Keatley calls for halt to Halverstown services work, on 'flawed policy' grounds

The proposed online motorway service station on the M9 at Halverstown has been criticised as representing a 'flawed' policy of the National Roads Authority, writes Brian Byrne.

The claim was made by FG councillor Ivan Keatley following revelation in the Dail that the projected outturn cost for the construction of the overbridge and ancillary roads, including merge and diverge lanes, for the service area is €4.88m plus VAT.

“This is money is being incurred as a result of NRA policy to construct online service stations, that are only accessible from the motorways," Cllr Keating said today. "If this service station was being constructed at a location that already had a bridge across the motorway such as Tinryland Co Carlow a large amount of these costs could be avoided."

Cllr Keatley cites the privately-built and very successful service station at Junction 14 on the M7 which also allows access to non-motorway traffic. "Alternative options such as these would open this project up to private investment without the need for such state funding."

The NRA has recently concluded a public consultation process on their policy in the area of service stations and Cllr Keatley believes they should await the outcome of that consultation before proceeding to spend state funds on further online service stations such as that proposed at Kilcullen.

Before that section of the M9 was opened, the matter was the subject of a strong representation from local businesses that an offline link be made at the point of the motorway bridge at Kilgowan. The representations failed to change the policy, even after Transport Minister Leo Varadker met a delegation from the business interests.

The cost of the project was revealed in an answer to a Parliamentary Question by Deputy Martin Heydon.

Meet the Candidate: Darren Scully

In seven weeks' time, Darren Scully will almost be a shadow of his former self, writes Brian Byrne. Quite literally.

"I'll lose up to a stone and a half on the campaign," the Fine Gael candidate working to be re-elected to Kildare County Council says. It's a shoe-leather thing, walking the estates and giving the electorate a chance to actually talk to a councillor or a candidate to be one. "I've always said that politics is a contact sport. The only way to get people to support you is to meet them face to face. Look them in the eye and tell them what you're about.

"You can have all the internet campaigns you like, all the posters — which I think are a total waste of time anyhow — and all the leaflet drops, but this is the only way. Or have people who know me recommend me to their friends."

Darren Scully does have a Kilcullen connection. READ MORE

Viewpoint: Fine Gael as bully

I was out of the country for some of it, but I have been very dismayed by the whole Fine Gael performance in relation to the Household Charge, writes Brian Byrne.

Just to be up front about it, I don't have a particular issue with the Charge itself. Local domestic rates, which formerly and properly paid for our local authority services, were done away with by a Fianna Fail hungry to get into power, and they were prepared to do it at any cost. The cost in this case turned out to be an emasculation of our county councils, and our own individual funding of them. We citizens prior to then had an element of control over such services. After the Fianna Fail 'raid' they both had assumed the power and left us all out of the local loop.

But that was then, and this is now. We are, I believe, alone amongst the European countries which do not have a local tax to provide for our local services. It is truly time that we became grown up again, instead of the whining children which Fianna Fail spoiled us to be. However, the way that the current Government has gone about gathering this tax has been, at best consideration, stupid. At worst, even more stupid, because what they have done is unnecessary.

I opened this piece with Fine Gael. Because the FG part of the Coalition is clearly the one in the driving seat for this particular exercise. And, again to put my thoughts into a perspective, it is no secret that my family has been aligned to Fine Gael since the time my grandfather was a Cumann na nGaedheal councillor in Kildare. And those of you who know me long enough are aware that I did myself run as a FG candidiate in the local elections in the early 1970s. Just about unsuccessfully, and luckily as I have always since said.

So I say this with considerable sadness. Fine Gael are in danger of becoming perceived as fascist as were the 'Blueshirts' who were subsumed into the party in 1933. Not because they are actually fascist, but maybe because they have succumbed very quickly to the arrogance that comes with power. That could well make them a one-term party in government. Again.

I don't know Big Phil Hogan. Never met the man. For all I know, he could be a cuddly teddy bear in his 'ordinary' life. I do understand from those who are close to the powerbase of FG that he is the person largely responsible for the strategy by which Enda Kenny turned round his party when it was in the boondocks. And from those same sources I understand that he has a steel core that is razor sharp when dealing with his political enemies.

But the people of Ireland are not his enemies. Nor are they the enemies of Fine Gael. And the results of the last election would suggest that the vast majority of the people who have not registered yet for the Household Charge supported either FG or their Labour allies in the ousting of a government, the main party of which this week has finally been proved in the Mahon Report to have been corrupt to the core over many of its iterations.

As the major partner in this current Coalition, Fine Gael will take the brunt of the anger which has developed over the Charge. Their Labour companions are not taking limelight on the matter, apart from the Tanaiste saying the deadline for registration will not be changed. As you would expect him to say.

They deserve it. They have handled it so badly. Their environment minister seems quite amenable to being perceived as a bully-boy. His threats happily paraphrased by Fianna Fail as 'nowhere to hide, we will find you' against ordinary citizens are as thick as Big Phil's neck is said to be. His latest attempt to scare the bejasus out of those who haven't paid, that he has instructed local authorities to send teams to 'call to the doors' of households who haven't paid, is, bluntly, an abomination no less than a loan shark sending in the heavies to those behind in their payments.

Will those local authority 'teams' of 'enforcers' be wearing fedoras and black leather coats like the Gestapo did when checking out whether there were Jews in a household? I'm being over the top? No, it's the same attitude.

And so unnecessary. Big Phil and his FG/Labour cabinet decided that it would be up to the households to register for the charge. They relied heavily on the internet, to which maybe half the same households don't have access. They screwed up the information leaflet delivery. And they didn't even have the courtesy to send bills to people through the post, which still works for every house in the state. One excuse I heard was that they didn't have a data base from which to send bills.

Well, on one count, couldn't they have asked the Revenue to send them out? They have a data base on everyone in the State. Or An Post, which also has through its contract to collect TV licences? Or even the county councils, who have planning details of every property in their catchment? I mean, if the Councils don't have that information, how are they going to send Big Phil's enforcers out to knock on the doors of those who haven't paid?

Stupid, Enda. Stupid, Fine Gael. Stupid, Big Phil. I wouldn't be too worried about the gains that Fianna Fail might make over it. But there's a bunch of disparate parties and independents that I really wouldn't like to make the next election meal out of it, simply because you got arrogant more quickly than any of us expected. None of us like bullies, but now you're doing it and playing right into the hands of the ones you only recently threw out of the playground.

Stupid, and sad.

'Make local government more powerful' - Heydon

The next Dail will be 'the most reforming one since 1922', FG's candidiate for Kildare South told a meeting in Calverstown at the weekend, writes Brian Byrne.

Cllr Martin Heydon said that, if elected, he would hope that when he finished his time there that he would be able to say: "I helped change it."

But he said the process of change must start at local authority level, with the 're-empowerment' of local councils. "We must make local government more powerful and more autonomous," he told the group made up mostly of small business operators.

He added that too many TDs are merely 'glorified county councillors', and that in addition to reducing Dail member numbers, a way had to be found to let them concentrate on legislation.

He also suggested that it wasn't a good thing that Dail members stayed there for too long. "It you are in the Dail for 20 years, you're more likely to be keeping your eye on your pension and you are not going to be radical," he said.

Responding to a question as to whether councillors themselves were necessary, Cllr Heydon vigorously defended the system, saying the councillors were there 'as directors to bring the Council officials, including the County Manager, to account'.

But he suggested that consideration could be given to the abolition of Town Councils, and in their place the relevant towns could provide some extra councillors to the County Council, thus saving duplication of effort and expenditure.

FG candidate to launch new website

Kildare South's FG candidiate for the General Election, Cllr Martin Heydon, will officially launch his new website next Thursday evening.

The venue is Judge Roy Bean's in Newbridge, the time 9pm.

Simon Coveney TD will do the honours, and the 'interactive social evening' will also offer the chance to meet with the candidate, discuss issues, and talk with him about his and the Fine Gael party's vision for south Kildare.

"It also is an opportunity for people who never before were involved in a political campaign to do their bit to bring about real change for Ireland," Martin says. "Our theme is 'Don't get mad, get active!', and with a general election coming ever closer, we need to be prepared."

'Election now', Heydon demands

The intention of the minister for finance to introduce a four-year budget strategy is 'worrying', Kildare South FG candidate Martin Heydon says, when it is obvious that it will not be him or his Government that will be tasked with implementing those four budgets.

Noting that a bank guarantee trumpeted two years ago as going to be 'the cheapest guarantee in the world' will now cost the Irish taxpayer up to €34 billion for Anglo Irish Bank alone, Cllr Heydon says now is the time for the people of the country to have their say and give a strong mandate to a new Government.

"Such a Government can take a four year view with a certainty that the majority of the people of this country want them there, and trust them to implement the cuts that are now necessary in as fair a manner as is possible," he says in his weekly letter to supporters.

"Meeting people when out and about and on the canvass I am acutely aware of the fear, anger, frustration and confusion among the general public at the way their hard earned cash is being thrown away to faceless 'bondholders' and 'marketeers' as a result of mismanagement and a lack of regulation by those who were supposed to be in charge," he says. "It is ironic that the general Irish man or woman who may not have benefited significantly from the 'Celtic Tiger' are now the ones that face the long road of paying the costs."

Cllr Heydon adds that Fine Gael is capable of bringing in the changes that are required to allow the country to begin to grow again and concentrate efforts on where that change is really needed, 'revitalising the domestic business sector where jobs should be paramount'. "We must keep the pressure on this Government," he concludes.