Madam, – I read with interest the local election results in today’s supplement (Elections 2009, June 9th). The statistics which most surprised me, however, were not the party gains or losses, but how over-represented some areas of the country appear to be. For example, Manorhamilton (electorate 5,849) has 5 seats, but so too does Howth-Malahide (electorate 41,843). Tallaght (electorate 44,783) has six seats, whereas Carrick-on-Shannon (electorate 7,723) has 7! So many more of these anomalies exist and, when aggregated, the contrast couldn’t be starker: Cavan County Council (total electorate 54,538) has 25 council seats – one more than Fingal Co. Council (electorate 174,110).
If the focus of a local council is on houses, schools, jobs and crime etc, then it is reasonable to suppose that there might be more of these issues in areas with a higher electorate, but this is not reflected in the number of councillors spread around the country. Even taking into account the larger geographical areas some of these councils need to manage, Ireland is still a small country.
A reduction of these numbers should be considered before any future local elections. – Yours, etc,
A chara, – Looking at the local election results nationally, many of us Independent candidates once again fill the minor placings. The ballot paper which describes us as “Non-Party” rather than Independent obviously has a negative impact on how we are viewed. Posters and literature state our independence, why not the ballot paper? – Is mise,
Madam, – We are all non-Irish EU citizens and have been residing in Dublin for between 10 and 27 years. On Friday, we all turned up at our respective polling stations to be told that we were only allowed to vote in the local elections. All the polling clerks and the supervisors could tell us was that, on the electoral register, we only had an L (for Local) against our name. As we have all voted in Dublin in previous European elections, we were astonished. Subsequent inquiries revealed that non-Irish EU citizens resident in Ireland are now required to sign a declaration that they will not be voting simultaneously in their home country, so as to avoid double voting.
We understand the need for such controls, but the declaration form clearly states that the regulation does not apply to people who voted here in previous European elections. Yet, the electoral register staff don’t seem to be aware of this.
Is this a symptom of Ireland having mixed feelings towards Europe and fellow Europeans, or just incompetence? Whatever the explanation, the fact remains that we have all been denied our democratic right to vote. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – On your Letters page (June 8th), Maurice O’Connell draws a telling parallel between Brian Cowen’s situation and the discredited Neville Chamberlain government of 1940. Also appropriate are the words hurled at Chamberlain by his fellow-Conservative Leo Amery in the House of Commons (quoting Oliver Cromwell): “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” – Yours, etc,
Madam, – After so many U-turns while in Government, it seems the Green Party is finally fulfilling its election promise of making Ireland a “GM-free zone”, albeit where GM stands for “Green member”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I am sick to the teeth of hearing Government ministers attempting to spin the message that the electorate sent them last Friday. I did not omit Fianna Fáil and the Green Party from my preferences to tell them that I was unhappy or to object to recent tax increases, nor did I do it lightly – I have consistently given Fianna Fáil candidates at least a preference in every election since the departure of Mr Haughey. I did it because I have no confidence whatsoever in the ability of the current Government to effectively manage the crisis.
Yesterday’s downgrading of our national credit rating by Standard & Poor’s simply confirmed what I already knew, which is that our Government has not made the hard choices and taken steps to live within our means. Instead it continues to borrow profligately to prop up failed institutions that patently cannot be saved – such as Anglo Irish Bank – and continues capital programmes that could be selectively suspended until we can once again afford them. Like many before the boom went bust, the current Government still does not understand that we must live within our means. What taxes it has increased have unfairly impacted on those who earn the least and many of the paltry cuts they have made are at the expense of those who can least afford them.
On top of which, the impact of the excessive rate of VAT and spiralling unemployment levels are driving further job losses across the board in retail, services and manufacturing for local consumption.
Given the results of the European and local elections, the letter of the constitutional position notwithstanding, if the Taoiseach of this country has an ounce of respect for the spirit of our democracy he will call a general election immediately, regardless of the result of the motion of no confidence in the Dáil today. The people are the sovereign power in this nation and the people have spoken. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I took part for my first time in the tallies on Saturday at the basketball arena in Tallaght,Dublin, and, while I enjoyed it thoroughly, I was amazed at the lack of knowledge of voters in filling out what, to me, is relatively simple document – the ballot paper.
South Dublin County Council should have recorded the whole count process in order to distribute it across every school in the country – and keep showing it every year.
Irish people are not playing their full role in the democratic process and we all lose because of that. The State should show at every voting station around the country how the ballot should be filled in.
I do hope that someone will listen and ensure the political process is more transparent to all our people. – Yours,etc,
Madam, – I happened to hear Enda Kenny speak at the weekend of a revolution in Irish politics. Would someone please tell him that if the revolution materialises, there’s little chance of Fine Gael avoiding the same fate as the soldiers of destiny. The guillotine will need to take a wide clean sweep. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Now that Fianna Fáil is no longer the largest party overall at local authority level, are we being unrealistic in expecting more responsible physical planning?
We are surrounded by the evidence of bad planning: the relentless infilling of precious urban green spaces; the bulldozing of irreplaceable fertile farmland for housing estates where tens of thousands of houses remain empty; thousands of apartment blocks built to low standards and which will become the tenements of the future; and the haphazard sprawl on the outskirts of most towns and villages. This is the appalling legacy of the national obsession with building anywhere we could pour concrete.
The most important duty of local councillors is to approve the Development Plan, which sets the planning framework for the county, city or borough for the next six years. Our present economic problems would have been far less severe if local authorities had decided not to rezone and to refuse permission for the greed-driven and insanely expensive housing projects that the Irish public are now paying for so dearly.
Will Fine Gael and Labour councillors, who will be more influential in many councils, act responsibly on planning issues? People might feel reassured if both parties issued strong guidelines on planning to their respective party members on local authorities. Would Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore care to respond in public? – Yours, etc,