Department and CIE must clean up their act

Recently while back home in Dublin, I was struck by the level of filth and neglect on every single bit of the railway line from Skerries into Dublin City, regardless of the locality being well off or disadvantaged.

It seems no one in Dublin thinks there’s anything wrong with throwing mattresses or building rubble over their garden fence on to the railway and where does all the litter come from?

The clincher though is the condition of Connolly Station where there is not one single piece of masonry or building that is not covered in spray graffiti.

Every single window in what used to be the maintenance depot just outside the station is smashed and left unfixed.

Then it occurred to me to wonder if since 2011 any member of the public has ever seen an Irish politician, of any party, using public transport?

Is there not a single person at senior level in the public sector or in CIE who uses public transport to get to work?

Why is it that the people in CIE and the Department of Transport have been allowed to remain in their jobs when the physical environment is so neglected?

It’s always the little things that show why a government has squandered its mandate.

If this government can’t even manage basics like weeding and a bit of painting what hope is there for it getting the bigger picture things right?

Desmond FitzGerald

Canary Wharf

London