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CHAIRMAN ADAMANT THAT ONLY ABOUT 200 PROTEST LETTERS HAD BEEN RECEIVED.
In the Irish Post dated March 12, 2005 Joe Horgan wrote about the campaign to protect the Tara site from the planned new motorway under the title,
'In Search of an Irish Democracy':
..................(from para.3)
"I mean all the other ways in which the state tries to ensure that we are seeing democracy happen. The times when they try to make democracy transparent and fair.
Such an occasion is occurring now as the government decides the future of the Tara Valley in Co. Meath with regards to the routing of a new motorway and in the face of national and international objections to its planned course.
By way of convincing us that democracy is in action they have been holding Transport Committee hearings and Environment Committee hearings into the route of the road and inviting interested parties and those with relevant knowledge to speak. All very democratic."
(Here, Joe Horgan discusses 'widely held beliefs' that Fianna Fail has very strong links with the construction industry.).............
"I suppose the way in which you would see this most is in the commonly held belief that such and such a development will go ahead because so and so is financing it and he is a good friend of such and such a local TD."
(..and later in his column):
"Strange then that at a recent Environment Committee sitting the Director of the National Museum and the Chief State Archaeologist were excluded from attending and that at one sitting an individual was prevented from delving too deeply into archaeological and environmental issues, even though the main objections to the planned route of the new motorway are based upon those concerns.
Strange democracy indeed that won't hear the voices of one of the sides in a dispute. Even stranger still was the case of the missing letters. A member of the group that is campaigning for the Tara site to be protected argued with the chairman of the Transport Committee that his group had handed in 2,000 letters from members of the public supporting the preservation of the site.
The chairman was adamant that only about 200 letters had been received. Unfortunately for him the campaign group had both photocopies of the letters and a receipt from when the letters were hand delivered to the committee.
So, as the campaigner said, were the other 1,800 letters "mislaid, ignored, suppressed or dismissed" by the Transport Committee?
This democracy lark really is a strange thing.
Campaigners have also tried to point out to the Transport Committee that there are a number of well-known investors who have interests in property close to the planned route for this new M3 motorway.
They wanted to enquire of the Committee as to whether the interests of these investors was not playing a role in the insistence that this planned route go ahead. In other words they wanted the Committee to guarantee that the route was to be designated with transport concerns in mind and not with any other interests being brought to bear, such as those who might benefit from "corridor development" along the route.
The Fianna Fail chairman of the Committee objected to the "innuendo" that was implied in this, which seems a very sensitive form of democracy."
...........
Joe Horgan later winds up by saying:
"The alteration of sites such as the Tara Valley by the building of motorways will alter this country for generations of Irish people. Now many do not agree with the nature of much of this development across Ireland but must accept that in that they could be wrong. What we should also have to accept in a proper democracy is that decisions are made on the basis of what is best for Irish society. And solely on that basis alone."
In 2004 I added a previous eloquent Irish Post article of Joe's in which he passionately defended the unique ancient site of the High Kings of Ireland at the Hill of Tara.
Something is not right. This message is just to keep things from messing up down the road