Sir, - What have Charlie McCreevy and the Hugh O'Flaherty saga got in common with the proposal to build a stainless steel spike, twice the height of Liberty Hall, in the middle of O'Connell Street in Dublin? The answer, of course, is arrogant stupidity.
However, it now appears that a new stunt is at hand.
The recent Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) commissioned on behalf of Dublin Corporation in respect of the spike is in flagrant breach of the EEC directive governing an EIS.
Consuls directive 85/337/EEC Annex III and the directive itself provides that the EIS must identify both the positive and negative impact of the proposed development. The EIS in this case comprehensively fails to address any negative impact of the spike.
The essence of an EIS is that it is a neutral document balancing the negative and positive, thereby permitting the decision-maker (in this case, the Minister for the Environment) and the public to assess the proposed development based on adequate information and material.
This spike project was originally hailed as a Fianna Fail/Millennium Committee project. In view of the flagrant breach of the EEC directive governing an EIS, the Government's continued silence in the matter is both thunderous and inexplicable. - Yours, etc.,
Micheal O Nuallain, Belgrave Square, Monkstown, Co Dublin.