – Yours, etc,
JULIE DAVIS,
Stepaside,
Co Dublin.