Are we being neglected in the North West by the statutory bodies???

Paddy20

Local Authorities/County Councils have a statutory responsibility to do 'the best they can' for local citizens within their catchment area's ?...but it appears they do not even have a mandate to tackle our most basic rights ?.... and they appear to be more than a little spineless in standing up for their citizen's rights !.

Here in the North-West, we seem to be missing out, on Health issues, Housing matters, Policing, Emegency services, bus services, railway services, Community care service's, basic water & ESB & telephone services, roads maintenance, vital infrastructure to old isolated delapided cottages/homes still:- 'without electricity or basic water or sanitary service's ! & even telephone or Broadband services to:- modern centrally located homes ?.., etc...

Without becoming party political, I would like to know, Why we and our local authoritie's, are being treated like third world citizens?...

Do you have a gripe/complaint about North-West County Councils and how they handle your particular problem's, is there an inherent sytematic failure in our Local Authority staffing policie's, or are are we being deliberately marginalised by central goverment's because of our obvious peripherality.

Thereby totally undermining our practically impotent localally elected County Councillor's of all political persuasion's.

Or are our County Council employee's looking first & foremost primarily after their own personal job's & subsequent pension interest's.

Please highlight your negative or positive view's and personal experience's on this thread, as unless we highlight problematic quality of life issue's in the North-West, then we will continue to be treated as [Non-citizens] of this 'So Called' :- North-West region of our beloved **Republic of Ireland ?..

Should our Local Authority official employee's not have a primary duty to look after Your citizen's rights without having to worry about their own ' personal ' long term employment security ?...

P. :cool:

maxruby

Maybe a little of thread....................
.........but I hope there will be a good crowd at the rally in Letterkenny tomorrow (Sunday) to support the cause to keep SOME cancer care services in Donegal.
:mad:

muffler

maxruby wrote:

Maybe a little of thread....................
.........but I hope there will be a good crowd at the rally in Letterkenny tomorrow (Sunday) to support the cause to keep SOME cancer care services in Donegal.
:mad:

A little off thread :eek:

Maxruby, seeing as you are relatively new here we will be lenient:) You should really open a new thread on that topic although its cutting it fine now.

But on or off topic we all hope for a good turnout given the cause.

Paddy20

maxruby wrote:

Maybe a little of thread....................
.........but I hope there will be a good crowd at the rally in Letterkenny tomorrow (Sunday) to support the cause to keep SOME cancer care services in Donegal.
:mad:

While I totally agree with you, have you ever considered the plight of those suffering from the number one killer in Ireland " Heart Disease " ?... No one has yet started a campaign on behalf of those in the North-West suffering from this , which kill's more male's and female's every year than Cancer.

Even though we have more Cancer treatment facilitie's in the North-West for cancer ?....:( I wish the Cancer care campaign every success, in fact I personally believe the Minister for Health should resign or be sacked today.

We the populace in the North-West must demand proper care, for our seriously ill citizens, something that is clearly lacking, despite the best efforts and fully justified demands of our really caring medical professional's At all level's.Patient's are being discharged home, to await admission's to Dublin Hospital's for 'life saving procedure's' many of whom unfortunately do not, and are not expected to survive the wait ! :eek:

P. :cool:

byte

Maybe this thread can be split into 2 seperate threads.]

Let's hope that the rally today achieves something.

As for the local authorities, I dunno whether I should blame them for the poor infrastructure in the NW, or those responsible for funding our local councils.

nanook

I have a question

Any time it comes to authorities and government dept on this forum. i don't look at any other region, they seem to get slated.

What is the story with the north west government agencies, it life so bad that we can not leave our doors unlocked for fear on intrusion, do we sleep at night with the shot gun cocked due to marauding gangs waiting for night fall to pillage and plunder.
Do we avoid any government dept, agency, assistance for the sake of being put on the long finger and having to wait like every other persons in this country.

I have dealt with a few agencies in the north west, i will be honest some took considerable time for resolution, but that was not their fault, resources are limited, people will help as much as they can but their hands are tied. There is not the funding in the country to make everything right. And why is the funding not there?
People are to happy to exploit the system and use every resource to its maximum capacity thus leaving those who really need help to be left at the side. Not everyone abuses the system but there are people out there whose only aim in life is to defraud and get as much as they can.

If we used our systems properly, going to casualty because there is genuinely wrong with you and not that you have a cough and it is cheaper to go to A & E. If you are no longer needing your medical card then pass it up to someone who may need it, the more people who relinquish their cards the more coppers are in the pot.

Sorry for the rant but i needed to get this off my chest.

byte

Well said nanook!

I must say I agree with you. I would think it's surprising the amount of defrauding that goes on, nationwide, not just the North West for some reason or another.

Unfortunately, I can't see much of it changing, unless there is crackdown's of some sort on those f**king the system!

muffler

byte wrote:

Maybe this thread can be split into 2 seperate threads.]

Yeah, good idea byte.

There are a lot of issues in Paddy20's OP and it is difficult to put it all together under one single heading. We have also the issues raised with the posts about cancer care and heart disease although these could be grouped together under "health care treatment"

I can see what Paddy is trying to say here alright but there is such a divergance in the sub-topics - health care to policing, railway services to modern homes, County Council to ESB, etc etc

I think the main topic/thread should be "Are we being neglected in the North West by the statutory bodies" I will ask Paddy20 to amend the title accordingly and if anyone else feels like starting a seperate discussion on any of the issues well by all means go for it.

muffler

byte wrote:

Well said nanook!

I must say I agree with you. I would think it's surprising the amount of defrauding that goes on, nationwide, not just the North West for some reason or another.

Unfortunately, I can't see much of it changing, unless there is crackdown's of some sort on those f**king the system!

Cant see things changing much either especially when the biggest fraudsters appear to be very influential people. Does anyone know the costs paid to date for both the Mahon (formerly Flood) and the Moriarty tribunals. The last I heard that it was tens of millions and rising. At the end of the day what are these tribunals going to achieve.

I take nanooks points which are right of course and yes savings can be made. But the money spent on those tribunals could have been used to provide hundreds and hudreds of extra beds in our over-crowded hospitals among other things.

The biggest abusers of the system are the people who make the system not those who benefit or should benefit from it

smashey

Paddy20 wrote:

Local Authorities/County Councils have a statutory responsibility to do 'the best they can' for local citizens within their catchment area's ?...but it appears they do not even have a mandate to tackle our most basic rights ?.... and they appear to be more than a little spineless in standing up for their citizen's rights !.

Should our Local Authority official employee's not have a primary duty to look after Your citizen's rights without having to worry about their own ' personal ' long term employment security ?...

P. :cool:

Paddy,

I think you should look at what their remit is. Correct me if I am wrong, but citizen's rights would be enshrined in the Constitution and therefore a legal/Central Government matter, which would have ramifications nationwide and not just here in Donegal.

I think the Council do (or try to do) the best they can given their role in society.

Here in the North-West, we seem to be missing out, on Health issues, Housing matters, Policing, Emegency services, bus services, railway services, Community care service's, basic water & ESB & telephone services, roads maintenance, vital infrastucture to isolateled delapided cottages/homes still:- 'without electricity or basic water or sanitary service's to their home's ! & even telephone or Broadband services to:- modern centrally located homes ?.., etc...

Health Issues are for the HSA and while they seem to be tripping from blunder to blunder, the Co. Council has no say in the provision of A&E services. I agree with what Nanook said earlier, in that the A&E system is abused. People would go to get a plaster on a scratch.

On the other points, the Council has a say in emergency services, in that they provide the fire service. The ambulances and Gardai are independent of them. I don't know the workings of the Coast Guard or mountain rescue.

ESB and telephone services are also outside their remit although I believe they have some influence on the provision of broadband. They are also stuck between a rock and a hard place when the ESB apply for planning permission to bring a new power supply to Letterkenny for example. They have to try to find a happy medium between supplying a major town with enough electricity and not impacting on the countryside's natural beauty.

The Co. Council aren't perfect by any means, but they do provide a service and are not to blame for all our ills.

Civilian_Target

To be honest, I think my county coucil makes a sufficient mess with it's current authority, without giving them more authority.

Central government aren't exactly great, but they're substantially less corrupt than a large number of local councillers. Sure look at the planning that's gone into Letterkenny, a collection of shops in randomly placed sheds has emerged outside the town, in a badly planned concrete maze of roads and carpark. Proof that too many irresponsible people have too much power.

donegalman1

No harm to you paddy 20 but please... aside from the great idea to develop a photo forum... can you not give the politics a rest and move onto something else than knocking the council.

Really... they should give knocking the Co Council its own section rather than the north West....

In fairness I realise you're a bit annoyed about mulrines building behind you but its no excuse to keep opening threads about the council.

two Questions 1. Did they get planning through the legit channels?

and 2. If its a council house then, you know, should you not be greatful for a roof over you head?

Sure have a one man crusade in one thread, but we don't all have council houses to complain about. Personally I have three cars road taxed and don't see any benefit to the money I'm paying, never mind getting somewhere to live and yes I could sleep in one of them but I'd still have to tax it and I doubt if that would get me a cheap house anywhere in Donegal.

If you don't like your house... move out and rent where you like like many of us have to.

In the meantime we all ahve our problems with local authorities, but even Russia moved away from communism... one thread is enough!

0lordy

I agree with Donegalman.

No real point in a "let's blame the system"-type thread.

Most of the issues highlighted pertain to many areas of the country.

Overall, I believe the quality of life is far better in Doengal than other counties. That's why I'm here.

nanook

Actually donegalman i have to say this thread is not about mulrines, we all know that paddy has a problem neighbour but it is not really evident on this thread.

Paddy may have some issues with areas of County Council but overall i dont think this is his rant, if you look from the posts their are more than 1 person contributing to the faults and flaws of the region.

The idea of threads is conversation, like one you would have in the pub, some agree and some disagree, that is the whole point of topical conversation.

Paddy20

Muffler,

I have tried changing the thread title to the wording you suggested, but even though the change appears at the top of my first post, the title itself is not changing ?....perhaps you or nanook could solve this mystery, and change the actual title for me .

Many thank's.

P. :cool:

muffler

Paddy20 wrote:

Muffler,

I have tried changing the thread title to the wording you suggested, but even though the change appears at the top of my first post, the title itself is not changing ?....perhaps you or nanook could solve this mystery, and change the actual title for me .

Many thank's.

P. :cool:

Sorted Paddy.

Paddy20

muffler wrote:

Sorted Paddy.

Muffler,

I find it intereting, that since the title of this thread was changed at your suggestion, without any abjection from me.

All posts to the thread stopped dead. ?...

Maybe this is worthy of consideration.:) .

P. :cool:

muffler

Its called the kiss of death

Paddy20

muffler wrote:

Its called kiss of death

Cheeky sod, you should have given it the ' kiss of life ' ' I will be watching your tactics very closely, in future ?....Draula!.

P. :cool:

donegalman1

Now that this thread represents a discussion on the whole of the problem of the North West and not just a Co Council Bash I'm in.

I worked for a statutory body in Donegal for a number of years. I have to say in my time there, I found most people were really proud and consientious of their work.

The problems that existed were threefold.

1. People here often expect miracles and entitlements above and beyond their neighbours and fellow countrymen.

2. political Interference - quite a major problem, not just in decisions but much of our work was taken up replying to TD letters when the TD could well have explained that the letter would be pointless and his/her party actually were the ones who had tied our hands.

3. Much of the North West's bodies are now Headquartered outside Donegal, primarily in Sligo and often these days Northern Ireland is in the equasion.

The IDA and Tourism bodies are really run from Sligo, while Donegal for example provides most Tourism revenue and also Donegal is in more need of Job Creation Leadership.

Now personally, points 2 and 3 would be well sorted if the local authorities were given more budgets and given more responsibility for their own Tourism and industry. I realise national marketing has to also exist.

More importantly, politicians should not be allowed to serve more than two terms. No one need tell me that civil servants don't do most of the work anyway. When politicians are businessmen or become friendly with businessmen then what more can we expect.