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Public InquiryInterested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
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****** Submission Deadline for Bus Connects Fri Sept 28th ****** The plan to re-organise the entire Dublin Bus network known as Bus Connects but really should be called Bus Disconnects has a submission deadline of Fri 28th Sept. This plan is a very thinly disguised plan to privatise the service. Already the NTA has given away 10% of the routes to a UK company which last year in the UK was voted the worst rail operator and whose CEO receives €2 million in salary. The Dublin bus system needs to be greatly improved to be more like something you will find in mainland Europe and this would require most importantly more investment to buy more buses, new routes and increased frequency. It also needs more routes in a series of rings around the city. This plan is not doing any of this. It is NOT increasing any of these factors DESPITE the SPIN in the confusing information form Bus Connects. They say things like there will be a bus every 4 minutes on the A routes. On closer inspection the A routes each go to different areas completely, so 4 A routes means, the frequency for your A bus since you won't be using all 4, is actually 16 mins. But these times are quoted at peak hour. It disguises how they are stretching an under resourced system to do more than it can. The information is purposely mis-leading in order to spin it so that the public thinks what they are being offered is better than it is. Additionally any area with a Dart or Luas will have significant reductions. The focus will be to serve these but total journey times will be longer and it will force more people on already over-crowded arteries at peak. For lots of people, they will need to take 2 bus or "connections" to get anywhere -even to the city centre especially from further out. This connection into a high speed backbone might work in a place like Netherlands or Switzerland where they have real and proper public transport systems, but will lead to much longer journeys at higher costs in the case of Ireland considering they don't plan to add anything into it and their only interest is to privatise it so that someone can milk the system rather than either a national or non-profit entity that might have public service as its objective. And just to be clear the NTA intends to put all these routes out to tender in the next few years.
Details for Postal Submission to National Transport Authority (NTA)
national / crime and justice Tuesday February 24, 2004 20:39 by Edward Horgan
Eoin was initially arrested for alleged dangerous driving of a stationary car while asleep, and while the car was parked in a lay-by near Shannon airport on Dec 6th 2003, and other alleged offences. He has been before the courts for mention and remand in the meantime on 18 Dec, 8 Jan, 12 Feb and 18 Feb. On 12 Feb Judge Mangan on his own volition and without a request from the Gardai imposed the additional bail condition of banning Eoin Rice from entering Co Clare. This condition has already been imposed on most peace activists who come before Judge Mangan, and in addition, Aer Rianta have attempted to impose a similar ban on 22 of the original Shannon Peace Camp members, from entering Shannon airport. While the Aer Rianta attempted ban is a civil matter, the Gardai have also attempted to intervene to enforce it and this matter is the subject of a separate complaint to the Garda Complaints Commission. We urge all peace activists to come to the High Court at 2 pm on Wed 25 Feb in solidarity with Eoin Rice. By appalling coincidence on Sunday 22 Feb, Donald Rumsfeld appeared at Shannon addressing US on their way to Iraq. Some of these troops were believed to have been armed while in the terminal building, and all were believed to have been carrying weapons and munitions with them on the aircraft. At least one of the US troops may have been guilty of stealing a roll of Aer Rianta toilet paper, which act appears to have been caught on camera by a Reuters photographer. While this is not a serious crime, killing up to 30,000 innocent people in Iraq is a crime against humanity as well of course as a crime of murder against each of these victims. The crime of complicity for these crimes now rests with all Irish people because we failed to prevent our government for allowing these troops and munitions through Shannon airport. Eoin Rice, and other peace activists at least tried in their own small but significant ways to bring these crimes to the attention of the proper authorities. Like many just whistle-blowers, he was victimised and jailed. Ireland's neutrality and sovereignty has been violated and abused by the passage of a massive US army through our airport and territory. Of more importance of course is the violation of the lives and limbs of all those innocents in Iraq and Afghanistan. There has been no protest by the Irish Government about Rumsfeld's abuse of Shannon Airport on Sunday last. Even the opposition have been silent. They are more concerned with agreeing with McDowell on preventing new members of the EU from coming to Ireland. Shame on all who have remained silent for whatever reason and who continue to remain silent. Eoin Rice, Fintan Lane, Mary Kelly, Nuria Dunne, the Catholic Workers, The Shannon Peace Camp activists, and a few others, too few, will continue to speak out regardless of threats and difficulties imposed on us. Shame on those in the media who fail to provide balanced reporting on Ireland's complicity in the Iraq war. Please make your voice heard in the cause of peace and justice, tomorrow and always." Edward Horgan
Background:
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 36 comments (last - friday february 27, 2004 22:55)
international / crime and justice Tuesday December 23, 2003 16:56 by Kev
It appears that Weapons of Mass Destruction ™ are only of interest to the Bush administration if they are in the hands of Arabs, Muslims or "rogue" states. Likewise the big news corporations in the US were ignoring this particular story of genuine weapons capable of mass destruction found in the hands of a white supremacist group in the Bush home state of Texas. This story was originally published on the Newswire on December 8th. Since then, the only big US newpaper to cover the story has been the New York Times.
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17 comments (last - monday january 05, 2004 04:42)
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Sat 22 Sep, 14:17
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From The Newswire:
"Eoin Rice will have been on hunger strike for thirteen days when he appears in the High Court on a writ of Habeus Corpus seeking his release from Limerick Prison. He was jailed by Judge Mangan on 12 Feb for refusing to accept the Banner Judge's decision to ban Eoin from entering Co. Clare.
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