Planning shambles not the only burning issue

THE recent RTÉ Prime Time revelations of planning aberrations and malpractice fill one with contempt for a system whereby parliament passes laws which are then bypassed by so-called authorities in whom control is vested.

No government has any right to misuse departments of state and their agencies to mislead people and countenance bad environmental practice.

We are now witnessing another disaster in the making by the Government’s blinkered promotion of waste incineration.

The most recent EPA reports on dioxins are merely desk studies using assumption upon assumption and loose estimates with little or no relevant empirical evidence. Another misuse of public funds to go alongside damn-fool executive jets and Bertie Bowls.

But that does not stop Messrs Aherne and Cullen and their selected appointees from glibly misquoting these feeble documents and thereby misrepresenting their assumptions as fact. Such practice is inimical to the common good, especially when public health issues are involved.

Recent press reports show that Minister Cullen does not yet understand that zero waste actually means conservation of non-renewable resources. The fact that it also obviates the production of deadly dioxins he has yet to comprehend, and evidently much else besides.

Allan J Navratil,

Ballinacurra House,

Midleton,

Co Cork.