Is Tom Parlon a scumbag?

Sunday January 19, 2003 21:21

by ... what are we going to do?

Is Tom Parlon TD and former president of the IFA serving his constituints or the interestes of big business?

An article in last Mondays Irish Times on Standish’s Sawmills in the Sliabh Bloom mountains near Roscrea but still in Co. Laois left me wondering what hope there is for this country with people like Tom Parlon in charge. The article referred to the Sawmill repeatedly breaking EPA regulations on pollution, to an extension to the Sawmill being built on the remains of an archaeological site without planning permission and to complaints from local residents about both these issues.
Tom Parlon was quizzed by the IT about the allegations. He said that he stood firmly behind the activities of the Sawmills. They had a great record and contributed to the local economy by proving plenty of jobs. He said that the local people had withdrawn their complaints.

Whats going on here? Even the IT didn't believe him. I got a lift hitching to Dublin from one of these locals who said that Standishes were causing pollution locally with no less a chemical than arsenic. Has Tom Parlon said that Environmental Protection Agency regulations don't count? Is he saying that archelogical remains are of no significance? Is he encouriging Standishes to flout the law?

Ironically the EPA is referred to by a lot of environmentalists as the Environmental Pollution Agency as they see the EPA as giving licences to new industry to pollute under the guiding philosophies Mary Harney, IBEC etc.

My sympathies are with the people who have to live with this every day. I thought this only happened in Siberia where such polltution caused by industry has left some communities with untold horrors to deal with for a long time to come.

Yet Mr. Parlon got 9000 votes in the general election. Does this mean that those 9000 people can live with this kind of thing as TP will look after them and then they won't have to work hard anymore?

Somebody say something........