NRA squanders taxpayers'
money
I read, with great care, the amazing full-page advert
taken out in the national press by the NRA on the M3/Tara
controversy which invited people to "come to their own
conclusions". I have.
The advert talked about independent archaeological
advisers. Who were they? It states that "they identified
routes which were viable". What where the other routes
the archaeologists identified?
The advert did not tell us - why not?
There is no comparison given between the different routes
recommended to the NRA - why not? It talks about three
years consultation with "a myriad of interested bodies
and thousands of people" - but fails to explain what they
said or the nature of their submissions.
Perhaps consultation is some kind of hollow statutory
process paid for by the taxpayer that the NRA can
ultimately ignore if it wishes? An Bord Pleanála
presumably only got one NRA proposal to consider. I am
shocked that vast sums of taxpayers' money have been
squandered on costly full-page adverts in order to
browbeat and mislead the very citizens who paid for it.
This is a gross abuse of public money, and the public is
at a loss to reply in kind. Who could put together an
instant fund of, say, €200,000 to reply in an equal
way? Has the NRA a legal right to use money voted by the
Dáil to build roads in this way? If it has, this
loophole should be closed.
I ask the NRA how much this campaign cost, including the
work of PR consultants? It is a gross waste of taxpayers'
money by the NRA in a campaign that has clearly been
exposed by a caring public and national and international
experts as insensitive, arrogant and, sadly,
shortsighted. The NRA should stop digging and climb out
of the hole before it buries them. Perhaps we should
organise a campaign similar to the Dublin Viking Wood
Quay protest. Anyone interested?
MICHAEL O'BRIEN,
The O'Brien Press,
20 Victoria Road,
Rathgar,
Dublin 6.
© The Irish Examiner, 20th. December, 2004.
