James Lawless – View from the Tracks

Over the past few years, months and especially weeks support for Fianna Fáil has plummeted to the point where many wonder whether it has a future beyond the next election. There are many who celebrate this demise amongst them many who were opposed from the beginning and who may have wished for this day for a long time. However there are many others harboring genuine grievance who despair that things have come to this point. Nobody in or outside of Fianna Fáil can be happy at some of the events that have taken place in recent times, although we may differ on why certain actions were necessary. We may also differ on how Ireland fared as a country during the years of Fianna Fáil rule and on the many achievements which must go in the credit column along with the far more heralded mistakes accumulating on the debit side of the page.

This post is not intended to delve into those matters in detail however, more to answer a question that is often raised, as to who is Fianna Fáil, and perhaps these days, how can they be supported?

The theme of this post is to give my view of Fianna Fáil, who and what it is, and what I wish it can become in future. The gap between the media and sometimes public stereotype of the party and mine and ordinary members experience is worth highlighting and may also help illustrate why and how members do support the party in good times and bad.

A concept I have been musing over recently is one of “collegiate loyalty” and it was expressed very well by a friend and party member recently when he said the reason he is in Fianna Fáil is the people. The people he meets and knows in Fianna Fáil and with whom he finds common ground on so many areas. I think this explanation is spot on and is akin to an explanation that I gave to a workmate recently, that you don’t just walk away from family. More to the point when a member of the public thinks of FF, more than likely Brian Cowen or Noel Demsey or some other senior Minister comes to mind ; for myself and many grass roots members it is our friends, fellow members and activist colleagues who define the party and with whom we have far far more interaction and debate with than the Taoiseach or some abstract figures we may encounter once a year at a party function.

Fianna Fáil at membership level is like any other organisation in the country consisting of a cross-section of the population, with perhaps an additional element of volunteerism and public service in that almost every cumann member I know is also involved in a plethora of community groups from GAA to Tidy Towns to Community Councils to Parish Committees to Meals on Wheels to St. Vincent de Paul to Residents Associations and everything else in between. A kind of political rotary club. The occupations include everything from teachers, lawyers, software engineers, butchers, builders, tradespeople, shopkeepers, academic researchers, project managers, mechanics, full time students, blue collar, white collar, green collar everything in between. A cross section of society. Just to take one example, one lifelong cumann member has spent every Friday evening for the past 20 years or more (voluntarily) using his tractor to trim the grass of the local GAA field prior to training and matches each weekend. The same man is to be found every Summer’s Saturday knee deep in bedding plants or topsoil as he labours around the village for the Tidy Towns each May till August in preparation for the judging. It should be remembered the vast majority of these members are not and have no desire to be public representatives but believe in “getting stuck in”, doing their bit for their communities.

At national level I have another circle of Fianna Fáil friends dating back to Ógra days on national party committees or friends made in Trinity students’ union whom have all stayed in touch. Any one of this wide circle of acquaintances and friends and neighbours are the people who come to mind when I think of Fianna Fáil, far ahead of any thoughts of the Taoiseach or the figures at the helm.

(On a side note many contemporaries in the latter circle in particular, also fought elections in recent times, being of my own generation coming of age to do so in the last couple of years and having first outings. To the detriment of the organisation (and I believe the electorate) most did not make it but most tellingly almost all campaigns, win lose or draw were funded from personal budgets or borrowings, there was usually some contribution from the local party but there were certainly no brown envelopes or hefty corporate donations winging their way to any candidates of my acquaintance. Again if there was a culture of corporate collaboration it did not pervade beyond the peak of the pyramid.)

The tragedy of Fianna Fáil in recent years, and it pre-dates Brian Cowen, is that these voices have gone unheard. The cumann structures and the party organisation has been turned from a democratic member-centric organisation to a factory floor type workforce for an aloof central committee in the offices on the top floor.

There may be one side-effect of the party doldrums that might even make it all worth it in the end, and that is the casting off of ‘carpet-baggers’ and mé féiners who gravitated in the past towards what was the natural party of power and have often exerted a disproportionate dominance over the party whole, not least as their inevitable episodes of excess spilled over to flood the whole party in their wake each time.

When people talk of saving Fianna Fáil and rebuilding, it is the pyramid beneath that needs to be saved and to find voice. It is the re-assertion of the body politic, of the ordinary and often inspiring membership that need to take precedence and that must be the goal of any rebuilding. The exact shape, size and policies of the emergent organisation require attention and definition but the approach must be inclusive and democratic. The legion of the rearguard needs to step out from the rear and go front centre and that will certainly be a party worth saving.

Happy Christmas all! The weather looks to be on the turn, but people may still find this map convenient which highlights all the main routes being salted across the county:

Kildare Salting

It’s been a while since I updated this blog and I am conscious there may be a degree of tumbleweed about the place. I haven’t been blogging lately because I simply haven’t had time. I am now studying law by nights at the Kings Inns college which, whilst I am enjoying it immensely and was the right challenge for me at the right time, it doesn’t leave much time for anything else, especially with a fully fledged day job and a family to raise. I haven’t abandoned the blog, so much as been squeezed out of it. Reading an article in a paper is a luxury for me some days, let alone writing one.

It’s been a busy time in Irish Politics and I’ve certainly being paying attention there. Whilst I am an optimist by nature I have been pretty down about the state of the nation in general over the past while, but am trying to stay positive and see a light at the end of tunnel. Whilst we are borrowing from the IMF & EU, we had to borrow anyway, so in one sense its just a case of switching lenders. And at a better interest rate than the bond markets were going to give us any time soon – though I have a major problem with the EU interest rate – the IMF rate is apparently in the order of 3% so to average at 5.8 we can only guess where the EU have pitched theirs. Anyway that’s a topic for a discussion of its own another day.

On political matters, it’s only a matter of time now (Spring 2011?) till the government leave office, although who their successors will be is still very uncertain. There are an awful lot of people against the government, but who they select as a replacement is likely to be not a single preference but a multitude of different ones. Once the common enemy is gone, they may turn out to have some very different friends. Pundits and polls predict an FG / Labour coalition of some shape or form but anything can happen between now and polling day. I imagine left and hard left parties could do well, I also think a straight talking, unapologetically right wing party could do very well (proper capitalism – burn the banks and start again rather than a state rescue) although none has really emerged yet.

I think the Taoiseach seems to have finally got into gear, two years too late. A couple of good performances from him over the last couple days, perhaps now the exit is finally in sight he may feel the monkey is at last off his back. Those of us in FF who had seen him in action previously always knew what he was made of, he wouldn’t have got the top job otherwise, it’s just such a pity he had to hide his light under a bushel ever since. I’m not sure that he ever actually wanted the job, but landing in it, I believe he felt a duty to run with it as best he could. He may have seen it as unpatriotic to do otherwise. A putsch halfway through may have come as a blessing to him though. Private reports suggest he is looking forward to this particular reign, double annus horribilis at last coming to an end.

Some folk have recently inquired my own political intentions with an election in the offing. People will be aware I ran for local elections in 2009 and put as much effort and energy as I could muster into that campaign. I met folk from all around the constituency and developed a good understanding of the practical and theoretical issues of the area and of local representation in general. I do greatly appreciate the significant support I received and had I been elected I would have repaid it in spades, taking on the task with gusto, available to all and getting stuck into policy and reform initiatives at council level, as well as working my way through a to-do list of the issues raised with me during the campaign.

Not being elected I can’t do that. And nobody funds a would-be politician to sit around waiting for the next election to come along. So it’s been back to the family and back to the day job as life goes on and the wolf must be kept from the door. Had I been elected to council last year I would have been in a position to prioritise politics, I could have structured my lifestyle and working arrangements differently, and may well have been considering the next step now (i.e. running for national office) but that not happening I just don’t see it as practically possible to take further steps at this point. Elections cost a lot of time and a lot of money and I haven’t a lot of either at the moment. And the real world doesn’t go on hold whilst one goes off campaigning. (One of the reasons so many of the council are retirees – some earlier thoughts on this here – http://jameslawless.ie/2008/03/14/butcher-baker-candlestick-maker/). Anyway I’m not walking away, I am still involved in local matters and will remain so, (I have yet to turn anyone from the door), but there are only so many hours in each day and it is very hard to do the job of a full time representative when one is not one.

My recent post mentioning a one-way system for Sallins led to some interest and queries on the proposal so I repost here the original post as penned in 2008. The landscape has changed somewhat, both in terms of budget available for capital works and the details of the actual street layout but the main points still hold.

Original Post Follows:

The extra parking spaces created between the Railway Inn (Neds) and Bamburys bookmakers and down as far as the church on both sides of the street have caused difficulty for many motorists wanting to use that junction on a daily basis. The road is simply not wide enough to take two lines of traffic along with a line of parking spaces and it means an effective one way street is created at busy times. An exacerbation is that some of these cars are not visiting local business or facilities but commuters leaving the car all day to go on train. There is parking in the train station itself or its surrounds rather than clogging this already under pressure side street.

Click to view diagram at scale

And there is rarely a quiet time here, between morning and afternoon school runs, morning and evening commuters accessing the N7 and church goers and other road users at various times of day. What ends up happening, literally daily and several times a day, is that a queue of cars is backed up trying to exit the side street, cars turning off main street cannot access (as only room for a single lane) and cars end up stuck half-in, half-out of the junction.

It is particularly difficult for traffic from the Osberstown side, who are frequently unable to access the side street and forced to go up further – to the canal bridge taking a right turn, literally across the path of oncoming traffic as the turn is beneath the crest of the bridge and people are taking their life into their hands turning blind across the road.

Every time I see the situation, and I’ve encountered it myself dropping the children to school, it makes me wonder what kind of research, if any, was done by the roads or planning engineers before these spaces were put in. There have already been near-misses, with at least one incident involving a cyclist and I really believe something has to be done here.

I have submitted a document which is available here on the issue to Kildare County Council, and via the offices of Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick.

I have included longer term proposals, such as a new canal bridge opposite the school, with a one way around the canal. I would also love to see the provision of a pedestrian walkway adjacent to the existing canal bridge, ala Newbridge. But in the short term something has to be done and soon.

Possible one-way system in longer term ; click to enlarge

Two years ago I submitted a document to Kildare County Council on traffic management within Sallins village. The contents are here from the time if anyone wants the detail.

Basically there was a major bottleneck getting down Church avenue (between Neds and Bamburys) as the already narrow street had become clogged with car parking on both sides – not helped by the council coming and creating marked spaces where there wasn’t really room for any.

Anyhow, two years on (and a few snarl-ups later) the council came down last week and sorted it out. I had a good chat with the area engineer and in fairness he was quite receptive to my arguments. They have now removed much of that parking and traffic should flow freer around the block as a result. It’s an extremely busy road as it is used to access the school, the church and the N7 for commuters. Try going against the traffic during school run or evening or morning rush hour and you’ll soon see what the problems are. Anyway, kudos to the council for listening and revisiting the setup to sort it out this week. They also resurfaced the road which was very welcome.

Meanwhile I am also looking for Chapel Lane and the Straffan road to be resurfaced, few potholes were filled in over the Summer, but again they are busy roads – Chapel Lane has the residents and of course GAA traffic and resembled a moon crater at one stage – whilst the Straffan road was pock marked right from Boss Byrnes to the bull turn. Again I’ve discussed these spots with council engineers and am hopeful they will now be addressed in next year’s works program.

I was advised last week that accessibility works at Sallins and Naas train station are at an advanced stage of design and that Irish Rail have met with council officials in pre-planning sessions re the required works. I was told they expect to apply for planning permission in July and work will commence as soon as planning is received.

Obviously this would be very welcome but we have had false starts before. This is probably the most concrete update I have had though so hopefully it will happen this time.

On a separate note I am trying to get the station cleaned up for the Tidy Towns at present. Am sure all readers of this blog are model citizens with regard to litter etc but if everyone could make a special effort as the tidy towns judging is running at present and the station cost them points last year.

Yesterday’s opinion poll marked a new low point for Fianna Fáil and for the government, but the real low point has been the slow drip drip, of death by a thousand cuts and gradual erosion of party support over the past many months and even years.

I’ve long said it is not good enough to simply want power for the simple reason of having power. You must want to do something with that power and have clear and powerful enough goals to inspire others to entrust you with it. I’ve been working on some policy ideas with a few other like mindeds but I might talk more on that another day.

For now, here are a few simple things I think the government could and should be doing if it is to recover its standing among the people.

Continue reading »

It’s been a busy few weeks in the life of waste processing in the greater Naas area, and in particular on one stretch of road along Kerdiffstown and Monread, where not one but three current or proposed waste complexes have received permissions, injunctions or stays of execution over the recent while. I summarise below the current state of play.

Bio Energy Plant
A huge number of objections were received by Kildare county council against the proposed bio-energy complex at Monread / Kerdiffstown. The upshot of this was that the council refused planning permission for the proposed facility. The owner now has five weeks to appeal this decision. Residents or interested parties can also make a submission on the appeal.

NB Whilst the proposed facility is located adjacent to the existing Kerdiffstown dump, however the proposal comes in from a separate party, an M&M Coldstores company.

Existing Kerdiffstown Dump
After almost three years of filing by the EPA the high court granted a temporary injunction against the A1 waste facility at Kerdiffstown on Friday 14th May. This prevents A1 from lodging any further waste into this landfill. A question then arises as to how the estimated 1.5 million tonnes of unprocessed waste in the landfill is to be cleaned up. I have raised this question with the Minister and it is also being pursued by a number of parties including the EPA and the CAN (Clean Air Naas) group (www.can.ie).

Extension to Kerdiffstown Dump
Although the existing dump has now been shut down, at least temporarily, the council simultaneously granted planning permission for the construction of a new dump on an adjoining 26 acre site across the road from the existing plant. The council maintain that each planning proposal is dealt with on its own merits and this application satisfied the various grounds. However this new extension has yet to receive a license from the EPA and that application process will be ongoing through the Summer.

Please see attached map for the location of the above three sites. At any stage residents can continue to report odours to EPA on (01)268 0100 and these will all be logged and referenced in future cases and applications to extend / continue operations.

Last Summer I spent a few weeks in Connemara. I fell in love with the region, its people, landscape and history. I particularly relished the folklore and the indomitable spirit of resistance and survival.

On right is a photo of the famine memorial at Delphi County Mayo. Hundreds perished here after being forced to trek  overnight for alms then refused.

Today is National Famine Commemoration Day.

In honour I publish for the first time a short story I wrote set amongst the landscape, if not the exact time period, of An Gorta Mór.

Continue reading »

I recently made a submission to Irish Rail (IR) on the new timetable, on behalf of NASRUG and as part of a process of ongoing consultation with IR. The hope is this may be considered as part of the next issued timetable, which is due out in December, but an outside chance of coming onstream earlier due to the new line capacity offered by the Kildare Route Project.

My key timetable points below:

Naas & Sallins Rail Users Group – NASRUG

Timetable Feedback 2010.

Submitted: James Lawless
(Contact 086 834 8869, james@jameslawless.ie)

Morning ex Sallins

Problem: Too large a gap between 8.15 and 8.59
Solution: Restore 8.15 to 8.25 or add new train 8.30?

Evening ex Heuston

Problem: Gap between 18.50, 20.10, 21.10
Solution: Reschedule as 19.30, 20.22, 21.10?

Connecting Trains

Problem: Commuters charged extra for making connections e.g. via Newbridge
Solution: Allow season ticket holders this flexibility.

Capacity

Problem: Some trains now running as three carriages
Solution: Allow extra carriages on busier trains (e.g. 7.45 ex Sallins)

Sundays & Bank Holidays

Problem: No evening Sunday service home (last train departs 6.15pm)
Solution: Schedule later Sunday evening service, e.g. 7.30pm or 8pm

Problem: No bank holiday service at all
Solution: Run Sunday or other reduced service level on bank holidays.

(Later Sunday service especially important during championship summers!)