"TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION - A BLUNT INSTRUMENT OF FEAR"

Dún Laoghaire Community Association

Press Release

21st April 2008

Details obtained by Cllr. Denis O’Callaghan on the numbers of County Council parking meters operative in each of the Electoral Wards in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown has generated considerable anger amongst residents and businesses in the Town of Dún Laoghaire.

Coming on the back of the recent disastrous decision by the County Councillors to approve the introduction of Car-Clamping by 14 votes to 11, this new information has the potential to bring the whole decision making process of the County Council into serious disrepute.

The coastal areas of the County including Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey and Ballybrack account for 245 of the 291 Pay-and-Display parking meters operated by Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council. Dundrum has merely 27, Glencullen 19 and Stillorgan surprisingly has not a single County Council parking meter.

The concentration of the parking meters in the coastal areas, overwhelmingly in the residential streets adjoining the town centres of Blackrock, Dalkey and especially, Dún Laoghaire, indicates that the area is nothing but a large municipal car-park.

With 165 meters in the Dún Laoghaire Ward alone, residents and visitors to the Town of Dún Laoghaire are wholly justified in describing the Pay-and-Display system as a local taxation measure penalising those living in the Town and actually driving business out of the Town.

The overwhelming majority of the County Councillors representing the coastal areas of the County were vehemently opposed the introduction of Car-Clamping because it would adversely and solely affect their electorates in Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire and Dalkey and, in fact, inflict serious damage on business and thereby, destroy local jobs.

But they were outvoted by County Councillors from the rest of the County representing areas wholly untouched by the Council’s Pay and Display scheme. This is simply “taxation without representation” imposed by County Councillors who will never have to face the ire of the electorate which has been forced, by their vote, to bear the brunt of this unnecessary and draconian measure aimed at protecting the revenues generated by the County Council’s vast municipal car-park.

The Pay and Display scheme is a locally imposed tax on vehicle owners residing, visiting or doing business in the Town of Dún Laoghaire and Car-Clamping is a blunt instrument of fear imposed to ensure the collection of this unjust and iniquitous local tax.

The Community Association calls on Minister Gormley to intervene immediately and to order an independent examination of the imposition, against the wishes of the electorate as expressed by their public representatives in Dún Laoghaire, of this local taxation and the blunt instrument of enforcement and fear – Car-Clamping.

The manner in which Car-Clamping was introduced has ensured that the festering divisions in the County of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown have suddenly become more entrenched. The civic cohesiveness, much desired and loudly trumpeted by the County Council itself, has been rendered meaningless and foolishly sacrificed for the sake of Car-Clamping.

COUNTY COUNCILLORS VOTE FOR CLAMPING

At the meeting of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council held on Monday 14th April 2008, fourteen County Councillors voted for the introduction of Car-Clamping, eleven voted against with two abstentions. The County Manager is now free to introduce Car-Clamping bringing this county into line with Dublin City. The Community Association and the Dún Laoghaire Business Association strongly opposed the introduction of this measure as it would seriously damage business activity in the Town. Local jobs may now be lost as a result of the needless introduction of such draconian traffic management measures. Five of our six Ward Councillors - John Bailey, Cormac Devlin, Jane Dillon-Byrne, Mary Mitchell-O'Connor and Tom O'Higgins voted against the introduction of Car-Clamping with the sixth Ward Councillor, Cllr. Gene Feighery, voting for the motion. An Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Denis O'Callaghan, was also strongly opposed to Car-Clamping and pointed out the negative impact this measure would have on business and local jobs. Unfortunately, the issue of whether this proposal was in the interest of the community as required by Article 28A.1. of Bunreacht na hÉireann was not raised. Most certainly a very bad day for the local community, local business and especially, local jobs.

VOTE NO TO CLAMPING

Cumann Phobail Dhún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire Community Association

Press Statement
12th April 2008

COUNTY COUNCILLORS TO DECIDE FATE OF LOCAL JOBS

On Monday 14th April 2008 County Councillors in Dún Laoghaire Rathdown are to be asked to vote for the introduction of Car-Clamping as a measure to combat illegal parking and the non-payment of parking fines.

Residents and businesses are united in their total opposition to the introduction of this unnecessary and utterly draconian measure by the County Manager.

Dún Laoghaire has become a large and very expensive municipal car-park since the introduction of the pay-n-display system in 2002. Originally intended to free-up and rotate the existing parking spaces in the Town Centre, it now deters shoppers and frightens off visitors to the Town. It’s now nothing short of a municipal tax on vehicle owners and ultimately, a stealth tax on business.

With high parking fees and over eager Traffic Wardens ready to pounce, shoppers are going elsewhere and local businesses are suffering as a result. Residents are forced to purchase parking permits for themselves and for anybody visiting their homes wishing to park on the street outside. Once proud citizens of the Town many residents now simply describe themselves as living in a vast municipal car-park and merely customers of the County Council.

Dún Laoghaire currently has in excess of thirty vacant retail units on and around its main street, George’s Street. Undoubtedly this number will greatly increase as the existing shoppers, already very resentful of the excessively high parking fees, will not risk falling prey to private contract clampers and simply shop elsewhere.

Local jobs, already under extreme pressure from the existing parking regime, will most certainly be lost on the introduction of car-clamping. This alone shows the absolute folly of this proposal from the County Manager as any fines and penalties recovered will be miniscule in comparison to the loss to the Council in commercial rates through business closures.

Dún Laoghaire Community Association urges all of our County Councillors to protect local jobs by VOTING NO TO CLAMPING and by demanding that the County Manager give an explanation as to how his proposal on car-clamping is in the interest of the community as required by Article 28A.1 of Bunreacht na hÉireann.

Michael Merrigan
Chairperson
Dún Laoghaire Community Association

PRESS RELEASE 10 April 2008

Cumann Phobail Dhún Laoghaire
Dún Laoghaire Community Association

ICONIC MONUMENT TO IRISH HIGH KING
WHO MET SAINT PATRICK

Dún Laoghaire Community Association has intensified its long-running campaign to have an iconic monument erected to the eponymous founder of the “dún” or stone fortress that gave its name to the Town of Dún Laoghaire, just 11kms south of Dublin City.

High King Laoghaire who reigned at Ireland’s ancient capital of Tara between 428 and 461AD was the great monarch who reputedly met with St. Patrick and allowed him and his followers to proceed unmolested with their mission to Christianize the Irish. This gesture by the High King ensured that Ireland has no Christian martyrs from this period—a testament to the sophistication of its Celtic cultural and religious establishment in the fifth century AD.

This campaign has also received the support of a number of County Councillors on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council as the Strategic Policy Committee on Culture, Community Development and Amenities voted to recommend the project to the County Council.

The commissioning of the statue or monument would also commemorate another historical event for the County Hall in the Town of Dún Laoghaire.

In 2019 when the whole country will be commemorating the centenary of the convening of the First Dáil and the Declaration of Irish Independence on the 21st January 1919, Dún Laoghaire has its own linked centenary to celebrate. In 1919 the predecessors of our current public representatives at County Hall decided to reclaim the town and its environs for the people of Ireland by restoring the ancient Gaelic name of the area to the Council and then the Town in 1920. This was certainly a peaceful, dignified and democratic expression of support for Irish independence and the newly convened Dáil Éireann. An act of defiance and self determination as the Councillors chose the Gaelic name “Dún Laoghaire” to replace the name “Kingstown” which had existed since 1821.

The process of commissioning a scaled monument on the lines of that to Vercingetorix in Alesia, France, for erection in our Town’s centre during the 2019/20 national commemorations should commence now to allow for tendering, design, fabrication and planning matters. Therefore, Dún Laoghaire Community Association, whilst, seeking the proactive support of each of our County Councillors, looks to the wider community at home and abroad for assistance with this important campaign. Can this monument be commissioned and erected through public subscription alone or can a single benefactor be found to see this very significant heritage project through to a successful conclusion? This is essentially what this campaign seeks to ascertain.

Dún Laoghaire Community Association welcomes donations towards the cost of this important campaign to have a beautifully designed and crafted monument to High King Laoghaire in the centre of the Town that proudly bears his illustrious name, Dún Laoghaire.

For further information contact: Hon. Secretary (e-mail on side panel)

"Dún Laoghaire News"

The latest edition of the Community Association's newsletter "Dún Laoghaire News" is now available at http://www.dun-laoghaire.com/dir/DunLaoghaireNews.pdf The newsletter has been delivered to households in the central Dún Laoghaire area and copies are also available at Costello Flowers, 1, Northumberland Avenue, Dún Laoghaire