One hundred days

...Or thereabouts till Election Day, although Paddy Power doesn't seem to be banking on the 18th May just yet.

We've had a few good days recently, seems like the fate of the Planet is inversely related to the Greens' poll ratings. Even Ruairi Quinn is talking about climate-proofing the National Development plan for gosh sakes!

A lively Green Party Dún Laoghaire branch meeting this evening, Two dozen people, and we had to resort to sitting on the table, as we'd run out of chairs. People want vision and they want ideas, it's as simple as that. The Green Party doesn't for a minute have a monopoly on either of those, but we have been beating the drum on climate change for a long time, and people are starting to notice.

Yesterday went well. Publishing an Urban Development policy has been an aspiration of mine for years. hats off to Deirdre Joyce, one of our researchers for pulling my own scattered thoughts and those of others together. Five pages of comments on the ireland.com poll with the question "Do you think an independent planning agency, as suggested by the Green Party, is needed?" the last time I looked, and 79% in favour.

The Cake Café in the Daintree Building on Camden street in town was the venue, and a perfect place it is. The building is a brilliant example of good practice: - mixed-use; mix of the old and new; green cement; grey water; wood cladding; bicycle parking, the works. Mike and Brian from Solearth Ecological Architecture did themselves proud. Remind me not to have press conferences outside in February ever again though! It was a tad on the chilly side.
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This diagram that I borrowed from the 'Towards an Urban Renaissance' report is one of my favourites, though. We nicked it from Richard Rogers' report and it really clearly illustrates how to build sustainable urban neighbourhoods.

Chris, Patricia and Trevor spoke well, and we adjourned into the cafe afterwards to thaw out after the press conference.

There's lots more info to come on the Government's green record or lack of one. Wait till you see the Minister's carbon footprints, once I get the replies back to the questions I fired in to each Minister last week!

Power of One?

"There's a vague notion out there that somehow it is moral to be concerned about the environment but it's not moral to be concerned about economic success and prosperity.
Michael McDowell, 2007

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"Telling lies to the young is wrong.
Proving to them that lies are true is wrong.
Telling them that God's in his heaven
and all's well with the world is wrong.
The young know what you mean.
The young are people.
Tell them the difficulties can't be counted
and let them see not only what will be
but see with clarity these present times.
Say obstacles exist they must encounter
sorrow happens, hardship happens.
The hell with it. Who never knew
the price of happiness will not be happy.
Forgive no error you recognize.
It will repeat itself, increase,
and afterwards our pupils
will not forgive in us what we forgave."
Yevgeny Yevtushenko 1962

Don't clamp my ride...

The knives were out. They were looking for blood at last night's meeting in Dún Laoghaire. Don McManus, Robert Doyle and Breasal Ó Caollaí from the Business Association had organised the room, and there was a good turn-out of around fifty people. We all agreed that the last thing anyone wants is 'Welcome to Dún Laoghaire - Beware of the Clampers" signs going up.

What people do want though is for the confusion between the Council and the Courts to be cleared up. There must be a lot of egg on somebody's face.

We also need a decent traffic plan for the town. Everybody wants decent signs put up so people know where the parking is. How about 'early-bird' parking for free before 11 in the morning? Maybe a bit of integration between the motor tax office and parking fines section so that you can't pay your annual car tax unless you've paid any outstand ing fines? If you can pay for parking online then it must be possible.We seem to be stuck with Byzantine legislation that gives us three different types of ticket issuer ranging from Guards to the Council traffic wardens to the 'blue bottles'. What we do know is that 347 people have 685,000 tickets between them, and the Council has only brought a fraction of these fines to court. Perhaps the Irish Parking Association has a view on this?

Maybe a tow-away service is the best solution, although somebody did whisper in my ear that car-crushing might be the best approach for the seriously recidivist offenders!

A Home of Your Own

"Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Francie O'Brien's pen" announced Dan Boyle shortly before we broke up last December. He's right too. Senator O'Brien's card and pens arrive like clockwork every year, just as the festive season starts, and it seems to work for him. Of course in recent years Senator Mary White has upped the ante with her boxes of chocolates. I keep meaning to send them back to her, along with all sorts of moral pronouncements about sweetening us up, but the kids always manage to get there first. Our Mary White wouldn't engage in that type of carry-on. You hear all kinds of tales about bottles of whiskey and more changing hands from Dáil Deputies and Councillors in exchange for votes from aspiring Senators, but I suspect most of them know that would rub the Greens up the wrong way. A stack of Dáil envelopes did wing their way to me one Christmas, just before I was elected as a TD, but I spent them back sharpish.

Well, the holiday didn't last long. The phone was buzzing when I started back on the 3rd January. I had a fascinating flying visit to Berlin ten days ago for a meeting of European Green Parliamentarians. We had a good discussion of Climate Change (the 20% reductions announced by the Commission while I was there don't go far enough; Migration (A common European position is required, and the definition of 'safe countries needs to be reviewed); the European Constitution (still lots of enthusiasm for getting the original document passed coming from the German Greens; and Foreign Policy (Lots of angst over the lack of a stronger response from the European Union over the Lebanon Israel conflict. Monica Frassoni and Dannie Cohn Bendit were in fine form; Dannie started groaning when an earnest Swedish Green MEP suggested that a more vegetarian diet could reduce emissions from Cattle. He is clearly a man fond of his steak. Incidentally, I couldn't get over the contrast between the superb organic food that we were offered at the Conference, and the fact that people are still allowed smoke in public buildings in Germany.

It was a good get-together; even though I pointed out that my own use of carbon in getting there amounted to what I use to heat my share of the home for almost a year. However there was great enthusiasm for tapping into Irish exported wind energy for those days when the winds are calm in Germany. I know John isn't a great fan of attending these gatherings, but I still think they're worthwhile for keeping an ear to the ground, and seeing what's coming from middle Europe. Speaking of emissions, that was some announcement from Marks and Sparks the other day. Maybe there's a lot of marketing in it, but a promise to go carbon neutral by 2012, and a commitment to air miles labeling and reductions seemed fairly impressive to me. Tony Juniper seemed enthusiastic, as did Oisin Coughlan from Irish Friends of the Earth. I liked the story from a friend that I heard today who describes how her daughter goes around the house switching off lights and saying "Think of the Polar Bears, Mum".

Meanwhile we're looking forward to a meeting that John Gormley, Eamon Ryan and I are hosting on Tuesday 23rd January. "A Home of Your Own", is an evening of debate and discussion about housing availability and affordability. It's taking place upstairs in the Cultivate Centre in Temple Bar. We've managed to get a hold of Prof. PJ Drudy, Developer Bernard McNamara, Economist Jim Power and UK Green Party Councillor Bill Randall. Hopefully the sparks will fly!