I know this is now old news, but it is necessary news on Ireland's stance.
Speaking at the Paris Conference for Global Economic Governance, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dick Roche, T.D. said that - "today's UN report means the scientific debate, economic debate and political debate have now converged - the next step must be to translate all the debates into action."
"With the publication of this report, the scientific evidence is now overwhelming that climate change is occurring and is due to human activity - primarily the way we produce and use energy.
"If the countries of the world do not immediately take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the consequences will be irreversible - and possibly catastrophic - and it is the poorest countries of the world that are likely to be worst affected. The costs of inaction will be far greater than the cost of timely action now."
The Minister noted that speakers at the conference emphasised the role of the Kyoto Protocol flexible mechanisms, which allow developed countries to be ambitious in their own targets while also helping developing countries to employ environmentally friendly technologies in their emerging economies.
"It is absolutely essential for developing countries to grow their economies using the cleanest technologies. Otherwise, the gap between developed and developing countries will widen further and the global potential of these new technologies will not be maximised" - Minister Roche said.
"It is particularly important that the nations of the developed world do not focus only on the challenges that the reality of climate change poses for them - but that they must frame their policies against the reality that climate change can spell disaster for many developing nations."
The Minister also said that - "Ireland is playing and will continue to play its part in the international response to global warming. We have ratified the Kyoto Protocol and we will meet our target, using all of the available mechanisms - including domestic action, participation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and support for projects in developing countries through the Protocol's flexible mechanisms.
"We have successfully decoupled our greenhouse emissions from economic growth and we are on course to meeting our 2012 greenhouse gas emission reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol through a combination of cost-effective measures.
"We strongly support the leadership provided by the EU on a new international agreement (to continue progress made under the Kyoto Protocol) to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in the medium to longer-term (to 2020 and beyond)."
In conclusion, the Minister said he hoped - "that the world community will take heed of the findings of this report and would support the EU in seeking to find an early agreement on an effective solution to global warming. The science, economics and politics on climate change are converging and must urgently be converted into concerted global action."
Tuesday, 6 February 2007
Friday, 2 February 2007
Meath County Council accused of breaching its own planning objectives
Elaine Keogh writing in The Irish Times tells us that Meath County Council has been accused of breaching its own planning objectives after it decided to grant permission for 435 housing units in an area which the planners want zoned as suitable for only limited growth.
The application by Carroll Estates Ltd of Merrion Square, Dublin, is for a 14-hectare site between Donacarney and the Golf Links Road in Bettystown, and includes two distributor roads.
Permission was granted for the houses, apartments, a creche and retail units last Thursday, just hours after the council officials and councillors concluded a lengthy debate on the proposed draft county development plan.
The debate led to amendments being made to the draft plan, including ones that would see the council revisit the extent of residentially zoned lands in the entire coastal area of the county, including Bettystown.
The council's director of planning, Kevin Stewart, acknowledged yesterday that there was too much residentially zoned land in east Meath. "It will take the adoption of this plan to give us the statutory basis to put the brakes on," he said.
The plan is on public display for the next four weeks, after which it is expected to be formally adopted. It would give the council powers to restrict the number of residential units to be built between now and 2013.
The limit in the Bettystown/ Laytown/Mornington East area is 1,000 units. There is existing permission for 715 units which have not been built yet.
Labour councillor Dominic Hannigan said the Carroll Estates development exceeded the balance of 285 units by 150.
"A key decision was made by all the councillors, the county manager and the head planner that we would limit the amount of additional houses being built for the good of the existing community. It was agreed that approval for only 285 more houses would be given between now and 2013 in Bettystown," Mr Hannigan said.
Mr Stewart said the council recognised that in areas like east Meath, it would "take time to slow things down". The key problem was there was "way too much land zoned residential".
There were more than 4,000 hectares of undeveloped residentially zoned land in the coastal area of Meath alone, which was 1,400-times more than what was required, he said.
A key objective of the draft plan is that all future residential growth "will be channelled first and foremost to Navan, Drogheda and Clonsilla/Dunboyne/Pace rail corridor".
It also states that the council does not anticipate "significant amounts of the existing residentially zoned lands in Bettystown will be developed within the life of this development plan, ie before 2013".
There were 20 observations made to the council about the Carroll Estates planning application. One was from John Fincham, who moved from Donacarney to the Golf Links Road in Bettystown three years ago.
"I can't make it out; this is a little stretch of road with more signs on it than Piccadilly Circus and we have to get ready now for the onslaught of traffic that will be coming out of it," he said.
"To build 400 houses equates with 750 more children and where will they go? We have lived here for 20 years in all and the only thing ever built between Donacarney and Bettystown before were prefabs for the school. I can't object to people buying houses here but there is nothing else here for them," he added.
Mr Hannigan said he would be appealing to An Bord Pleanála.
The application by Carroll Estates Ltd of Merrion Square, Dublin, is for a 14-hectare site between Donacarney and the Golf Links Road in Bettystown, and includes two distributor roads.
Permission was granted for the houses, apartments, a creche and retail units last Thursday, just hours after the council officials and councillors concluded a lengthy debate on the proposed draft county development plan.
The debate led to amendments being made to the draft plan, including ones that would see the council revisit the extent of residentially zoned lands in the entire coastal area of the county, including Bettystown.
The council's director of planning, Kevin Stewart, acknowledged yesterday that there was too much residentially zoned land in east Meath. "It will take the adoption of this plan to give us the statutory basis to put the brakes on," he said.
The plan is on public display for the next four weeks, after which it is expected to be formally adopted. It would give the council powers to restrict the number of residential units to be built between now and 2013.
The limit in the Bettystown/ Laytown/Mornington East area is 1,000 units. There is existing permission for 715 units which have not been built yet.
Labour councillor Dominic Hannigan said the Carroll Estates development exceeded the balance of 285 units by 150.
"A key decision was made by all the councillors, the county manager and the head planner that we would limit the amount of additional houses being built for the good of the existing community. It was agreed that approval for only 285 more houses would be given between now and 2013 in Bettystown," Mr Hannigan said.
Mr Stewart said the council recognised that in areas like east Meath, it would "take time to slow things down". The key problem was there was "way too much land zoned residential".
There were more than 4,000 hectares of undeveloped residentially zoned land in the coastal area of Meath alone, which was 1,400-times more than what was required, he said.
A key objective of the draft plan is that all future residential growth "will be channelled first and foremost to Navan, Drogheda and Clonsilla/Dunboyne/Pace rail corridor".
It also states that the council does not anticipate "significant amounts of the existing residentially zoned lands in Bettystown will be developed within the life of this development plan, ie before 2013".
There were 20 observations made to the council about the Carroll Estates planning application. One was from John Fincham, who moved from Donacarney to the Golf Links Road in Bettystown three years ago.
"I can't make it out; this is a little stretch of road with more signs on it than Piccadilly Circus and we have to get ready now for the onslaught of traffic that will be coming out of it," he said.
"To build 400 houses equates with 750 more children and where will they go? We have lived here for 20 years in all and the only thing ever built between Donacarney and Bettystown before were prefabs for the school. I can't object to people buying houses here but there is nothing else here for them," he added.
Mr Hannigan said he would be appealing to An Bord Pleanála.
Do the PDs care about commuters?
Alison Healy in The Irish Times tells us that The Progressive Democrats have presented a package of measures designed to improve the lives of workers who commute to Dublin from as far away as Monaghan, Offaly and Kilkenny.
Proposals in A Fair Deal for Commuters include treating the commuter belt as a single region for job creation, a circle of park-and-ride facilities outside the M50 and the acceleration of infrastructural projects along the commuter belt.
The document also repeats the proposal by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell for a "fundamental and speedy reform" of the stamp duty regime and says this must be part of the next programme for government. The PD package, which was described as "a contract with commuters", was outlined at a public meeting in Gormanston, Co Meath.
Mr McDowell said the "explosive growth" in the Dublin commuter belt was a serious challenge to Irish society. "The speed of population growth in the commuter belt has led to the creation of a massive infrastructure deficit in terms of roads and rail infrastructure, creches, schools and community centres and medical services," he said. It was adversely affecting people's quality of life now but it could also lead to severe social problems in the long term.
ESRI economist Dr Edgar Morgenroth said many people did not factor in the cost of commuting when considering where to buy a house. He commutes from Co Monaghan, driving 35,000 miles a year and said it cost him €17,500 per year to run his car, or 41 cent per mile. "That's a lot of money," he said,
adding that it could greatly reduce the gap between house prices in Dublin and a commuter county such as Laois.
Dr Morgenroth said we had a "terrible motorway network" and asked why an integrated travel ticketing system had still not been introduced in this State while other countries had introduced such a system before the last World War.
He also advocated high-density housing and said congestion charges would eliminate the "frivolous journeys" that some people often undertook.
Sirena Campbell, the PD's Meath East candidate, outlined the PD plan and said a database should be drawn up of workers and professionals living in the commuter region who were interested in working locally.
The PD plan proposes a circle of park-and-ride facilities around Dublin city and outside the M50 to reduce commuting time. Mr McDowell said the M50 had become a moat around Dublin, "a barrier that bars city-bound commuters from their jobs".
Proposals in A Fair Deal for Commuters include treating the commuter belt as a single region for job creation, a circle of park-and-ride facilities outside the M50 and the acceleration of infrastructural projects along the commuter belt.
The document also repeats the proposal by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell for a "fundamental and speedy reform" of the stamp duty regime and says this must be part of the next programme for government. The PD package, which was described as "a contract with commuters", was outlined at a public meeting in Gormanston, Co Meath.
Mr McDowell said the "explosive growth" in the Dublin commuter belt was a serious challenge to Irish society. "The speed of population growth in the commuter belt has led to the creation of a massive infrastructure deficit in terms of roads and rail infrastructure, creches, schools and community centres and medical services," he said. It was adversely affecting people's quality of life now but it could also lead to severe social problems in the long term.
ESRI economist Dr Edgar Morgenroth said many people did not factor in the cost of commuting when considering where to buy a house. He commutes from Co Monaghan, driving 35,000 miles a year and said it cost him €17,500 per year to run his car, or 41 cent per mile. "That's a lot of money," he said,
adding that it could greatly reduce the gap between house prices in Dublin and a commuter county such as Laois.
Dr Morgenroth said we had a "terrible motorway network" and asked why an integrated travel ticketing system had still not been introduced in this State while other countries had introduced such a system before the last World War.
He also advocated high-density housing and said congestion charges would eliminate the "frivolous journeys" that some people often undertook.
Sirena Campbell, the PD's Meath East candidate, outlined the PD plan and said a database should be drawn up of workers and professionals living in the commuter region who were interested in working locally.
The PD plan proposes a circle of park-and-ride facilities around Dublin city and outside the M50 to reduce commuting time. Mr McDowell said the M50 had become a moat around Dublin, "a barrier that bars city-bound commuters from their jobs".
How green is the real Ireland?
The Department of the Environment is long on aspirations, but short of facts on achievements, writes Liam Reid this week who is Political Reporter with The Irish Times.
The Government is taking the environmental motto, "Reduce, Reuse Recycle", to heart these days. These principles appeared to be at the core of yesterday's report by the Department of the Environment, the grandly-titled, Ireland's Progress Towards Environmental Sustainability.
It recycled all of the environmental commitments already announced in the National Development Plan and it reused much of its older press releases to claim significant victories in improving the Irish environment.
And it reduced the country's environmental record to a 40-page good news only version significantly at odds with the real world version of the Ireland we inhabit.
The document describes the "achievements to date and key challenges ahead" in the last national development plan (2000 - 2006) and the one just announced last week.
The shiny cover is not the only "glossy" element to the publication. The essential problem is that it glosses over the significant failures in Irish environmental policy in the last six years, and the enormous challenges that the country has to face up to if it is not to lose its clean, green image.
The first issue to be addressed by the publication is climate change, which trots out the various measures taken by the Government to address Ireland's serious greenhouse gas emissions problem, which has us as one of the highest emitters per capita of carbon dioxide in the world. Emissions trading, greenhouse gas emissions, tax schemes, public transport, energy regulations and farm reform all get a mention.
So too does the Government's plans to spend €270 million in purchasing carbon credits abroad to make up for the shortfall in making reductions at home to meet Irish Kyoto obligations between 2008 and 2012.
The move is dressed up as a positive in that it is using flexible mechanisms to make the reductions. A reduction of a tonne of carbon in India is the same as if it is made in Ireland, the Minister states.
What is of most concern is the fact that the publication fails to state that the purchase of carbon credits is a short-term option, that does not address the fact that following 2012, there will almost certainly be a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, and a much more stringent one at that. The target Ireland will have to meet will be much more challenging.
In addition, the cost of carbon credits, currently in the region of €15 per tonne for Governments, is likely to rise sharply as more stringent targets are set for developing countries.
The publication also fails to identify any further measures, which were due to have been published last year. Radical ideas are needed if Ireland is to tackle the greenhouse gas problem. Of course the idea of a carbon tax, once championed by the department, adopted by Government and dropped in 2004, is not mentioned in the publication.
Asked about it yesterday, the Minister for the Environment said he was personally sceptical about it, and dismissed the advice of his own senior officials and environmental economists that it will work.
The document also makes much of its commitment to nature conservation, citing exacting programmes such as the reintroduction of the golden eagle and the white-tailed sea eagle, and the designation of hundreds of nature conservation sites.
However, it does not state that the number of bird sanctuary areas is among the lowest in Europe, while the Government has failed in its promise to develop conservation plans for all but four of the country's most endangered species.
On water quality, the document boasts about 96.7 per cent compliance. It outlines the huge investment made in water purifying and sewage treatment facilities, and plans for a further €5 billion spending
Mr Roche can certainly take credit for this, but he might also be given credit for the fact that there has been very little progress in reducing the number of polluted lakes and rivers. The number of spotlessly clean rivers and lakes has actually dropped from 4.6 per cent to 2.7 per cent in the last two years alone, a point curiously omitted.
On waste management, the report does outline the very significant and welcome improvement in recycling rates, and the drop in organised illegal dumping. And, to be fair, the Minister did acknowledge that too much waste was still going to landfill.
But, yet again it fails to address a key problem, identified by the EPA, which is that Irish consumers and firms, while good at recycling waste, still produce much more of it than European counterparts.
The document also outlines the various initiatives by the Government aimed at closing the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility, including various court actions, citing a reduction in discharges of one radioactive substance, Technetium 99. What it fails to state is that the Government is now being sued by the European Commission for failing to adhere to European procedures in its legal actions against Sellafield, a case Ireland will almost certainly lose.
On planning, the department cites its planning guidelines and strategies, combined with energy and other regulations, as contributing to the creation of sustainable development. Much is made of the National Spatial Strategy and how it will contribute to balanced regional development.
The problem is that, more than four years since its launch, the strategy has yet to even begin to deliver that, although investment is now promised under the NDP.
It boasts of stricter energy regulations which mean better insulated homes that use less energy. It omits to state that the Government signalled it would implement these in early 2002, but then introduced a four-year phased implementation period. The result is that more than 400,000 homes have been built to poorer energy standards.
Yesterday, Mr Roche said the report was "objective by any standards" in its assessment of Ireland's environmental record, citing US-based studies which rated Ireland as tenth in the world in terms of environmental legislation and protection. He said that Ireland should be proactive in its environmental legislation. "We shouldn't do it because the EU says we should do it. We should do it because we want to do it."
Why then are Mr Roche and his Government the subject of no less than 30 infringement proceedings from the European Commission for failures to implement environmental directives which it had signed up to?
Why is it that the European Court has found against Ireland in a series of cases, from failure to stem illegal dumping to ensuring that sewage plants are properly licensed?
Rather than a considered production by civil servants synthesising reports from various agencies, as it purports to be, the publication reads more like it was dashed off as a pre-election leaflet. The pity about this publication is that there are many achievements of which the State and its citizens can rightly be proud.
What it should not do is whitewash the key weaknesses there have been in the past, or play down the serious challenges. For a more balanced, objective report of the State's achievements and failures, people might turn to the Environmental Protection Agency's comprehensive account of the current state of the Irish environment from last September, The Environment in Focus 2006 , to be found on its website, www.epa.ie .
The Government is taking the environmental motto, "Reduce, Reuse Recycle", to heart these days. These principles appeared to be at the core of yesterday's report by the Department of the Environment, the grandly-titled, Ireland's Progress Towards Environmental Sustainability.
It recycled all of the environmental commitments already announced in the National Development Plan and it reused much of its older press releases to claim significant victories in improving the Irish environment.
And it reduced the country's environmental record to a 40-page good news only version significantly at odds with the real world version of the Ireland we inhabit.
The document describes the "achievements to date and key challenges ahead" in the last national development plan (2000 - 2006) and the one just announced last week.
The shiny cover is not the only "glossy" element to the publication. The essential problem is that it glosses over the significant failures in Irish environmental policy in the last six years, and the enormous challenges that the country has to face up to if it is not to lose its clean, green image.
The first issue to be addressed by the publication is climate change, which trots out the various measures taken by the Government to address Ireland's serious greenhouse gas emissions problem, which has us as one of the highest emitters per capita of carbon dioxide in the world. Emissions trading, greenhouse gas emissions, tax schemes, public transport, energy regulations and farm reform all get a mention.
So too does the Government's plans to spend €270 million in purchasing carbon credits abroad to make up for the shortfall in making reductions at home to meet Irish Kyoto obligations between 2008 and 2012.
The move is dressed up as a positive in that it is using flexible mechanisms to make the reductions. A reduction of a tonne of carbon in India is the same as if it is made in Ireland, the Minister states.
What is of most concern is the fact that the publication fails to state that the purchase of carbon credits is a short-term option, that does not address the fact that following 2012, there will almost certainly be a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, and a much more stringent one at that. The target Ireland will have to meet will be much more challenging.
In addition, the cost of carbon credits, currently in the region of €15 per tonne for Governments, is likely to rise sharply as more stringent targets are set for developing countries.
The publication also fails to identify any further measures, which were due to have been published last year. Radical ideas are needed if Ireland is to tackle the greenhouse gas problem. Of course the idea of a carbon tax, once championed by the department, adopted by Government and dropped in 2004, is not mentioned in the publication.
Asked about it yesterday, the Minister for the Environment said he was personally sceptical about it, and dismissed the advice of his own senior officials and environmental economists that it will work.
The document also makes much of its commitment to nature conservation, citing exacting programmes such as the reintroduction of the golden eagle and the white-tailed sea eagle, and the designation of hundreds of nature conservation sites.
However, it does not state that the number of bird sanctuary areas is among the lowest in Europe, while the Government has failed in its promise to develop conservation plans for all but four of the country's most endangered species.
On water quality, the document boasts about 96.7 per cent compliance. It outlines the huge investment made in water purifying and sewage treatment facilities, and plans for a further €5 billion spending
Mr Roche can certainly take credit for this, but he might also be given credit for the fact that there has been very little progress in reducing the number of polluted lakes and rivers. The number of spotlessly clean rivers and lakes has actually dropped from 4.6 per cent to 2.7 per cent in the last two years alone, a point curiously omitted.
On waste management, the report does outline the very significant and welcome improvement in recycling rates, and the drop in organised illegal dumping. And, to be fair, the Minister did acknowledge that too much waste was still going to landfill.
But, yet again it fails to address a key problem, identified by the EPA, which is that Irish consumers and firms, while good at recycling waste, still produce much more of it than European counterparts.
The document also outlines the various initiatives by the Government aimed at closing the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility, including various court actions, citing a reduction in discharges of one radioactive substance, Technetium 99. What it fails to state is that the Government is now being sued by the European Commission for failing to adhere to European procedures in its legal actions against Sellafield, a case Ireland will almost certainly lose.
On planning, the department cites its planning guidelines and strategies, combined with energy and other regulations, as contributing to the creation of sustainable development. Much is made of the National Spatial Strategy and how it will contribute to balanced regional development.
The problem is that, more than four years since its launch, the strategy has yet to even begin to deliver that, although investment is now promised under the NDP.
It boasts of stricter energy regulations which mean better insulated homes that use less energy. It omits to state that the Government signalled it would implement these in early 2002, but then introduced a four-year phased implementation period. The result is that more than 400,000 homes have been built to poorer energy standards.
Yesterday, Mr Roche said the report was "objective by any standards" in its assessment of Ireland's environmental record, citing US-based studies which rated Ireland as tenth in the world in terms of environmental legislation and protection. He said that Ireland should be proactive in its environmental legislation. "We shouldn't do it because the EU says we should do it. We should do it because we want to do it."
Why then are Mr Roche and his Government the subject of no less than 30 infringement proceedings from the European Commission for failures to implement environmental directives which it had signed up to?
Why is it that the European Court has found against Ireland in a series of cases, from failure to stem illegal dumping to ensuring that sewage plants are properly licensed?
Rather than a considered production by civil servants synthesising reports from various agencies, as it purports to be, the publication reads more like it was dashed off as a pre-election leaflet. The pity about this publication is that there are many achievements of which the State and its citizens can rightly be proud.
What it should not do is whitewash the key weaknesses there have been in the past, or play down the serious challenges. For a more balanced, objective report of the State's achievements and failures, people might turn to the Environmental Protection Agency's comprehensive account of the current state of the Irish environment from last September, The Environment in Focus 2006 , to be found on its website, www.epa.ie .
Thursday, 1 February 2007
The Recycling Consultative Forum
The Recycling Consultative Forum was held in Dublin Castle in January 2007. Please find a link to the related documentation below.
http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/wvNavView/Waste+Management?OpenDocument&Lang=#19
http://www.environ.ie/DOEI/DOEIPol.nsf/wvNavView/Waste+Management?OpenDocument&Lang=#19
Why are Irish roads car parks?
ANSWER: BECAUSE THERE ARE 2.3 MILLION VEHICLES ON IRISH ROADS
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Dick Roche, T.D., announced today that the total number of licensed (taxed) vehicles at 31st December 2006 was 2,296,393.
The 2006 return continues the increase in overall vehicle volumes experienced in recent years and represents an increase of 157,713 vehicles (7.37%) on the total at 31st December, 2005.
The breakdown (details given in the attached table) includes:
· 1,778,861 private cars which represents an increase of 116,704 vehicles (7.02%) on the previous year for this category,
· 318,604 goods vehicles
· 68,137 agricultural tractors.
The trend in the total number over the period 1985 – 2006 is as follows:
1985 914,758
1990 1,054,259
1995 1,262,503
2000 1,682,221
2005 2,138,680
2006 2,296,393
The 2006 total represents an increase of over 500,000 vehicles (37%) since 2000 and an increase of over 1 million vehicles (82%) since 1995.
More detailed breakdowns based on the above totals will be compiled and published later this year in the Department's Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics 2006.
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Dick Roche, T.D., announced today that the total number of licensed (taxed) vehicles at 31st December 2006 was 2,296,393.
The 2006 return continues the increase in overall vehicle volumes experienced in recent years and represents an increase of 157,713 vehicles (7.37%) on the total at 31st December, 2005.
The breakdown (details given in the attached table) includes:
· 1,778,861 private cars which represents an increase of 116,704 vehicles (7.02%) on the previous year for this category,
· 318,604 goods vehicles
· 68,137 agricultural tractors.
The trend in the total number over the period 1985 – 2006 is as follows:
1985 914,758
1990 1,054,259
1995 1,262,503
2000 1,682,221
2005 2,138,680
2006 2,296,393
The 2006 total represents an increase of over 500,000 vehicles (37%) since 2000 and an increase of over 1 million vehicles (82%) since 1995.
More detailed breakdowns based on the above totals will be compiled and published later this year in the Department's Bulletin of Vehicle and Driver Statistics 2006.
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
Phoenix Magazine pokes fun at McDowell's planning matter
IT’S nearly two years since Michael and Niamh McDowell brought Roscommon CC to heel with their legal action compelling the council to rescind its impertinent blocking of planning permission for the McDowells’ country retreat in Roosky. Now, the legal bill for this confrontation has been totted up and it totals just over €400,000 for Michael’s chums in the Law Library and attendant solicitors. Earlier this year the council paid off its legal fees and they amounted to €122,512.50 to James O’Reilly SC, Patrick Butler SC and Junior Counsel Conleth Bradley BL, plus €76,876.04 to county solicitor Dermot MacDermot, amounting in total to €199,388.54. Now McDowell’s legal team, Paul Gallagher SC, Michael Collins SC, David Barniville BL, instructed by solicitors Michael McInerney & Co, have totted up the cost of their valuable time. And would you believe it, it comes to €199,384.09 – a difference of less than a fiver out of a total of €400,000 circa for both sides. The justice minister had let it be known from the roof tops that his assault on the tiny kingdom of Roscommon would also include a suit for negligence in the matter and he accused the council of acting with “misfeasance” (!) in obstructing his holiday home.
This action could well have cost another six-figure sum in legal costs as well as swingeing damages for the trauma caused to the anticipated tranquillity and peace of mind of the McDowells. As things stand, the legal bill to date that must be picked up by the 55,000 strong local citizenry amounts to over €7 for every man, woman and child in the county.
However, the good news is that McDowell’s despotic tendencies are tempered wth a benevolence hitherto unrecognised and the misfeasance action has been shelved.
This action could well have cost another six-figure sum in legal costs as well as swingeing damages for the trauma caused to the anticipated tranquillity and peace of mind of the McDowells. As things stand, the legal bill to date that must be picked up by the 55,000 strong local citizenry amounts to over €7 for every man, woman and child in the county.
However, the good news is that McDowell’s despotic tendencies are tempered wth a benevolence hitherto unrecognised and the misfeasance action has been shelved.
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