Sinn Fein Busy “Pleasing Developers and Landowners for a Hatful of Votes”: Green Party

The overturning of the Monaghan Development plan by John Gormley has gotten increasingly tetchy as first Sinn Fein press released (three times in one day) to air their displeasure at the “anti-democratic” nature of Gormley’s decision to overturn the plan. The decision taken by Gormley lacked a mandate since his party only received 3% of the vote in Monaghan (however the whole collective government thing means that FF/PD votes should be included in his calculation, but anon). Minister Gormley’s “first port of call was the national media indicating that the Green Party are more concerned about headlines than the future development of County Monaghan.”

This however has drawn a nasty response from the Greens in the form of a statement from local Councillor in Monaghan, Vincent P Martin. A selection of his statement, which is fairly trenchent itself, is below the fold. Its funny how Fianna Fail used to be the developers party. The issues themselves seem to be that the Council proposed to rezone for a population increase of 180% while opposition from locals and other professional planners cited risks of flooding (Ballybay), scarring of the surrounding area (Clones) which left the Minister no choice but to order the rejection of the plan.

On to the juicy bits;

Instead of trying to justify the planning rationale for supporting the vast majority of zoning proposals which could have potentially trebled the population of the county, Sinn Fein’s Councillor Matt Carthy has chosen to instead engage in a smokescreen charade of personalized attacks. Councillor Carthy knows well that increasing the current county population by 180% would compound the classroom size problem already experienced in many schools in the county.
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I think it is extremely rich for a Sinn Fein representative to criticise the communication strategies of other politicians or political parties. His party is unparalleled in media spinning, to the point that ‘Sinn Fein-speak’ is all but a dictionary term.
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On that day Sinn Fein actively supported zoning proposals in the town of Ballybay, ignoring unequivocal expert advice that such projects would flood other houses in the area. They also supported proposals in Clones, despite being told that those projects would visually scar the area and structurally impede the route for the proposed reopening of the Ulster Canal – a project that is supposedly close to Sinn Fein hearts.
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Perhaps if Sinn Fein councillors spent more time fulfilling their statutory obligation of applying the strict criteria of proper planning and sustainable development before arriving at their zoning decisions – and less time on pleasing property developers and individual landowners for a hatful of votes – two consecutive Ministers for the Environment might not have found it necessary to intervene to avert an infrastructural nightmare.