Dublin City Council's bad manners

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional  newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Social commentators argue that people who feel alienated or forgotten are the voters who support Trump, Brexit, Orban of Hungary, et al.

When individuals believe they are surplus to requirement, when they are considered unimportant, it is inevitable they will lash out and vote for those who promise to ‘drain the swamp’.

Hillary Clinton scored an own-goal when she called half of Donald Trump’s supporters ‘a basket of deplorables’ in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election.

If you’re unemployed, never feel listened to, you will be delighted to hear the Orbans and Brexiters of this world tell you they are going to keep the migrants out, so that you can get back to work.

But it is not that simple.

We live in a time when communication can be instantaneous and yet people feel so aggrieved due to a lack of information, whether it be political or in the place we work. In the churches too there is a chronic information deficit. Far too often the ‘foot soldiers’ are kept in the dark or drip-fed information that is unbecoming to their human dignity.

Last summer Herzog Bring Centre in Dublin’s Rathgar closed for renovations. The facility is called after Chaim Herzog, who grew up in Dublin. He was President of Israel between 1983 and 1993.

A notice appeared at the site telling customers that it was closing on Monday August 13 and reopening in October 2018. It was interesting that while the English version said it was reopening in October 2018, the Irish translation was more specific and said the Bring Centre would reopen on Monday, October 2, 2018. But believe it or not, October 2 was a Tuesday in 2018.

October has come and gone and the Bring Centre has not reopened.

Before it closed in August, I innocently said to staff, who work at the centre, that I’d miss the facility and was looking forward to its reopening in October. They looked at me and laughed, assuring me that it would not be opening in October.

They were correct. In late October I contacted the City Council and was assured it would be reopening but they were unable to tell me when.

On March 11, I phoned the relevant Dublin City Council department, hoping to learn when it would be reopening. I left a voice message but so far I have not received a reply.

Since its closure there have been media reports about illegal dumping, which is a scourge and a crime. I read somewhere that council staff would be calling on households to check how they dispose of their waste. 

Modern data information means that waste disposal companies can supply councils with information as to who uses their services.

I don’t have any problem with that. But I certainly do have issues with such behaviour when a public body keeps its citizens in the dark, as has Dublin City Council done regards the opening of Herzog Bring Centre.

Can you imagine how I would respond if someone from the council called to my hall door, asking me to show evidence as to how I dispose of my recyclable waste?

On the one hand we live in times of instant communication and information and on the other we are left in the dark far too often by those who are entrusted to serve us.

It’s that high-handed behaviour that has given so much oxygen to an environment that allows the Trumps, the Brexiters and Orbans of this world to flourish.

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