Gerry Adams's Blog, page 63
November 14, 2013
The Troika may be leaving but the mind-set remains
Yesterday the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the Finance Committee in the Dáil that the issue of a decision on whether or not the state needed a precautionary credit line following its exit from the bailout was not on the agenda of today’s meeting of Eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.
This morning an emergency Cabinet meeting was called and the Dáil was given less than an hour to respond to an unspecified statement from the government. Was it going for ‘backstop’, a post-bailout credit line, or was it not? The media was well briefed. The government spin doctors had done their work and had the line before the Taoiseach stood up in the Dáil and told members.
It was all good political theatre. The government constructed a dramatic announcement for its decision to set aside the option of a post bailout credit line. Its PR spin is obvious. It’s all about the government patting itself on the back and claiming that it has regained economic sovereignty and brought an end to the rule of the Troika.
But the truth is much different. It was bounced on the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste by their master in Europe. The government has no strategic plan, stumbles from crisis to crisis and has no long term vision – except that is to impose more austerity policies on a financially exhausted and exasperated citizenry.
The truth is that while the Troika may be leaving, the Troika mind-set remains. The government has over its two and a half years in office slavishly followed the policies of the last Fianna Fáil government and has embraced austerity. It has even gone as far as introducing austerity measures that were not recommended by the Troika.
It has taxed and cut the most vulnerable in Irish society, unbidden by its European masters. It has very specifically and unfairly targeted young unemployed citizens, the elderly, working mothers and those in need of medical cards.
These citizens are being made to carry the can for the economic collapse and the recklessness of bankers, developers and politicians. That is patently unfair.In the government’s October’s 2014 budget older citizens have been particularly hard hit with cuts to the telephone allowance; the loss of the bereavement grant; the withdrawal of medical cards and cuts to the invalidity pension. That is unfair.As a result of this and last year’s budget, older citizens will have lost €22.60 per month in the telephone allowance. That is particularly mean-spirited.The Budget also saw Maternity Benefit cut for the second year in a row. This will adversely affect 90% of women in receipt of Maternity Benefit. Cutting Maternity Benefit is contrary to the interests of women, of children and indeed of Irish society. It is also unfair.
What is equally unfair is the fact that Fine Gael and Labour, just like Fianna Fáil before them, have embraced forced emigration as a policy choice. Already there are 1,700 people emigrating from this state every week. The vast majority of these are young, educated citizens, unable to get suitable employment.This morning’s announcement makes no positive difference to them or their families and the government’s determination to pursue austerity coupled with its inadequate Youth Guarantee Scheme means that more of our young people will continue to leave for the hope of jobs abroad.
Next year, whether the Troika is here or not, the government will take €2 billion more from the economy in water charges, taxes and more cuts to health, education and other vital services. On top of that, citizens in this state still subject to the terms of the fiscal treaty, which this government and Fianna Fail pushed the people to support. For many more years, the Irish people will be forced to carry an unsustainable debt burden, inflicted on us because of the austerity policy Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fail embraced to bail out the banks. The reality is that the government has secured nothing to relieve citizens of this odious debt. 17 months ago the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste were proclaiming their achievements at the June 2012 Euro summit. They claimed it was a game changer a seismic shift. Having pumped €65 billion of taxpayers money into bad and toxic banks it was claimed that the European Stability Mechanism would reduce banking debt, separate banking debt from sovereign debt and that it would be retrospective and we would get some of our money back.None of this has happened. If we are to begin to regain our economic sovereignty, it will not be under this government. Nor will not be under Fianna Fáil. This government should go. The only way to rebuild the economy is to make deficit adjustments that are fair and growth friendly. The economy must be stimulated and jobs created if recovery is to be sustainable. The banking debt is a noose around the neck of the people. It must be restructured and reduced. We are leaving the bailout programme but we cannot get away from the legacy and the damage caused by austerity. Our public services are decimated and families across the state are in poverty. The government and especially the Labour party should be ashamed of this.
November 13, 2013
Demanding the right to collective bargaining
Last Friday I attended an event in New York to celebrate the hard work, diligence and activism of 100 Irish American trade union activists. It was a very special occasion. It was held in the Sheraton Hotel on seventh avenue where the night before almost 800 people took part in the annual Friends of Sinn Féin annual fundraising dinner.
The Labour event was also a celebration of the centenary of the Dublin Lockout of 1913 which many trade union leaders in the USA acknowledge was a pivotal moment in the development of the world-wide trade union movement. The Dublin Lockout involved about 20,000 workers who went on strike for recognition; better conditions and pay. It was a long and bitter battle against tyrannical bosses.
One result of the Lockout was the founding 100 years ago this month of the Irish Citizen Army to defend workers and promote workers rights. Three years later in seeking to advance those goals the Citizen Army played a key role in the Easter Rising against British Imperialism.
The lockout also saw women trade unionists take a leading role in defense of workers. Women like Louie Bennett who formed the Irish Women’s Reform League and Delia Larkin who founded the Irish Women Workers’ Union.
Workers in Ireland were not alone in battling for better conditions and wages. 100 years ago all around the world workers were coming together in trade unions and workers collectives.
The same year of the Dublin Lockout, the USA experienced its first general strike when 50,000 silk workers in Patterson, New Jersey struck for five months in order to win shorter working hours and better conditions. And while the starving workers returned to work without winning all their demands, their protests continued until in 1919 when they finally secured an eight-hour day.
Many Irish workers who fled hunger and poverty, injustice and political repression came to play a vital role in the trade union movement in the United States. Among these was the inspirational figure of James Connolly. He spent 7 years of his life in the USA where he helped establish and organise the Independent Workers of the World. Connolly also understood the importance of freedom from Britain and its linkage to the rights and freedoms and future prosperity of workers.
We are proud of James Connolly. We are proud of his record in defense of American Labour. We are also proud of the role James Connolly played in the fight for Irish freedom. In 1914 Connolly wrote that the damage the partition of Ireland would bring, especially in respect of workers rights would be ‘disastrous’. He warned that: “All hopes of uniting the workers, irrespective of religion or old political battle cries will be shattered.”
The history of the last 100 years is evidence of the truth of Connolly’s words. Partition created two conservative states in Ireland. It stunted the economic, social and political potential of this island. It divided worker against worker north and south, and strengthened sectarian divisions within the north. It is that legacy that this generation of Irish republicans is determined to resolve.
Significant progress has been made since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved 15 years ago. But more needs to be done. The Good Friday Agreement cannot become a mechanism for managing division. It has to be an accord which sign posts a journey to equality, fairness and prosperity.
In my conversations with American trade union leaders it was clear that we and they share our opposition to the policies of austerity.
In the north and despite having no mandate, the British government has imposed cuts which have seriously undermined the Executive’s ability to provide an economic and peace dividend.
In the south the determination of Fine Gael and Labour to stick to austerity is causing enormous difficulties for families. Some 415,000 people or 14% are on the live register while 300,000, mainly young people, have emigrated in the last four years. 1700 are fleeing the state every week. They have gone to Canada and Australia and to the USA.
It is a shameful indictment of successive Irish governments that citizens have no expectation that a young person can be born, grow up, live, work, prosper and grow old in the land of their birth.
It is also an indictment of successive Irish governments and of the leadership of the Labour movement that 100 years after the lockout the Irish state is only one of three EU member states in which workers have no legislated right to workplace representation –no right to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment.
Workers have no right to have their union recognised by their employer and have no right to collective bargaining. And while the slum conditions of 100 years ago may not be the conditions of today it is a fact that the gap between the rich and the poor is greater now than then. Inequality is as grave an issue today as it was 100 years ago.
Austerity condemns one in ten children to consistent poverty with 47% of households living on less than €100 a month after bills.
It is a truism that there are employers who do not believe in wasting a good recession. For right wing elites a recession is an opportunity to drive down wages; sack workers; hire others at cheaper rates; cut overtime payments; demand longer hours for less, and ignore the trade unions.
If there is to be a lasting legacy out of the 1913 Dublin Lockout it must be the right of workers to choose their own representatives and have them bargain collectively on their behalf. That means increasing pressure on the government to legislate for this.
It also means building alliances on social and economic matters with others in Ireland and abroad, who share our opposition to austerity.
It means getting back to activism; to organising, to campaigning, to recruiting, to agitating for the rights of workers, including unemployed workers, the poor and demonstrating across all employment sectors.
The vast majority of people want a society that is based on values of social justice, fairness, equality and decency. I firmly believe that this can be achieved if we work together.
The Labour event was also a celebration of the centenary of the Dublin Lockout of 1913 which many trade union leaders in the USA acknowledge was a pivotal moment in the development of the world-wide trade union movement. The Dublin Lockout involved about 20,000 workers who went on strike for recognition; better conditions and pay. It was a long and bitter battle against tyrannical bosses.
One result of the Lockout was the founding 100 years ago this month of the Irish Citizen Army to defend workers and promote workers rights. Three years later in seeking to advance those goals the Citizen Army played a key role in the Easter Rising against British Imperialism.
The lockout also saw women trade unionists take a leading role in defense of workers. Women like Louie Bennett who formed the Irish Women’s Reform League and Delia Larkin who founded the Irish Women Workers’ Union.
Workers in Ireland were not alone in battling for better conditions and wages. 100 years ago all around the world workers were coming together in trade unions and workers collectives.
The same year of the Dublin Lockout, the USA experienced its first general strike when 50,000 silk workers in Patterson, New Jersey struck for five months in order to win shorter working hours and better conditions. And while the starving workers returned to work without winning all their demands, their protests continued until in 1919 when they finally secured an eight-hour day.
Many Irish workers who fled hunger and poverty, injustice and political repression came to play a vital role in the trade union movement in the United States. Among these was the inspirational figure of James Connolly. He spent 7 years of his life in the USA where he helped establish and organise the Independent Workers of the World. Connolly also understood the importance of freedom from Britain and its linkage to the rights and freedoms and future prosperity of workers.
We are proud of James Connolly. We are proud of his record in defense of American Labour. We are also proud of the role James Connolly played in the fight for Irish freedom. In 1914 Connolly wrote that the damage the partition of Ireland would bring, especially in respect of workers rights would be ‘disastrous’. He warned that: “All hopes of uniting the workers, irrespective of religion or old political battle cries will be shattered.”
The history of the last 100 years is evidence of the truth of Connolly’s words. Partition created two conservative states in Ireland. It stunted the economic, social and political potential of this island. It divided worker against worker north and south, and strengthened sectarian divisions within the north. It is that legacy that this generation of Irish republicans is determined to resolve.
Significant progress has been made since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved 15 years ago. But more needs to be done. The Good Friday Agreement cannot become a mechanism for managing division. It has to be an accord which sign posts a journey to equality, fairness and prosperity.
In my conversations with American trade union leaders it was clear that we and they share our opposition to the policies of austerity.
In the north and despite having no mandate, the British government has imposed cuts which have seriously undermined the Executive’s ability to provide an economic and peace dividend.
In the south the determination of Fine Gael and Labour to stick to austerity is causing enormous difficulties for families. Some 415,000 people or 14% are on the live register while 300,000, mainly young people, have emigrated in the last four years. 1700 are fleeing the state every week. They have gone to Canada and Australia and to the USA.
It is a shameful indictment of successive Irish governments that citizens have no expectation that a young person can be born, grow up, live, work, prosper and grow old in the land of their birth.
It is also an indictment of successive Irish governments and of the leadership of the Labour movement that 100 years after the lockout the Irish state is only one of three EU member states in which workers have no legislated right to workplace representation –no right to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment.
Workers have no right to have their union recognised by their employer and have no right to collective bargaining. And while the slum conditions of 100 years ago may not be the conditions of today it is a fact that the gap between the rich and the poor is greater now than then. Inequality is as grave an issue today as it was 100 years ago.
Austerity condemns one in ten children to consistent poverty with 47% of households living on less than €100 a month after bills.
It is a truism that there are employers who do not believe in wasting a good recession. For right wing elites a recession is an opportunity to drive down wages; sack workers; hire others at cheaper rates; cut overtime payments; demand longer hours for less, and ignore the trade unions.
If there is to be a lasting legacy out of the 1913 Dublin Lockout it must be the right of workers to choose their own representatives and have them bargain collectively on their behalf. That means increasing pressure on the government to legislate for this.
It also means building alliances on social and economic matters with others in Ireland and abroad, who share our opposition to austerity.
It means getting back to activism; to organising, to campaigning, to recruiting, to agitating for the rights of workers, including unemployed workers, the poor and demonstrating across all employment sectors.
The vast majority of people want a society that is based on values of social justice, fairness, equality and decency. I firmly believe that this can be achieved if we work together.
November 10, 2013
The past cannot be an obstacle to the future
Friday - November 8th was the anniversary of the 1987 Enniskillen bomb attack in which 11 people were killed in an IRA bomb attack. Just before I left Belfast to travel to the USA I was interviewed for a documentary on the Ballymurphy Massacre in August 1971 in which 11 people were killed by the British Parachute Regiment.
Last week also saw the broadcasting of the Disappeared and details emerged of British Army tapes which may have filmed the sectarian killing by the UVF of 76 year old Roseanne Mallon in county Tyrone in May 1994. The inquest into Roseanne Mallon’s death is one of 29 which have been deliberately delayed for decades.
There were also the anniversaries of the Shankill Bomb and the Greysteel Massacre and other killings. The Pat Finucane Centre’s case worker Anne Cadwallader published her book, ‘Lethal Allies: British State Collusion in Ireland’ which details the involvement of British state forces operating in collusion in the murder of approximately 120 citizens in the 1970s. And there are many more families who have lost loved ones in other violent actions seeking truth.
The pain, the suffering and the tragedies from decades of conflict are, for many, as real today as they were, when they first occurred. Each occasion of anniversary evokes painful memories. And each such occasion is a reminder of the need to address the past as part of the work of building a peaceful future.
Almost 4000 people died and countless others were injured in a war that was vicious and brutal. Over the years I have attended many wakes and funerals of family members, friends and neighbours. I have met many victims, including victims of the IRA, and among them the families of those secretly buried by that organisation. Their story is one of the great tragedies of the conflict. What happened was wrong and unjustifiable. The IRA acknowledged this and apologised.
The grief of all of the victims of the conflict must be respected and acknowledged and all of us in political leadership have a responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that no future generation suffers the pain of war.
Regrettably, there are some in the political system and in sections of the media who see the issue of the past as an opportunity to attack Sinn Féin or more particularly me. An example of this occurred in the Dáil last Tuesday. A Fianna Fail TD Brendan Smith, speaking on the issue of those secretly buried by the IRA, that: “The IRA still refuse to accept responsibility for the murders and legitimate questions are not answered by Gerry Adams and others.”
None of this is true. The Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin knows this. He was a senior member of the government which established the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains at my request.
As a republican leader I have never shirked my responsibility on this issue. It was following representations by me that the IRA established a special unit in the autumn of 1997 to ascertain the whereabouts of the graves of a number of people executed and buried by it in the 1970’s. I have met the families of those affected by this. I have worked with the Commission and I will continue to do so. It has done tremendous work.
I participated in the programme to raise awareness and assist the search for the remaining bodies. That has been my focus for many years and I intend to honour the commitment I gave to the families to continue with my efforts.
The special forensics team, working to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, was established as a result of a proposal from Father Alec Reid and myself.
The forensic science consultant Geoff Knupfer, who leads the forensic team for the Commission, acknowledged several years ago the co-operation they received from the IRA. He said: "In a spirit of co-operation and reconciliation they [the IRA] are trying to help in every way they can. I am absolutely convinced that they are doing everything they can to assist. The support we have had from them has been absolutely 100 per cent from day one."
As a result of the work of the last 12 years nine bodies have been recovered and the sites of four of the six remaining bodies have been identified. The failure thus far to find the remaining bodies is not due to any lack of resolve or cooperation by me or other republicans.
Ranting about me is easy for those who rely on gossip, smear, their own imagination and the accusations of political enemies, but it will not help the families. Nor will resolving this injustice and recovering the bodies be assisted by political point scoring, felon setting or snide ill-informed newspaper articles. What is needed is information.
I therefore appeal again for anyone with any information, including anyone who was previously in touch with the Commission to contact them again on the basis of absolute confidentiality, in order to assist the Commission in reassessing the information available to it.
Any information passed to the Commission cannot be used in a court of law or transmitted to any other agency and those passing on this information have absolute immunity in relation to this information.
Unfortunately the issue of the past, and of truth and reconciliation has not made the progress it should have since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved.
Sinn Féin has proposed an independent international based process to deal with the past including all these issues. The fact is that none of the participants to the conflict can be responsible for creating such a process. However, thus far the British government refuses to agree on any mechanism that can deal with this issue and the Irish government and others have made no real effort to establish a viable truth recovery process. This is not acceptable.
The past cannot be an obstacle to dealing with the present or a pretext for refusing to build a new future of equality, fairness and prosperity for everyone. And while republicans recognise the complexity and difficulties which confront us all in dealing with this issue we are in no way daunted by it. Nor should anyone be.
It is necessary that in coming to the issue of truth and reconciliation that we all recognise that there are many different narratives to this story. We live in a divided and largely segregated society with different, and, in some instances, contradictory and opposite political allegiances. Little wonder that there are different perspectives on the causes of the conflict, what happened and who was responsible.
The role and actions of all combatant organisations must be fully considered, including government, state agencies and the legal and judicial system.
And paramount in all of this must be the views of the victims and survivors. Their voices must be heard and respected, not simply the loudest voices, not simply those on any particular side or those on no side. All victims must be treated on an equal basis. The views of the many thousand victims and survivors who have remained silent must also be heard.
So despite the personalised attacks on me Sinn Fein will not be deflected from campaigning for a truth and reconciliation process that can bring closure for families bereaved by the cruelty of war.
Last week also saw the broadcasting of the Disappeared and details emerged of British Army tapes which may have filmed the sectarian killing by the UVF of 76 year old Roseanne Mallon in county Tyrone in May 1994. The inquest into Roseanne Mallon’s death is one of 29 which have been deliberately delayed for decades.
There were also the anniversaries of the Shankill Bomb and the Greysteel Massacre and other killings. The Pat Finucane Centre’s case worker Anne Cadwallader published her book, ‘Lethal Allies: British State Collusion in Ireland’ which details the involvement of British state forces operating in collusion in the murder of approximately 120 citizens in the 1970s. And there are many more families who have lost loved ones in other violent actions seeking truth.
The pain, the suffering and the tragedies from decades of conflict are, for many, as real today as they were, when they first occurred. Each occasion of anniversary evokes painful memories. And each such occasion is a reminder of the need to address the past as part of the work of building a peaceful future.
Almost 4000 people died and countless others were injured in a war that was vicious and brutal. Over the years I have attended many wakes and funerals of family members, friends and neighbours. I have met many victims, including victims of the IRA, and among them the families of those secretly buried by that organisation. Their story is one of the great tragedies of the conflict. What happened was wrong and unjustifiable. The IRA acknowledged this and apologised.
The grief of all of the victims of the conflict must be respected and acknowledged and all of us in political leadership have a responsibility to do all that we can to ensure that no future generation suffers the pain of war.
Regrettably, there are some in the political system and in sections of the media who see the issue of the past as an opportunity to attack Sinn Féin or more particularly me. An example of this occurred in the Dáil last Tuesday. A Fianna Fail TD Brendan Smith, speaking on the issue of those secretly buried by the IRA, that: “The IRA still refuse to accept responsibility for the murders and legitimate questions are not answered by Gerry Adams and others.”
None of this is true. The Fianna Fail leader Micheál Martin knows this. He was a senior member of the government which established the Commission for the Location of Victims Remains at my request.
As a republican leader I have never shirked my responsibility on this issue. It was following representations by me that the IRA established a special unit in the autumn of 1997 to ascertain the whereabouts of the graves of a number of people executed and buried by it in the 1970’s. I have met the families of those affected by this. I have worked with the Commission and I will continue to do so. It has done tremendous work.
I participated in the programme to raise awareness and assist the search for the remaining bodies. That has been my focus for many years and I intend to honour the commitment I gave to the families to continue with my efforts.
The special forensics team, working to the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains, was established as a result of a proposal from Father Alec Reid and myself.
The forensic science consultant Geoff Knupfer, who leads the forensic team for the Commission, acknowledged several years ago the co-operation they received from the IRA. He said: "In a spirit of co-operation and reconciliation they [the IRA] are trying to help in every way they can. I am absolutely convinced that they are doing everything they can to assist. The support we have had from them has been absolutely 100 per cent from day one."
As a result of the work of the last 12 years nine bodies have been recovered and the sites of four of the six remaining bodies have been identified. The failure thus far to find the remaining bodies is not due to any lack of resolve or cooperation by me or other republicans.
Ranting about me is easy for those who rely on gossip, smear, their own imagination and the accusations of political enemies, but it will not help the families. Nor will resolving this injustice and recovering the bodies be assisted by political point scoring, felon setting or snide ill-informed newspaper articles. What is needed is information.
I therefore appeal again for anyone with any information, including anyone who was previously in touch with the Commission to contact them again on the basis of absolute confidentiality, in order to assist the Commission in reassessing the information available to it.
Any information passed to the Commission cannot be used in a court of law or transmitted to any other agency and those passing on this information have absolute immunity in relation to this information.
Unfortunately the issue of the past, and of truth and reconciliation has not made the progress it should have since the Good Friday Agreement was achieved.
Sinn Féin has proposed an independent international based process to deal with the past including all these issues. The fact is that none of the participants to the conflict can be responsible for creating such a process. However, thus far the British government refuses to agree on any mechanism that can deal with this issue and the Irish government and others have made no real effort to establish a viable truth recovery process. This is not acceptable.
The past cannot be an obstacle to dealing with the present or a pretext for refusing to build a new future of equality, fairness and prosperity for everyone. And while republicans recognise the complexity and difficulties which confront us all in dealing with this issue we are in no way daunted by it. Nor should anyone be.
It is necessary that in coming to the issue of truth and reconciliation that we all recognise that there are many different narratives to this story. We live in a divided and largely segregated society with different, and, in some instances, contradictory and opposite political allegiances. Little wonder that there are different perspectives on the causes of the conflict, what happened and who was responsible.
The role and actions of all combatant organisations must be fully considered, including government, state agencies and the legal and judicial system.
And paramount in all of this must be the views of the victims and survivors. Their voices must be heard and respected, not simply the loudest voices, not simply those on any particular side or those on no side. All victims must be treated on an equal basis. The views of the many thousand victims and survivors who have remained silent must also be heard.
So despite the personalised attacks on me Sinn Fein will not be deflected from campaigning for a truth and reconciliation process that can bring closure for families bereaved by the cruelty of war.
November 6, 2013
Lethal Allies by Anne Cadwallader
Collusion: Getting rid of unwanted members of the public Lethal Allies by Anne CadwalladerThe use of collusion by the British state in the north of Ireland is a well-established fact. The historical connection between unionist paramilitarism, the RUC and B Specials made it easy for the British. The northern state was born out of partition and the use and threat of violence by unionist political leaders. Many of those who founded the RUC and the various armed Special Police Groups, including the B Specials, which existed then were former members of the UVF (Ulster Volunteer Force) – an armed paramilitary organisation.
When the British Army came back onto the streets of Derry and Belfast in 1969 many of its officers and soldiers were fresh from the killing fields of Aden and Oman and some had served in Kenya and Cyprus and Malaya during the years of conflict in those places in the 1950s and early 60’s.
They brought with them the techniques of torture; of counter-gangs; of propaganda, and media and political manipulation that they had used there. Foremost among its advocates was Frank Kitson. He argued that to win against a guerrilla enemy which had the support of its community or at the very least a significant proportion of its community, the government, the law, the judiciary and the media all had to be reshaped and moulded to suit the aim of defeating the enemy. Kitson wrote: ‘The fundamental concept is the working of the triumvirate, civil, military and police, as a joint and integrated organisation from the highest to the lowest level of policy making, planning and administration.’ Kitson rationalised the use of death squads and the corruption of justice: ‘Everything done by a government and its agents in combating insurgency must be legitimate. But this does not mean that the government must work within exactly the same set of laws during an emergency as existed beforehand. The law should be used as just another weapon in the government’s arsenal, in which case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.’ What did all of this mean in practice? In the early years of the ‘troubles’ it meant the British Army forging a new unionist paramilitary organisation – the Ulster Defence Association – out of many small neighbourhood groups. It meant watching columns of masked UDA men in their thousands parade in paramilitary uniform through the streets of Belfast escorted by the RUC and British Army. It meant an increase in sectarian killings. The purpose of this was to frighten the nationalist community into rejecting the IRA; to drag that organisation into a sectarian war; and to make it easier for the British to present the conflict internationally as ‘mindless sectarian criminality’. It also allowed for the state to dispose of ‘unwanted members of the public.’ The history of those early years is writ large the use of spies and spooks and counter gangs by the British through organisations like the Military Reaction Force and the RUC Special Branch. Later additional forces like the Force Research Unit and the Special Air Service and others were brought to play by the Brits. Successive British government’s rejected the accusation of collusion. With some honourable exceptions most media acquiesced to this. Unionists politicians then and today still deny its existence despite the abundance of evidence.
In 2006 an Independent International Panel on Collusion into Sectarian Killings produced a detailed 109-page report. It followed a careful examination of 25 cases of unionist paramilitary violence between 1972 and 1977 in which 76 people were killed. The Panel found that in 24 cases involving 74 killings there was evidence of collusion involving the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment.
Launching the report Douglas Cassel, a human rights professor from the American University of Notre Dame, said he had been shocked at the extent of state collusion in the killings the team had investigated.
The following year the then Police Ombudsman Nuala O Loan published a report detailing how the RUC Special Branch knowingly colluded with a “serial killer” – Mark Haddock – providing him with cover, protecting him from prosecution and paying him at least £80,000 for his services as an agent. Special Branch agents operated outside the law and Special Branch officers covered up their crimes. The investigation directly linked Haddock with the murders of ten people and cites credible evidence to link him with further murders, shootings, beatings and bomb attacks as well as a catalogue of other crimes including drug dealing, extortion, intimidation and criminal damage. Throughout it all, Haddock enjoyed the full support of his Special Branch handlers who not only continued to pay him but also increased his wages. The report found a ‘pattern of work by certain officers within Special Branch designed to ensure that Informant 1 and his associates were protected from the law’. And then there is the case of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane about which I have written many times before. The British are so concerned by the potential of this one case to expose the lie that collusion was not an instrument of institutional and official government policy that they reneged on a commitment at Weston Park in 2001 to hold an enquiry. But the issue of collusion will not disappear. It has left behind too many victims, their families and questions unanswered. And now truth has a new champion with the publication of ‘Lethal Allies – British collusion in Ireland’ by Anne Cadwallader. Anne who is a case worker with the Pat Finucane Centre has spent three years researching the deaths of 120 citizens who were killed between 1972 and 1978. ‘Lethal Allies’ chronicles the extent of collusion between unionist paramilitaries and the RUC and UDR in that six year period in the 1970’s and it provides a significant new body of information and evidence about the extent of collusion at that time. It contains significant new evidence relating to 120 sectarian killings, including the Dublin and Monaghan bombs which claimed 33 lives, that occurred during a relatively short period in the 1970s. The reports from the Historical Enquiries Team, which have never been seen before, provide a significant insight into the role of the RUC and UDR in sectarian killings. The Pat Finucane centre has also added substantial new evidence through its careful research in the files available in the British national archives in Kew Gardens in London and elsewhere and extensive interviews with victim’s families have also produced new information. The book makes difficult reading. Page after page records the death of a loved one and the brutal circumstances in which their lives were taken. But page after page also reports the depth of RUC and UDR direct and indirect involvement in most of these deaths. There are many cases that stand out. But the bomb attack on the Rock Bar, Granemore, in mid Armagh, provides one of the clearest examples of collusion at work. Late on June 5 1976 three men wearing masks pulled up in a car outside of it. They shot one man and seriously wounded one man Michael McGrath who was standing outside. They placed a bomb outside and fired indiscriminately into the building. Only the detonator exploded and no one else was injured. All of those involved in this attack were serving members of the RUC. ‘Lethal Allies’ methodically strips away the connections in this and in case after case and reveals the extent of RUC and UDR involvement all of these murders. But it goes further than that it also exposes the degree to which the institutions of the state, including the DPP and the judiciary colluded in the covering up and shielding of those involved in these actions. When the three RUC officers were eventually arrested and brought to court, along with several others, the serious charge of attempted murder relating to the Rock Bar attack were dropped. Michael McGrath was not called as a witness nor were any of the other people in the Rock Bar. Two of the three were given suspended sentences and the third, Constable William McCaughey, who had been convicted several weeks earlier of the sectarian murder of William Strathearn, was sentenced to seven years to run concurrently with his conviction for the killing of Strathearn. The Lord Chief Justice Lowry tellingly remarked: ‘All of the accused have admitted their offences and all of them have acted wrongly or emotionally under the same powerful motives, in one case the mortal danger of their service and in the other the feeling that more than ordinary police work was needed and justified to rid the land of the pestilence which has been in existence.’ In the days since the book has been published a succession of unionist politicians and former RUC officers have denied, denied, denied. There is no surprise in this. Anne Cadwallader records in her book that when Harvard historian Caroline Elkins reported on events in Kenya the British first denied that any abuses had taken place then ‘when presented with the evidence, blamed the beatings, hangings, torture and forced removals on “bad apples”.’
‘Duplicity at its finest,’ she called it. That phrase of ‘bad apples’ and others like ‘renegade officers’ have been used often in the past. It was trotted out to excuse the torture of detainees in Castlereagh and Gough Barracks and Strand Road in the late 1970s. It is being used again in recent days. Once more it is about trying to distance the British political system from any complicity in what occurred. However, the extent of collusion and its cover-up; the fact that British politicians knew of its existence and did nothing to prevent it and the refusal to hold the Pat Finucane enquiry are all evidence of collusion. This is perhaps best summed up by Anne Cadwallader in her conclusion. She writes, “The inescapable fact, established beyond doubt by these events, is that successive British governments and their law enforcement agencies entered into a collusive counter-insurgency campaign with loyalist paramilitaries. It was thoroughly unethical – and it failed dismally. It was also illegal under international law.” In October 2011 the then British Secretary of State Owen Patterson stood in the British Parliament and admitted that the British State colluded with Loyalist gunmen in Pat’s murder. On the same day David Cameron told the Finucane family that there would be no inquiry into Pat Finucane’s death just a review of the papers. Patterson’s words were part of a damage limitation exercise. The British hoped it would silence the Finucane family. It didn’t work. Moreover a British Minister, on behalf of the British Prime Minister, was admitting that his predecessors had participated in a criminal action. The British government should move immediately to establish the inquiry into the Pat Finucane killing which it signed up for at Weston Park and has reneged on. And it should engage positively in the debate around truth, legacy and reconciliation matters which thus far it has obstructed and frustrated.
When the British Army came back onto the streets of Derry and Belfast in 1969 many of its officers and soldiers were fresh from the killing fields of Aden and Oman and some had served in Kenya and Cyprus and Malaya during the years of conflict in those places in the 1950s and early 60’s.
They brought with them the techniques of torture; of counter-gangs; of propaganda, and media and political manipulation that they had used there. Foremost among its advocates was Frank Kitson. He argued that to win against a guerrilla enemy which had the support of its community or at the very least a significant proportion of its community, the government, the law, the judiciary and the media all had to be reshaped and moulded to suit the aim of defeating the enemy. Kitson wrote: ‘The fundamental concept is the working of the triumvirate, civil, military and police, as a joint and integrated organisation from the highest to the lowest level of policy making, planning and administration.’ Kitson rationalised the use of death squads and the corruption of justice: ‘Everything done by a government and its agents in combating insurgency must be legitimate. But this does not mean that the government must work within exactly the same set of laws during an emergency as existed beforehand. The law should be used as just another weapon in the government’s arsenal, in which case it becomes little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of unwanted members of the public.’ What did all of this mean in practice? In the early years of the ‘troubles’ it meant the British Army forging a new unionist paramilitary organisation – the Ulster Defence Association – out of many small neighbourhood groups. It meant watching columns of masked UDA men in their thousands parade in paramilitary uniform through the streets of Belfast escorted by the RUC and British Army. It meant an increase in sectarian killings. The purpose of this was to frighten the nationalist community into rejecting the IRA; to drag that organisation into a sectarian war; and to make it easier for the British to present the conflict internationally as ‘mindless sectarian criminality’. It also allowed for the state to dispose of ‘unwanted members of the public.’ The history of those early years is writ large the use of spies and spooks and counter gangs by the British through organisations like the Military Reaction Force and the RUC Special Branch. Later additional forces like the Force Research Unit and the Special Air Service and others were brought to play by the Brits. Successive British government’s rejected the accusation of collusion. With some honourable exceptions most media acquiesced to this. Unionists politicians then and today still deny its existence despite the abundance of evidence.
In 2006 an Independent International Panel on Collusion into Sectarian Killings produced a detailed 109-page report. It followed a careful examination of 25 cases of unionist paramilitary violence between 1972 and 1977 in which 76 people were killed. The Panel found that in 24 cases involving 74 killings there was evidence of collusion involving the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment.
Launching the report Douglas Cassel, a human rights professor from the American University of Notre Dame, said he had been shocked at the extent of state collusion in the killings the team had investigated.
The following year the then Police Ombudsman Nuala O Loan published a report detailing how the RUC Special Branch knowingly colluded with a “serial killer” – Mark Haddock – providing him with cover, protecting him from prosecution and paying him at least £80,000 for his services as an agent. Special Branch agents operated outside the law and Special Branch officers covered up their crimes. The investigation directly linked Haddock with the murders of ten people and cites credible evidence to link him with further murders, shootings, beatings and bomb attacks as well as a catalogue of other crimes including drug dealing, extortion, intimidation and criminal damage. Throughout it all, Haddock enjoyed the full support of his Special Branch handlers who not only continued to pay him but also increased his wages. The report found a ‘pattern of work by certain officers within Special Branch designed to ensure that Informant 1 and his associates were protected from the law’. And then there is the case of human rights lawyer Pat Finucane about which I have written many times before. The British are so concerned by the potential of this one case to expose the lie that collusion was not an instrument of institutional and official government policy that they reneged on a commitment at Weston Park in 2001 to hold an enquiry. But the issue of collusion will not disappear. It has left behind too many victims, their families and questions unanswered. And now truth has a new champion with the publication of ‘Lethal Allies – British collusion in Ireland’ by Anne Cadwallader. Anne who is a case worker with the Pat Finucane Centre has spent three years researching the deaths of 120 citizens who were killed between 1972 and 1978. ‘Lethal Allies’ chronicles the extent of collusion between unionist paramilitaries and the RUC and UDR in that six year period in the 1970’s and it provides a significant new body of information and evidence about the extent of collusion at that time. It contains significant new evidence relating to 120 sectarian killings, including the Dublin and Monaghan bombs which claimed 33 lives, that occurred during a relatively short period in the 1970s. The reports from the Historical Enquiries Team, which have never been seen before, provide a significant insight into the role of the RUC and UDR in sectarian killings. The Pat Finucane centre has also added substantial new evidence through its careful research in the files available in the British national archives in Kew Gardens in London and elsewhere and extensive interviews with victim’s families have also produced new information. The book makes difficult reading. Page after page records the death of a loved one and the brutal circumstances in which their lives were taken. But page after page also reports the depth of RUC and UDR direct and indirect involvement in most of these deaths. There are many cases that stand out. But the bomb attack on the Rock Bar, Granemore, in mid Armagh, provides one of the clearest examples of collusion at work. Late on June 5 1976 three men wearing masks pulled up in a car outside of it. They shot one man and seriously wounded one man Michael McGrath who was standing outside. They placed a bomb outside and fired indiscriminately into the building. Only the detonator exploded and no one else was injured. All of those involved in this attack were serving members of the RUC. ‘Lethal Allies’ methodically strips away the connections in this and in case after case and reveals the extent of RUC and UDR involvement all of these murders. But it goes further than that it also exposes the degree to which the institutions of the state, including the DPP and the judiciary colluded in the covering up and shielding of those involved in these actions. When the three RUC officers were eventually arrested and brought to court, along with several others, the serious charge of attempted murder relating to the Rock Bar attack were dropped. Michael McGrath was not called as a witness nor were any of the other people in the Rock Bar. Two of the three were given suspended sentences and the third, Constable William McCaughey, who had been convicted several weeks earlier of the sectarian murder of William Strathearn, was sentenced to seven years to run concurrently with his conviction for the killing of Strathearn. The Lord Chief Justice Lowry tellingly remarked: ‘All of the accused have admitted their offences and all of them have acted wrongly or emotionally under the same powerful motives, in one case the mortal danger of their service and in the other the feeling that more than ordinary police work was needed and justified to rid the land of the pestilence which has been in existence.’ In the days since the book has been published a succession of unionist politicians and former RUC officers have denied, denied, denied. There is no surprise in this. Anne Cadwallader records in her book that when Harvard historian Caroline Elkins reported on events in Kenya the British first denied that any abuses had taken place then ‘when presented with the evidence, blamed the beatings, hangings, torture and forced removals on “bad apples”.’
‘Duplicity at its finest,’ she called it. That phrase of ‘bad apples’ and others like ‘renegade officers’ have been used often in the past. It was trotted out to excuse the torture of detainees in Castlereagh and Gough Barracks and Strand Road in the late 1970s. It is being used again in recent days. Once more it is about trying to distance the British political system from any complicity in what occurred. However, the extent of collusion and its cover-up; the fact that British politicians knew of its existence and did nothing to prevent it and the refusal to hold the Pat Finucane enquiry are all evidence of collusion. This is perhaps best summed up by Anne Cadwallader in her conclusion. She writes, “The inescapable fact, established beyond doubt by these events, is that successive British governments and their law enforcement agencies entered into a collusive counter-insurgency campaign with loyalist paramilitaries. It was thoroughly unethical – and it failed dismally. It was also illegal under international law.” In October 2011 the then British Secretary of State Owen Patterson stood in the British Parliament and admitted that the British State colluded with Loyalist gunmen in Pat’s murder. On the same day David Cameron told the Finucane family that there would be no inquiry into Pat Finucane’s death just a review of the papers. Patterson’s words were part of a damage limitation exercise. The British hoped it would silence the Finucane family. It didn’t work. Moreover a British Minister, on behalf of the British Prime Minister, was admitting that his predecessors had participated in a criminal action. The British government should move immediately to establish the inquiry into the Pat Finucane killing which it signed up for at Weston Park and has reneged on. And it should engage positively in the debate around truth, legacy and reconciliation matters which thus far it has obstructed and frustrated.
October 24, 2013
acceptable behaviour?
Last week the Finucane family buried their mother Kathleen. She died without the closure on the murder of her son, human rights lawyer Pat Finucane that had been promised by the British and Irish governments at Weston Park in 2001.
That commitment was reneged on by the British government. It is not their only broken commitment. 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement there is no Bill of Rights for the north; there is no Acht na Gaeilge; and there is no north-south consultative forum. There is opposition to change from within elements of the British system – from those don’t like the peace process and the fact that they failed to defeat Irish republicanism. The growing strength of Sinn Féin across the island is their worst nightmare.
There is also opposition to change from within political unionism. The northern state was built on discrimination, sectarianism and segregation in order to maintain unionist domination. For nationalists the north was an apartheid state. But it has also been bad for unionists locking them into a political cul-de-sac in which working class loyalist communities face huge problems of poverty, disadvantage and criminality.
Recently in parts of Belfast we have seen the most naked sectarian elements of unionism stirred up for short term political purpose. There has been months of organised sectarian violence on the streets of Belfast as the Orange Card has been played again. The Orange Order in alliance with the UVF and the PUP has been deliberately stoking up tensions. The DUP and UUP leaderships have allowed these organisations to set a violent sectarian agenda. And unionist leaders have failed to stand up to this at the time when decisive positive leadership may have made a real difference.
In stark contrast when so-called dissidents killed PSNI officers and British soldiers Martin McGuinness stood shoulder to shoulder with Peter Robinson and the Chief Constable to condemn those actions in assertive, clear and robust language. There was no equivocation by Martin. No delay. He showed leadership.
That’s what is missing from within political unionism. Positive leadership to build the political process; to take a stand against illegal marches, sectarianism and violence, and the provocative actions of the Orange Order in Belfast.
I retain the hope that such a leadership will develop. In this spirit I very much welcomed Peter Robinson’s remarks last Thursday night at a Co-Operation Ireland dinner, organised to acknowledge the efforts of the GAA to forge better community relations. Peter Robinson expressed the need for respect. I agree with him completely. The GAA has indeed played a very significant role in encouraging better community relations. One thing that most sportspeople have for their rivals is respect. Politicians could learn a lot from that ethos.Notwithstanding the expertise and standing of Richard Haass and Megan O Sullivan they would be the first to acknowledge that the only people who can resolve these issues are the people who live in the communities affected and their leaders.
The first question to be asked therefore is: what is acceptable behaviour?Is it acceptable that there can be public displays and in some cases saturation of public thoroughfares, of flags or emblems of illegal organisations responsible for killing hundreds of people, mostly because they were Catholic?
Is it acceptable that places of worship are targeted? That there are regular incitements to hatred? Is it acceptable that the union flag is used in an offensive way? I would certainly wholeheartedly condemn the use of the Irish national flag if it is used in any disrespectful or offensive way.
Is it acceptable that young people are actively encouraged to hate their neighbours on the basis of their religion?
Is it acceptable that there should be a tolerance of gangs engaged in criminality because they masquerade as either loyalist or republican?
I believe it is not. I believe that it is contrary to the wishes of the vast majority of people. I also believe it is unlawful. Citizens of Dublin or London or New York would not have to endure that which is foisted on the citizens of Belfast and other places, and defended or tolerated by some political leaders.Sinn Féin holds out the hand of friendship to unionists, including the Orange, and former unionist paramilitaries. We do so on the basis of equality and partnership.
Solutions are needed to resolve these difficult issues of symbols, marches and the past. But this will only be done if leaders lead.
October 19, 2013
a life time stuck in silence
Earlier this year I met four year old Billy Cairns from Dundalk. Like all children of his age he is friendly and smart. And he is hugely courageous. Billy is also profoundly deaf.
I mention Billy because his was the first Cochlear Implant case I raised in the Dáil and on Thursday we raised his case again and others during the party’s private members business. This is an opportunity we get once each three weeks to raise an issue of importance, have the Dáil debate it and if necessary vote on it.
Occasionally some PMB’s are so clear cut that all of the parties support them. But on Thursday, and to its shame the Fine Gael and Labour government opposed the Sinn Féin motion which called on the government to provide the money necessary to provide bilateral cochlear implants for children who are deaf.
The mothers and fathers of the children are an amazing group. They are committed, dedicated, imaginative, unstinting, and tireless in their determination to get the very best for their children. They will travel anywhere, meet anyone, and present a compelling account of their experience and of their hopes and demands for their children. Their Happy New Ear group is a first class example of an effective lobby group and its web site is clever and informative. I logged on again the night before the debate and listened to Emili Sandé sing her evocative ‘Read all about it’ in which there is the line, ‘You’ve spent a life time stuck in silence,’and watched as children and parents tell their story. It is a clever, inventive, and moving video which packs an emotional wallop.
All of us in the Dáil, and from all parties and none, who have met the children and their parents have been moved and motivated by their courage and example. For me this is an issue of fundamental rights and I said so during the debate but sometimes the least said the more effective the message. Jonathan O Brien our TD from Cork got to his feet praised the parents and children and then asked for everyone to remain silent in the Dáil chamber for several minutes so that we could all get a sense of what the children suffer.
The mothers who were sitting in the public gallery were visibly moved by his gesture. Sadly the same cannot be said of the government parties.
Medical science has provided a means by which many of deaf children can hear. It means providing a device called a cochlear implant - a surgically implanted electronic device - that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf. The operation is difficult and especially so for children who may have to undergo several procedures requiring a general anaesthetic.
The Department of Health’s policy for the last 17 years has dictated that a patient should only receive one cochlear implant. That means that the children who go through this operation have hearing in only one ear. This is despite the fact that International best practice dictates that children receive bilateral implants, that is implants in both ears. It is a fact that children who only hear through one ear face serious hurdles as they grow. There are better Educational outcomes if a child can hear with both ears.
It allows them to determine where sounds are coming from, vital in a noisy environment like a classroom, or the playground, or in the street or the shopping centre or indeed the Dáil chamber. Similarly their confidence and sense of security is reinforced if they can hear their mother or father call them. Fundamentally it gives these children the ability to communicate with others - to make friends with other children.
Young Billy went through an operation last April to replace his faulty implant. Before that operation I raised his case in Leaders Questions. I sent word to the Taoiseach in advance so that he wouldn’t be bounced on this important issue. He was sympathetic and promised to raise the cochlear implant issue with the Minister for Health James Reilly. I also suggested that when Billy was getting his faulty implant fixed that the second implant could be fitted. Again the Taoiseach was sympathetic. I also spoke to the Taoiseach privately and in detail on at least two occasions. I also spoke to Dr. Reilly.
I then wrote to the two of them and briefed them fully on the general issue of these profoundly deaf children’s needs and right to have bilateral implants. I followed this up with both Ministers but despite the sympathy and positive responses Billy went on to have his operation but no second implant.
The operation would have cost €18,000. This would have been taxpayers money well spent but it was refused by the government. I cannot help but compare their stinginess in Billy’s case with their generosity with public monies when it comes to giving a digout to their cronies in the banking and financial elites.
When Bill had his operation he could say only one word. NO. Billy now has 16 words and has discovered the magic of music. But the fault in the implant and the lack of a second means that he was unable to begin school in September and it will now be next September before he begins. He will also need a Special Needs Assistant and ongoing speech and language therapy.
Had Billy had a second cochlear implant his development would by now have been more advanced. When Billy’s implant failed he was plunged back into a world of silence. Imagine the trauma for any child of being forced back into silence for 6 weeks.
Noting recommendations made by the National Audiology Review Group is not the same as implementing those recommendations.
The government parties voted through an amendment to our motion which was in effect a fudge. The Minister praised the families. But there was no indication that the business plan from Beaumont hospital on the provision of bilateral cochlear implants will be resourced.The government’s motion contained no action plan and no commitment to introduce the bilateral cochlear implant programme. Nor is there a commitment to include this programme in the 2014 HSE estimates process.
The reality is that the children and their parents are in a race against time to ensure that the children have the operation before they are too old for it to be effective. Unless these implants are connected in the early years of a child’s life that by the age of seven or eight the operation will be ineffective as the nerves will have died off.
After that children born and raised in silence may never speak; something which will adversely impact on the rest of their lives.
These young citizens have already faced a great deal of adversity in their short lives. They deserve the same rights and opportunities as every other child and every other citizen in this state. They have the right to hear; the right to be heard and to have a voice.
October 14, 2013
A Mean budget
Tomorrow – Tuesday - the Fine Gael and Labour government will publish its third budget. They were elected to undo the damage of Fianna Fáil but have chosen instead to implement Fianna Fáil policies. This will be the seventh austerity budget by those three parties which collectively will have stripped €30 billion out of the economy.
In the days leading to the budget the Simon Community released the latest details of homelessness which is spiralling to new levels. As well as an increase in the numbers of homeless it reports that government cuts to the budgets of homeless services and charities are causing huge difficulties.
The Central Statistics Office in its most recent survey on Income and Living Conditions recorded that the numbers in the ‘at risk poverty rate’ had increased from 14.7 per cent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011.
Another report in recent days revealed that 1800 patients, including some with life threatening conditions, are waiting on cardiac treatment for up to six months. Staff cuts and funding cuts have left all of the 36 hospitals surveyed by the Irish Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation and the Irish Heart Foundation without the cardiac rehab expertise they need.
These are just two of countless examples of how austerity policies driven by Fine Gael and Labour are hurting citizens.
The government’s austerity policies are driving up poverty and disadvantage. Emigration and unemployment are at record levels especially among our young people; public services, particularly health, are in crisis and there are more cuts to be imposed this year; the economy is flat lined and the family home tax is being imposed on citizens. Every day families contact my office and the offices of every other TD about bad decisions taken in respect of their medical cards – decisions that are driving families over the edge into poverty and leaving many without the essential health care they need.The determination of Fine Gael and Labour to stick to austerity is causing huge difficulties for families and small and medium businesses across this state. There have been:Cutbacks in special needs educationCuts to Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit and to the home help services.Cuts to those reliant on social welfare - cuts to the Household Benefits Package which provides a range of assistance for pensioners, carers and people with disabilities. Cuts to homelessness services of 10%.Attacks on low and middle income earners– family stealth taxes, household charges, water charges, the USC and cost of living increases.While at the same time there have been increases in salaries for Government appointees – including clear breaches of the cap imposed on salaries to be paid to government special advisors.
Austerity is working for the wealthy but it isn’t working for low and middle income families. Some 415,000 people are on the live register while 300,000 have emigrated in the last four years.
There are 49,000 people waiting for hospital treatments.
One in ten children are living in consistent poverty with 47% of households living on less than €100 a month after bills.
There are 90,000 households languishing on social housing lists while 180,000 households are in mortgage distress.
There are alternative policies. There are decisions that can be taken by this government which can ease the burden on low and middle income families and on those who are disadvantaged.
Labour knows this. In opposition it argued against many of the policies it is now implementing in government. In the 2011 general election Labour warned what a Fine Gael government would do. In its Tesco-like ad ‘Every Little Hurts’ Labour claimed that a vote for Fine Gael would see child benefit cut; car tax increase; VAT increase and water charges introduced.
Labour claimed a vote for it was a vote to stop these.
After the election Labour u-turned and broke all of these election pledges. Labour cut Child benefit. Labour has backed water charges. Labour supported VAT increases and car tax increases.
When asked on RTE about Labour’s broken election promise to protect child benefit, Pat Rabitte said: “Isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?”
Tuesday’s budget will see the imposition of more cuts.
The damage being done to the economy by these decisions will be significant. But the damage done to society will be greater still and this government seems unconcerned about the social consequences of its decisions.
Fianna Fáil's disastrous time in office, and its surrender of economic sovereignty has left the state in a criticial financial position. Sinn Féin understands that the books must be balanced but it is the decisions that are taken to achieve this that are vital.
Last week Sinn Féin produced our alternative fully costed budget. It reduces the tax burden on ordinary families, protects public services and invests in jobs.
There are over 30 measures tax and savings measures in our document to make a deficit adjustment of €2.45 billion and pay for our €750 million worth of proposed new spending and tax back. These include:48% tax on income over €100,000: Raises€365 millionRe-introduce Non-Principal private Residence charge at€400: Raises €151 millionRestore Capital GainsTax to 40%: Raises €98 millionIncrease Capital AcquisitionsTax to 40% and lower thresholds: Raises €108 million 1% Wealth Tax on net wealth over €1 millionNew employers’ rate of PRSI of 15.75% on portion of salary over €100,000: Raises€119.1 millionStandardise pension tax reliefs: Raises €343 millionAllow for carry-over (€583mn): adjustments
(€607mn) and partial year (€405mn)Deliver further savings on branded medicines and alter prescribing practices: Saves €258millionPartial introduction of full cost private care in public hospitals: Saves €120millionPhased withdrawal of private school annual state subsidy: Saves €36.3millionOireachtas Pay and Allowances, including Taoiseach and Ministers reduced by 50% of everything over €75,000, and TDs and Senators reduced to €75,000 and €60,000 saves €3.7million.Part of our budget also calls for free GP care for under five’s. Last week when launching the document I said that we were happy for the government to plagiarise any or all of it. At the weekend there were media reports that it is planning to introduce free GP care for the under 5s. We wait to see whether this is true and if they plan to adopt other parts of our budget.
In the Dáil chamber this week Sinn Féin’s Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty TD and other colleagues will expose the meanness of this government and the hypocrisy of Labour and we will stand up for the rights of citizens – especially those who are least able to defend themselves.
In the days leading to the budget the Simon Community released the latest details of homelessness which is spiralling to new levels. As well as an increase in the numbers of homeless it reports that government cuts to the budgets of homeless services and charities are causing huge difficulties.
The Central Statistics Office in its most recent survey on Income and Living Conditions recorded that the numbers in the ‘at risk poverty rate’ had increased from 14.7 per cent in 2010 to 16 percent in 2011.
Another report in recent days revealed that 1800 patients, including some with life threatening conditions, are waiting on cardiac treatment for up to six months. Staff cuts and funding cuts have left all of the 36 hospitals surveyed by the Irish Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation and the Irish Heart Foundation without the cardiac rehab expertise they need.
These are just two of countless examples of how austerity policies driven by Fine Gael and Labour are hurting citizens.
The government’s austerity policies are driving up poverty and disadvantage. Emigration and unemployment are at record levels especially among our young people; public services, particularly health, are in crisis and there are more cuts to be imposed this year; the economy is flat lined and the family home tax is being imposed on citizens. Every day families contact my office and the offices of every other TD about bad decisions taken in respect of their medical cards – decisions that are driving families over the edge into poverty and leaving many without the essential health care they need.The determination of Fine Gael and Labour to stick to austerity is causing huge difficulties for families and small and medium businesses across this state. There have been:Cutbacks in special needs educationCuts to Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Benefit and to the home help services.Cuts to those reliant on social welfare - cuts to the Household Benefits Package which provides a range of assistance for pensioners, carers and people with disabilities. Cuts to homelessness services of 10%.Attacks on low and middle income earners– family stealth taxes, household charges, water charges, the USC and cost of living increases.While at the same time there have been increases in salaries for Government appointees – including clear breaches of the cap imposed on salaries to be paid to government special advisors.
Austerity is working for the wealthy but it isn’t working for low and middle income families. Some 415,000 people are on the live register while 300,000 have emigrated in the last four years.
There are 49,000 people waiting for hospital treatments.
One in ten children are living in consistent poverty with 47% of households living on less than €100 a month after bills.
There are 90,000 households languishing on social housing lists while 180,000 households are in mortgage distress.
There are alternative policies. There are decisions that can be taken by this government which can ease the burden on low and middle income families and on those who are disadvantaged.
Labour knows this. In opposition it argued against many of the policies it is now implementing in government. In the 2011 general election Labour warned what a Fine Gael government would do. In its Tesco-like ad ‘Every Little Hurts’ Labour claimed that a vote for Fine Gael would see child benefit cut; car tax increase; VAT increase and water charges introduced.
Labour claimed a vote for it was a vote to stop these.
After the election Labour u-turned and broke all of these election pledges. Labour cut Child benefit. Labour has backed water charges. Labour supported VAT increases and car tax increases.
When asked on RTE about Labour’s broken election promise to protect child benefit, Pat Rabitte said: “Isn’t that what you tend to do during an election?”
Tuesday’s budget will see the imposition of more cuts.
The damage being done to the economy by these decisions will be significant. But the damage done to society will be greater still and this government seems unconcerned about the social consequences of its decisions.
Fianna Fáil's disastrous time in office, and its surrender of economic sovereignty has left the state in a criticial financial position. Sinn Féin understands that the books must be balanced but it is the decisions that are taken to achieve this that are vital.
Last week Sinn Féin produced our alternative fully costed budget. It reduces the tax burden on ordinary families, protects public services and invests in jobs.
There are over 30 measures tax and savings measures in our document to make a deficit adjustment of €2.45 billion and pay for our €750 million worth of proposed new spending and tax back. These include:48% tax on income over €100,000: Raises€365 millionRe-introduce Non-Principal private Residence charge at€400: Raises €151 millionRestore Capital GainsTax to 40%: Raises €98 millionIncrease Capital AcquisitionsTax to 40% and lower thresholds: Raises €108 million 1% Wealth Tax on net wealth over €1 millionNew employers’ rate of PRSI of 15.75% on portion of salary over €100,000: Raises€119.1 millionStandardise pension tax reliefs: Raises €343 millionAllow for carry-over (€583mn): adjustments
(€607mn) and partial year (€405mn)Deliver further savings on branded medicines and alter prescribing practices: Saves €258millionPartial introduction of full cost private care in public hospitals: Saves €120millionPhased withdrawal of private school annual state subsidy: Saves €36.3millionOireachtas Pay and Allowances, including Taoiseach and Ministers reduced by 50% of everything over €75,000, and TDs and Senators reduced to €75,000 and €60,000 saves €3.7million.Part of our budget also calls for free GP care for under five’s. Last week when launching the document I said that we were happy for the government to plagiarise any or all of it. At the weekend there were media reports that it is planning to introduce free GP care for the under 5s. We wait to see whether this is true and if they plan to adopt other parts of our budget.
In the Dáil chamber this week Sinn Féin’s Finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty TD and other colleagues will expose the meanness of this government and the hypocrisy of Labour and we will stand up for the rights of citizens – especially those who are least able to defend themselves.
October 11, 2013
The Witch-hunt
Dundalk PresserThis blog was in Louth today launching Sinn Fein's alternative budget submission. It was first to Drogheda and then on to Dundalk. Afterward I issued a statement arising from questions I was asked by the journalists about the recent court case.
Speaking in Dundalk today in answer to questions about the Liam Adams case, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD said:
"For me this always been a family matter.
"It was quite rightly brought to the RUC and Social Services in 1987.
"So accusations of cover-up are patently cynical and untrue.
"As well as the allegations raised by Áine my family have also had to cope with the revelation that our father was an abuser.
"All of this has been hugely testing and challenging for me and for my clann. Only those who have had to go through this can appreciate the trauma it has caused.
"I am a public figure and subject to scrutiny and that is fair enough – but the despicable manner in which this issue is being dealt with by the DUP and others, and by some cynical elements of the media has become trial by media and a witch-hunt.
"It also does not take account of the impact this is having on my family who have been affected by all of this.
"For my part I have committed no offence.
"The matters you raise have all been dealt with by me in previous interviews and during the trial in which I appeared as a witness for the prosecution and answered all of the questions put to me.
"Liam has been found guilty and Áine has been vindicated.
"You will know that the PPS has asked the Attorney General in the north to review the decision by the PSNI and separately by the PPS that I have no case to answer.
"You will know that, under pressure from the DUP, the PSNI has begun an investigation into the evidence I gave during the court case.
"You will also know that, following a complaint by three senior DUP figures: Edwin Poots, Jonathan Craig and Paul Givan, the Police Ombudsman has now initiated an investigation into how the PSNI handled the Liam Adams case and according to media reports it is looking specifically at my evidence.
"That means that four law agencies in the north are now investigating or reviewing aspects of this case, mostly in respect of my evidence.
"This is unprecedented. I have learned of all of these developments in the media.
"My rights, if I have any, are unclear.
"I think in the interests of fairness that those sections of the media and those politicians who have been involved in a quite despicable campaign in recent days should allow these agencies to complete their work.
"The Police and Social Services had full information and detail of Áine’s allegations from 1987.
"I never had that detail.
"When Áine raised her abuse by her father with me again years later, she was an adult capable and entitled to make her own decisions on how she wanted to proceed.
"It was not my place to take decisions for her or to take any actions, other than what she wanted at that time, which was for Liam to acknowledge that he had sexually abused her; that she had told the truth and to apologise.
"I worked to facilitate an engagement between them with the aim of getting him to do this.
"When Liam failed to do this Áine went to the PSNI.
"I co-operated fully with the PSNI.
"I made statements in support of Áine.
"I co-operated fully with the Public Prosecution Service and with the prosecution lawyers.
"I gave evidence in court against my brother and in support of Áine.
"I reject unconditionally the charge that I committed any offence. I did my best and continue to do my best to deal with this issue.
"My extended family have all been affected by this case. I am not asking for the media to give me some special dispensation. But my family should be given the space and privacy to heal the hurt.
"I also want to thank all those people who sent messages of support and solidarity, including Oireachtas members from other parties, as well as constituents in Louth and others."
Out and about in Drogheda
September 30, 2013
Deasún Breatnach – An Appreciation
‘All we Irish speakers seek is equality’ Deasún Breatnach was an extraordinary man.His wife Luci (Lucila Hellman de Menchaca) was equally special and together they had six talented and gifted children; Diarmuid, Osgur, Caoilte, Oisín, Cormac and Lucilita.Deasún lived his life to the full and that is reflected in the 11 books he wrote and in his significant and valuable library of hundreds of books, on history and literature, on culture and the Irish language, heritage and folklore that the family presented to Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta, NUI Galway last Saturday evening.The Acadamh is charged with promoting higher education through the medium of Irish and works in the Irish communications sector, with a particular reference on journalism.Deasún would have applauded their decision.Instead of gathering dust in boxes they will now find renewed life on the shelves of Galway University and play their part in influencing and shaping future generations of journalists and writers.Deasún was many things – a poet, a novelist, a writer, a political activist, a socialist republican, a Gaelgéoir and a journalist. He was a father and grandfather and musician.He was also passionate about the co-operative movement and an active member of Conradh na Gaeilge. His devotion to the Irish language which he learned in the 1950’s, is legendary.Deasún wrote music and children’s stories; was an editor and linguist who published in Irish, English and Spanish.At differing times in his life he worked for most of the main newspapers in this state and when he eventually retired he was a sub-editor for the Irish independent.He used many pen names including Mac Lir, Dara Mac Dara and Rex Mac Gall section 31.Deasún was a member of Sinn Féin and on two occasions was editor of the Sinn Féin paper An Phoblacht.On the first occasion he stepped up to the plate in 1973-74 when Éamon Mac Thomáis was imprisoned under the Offences against the State Act.It was a dangerous and difficult time to be a republican activist and especially a very public activist editing An Phoblacht.Almost all found themselves arrested, dragged off to an interrogation centre, abused and briefly before the Special Criminal Court, before being sent off to Mountjoy or Portlaoise prison.Deasún’s son Osgur was an infamous victim of this process and of the heavy gang.Deasún became editor of An Phoblacht again in 1977 for two years.
In that year the entire editorial staff and the SDLP printer of the Belfast based Republican News were arrested and imprisoned before the charges were dismissed. Official censorship in the south through Section 31 and unofficial censorship in the north meant that republicans had to work hard to promote and defend our political analysis.There was no social media. No you tube or twitter or facebook or internet.Local news bulletins printed in their tens of thousands on gestatner machines and distributed free door to door were widely used. But the main vehicles of republican publicity were Republican News based in Belfast and An Phoblacht based in Dublin.Deasún was one among many very brave men and women who wrote, designed, laid out and distributed these papers.He had a sharp intellect, boundless energy and commitment, and was a prolific writer.He worked long hours to earn a living and raise his family.At the same time he gave freely of his time and experience and writing skills to produce An Phoblacht.In his time Deasún wrote for the Irish Press, the Irish Times and th
Deasún agus Luci
Deasún Breatnach – LéirthuiscintDuine faoi leith a bhíi nDeasún Breatnach. Bhí a bheanchéile Lucy (Lucile Hellman de Menchaca) mar a gcéanna agus rugadh seisear clainne dóibh a raibh buanna agus tallann faoi leith acu; Diarmuid, Osgur, Caoilte, Oisín, Cormac agus Lucilita.Chaith Deasún saol iomlán agus tá sé sin léirithe sa 12 leabhar a scríobh sé agus sa leabharlann shuntasach agus luachmhar a bhí aige, ina raibh na céadta leabhar staire agus litríochta, cultúir agus teanga, leabhair atá an teaghlach á mbronnadh ar Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta, Ollscoil na hÉireann, Gaillimh.Tá sé de dhualgas ar an Acadamh ardoideachas a chur chun cinn trí mheán na Gaeilge agus trí shaothair in earnáil na cumarsáide Gaeilge, agus le béim faoi leith ar an iriseoireacht.Bheadh Deasún sásta lena gcinneadh.In áit ligean dóibh dusta a charnadh i mboscaí cuirfear beocht úr iontu ar sheilfeanna Ollscoil na Gaillimhe agus beidh tionchar acu ar ghlúnta iriseoirí agus scríbhneoirí atá le teacht.Duine ilghnéitheach a bhí i nDeasún – file, úrscéalaí, scríbhneoir, gníomhaí polaitiúil, sóisialaí, poblachtanach, Gaeilgeoir agus iriseoir.Athair, dadó agus ceoltóir ab ea é.Bhí sé paiseanta faoin Ghaeilge. Chum sé ceol agus scéalta do pháistí; bhí sé ina eagarthóir agus ina theangeolaí a d’fhoilsigh ábhar as Gaeilge, Béarla agus Spáinnis. I rith tréimhsí áirithe ina shaol d’oibrigh sé do bhunús na bpríomhnuachtán sa stát seo agus nuair a chuaigh sé ar scoir sa deireadh bhí sé mar fho-eagarthóir ar an Irish Independent. Is iomaí ainm cleite a d’úsáid sé, Mac Lir, Dara Mac Dara agus Rex Mac Gall ina measc. Bhí Deasún fosta dhá uair mar eagarthóir ar nuachtán Shinn Féin, An Phoblacht. Ghlac sé leis an chúram seo den chéad uair sa bhliain 1973 nuair a cuireadh Éamon Mac Thomáis i bpríosún de réir An Achta um Chiontaí in aghaidh an Stáit,Am contúirteach agus deacair a bhí ann le bheith i do ghníomhaí poblachtanach agus go háirithemar ghníomhaí an-phoiblí ina eagarthóir ar An Phoblacht.Gabhabh beagnach gach duine, glacadh chuig ionad ceistiúcháin iad, tugadh drochíde daoibh agus i ndiaidh seal gairidin roimh An Chúirt Choiriúil Speisialta, cuireadh go Príosún Mhuinseo nó Phort Laoise iad. D’fhulaing mac Dheasúin, Osgur, faoin phroiséas seo agus faoin lámh láidir. Bhí Deasún ina eagarthóir arís ar An Phoblacht sa bhliain 1977 ar feadh dhá bhliain. Sa bhliain sin gabhadh foireann iomlán eagarthóireachta agus clódóir de chuid an SDLP ón nuachtán lonnaithe i mBéal Feirste, Republican News. Cuireadh i bpríosún iad sular caitheadh na cúisimh amach.Níorbh ann do na meáin sóisialta. Níorbh ann do You Tube, Twitter ná Facebook. Baineadh úsáid go forleathan as feasacháin nuachta a ndearnadh na mílte cóip dóibh agus a scaipeadh saor in aisce ó dhoras go doras. Ba iad an Republican News, a bhí lonnaithe i mBéal Feirste, agus An Phoblacht, a bhí lonnaithe i mBaile Átha Cliath, an dá phríomhbhealach poiblíochta a bhí ag Poblachtanaigh.Bhí Deasún i measc na ndaoine cróga sin a scríobh, a dhear, a leag amach agus a dháil na nuachtáin seo. Bhí intleacht ghéar aige, fuinneamh agus tiomantas ollmhór, agus scríbhneoir torthúil a bhí ann. D’oibir sé uaireanta fada chun beatha a thabhairt i dtír agus chun a chlann a thógáil.Ag an am céanna, thug sé a chuid ama agus taithí go saor chomh maith lena scileanna scríbhneoireachta chun An Phoblacht a chur amach. Ar feadh tamaill, scríobh Deasún don Irish Press agus don Irish Independent. Chomh maith leis sin, scríobh sé don Farmers Journal, An Timire, na hirisí Bell agus Comhar agus Feasta agus do Scéál Éireann, Inniu agus Lá. Scríobh sé litreacha go minic do na nuachtáin sin.Ba mhinic é ag scríobh faoi na ceisteanna a raibh tionchar acu ar an teanga.Mar shampla, i Samhain 2004, d’fhoilsigh The Irish Times litir uaidh inar cháin sé an dóigh nár cuireadh teiripe cainte ar fáil do pháistí i gCo. Chiarraí. Scríobh sé:‘Seo sampla eile d’éagothroime maidir le Gaeilgeoirí agus an locht go soiléir ar institiúidí na hÉireann.’Chuir sé an-bhéim ar an éagthroime riamh.An bhliain chéanna cháin sé go mór roinnt polaiteoirí a dúirt go raibh Acht na dTeangacha Oifigiúla ina ‘chur amú ollmhór airgid’.
In alt gairid, scríobh Deasún forógra gníomhaíochta don Ghaeilge agus don chothromas. Scríobh sé: “Bímis soiléir air seo: Níl uainn mar Ghaeilgeoirí ach Cothrom na Féinne, agus deiseanna chuige sin, seasamh oifigiúil don chothromas, cothromas ar fad na tíre, i gcúrsaí clódóireachta, ar an raidió, ar an Teilifís, maidir le caiteachas poiblí, san Oireachtas, ar leibhéal údaráis áitiúil, le linn na dtoghchán, san eaglais agus go poiblí in áit ar bith a dtagann daoine le chéile le haghaidh gnó nó le haghaidh pléisiúir….Tá gach duine i dteideal, de réir cearta daonna, meas a fheiceáil ar an dínit s’acu féin, agus, ar an teanga s’acu féin, an Ghaeilge san áireamh.’ Ba léir ó na focail sin an grá a bhí ag Deasún don teanga, chomh maith leis na hidéil shóisialacha agus phoblachtanacha. Tá na rudaí a rinne sé chun tacaíocht a léiriú do na hidéil seo i mbéal an bhig is an mhóir. I 1966 nuair a bhí Rialtas na hÉireann ar shiúl ag ceiliúradh Chomóradh 50 Bliain Éirí Amach na Cásca, bhí Deasún ar dhuine den ghrúpa gníomhaíochta Gaeilge – Misneach- a thug dúshlán an Stáit maidir leis an dóigh ‘nár éirigh leis an stát aidhmeanna sínitheoirí an Fhorógra a bhaint amach.’Chuaigh siad ar stailc ocrais ar feadh seachtaine agus d’eagraigh siad picéad taobh amuigh d’Ard-Oifig an Phoist chun an feachtas a léiriú.Dúirt Micheál Mac Aonghusa, a bhí ina bhall de Misneach, nár chreid sé ‘ go raibh na daoine sin a fuair bás le linn Sheachtain na Cásca ag iarraidh go mbeadh ainmneacha s’acu in airde in áit a gcuid aidhmeanna a bheith bainte amach.’Fuair Deasún bás agus é 85 bliana d’aois ar an 3ú Dheireadh Fómhair 2007. Go tragóideach don chlann, tharla sé ar an lá chéanna nuair a bhí a máthair á cur acu. Ba ghníomhaí polaitiúil í Lucy Bhreatnach ar a bealach féin agus d’oibrigh sí le Amnesty International, le Gluaiseacht Frith-Apartheid na hÉireann agus leis an Chomhairle um Chearta an DuineDís faoi leith a bhí sa bheirt acu le chéile. Ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghábháil le Diarmuid, Osgur, Caoilte, Oisín, Cormac agus Lucilita as an bhronntanas leabhar tábhachtach d’Ollscoil na Gaillimhe.
September 26, 2013
Abolish the Seanad
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Vote YES - Abolish the Seanad The story goes that an Irish politician arrived in New York and unexpectedly had to stay overnight. The hotel clerk said, ‘sorry we’re full up’ until, that is, the politician dropped the fact that he was a Senator in the Irish Parliament. He was then asked to wait while the clerk rushed off and within a matter of moments Senator X had his room.Why? Because Americans know that their Senators have real power and influence and the clerk assumed Irish Senators are the same. Not so. But this wasn’t the first Irish Senator to find that arranging a meeting, getting a hotel room or a taxi or booking a restaurant in the USA is always made easier when the title ‘Senator’ is affixed to the name. The perception is greater than the reality.
And now the future of the Seanad (Senate) hangs in the balance. On October 4th a referendum will determine whether the Seanad stays as is or is abolished.
Sinn Féin would have preferred voters to have the additional choice of opting for root and branch reform and we proposed that the government hand the issue over to the constitutional convention for discussion and recommendation. But the government rejected this and has only allowed foe a YES or NO response to abolition.
In these circumstances Sinn Féin is calling for YES vote to abolish the Seanad.
The Seanad is an anachronistic, elitist and undemocratic institution which seeks to emulate the role of the equally elitist British House of Lords. It is not elected by the people but by only one per cent of the electorate. It has 60 members. Six are elected by the graduates of some universities; 43 are elected from five panels of nominees, which supposedly represent key elements of society, such as agriculture and education, public administration, the trade unions and business; and 11 are nominated by the Taoiseach.
Today’s Seanad was created by the 1937 Constitution and in the decades since , with a few honourable exceptions, it has become synonymous with cronyism and corruption, particularly by the Fianna Fáil party. That party used the system of political nominees to reward close political allies. The Seanad was also used as a safety net for those who failed to get elected to the Dáil.
At no point has the Seanad acted as a real check on the actions of the government. Since Fine Gael and Labour came to power two and a half years ago the Seanad has supported the government on every occasion, including the introduction of the Property Tax, cuts to the money provided to carers and the disabled, and a succession of austerity policies that have forced up unemployment and forced out over 300,000 citizens to Australia and Canada and the USA.
In addition the Seanad has no power to put questions to Ministers; nor can it prevent government legislation from becoming law and almost all amendments proposed and adopted by the Seanad in recent years was with the government’s agreement.
No democrat can in my view support a body as flawed, powerless, undemocratic and discriminatory as this.
However, thus far the political and public debate around the referendum hasn’t really sparked. The refusal of the Taoiseach to debate the issue on television has excited some interest. The Fianna Fáil party which had called for abolition in its last election manifesto has flip-flopped on the issue and is now campaigning for its retention and reform.
Its leader Micheál Martin claims that reform is possible. He has even gone so far as to suggest that a reformed Seanad would allow for northern representation and for the diaspora to be represented in the Dáil.
Few take this Damascus-like conversion too seriously. The Fianna Fáil leadership is desperate to rebuild the party after its disastrous showing in 2011. Martin believes that this tactical political position will provide him with a political platform to oppose the government and secure much needed media attention.
This is the same Micheál Martin who as part of the last government refused to hold a by-election in Donegal South for purely party political interests and with no consideration for the voters of that area who were left under represented.
This is the same Micheál Martin who supported Bertie Ahern throughout his time as Taoiseach and saw nothing wrong with using the Seanad to reward political cronies. This included using secure car parking and access to the Dáil members bar for close associates, including the general secretary of the party.
This is the same Micheál Martin who was part of a government which agreed to allow northern MPs to speak in the Dáil without voting rights as part of the peace process negotiations and then reneged on that.
In his fourteen years in the Fianna Fáil government neither Mr. Martin nor his government made any effort to reform the Seanad. So can their latter day conversion to reform be believed? I don’t think so.
But Fianna Fáil are not alone in how they abused the Seanad. Despite numerous claims over the decades by all of the establishment parties that they would reform the Seanad none ever did. On 12 successive occasions reports were produced proposing reform. None was ever implemented. In 1979 the people voted in a referendum to broaden the franchise to all graduates of institutes of higher education. It gathers dust on a shelf somewhere.
The fact is that no government has ever been prepared to allow the second chamber to scrutinise in a meaningful and effective manner its legislative programme.
There can be no place in a democratic system for an elected institution to which only a tiny minority have the right to vote. All citizens must be treated equally. It is also clearly unjust that citizens right to vote is determined by their level of education.
So, on October 4th the electorate will have their say in referendum. I am asking that they vote to abolish the Seanad. Of course that doesn’t mean that what remains is fine. On the contrary the political system needs significant reform but that’s for another blog.
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