March 2006

This book is a catalogue of the sloppy thinking, political chicanery, bureaucratic incompetence and pandering to vested interests that characterise so much of what is happening in Ireland today! It charts how the country is being wrecked by half-baked policies that fail, and are known to fail. Whether it’s the urban-generated housing in rural areas, the relentless sprawl of our cities, the madness of the motorway programme, the scatter-gun approach to decentralisation, the contempt for our heritage, or the failure to observe our international obligations to combat climate change, the Government has made a mess of it. Evidence that would underpin sensible decisions is either blithely ignored or never gathered in the first place. There is an alternative, but the lack of political leadership has thwarted its adoption to date. It’s the idea of closely knit cities, with Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford working together to counterbalance Dublin. This book also puts forward proposals on how to make urban life work better, how to get around cities and travel between them. It gives a warning of what is likely to happen if the current blasé to-hell-with-the-next-generation approach is allowed to prevail: chaos! (Also available in Hardback price at 40 Euro)