Week Two in Wexico

Personally, I had a letter published in the Irish Times this week.

Protecting public purse at Poolbeg

A chara, – I totally agree with your conclusion that the proposal to locate a 600,000-tonne mass- burn incinerator at Poolbeg must be based on “hard-headed pragmatism and the need to meet EU environmental standards and to protect the public purse” (Editorial, September 8th). I would contend, however, that the only person demonstrating such an approach is Minister for Environment John Gormley.

Back in the late 1990s, when he was Councillor Gormley, he set out clearly the reasons why mass-burn incineration was not a viable solution for the waste problems faced by Dublin city. This was before there was any proposal to locate such a facility at Poolbeg.

The Minister has been consistent in his approach in the intervening years, as a councillor, as a TD, and now as Minister.

If we look at the other side of the argument, we see that the management of Dublin City Council are pushing ahead with this project even though they knew that it was contrary to Government policy, contrary to the expressed wishes of the majority of councillors, and that there was no way they could guarantee the tonnage that they are contractually obliged to provide to Covanta.

The put-or-pay aspect of the contract will see the rate-payers of Dublin city having to pay fines. The city management’s continued refusal to be open and transparent regarding the terms and conditions of the contract, even with the elected members of the council, is worrying.

I agree totally with your view that this whole thing is “a shambolic scenario”, but I see the reason for the problems as stemming from the inappropriate, undemocratic, and secretive manner in which the council management has gone about their business.

The letter was in response to an editorial in the Irish Times the previous day: The Poolbeg incinerator

“Essentially, Dublin City Council’s management is dug in on one side of the peninsula, unwilling to walk away from its contract with US waste-to-energy company Covanta, while the Minister snipes at them from the Custom House, using every weapon in his arsenal to frustrate construction of the controversial €350 million incinerator.”

Madam Editor has close links to the PDs, and Stephen O’Byrnes who looks after the PR needs of Covanta, is a former Director of Policy and Press Relations for the PDs. Is there a connection there?

Hopefully my letter rebuts the more ridiculous talking points “that bollocks” Stephen O’Byrnes has been peddling to numerous and assorted journalists in recent times.

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Locally, we have the Waterford Harvest Festival going on this week in Waterford City. I’m helping out with the Origins of Taste workshops, which is something that has been developed by the Slow Food organisation in Italy. We had our first proper run-through with a group of about 50 members of the public this afternoon and the whole thing seemed to go off pretty well.

Tomorrow (Sunday) we will run the workshop three times in the afternoon for the general public, and then we will run it for secondary school students – both Transition Years and Home Economics students – during the week.

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Nationally, the Banking crisis continues to make the headlines.

Nobody seems to get the idea that this is a global problem, and nobody seems to get the idea that we need to take a long term view of how to work it out.

Three years ago Anglo Irish Bank was worth €70 Billion. Nobody argued with this valuation, and everybody just accepted that “the market” was right.

Today Anglo Irish Bank is worth a fraction of €70 Billion.

In three years time it may be worth even less, or it may be worth even more.

We don’t know.

But getting hung up on today’s values, and forfeiting any potential upside, is a very dumb idea.

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Internationally, the Greens have a very strong role in the new Government in Australia.

The agreement includes a wide range of measures. These include:

• A Climate Change Committee
• A full parliamentary debate on Afghanistan
• A commitment to work with the Greens on dental health care investment
• Completion of a $20 million High Speed Rail study by July 2011
• Legislating for truth in political advertising
• A Leaders’ Debate Commission
• Establishing a Parliamentary Integrity Commissioner
• Establishing a Parliamentary Budget Office
• Restrictions on political donations
• A move toward full three year governments
• Specially allocated time for debate and voting on private members bills and a fixed and fair allocation of questions for Independent and minor party members in Question Time
• Referenda for constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians and Local Government
• A commitment for reform to provide above the line voting in the Senate
• Better processes for the release of documents in the public interest in both Houses of Parliament

• Access to relevant departments, including Treasury and Finance & Deregulation for Greens election policies.