Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Michael Pidgeon
Dublin's new city centre transport plan is not a 'ban on cars'
TRAFFIC IS RUINING Dublin city centre – and we now have a bold plan to fix it. Decades of poor planning and a lack of joined-up thinking have left the city centre a place of transport misery. Drivers are frustrated in gridlock. Buses are trapped with them on the narrow quays. Cyclists aren’t safe. Pedestrians are hemmed in on small footpaths, forced to scurry across the road, picking their way through cars that barely seem to move. It leads to a core city centre that looks grubby, congested and noisy.
Approval for Supervised Injection facility “will save lives” - Greens
An Bord Pleanála have approved an application for a supervised injecting facility for Merchant’s Quay in Dublin 8 – a decision which has been welcomed by local Green Party representatives. The injection facility provides a safe, supervised, medical space for people injecting drugs. There are over 90 in operation worldwide, In 2018, addiction charity Merchant’s Quay Ireland was given government approval to run an 18-month pilot injecting facility.
⛴️🚄How to travel from Dublin to London by ferry and rail
I’ve taken a lot of “sail rail” journeys, going to the UK and the continent via ferry and rail. It’s lower carbon, but it’s also very nice if you love trains and hate airports. It’s also very cheap – basically going anywhere in the UK with a rail line from Dublin for a max of €60. The process is nowhere near as easy as it should be, and I often get asked how to go about it. So this quick guide might be useful.
Why precious market space shouldn’t be made into a Centra
Below is a planning observation against an application to convert space intended for a market to a Centra. The space is on Newmarket and Mill Street in the Liberties – previously where the Green Door Market was. The site was redeveloped several years ago on condition that they had a market space – they are now looking to remove that condition and put in a Centra instead. If you want to make an observation yourself, the deadline is 10 Feb 2022. The full planning documents are here.
Read, Share and Shape the News
Poll: Do you think the lifting of the Covid measures is going at the right pace? THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN to reopen the country in June and July is the biggest and most significant shift back to normal times since the crisis began. The plans cover everything from pilot outdoor live events with hundreds of attendees in June, to the return of international travel and indoor dining in July.
Michael Pidgeon: Why the left - including Sinn Féin - should support property taxes
WHAT’S THE BEST way for the government to spend half a billion euro? If you asked a hundred people, you’d likely get a hundred different answers. But it’s doubtful that many of them would propose using it to fund a tax cut which benefits the owners of the most expensive houses most. Yet this is what some politicians are proposing. Local property tax (LPT) is back in the headlines as the rates are being adjusted.
College Green Plaza: the Green Party view
Dublin City has presented two options for how traffic should be managed in a future creation of a College Green Plaza. Option 3 allows 24 hour deliveries through the plaza – option 4 restricts them to before 11am (as with Grafton Street). The ten Green Party councillors on Dublin City Council have made the below joint submission as part of the process. The inital answers respond to the direct questions on which option should be chosen. You can find the documents to which these answers refer here.
Read, Share and Shape the News
Poll: Has your mental health been affected since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic? IT’S BEEN A tough few months since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold of the nation. Many people have been affected by job losses, isolation and a lack of social interaction, and the loss of loved ones. Today, youth mental health charity Jigsaw said it saw a 50% increase in demand for its services in August this year compared to the same period last year.
Poll: When do you think you'll next be able to go a foreign holiday?
MANY PEOPLE HAVE had to cancel holidays abroad this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. In July, the government published its Green List of foreign countries which allow Irish people to travel abroad to without having to restrict their movements for 14 days afterwards when they return. While some people have hopped at the chance to pack up and travel out of the country, many others are still hesitant as Covid-19 figures have continued to rise in recent weeks.
Opinion: Dublin City Council's decision to cut Local Property Tax will only favour the wealthy
IF THERE’S ONE lesson to take from 2020, it should be the fundamental necessity of our shared public services. When the virus hit, public services were our frontline defence. Not only the ambulance staff providing direct care, but the homeless services keeping people off the streets. Yet a majority on Dublin City Council seem to have taken a different lesson from 2020 and prioritised tax cuts above public services.
Give us the summer: no more traffic through Phoenix Park!
We want to stop all private motor traffic going through the Phoenix Park. Why is this important? The Phoenix Park is a destination - not a shortcut! The past weeks have shown just how important the park is - and how much better it is without heavy car traffic. It's calmer, quieter, safer and cleaner. Fewer cars have meant more people. We want to see an end to motorised through traffic.
10 workers’ rights #Brexit would risk
The EU certainly isn’t perfect. But lurking within all the directives and regulations are a whole set of rights and protections for British workers. These rights came from the EU, and are guaranteed by the EU. If we vote to leave, they won’t be guaranteed any more, and government ministers can just pick and choose which rights we have. Here are just ten of the workers’ rights at risk if we leave: Thanks to EU law, full-time workers are entitled to at least 20 days a year in paid leave. Rightly so.
Ten Reasons to Vote
LONDON - MAY 06: A woman leaves a polling station on Brick Lane after casting her vote on May 6, 2010 in London, United Kingdom. After 5 weeks of campaigning, including the first ever live televised Leader’s Debates, opinion polls suggest that the UK is facing the prospect of a hung parliament for the first time since 1974. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) 06 May 2015, by Michael Pidgeon in Politics The election campaign is coming to an end, and it’s time to mark your ballot.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Michael
Contact Michael, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack