After the recent local elections one of the bodies I was nominated onto, by
Clare County Council, was the Mid West Regional Authority. I doubt very much
if many of you have heard of this body. It is a wandering assembly of
sorts, and is compromised of Councillors from Limerick City Council, Limerick
County Council, Clare County Council and Tipperary North County Council. It
was established in 1994 and has two main functions: to promote the
co-ordination of public service between the Councils and to monitor the
delivery of the National Development Plan & EU Structural Fund assistance in
the Mid-West region. It soon may have a role in ensuring planning
authorities take account of regional planning guidelines. Riveting stuff,
perhaps not, but it is a forum that County Councillors use to outline the
day to day issues affecting the people they represent. In the Irish
political landscape, Councillors are the closest elected representative to
the electors so generally it is bread and butter stuff, flooding, freezing,
planning and Shannon Airport being recent topics of debate. .

At the last meeting of the Regional Authority the general topic of anti
social behaviour, crime and lawlessness was being discussed when one of
the senior councillors on the authority spoke. Cllr PJ Kelly is a councillor
whose views I may not agree with all of the time, however I stand resolutely behind
his right to raise any issue that he is not legally barred from speaking
on. Cllr Kelly represents a community reeling from the brutal killing of
one of it’s young people and, quite rightly, articulated the concerns of that
community. In his comments Cllr Kelly stated that it was time to open a
debate on the death penalty and the issue may have to be the subject of a
referendum.

I proposed that the Mid West Regional Authority pass a motion requesting the
Dail to examine the issue of crime punishment and capital punishment,
rather than have councillors simply having a discussion and "tut-tutting” on the issue.

Cllr Kelly then requested a straw poll of the members to see if a motion
requesting the Oireachtas to debate this matter should be proposed.

There was no support for this and the chairman moved on to the next Item..
Waste Collection I think.

Now let me sum up:
* A councillor speaking on behalf of a community dealing with the
savage killing of one of its young people, made a reference to needing a
debate on the Death Penalty.

* It was then proposed that such a debate should take place in
Leinster House .

* This was not supported.

* There was no debate on the Death Penalty

* There wasn't even debate on the need for a debate on the death
penalty

To people outside of the Mid West, debate at the Midwestern Regional
Authority is like a tree falling in the middle of the forest, It doesn't
bother them, it doesn’t affect them , they don't care. However, from the reaction
to the non discussion on the death penalty there are certain topics that liberal,
open minded people don't want discussed. "This discussion is dangerous" was
the reaction from Amnesty International Ireland. An opinion columnist with
the Irish Times a Breda O’Brien wrote that she was racking her brains to, "try
to figure out what fears the Mid-West Regional Authority in Ennis, Co Clare,
was trying to calm by debating restoration of the death penalty, at a time
when most citizens were more concerned about being able to get milk at the
local shop without breaking their necks. The country swung from floods to
ice, the schools were forced to close, and councillors are debating the
reintroduction of the death penalty?"

This is censorship. Certain things should not be discussed and only, then, at the
right time. This is similar to the misplaced public morality that existed
in the 1950s and 60s where issues could not be openly debated and as a
consequence the country hid a lot of matters that, in later years, blighted
the lives of thousands.

I wonder what other topic might get the Dublin media exercised enough to
attend the next meeting of the Mid West regional authority.

I must put my thinking cap on.