Yaaaar…
The Irish Times had an enlightening article yesterday which illustrates the wonderful shitehawk shenanigans, smoke and mirror style hoop jumping, and outright obfuscation involved in modern Irish planning applications.
AN TAISCE has warned that the proposed deepwater port at Bremore, north Co Dublin, could threaten an archaeological complex of passage tombs even older than Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth in the Boyne Valley.
The environmental trust was commenting yesterday on plans by Drogheda Port to extend its boundary southwards so as to incorporate Bremore for development of the deepwater port in partnership with Treasury Holdings.
Saying it was opposed to this development, the trust complained no environmental assessment of its effects has been made available, and thus there could be no proper public consultation, as required under EU law.
Ah now, An Taisce, hold on there just a minute. Don’t you know that there’s no need for one of them things at all, at all. Sure everyone knows that the Irish government, or any of its tentacled organs, never publishes an actual, independent Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), at least not one that disagrees on its ‘preferred’ route, I mean, option. The portions of the original EIS it left out of the (2001) Halcrow Barry Report on the M3’s route picking selection, was nothing more then an attempt to save the environment. It was already fierce long altogether, so it was.
Think of all them trees, like.
Sure, with so much ‘public confusion’ following the ‘misconceptions’ around Carrickmines and Tara, they had to go and change the law in order to end constitutional protection from independent experts from holding up their friends developments * allow a more fast-tracked, ‘user friendly’ and ‘transparent’ approach to bypassing the already watered-down regular system of adjudicating the environmental and historical impact of new developments speeding up the fierce long delays involved in strategically important projects.
Sure, what good would conducting an independent EIS do anyway? They’re fierce expensive altogether, so they are. Chances are, them no good, tree-hugging, left wing pinko’s are going to object anyway, the smelly scallywags. Ah sure, they have the time and the place to object anyhow.
Literally.
Notice of the Bremore extension plan is available for public inspection only in the Superintendent’s office at Drogheda Garda Station. The deadline for submissions and objections is September 8th, 2009.Between the hours of 9am and 5pm. When those lucky enough to have a job will be working. Sure isn’t that loads of time and (a single) place?
Developers are in a fierce hurry, dontcha know. They’ve got to get their skates on before they miss the NAMA bus because, well, they have an important role to play in Ireland’s economic recovery. The fact that Treasury Holdings planning application concerning the port has suddenly sped up, compared to a few months ago when they thought that “a planning application for the proposed container port at Bremore in north Co Dublin, would probably be made in the first quarter of 2010, is entirely coincidental. To be sure.
At that time they confirmed that “an environmental impact statement is currently being prepared, including reference to the sensitive archaeology of the area, although they believed that this could be “worked around”.”
Well shiver me timbers…that’s some workaround.
Now altogether, “we’ll get by with a little help, from our friends…oooooooh, we’ll get by, with a little help, with a little help, with a little help from our friiiiiiieeeeeeeeeends…”
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See Bremore here (RTE Television)
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*Paddy Teahon, Non-Executive Director of Treasury Holdings, worked for seven years (1993-2000) as Secretary of the Department of the Taoiseach. Castle Market Holdings, (which is a subsidery of Treasury) and is joint development partner with Drogheda Port Company are also good friends of Fianna Fail, having donated €7,618 to their last election campaign, along with a €5,434 fund raiser.
This seems to be standard practice throughout this country. What a shower of gombeen men we have allowed to dictate to us.