Ireland is 1st world economy with 3rd world public services – demand better

‘I’LL be dead before it’s built’.

The reply of one prophetic Dubliner when asked what he thought of news a 4km extension of the Luas tram line to Finglas had been given the go-ahead.

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It’s 2024. But the thing won’t be operational until 2031, at the earliest.

Seven years to build 4,000 metres of tram track.

Mad, you’d agree. But, that’s how we roll in Ireland. Slowly.

The planning system is fit for Victorian times, not a thriving modern nation desperately playing catch-up to build the infrastructure needed for a surging population in a frenetic world.

Vital stuff like trams, trains and buses should bypass the stick-in-the-mud planning board if our public transport is to become first world standard.

Damn the begrudgers who bring court challenges to stuff we desperately need. Designating vital infrastructure “for the public good”, as they do in France, would speed things up.

Then the extension to Finglas could be built in less than a year, easily. A myriad other extensions, to Ballymun, Ballyfermot, Lucan, Blanchardstown, Bray, Sandymount, Rathmines (all pipe dreams at the minute) could be completed quickly, too.

They could equally build a Luas in Galway, Cork, Limerick and Waterford in jig time.

But they won’t. Because the will to change the way we plan, design and build stuff simply isn’t there.

‘IT’S NO LONGER GOOD ENOUGH’

The “Ah, sure lookit” view of the world dominates in the Dail.

The voluminous bill to overhaul the planning system (900 pages of swerve) will do no such thing. Projects like the tram extension to Finglas (a piddling thing) will continue to gather dust for years as they inch towards approval.

Yer man out in Charlestown is right. He’ll probably be brown bread by the time the ding-dings rattle down the tracks in north-west Dublin.

And it won’t be in 2031.

It’s no longer good enough.

We deserve better.

Coffers betray reality

An election is upon us. It’s up to you to DEMAND better from every prospective TD that comes knocking on your door between now and November 29 — tipped to be election day.

And vote for a party that WILL build and provide first world public services to match our first world economy.

The outgoing government has the honour of having crafted a booming economy, largely on the back of record tax receipts from multinationals.

But our stuffed coffers betray the reality of third world public services at or beyond breaking point.

Buses, trams and trains cannot cope with demand. Decades of underinvestment and a broken planning system mean we’re saddled with a network that hasn’t changed at all in FORTY YEARS.

THIRD WORLD PUBLIC SERVICES

Our health service — despite all the money in the world at its disposal — is shagged because of bloated management and a chronic lack of frontline staff. The housing crisis is a symptom of years of refusal by  government to recognise that you can’t keep attracting people to come live in Ireland without providing them with affordable homes.

The election is being called early as the government believes you’ll be happy with the extra loot they threw your way on Budget Day and opt to return them to power. They may well be the only show in town now Sinn Fein is at death’s door, politically.

But it’s not all about the economy. It’s about the things that matter more than money, like reliable public transport, getting a doctor’s appointment when you need one, finding an  affordable place to live, securing quality child and elderly care, being able to pay for the weekly shop, not worrying about turning on your heating . . . 

At heart, us Irish care nothing for money. We care more about society. And we need a new government that champions that first.

CHANGE IS TOUGH TASK

SIMON HARRIS’S Aforce for Dublin report was, from the start, an exercise in futility masquerading as action.

All ten of the recommendations to “revitalise” the capital that were finally revealed this week have been recommended before.

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More cops on the beat; supervised injection facilities for drug addicts; houses above shops (there is only ONE PERSON living on O’Connell street these days . . . ONE); a dedicated bin collection system (Dublin city had that, the council did it for decades, and some bright spark decided to privatise it in 2012); offer Dubs a “compelling reason” to visit the city.

Eh, you’re kidding, right? Etc. Etc. Blah, yawn. Land of nod. Even the authors of Simon’s Aforce report acknowledged that Dublin didn’t need a new plan.

The author’s note: “Most of the report’s recommendations stem from previous reports or plans where implementation has been delayed or minimised.”

Of course it has. Indolence is how power – at all levels in Ireland – works.

So, the aforce report will be sent to another aforce who will report to another aforce about how to implement the initial aforce report’s recommendations.

And around and around we’ll go for years, if not decades, nay, until the end of time.

And NOTHING will ever be implemented.

MARY LOU SUNK BY ‘MONK’?

GERRY Hutch is no more running for the Dail than the man in the moon.

But as the days grow shorter, the cold settles in and the prospect of winter drains all joy from the soul, it warmed the cockles a tad.

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Then again, he might be deadly serious and intent on a tilt at becoming a TD.

He’s as entitled to run as the next man. And on his patch in the environs of Sheriff street in the north inner city, he’s revered as a Robin Hood-type figure. Old school Dublin crim, if you will.

If he were to end up on the ballot paper in Dublin Central, he’d be facing off against some political heavyweights.

Those would include the Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, along with former finance minister and current minister of public expenditure, Paschal Donohoe.

There’d be a few skitterings if Gerry threw his hat in the ring. Not least in the Shinner camp, where morale must be on the floor.

A Sunday Times poll last weekend confirmed the downward spiral of the party tipped by many to be the first to break the Fianna Fail-Fine Gael century-old stranglehold on power.

Mary Lou’s party is languishing on a miserly 16 per cent support. Repeat that percentage in the upcoming election and they’d lose HALF, maybe more, of their current 37 seats (minus a few who, eh, headed off for pastures new).

Indeed, Mary Lou’s seat is in danger. Imagine “The Monk” were to run and take her place in Leinster House! What a story that’d be. 

I’LL BAT OFF KIP

IT’S apple pie and bubble gum, the essence of blue collar America. Baseball, of course. A game of wits little understood outside the US.

But it should be. There’s no real mystery. A bat and a ball.

Tonight, the World Series (yes, it’s only in America) kicks off with the first game of a seven-game run to crown the best team in baseball.

For the first time in 43 years, the New York Yankees will play the LA Dodgers (they were based in Brooklyn, NY, until 1957). Despite being 2,000 miles apart, it will be like a NY city derby.

If you fancy a three hour feast and are up past 1am tonight, tune into TNT Sports.

I’ll have matchsticks in me eyes . . . 

SURGE TO FLEE GAZA

A SEA of people snakes through the rubble of bombed-out buildings in Jabalia, northern Gaza.

They huddle together, frightened of the death that swarms around them. The war there has raged for more than a year now.

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, made his eleventh trip to the Middle East this week in a bid to persuade Israeli Premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, to end the conflict.

Blinken’s been rebuffed every single time. There’s no reason to believe this visit will be any different.