an taisce-and rumours of them going bust

Nor are the members of An Taisce that is why all awards are adjudicated by independent judges. People have the right to build houses of an appropriate scale in areas that are zoned to accomodate residential development.

An Taisce wouldn’t need to acquire this property, a sale at open market value would provide a buyer prepared to restore it as what it is a residence, or possibly a professional practice might convert it in a sensitive manner as offices or even an architects studio. So no I don’t accept it has value only as a cleared site subject to the costs of site clearance.

Your explanation of lesser quality is good, but it does not justify an opinion that where the proscribed planning observer identify flaws in a lower spec development that they are anti-development.

” I challenge non taiscist to reveal themselves”

Not since ” No Luke, I am your father” have I been so staggered by a statement……… almost fell of my fucking chair.

I have not asked you to reveal who you are Diaspora, although I would dearly love to use some of your architectural platitudes, used less like a rapier thrust and more like a bloke swinging a leg of mutton, in my lectures.

I have no problem with conservation groups or debate about historic buildings, it’s a necessary part of the democratic process, my only real thoughts about An Taisce is from the outside and questioning why anyone takes them seriously.

Fin……”organised religion” very good. Keep laughing. I am

But, er, to get back to An Taisce for a minute… Why are they in financial trouble? What has happened in the last few days or weeks that made them let go two of their senior officers? Or, perish the thought, is this a ruse to get more spondulicks from the goverment?

Sue. (Sorry, this is a pseudonym!)

rofl..

thats hilarious….

if you got fired, and then your boss came back and said “hey diaspora old chum, we found some money and would like to have you back. how about it? friends again?”

i somehow doubt you would….. if it were me that was fired, and my former boss came back to me with that, i’d drop my trousors and piss on their shoes….

Paul,

Working with/for NGO’s an individual understands that the risk profile of employment is much higher than private practice. Alternative employment opportunities with degrees such as environmental science also limit employement opportunities.

I was as shocked as anyone else at the cuts that were implemented, luckily for me I was a consultant so I have a couple of other projects lined up. But I am going to complete work that in an ideal world I could have put an invoice in for. I have no problem finishing it on a voluntary basis.

I hope that the situation is resovled and I fully concede that particular people should have been treated a whole lot better. I hope that as things unfold specific people can take a longterm view and not what was a decision made under the highest of pressure. Losing key excellent staff and that is what the ORGANISATION has suffered and the loss of these two excellent people could do serious damage to the organisation in the short, medium and long term.

Niall,

Carrickmines Castle is an utter debacle. Conservationists outside An Taisce pushed this well after the scheme went ahead. I wasn’t in An Taisce when the decision was made but I have a personnal interpretation.

All roads involve the highest level of planning, there are always at least three potential routes selected. These routes should involve detailed impact assessement. In this case that impact assessment was obviously flawed.

If I am asked on a personnal level I think completion of the C-Ring is a National objective. I also feel that Carrickmines Castle was an important Ruin. Why wasn’t a route selected that ensured both?

Does nobody in the NRA realise the risks of independent and previously unaligned groups emerging to take legal challenges.

It is even highly probable that many who supported their legal challenges did so more out of a NIMBY motivation than conservation concerns.

Bad planning through highly unintelligent route selection. A bit like granting planning permission to build a house on the actual route of the Cherrywood LUAS extension a year after a consensus route emerged.

Not to mention Jackson Way and all the other corrupt rezonings that obstructed this motorway.

It is to have an observer at the early stages of planning to raise these concerns that is An Taisce’s statutory function. Which is A function that the Irish Planning process requires. There is after all nothing more volatile than a person acting out of a NIMBY motive.

Diaspora, how did the government “pull” 63,000 worth of funding exactly? Isn’t it the case that the government agreed a three year funding deal with An Taisce to help it in its role as a prescribed planning body? And isn’t it the case that there were no guarantees after Year 3? Shouldn’t a prudent body have made plans for what would happen after that funding ran out?

Anyway, it’s hardly the taxpayers’ role to fund An Taisce and I think I’d like to see its accounts before coming to any definite conclusions, but these accounts are not available.

I’m worried by you saying that “money might be found” to re-hire these people. This stokes my suspicion that this is all a bit of a PR ruse. The One in Four organisation pulled this “we’re broke and have to go out of business” trick last year and Bono rode to the rescue with 40k, quickly followed by the government with more money to bail it out. Is An Taisce doing something similar?? I really hope not.

Fin,

You forgot to mention Catlerea prison, that the locals lobbied hard to get. I just can’t see any other place in Ireland lobbying to open a prison. After all the lobbying to get Shanganagh closed in Wicklow.