Gerry Adams's Blog, page 66

Cycling in Dublin

As those who follow twitter or my blog know I like to walk and to cycle. My schedule doesn’t allow for me to do these as often as I would like but when the opportunity presents itself I jump in with both feet.
This is bike week. It’s an annual event organised here and elsewhere around the world to promote cycling and through it encourage a healthier life style for citizens. Wednesday was the third annual Dublin City Lunchtime Cycle event for workers who spend their days in and around the centre of the city.
Along with a half dozen comrades from the Dáil I joined thousands of others in bright beautiful sunshine to take the 5k cycle from Grand canal Square.
The craic was good and it was a thoroughly enjoyable half hour. A great way to see Dublin and stay healthy.

Dundalk Gateway Report sounds alarm – Adams

The Dundalk Gateway Report is one of a series of nine such reports covering the performance of the Gateways that exist across the state.

Gateways were established to provide a strategically placed centre of economic growth and to facilitate these areas to grow to their full potential.
The Dundalk Gateway region which covers Dundalk Town and north Louth faces a number of unique challenges including the fact that is exists along a border area. This has played a key role in how Dundalk has evolved and has heavily influenced the local economy. It is especially important in the time ahead that there is greater co-operation across the border and that initiatives like the Memorandum of Understanding between Louth County Council and Newry and Mourne District Council are expanded.
The fact that Dundalk is located almost mid-way between the two largest urban centres and economic zones on the island – Dublin and Belfast – is an advantage that must be exploited more..
The Dundalk Gateway which includes a substantial part of north Louth is one of the primary urban centres in the state and is the seventh largest population centre.
The presence of the Dundalk Institute of Technology is a significant influence within the region and has helped increase the number of citizens with third level education – an important factor in assisting economic growth. However at 25.97% of the labour force it is substantially less than the 31.07% average of other Gateways. Dundalk has the third lowest third level attainment of all the Gateways.
Latterly Dundalk has successfully attracted significant foreign direct investment, including eBay and PayPal and Prometric.
However, the Dundalk Gateway Report raises a number of issues of concern.
The deferral of the Gateway Innovation Fund five years ago removed an important funding mechanism for infrastructure. The report states that: ‘The decline in development and infrastructure funding has impacted upon the realisation of a number of the goals of the Dundalk Gateway. There has been a notable decline in the overall amount of economic activity taking place within the Gateway. This has directly impacted upon the financial resources of the Local Authorities as the rates base within the county has contracted significantly. The amount of development which is taking place within the Gateway has declined substantially and this has further eroded the potential income streams which could have been used to fund Gateway objectives.’
At the same time as there has been a decline in economic activity there has been an increase in population, mainly in the urban area around Dundalk town. More people, especially young people needing jobs.
The Dundalk Gateway report also records that the region has been less successful than other Gateways ‘in attracting or retaining people from the core working age cohorts’ necessary for economic expansion.
The number of new firms created in 2011 within the Gateway is slightly less than the average for Gateways across the state and shows a decline when compared with the report in 2006.
The Gateway report shows a substantial increase in unemployment in the region between 2006 and 2011. The rate for Dundalk was 24.19% almost five points more than the Gateway average. It is the second highest of any of the designated Gateway regions.
In addition there is also a concern at the failure to provide broadband across the Gateway. Broadband is essential for economic growth and to encourage investment. Currently the percentage of households with private broadband stands at 61.9%. This is below the 63.52% Gateway average and the EU average which is 67%. As the Gateway report concludes on this issue; ‘Poor broadband access is a restrictive factor in attracting new business to the region.’
On health and wellness the Gateway report concludes that access to primary health care is below the average of all Gateways and it warns that the rise in the number of dependents living within the Gateway has ‘important implications for health care services and could place additional pressure on health services.’
The report also reveals that the Dundalk Gateway region suffers from the highest levels of deprivation across all of the nine Gateway areas.
The Gateways structure is a useful device for channelling investment and infrastructure to specific regions but it is only as good as the investment government puts into it. This report clearly identifies failures in government policy and gaps in investment that must be closed. The onus is on the government to do this.
 

 

The Future of the Seanad

The debate on the future of the Seanad continued this week in the Dáil. Last Thursday the Taoiseach moved the 32nd Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013. It contains 40 amendments to the Constitution which will remove all references to the Seanad.
It is thought that the amendment will be put to the vote in a referendum in October. If passed the amendment will abolish the Seanad after the next general election and before the first sitting of new Dáil.
It will allow for some 75 deletions of the constitution dealing with the composition of the Seanad, and which cover relations between the Dáil and the Seanad in respect of legislation. 
The government intends pushing the Bill through its second and remaining stages by the end of the week.
In my contribution to the government’s plan to abolish the Seanad I said:
“The real starting point of this discussion should have been about how best we can organise our democracy and governmental system, and about how this could best be done in the context of creating an inclusive society on this island while reaching out to the diaspora.
The Ceann Comhairle will be pleased to learn I do not intend to set out a full critique of Irish society at this time; suffice it to say we live in a partitioned island.  Members present forget that.  That reality shapes society in all parts of the island.  
The institutions of this State are deeply partitionist.  They are also corrupt, as evidenced in the range of tribunal reports over recent years.  It goes deeper than that, however.  Partition created two conservative states, ruled by two conservative elites.  
The political culture was weighted against citizens' rights and both states have been characterised by economic failure, emigration, inequality and the failure to protect the most vulnerable citizens.  If we are to tackle these issues effectively then we need to have an all-Ireland view.
The most significant political reform since partition has been the Good Friday Agreement.  The impact of this is most obvious in the North but not so obvious in this part of the island.  None of the reforms, safeguards or checks and balances of the Agreement has been inculcated into our institutions here.  Why not?
The Government should be actively pressing ahead with the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, including those aspects that impinge on us here.  I refer to the creation of more areas of co-operation and implementation and greater harmonisation; the strengthening of the protection of human rights, including through a charter of rights for the island; and a forum for consideration of human rights issues in the island, as included in the Agreement.
The centenary of the 1916 Rising and Proclamation is approaching.  It is often cited by establishment parties in this Oireachtas as the foundation of the State.  The 1916 leaders are frequently described as the founders of this State.  The Proclamation was not the foundation of this State.  The leaders were not the founders of this State.  This State is the product of the counter-revolution that followed the Rising.  
The Proclamation, which sets out the ethos and principles that underpinned the objectives of the 1916 leaders is as relevant today as it was when it was written.  It guarantees religious and civil liberty and equal rights and equal opportunities to all citizens, and it contains a commitment to cherish all the children of the nation equally.  These words are a solemn pledge to every Irish citizen that she or he can share in the dignity of humankind, as an equal with equal opportunity, and that we can enjoy freedom, educate our children, provide for our families and live together with tolerance and respect for each other.  
That should be our starting point, and the process of political reform should be grounded on these core values and be about measures, structures and protocols that empower citizens and create a fully functioning, democratic, transparent, republican system of government that is accountable, citizen centred and rooted in equality, human rights and communal solidarity.  
It should also have at its core the imperative of actively seeking to fulfil the constitutional obligation of bringing about the reunification of this island and of its people, as outlined in the Good FridayAgreement.
Instead of this, however, the Government has decided to opt for cuts and greater centralisation of power.  Instead of creating a more effective, transparent accountable democracy, the Government wants to abolish the Seanad, cut the number of elected representatives in the Dáil and in local government, and centralise even more power and authority into its hands.  
That is not real reform; it is power grabbing.  It may be a very democratic coup but it is a coup none the less.  There is more power for government, less accountability and democracy and fewer checks and balances against political abuse and patronage.
The cuts agenda that dominates this Government's thinking do not bring efficiency, as we have seen from the austerity policies.  They lead to hardship, inefficiency and more inequality.
The Constitutional Convention has been considering the reform of aspects of the political system.  However, the Government chose not to include the future of the Seanad in its considerations, despite the commitment in the Labour Party's pre-election manifesto.  This is another broken promise to add to its growing list of broken pledges.   The Constitutional Convention could have played a very constructive role in reforming the political process.  Instead, this has been stymied by the Government, which has significantly restricted the convention's remit.  
Over the past two weekends, the convention discussed the Dáil electoral system.   I attended last week's deliberations.  The citizen delegates were enthused and focused but limited in what they could discuss.  They could consider only the very narrow agenda of Dáil electoral reform?  Why did the Government not trust the Constitutional Convention to discuss political reform?  Was the Government afraid to allow citizens to have their say on these matters?  Was it afraid they would advocate substantial reform of the Oireachtas, including the Seanad?  
It would have made sense to address the issues of how we do our business and govern ourselves and what is wrong from the citizens' perspective with these institutions, and to ventilate all the ideas of reforming the Dáil, Seanad and local government.  
Instead, the Government, which promised a democratic revolution and claimed to be committed to the radical reform of an outdated system, has failed yet again.  Its approach to political reform has been piecemeal, minimalist and all about reducing the number of elected representatives.  It has been more about spin than substance. In addition to getting rid of 60 Seanadóirí, the Taoiseach plans to reduce the numbers of councils, councillors and Deputies.  He has cut numbers but brought forward no real, positive, progressive change.  He has done nothing to rebalance power between central and local government, nor has he done anything to rebalance power within the Oireachtas or between the Executive and Legislature.  
He risks missing an opportunity to create historic political reform and leaving behind a mess for a future Government to clear up.  
This State has one of the most centralised systems of government in Europe, based entirely on the British system, and a weak system of local government that has been hollowed out by successive Governments.  This concentrates too much power in hands of the Executive and the two Houses of the Oireachtas, which are not fit for purpose in 21st-century Ireland.
The flaws evident in the Seanad are reflective of a broader malaise at the heart of our democracy and this institution.  The Seanad has not been reformed because successive Governments refused to reform it.  On 12 successive occasions, reports have been produced proposing reform of the Seanad.  Not one has been implemented.   In 1979, the people voted in a referendum to broaden the franchise to all graduates of institutes of higher education.  This was never implemented.  No Government was prepared to allow further scrutiny of its work.  As a consequence today, we have a Government that is increasingly unaccountable, arrogant and apparently oblivious to the impact of its policies on low- and middle-income households and disadvantaged and vulnerable citizens.  This is a Government that is abusing its massive majority to force through legislation.
In the words of the Chief Whip, the Government's record on Dáil reform has been deplorable.  More than half of the Bills introduced to the Dáil since the coalition came into office in March 2011 have been rushed through or guillotined.  Do Members remember the promise that this practice would occur only in the most exceptional circumstances?  
Up to mid-March, 52 out of 90 Bills were guillotined.  Rushed legislation will invariably end up with flaws that will be challenged in the courts.  
The legislation to provide for the family home tax was rushed though the Dáil before Christmas and had to be amended in the new year.
Another pledge, and one of the major planks of the reform programme, was that senior Ministers would make themselves available to deal with Topical Issue debates.  Instead, they have failed to appear in the Dáil three times out of four, on average, to respond to Topical Issues.  In addition, the system of ordering Dáil business is not agreed through a system that is fair, inclusive and transparent for all parties.
The Friday sitting was presented as a means for the Dáil to pass more legislation and to be more efficient.  It has failed on both counts.  There are no votes or questions to Ministers.  It is a farce.  Leaders' Questions, as the Taoiseach has acknowledged, has become a source of huge frustration for Opposition parties.  It serves no real purpose in its current format and is in no way holding the Taoiseach to account.
The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission is not inclusive of all the parties in the Oireachtas and its decisions frequently exclude Sinn Féin and others.  There is no access to media facilities for Opposition parties, unlike Government parties.  If they want to do a press conference, Opposition parties can chose between the plinth or, if the weather is inclement, huddle under the portico.  How is that indicative of an efficient political system at work?
The Government also lauds its decision to allow Dáil committees to question newly appointed chairs of State boards, but these committees have no power to do anything about these appointments.  Sinn Féin believes a case can be made for a second chamber that is democratic, relevant and fit for purpose, and is part of a wider reform of the political system.   Any reform of the Seanad must be underpinned by clear principles of democracy, accountability and efficiency in its role, and has to be on the basis of the universal franchise and direct election by the people.
Sinn Féin rejects a Seanad whose Members are hand-picked by county councillors, university graduates or nominated by a Taoiseach.  Those who serve in any part of the Oireachtas should be elected by the people.  A radically reformed Seanad should also give a voice to citizens in the North.  It should be a genuinely national institution.  There is currently no provision for the participation of those citizens who live in the North in the political life of the State.
The Seanad should be elected by universal suffrage of the 32 counties of Ireland by citizens over the age of 16.  Citizens in the Six Counties should cast their ballot by postal vote.  The diaspora also should be represented.  It is astonishing that a Government which so regularly looks to the Irish diaspora to help with the economic crisis then denies the very same people the right to have a voice in the Oireachtas.
Sinn Féin believes that it is possible to have a Seanad that is an elected forum for civic society, particularly for those sectors not adequately represented in the Dáil and the more marginalised sections of our community.  This is the kind of real reform we should be debating.  Let us look around the Chamber.  It is mostly male, all white and mainly middle aged, Catholic and heterosexual.  A reformed Seanad should address this imbalance.
There is no voice in the Dáil for ethnic minorities, whether they are Irish Travellers or the myriad other ethnic minorities who have come to this country in recent years.  A reformed Seanad could change this.  A reformed, democratically elected and accountable Seanad could serve our democracy well and act as an important counter-balance to the political party dominated Dáil.  
A reformed Seanad could, for example, further scrutinise domestic and, in particular, European legislation.  We have seen in recent years the results of the failure to properly implement or interpret European legislation.  Waterford Crystal workers had to take their fight for pension rights to the European Court of Justice due to the failure of the system here to properly implement the insolvency directive.   The sugar beet industry was decimated by the closure of the Carlow and Mallow sugar plants which, it later emerged, should never have been closed.  A second chamber, elected in a different manner, and with a less constituency focused membership, would be better placed than the Dáil to discuss technical and complex policy issues at length, perhaps along the lines of the hearings on the X case.
The Taoiseach has spoken about comparisons with other EU states which function with a single chamber.  In EU states with unicameral or single chamber systems there are much stronger systems of local government.  There is also a very clear separation of the executive from the legislature and sufficient checks and balances within the system to hold the executive to account.  
This is clearly not the case in this State and the Government seems to have set its face against any real rebalancing of power between local and central government or between the Legislature and the Executive.
When I heard the Taoiseach recently criticise the Seanad for failing to hold the excesses of the last Fianna Fáil Government to account and blaming it for the economic crash, I was amazed.  The reality is that the Taoiseach and his party were as much a cheerleader for the Celtic tiger and its excesses and lack of regulation as the Fianna Fáil politicians who ran the State into the ground.
Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil were part of a cosy consensus in this State for decades.  It was Sinn Féin who argued during those years for the wealth of the Celtic tiger to be redistributed and invested in public services, infrastructure and sustainable jobs.  
It is the establishment parties which failed to act as a brake on the Celtic tiger and to ensure that the economy was properly managed and invested, and the corrupt activities of the golden circles confronted and exposed.  That continues under the Taoiseach's watch.  The cosy consensus is still there.
To point the finger at the Seanad for the mess that all the other parties made of the situation would be laughable if it were not so serious.  They collectively failed to legislate for the banks, developers and speculators, and when it all went disastrously wrong they still could not hold them accountable but chose to make ordinary citizens pay for the greed of the golden circles.  The Taoiseach now seems intent on proceeding with a decision taken on a whim at a Fine Gael annual dinner, without proper discussion, analysis or scrutiny.
Citizens should not be rushed into further curtailing the Oireachtas without looking at the consequences or without any serious consideration of the alternatives.  A referendum should not be limited to abolition or retention.  Why does the Taoiseach not give citizens the option of voting for root branch and reform?  Would that not be the decent and democratic thing, and part of what he promised in the election?
One of the reasons offered for the abolition of the Seanad is its cost.  Sinn Féin has consistently argued for the need to reduce high salaries in the public sector, including for politicians, Ministers and their special advisors.  If the Government wants to reduce costs in the Oireachtas it should cut the salaries of Ministers, Deputies and Senators, reduce allowances, cut the salaries of special advisors and stop breaching its pay caps.
The Taoiseach proposes to reduce two dysfunctional Chambers to one dysfunctional Chamber without giving the people the option of voting for an alternative.  
Successive Governments had the opportunity to reform the system and all failed to do so.   The Government is now papering over the cracks and presenting this abolition Bill as reform.  It is not.
Sinn Féin put forward a reasonable proposal that the Constitutional Convention should look at reform of the Oireachtas.  There is still the potential to do so.  It could properly tease out all these issues with the aim of achieving the best checks and balances and the most democratic outcome for our system of government.  Why rush things?  
Why not give people a number of choices and put in place a reform package which is meaningful, sustainable, democratic and effective?  Sinn Féin would support the Government in such an approach.  We will not support this amendment.

G8 must do more

This morning I was among almost two thousand, mainly young people, who attended President Obama’s visit and speech in the Waterfront in Belfast. It was a good speech which recognised some of the challenges and issues still outstanding from the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements.
The President is here as part of the G8 summit. Over the next 48 hours he and the other leaders of some of the world’s richest states will meet in the Lough Erne Hotel resort in County Fermanaghto discuss matters of pressing concern.
According to the organisers the agenda for the two day conference ‘will focus on economic issues, specifically trade, tax avoidance matters, transparency on how gas, mining and oil companies function, as well as international violence, and political reform that will allow citizens to hold their governments to account’.
There will also, they say, be a concentration on the civil war that is tearing Syria apart.’  Almost 100,000 people have been killed there in the last two years.
The G8 is a hugely influential meeting of world leaders. It brings together 8 nations which hold a huge proportion of the world’s wealth. The policy agreements that emerge over the next two days will significantly shape the worlds economy. Thus far the G8 and the wider meeting of the G20 have failed to effectively tackle the global economic crisis and the range of other issues, like world hunger and poverty; climate change and investment in disadvantaged regions of the world. Truth is that’s not what these summits are about.
It is a sad fact that every night one billion people go to bed hungry. Three million children die from malnutrition and hunger and many more from preventable diseases. Millions more suffer from stunting – a physical condition that limits physical and cognitive development that is caused by chronic malnutrition. In a world which has the resources to feed everyone and to provide health care for everyone – this is a scandal. One estimate by the World Bank concluded that $10 billion dollars a year – a tiny amount in comparison to the trillions available to the G8 - could provide sufficient nutrition for the 36 countries which together contain about 90% of those affected by lack of proper nutrition.
An end to world hunger is not some pie in the sky, unrealisable goal. It can be done. If governments apply themselves it is possible to achieve an end to world hunger over the next decade.  The ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ campaign group has said that an additional investment of $42 billion annually in world agriculture would allow us to reach that goal. It seems like a large amount of money but it pales into insignificance when set against the money government’s globally spent on weapons.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute world military expenditure last year totalled $1753 billion - which is around 2.5% of the world’s GDP. Allocating $42 billion each year to save three million lives and to end world hunger would appear to me to be a small price to pay. So,the leaders of the G8 need to re-evaluate their priorities. There needs to be a significant increase in aid specifically targeted at agriculture. In the last 20 years of the last century international aid to agriculture collapsed from 17% of all aid in 1980 to 3.4% in 2006. Decisions by the G8 at its most recent summits have failed in this.
The G8 has also failed, along with other governmental structures to adequately address the issue of climate change which each year impacts on 325 million people and kills more than 300,000.
According to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security’s High Level Panel of Experts:
‘Food insecurity and climate change are, more than ever, the two major global challenges humanity is facing and climate change is increasingly perceived as one of the greatest challenges for food security.’
The recent controversy about the huge amounts of tax that multi-national companies like Apple and Starbucks and others do not pay to governments has also raised serious concern around tax avoidance, tax havens and transparency in respect of government budgets.
The fact that Apple CEO Tim Cook could tell the US Senate Investigation that for the last ten years Apple Sales Ireland paid an average corporate tax rate of just 2 percent and in 2011 paid just 0.5% tax, is evidence of the scale of the problem and the loss of revenue to governments.

The hundreds of millions of lost tax revenue could have been used to get people back to work but it also affects the developing world where Christian Aid estimate that the lives of 350,000 children could be saved each year if this kind of corporate tax avoidance was ended.

The ‘Enough Food for Everyone IF’ campaign group has produced an excellent briefing paper on the G8 summit providing information on all of these issues. IF represents over 200 organisations, including Concern, Trócaire, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Muslim Charity and Muslim Aid and Children in Crossfire.
They have come together to mobilise public and political opinion on the four big issues affecting people. These are Aid, Tax, Land, and Transparency. In its G8 Summit Briefing, IF provides background information on all of these matters but most importantly it sets targets and makes recommendations for the G8 on tax transparency, nutrition, biofuels, agricultural investment, money laundering, tax evasion and much more.
Specifically it calls for the G8 to publish a comprehensive accountability report which tracks progress on all development commitments; ensure that all new G8 2013 commitments and initiatives have an accompanying accountability framework that is transparent and accessible to stakeholders, including developing country governments and civil society, and invite developing countries to participate and contribute to all G8 working groups and summits/events that impact them.
If you are interested in and concerned about these international issues I would suggest going online and looking at www.enoughfoodif.org or any of the many other organisations working in these areas.
 
 

Opposing the Family Home Tax

This week the Sinn Féin Dáil team introduced a Private Members Bill to repeal the Irish government’s family home tax – property tax which takes effect in July.
Fine Gael and Labour combined to vote it down in the Dáil on Wednesday evening. Notwithstanding this Sinn Féin is committed in government to repeal this tax.

Our Finance (Local Property Tax Repeal) Bill was about lifting the burden of the government’s unfair property tax from families and households and replacing it with alternative measures to raise taxes, including a wealth tax. It was about undoing one of many bad policy decisions taken by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the past two years.

Fine Gael and the Labour Party were elected to undo the damage caused by Fianna Fáil, but they have instead chosen to implement Fianna Fáil policies. This has led to greater inequality, poverty and disadvantage. This week the cuts to the respite care grant take effect and will hit 77,000 of our most vulnerable citizens. Emigration and unemployment are at record levels, especially among young people. Public services, particularly health, are in crisis, with further cuts to be imposed this year.

I listened on Tuesday and Wednesday night during the Dáil debate to a succession of Fine Gael and Labour Deputies trying to defend the government’s tax on the family home. They sought to do it, if we could believe this, and I do not believe that they believe this, by comparing
They must know - and if they don’t

Of course there are inefficiencies in the services but the rationale the Minister for Finance in his defence of the tax gave as his justification of it that the big boys – the Troika of the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission – made them do it
“Fianna Fail’s proposal, now endorsed by the Labour Party, to introduce by 2014 an annual, recurring residential property tax on the family home is unfair” (P59)
Indeed the Taoiseach himself in a campaign against a previous FF Property Tax said “It is morally unjust and unfair to tax a person's home”
The property tax that this government has introduced takes no account of ability to pay or of those in negative equity; and it ignores the fact that one in four mortgage holders is in mortgage distress or the many others stuck in homes whose value has dropped and on which they have paid huge stamp duty.



This is despicable - going after
There are alternative measures that the Government could have taken, including the introduction of a wealth tax on all property, liquid and assets, above a certain net wealth.

Why could they not do that?
Why could it not levy a 1% wealth tax on all net wealth over €1 million with certain exclusions?
And because it is aimed at high net worth individuals, it is dealt with by people used to engaging with the revenue system, who very often have tax accountants dealing with the system on their behalf.

So Fine Gael and Labour had a choice. There are alternatives.

They could have opted to take more from those who can afford it.

Instead, Labour and Fine Gael chose to inflict more pain on struggling families.

 

Father Matt

There was enormous sadness at the news of the death of Fr. Matt Wallace at the weekend. A county Wexford man he had served as a priest in west Belfast for most of his time as a priest.
This is a short blog in memory of a remarkable man and priest.
Fr. Matt
I slipped up the side of Holy Trinity church and  joined the people standing at the front  door. Matt's clann were standing across from us in a line talking quietly. I noticed how well the church grounds looked. The crowd at the gate thickened. More people joined us. Turf Lodge was hushed. The sun shone. The birds sang. It all seemed surreal. Normal.

Then the coffin was lifted from the hearse and carried into the porch of the church.  People started to applaud.  Matt was home. Home in Holy Trinity.

His family wept. So did the rest of us. Poor Matt. Such a good straight decent man. Struggling. Giving. Slagging. Praying. But never preaching. Funny that. A priest who didn't preach. Not in the conventional sense.'People here don't need me to tell them what is wrong and what is right. They are rearing families, minding neighbours. They know what is wrong and what is right. The people are the church. It was always so. They need support. Hope. A chance. Not long sermons'. So Matt didn't preach.  Matt led.He was conscious of all the flaws in the human condition but energetically and impatiently alert to our great potential and our possibilities. His vocation was grounded in that gospel of hope. For all of us.
His Masses were always packed. And quick. He didn't hang about. Bustling up onto the altar. If he said anything aside from the prayers it would be to commend some local project or to comment favourably on a local development or disapprovingly of something the powers that be had done. Or to joke with someone in the congregation.

Matt saw the Mass as a social occasion. He told me that. For many people, he said, it was where they meet their friends. Particularly older people who didn't get out a lot. If you go to Holy Trinity a few minutes early for Mass that's what you would notice. People sitting chatting to each other. Others kneeling and praying of course. But in the background the low chatter of folks talking. Then, in Matt would come and all would rise. And he would be off at a gallop.

Matt is from Wexford. The weekend his life ended Wexford beat Louth in the football, and drew with Dublin in the hurling. He would have liked that. Forty years in Belfast, first on the Ormeau Road and the rest of the time in West Belfast, in Divis and Lenadoon and Turf Lodge. But a proud Wexford Gael.

Working with the great people of this wonderful community through all our tribulations. Baptising our babies. Burying our dead. Officiating at our weddings and communions and confirmations.  Working at building schools and community centres and youth facilities and counselling services and women's projects. Fundraising. Encouraging jobs initiatives. Visiting the sick. And the dying. And the elderly. Looking after victims of abuse of every kind.  Challenging the system. Standing up to the British Army when they were here. Visiting the prisons.
And having the odd pint up in the Gort to celebrate that fine club's achievements and to discuss the merits of Wexford and Antrim hurling.

Matt was his own man. He was often annoyed at the Hierarchy. At the height of the revelations of clerical child abuse and after the publication of one of the reports into this he told us one Sunday morning that he had a letter from the bishops to read to us.

'But' he continued, 'if you are really interested in what bishops are saying you can read it for yourselves. We all know what the bishops should do. They should clear all this up. And if they are not prepared to do this then they should resign.'

And he continued with the Mass.Matt was a very human being.
Another time when one of our much loved old patriots and celebrated Gaels, Eddie Keenan, died his local priest would not let Eddie's coffin into the parish church draped in the national flag. His family contacted me. I phoned Matt.

'Bring him here Gerry", he said.

And we did. For a Mass of music and song. A celebration of a life well lived.

Much like Matt's life. He also lived his life well.

He gave his all. And never stopped giving.Calls to the house at all times of the night. Distressed citizens. Or Passport forms to be signed. References to be written. Attending the scenes of sudden deaths. Of suicides. No wonder he smoked like a train. When he wasn't trying to give them up. Always something else to do. Someone else to attend to. Matt gave and gave and gave. Until he had nothing else to give.
And we, who wonder why he went as he did, we who are hurting because we couldn't  help him, we who are honoured to call him Father and friend we know  we are better people because of him.

Because he loved us and cared for us. All of us.
 
 

Putting children first

On Tuesday evening RTE broadcast a Prime Time special – A Breach of Trust -on childcare and crèches. Using secretly recorded film of three crèches the programme showed disturbing images of young children, some between one and two years of age, being emotionally and physically abused by some staff.

While it acknowledged that its under-cover researcher witnessed some very good examples of childcare the focus was on the ill-treatment that occurred. This included children being thrown about like a rag doll at nap time in one crèche; children being strapped for hours at a time into chairs with no stimulation available; staff shouting and cursing at children; lax supervision, poor or no training, and insufficient numbers of staff to cope with the children; and staff falsifying diaries of children’s activities.
The programme revealed that 75% of all crèches in the state are breaching mandatory standards. The programme also revealed that there are no inspectors in local health offices in Louth, Dublin South City, Sligo, Leitrim, Cavan and North Monaghan.
Many families often pay more than their mortgages to ensure that their children are in childcare facilities. They expect that their children will be properly cared for and that their developmental, educational and learning needs will be catered for. And that all of this will be properly scrutinised and inspected by government.
However, the RTE programme revealed that the needs of children are not being met. It exposed the use of unacceptable practices.
It is clear that there is a serious failure of regulation and a failure of governance. Breaches of regulations are widespread, while the inspection regime is simply not up to scratch. Crèches in some parts of the country have not been inspected for up to four years despite hundreds of complaints from parents.
This is light touch regulation at its worst. There seems to be an over emphasis on the business interests of childcare providers and under emphasis on standards and regulation. Childcare is a very profitable business, not least because those involved draw down millions in state funding, despite there being no robust inspection regime.
The Giraffe crèche in Stepaside was featured on the RTE programme. The Giraffe childcare chain received over €1 million last year from the state. Along with the two other crèches highlighted in the film they secured €3.6 million. One of the three crèche groups – Links Childcare and Montessori Ltd – recorded accumulated profits of €1.7 million last year.
The state paid this money as part of its Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme under which every child is entitled to a free preschool place. This system also demands that children do not miss more than 20 days and the level of funding follows the child. So if parents move their child to a different crèche then the money moves with them.  
There is an onus on the government to ensure that there is a rigorous inspection system and that all crèches are fulfilling their statutory obligations. It also needs to ensure that childcare facilities are providing the quality framework for early years education that was agreed six years ago. One report suggests that just 3% of childcare providers are fully implementing it.
It is also clear that there is a serious shortage of trained and qualified staff. Almost a quarter of staff members has either inadequate or no qualifications.
The government should also ensure that no state funding is provided without a stringent inspection regime, proper training and robust regulation.
The State should not be funding high cost and profitable private childcare facilities that are below standard. In fact the whole policy of dependence on the private for profit sector for childcare should be reviewed.
Children deserve better and parents need to be reassured about the standards of care their children will receive. This is a scandalous situation and the HSE must move immediately to appoint inspectors for childcare facilities in those counties that have no inspectors.
Sinn Féin has indicated our willingness to work with the government to facilitate legislative progress on the 'Children First' legislation and the establishment of the Child and Family Support Agency as one way of addressing the appalling situation exposed by the RTE programme. But all of this will be meaningless if the government does not provide the necessary funding and ensure that the new structures and laws and recommendations are implemented in full.
   

The devastation of suicide

Last Monday saw the publication of a report in Dublin by the 3Ts (Turn the Tide of Suicide) charity ‘Suicide in Ireland 2003-08.’ It makes for grim reading.

The charity was established in 2003 with the aim of changing public attitudes toward suicide, raising awareness, lobbying the Irish government on the issue, provide funding for research and for those groups working in the areas of suicide and self-harm, and to run a suicide helpline.

It is hugely critical of the failure of the government to develop and fund strategies on mental health and specifically around suicide prevention and awareness and self-harming, despite the increase in the numbers of people dying from suicide.

The report commissioned by the 3Ts charity looks at the issue of suicide within the southern state but many of its conclusions are equally applicable in the north. It found that the actual number of citizens dying by suicide each year is significantly greater than official figures. In 2011 government statistics revealed that 525 people died by suicide. The 3T’s report puts that figure at 722.

The 3Ts report also reveals the startling fact that one child under 18 years of age dies by suicide every 18 days! One in six people aged under 21 who died by suicide had experienced bullying. Young men under 21 are at four times the risk of suicide. And the Irish state has the fourth highest youth suicide rate in Europe and that rate is increasing.

The study also found that as many as half of all suicides occur in clusters, that is where a series of deaths take place in one location over a short period of time. And it identified the damaging and often fatal role played by alcohol in contributing to suicide in 50% of all cases.

The ‘Suicide in Ireland 2003-08’ report also described how families are left to cope with the trauma of suicide. Many of them report a negative experience with the Gardaí and frontline services in health and education. One family said that their son was ‘stitched up in accident and emergency. Given a month’s prescription and sent home.’

Another family explained that the person who found his best friend dead by suicide was then held by the police for six hours.

It is very clear that Irish Government’s strategies to tackle suicide are not working.Suicide prevention is under resourced and there is insufficient training for those in the frontline in health, in education, and in the Gardaí who have to help those at risk or those who have been bereaved.

The report made a number of important recommendations. It called for mental health literacy; that is bringing intensive suicide intervention programmes into schools and communities for young people in their early teens.

It argues for an ‘early detection Adolescent Depression Screening programme … a real time monitoring of teen and young adult suicide … with a particular focus on a greater understanding of suicide clusters in young people and how best to modify them.’

The report also calls for the ‘mandatory upskilling and monitoring of all workers in statutory authority who interface with young people to eliminate the possibility of bullying/victimisation or humiliation of young people by such authorities … a deeper understanding of the role and culture of alcohol and its consumption in teens and young adults …’

The impact of suicide across the island is dreadful. In the north in 2011 289 people died from suicide. The six counties has seen a doubling of suicide since the start of the century placing the area in the top quarter of the international league table of suicide rates.

When you combine the figures 2011 saw over 1000 citizens die as a consequence of suicide on this island.

The figure for road deaths for the same period was 186 for the south and 59 for the north. A total of 245 deaths or approximately a quarter of the suicide figure.

Despite this huge gap in deaths suicide does not secure the same level of investment and resources that is put into safety on the roads.


Self harming is also a huge issue. Thousands are admitted to hospitals every year as a result of self-harm which in many cases go unreported. In 2008 11,700 people presented themselves at Accident and Emergency Units in the south as a result of self-harming.

While suicide and self-harming are now better understood than before, and it is accepted that suicide victims and survivors should be treated with compassion and care, the fact remains that only a relatively small proportion of the budget is devoted to mental health.

Mental Health remains the Cinderella of the health services. This needs to be rectified.

The reality is that there is an island wide - national emergency –in respect of suicide and it requires an island wide national response.

I believe that there should be an island wide independent suicide prevention agency – on the same lines as the Road Safety Authority in the south – bringing together the resources of each state under one over-arching agency to develop and oversee a strategy could reduce the numbers of suicide.

Adams calls for release of John Downey and Michael Burns

Gerry Adams TD speaking to the media at Leinster House
The arrest and charging by the British police of John Downey and the arrest and charging of Belfast man Michael Burns, is a matter of grave concern and a clear breach of commitments given by the British government at Weston Park and in subsequent negotiations.

Following the Good Friday Agreement both the British and Irish governments accepted that the issue of those defined as OTRs was an anomaly and the two governments committed to resolve the issue.

The OTRs are individuals who, if arrested and convicted, would be eligible for release under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement.

A process was put in place to deal with outstanding cases. John Downey and Michael Burns were two of these.

Between 150-200 individuals were classed as OTRs – On-the-Runs.  Some of these were individuals who had escaped from prison or jumped bail.

Most were victims of British Army and RUC harassment.

John Downey is a valued member of Sinn Féin and a long-time advocate of the Peace Process. Michael Burns is in poor health.

The decision to arrest and charge both men is malicious. It is also evidence that those British securocrats who have consistently opposed the peace process are still working to undermine it.

The arrest of John Downey and Michael Burns has caused huge anger among republicans.

For over two decades John Downey has been to the fore in promoting the peace process. As a former republican prisoner he has been involved in Cultural Diversity programmes with former loyalist prisoners.

And he participated in engagements at Corrymeela with former members of the Garda and Irish Army.

Coupled with the British government’s refusal to implement outstanding elements of the Good Friday Agreement these arrests provide yet more alarming evidence of David Cameron’s disregard for the Good Friday Agreement processes.
 
Sinn Féin has consistently raised all these matters with the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste.

I wrote to the Tánaiste only yesterday and I am meeting with him today to ask the government to urgently put in place a strategy to keep the British government to its obligations under the Good Friday Agreement.

Oireachtas all-party Cochlear Implant group agrees to keep up the pressure for funding

Happy New Ear families at Dáil today - May22nd 2013
The first meeting of the Oireachtas all-party group on Cochlear Implant met this afternoon (Wednesday).
It was very well attended.  17 TDs and Seanadóirí took part or sent one of their staffers.
A number of others indicated their support for the campaign but were unable to attend because of other Oireachtas commitments.
The meeting was chaired by Louth TD Gerry Adams and addressed by two parents from the Happy New Ear campaign, Danielle Ryan and Amie O Connor.
The families also met Minister Lynch today.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD speaking after the meeting said:
“I want to thank all of the TDs and Seanadóirí who attended today’s meeting and the families for briefing us on recent developments. The families are meeting Minister Lynch.
Good progress has been made recently and a business proposal to provide bilateral cochlear implants will be presented to the Minister by Beaumont hospital in June.
The business plan calls for €7 million capital investment and annual running costs of €4 million. This will address the 200 children who are expected to take up this opportunity.
The business plan is based on a UK model which will have the children divided into groups with the largest, Group 1 containing 65 children aged under 5. It is expected that it will take 18 months – two years to clear the back log of children.
Caoimghín Ó Caoláin told the meeting that the Health Committee will be holding its quarterly meeting with the Minister for Health on Thursday and that this issue is down on the agenda for discussion. He asked the other party representatives to join in the discussion in support of the children. 
The meeting acknowledged that this is a winnable campaign but that the focus must be on keeping up the pressure and delivering the funding and business plan as early as possible.”
Note to Editor
The meeting was chaired by Gerry Adams TD and attended by Billy Kelleher TD FF; Sen James Darcy FG; Barry Cowen TD FF; a staffer from Sen Mary Moran Labour; Mary Mitchell O Connor TD FG; Peter Fitzpatrick TD FG; John Brown TD FF; Caoimghín Ó Caoláin TD SF; Sen Jillian Van Turnhout Ind; Ged Nash TD Lab; Robert Troy TD FF; Michael Colreavy TD SF; Luke Ming Flanagan TD Ind; a rep from Claire Daly TD Ind; Marcella Cororan Kennedy TD FG; and Sen Denis Landy Lab.