One of the things that makes Ireland different from the rest of the western world is that we don't have post codes. In 2005 the Government announced that Ireland would have a post code system by 2008. That's when the debate started.
The first thing to emerge is that we can't agree on a system. We can't, for starters, agree that we need a system.
For example, An Post doesn't want a post code system. They claim that there is no need for a code as their address scanning technology does the job just as well and that a new system would be very costly to implement.
But many of the people who argue for a national system say that the words 'post code' shouldn't be used in the first place. This is because the postal service accounts for only a small number of the people who need to know precisely where they are going.
There's the private delivery services. There is the emergency services who regularly report getting lost in rural areas when confusion over addresses arise. There's the problem of bad writing. There's the problem of people making mistakes with 'Road', 'Avenue', 'Close', etc.
There are people who feel that the adoption of a coding system would eat into local identity of townlands, counties and so on.
However, one of the things that there is broad agreement on is that a code should relate directly to the planet. This is increasingly important with the growing popularity of GPS satnav systems and the likes of Google Maps on the internet.
Even at the moment you can use Google Earth to determine your position on the planet and then tell all your delivery services.
For example, I'm writing this column at a desk in our offices in Santry. In latitude and longitude terms the location of this desk is 53 23 32.14 -06 14 55.93. If you get Google maps on your browser and type this in, it will show you where my desk is to an accuracy of about a metre. It's pretty amazing.
It would also show any delivery service exactly where to bring my goods. In fact, many people ring our bell looking for a doctor who can be found about 30 meters up the way. If they had Google maps to hand and the right set of numbers it would save them time and save our bell.
But it's probably asking too much that everybody remember their earth co-ordinates. So we're back to the need for a simple universal system for describing locations.
What is actually required is a system similar to how the internet is organised. Although, like all computer systems, the internet is based on numbers it appears in the real world based on human-friendly names. Therefore, instead of a 12 digit number, our web name is www.dublinpeople.com. It's very easy to remember.
So why not operate Ireland's location codes in a similar way? Simply have a national system where people can register their location under a name. I could be niallgormley88, for example, and anyone who wanted to find me could enter that in a computer and my location would pop-up on screen. I'd be more than just a number.
The latest news is the the new minister Eamon Ryan has shelved the post code idea. It's not exactly clear why. In the meantime, we are going to have to do what we have always done and ask people for directions. And maybe that's not so bad after all.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Ignoring the real segregation in Dublin
The row over school places rumbles on. It's turned into something of a row on racism, an issue sure to trigger middle-class angst.
The problem, as I talked about here last week, is that catholic schools in parts of the Dublin region are full and the schools have taken to giving preference to catholic children.
In some areas this has left some immigrant children stranded without school places. The children, we are given to believe, are mainly of black African ethnicity who are protestants and non-Christians I presume.
So with the spectre of racism hanging in the air, my argument that churches have a perfect right to run their own schools seems to support, in the end, the segregation of children by race. This terrible vista is held up in order to argue for a tightening of the grip of the State on schools.
I smell a lot of something here and it's not roses. In fact, it's stuff you can put on roses to make them grow bigger.
Although race is held up as a terrible division in human society, in fact it's only a minor problem. Race never poses, and has never posed, any problems for any society without one small poisonous ingredient.
Poverty.
So look around this fair city. We already have segregation. If you open your eyes this winter you will see children perished with the cold and undernourished heading to school. You'll see record numbers in the grind schools.
You can read the reports and the league tables. The school you go to largely determines your prospects. There are areas in this town where more of our young people end up in prison than end up in university. I've spoken to social workers and truancy officers and guards and they will tell through gritted teeth that they would be confident enough to go into a bookie and bet on which four-year-old will end up doing smack or doing time.
Our city is segregated by housing estate, by school, by pub, by church, by street.
And all of this, all of it, predates the arrival of blacks, or Poles, or anyone else.
So when our chattering classes get their knickers in a twist over black children ending up in schools of their own and the need for integration - what they mean is that they are worried that the black children will end up in schools with the white underclass that we have already given up on. And if you lie down with dogs...
These are not simple problems. Every parent is duty bound to do the best for their children. Increasingly parents will seek to keep their children out of mediocre performing schools where there are discipline problems, or overcrowding, or bad teachers, or whatever. They are trying to do the best for their kids.
But when we all do this we leave some children behind. And this usually happens on a poverty fault line. If the poor happen to be immigrants then that's where the fault line will show up but race is not the fundamental problem.
The answer lies where it always has lain. In the 1916 Proclamation read out by Padraig Pearse on the steps of the GPO we promised to "cherish all the children of the nation equally". We've made progress but really it's a promise we never kept.
If we treated every Dublin child the way we should, we wouldn't have to worry about what race they are.
The problem, as I talked about here last week, is that catholic schools in parts of the Dublin region are full and the schools have taken to giving preference to catholic children.
In some areas this has left some immigrant children stranded without school places. The children, we are given to believe, are mainly of black African ethnicity who are protestants and non-Christians I presume.
So with the spectre of racism hanging in the air, my argument that churches have a perfect right to run their own schools seems to support, in the end, the segregation of children by race. This terrible vista is held up in order to argue for a tightening of the grip of the State on schools.
I smell a lot of something here and it's not roses. In fact, it's stuff you can put on roses to make them grow bigger.
Although race is held up as a terrible division in human society, in fact it's only a minor problem. Race never poses, and has never posed, any problems for any society without one small poisonous ingredient.
Poverty.
So look around this fair city. We already have segregation. If you open your eyes this winter you will see children perished with the cold and undernourished heading to school. You'll see record numbers in the grind schools.
You can read the reports and the league tables. The school you go to largely determines your prospects. There are areas in this town where more of our young people end up in prison than end up in university. I've spoken to social workers and truancy officers and guards and they will tell through gritted teeth that they would be confident enough to go into a bookie and bet on which four-year-old will end up doing smack or doing time.
Our city is segregated by housing estate, by school, by pub, by church, by street.
And all of this, all of it, predates the arrival of blacks, or Poles, or anyone else.
So when our chattering classes get their knickers in a twist over black children ending up in schools of their own and the need for integration - what they mean is that they are worried that the black children will end up in schools with the white underclass that we have already given up on. And if you lie down with dogs...
These are not simple problems. Every parent is duty bound to do the best for their children. Increasingly parents will seek to keep their children out of mediocre performing schools where there are discipline problems, or overcrowding, or bad teachers, or whatever. They are trying to do the best for their kids.
But when we all do this we leave some children behind. And this usually happens on a poverty fault line. If the poor happen to be immigrants then that's where the fault line will show up but race is not the fundamental problem.
The answer lies where it always has lain. In the 1916 Proclamation read out by Padraig Pearse on the steps of the GPO we promised to "cherish all the children of the nation equally". We've made progress but really it's a promise we never kept.
If we treated every Dublin child the way we should, we wouldn't have to worry about what race they are.
Hands off church schools
It's a funny old town. The schools in the suburbs and satellite towns are packed to the rafters and the schools in the centre are emptying.
Children have been left without school places and the usual suspect, the Catholic Church, has been getting the lion's share of the blame.
Catholic schools have this policy, you see, of favouring catholic children. All around Ireland catholic churches accommodate kids from all religions and none. But in the new areas where houses were built without any thought for the needs of the people who were to live in them, there aren't enough places in catholic schools so they, the catholic schools, give priority to catholic children.
This has greatly offended the great 'liberal' movement of Ireland who think it is the Catholic Church's job to provide an education for everyone. What these secular warriors want is for the church to be ostracised and control of their schools taken away from them. They point out that the state provides 95 per cent of the funding for these schools.
There is nothing liberal whatsoever about this attitude. What will happen if these so-called liberals get their way, is that the state will have the sole right to provide schooling to children in this state. That's zero freedom and zero choice.
The argument about state funding is particularly obnoxious. Catholic parents pay taxes too. As do Church of Ireland parents and Muslim parents. They are entitled to school their children as they see fit.
The State hasn't covered itself in glory on these matters. Local authorities gave planning permission for all these houses. The law is there that developers can be charged fees to support local infrastructure including, presumably, schools. In addition the State is taking a huge dollop out of every house purchase in stamp duty.
So why hasn't the State used some of this money to provide schools? That's the real question. In some cases you could argue that the kids would be better off at home anyway, rather that stuck in a classroom with up to forty other children while a teacher struggles just to maintain sanity.
There is a issue of choice for parents in areas where there is just one catholic school but the way to resolve this isn't to take choice away from everyone. If our 'liberals' are that concerned, why don't they open their own schools.
...and hands off the gaelscoileanna
If English was banned in this country, children here would still speak it for generations to come. The English language permeates every nook and cranny of Irish life. And very useful it is too, as the world's business and cultural second language.
In some gaelscoils the school authorities have a policy of not teaching English for the first two years. This 'total immersion' policy allows children to better absorb the Irish language. But now Minister Mary Hanafin has banned the practice in a typically high-handed state intervention into local school affairs.
The gaelscoileanna movement, which is fighting the good fight against monoculturalism, has taken this as a kick in the teeth, which it is.
The gaelscoileanna has a breathtaking ambition, which is to make Ireland bi-lingual. They should be allowed to get on with it.
Children have been left without school places and the usual suspect, the Catholic Church, has been getting the lion's share of the blame.
Catholic schools have this policy, you see, of favouring catholic children. All around Ireland catholic churches accommodate kids from all religions and none. But in the new areas where houses were built without any thought for the needs of the people who were to live in them, there aren't enough places in catholic schools so they, the catholic schools, give priority to catholic children.
This has greatly offended the great 'liberal' movement of Ireland who think it is the Catholic Church's job to provide an education for everyone. What these secular warriors want is for the church to be ostracised and control of their schools taken away from them. They point out that the state provides 95 per cent of the funding for these schools.
There is nothing liberal whatsoever about this attitude. What will happen if these so-called liberals get their way, is that the state will have the sole right to provide schooling to children in this state. That's zero freedom and zero choice.
The argument about state funding is particularly obnoxious. Catholic parents pay taxes too. As do Church of Ireland parents and Muslim parents. They are entitled to school their children as they see fit.
The State hasn't covered itself in glory on these matters. Local authorities gave planning permission for all these houses. The law is there that developers can be charged fees to support local infrastructure including, presumably, schools. In addition the State is taking a huge dollop out of every house purchase in stamp duty.
So why hasn't the State used some of this money to provide schools? That's the real question. In some cases you could argue that the kids would be better off at home anyway, rather that stuck in a classroom with up to forty other children while a teacher struggles just to maintain sanity.
There is a issue of choice for parents in areas where there is just one catholic school but the way to resolve this isn't to take choice away from everyone. If our 'liberals' are that concerned, why don't they open their own schools.
...and hands off the gaelscoileanna
If English was banned in this country, children here would still speak it for generations to come. The English language permeates every nook and cranny of Irish life. And very useful it is too, as the world's business and cultural second language.
In some gaelscoils the school authorities have a policy of not teaching English for the first two years. This 'total immersion' policy allows children to better absorb the Irish language. But now Minister Mary Hanafin has banned the practice in a typically high-handed state intervention into local school affairs.
The gaelscoileanna movement, which is fighting the good fight against monoculturalism, has taken this as a kick in the teeth, which it is.
The gaelscoileanna has a breathtaking ambition, which is to make Ireland bi-lingual. They should be allowed to get on with it.
New runway to create runaway pollution
Some time ago I produced a diagram in this very column showing how a second runway at Dublin Airport need not send any extra airplanes over Portmarnock.
Some scoffed, some threw their eyes to heaven (and their papers in the bin). Others just pitied me.
And yet, lo and behold, in granting permission for the second runway, right up there in condition number three of the decision is precisely the scheme I outlined. Damn, it good to be right an odd time!
As I also suspected, An Bord Pleanala allowed the runway despite all the objections and opposition, including the opinion of their own planning inspector. The economic arguments, or should I say conventional economic arguments, were always going to be the deciding factor.
But when we get our runway, we'll be getting a host of problems along with it, as the Portmarnock protest group UPROAR very ably pointed out.
Perhaps the biggest problem on the horizon for the airport is the problem of global warming and the growing alarm at the emissions of aircraft. Despite some very impressive new efficiencies in aircraft design, the overall emissions of the airline industry continues to rise with the huge growth in budget airlines.
Airplanes might well be the first target of carbon taxes.
In the future cars will run on renewables generated electricity and hydrogen. That won't work for aircraft. The enormous thrust required to get airplanes off the ground needs jet engines. And jet engines need to burn fuel.
Although many people do not realise this jet engines basically burn a diesel fuel called Jet A. These fuels could be replaced with bio-fuels. While jet engines would still be polluting at least they would be carbon neutral. The Irish government should insist that aircraft using Dublin Airport start burning blended fuels so as to offset any increase in traffic generated by the new runway.
In the longer term, we are going to have to consider seriously building a fixed link to Britain. According to some analyses the Dublin-London air corridor is now the second busiest in the world. And yet Dublin and London are only 300 miles apart, just around the range the the new high speed trains are designed to compete with aircraft. It has to start somewhere. It is unimaginable that in 50 to 100 years from now that Ireland won't have a fixed link to Britain so we should make a start now.
One final point. In recent weeks we have had the Aer Lingus Shannon debacle. We have also had widespread media reports on the dire state of Heathrow where a private company has more interest in providing space for shops than for passengers. The conclusion is this: under no circumstances should the privatisation of Dublin Airport be contemplated. It's just too important to the city and the country to ever fall into private hands. If there has to be competition then so be it, with an airport at Baldonnel or further out. But there must be always some democratic control of our main airport.
Some scoffed, some threw their eyes to heaven (and their papers in the bin). Others just pitied me.
And yet, lo and behold, in granting permission for the second runway, right up there in condition number three of the decision is precisely the scheme I outlined. Damn, it good to be right an odd time!
As I also suspected, An Bord Pleanala allowed the runway despite all the objections and opposition, including the opinion of their own planning inspector. The economic arguments, or should I say conventional economic arguments, were always going to be the deciding factor.
But when we get our runway, we'll be getting a host of problems along with it, as the Portmarnock protest group UPROAR very ably pointed out.
Perhaps the biggest problem on the horizon for the airport is the problem of global warming and the growing alarm at the emissions of aircraft. Despite some very impressive new efficiencies in aircraft design, the overall emissions of the airline industry continues to rise with the huge growth in budget airlines.
Airplanes might well be the first target of carbon taxes.
In the future cars will run on renewables generated electricity and hydrogen. That won't work for aircraft. The enormous thrust required to get airplanes off the ground needs jet engines. And jet engines need to burn fuel.
Although many people do not realise this jet engines basically burn a diesel fuel called Jet A. These fuels could be replaced with bio-fuels. While jet engines would still be polluting at least they would be carbon neutral. The Irish government should insist that aircraft using Dublin Airport start burning blended fuels so as to offset any increase in traffic generated by the new runway.
In the longer term, we are going to have to consider seriously building a fixed link to Britain. According to some analyses the Dublin-London air corridor is now the second busiest in the world. And yet Dublin and London are only 300 miles apart, just around the range the the new high speed trains are designed to compete with aircraft. It has to start somewhere. It is unimaginable that in 50 to 100 years from now that Ireland won't have a fixed link to Britain so we should make a start now.
One final point. In recent weeks we have had the Aer Lingus Shannon debacle. We have also had widespread media reports on the dire state of Heathrow where a private company has more interest in providing space for shops than for passengers. The conclusion is this: under no circumstances should the privatisation of Dublin Airport be contemplated. It's just too important to the city and the country to ever fall into private hands. If there has to be competition then so be it, with an airport at Baldonnel or further out. But there must be always some democratic control of our main airport.
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