Getting Ireland moving
Sir, – The debate on these pages provoked by the essay by John Collison on the state of the nation (“Ireland is going backwards. Here’s how to get it moving,” Weekend, October 25th) is limited by its focus on solutions within the existing economic model. The reason for non-government organisations (NGOs) and such bodies was not based on politicians seeking ways to deflect responsibility and accountability but on the Margaret Thatcher/ Ronald Reagan approach aimed at reducing the size of government.
In efforts to keep public sector numbers down and the pay bill at a minimum, functions were devolved outside the Civil Service. Certain areas were privatised. As a result, for many years while the economy and population grew, the number of civil servants remained around the 30,000 mark until about 10 years ago, while the number of NGOs grew enormously.
This is just an example of the thinking that has brought us to the current impasse. The government parties inherited this economic approach from their predecessors in the 1980s and 1990s and seem incapable of seeing anything outside of the neoliberal economic model. Indeed, given that many of them grew up and were educated under this system it is not surprising that they see any alternatives as illogical or mad.
As some of your contributors have noted, the risk in not identifying and changing the economic thinking that has brought us to where we are now is that we might look for the “strong person” who will force things through, while leaving, of course, the existing system by which it would appear the rich are getting richer unscathed. In other words, a right-wing autocracy.
RM Block
Mr Collison is right. We need drastic solutions but unless we change our economic model, I’m afraid nothing will be changed except for forcing through infrastructural projects which will benefit the multinationals at the expense of our civil liberties and be of limited benefit to the population as a whole. – Yours, etc,
SEÁN LEAKE,
Terenure,
Dublin.
Sir, – While there is much to agree with in Sinead O’Sullivan’s article (“Ireland’s problem isn’t just process, it’s psychology”, Opinion, October 30th), it is concerning that both Sinead and John Collison propose the answer to be lessening of regulation. Regardless of the quantity involved, bad regulation obstructs whereas good regulation protects.
Let’s not forget how much safer our lives are under the protection of the multitude of EU regulations introduced. Business sees all regulation as a cost, as an obstruction to progress, despite there being very little evidence that removing regulation actually delivers good results, as opposed to delivering bad results quicker.
By all means, let’s make things more effective and efficient, but we need to be careful that we don’t leave future generations with a legacy of problems to fix. Absolutely, the country desperately needs leadership, along with a 50 year vision, and a plan for getting there, but it’s a lack of ambition to think we must accept the low-standard, cut-price version to get there. – Yours, etc,
DONAGH McINERNEY,
Celbridge,
Kildare.
Unionists and the Belfast Agreement
Sir, – Newton Emerson is of the opinion that Fine Gael has been consistently “mistaken” in regarding unionists as “intent on breaching the Belfast Agreement “and that this had a negative effect on Heather Humphrey’s presidential campaign, (“FG’s anti-British rhetoric came back to bite Humphreys”, Opinion and Analysis, October 30th).
I am reminded that in 1998, the DUP was the only major political party in Northern Ireland to oppose the agreement. Arlene Foster, in 2018, made it quite clear that the DUP did not regard the agreement as a “sacrosanct piece of legislation” and that it could be changed to facilitate the UK leaving the EU. In the years following, the priority for unionists was to avoid a hard border within the UK and, at Westminster, to support a hard Brexit, regardless of the wishes of the Northern Ireland electorate or the possibility of undermining the agreement.
Indeed, as recently as last August, Sammy Wilson MP, the Chief Whip of the DUP in the House of Commons, expressed his backing for the statement from Nigel Farage that Reform UK, in government, would consider renegotiating the agreement in order to stop small boat crossings to England and to facilitate the deportation of asylum seekers.
While, in general, the rhetoric has mellowed and the reality has changed, Fine Gael can be excused for at least retaining some degree of scepticism regarding the unionist position, rather than be accused of pursuing an anti-British agenda.
I am sure that the political analysts will be able to find many reasons for the failure of the Humphreys’s campaign but I would suggest that the Fine Gael relationship with unionism will not figure highly. – Yours, etc,
MARTIN McDONALD,
Terenure,
Dublin 12.
Luas line to Finglas
Sir, – The approval of the Luas Finglas project (“€600m Luas extension to Finglas gets green light”, Home news, October 31st) is welcome news as are plans to expand mass transit across Dublin and in regional cities.
Yet the reported €600 million price tag for an extension of less than 4km (2.4 miles) raises serious questions. That’s double or triple what similar recent light rail schemes have cost across western Europe. Understanding the root causes of these inflated costs should be a national priority because in any other area, such a figure would trigger immediate concern. – Yours, etc,
ROSS Ó CURRÁIN,
Drumcondra,
Dublin 9.
Sale of PTSB
Sir, – Whilst a proposed sale of PTSB is to be welcomed, it is hoped that such a sale would deliver real choice and options to the consumer. (“PTSB sale prompts concerns over jobs and branches”, Page 1, October 31st).
I would hope that any new entity might offer face-to-face banking services rather than merely forcing all of us to do our business online/ or on a call to a call centre.
Am I alone in wishing to do my banking face-to-face with a real person? – Yours, etc,
ANTAINE O’DUIBHIR,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6.
Dutch election result
Sir – The Dutch elections was a set back for Geert Wilders and the far right PPV (“Centrist D66 party wins Netherlands election, say reports”, October 31st). But unfortunately it wasn’t a set back for the far right overall.
Two smaller parties that arguably sit to the right of the PVV gained seats. These are the ironically titled Forum voor de Democratie (Forum for Democracy; think Alex Jones setting up a party) and JA21 (a PVV spin-off).
Together with the PPV, this far-right block had 41 seats at the last election two years ago and will now likely have 42 seats of the 150-seat parliament. The chaos continues. - Yours, etc,
SEBASTIAN VENCKEN,
Goldsmith Street,
Dublin 7.
Katie not Kitty O’Shea
Sir, – In his contribution to An Irishman’s Diary (“Why the GAA fell in and out of love with Charles Stewart Parnell”, October 31st), John Kelly referred to the lover and later wife of Charles Stewart Parnell as “Katherine ‘Kitty’ O’Shea”. She was, in fact, generally known as Katie. “Kitty” was Victorian slang for a prostitute and it was first applied to Mrs O’Shea by the egregious Tim Healy, and it stuck.
It was a crude and unwarranted insult, which should not be perpetuated. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN,
Cabinteely,
Dublin 18.
Free buses for Dublin
Sir, - Eoin Burke-Kennedy’s article (“Would free buses work in Dublin and ease traffic congestion?” Business This Week, 31st October) discusses the potential for free public transport almost entirely through the lens of traffic congestion. But congestion is at most a symptom of a far deeper problem – our dependence on private transport and its contribution to national greenhouse gas emissions.
The primary purpose of expanding and improving public transport, whether free or not, should surely be to reduce emissions and help Ireland meet its climate targets – that are not just legal obligations, but also necessary for our survival on a habitable planet. Easing congestion might be a welcome side effect but should not be the real goal.
Treating free public transport merely as a tool for traffic management risks repeating the short term approach that has dominated Irish transport policy for decades-easing congestion while emissions continue to rise.
Every transport measure should be judged first and foremost by its capacity to cut emissions, not just to make the traffic flow more smoothly for a little while longer. – Yours, etc,
PAUL O’SHEA,
Planet Before Profit CLG,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – This is going to sound counter-intuitive but the best way to make cars move faster is to take space away from cars and give it to buses and bikes.
During peak hours, cars never travel faster than buses. If buses are faster than cars, some people will switch from their cars to buses. Likewise, if bikes are faster than cars, some people will switch from their cars to bikes, so long as it is safe to do so.
Because buses and bikes need far less road space per person, this frees up space for cars, and car traffic will gradually become faster, until parity is achieved. Vice versa, if cars are faster than buses or safer than bikes, people will switch to their cars, which will reduce the speed of cars, and parity will again be restored.
Increasing the speed, reliability and number of buses, and the safety of bike riding, would do more to reduce congestion than any other intervention. – Yours, etc,
BEN AVELING,
Ranelagh,
Dublin.
Sir, – Our city is clogged up with traffic. Let’s do something radical and free buses are a start.
We also need to extend the Red Cow parking area and all others parking areas around the city. Let’s get on with it. – Yours, etc,
PAUL DORAN,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.
More developers needed
Sir, - The head of the housing agency say we need more developers. (“Ireland needs 6-8 more big builders, says housing chief”, Page 1, October 31st)
There is no question that we need more homes. But bricks alone are not a solution to the crisis.
In my hometown of Donabate, major developments keep being approved, but the basic infrastructure families need has not materialised and there are no concrete plans to deliver it.
There are no additional school places, no childcare spaces and no GP capacity. Commuters already face overcrowded trains where people are left standing on platforms. The bus service is unreliable, and a long-promised new route was cancelled before it even launched.
To make matters worse, developers repeatedly seek to renege on planning conditions, most recently seeking to drop a required childcare facility in favour of yet more housing units.
We can chase numbers and housing targets as much as we like, but if we fail to build communities alongside them, we are missing the point entirely. - Yours, etc,
PETER ELST,
Beresford Avenue,
Donabate,
Co Dublin.
Holloween and Halloween
Sir, – I am sorry to disagree with a previous letter-writer, but it’s not a mispronunciation; Halloween and Holloween are different words – with very different meanings (Letters, October 31st).
Halloween was your da smashing Brazil nuts with a hammer in the backyard, biting an apple swinging on a string tied to a doorframe, using your lips to pick a ha’penny off the bottom of a basin filled with ice-cold water, demolishing barmbrack until you got the ring or became sick, putting a sheet over your head to become a ghost, prising apart the now stuck-together bullseyes and gobstoppers you collected door to door, buying bangers off a fella who claimed his ma smuggled them under her scarf past the B-specials on the Border.
Holloween is what we have now; the different vowel says it all. - Yours, etc,
CHRIS FITZPATRICK,
Terenure,
Dublin 6.
