Have you seen
the front page of this week’s Dungarvan Leader. The main headline for an
article written by Journalist Kevin Kirrane makes shocking reading, well it
does for me anyway, I don’t know about you.
In case you
have not seen it, maybe you have not picked up your copy of this week’s paper
yet, or got the chance to have a look at it, or maybe you live in an area where
the Dungarvan Leader is not sold or is hard to get, the headline reads ‘O’Donnell
Warns Of Spiralling Costs Of New Bus Stop’.
Let me say
here it is not Kevin that shocked me, nor is it Colm Nagle the paper’s Editor
or any of the staff within the paper. Kevin is a brilliant journalist who does
great work with the paper.
Maybe I should
not be shocked as the O’Donnell referred to in the article is Councillor Seamus
O’Donnell, who let’s face it, since he was elected to Waterford City and County
Council in the local elections in 2014 has proven to be a very controversial
person.
I am sure for
those of you who do not know Councillor O’Donnell if you live in the Waterford
area and don’t know him you will have heard him speak on WLRfm’s Current
Affairs Programme – Deise Today presented by Eamon Keane and before that on Deise
AM presented by the late Billy McCarthy a number of times speaking on a number
of matters and has views that well let’s say that are not shared by the
majority of people in 2018.
In many of his
interviews on local radio since he became a Councillor, Councillor Seamus O’Donnell
has made it know that he is a Catholic, and for whatever reason he does not
always like ‘them sort of people’ you know the people that the Catholic Church
in the past spoke out about, and some within it continues to speak out against,
even if in 2013 when the then recently elected Pope Francis on his way back
from a trip to Brazil (I think) was asked his views on homosexual people, he
responded by saying ‘Who am I to judge’, something I am sure that the assembled
journalists would have been shocked to hear as I am sure some were hoping for
headlines for their newspapers from the mouth of the newly elected pontiff.
Well in this
week’s Dungarvan Leader there appears to be another group of people that
Councillor O’Donnell doesn’t like. If you have not read the paper maybe you are
wondering before I go on is it black people, is it Chinese people, is it Hispania
people, is it women, is it men, is it children, is it young people, is it old
people, is it non-catholic people.
Ok in case you
have not read the piece and want to know, it appears the latest people that Councillor
O’Donnell does not like is wait for it, Disabled people.
If you have
not been to Dungarvan with a while, you might like to know that within the
town, close to the Civic Offices a new Bus Stop is being constructed with some
weeks now. But Councillor O’Donnell has a major problem with this.
In the article
which is brilliantly written by Kevin Kirrane, Councillor O’Donnell questioned the
need for the bus stop “to be shifted around” when cost was taken in
consideration, and compared the work being done outside the civic offices as “something
like the Square, where we will run over budget, we’ll be running a couple of
million over budget”.
As a disabled
person and someone that has used the busses that travel between Waterford and
Cork, stopping in Dungarvan, I for one welcome the new bus stop in Dungarvan.
For those that don’t know me, or maybe who have never seen me, I was born with
Spina Bifida and get around using crutches. But I am one of the lucky ones. When
I have reason to use a bus to get to Waterford, Dublin or Cork as I have in the
past and will in the future from Dungarvan, I am one of the lucky disabled
people who can climb on and off the bus by myself, but not all disabled people
are able to do this.
If a person in
a wheelchair wants to travel from Dungarvan on one of the busses which stops
off every hour wants to use it, at present it is almost impossible for them to
do so, unless they are able to climb out of their chair and onto the bus be it
by themselves or with help and to have their chair put into the hold under the
floor of the bus.
I ask
Councillor O’Donnell and anyone that might agree with him, that the work that
is taking place in Dungarvan is a waste of money and not necessary, is it right
that Disabled people in 2018 are not allowed to use public transport operating
in and out of Dungarvan. For what it is worth, I think every disabled person
should have the same rights as able bodied people, and I am sure that almost
everybody, but clearly not everybody would think so as well.
I hope that
good Catholic’s who support the likes of Councillor O’Donnell and his often
controversial views go down on their knees first think every morning and last
thing every night and thank the God that they claim to believe in for giving
them two fine legs and two fine hands which work. I hope they give thanks to
the God that they believe in for being able to sit behind the wheel of a car
which will take them wherever they want to go, because not everybody as the use
of their legs, hands and able to drive wherever they want to go.
I don’t know
what the new Bus Stops in Dungarvan is costing the state, and I don’t care to
be honest if the overall cost was to exceed ten million euro above the expected
cost, or if it comes in under the expected cost, every cent spent on the stop
is going to be well worth it if it allows just one disabled or one elderly
person who wants to use public transport in or out of Dungarvan to do so.
