VIEWPOINT: How a cure for sleeplessness is being developed in Kildare
Having trouble getting off to sleep of an evening ?
If you’re finding it difficult to string a few consecutive hours of shuteye together or you’re watching Sky News at 4am and are vaguely aware that not much has changed in a couple of hours, there’s good news acomin’.
Don’t be bothering yourself about the merits of chamomile tea, warm milk, sleep masks or avoiding that 10th can of budget lager.
Kildare County Council is nudging its way towards what looks like a significant medical breakthrough to cure insomnia.
The possibility, nay probability, of its monthly meetings being available on a computer or phone screen near you is moving closer to reality.
A sleepless county awaits.
What’s proposed is the broadcasting of these meetings for public consumption.
Nobody believes that this will be box office stuff, but accountability and transparency would be enhanced.
There is, of course, no suggestion that this needs to be done.
Au contraire, some of us feel that the very availability of these meetings online amounts to a cruel and unusual form of punishment to be inflicted on us when we broke no law that we know of.
Ah, you're grand lads, but no thanks and thanks all the same for the offer.
Life is already too complicated and too short to be having this carry-on made accessible.
If there was any enthusiasm for the idea of attending these meetings then the most deserted place within Aras Chill Dara would not be the public gallery in the room where the meetings are held.
KCC performs many important tasks on behalf of the circa 250,000 of us who live here.
It also does some work which, while necessary and certainly compulsory, is also stultifyingly unsexy.
Here’s an example. KCC has an audit and corporate governance unit, which reviews internal control systems.
“The scope of internal auditing encompasses, but is not limited to, the examination and evaluation as to the adequacy and effectiveness of the council’s governance, risk management and internal control processes,” according to KCC.
We’re certain this body is hardworking and dutiful to several points beyond excellence - but would you like to listen to its annual report or take a run at a few pints ?
Here's what most of us need to know from KCC.
Will the lights be left on (there was a proposal to turn off one in three public lights in the recession-blighted 1980s) ? Will the roads be maintained and kept flood-free ? Are enough amenities/schools being provided as apartments and houses sprout up overnight under the noses of councillors who zoned all that land for development ? What’s being done about ever growing traffic congestion in towns like Newbridge, Naas, Clane, Celbridge, for example ?
It will come as some relief to a few of us that the broadcasting plan has run into a few delays caused by technological issues and the Covid-19 pandemic.
But there is nevertheless agreement that it should happen.
The definition of a lady or gentleman has been described as someone who knows how to play the bagpipes, but doesn’t.
Kildare County Council can play the bagpipes here, so to speak.
But, please don’t.