Dear Mayor Connolly,
As there are plans to locate an
incinerator in Galway City I understand, it seems to me
that the information in the three emails I have copied below
may be of some interest to you and your colleagues on Galway City
Council.
Assuming you consider it
appropriate, please pass on this information to the remaining nine
Galway City Councillors.
Yours sincerely,
William Finnerty.
++++++++++++++++++
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 12:29 PM
Subject: "Presidential election" letter to Galway
politicians
Dear Mr McGrath,
I saw your name mentioned in an
Irish Independent newspaper article today; and, as
a result of what I read, I feel
it may be appropriate for me to forward to you a copy of the e-mail
I sent this morning to the County Galway politicians (please see
below).
It relates to the possibility that
President Mary McAleese may (if she so chooses)
stay on in her present position UNOPPOSED for a
further 7 years.
Personally, I believe it really is
asking for yet more social trouble if this happens: unless
perhaps President McAleese were to do an about-turn (which seems
unlikely to me), and start behaving responsibly in what I see as her
most important job (by far): i.e. her role as Guardian
of our Constitution. From my viewpoint, and as a
person who has suffered grievously as a direct result of certain
things she has done (and failed to do) while in her present
position, her performance to date might well be described as
reckless, and wholly irresponsible. Some of my reasons for
feeling this way can be found in the two e-mails copied
below.
Wishing you every success in your
search to find someone to oppose our present so called "guardian" of
the Republic of Ireland Constitution.
Yours sincerely,
Mr William Finnerty
"St Albans"
New Inn
Ballinasloe
County Galway.
+++++++++++++
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 10:08 AM
Subject: Fw: Review of Connaught Regional Waste
Management Plan
Dear Democratically Elected
Representative for Galway,
With due regard for the fact that
President Mary McAleese, the present
GUARDIAN of our Constitution, may
(if she so chooses) soon be returned UNOPPOSED to
Aras an Uachtarain, it would be very much
appreciated if you could please take careful note of the
contents of the e-mail below: which was sent last Saturday to Mr Ray
Norton in connection with the Review of the Connaught
Regional Waste Management Plan.
Please note that the Galway
County Council list of addresses used for
this e-mail has been taken from
the following Internet page location:
http://www.galway.ie/councill/meet_councillors.asp ;and, that the list on
this page does not contain any e-mail information for many (possibly
all) of the Galway County Councillors who were elected for the
first time last June. Consequently, I would be very grateful
if you could try to take steps to ensure that
ALL of my Local Government representatives are made
aware of the contents of the e-mail below to Mr Norton
please.
Finally, I wish to state that I
would very much welcome any comments which anyone might wish to make
to me regarding the EXTREMELY serious social matters raised in
the e-mail below.
Yours sincerely,
Mr William Finnerty.
"St Albans"
New Inn
Ballinasloe
County Galway.
++++++++++++++
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2004 11:22 AM
Subject: Review of Connaught Regional Waste Management
Plan
Dear Mr Norton,
I am writing to you in response to
information circulated recently by Galway City
Councillor Niall O'Brolchain.
It is my understanding that a
review of the Connaught Regional Waste Management
Plan is to take place shortly, and that members
of the public have been invited to submit their views to you on the
matter before September 7th 2004.
According to information available
to me, which can be viewed at Internet address
http://www.finnachta.com/bunreacht.htm,
Galway County Council (i.e. Local Government) has
TWICE rejected the Connaught Waste Management Plan;
and, on both occasions, the decisions taken were arrived at
UNANIMOUSLY.
Following the above mentioned decisions, and through the use of
what I (and other local people) regard as
UNCONSTITUTIONAL
LEGISLATION, the Government then
altered parts of the Waste Management
Act so that decision making powers regarding the location
and use of superdumps and
incinerators were removed from the democratically
elected local government representatives, and placed instead in the
hands of non-elected County Council managers.
It appears to me that the legislation which has been
generated to bring about the above mentioned shift in
power represents a straightforward, and totally unacceptable,
violation of Article 28A of the
Constitution, or "Bunreacht" (i.e.
the "Primary Law"), of the Republic of
Ireland - part of which (Item 1), reads as
follows:
"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."
Please note that one of the local residents where I
live, law student Ms Ann Marie Kelly, is at
the present time preparing to have the constitutionality of the
Waste Management Act alterations referred to above challenged in the
High Court. As you may already know, our particular part of
East Galway is now threatened with
TWO huge superdumps (separated by a distance of
just a few miles): one in New Inn, and one in
Kilconnell; and, that BOTH of the locations chosen
have been repeatedly rejected by our democratically
elected local government representatives - on the grounds that
the locations in question are totally unsuitable,
partly because of the numbers of people living very close to
each of the 2 sites involved.
With further reference to the Connaught Regional Waste
Management Plan, there also appears to be a second very
important (and very relevant) Constitutional
issue connected with the
Aarhus Convention
Agreement, which the Republic of Ireland signed on
June 25th 1998. According to
Article
29 (Section 5, Point 1) of the Constitution of the Republic
of Ireland:
"Every international agreement to which the
State becomes a party shall be laid before Dail
Eireann". In so far as I can establish, and with due
regard for the fact that well over SIX YEARS have now passed,
the matter of the State signing the Aarhus Convention Agreement
has
NEVER been laid before Dail Eireann (the
Republic of Ireland Parliament). As can be seen at Internet
address
http://www.finnachta.com/Oireachtas30June2004.htm,
this matter was brought to the attention of
Environment Minister Martin Cullen T.D. on
June 25th 2004.
It would be much appreciated if you could please ensure
that all those connected with the Review of the Connaught Regional Waste Management Plan are
made aware of the contents of this letter.
Later today I will also send a printed
(and signed) copy of this e-mail to you through the registered
post, which I will address as follows: Mr Ray Norton, Director of
Services, Mayo County Council,
Aras an Chontae, The Mall, Castlebar, County
Mayo.
Yours sincerely,
Mr William Finnerty.
"St Albans"
New Inn
Ballinasloe
County Galway
Republic of Ireland.
