Governance and the Citizen

It was one of those hare and the tortoise moments. I had headed out from the Dáil to peddle up Dame Street to the 'Governance and the Citizen' conference in the Coach House behind Dublin Castle. Halfway down Dame Street I hear this loud roar behind me and a Ferrari shoots past. By the time I arrived at Dublin Castle our pal in the red car was stopped and having a chat with a guard just beside City Hall on Cork Hill. Meanwhile those of us on bicycles (and you can see Duncan Stewart on his trusty stead) arrived in good time for the Conference, although I'm sure Ferrari man perhaps had another destination in mind. 

  The Conference was about Dubliners and their City, and focused on new thinking on citizen engagement in the governance of cities. Minister John Gormley discussed the options Government faces in providing a directly elected mayor, as provided for in the Programme for Government that we negotiated with Fianna Fáil almost two years ago. In late 2007 the Green Party responded to the call for submissions and put forward our model of local government reform. The Department of the Environment published their Green Paper on Local Government entitled 'Stronger Local Government Options for Change' last year, and I'm looking forward to a White Paper, followed by legislation some time this year. I want to see a Metro-Mayor for all of Dublin, including Dún Laoghaire, Fingal, South Dublin and Dublin City. The job specification would include strategic planning for water, sewerage, transport, planning, and development. Checks and balances would be provided by the councillors' annual approval of budgets, and of course this would require that councils had greater financial autonomy from central government. If you liked the mayor's track record over five years then you'd re-elect her. If weren't impressed, she'd lose her job. Currently we have a revolving door with mayors in each council selected by their fellow councillors. They only serve a twelve month term of office, and mostly have more of a 'show up at the function' role rather than strategic leadership and direction. 

Svend Auken from the Danish Social Democrats gave a great speech about the Aaurhus Convention - a document and process that increases citizens access to information and decision-making. He suggested that Dublin was the Bangkok of Europe in traffic terms, and talked about how one third of the journeys to work in Copenhagen are made by bike (and don't they know how to do it in style)! He described how the Convention is NOT a power of veto, but what it does do is empower citizens. He neatly finished his contribution by stating we must do well by doing good. 

Gabriel Metcalf from the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) spoke about the future of citizenship. I've heard about their work for years, and their website looks great, but I had to high-tail it back to the Dáil for a vote at that stage and missed the other speaker's contributions. I would like to have heard Labour Councillor (and former Lord Mayor) Dermot Lacey's contribution, but I'm sure he'll pick it up in a blog alert and summarise it for me. Dublin City Manager John Tierney also spoke, and I'm sure he considered the positive potential of a mayor for all of Dublin who would give additional vision, leadership and direction to the city.  

WendyLimerick on Twitter pointed me in the direction of Aodh Quinlivan's paper on 'Reconsidering Directly Elected Mayors in Ireland: Experiences from the United Kingdom and America. I'm hoping to read that this evening, before the vote on the National Pensions Reserve Fund (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2009 at 10 O'Clock this evening. If you see me on the Dáil feed with my head submerged in reading, you'll know what I'm up to. All in all, a great conference from all reports. Well done to Dave O'Gorman, Raymond Sexton, Ciaran Fallon and Geraldine Walsh for the organisation, great to have an upbeat discussion in these troubled times about the future of our city.

25May2022

Note: this post was altered on 25 May 2022 by the author in response to concerns about previous references to the driver of the Ferrari.  For the avoidance of doubt, there is no suggestion of law-breaking on anyone's part.

Masterminds at Anglo Irish bank

I must have missed it by minutes.

I had dropped the kids to school and peddled up to Stephen's Green to take a couple of picture of the front of Anglo Irish. Little did I know that the Guards were inside investigating suspected breaches of company law.

I guess you could describe it as some sort of reverse take-over when the the Guards rather than the robbers raid the bank.

The advertising in the window shows a Mastermind chair with the headline "Our chosen subject is savings". Given that the TV Quiz show's most well-known presenter was Iceland's own Magnús Magnússon I'm sure that there are some embarrassed faces in an ad agency somewhere. The small print on the Corporate logo reads "There is a difference." Damn right there is.

There's quite a few nuggets of information on Anglo's website including a Q and A on the Nationalisation process. Under the 'What triggered the nationalisation?" section (otherwise known as 'where did it all go wrong?') it states:

The funding position of Anglo ... progressively weakened over the past few weeks, and the ... unacceptable corporate governance practices that took place within Anglo ...caused serious reputational damage to the bank at a time when overall market sentiment towards it has been negative. The Government confirmed that the planned recapitalisation of Anglo announced on 21 December 2008 is not now the most appropriate and effective means to secure the bank's continued viability. Therefore, the Government decided to move to the final and decisive step of taking Anglo into public ownership.

Our Senator Dan Boyle was pretty outspoken in the Senate this afternoon. He feels that Fitzpatrick, Drumm and Bradshaw should be suspended until the investigations by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Financial Regulator have come to conclusion.

I had gone up to take a pic of Anglo to illustrate one of the few silver linings that might present itself to the side of the current dark cloud: Presumably much of Anglo's debt is tied to defaulting developers who have over-stretched themselves on land acquisition. If this is carefully handled it could allow the state to acquire significant land holdings that could be used to meet social housing and affordable housing demand for years to come.

Meanwhile, the lobbyists prowl the corridors of Leinster House. Tom Cullen from the SIMI seems to have spent the last two weeks drinking coffee with Fianna Fail back-benchers. He even claims that the Department of Finance now believe that a car scrappage scheme stacks up to create jobs. I'm not convinced. Our car fleet is young compared to the rest of Europe, and around half the carbon cost of a car is in its manufacture. I'm waiting for Tom to give me the figures.

The new president of the Construction Industry Federation Andy O'Gorman graces the cover of their official magazine of the Construction Industry Federation. He is straight up about his message: "We need effective lobbying to secure a commitment to continue the roads programme" he states. But what about the Metro, Andy? That could create 4,000 construction jobs.

My rant of the day is reserved for David Baddeley from Volvo Ireland. In his article in the Irish Times Motors supplement he believes that "Buying a car might actually put some people in a better financial position". This follows on from a paragraph where he states that buying payment protection insurance can address any concerns about possible redundancy. Have we learnt nothing from the boom? These type of advertorials in the motoring supplements mirror the excesses of the property supplements from the boom years that included ads for housing in Gorey Co. Wexford describing their developments as being within easy rail commuting distance of Dublin even when the first train didn't arrive in to Dublin till half ten.

My advice? Spend your money wisely. I'm banking on insulation. With the new grants coming on stream you can have a warmer home and reduce your fuel bills. There's also thousands of jobs, and a lot less carbon as the scheme is rolled out. My overview of the grants scheme is here.

Good luck with your spending!

Radical Reform required at Dublin Bus

Busy times within the Green Party, with Bronwen Maher and Chris O'Leary's resignations. Anyway, I just thought I'd post the full text of the article that I submitted to the Irish Times which appeared as an opinion piece today...

...Dublin Bus requires radical reform to meet the needs of bus users. The company made a profit of €4.7m in 2007, but lost €10 m last year and will lose €31m this year unless action is taken. The company has to avoid haemorrhaging cash. Last week senior management chose the easier option of service cutbacks instead of the substantial reforms required to modernise the company.

Bright yellow buses and customer charters play their part, but the brand must be built on reliability, efficiency and punctuality. Buses play a valuable transport role and help cut carbon emissions but until they are a more attractive option Dublin Bus will continue to struggle.

A decade ago, disagreement over opening the centre doors led to a protracted row between management and unions. Rather than resolving the issue, new buses were ordered without centre doors. Ultimately bus users lost out by waiting longer to board and disembark. It seems that if there’s no easy answer proposals are quietly shelved.

Reforming the bus network is the main area where changes must occur. Although most quality bus corridors are successful, many routes meander around the city discouraging prospective passengers. The number seventeen takes an hour and twenty minutes to travel from Blackrock to the terminus in Rialto. En route it travels six miles to reach Dundrum, a journey of only three miles as the crow flies. More direct routes would attract more passengers from their cars.

The Dublin Transportation Office has computer modelling that show the origins and destinations of the journeys that Dubliners make. This information should be used to transform Dublin Bus’s routes into a clearer network that better serves the city’s needs.

More cross-city routes are required to allow passengers to benefit from faster journey times without having to transfer from one bus to another. The city centre would then benefit from less parked buses.

Too many Dublin Bus routes clog O’Connell Bridge rather than using other Liffey crossings. The network should be more like a spider’s web with easy transfer between routes where they intersect.

An over-supply of bus stops also complicates matters. There are five bus stops on the Monkstown road in South Dublin. Placing bus stop every 250 meters slows down buses. Less bus stops might add a minute or two to the walk to the stop, but would reduce bus journey times.

Consultants Deloitte are reporting to the Department of Transport on proposals for the CIE group, and no doubt have suggestions for Dublin Bus. This has happened before. In the early 1990s a report by the Dublin Transportation Initiative called for real time passenger information and integrated ticketing. Fifteen years later we are still waiting. In London an Oyster card the size of a credit card allows public transport users to transfer effortlessly between buses and the underground. Heads should roll in organisations that have delayed the roll-out of a similar system in Dublin. In London the Mayor chairs Transport for London, and something similar should happen here when we directly elect a Mayor.

Dublin Bus has erected signs on their bus stops stating when the bus should leave the terminus. Instead, they should inform you when buses will depart from the bus stop, as is common abroad. In other cities, buses pause for a moment along their route if required in order to stick to schedule. The increase in reliability would offset any increase in journey time and reduce the tendency of buses to travel in packs.

Dublin Bus ticket types offers forty different types of pre-paid tickets and nine different prices on board. Perhaps a €1, €2 or €3 fare on board, or eliminating on-board cash altogether would speed up boarding times, and make life easier for all.

Drivers could benefit from further training to better serve the needs of passengers. A costly kerb replacement system has been provided that permits level boarding. However drivers often fail to pull in to this kerb, making boarding difficult for parents with young children and the elderly. Gentler breaking and acceleration would also make buses more attractive.

A free bus map would help. The printed map of the Dublin Bus network costs €3 and is hard to obtain. A ‘London Underground’ style of map showing all public transport including Luas and rail would attract more users. The Dublin Bus website is searchable by bus number and destination, but it is left to a private site www.justroutes.com to permit you to chose your destination as well as your starting point, and find the bus you need.

Better bus priority measures in the city-centre and on the approaches to the M50 are crucial. Four lanes of car traffic are allowed through College Green and thus it can take half an hour to get by bus from Mountjoy Square to Stephens Green. Local authorities have to play their part in speeding up buses, and that requires political leadership. Taking cars out of College Green and a South Quays bus lane are required.

Dublin Bus should relocate many depots that occupy valuable land close to the City Centre. Depots should move close to the M50 allowing land at Grand Canal Dock and Mountjoy Square to be better used, and release equity for the company’s development in future years.

Dublin Bus can and must embrace sweeping changes. In the coming months the Government will publish legislation to modernise bus regulation that dates from the 1930s. However the company must also undergo substantial reform to reflect the needs of the city in 2009.

Ciarán Cuffe is the Green Party’s Transport Spokesperson and TD for Dún Laoghaire

Shooting Fish in a Barrel

"Tony would want us all to be mindful of the Palestinian victims of the brutal Israeli aggression . . . in Gaza."

The words of Tony Gregory's brother Noel set the tone for an amazing send-off of the TD whose office was across the corridor from mine in Leinster House. Liam Ó Maonlaí underlined Noel's words with music in St. Agatha's Church. Fr.Peter McVerry paid eloquent tribute to a fellow-campaigner, and Cllr Maureen O'Sullivan spoke passionately about Tony's many and varied interests in life.

Tony was not a man to suffer fools gladly, unlike so many of those who have occupied a Dáil seat, and I'll miss the sound of his voice in the Dáil chamber, and from the office across the way.

He understood the system backwards, and as the leader of the technical group in the Dáil (which include the Greens) for the five years between 2002 and 2007 he ensured that all of its members were well represented.

Meanwhile in Gaza the murder continues. There is evil on all sides, but the murder and bloodshed of the Israeli army over the last two weeks beggars belief. Any sense of proportion from the Israeli Government has been thrown out the window, and this is like shooting fish in a barrel; it is a bloodbath. Withdrawing the credentials of the Israeli Ambassador to Ireland has been suggested, but perhaps sanctions against the State of Israel would send out a clearer message that would hurt economically.

The timing of the Green Party's members' conference and Green Economics Seminar in Liberty Hall clashed with the Palestine March in Dublin last Saturday, but I headed out early from our meeting, with some colleagues from Northern Ireland to join the start of the march outside the Central Bank. We spoke as we walked up the Quays, and agreed that the actions of the Israelis were akin to the British Army reacting to IRA attacks by taking it upon themselves to bomb all nationalist areas back into the Stone Age. The timing is so cynical, in the interregnum before Obama takes office, and in the midst of an election campaign in Israel.

Reuters reported last Friday that the US was hiring a ship to bring hundreds of tonnes of arms and ammunition to Israel from Greece, including bunker busting bombs that can blast through eight metres of reinforced concrete. The figures speak for themselves: this evening the BBC reports 910 killed in Gaza including 292 children. Israel says 13 of their citizens have been killed.

Joe Sacco's graphic novel Palestine from the early 1990s paints a vivid picture of everyday life for ordinary Palestinians. Not much changed in the years leading up to the current conflic . His perspective is miles apart from the New York Times's reporting of the conflict, and illustrates the huge difficulties that ordinary Palestinians face. Of course the appalling actions of Hamas have also led to the loss of innocent lives, and deserve condemnation, but the disproportionate response from Israel is murderous and cannot be justified.

Hopefully Tony Blair's efforts can help bring all sides to agreeing a new cease-fire, but in the meantime some form of sanctions against Israel is required.