The written Constitution of
the Republic of Ireland also contains a similar statement regarding what
is probably the most crucial, and the most basic, of all social principles: "All
citizens shall, as human persons, be held equal before the law" (Item 1,
Article 40).
Despite the clarity and simplicity of the above two statements, and their immense
social significance, some of the people living in the electoral constituency of East
Galway are finding to their cost that certain individuals, and certain
groups of individuals are (in practice) very arrogantly and very selfishly still
putting themselves above the law: right now in Year 2002. Not only that,
some - such as the local school authorities for instance (with their
ongoing illegal sewage discharge arrangements into
the river in the middle of New Inn village), are managing
to sustain themselves in such positions for years at a time.
Most important of all, there is now compelling evidence available on the
Internet to suggest that those who indulge themselves in such anti-social
activities, often (it appears) have the tacit approval and support of the most senior
politicians and lawyers in the State; and, in the case of
the Waste Management (Amendment) Act, 2001, it now looks as
though
senior politicians and State lawyers may have gone so far as to produce a law
which they know is
IN BREACH of
Article 28A of the Constitution. How bad can things get?
Item 1 of Section 28A of the Constitution states: "The
State recognises the role of local government in providing a forum for
the democratic representation of local communities, in exercising and
performing at local level powers and functions conferred by law and in
promoting by its initiatives the interests of such communities."
The Waste Management (Amendment) Act, 2001
removes - among other things - the power that the democratically
elected representatives
of local government once had regarding the
location of health-threatening superdumps
of the kind being planned for the Parish of Bullaun & New Inn: and
transfers such powers instead into the hands of a non-elected County
Manager ???
Before signing the necessary papers which enabled
the Waste Management (Amendment) Bill, 2001 to become law - in
the form of The Waste Management (Amendment) Act, 2001 -President
Mary McAleese had the option to ask the Supreme Court to test the
constitutionality of the Bill. Despite the obvious conflict outlined
above, and all the controversy and suffering surrounding it, President
McAleese did not use this option it seems: and the question of
why she decided not to use it remains entirely up in the air ??? Might it be
because she and others in high political and legal places realised full
well that - if asked to formally check it - the Supreme Court would have
no choice other than to reject this particular Bill on the grounds
that it was unconstitutional ?
In connection with the local difficulties in question -
which relate to some extremely important environment and heritage issues
(such as the locating of a
State owned superdump beside the
world famous
Turoe Stone for example) - help has
been sought on a number of occasions from across the full spectrum of the seven main-stream
political parties operating in the Republic of Ireland: The Democratic Left,
Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, The Green Party, The Labour Party, The Progressive Democrats,
and Sinn Fein. For reasons best know to themselves, none of these parties have
helped us
with our local difficulties in any significant way that we know of. (Between them,
Fianna
Fail and Fine Gael hold all four of the seats in the
East Galway Constituency at the
present time.)
Much of our concern regarding the environment stems from the belief that
for many people their local environment is the most important asset they
have.
After it became clear that repeated efforts to get help from within the Republic of Ireland were
unlikely to EVER produce any useful results, petitions were then made to the European
Parliament; and, these petitions are being considered at the present time by the
appropriate bodies which have been set up within the European Union for such purposes.
More recently, an e-mail dated March 25th 2002
relating to our local problems has been
sent to GRECO - The European Group of States Against Corruption.
(A link has been provided to the text of the March 25th e-mail in the
last paragraph below.)
In addition to the above activities, a local person (Mr. Brendan Kelly) has decided to
run for election in East Galway in the May 2002 General Election. He intends to run
as an "independent" candidate, and he is focusing on the local
problems of the particular parish (Bullaun & New Inn) that he and
his ancestors have lived in for many generations. He is attempting
to deal with the general problem on the basis that political and legal corruption is in
all probability playing a major role in the difficulties of all local communities
throughout the Republic of Ireland; and, that if the core problem of
State corruption can
successfully be challenged in one parish, it could have beneficial knock-on effects for
all: provided of course that the people of other local communities get to learn of
any successes which there might be in and around the
Bullaun & New Inn
area.
Unfortunately, the national media in the Republic of
Ireland have remained remarkably silent for the most part regarding the local
efforts that are being made in East Galway to challenge the bad consequences of political
and legal corruption: as they present themselves down at grass-root community level. Sadly,
this seems to suggest that the Republic of Ireland media may themselves
be part of the overall corruption problem. And, like the seven
main-stream political parties perhaps (?), that they have no REAL
wish to be part of any "root-and-branch" type
solution which might eradicate this sick (and sickening) social burden
that has plagued human society for so long.
In an effort to try and get around what we see as
corrupt media censorship of our efforts in the run-up to the election, a roadside
sign has very recently been placed in the middle of New Inn village
which enables members of the public to find the information on this
page: regardless of traditional media outlets, and their ongoing efforts
to keep this information hidden from voters.
The State of the Republic of Ireland has only ONE
written Constitution that is legally binding: and NOT seven different ones - as many in the main-stream
political parties possibly imagine (?). With a view to co-operating
in the Republic of Ireland's fight against State
corruption, contact is now being sought with other like-minded
people
who are running (or thinking of running) for election in the May 2002 General Election.
We are particularly interested in making contact with those who feel that the principles
of our written Constitution fully deserve be put well before the personalities of
the various political, legal, and media people who appear to be supporting the "big
business / big government" combination that is systematically,
arrogantly, and unlawfully (!?!) depriving ordinary citizens of
the benefits and protections provided for us in our written
Constitution. (Though many in the Republic of Ireland do not seem to be aware of
it at the present time, the written Constitution
of the Republic of Ireland is the core legal document for the State of
the Republic of Ireland, and for ALL of
its citizens.)
Further and more detailed information regarding the above
mentioned corruption difficulties can be found by going to the following Internet web
pages:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/GRECO/e-mail_Mar-25-2002.htm
http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/New_Zealand_Herald/Ap-6-2002.htm
