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    Dr Jekyll… An Bord Pleanála and Mr Paul Hyde. By Michael Smith.

        • An Bord Pleanála’s manifest ethical weakness in perspective • The planning appeals board, An Bord Pleanála, has been brought into disrepute by its deputy chairperson’s property deals, by his criminal failed declarations of property interests and mishandled conflicts of interests, and by his receiverships.  He must go.   System of Planning Appeals […]

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    Blowers are Flowers

    52March/April 2022IntroductionWhistleblowing is usually seen as a cousin of “snitching”, whereas it might be more helpful to view whistleblowing on a spectrum of willing–ness to circumvent group consensus, either head-on or indirectly.This by-passes the tendency to scrutinise the whistleblower for personal “defects”, as is nor–mally the case in whistleblower conficts.According to a recent Village article, […]

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    One-off Housing fritters €5.6bn(on Broadband provision)

    50March/April 2022Over 60 per cent of households in County Galway, for example, were one-of houses, the highest in the country. Roscommon (56%) and Leitrim (52%) weren’t far behind.After 2016 there was an improvement as more apartments were built.5481, 5622 and 5292 one-of houses were built in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively – representing respecivel […]

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    Death by media

    48March/April 2022How the media stoke the climate crisisYES, WE should rake over the coals. And the oil, and the gas. Democratic accountability means remembering who helped to stoke the climate crisis. We should hold the fossil fuel companies to account.In 1979, an internal study by Exxon concluded that burning carbon fuels “will cause dramatic envi–ronmental efects before […]

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    Michael Williams wants an end to Judges trespassing into the role of elected legislators especially through inference of rights from the constitution

    42March/April 2022Michael Williams wants an end to Judges trespassing into the role of elected legislators especially through inference of rights from the consitution. Michael Smith wants a new constitution but meanwhile, apart from theoretically (!), is relaxed about whether judges inferring rights is democratic and useful.OPINION March/April 2022 43Judges exceed their constitutional powers.In 1937 our […]

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