NRA squanders taxpayers’ money
The advert talked about independent archaeological advisers. Who were they? It states that “they identified routes which were viable”. What where the other routes the archaeologists identified?
The advert did not tell us - why not?
There is no comparison given between the different routes recommended to the NRA - why not?
It talks about three years consultation with “a myriad of interested bodies and thousands of people” - but fails to explain what they said or the nature of their submissions.
Perhaps consultation is some kind of hollow statutory process paid for by the taxpayer that the NRA can ultimately ignore if it wishes? An Bord Pleanála presumably only got one NRA proposal to consider. I am shocked that vast sums of taxpayers’ money have been squandered on costly full-page adverts in order to browbeat and mislead the very citizens who paid for it. This is a gross abuse of public money, and the public is at a loss to reply in kind.
Who could put together an instant fund of, say, €200,000 to reply in an equal way? Has the NRA a legal right to use money voted by the Dáil to build roads in this way? If it has, this loophole should be closed.
I ask the NRA how much this campaign cost, including the work of PR consultants? It is a gross waste of taxpayers’ money by the NRA in a campaign that has clearly been exposed by a caring public and national and international experts as insensitive, arrogant and, sadly, shortsighted. The NRA should stop digging and climb out of the hole before it buries them.
Perhaps we should organise a campaign similar to the Dublin Viking Wood Quay protest. Anyone interested? Michael O’Brien
The O’Brien Press
20 Victoria Road
Rathgar
Dublin 6
