We have mastered the art of discussing delivery, not the act of delivering. Every project must first navigate a labyrinth of consultation, approval and \u201cstakeholder engagement\u201d until urgency is politely postponed into irrelevance.<\/p>\n
When I was a school principal and didn\u2019t particularly want something done, I would hand it over to a comm\u00adittee to implement it. There would be meetings, minutes and much talk, but rarely any action. Ireland now seems to operate on the same principle.<\/p>\n
The next government that truly wants to \u201cget things done\u201d should start small and prove it. Publish delivery dashboards for every major project, impose time limits on public consultations and tie civil service promotion to measurable outcomes rather than cautious process. \u00adNothing would rebuild trust faster than transparency and accountability that bite.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s next economic leap will not come from another tech boom or EU grant, but from competence itself. The country that learns how to build efficiently will quietly overtake those that only plan to.<\/p>\n
My prediction: the first Irish county that adopts a local \u201cdelivery-\u00adfirst\u201d model, where every plan has a public timeline and penalty for delay, will outperform the rest of the country in growth and liveability within five years.<\/p>\n
Enda Cullen, Tullysaran Road, Armagh<\/p>\n
Objections are one thing, but projects should not be held up by endless appeals<\/p>\n
I note that housing developers have told the D\u00e1il Housing Committee that housing is being stopped by \u201cfrivolous\u201d objections.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s my contention that citizens have a right to object if they feel a development falls short of standards.<\/p>\n
However , we must find a way of fast-tracking these objections through the courts.<\/p>\n
What we don\u2019t want is an objection followed by an appeal and then another appeal, and where a building project can be held up for two years or more.<\/p>\n
John O\u2019Brien, Clonmel, Co Tipperary<\/p>\n
Politicians do not need training to answer the questions we put to them<\/p>\n
The propensity for media training of politicians has come under the spotlight since the presidential election. Why is all this training required to tell the truth and to give a straight answer to a straight question?<\/p>\n
From my observation over the years, the training seems to revolve around prevarication, deflection and answering a question that was not asked.<\/p>\n
It is time our politicians recognised who their paymasters are and act accordingly. Many of those contributing to their high salary and pensions are struggling day to day.<\/p>\n
Paddy Murray, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath<\/p>\n
Yates offered bad advice and his comments were offensive to many of us<\/p>\n
I would be interested to learn whether any other reader of the Irish media shares my shame at the publication of Ivan Yates\u2019s advice to a potential presidential candidate.<\/p>\n
As children, we were used to hearing the holy name referred to as \u201cJaysus\u201d, but we were discouraged from repeating it and told it was something said only by people who \u201cknew no better\u201d.<\/p>\n
Hence my shame to hear it used as a tool by one who does, or should, know better.<\/p>\n
It occurs to me that Mr Yates was offering bad advice, expressed in very bad language and in very bad taste. It was also offensive to many of us who are believers in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Sr Margaret Agnew, Curam Nursing Home, Dundalk<\/p>\n
EU did nothing to defend peace in Gaza when Israel launched its offensive<\/p>\n
Regina Doherty MEP, a public representative I respect, states in her letter on November 4 that the EU \u201cmay not be perfect, but is a force for defending democracy and peace\u201d.<\/p>\n
I ask, where was the defence of democracy and peace when Israel carried out its attack on Gaza? Killing unarmed civilians. Targeting medical professionals and facilities. Targeting members of the media. Destroying infrastructure. Denying the population basic food requirements.<\/p>\n
Where was the EU when all of this was carried out, highlighted by daily news reports?<\/p>\n
Not only did the EU stand by and do nothing, but many EU states provided Israel with armaments.<\/p>\n
The EU seems to be a \u201ctoothless tiger\u201d.<\/p>\n
Michael Moriarty, Rochestown, Cork<\/p>\n
Harris played his role in shutting down debate on impact of immigration<\/p>\n
T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris, questioned about his statement recently that migration figures \u201cwere too high\u201d, now says there are people who \u201cwant to shut down debate\u201d on the issue.<\/p>\n
Who does the T\u00e1naiste have in mind? Surely not those communities across the country that protested against having \u201ctoo high\u201d numbers of migrants foisted upon already stretched resources?<\/p>\n
Perhaps Mr Harris is speaking from experience, being both t\u00e1naiste and taoiseach in two administrations that did their level best to do precisely that: shut down debate.<\/p>\n
Peter Declan O\u2019Halloran, Belturbet, Co Cavan<\/p>\n
Reading the news about electrician exam papers certainly gave me a jolt<\/p>\n
According to Wednesday\u2019s Irish Independent, there are allegations of electrician exam papers being sold. Shocking.<\/p>\n
Noel Kelly, Doonbeg, Co Clare<\/p>\n
Hotel guests are forced to join breakfast breadline as toasters test our patience<\/p>\n
There was a discussion about the taste quality of toasted bread on Oliver Callan\u2019s radio show on Tuesday, with hospital toast declared the \u201cwinner\u201d.<\/p>\n
The matter of hotel toast was also raised, and for me the greatest snag with that product is that very often there is one self-service toaster catering for a full dining room. We all patiently queue up, bread in hand, awaiting the opportunity to place the slice on the intake shelf.<\/p>\n
A case of \u201cgive us this day our daily bread\u201d\u2026 eventually.<\/p>\n
Tom Gilsenan, Beaumont, Dublin 9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have mastered the art of discussing delivery, not the act of delivering. Every project must first navigate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2244,97,807,3662,61,1629,60,3410,43,4268,70],"class_list":["post-124424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-eu","tag-gaza","tag-housing","tag-housing-crisis","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-palestine","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}