James Lawless – View from the Tracks

I was in N.U.I. Maynooth earlier this week, where I gave a guest lecture on social media. The lecture title was ’socialnomics’ and I focused on technology and particular the web was changing the world and how it could and should be used by organisations. I can share the slides with anyone interested, just drop me a line.

I was in town (Dublin) in the afternoon, back to the day job, so rather than drive back to Sallins for the regular commute I decided to park up at Maynooth rail station and get the train in from there. I used get the train to Maynooth all the time, back in the distant past of the nineties, when my wife was a student there and I was in lil old Trinity up the road, but it had been a while. It’s a decent little station. Small sandwich shop and newsagents beside the ticket desk and modern conveniences like an electronic next train display. Parking was a bit mad with a very linear strip running alongside the canal - had to go to the very end to get a spot and queueing for little while coming out later on. Pay parking was in operation at the rate of €2 a day, €8 a week, same as Sallins except for the extra option of paying €30 for a four week ticket. The machines were branded CIE rather than Euro Parks, which might allow more flexibility re the tariff options.

A day return to Connolly was €6 so the trip cost me €8 in total. Still a lot cheaper than driving to town but maybe slightly more than I expected. Of course regular trippers will have annual or monthly tickets so likely to work out much better. And Maynooth benefits from being considered inside the commuter zone for Irish Rail so on a per mile basis is better value than Sallins, Newbridge or even Hazelhatch stations.

Good timetable, lots of trains, mine was punctual. Busy though, even middle of the day. I gather this Northern line has less of the punctuality difficulties that trouble its Southern cousin (i.e. the Sallins line) which is obviously a good thing. However given we are currently at a passenger low point, due to recession etc the car park was still brimming over, and there wasn’t a huge amount of spare seating – I imagine the service may struggle under normal / peak conditions. One to watch in future.PS If there are any Maynooth rail groups reading (are there any?) feel free to get in touch, we might compare notes.

Irish Blog Awards 2010 (aka #iba10 to Dan Boyle and the like) is here again. Delighted to see that for the third year in a row I have been nominated for an award.

This year I feature in two categories, this blog is in under ‘Best blog by a politician’ which I quite like as before I was lumped in with ‘political blogs’ which was good company sure, but difficult on a competitive level where the categories differed subtly. Some were dedicated commentators and analysts (including some professional journalists) and others were trying to knock out a few words when time permitted to give a local heads up. So the new category makes sense and is better suited here.

During the past year I also joined the team at IrishElection.com which is a previous multi-award winner and I would like to think their new recruit’s alternate analysis and keen counterpoint to the anti-establishment bias gives them a more complete portfolio and may even nudge the award back into the IE camp again. This time with me joining them in the winners’ enclosure of course

Full list of nominations and categories here:

http://awards.ie/blogawards/2010/02/20/2010-irish-blog-awards-nominations/

Catch my latest post over at IrishElection.com ;

http://www.irishelection.com/2010/02/boy-george-no-more/

A story about a little boy who threw all his toys out of the pram.

I attended a meeting last Wednesday night, organised by the residents of Killeenmór to discuss the recent and recurring flooding issues. The meeting was also attended by Cllr. Liam Doyle, Cllr. Brendan Weld and Michael Fitzpatrick (who had to vote in the Dáil) was ably represented by his aide Johnny Callaghan.

The map above shows some the areas affected. The Morrell river flows under the canal and alongside the railway. When it overflows the culverts under railway see it spill over onto nearby fields & houses.

We discussed the root causes which included increased drainage demands from infrastuctural developments ranging from the M7 upgrade to the railway tracks. Some work was done at the time of the motorway upgrade, including upgrading of bridges and some banking of ditches but a lot more is now needed. In a sense the problem is constantly moving downstream as the issues at Johnstown are now manifesting in places like Killeenmór and the neighbouring Turnings townland. The Painestown and Morrell rivers intersect and both join the Liffey eventually.

A comprehensive drainage landscape survey is required and I understand from Deputy Fitzpatrick’s office, that this is underway involving both the Office of Public Works and Kildare County Council. The full course of the Morrell has been walked by officials and a report should be drawn up shortly to see what’s needed.

A report was drawn up some years ago but never implemented, or at least only partially, however I feel the political will is onboard now to make something happen. I will stay close to it and keep the pressure on.

The Kileenmór region just outside Sallins was flooded again last weekend for the third time in three months. There are maybe twenty houses along this road and they have been hit each time it rains with water on the road, in the gardens and in some of the houses. The water is coming from the Morell stream which flows nearby and joins the Painestown river shortly afterwards. There are many possible routings for this water and some of these form a relief valve however the overspill goes across a field, through a set of culverts under the railway line and right onto this road and all its occupant houses.

I have been down at the location a few times recently when this has happened and I brought Michael Fitzpatrick TD with me on Saturday morning. We drove around courtesy of a resident in a 4×4 as no normal car could get through the feet of water across the road. I know Councillor Liam Doyle also visited later that day. Anecodotal evidence suggests the situation has worsened since the motorway upgrade as surplus surface water increasingly swells the streams.

There is a small aqueduct by the 14th lock where the Morell goes under the canal and it is just downstream of this that the problem occurs. At the aqueduct there is a sluice gate beside Kileen golf club which appears to be perennially closed. Whilst this does not cause the problem it doesn’t help matters either.

I feel a comprehensive drainage report needs to be compiled for the whole region from Ardclough down to Johnstown. Whilst this straddles at least two electoral areas (Clane and Naas) it needs to be considered in tandem. We have been in touch with both areas about this and I hope to arrange a meeting onsite shortly. Will post here with updates.

Note this is a cross post from IrishElection.com where I’ve been posting a lot lately. There is quite a busy discussion going on over there also on the same piece.

This post stems from a discussion in the comments section under ‘All politics is local’. We were comparing and contrasting the UK and Irish systems in terms of how rooted politicians must be within their local constituencies. I think there is significant difference between the two jurisdictions, to some degree due to FPTP (First Past The Post) but also due to population sizes.

The system in UK will often see ‘heavy hitters’ or party favourites being positioned within safe seat constituencies to be assured of election. This can mean that Ministers for example are relatively free to concentrate on national matters, whilst a local party machine gets on with the ground work. The constituency being either red or blue (or sometimes yellow) is more or less taken for granted as a loyal stronghold in any event.

Similarly party HQs (Lab and Cons) will often operate a list system, where aspirants are on a waiting list, and are then slotted into various constituencies as seats become available. The link between ‘home turf’ of the constituency and the representatives is far more tenous than here. Whilst there are cases like the Prime Minister himself, who is a passionate and proud son of his Kirkcaldy constituency, his predecessor Blair had never set foot in Sedgefieldprior to the by-election. Also, due to the sheer size of parliament and the country, by elections come up so often that these more mobile candidates seldom have to wait too long to find a suitable opening. In fact, in the UK system, what is sometimes done is that new candidates will be ‘blooded’ in a ‘no hope’ constituency where a seat of the opposite colour comes up, before been given a real crack at a safe seat of their own. Tony Blair was ran in a Tory stronghold (Beaconsfield), purely for campaign experience before being allowed a proper go of it in the Labour seat of Sedgefield. What this does mean in practice is that the party convention is the real election rather than the public vote.

In Ireland opportunties really only come up, once every couple of years, if even, with Council being a ususal prerequisite for a Dáil run, and whilst ocassionaly parachute celebrities feature, generally the candidate will be rooted very deeply within that particular geographic area before even being considered a viable runner. The idea of party favourites flitting from one constituency to the next would be unlikely to work well within the Irish electoral context. The likes of Mary Lou or even Joe Higgins demonstrate that some mobility is possible around the Dublin (or possibly Cork) city constituencies but it is still unlikely to succeed outside those large urban centres. Within the Irish system, the situation remains that having a large local network cemented around a particular area remains the formula for electoral success.

Interestingly both jurisdictions, despite the different approaches and voting methods (FPTP and PR), have produced similar results. The parties all end up chasing the middle, that all important and much sought after floating voters of the centre ground. In the UK with so many seats a foregone conclusion in either direction, the real battle is after the handful of centre lying ’swing’ constituencies. Whilst in Ireland despite a widely differing system, in the form or porportinoal representation, the centre ground is also chased to attract those all important transfers. Then in the US we end up with RINOs and ModDems (alignments within the parties almost closer to the opposite side). Maybe the perfect electoral system is still a work in progress.

Last week I spoke of the RTÉ enquiry which led to much acrimony within the Waterways estate at the Minister’s comments which contradicted the technical evidence previously presented. The ful episode can be seen here: http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1063707

Similar claims had also been made in local media at the outset, example here:
02 December 2009  Leinster Leader – http://www.leinsterleader.ie/news/Counting-the-cost-of-the.5876640.jp

Thankfully the local debate has moved on in light of technical investigation and informed commentary from residents and engineers, however the prime time remarks represented a setback.

I spoke to Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick about this after the program and he raised the issue in the Oireachtas this week as follows:

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick: I shall be brief. I shall mention one or two matters in relation to the flooding and move on to more recent events. There was not that much flooding in Kildare, but nonetheless it was very severe. Some of this was caused by the Liffey, as I mentioned earlier, and the way in which it is managed. We need to examine carefully how the Liffey is managed, because while it is flooding in Clane, it then starts to move down to the Strawberry Beds in Dublin, so there is a whole ripple effect.

Perhaps I can ask Mr. Dowling about the Waterways in Sallins. It was flooded very badly, mainly because of blocked drains and outlets. It would not have been flooded at all if proper maintenance had been done before the event. In a recent television comment, the Minister made reference to the Waterways and said the name indicated the development had been built on a flood plain. I have known this area for many years and it was not built on a flood plain, but rather on what was formerly a pitch and putt course, in a strategic location close to the railway station. It got its name from the Grand Canal which runs through the village and the promotional literature when the development was being sold highlighted the canal as a very special amenity, which it is. Comments such as that are very severe on the people now living in those houses, if they want to sell a house in the Waterways since the Minister has indicated it was built on a flood plain. The position needs to be clarified in the public arena about this particular estate. I appeal to the officials and indeed, the Minister, to clearly state that this enormous estate which contains all the infrastructure needed for a proper development, is not built on a flood plain.

Deputy Michael Fitzpatrick: I have one more question for Mr. Dowling, whose answer he may communicate to the committee later. I made a comment earlier about waterways in Sallins. A statement was made by the Minister on television which has the potential to devalue properties in the area substantially and many people are under stress due to this. Most of them are in negative equity at the moment and if his comments stood up, it would be serious for them.

Chairman: I will assist the Deputy. He has raised the matter and the committee will write to the Minister in this regard. We will try to obtain a transcript of the Minister’s comments. I saw the broadcast myself and I remember a certain phrase he used about the name of the estate, but I did not think of the consequences for the estate. We will obtain a transcript and ask the Minister to clarify his comments. We will write to the Minister rather than ask Mr. Dowling.

The full transcript can be seen here.

Just to advise, I have published a longer version of my original highs and lows on IrishElection.com at the following URL:

http://www.irishelection.com/2010/01/highs-and-lows-2009/

Quite a few comments and discussion if you want to drop by there.

Last night (8th Jan, 2010), RTE Prime Time screened a program on the floods in Sallins, amongst other places.

I spoke to the program makers, on camera, for about thirty minutes, however I did not feature in the eventual program. I did show them around the local landscape and bring them to the site of the culvert etc where they interviewed both myself and Brendan McCauley (who did make the program for about 5 seconds!).

The technical information was not bad however the program gave the impression of a state of inertia. I feel that whilst there were many faults preceding the situation (principally lack of any maintenance on the culverts) there has been progress since which was not reflected. In the immediate aftermath, a number of meetings were held and a dedicated committee was setup to progress the engineering issues with the council. That committee had a meeting with the council before Christmas and I understand all sides viewed it as positive. Since then the council have begun a drainage survey of the surrounding lands and I believe the target is to have an upgraded culvert in place by month end.

So things do appear to be happening, albeit at a slow pace. I do not imagine there will be further public meetings however I expect the committee that was formed arising from the initial meetings will be getting together and furthering their work with the council. As I have further updates, I will post on here.

One remark that was most unhelpful was that from the Minister, John Gormely TD.  He remarked, almost flippantly at the end, that the estate was “built on a flood plain” and what would the residents expect? A casual remark, in my view and an uninformed one at that. I have stated in the past exactly why I believe the Waterways flooded and a flood plain does not come into it. I have raised this with Deputy Fitzpatrick and he is seeking a clarification with the Minister so the correct facts can be put on record from the department.

For the benefit of anyone who may have been affected by the recent flooding at Sallins, there is a new page here with pointers to the different resources available.