The pencil, the snail and the
Taoiseach
Dear sir - Our Taoiseach seems to think little of the
humble pencil or indeed of people admitting that they are
wrong and changing their minds.
Last week in the Dáil he made the astounding
statement that our "silly old system is outdated" that we
should "correct the software and move forward" and that
we are a "laughing stock with our silly old pencils".
Last year he also referred to pencils as the Irish Times
said: 'In what could only be taken as a reference to the
Kildare bypass - where a rare snail's habitat was
discovered, and the proposed M3 in Co. Meath which passes
through an area of significant archaeology - Mr. Ahern
said: "in other countries they just get on with things.
If you take a pencil and account for things like snails
and archaeology you will never do anything". (Tim
O'Brien, Irish Times, September 30 2005).
If someone did use a pencil for the route of the M3 it
must have been late at night on the back of an envelope
in a pub, the pencil then slipped and the route to be
most avoided was chosen by mistake. There is no other
explanation for such an idiotic route - or is there?
Our Taoiseach also faulted the opposition for changing
their minds on the issue of electronic voting, unlike him
they had the sense to listen to the experts.
Finally, in other countries they do not "just get on with
things" - in Gran Canaria when the route of a major
highway unearthed a Guanche graveyard containing 1,000
skulls the Spanish government moved the road.
This government should put its hands up and admit that a
monumental planning mistake has been made or put their
trust in those great voting machines and hold an
e-referendum on the round-the-bend route of the M3.
Dr. Muireann Ní
Bhrolcháin
© The Meath Chronicle, 4th. November 2006.
