The Hatchet is out against Public Transport - Where are the Greens?

Dempsey is proposing swinging cuts in public transport and I just heard on the radio that Fastrack, the excellent rail parcel delivery service is to be scrapped from March 1st. As welll as finishing off small businesses that depend on it, it has thrown the medical sector and a good number of patients into distress, as they depend on Fastrack for blood results and supplies that are needed urgently. People are being quoted 200 euro for a courier to replace a 20 euro Fasttrack fee.

They are being told both that the service is being cut because it is losing money, and also that it can't be run any more because the new trains were ordered without a freight car and with a bike carriage instead. As well as finishing off some businesses and the trouble over medical needs, doing away with Fastrack will inevitably push trips back onto the road.

It just isn't good enough for the Greens to ignore this.

Dempsey is one of the bigger and more unpleasant fools in government. This attack on public transport, at this time, is disastrous.

I wish people would wake up and smell the coffee. The neo con element in our government, far from acknowleding the catastrophe their policies have caused, are actually using them as a disguise to railroad through even MORE extreme versions of their philosophy. And the stupid media and stupid unthinking politicians are everywhre going along with it all in the name of 'austerity'.

The only people to benefit from these fire sales and pro privatisation 'solutions' are the same people responsible for the damage done. In other words all of this is just one more way of protecting the rich, at all costs. Prserving profits for the few and let the devil take the hindmost. A little inequality is a great thing, for some.

Dempsey is a boorish twit, in any case. God, grant us mercy, and bring on a general election soon, please.

The hyperbole is a bit much, Dempsey might not be the best mind in there but I'd hardly call him a neo-con.

I don't follow these issues much but I can't quite equate this decision with the proposals for a metro system. One will provide contracts for the boys I suppose the other will just keep unions happy.

Given that we are now jetting Cervical Smears to American to be tested rather than doing it in Irish labs I think the withdrawl of the the fastrack service is the least of our concerns.

Have to disagree with you on Dempsey, Aragon. He isn't an intellectual but he is one of the more honest Fianna Fáil ministers and I feel sorry for him that whenever something goes wrong they send him out with the news.

johnfás wrote:

Given that we are now jetting Cervical Smears to American to be tested rather than doing it in Irish labs I think the withdrawl of the the fastrack service is the least of our concerns.

Have to disagree with you on Dempsey, Aragon. He isn't an intellectual but he is one of the more honest Fianna Fáil ministers and I feel sorry for him that whenever something goes wrong they send him out with the news.

Noel Dempsey is I agree "not an intellectual", but in the boom he had a habit of getting us into disastrous over spends on mistakes and laid the foundations for the increased cost base of the Local Authorities in a fashion that can only be described as wanton. Now he is dealing with a shrinking budget it looks as if we can expect him to lay waste to all of value in an equally wanton way.

On Fast Track, it may not even be a cut - it sounds as if it might have been a daft policy decision or even a mistake on the train rolling stock order.

Green Party Transport Policy here - page 13 they say they want space for cycles on trains, and elsewhere they also say they want to move freight from road to rail.
http://www.greenparty.ie/en/content/download/11236/125625/file/TransportPolicy_Final_LR.pdf

He has had many more achievements than Brian Cowen which is a point that should not be lost on people:
- Introduction of plastic bag levy.
- Ended dual mandate whereby people could be a TD and Councillor.
- Established the beginnings of the Digital television and radio network.
- Overhaul of the law regarding drivers on provisional licences.

I presume Aragon's problem with him really stems from the fact that he was Minister for Communications and Natural Resources at the time that the agreements for the Corrib Gas Project was made.

Compared to Cowen who had an incredibly poor time at the Department of Health presiding over numerous strikes and not implementing any reform coupled with his poor showing in Finance, Dempsey looks like a saint.