Public transport conversation

Some reasons for investment in our public transport system:


1. After a Mayo - Dublin gaelic football match at parnell park, we all headed to the bus stop to catch the bus into town. There was a large crowd waiting at the bus stop. The bus pulled up, and there seemed to be a lot of empty seats upstairs, but people getting on the bus just crowded around the driver and the bottom of the stairs. The driver yelled, "I'm not taking any more passengers!" and the bus pulled away. A Dub behind me said "bleedin cultcies, they don't even know there is an upstairs on the buses!"


2. On the bus this morning, a very irate old lady was telling her friend that her sister was staying with her for a few weeks after she had an operation......

Old Lady : "jaysus, I'm like her bleedin' maid, doin' everythin' for her"

Friend : "She sounds like she's treatin ya like an escaped goat"


3. I was getting off the bus one day and I thanked the bus driver as he was letting me off and he replies, "It's alright, I was going this way anyway".
Cheeky b**tard.

4.
I was on the LUAS listening to two young ones talking about their dogs.

'Me dog is a jack russel and he's a little f****r! He bit me on da bleedin' finger once! I wish i had a bleedin' nice dog.'

Her friend replied,

'Do ya know what dog is lovely? That one outta the bleedin' paint add. Eh...what's that dog called...oh yeah...the Durex dog!'

5.
On a bus two teenage girls, one Dub and one American, are observing a boy skate-boarding along.

American Girl: "...we call them side-walks, what do you call them?"
Dub Girl: "Paths"

"...we call them skaters, what do you call them?"
"Feckin Gobshites"

www.overheardindublin.com

No power for useless local government

Welcome to my first blog. It is ten days since I registered my blogspot and finally I am making an entry. It is 1:30am here in Dublin and as such I am accompanied by a bottle of beer to my right and my bed behind me but hey that is single life.

Such are the advantages of broadband that I can listen to the podcast on richarddelevan.blogspot.com

My evening started with a statcount on the website I edit at www.theredcard.ie and an email from my brother in Boston who is shocked at the projections outlined by a report referred to on www.davidmcwilliams.ie as to the population of Ireland in 2020.

Shocked because in 2020 it is estimated that of a population of 5million, 20% will be born outside Ireland and that the number of cars on our roads will be over 3million. To those living here and attempting to get from home to anywhere further than a mile down the road, these projections are no real shock.

The real question outstanding from these projections concerns our preparedness for the changing Ireland. We have a government that believes that the role of the state should be reduced further and further.

We have local elections every five years but our local councillors have no power to legislate within their jurisdiction as the county manager can override any decision by a local authority.

Last week saw a strike by 1million local government workers in the UK in a dispute over pension provision. In Newcastle this led to school closures, care provision for elderly and disabled being disrupted, the metro being withdrawn and the closure of the Tyne tunnel that connects the A19.

If Fingal Council went on strike it would lead to, well not a whole lot of difference for the general public. Public transport would still run dysfunctionally. Care would be provided by the unelected HSE and its numerous less accountable bodies in the private and voluntary sectors. NTR would still collect the tolls continuing to miserise the lives of thousands on the M50, M1 and East Link. Schools while funded by the state would continue outside the remit of local authorities. Houses at unaffordable prices would continue to be built with no local amenities in areas throughout the county.

The only areas that have direct daily effect on the lives of people here administered by the local authority are sewage and bin collection. For other counties bin collection is by private companies, but in Fingal this remains within council functions. The essential point is that once every five years we are encouraged to vote for people with no power over the administration of key functions that affect all our lives.

In turn this raises the question as to why local authorites have planning departments, when they cannot plan for the needs of people in their jurisdiction. 5,000 houses have been built in Balbriggan in the last five years and not one extra amenity has been added. In the estate where I live the planning was conditional on part of the estate being allocated for the building of a creche/ medical centre.

As delivery of a medical centre and childcare is in the remit of the Department of Health and Children the site remains vacant. A new non- denomination school is funded by voluntary donations and staff provision funded by the Department of Education means that because capital funding has not been planned for, that the school operates out of prefabs. As youth services function under the administration of VEC, therefore no new youth centres have been delivered to service the thousands of addtional young people.

A quick interesting comparison reveals that in Newcastle upon Tyne with a population of 350,000 there are 2,500 in the Social Services Department of the City Council, while in Fingal there is no Social Services delivery. In Newcastle, city councillors sit on the boards of the police, fire brigade and other key public services. In Fingal there is no means of local people communicating our need for improved health, justice and social services. They are not the remit of the local authority.

While noting the massive disruption caused by the strike of Unison members in Newcastle, a similar withdrawal of labour in Fingal would have no effect on the day to day lives of people living in this county. This raises the question- what are local authorities for in Ireland?

In turn, how are we to plan for the future? The answer is at the moment we can't unless we are to put our faith in the unelected bureaucracy.