A
ajones
Guest
Road tolling - I have mailed the Minister for Transport to ask for his views on road tolling. I would like to know this prior to the next election as it will have a big baring on how I vote.
If road tolling is a requirement then why were these road projects not farmed out to a third party company 20 years ago and the developer allowed to recoup his investment with 30%.
Another question, if I buy a Ford Focus for example in January new. I will pay VRT to the tune of 9K I think, also I will pay road tax and Fuel tax. Is this not adequate toll for a usage of 15 to 20000 miles per annum. So for all the years of paying road tax when there was no capital investment does this mean that my road tax was diverted to other Government departments.
I sent my mail last Friday and have received not so much as an acknowledgment. When Seamus Brennan was in office any mails to the department regarding complaints about CIE were dealt with promptly. I suppose he was doing a good job and had to be moved. (I think he was moved side ways by Bertie to take down a potential leadership rival)
Another thing on health, apparently Spain had similar problems with health that we have now here. They deregulated the whole health sector and now have doctors competing for business and waiting lists have vanished.
My point is that we were told that voting yes to Nice was a good thing for this country yet whatever problems we have in this country we cannot seem to look at countries in Europe and see how they do things and try and copy i.e. learning from other peoples mistakes.
Pensions - I am in my 30's now and have no pension I work on contract and cant afford to start one. Now a Government minister may server 5 years in that position and from that is entitled to Ministerial pension. Can anyone explain why this is. Why do they not have to generate their own pension? Why are retired pensioners entitled to bench marking. Why is bench marking not enforced. My friend works in a county council office having moved over from the private sector. She said the absolute imcompetence levels running through the civil service is shocking. She said if a company was run in that fashion it would be out of business in 6 months.
People in some departments have literally nothing to do and other departments are snowed under and doing endless overtime. There is no such thing as assigning resources to busy areas, if a quiet area is over staffed and someone leaves for say maternity leave there position has to be filled by a temporary staff member.
I have voted for Fianna Fail in the last number of elections but I am disillusioned by their failure to deliever. The demoralising thing is that there does'nt seem to be a viable alternative. There is definitely a space for a new party.
I think the general level of apathy among my age group is the thing that disappoints me most; low voter turnout etc.
The Government will only react to public opinion and if the public accept every Government legislation without batting an eye lid except down the boozer its no wonder the government has not delievered.
I fear with the rising strength against the dollar, the hard times are coming, I feel for people with big mortgages. I hope we are not left regretting missed oppurtunites.
P.S.
In a previous thread which questioned how Bush got back in. the American presidential election is just window dressing to make the people on the street believe they live in a democracy. People should look up the Committee for foreign relations (America Rules
by Tom Hanahoe is well worth a read)
Apologies for going on sometimes the hampster wheel gets you down.
If road tolling is a requirement then why were these road projects not farmed out to a third party company 20 years ago and the developer allowed to recoup his investment with 30%.
Another question, if I buy a Ford Focus for example in January new. I will pay VRT to the tune of 9K I think, also I will pay road tax and Fuel tax. Is this not adequate toll for a usage of 15 to 20000 miles per annum. So for all the years of paying road tax when there was no capital investment does this mean that my road tax was diverted to other Government departments.
I sent my mail last Friday and have received not so much as an acknowledgment. When Seamus Brennan was in office any mails to the department regarding complaints about CIE were dealt with promptly. I suppose he was doing a good job and had to be moved. (I think he was moved side ways by Bertie to take down a potential leadership rival)
Another thing on health, apparently Spain had similar problems with health that we have now here. They deregulated the whole health sector and now have doctors competing for business and waiting lists have vanished.
My point is that we were told that voting yes to Nice was a good thing for this country yet whatever problems we have in this country we cannot seem to look at countries in Europe and see how they do things and try and copy i.e. learning from other peoples mistakes.
Pensions - I am in my 30's now and have no pension I work on contract and cant afford to start one. Now a Government minister may server 5 years in that position and from that is entitled to Ministerial pension. Can anyone explain why this is. Why do they not have to generate their own pension? Why are retired pensioners entitled to bench marking. Why is bench marking not enforced. My friend works in a county council office having moved over from the private sector. She said the absolute imcompetence levels running through the civil service is shocking. She said if a company was run in that fashion it would be out of business in 6 months.
People in some departments have literally nothing to do and other departments are snowed under and doing endless overtime. There is no such thing as assigning resources to busy areas, if a quiet area is over staffed and someone leaves for say maternity leave there position has to be filled by a temporary staff member.
I have voted for Fianna Fail in the last number of elections but I am disillusioned by their failure to deliever. The demoralising thing is that there does'nt seem to be a viable alternative. There is definitely a space for a new party.
I think the general level of apathy among my age group is the thing that disappoints me most; low voter turnout etc.
The Government will only react to public opinion and if the public accept every Government legislation without batting an eye lid except down the boozer its no wonder the government has not delievered.
I fear with the rising strength against the dollar, the hard times are coming, I feel for people with big mortgages. I hope we are not left regretting missed oppurtunites.
P.S.
In a previous thread which questioned how Bush got back in. the American presidential election is just window dressing to make the people on the street believe they live in a democracy. People should look up the Committee for foreign relations (America Rules
by Tom Hanahoe is well worth a read)
Apologies for going on sometimes the hampster wheel gets you down.
