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More functions for NTA...

  • 03-10-2009 2:12pm
    #1
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,461 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    Noel Dempsey has announced that the Commision for Aviation Regulation and (depending on what you read) either part or all of the Irish Aviation Authority will be merged with the Dublin Transport Authority (which is being renamed the National Transport Authority).

    http://www.transport.ie/pressRelease.aspx?Id=131

    If the Government must go down this route, yes incorporating the CAR makes sense but IAA? IAA is a profit-making commercial semi-state (its main business being running Air Traffic Control) and doesn't seem to make sense as part of a regulatory agency. Hopefully it will only be regulation functions that will go as the press release above initates.

    The other big question is, if the government is intent on going down this route, why is the one agency which cries out to be merged with the DTA/NTA - the RPA - still apparently untouchable? The RPA becomes an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy under any new transport authority and I don't see why it still manages to survive.

    Either way, looks like any Dublin focus that might have remained will be drowned out in what looks like being a very big authority. The skeptics will say "HSE on wheels" (although, since I actually agree with the main idea of having a HSE, if not entirely with its implementation, I won't use this phrase). In the circumstances, I think retaining the DTO is probably the least the government can do, to make sure someone is keeping some sort of eye on transport in Greater Dublin (remembering that Dublin City Council's mandate ends generally outside the M50).


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 14,005 ✭✭✭✭AlekSmart


    Holy Smoke.....can this really get any more befuddled...?

    The ENTIRE focus of why we needed a DUBLIN Transport Authority has now disappeared down the pan.

    Not for the first time has an Irish Government shied away (spectacularly) from a closely focused,dedicated authority with POWER.

    What we now have is Bloat,with all of the attributes that accompany such things.

    It seems that the Governments total fixation on rescuing the "Property" sector has left it numb to any other part of the Social Function.


    Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

    Charles Mackay (1812-1889)



  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 25,234 ✭✭✭✭Sponge Bob


    Where is the Road safety lot and the Inland Waterways going , I hear they are being merged into some super quango ....either the NRA or NTA ??


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,696 ✭✭✭trad


    Sponge Bob wrote: »
    Where is the Road safety lot and the Inland Waterways going , I hear they are being merged into some super quango ....either the NRA or NTA ??

    Inland Waterways already gone under the British - Irish Agreement (Good Friday). Now controlled by a bunch of British subjects in Enniskillen.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 495 ✭✭HydeRoad


    Whatever kind of transport authority is brought in, be it a Dublin authority, a national one, an all-singing all-dancing one incorporating planes, trains, automobiles, and motorised lawnmowers, the fact is that ANYTHING brought in by Minister Noel Dempsey is destined to be an unmitigated disaster.

    Noel Dempsey has no credibility to introduce anything. The man is a waste of space, presiding over nothing other than a series of PR disasters, one after another after another. How in the name of God do people like this last so long in these positions?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,000 ✭✭✭dermo88


    I'm afraid you are incorrect HydeRoad. Calling Noel Dempsey a waste of space is a compliment compared to the reality, and consequently, you should make profuse apologies to vacuums in Ireland.

    I suspect the selection commitee in Irish politics shines a torch through a prospective candidates ears, and if a light appears on the other side, hes eligible.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 78,218 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    How about drawing in one or two more organisations and calling it the
    Department of Transport
    ?


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,663 ✭✭✭serfboard


    HydeRoad wrote: »
    Noel Dempsey has no credibility to introduce anything. The man is a waste of space, presiding over nothing other than a series of PR disasters, one after another after another. How in the name of God do people like this last so long in these positions?

    Some possible reasons:

    1. He is continuously re-elected in his constituency and so gets a job (as does everyone in FF bar one or two) - whether it be committee chairman or minister of state or full minister.

    2. He has oft been spoken of as a potential leader of FF (why, you might ask - but there it is). Therefore, he must be given a "good" job to keep him quiet/busy.

    3. FF are/(were?) determined not to give transport to the greens because they'd cut road funding and FF weren't going to go for that. Ergo, transport goes to an FFer.

    4. Cabinet jobs are seen as important by their ministers depending on the size of the budget of the Department. Mary Harney wanted Health (which no-one else does because no-one else has the balls to fix it, or everyone else is too sensible to go near it). Transport would have a fairly big budget so Dempsey would consider it enough of a compliment (or not too much of an insult) to take it.

    5. The government aren't exactly watertight politically right now, so they can't afford to rock the boat (i.e. move ministers about). Therefore everyone stays where they are and Dempsey gets left in transport.

    Who would you rather have? Previous ministers of transport like Mary O'Rourke or Martin Cullen (who are still sitting TDs and could be re-appointed)? Or maybe the current head of the transport committee, Frank Fahey?

    IMO, bar Seamus Brennan we haven't exactly been blessed with good transport ministers in the past.


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