That plan and me 2/2012 (first posted 2 April 2014)

In August 1990 I devised a Programme of Irish Socialists which I circulated to over three hundred trade unionists, unemployed groups, tenants groups, residents groups and politicians. In 1995 this plan became the National Development Plan after fourteen and a half million Irish pounds had changed hands between the brother of the General Secretary of the Labour Party,Ruairi Quinn, and Guinness Mahon Bankers. 

 Judge for yourself from what I recall from the contents of this plan as to who is responsible, as principal, for the transformation of the South. 

 The plan was on one page as follows and contained fourteen points:

 1.Transport. Motorways between Dublin and Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Derry and Belfast. A tramway for Dublin. Electrification of the railways. Extension of the Dart to all suburbs in Dublin. Construction of an Underground to link Connolly, Heuston and Pearse Street Street Railway Stations. 

2. Health. Public health insurance. 

 3: Education. Free university education. Democratic control of primary and secondary schools. Compulsory Purchase Order on old Parliament Building in College Green with constitutional referendum on crushing incorporeal hereditament prohibiting its use as an Irish Parliament.

 4. Housing. Demolition of all slums and construction of family houses. 

 5. Communities. Libraries, sports centres, leisure centres, town libraries, local arts centres and community halls. Olympic stadium . 

 6.Dublin Pedestrianisation of streets with O’Connell Street turned into a concourse for public meetings . 

 7.Taxation a three-tier taxation system. 

 8. Defence. Compulsory military service. Moving capital to Galway. 

 9. The North. Irish Unity and decriminalization of the IRA.

10.Irish language. Irish language TV station.

 11.Fiscal matters. Repudiation of the national debt.

 12.The nationalisation of the means of production, distribution and exchange.

 13.Agriculture.Keeping as many people on the land as possible. 

14.European Union. Democratisation. Restructuring. 

Ruairi Quinn is still the prisoner of these ideas in the field of education as is Adams as regards the national debt. 

 I have moved on and returned to the church. Joseph Paul McCarroll Ll.B.