Gerry Adams's Blog, page 71

Super storm Sandy and a Border Poll

 

Martin Ferris TD, Rita O Hare, Jennifer McCann MLA and mise

I was in the USA and Canada for a few days for a series of Sinn Féin events. My first stop was Manhattan.

The media images of the damage wrought on New Jersey and New York by the super storm Sandy became very real with the succession of accounts from friends of the damage they and their families had suffered.
I listened to good, solid Irish American activists, some of whom I have known over many years, and who had lost everything or whose families had suffered dramatically from the violence of Sandy.
For some their homes were gone. Others face months of major rebuilding. Many had been without power – no lighting, no heating - for over a week through bitter cold weather.
As I arrived in New York Mayor Bloomberg was urging citizens with no power to go to the shelters for heat. Another nor-wester was blowing in and the temperature was dropping. Imagine elderly people trapped in their homes at the top of tall apartment buildings with no power and no way of getting down. And thousands of utility workers, public service workers, construction workers and volunteers from the Red Cross and other organisations, desperately trying to provide hot meals to the trapped and those in need.
In some places the damage done by Sandy was apparent in the wrecked homes, or boats lying in the middle of roads or the fallen trees and flooded buildings but the invisible danger brought by the plummeting temperature was even greater.
Despite all of this and as other events were being cancelled, the Friends of Sinn Féin Committee decided to proceed with our annual New York dinner. The packed ballroom last Thursday evening was a testament to their good judgement and the loyalty and commitment of Irish America. It was a great evening made all the more memorable by the late arrival of Martin Ferris TD from the Kingdom of Kerry and Jennifer McCann, Executive Minister and MLA from west Belfast who walked into the ballroom just as I was finishing.
They received a rousing welcome and were swamped by well wishers and folks wanting to have their photos taken with them.
I spoke to many that evening and listened to their stories of devastation and loss and their determination to ensure that Sandy didn’t have the last word. One friend, Regina, who works in the New York City Comptrollers office turned up wearing a beautiful shawl over her jeans and heavy boots. She was leaving the event to go straight back to Breezy Point where over 100 homes had been destroyed in a raging fire during the storm and many other homes in this largely Irish American community were destroyed or badly damaged.
That evening and in subsequent speeches and briefings my main theme was seeking support for a border poll on ending partition and a united Ireland. I specifically urged Irish America to use its considerable influence to persuade political opinion in that country that a United Ireland is in the best strategic interests of the USA and to persuade their new President and Secretary of State to use their considerable influence with the British government to move them in that direction also.
I reminded them that the Good Friday Agreement provides for a border poll on Irish unity and I told them that Sinn Fein in the new year will commence a campaign to achieve this. The support of Irish America and Irish Canadians is very important in this.
I noticed that Nigel Dodds of the DUP was out almost immediately out of the blocks dismissing my remarks and claiming that I am "detached from reality”.
According to Nigel, "The DUP is not concerned about the likelihood of such a poll being held, nor are we worried about what the outcome would be”.
Well if that is true and not just bravado then I expect to receive Nigel’s support when we begin our campaign for a border poll in the new year. Let him put his confidence to the test.
The next day your man and I were up early to catch a packed train to Philadelphia. I was the guest speaker at the annual dinner of the Irish Society.
  The United Ireland Cup The last leg of the journey took us in Canada. The Toronto Gaelic Athletic Association inaugural United Ireland Cup was being contested and it was my task to present the Cup, sponsored by Friends of Sinn Féin, to the winners of the competition. It was a tremendous success and I enjoyed several hours of great sport. Over 200 players and fans gathered at Polson Pier for the tournament. The winners were: Men – Connaught: Women – Canada: Co-ed Under Sixteens - the Chieftains.
When it was over we have a briefing session with some senior Canadian politicians and trade unionists, including Joe Comartin MP, Olivia Chow MP, OFL President Sid Ryan, Toronto City Councillor Pam McConnell, Pickering City Councillor Kevin Ashe, former Saskatchewan Attorney General Chris Axworthy, and Carolyn Egan President of the United Steelworkers Toronto Area Council. Also at the briefing were activists from the Quebec Ireland Committee in Montreal and the Ottawa Group for the Irish Unity Pledge.
And finally, the annual dinner was another packed affair. Over 200 people attended the event. There was also strong representation from the Gaelic Athletic Association, the Laborers International Union, the Ironworkers, and the Steelworkers.
All in all it was an eventful few days on the other side of the Atlantic speaking to friends of Ireland, as well as of Sinn Féin, and preparing the ground for the next phase in the struggle – a border poll on ending partition.
I also got to see my favourite Aunt Rita. She unfortunately isn’t well but I was delighted to spend quality time with her and my Canadian cousins. So was your man.
    

Vote YES to Protect Children

The protection of children is once again a major focus of debate in the southern state because of a planned referendum on Children’s Rights that will be held this Saturday.

The referendum proposes a new Article – 42A - to the Irish Constitution and the deletion of the current Article 42.5.

In summary this referendum is about protecting the most vulnerable in society – children and young people - and ensuring that the law is shaped to protect them while imposing a legally binding duty on the state to provide the strategies, policies, services and resources needed to achieve this.

The referendum is the outworking of a debate on children’s rights in the south that goes back decades. It also reflects the concerns raised as a result of a succession of damning reports - including the Ryan Report; the Ferns, Cloyne and Murphy reports, as well as the scandal of the Magdalene Laundries - that have exposed the horrifying extent of child abuse – both physical and sexual – inflicted on children in state and Catholic Church run institutions, by clergy, and within some families.

In addition the increasing numbers of children living in poverty as a result of government policies; the 500 vulnerable young people who were recorded as homeless on census night in 2011; and the report last June by the Independent Child Death Review Group into the deaths of children in care, are disturbing examples of the failure of the existing child protection systems.

Consequently, there are some citizens who oppose this constitutional change because they do not trust the state on this issue.

There are also some who argue that the proposed constitutional change will undermine the rights of parents and of the married family.

However, if all of the reports and accounts of abuse prove anything it is that the key to successfully protecting children is early intervention. The June report from the Independent Child Death Review Group found that earlier and more consistent intervention could have helped the young people who died in care to overcome their vulnerabilities.

So, this constitutional amendment is about enshrining in the constitution the early intervention that is needed to help families and children and where practical to ensure that children remain with their parents.

It will also impose on the government the requirement that its policies and laws reflect the demands of the constitution to protect children.

The purpose of the referendum is to provide strong legislative protections for children in the time ahead and to tackle these issues in a positive way.

This is an important legislative advance and Sinn Féin welcomes it.

Sinn Féin has long campaigned for the rights of the child and this amendment is for us a first step toward incorporating the UN Convention on the rights of the Child into Irish law.

We would have preferred a stronger wording but nonetheless this is a significant step in the right direction. However, the amendment is a positive step in the right direction.

• The Constitutional Amendment as proposed expressly recognises children in their own right.

• The Amendment affirms for the first time in the Constitution that children have rights.

• The best interest of the child principle is established.

• The view (voice) of the child must be heard/taken into account in all judicial cases concerning the child’s care, adoption, guardianship, custody and access.

• The Amendment, if adopted, will allow for the first time, for the adoption of children of marital relationships, affording them full integration into a loving, supporting, family relationship.

• And finally, the Amendment upholds the constitutional protection of the traditional family construct.

Last Saturday I was in Dublin and Dundalk on the campaign trail urging a YES vote. Across the 26 counties republicans have been canvassing support for the referendum change.

The purpose of this amendment is to get the balance right for children. It is especially important for vulnerable children to ensure that all possible legal safeguards are in place to protect them. I believe this referendum is an important step in the right direction. If you have a vote on Saturday Vote Yes for Children.



Thirty-First Amendment of the Constitution

PROPOSED NEW ARTICLE 42A

Children

1. The State recognises and affirms the natural and imprescriptible rights of all children and shall, as far as practicable, by its laws protect and vindicate those rights.



2. 1° In exceptional cases, where the parents, regardless of their marital status, fail in their duty towards their children to such extent that the safety or welfare of any of their children is likely to be prejudicially affected, the State as guardian of the common good shall, by proportionate means as provided by law, endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always with due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child. 2° Provision shall be made by law for the adoption of any child where the parents have failed for such a period of time as may be prescribed by law in their duty towards the child and where the best interests of the child so require.



3. Provision shall be made by law for the voluntary placement for adoption and the adoption of any child.



4. 1° Provision shall be made by law that in the resolution of all proceedings -



i brought by the State, as guardian of the common good, for the purpose of preventing the safety and welfare of any child from being prejudicially affected, or

ii concerning the adoption, guardianship or custody of, or access to, any child,

the best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration.



2° Provision shall be made by law for securing, as far as practicable, that in all proceedings referred to in subsection 1° of this section in respect of any child who is capable of forming his or her own views, the views of the child shall

Oireachtas na Samhna 2012

Dé hAoine bhí mé i Leitir Ceannain ag Oireachtas na Samhna.

Is ceiliúradh é an Oireachtas ar raon leathan do na healaíona dúchasacha.
Bhí lá go hiontach agam ag bualadh le cairde, comhleacaí agus cuid mhór Gaeilgeoirí.
D’úsaid Sinn Féin an seans straitéis an pháirtí agus an Gaeilge a phlé, leathanach facebook nua ‘Cabaire’ a sheoladh, agus seimineár faoi ‘Thodhchaí na Gaeilge’ a reachtáil.
Thíos seo é mo focail ag seoladh an leathanach facebook.
“Mar Éireannaigh is breá linn bheith ag caint, ag cúl chaint, agus i ndáiríre is breá linn ar fad ‘gossip’.

Mar daoine, táimid fiosrach go nádúrtha.

D’fheadfá rá gur cruthaíodh Facebook agus na meán sóisialta dúinne.

‘An Cabaire’ is ea acmhainn do na meán sóisialta.

Cruthaíodh an leathanach ‘facebook’ seo nuair a thuig Sinn Féin an luach, agus an gá a bhí ann le spás a chruthú, áit go bhfeadfadh daoine le leibhéal éagsúil Gaeilge cumarsáid agus caidreamh le daoine eile agus iad ar a gcompord le seo.

Is spás é gur féidir le daoine fail amach cad tá ar siúl, eolas a fháil faoi nuacht agus ócáidí éagsúil.

Go minic, freastalaíonn daoine ar ranganna agus teann siad go dtí an trioblóid chun an Ghaeilge a fhoghlaim, ach bíonn sé deacair orainn é a úsáid mar nach mbíonn an deis againn í úsáid gach lá, é bheith mar páirt lárnach d’ár saol.

Ach toisc gur teanga beo í An Ghaeilge, sin é go díreach an rud a chaithimid déanamh.

Seachas craic agus comhrá lenar gcairde, ár gcomleacaí agus ár gclainne, caithimid áiteanna gur féidir linn caidreamh trí Ghaeilge gach lá a aithint.

Gan dabht, táimid an-buíoch do TG4, Radio na Gaeltachta, Radio na Life agus Radio Fáilte mar aon le na gréasáin agus eagraíochtaí eile a chuir an teanga chun cinn.

Feicimid ón cuir chuige atá déanta ag Líofa sa 6 Chontae agus an éileamh atá ar níos mó seirbhísí agus Oideachas tri Ghaeilge, go bhfuil an dúil ag ár saoránaigh ár dteanga a aithint agus a úsáid.

Facebook, Twitter agus texting is ea an modh nua aimseartha chun cumarsáide.

Páistí go saolaítear anois, is féidir a rá go bhfuil féith na teicneolaíochta iontu agus iad saolaithe.

Mar sin, taispeánain leathanach facebook cosúil leis ‘An Cabaire’ nasc, ardán atá ann chun droichead a chruthú a thrasnaíonn na glúinte.

Cosúil lenár dteanga, nil aon teorann ann le facebook. Déanann sé ciall an spás seo a chruthú, áit gur cuma cé hé tú féin, cá bhfuil tú, nó fiú cén am a tá tú ann, ní gá dhuit bheith i do aonar riamh.

Aon teanga go múintear, tosaíonn sé sa bhaile.

Chruthaigh Sinn Féin post do dhuine éigin go mbeadh ábalta an Ghaeilge a fhorbairt agus a chuir chun cinn lenar bPáirtí mar thús.

Liadh Ni Riada is ea ár máthair!

Tháinig sí ar board linn i Mí Aibreán agus anois tá sí ag obair go dian chun an teanga a fhorbairt go hairithe laistigh do Shinn Féin.

Tá ranganna ag tosú anois timpeall na Tíre agus anois is féidir an Cabaire a úsáid mar acmhainn gur féidir le daoine díospóireacht, poiblíocht ar imeachtaí agus bheith i gcomhluadar a cheile.

Taispeánain sé eolas ar cad tá ar bun ag eagraíochtaí eile chomh maith, mar sin, is féidir a rá gur leathanach eolais atá ann leis.

Is féidir leat fáil amach faoi ranganna Gaeilge atá ar siúl i do cheantar féin, imeachtaí cultúrtha, gigs, gach saghas rud agus tá sé nascaithe go dtí eagrais Gaeilge eile a tá i mbun obair iontach.

Mar sin, tá sé oiriúnach a rá ‘gur ar scáth a cheile a mhaireann na daoine’ agus tá an ráiteas seo thar i bheith tráthúil chun an seoladh don leathanach nua facebook Gaeilge, go bhfuil Sinn Féin bródúil as, agus go bhfuil mórtas againn ar ,sin é gan dabht – An Cabaire”

Suicide prevention must be a priority

Suicide knows no boundaries. Neither international borders or class or gender or age protect against it.

This week the Minister for Health in the Executive revealed that there have been 15 suicides in Belfast since July.

Almost every day three families on this island are faced with the devastating news that a family member has died from suicide. In some particularly harrowing circumstances this may the second or third member of a family to die in this way.

Last year 289 people died in the north from suicide. In 2009, the year for which the last full figures are available, 552 died by suicide in the south. That means by the end of this year, 2012, it is almost certain that around 900 citizens will have died by suicide.

Of the 289 who died in the north in 2011, 74 were in Belfast and 216 were male. This would appear to bear out a report in early October by the Office for Suicide Prevention in the south that men in their early 20s and women in their early 50s are at greatest risk.

The overall statistic for the north for suicide is stark and frightening. During the years 1999 to 2009, 2,258 deaths were registered as suicide. In the same period the number registered as having died by suicide in the south was 5385. That means that 7643 Irish citizens died by suicide in a ten year period.

That is a huge number but it is generally accepted that it is an underestimation of the real figures. Prof Kevin Malone of the School of Medicine and Medical Science UCD and St. Vincent’s University Hospital told the Dáil Joint Committee on Health and Children two years ago that a study he carried out into suicide in 23 countries concluded that suicide levels are significantly higher than the official statistics suggest.

International research shows that there is a clear link between areas of disadvantage, poverty and unemployment and suicide. The Minister for Health in the north has said that the death rate by suicide is twice as high in deprived areas.

A pilot study by the National Suicide Research Foundation, published several months ago, looked at 190 deaths in Cork and revealed that almost a third of the suicide victims there worked in the construction and related businesses – the sector most affected by the economic crisis.

But these are not the only causes of suicide. Last weekend 13 year old Erin Gallagher died by suicide. Erin as a second year student at Finn Valley College in Stranorlar in County Donegal, a short distance from her home.

She was the victim of on-line cyber bullying. Her death has left her family distraught and there local community in shock.

It has also frightened countless parents across the island whose children, some as young as 5 and 6, use social media sites like facebook and twitter.

Erin was the second victim of cyber bullies in recent weeks in the south. Another young teenager, 15 year old Ciara Pugsley from Dromahair in county Leitrim took her life in September.

Console which is a state wide suicide prevention agency in the 26 counties has asked anyone affected by these tragedies or who feel vulnerable to contact the service’s 24-hour helpline at freephone 1800 201 890 or access the charity’s services by texting ‘HELP’ to 51444, or at its website: www.console.ie.

There are also many agencies in the north working on suicide prevention, including Lifeline on 08088088000 and the Samaritans on 08457909090 .

The big question is what to do about suicide? There is an abundance of research available – but more is needed. There are resources being made accessible by the governments for counselling services for those at risk as well as for bereaved families. But again more is needed. Too often it has been the bereaved families who have had to take the lead on organising and campaigning.

Last week the head of one suicide prevention agency in the south, Noel Smyth of Turn the Tide of Suicide criticised the government for failing to properly resource mental health services.

Given that three times more citizens die from suicide than are killed on the roads in the south annually Smyth urged the government to establish a Suicide Prevention Agency similar to the Road Safety Authority.

I believe that in these difficult financial times when there is less money available it makes sense to co-ordinate mental health and suicide prevention services across the island. It also makes sense in terms of targeting the worst effected areas and making best use of available resources, experience and personnel.

Government’s Economic Strategy failing citizens

Yesterday and today there have been Statements on the Economy in the Dáil. It is a device which is used occasionally to allow the Dáil parties and members to speak on an issue of concern.
I had ten minutes early this afternoon to make my contribution:
"Last month the Central Statistics Office produced new emigration figures for this state which revealed that 87,000 people had moved to Australia and Canada and other far corners of the globe.
The reason?
 There is no work at home.
 Currently 435,000 citizens are on the live register. That’s 14.8%. And government policies are making the situation worse – not better.
In my own constituency of Louth 17,293 were on the Live Register at the end of September.
These figures have remained stubbornly consistent in the 18 months the Government has been in office.
The only thing that has prevented these figures increasing has been the old social safety valve of emigration.
In addition thousands of home owners are trapped in negative equity; poverty is increasing and government debt now stands at €169 billion or 120% of GDP.
That’s a completely unsustainable level despite the Taoiseach’s reluctance to admit this.
Fine Gael and Labour are committed to an austerity strategy which is pushing up unemployment and driving down the quality of life of families.
The Government have slavishly followed the programme of austerity and cuts which was set out by Fianna Fáil in their Four Year Plan in November 2010.
Domestic Demand is on the floor as a result of the introduction of a succession of punitive measures that have reduced wages, child benefit payments, disability payments and social welfare; and attacked social provisions for carers, older citizens, and the blind.
In addition a range of stealth taxes, including the Household charge; the universal social charge; VAT increases; septic tank charges and more have eaten dramatically into the incomes of families.
There are dreadful social consequences as well as economic consequences to the Government’s austerity programme.
The elderly have been hard hit by this Government through the closure of public nursing homes and the slashing of Home Help Hours.
There is an 80 year old partially sighted woman living just outside Drogheda who recently had a hip replacement operation.
Consequently she has limited mobility.
The Health Service Executive allocated her a home help package of 30 minutes a week!
Last Thursday I met with older citizens outside the Dáil who were there with the group ‘Older & Bolder’, which is an NGO committed to defending the rights of the elderly.
They were lobbying for the immediate reversal of government cuts to Home Help and Home Care Packages.
Many of those participating were older citizens dependent on their home help service and worried and angry and distressed at the government’s plans.
Austerity is not working. Even the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have realised this.
When will the Government?
Sinn Fein has consistently said that you cannot cut your way out of recession.
Next month we will bring forward our own fully costed alternative Budget setting out our view of how the deficit should be closed as we have done in each year since this crisis began.
Sinn Fein has also produced an alternative jobs creation strategy which I have sent to the Taoiseach.
This detailed plan will provide a socially responsible way to reduce the budget deficit while creating and retaining jobs.
It calls for an investment of €13 billion into job creation and retention, which will create an average of 156,000 short and long term jobs.
The money is there; in the National Pension Reserve Fund, the European Pension Bank and in the private pension sector.
This is not rocket science.
Our stimulus plan contains:
-        Plans to build an additional 100 schools and refurbish 75 more over the next three years (€350 million);
-        establish 50 new Primary Health Care Centres (€250 million);
-        and develop an €1billion investment in sustainable wind power and wave energy.
We have a plan to Invest in the rollout of next generation broadband across the 26 counties. (€2.5 billion)
This is vital to attract business into our communities.
In my own constituency of Louth there are rural parts of the constituency where there is no access to broadband.
This state ranks 17 out of 27 on the European league table of broad band access so we have some ground to make up in this regard.
These and other projects are set out in detail in the document and I invite the Government to take on board out ideas.
Politics is about choices.
Rather than invest money in jobs stimulus the Government have instead frittered away the money that was in the National Pension Reserve into Bank Bailouts and payments to unguaranteed bondholders.
Fine Gael and Labour have shown no strategic vision of how to invest the money in the NPRF in a way that can help the economy in the long term.
The Government record on Jobs, like that of Fianna Fáil before them is appalling.
Fine Gael’s manifesto promised that their NewERA plan would invest an extra €7 billion in energy, communications and water to give Ireland the world class infrastructure
There was to be a Jobs Budget within 100 days of the Government being established but this was watered down to a Jobs initiative in May 2011.
In February of 2012, after a year in office the Government unveiled an Action Plan for Jobs.
At its launch the Taoiseach said it would create an additional 100,000 jobs.
There has been a loss of 33,000 in the last year.
The Labour Party promised before the election that it would put in place a €500 million jobs fund to support new ideas and create employment in strategic sectors of the economy.
They promised to establish a strategic investment bank, with a lending capacity of €2 billion, from the National Pension Reserve Fund.
None of this happened. And then there was the Strategic Investment Fund unveiled in September 2011.

It was to provide funds from the National Pension Reserve Fund for investment in the economy, provide capital for small and medium enterprises and the creation of jobs.
The legislation required for the Fund hasn’t been published and the Government haven’t been able to give any indication as to when this would be brought forward.
The Government have failed to deliver the promised 60,000 additional places for Education and Training.
The Government is on the wrong track, its continuing the failed policies of Fianna Fáil.
I encourage the Government to look at seriously at the alternatives that Sinn Fein have set out in our Jobs Proposals and which we will set out in our alternative budget.

Irish Homeless World Cup Team visits the Dáil

I have to admit that I have never heard a lot about the Homeless World Cup. Have you? But that changed for me on Tuesday when the Irish team that participated recently in Mexico City visited the Dáil for an event hosted by two Sinn Féin TDs Sandra McLellan and Desi Ellis.

From late September through to this month over 700 homeless men and women, representing 59 teams, arrived in Mexico City from 55 countries around the world. The tournament has a competition for men and one for women. It ran over nine days between the 6th and 14th of October. It was won by Chile who beat Mexico 8-5. The Mexican women’s team won their competition defeating Brazil 6-2.



The competition was held on a field constructed in the Zocalo. This is the historic main plaza or square in the heart of the City. The Zocalo has been a focal point of gathering for people since the time of the Aztecs.

The Homeless World Cup was founded 11 years ago in 2001. It draws support from tens of thousands of homeless people and NGOs (non governmental organisations) around the globe and seeks through sport to motivate and encourage homeless people to see beyond their difficulties. Its objective is to raise awareness around issues of homelessness, poverty and inequality.

This year the Irish team came in a credible 16th out of the 54 teams participating. The Irish team came in ahead of other European squads like Germany and Holland and England. It also saw David Byrne win the individual goalkeeper of the tournament award.

Regrettably the tournament did not receive the attention in the Irish media that it deserves. But elsewhere, including in Mexico where as many as 50,000 spectators turned up for some of the matches, there was extensive coverage.

The organisers have set themselves the goal of involving one million people across the world in 100 nations in the next two years. The Irish team was drawn from Street League teams participating in the all-Ireland tournament in Dublin. Street league was established in 2005, although the first Irish team took part in the Homeless World Cup in Austria in 2003.

The homeless magazine Big Issue was the driving force behind the establishment of Street Leagues across the island and there are now street leagues in Cork and Galway and Waterford, Portlaoise, Belfast and elsewhere.

Hundreds of young people are involved and a variety of tournaments are run throughout the year culminating in the all-Ireland Tournament in Dublin. The young people who participate are homeless, or drug and alcohol dependent individuals in rehabilitation, or ex-offenders, the long term unemployed with identified learning disabilities, or refugee and asylum seekers.

The purpose behind the Street Leagues is to build self-esteem, and self-confidence, and to provide the young people with the basic tools necessary to help them in the future.Sean Kavanagh from Irish Street Leagues has expressed concern about the future of the project in an environment where there is less money being raised to run the program. He pointed out that in the south it takes about ‘€80,000 to keep someone in prison for a year. If I had that regular income along with the money we raise from fundraising activities I could secure the future of the leagues and just think for a moment, if only one of the many lads participating in the leagues turned his life around, just think of the benefits to him, his family, friends and the community.’

The Street League is an inspirational programme. It and all those who make it possible, deserves our support and thanks for the great work they do.

The reception in Leinster House was attended by Minister Michael Ring. Following an intervention  by Sandra he agreed to meet Sean Kavanagh to discuss the issue of future funding.
 

 
 As Desi Ellis said the Minister also needs to consider hosting the Homeless World Cup. Such an event would mark a real commitment. It would be an initiative that would build confidence and lift the morale of homeless people everywhere. It would also be a major tourist event. And a world cup that we could win.

Targeting the vulnerable – Cutting Home Help support

 There is an 80 year old partially sighted woman living just outside Drogheda who recently had a hip replacement operation. Consequently she has limited mobility. The Health Service Executive allocated her a home help package of 30 minutes a week!
Last Thursday I met with older citizens outside the Dáil who were there with the group ‘Older & Bolder’, which is an NGO committed to defending the rights of the elderly. They were lobbying for the immediate reversal of government cuts to Home Help and Home Care Packages. Many of those participating were older citizens dependent on their home help service and worried and angry and distressed at the government’s plans.
The Director of Older & Bolder Patricia Conboy, warned that the government’s cuts “ will devastate the prospect of safe and healthy ageing at home. They actually contradict government policy of supporting people to age safely at home.”
The government’s attitude to the provision of home helps reflects Fine Gael and Labour’s general approach to dealing with the economic crisis. It is to heap the burden of paying for the banking debt onto the shoulders of those who can least afford it and to impose cuts to public services which disproportionately affect our most vulnerable citizens.
 
For the last 18 months, since they came to power, the government parties have introduced a succession of harsh cuts to public services and produced a range of stealth taxes. Many of those low and middle income households who in the past would not have regarded themselves as economically vulnerable, now have mortgage repayments they can’t meet, are in negative equity and face increasing indebtedness. A report last week revealed that 10% of households in the southern state suffer from food poverty. That means adults and children not having enough food to eat.
 
The Health Service has been particularly hard hit by government policy. Hundreds of millions were stripped from it in last year’s budget and this December another €750 million is due to be slashed from next year’s budget. This is on top of a current deficit of €500 million.
 
The government’s response has been to introduce more cuts. At the end of last August the Health Service Executive announced €130 million in ‘savings’.  Included in this was a decision to take €8 million from the budget for home help hours. This will see almost 1,000,000 hours withdrawn from the home help system over a 12 month period.
 
These services are essential to the health, well-being and quality of life of those availing of them. At the same time the government is closing public nursing beds. Two nursing homes in Louth are among those under threat. The Cottage Hospital in Drogheda and St. Joseph’s in Ardee provide vital respite and residential care for older citizens.
 
The impact of this dual policy is that by closing nursing home beds the government forces more older citizens to live in the community but at the same time it is reducing their ability to do so safely by cutting home care packages to the bone. Government policy will also exacerbate the problem of delayed discharges from our hospitals of older citizens no longer requiring treatment but who have nowhere else to go. It doesn’t make sense, economically or morally.
 
Home helps, north and south, are mostly women who provide an essential life-line and support for older citizens. Many home helps frequently spend much longer with their clients than the minimum amount of time dictated by the HSE. They see a need and their humanity and compassion demands that they try to meet it. They certainly don’t do it for the money.
 
Home helps working in the public sector in the south are paid €14 an hour. They have poor terms and no legal protections. The cost of providing this service to the state through the private sector is €23 an hour. Theirs is the true spirit of community and volunteerism. Without their unselfish efforts many of our most vulnerable citizens would fall through the cracks of a system which is deeply flawed.
 
They allow citizens to live with dignity and independence in their own homes and in their own communities, and they are a crucial part of a community based healthcare system that helps prevent many citizens unnecessarily spending days or weeks in hospital beds.
 
Last Wednesday evening I took part in a debate on a private members motion introduced by Sinn Féin. It called for the government to ‘immediately reverse the cuts to home help hours and home care packages and to return funding to pre-Budget 2012 levels; and to maintain, develop and enhance home care front line services and to guarantee continued reliable access to community care for older people.’
 
Fine Gael and Labour TDs who had moments earlier stood in the chamber praising the work of the home helps and claiming to understand the pressures and stresses on older citizens, then voted with the government amendment which will allow the cuts to proceed.
 
Having extolled the virtue of care in the community and the work of the home helps the government TDs then voted for a government policy that will strip away the resources needed to make it all work efficiently.
 
There are cultures and societies in the world that genuinely care and venerate their older citizens. They appreciate and recognise the important contribution older citizens made in building those societies. In my opinion the majority of Irish people share this view.
 
But the same cannot be said of the government parties who are responsible for decisions that will impoverish citizens, increase loneliness for older citizens, and reduce their care and independence and mobility. 

A Border Poll is the next step

A little bit of history was made in the Seanad chamber in Leinster House last Friday. The inaugural meeting of the north south Inter-Parliamentary Association took place. Unionists and nationalists and republicans from all parts of this island rubbed shoulders and participated in the first meeting of a unique and innovative political institution that has its roots in the Good Friday Agreement.

Strand 2 of the Agreement allows for the ‘Assembly and the Oireachtas to consider developing a joint parliamentary forum, bringing together equal numbers from both institutions for discussions of matters of mutual interest and concern.’

Later in October 2006 agreement was reached at St. Andrew’s in Scotland which saw the re-establishment of the Executive and Assembly the following May. And once again it was agreed that a North-South parliamentary forum would be established.

George Mitchell memorably told me and Martin McGuinness, after the Good Friday Agreement was achieved and he was going home, ‘that’s the easy bit. Getting it implemented will be the hardest part.’ And he was right.

Unionism has sought to minimise and delay the full implementation of the Agreement ever since. There has been considerable progress but frequently the pace of change has been torturously slow and frustrating. And so it was with the north-south Inter-Parliamentary Association. It took 14 years to get to last Friday, but get there we did.

So, the Seanad chamber witnessed an equal number of MLAs from the Assembly and members from the Houses of the Oireachtas, under the Joint Chair of the Ceann Chomhairle Seán Barrett TD and the Speaker Willie Hay MLA, taking their seats as part of an arrangement that will see them meet twice a year to discuss issues of interest and concern including the economy, health, environment, energy and social issues.

This is a significant political development which should not be underestimated. It reflects the increasing acknowledgement that Ireland is too small for our people to live in isolation from each other and that working together is better for everyone.

And in that context and remembering the three days of negotiations at St. Andrew’s six years ago this month, did you notice that the meeting between the British Prime Minister David Cameron and the Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond was held in St. Andrews House in Edinburgh? They sensibly decided to call their agreement after the city and not the place!

That historic meeting saw agreement on the right of the people of Scotland to vote in a referendum on the issue of independence in 2014.

The future of the Union is now a live debating issue and firmly on the political agenda.

In the Good Friday negotiations Sinn Féin secured the removal of the Government of Ireland Act under which the British government claimed sovereignty over the north of Ireland. There is now only a qualified, conditional claim that will change when a majority of citizens in the north vote for an end to the union.

In the Constitutional Issues section of the Good Friday (or Belfast) Agreement (1.iv) the British and Irish governments:

“affirm that, if, in future, the people of the island of Ireland exercise their right of self-determination on the basis set out in sections (i) and (ii) above to bring about a united Ireland, it will be a binding obligation on both governments to introduce and support in their respective Parliaments legislation to give effect to that wish”

Sections (i) and (ii) referred to are the requirement for the consent of a majority within the North and the provision for concurrent referenda North and South.

The Good Friday Agreement therefore provides for a border poll on Irish unity. This commitment was incorporated in the British Northern Ireland Act 1998 (Schedule 1) which states that: “The Secretary of State may by order direct the holding of a poll for the purposes of section 1 [of the Act re. Irish unity] on a date specified in the order.”

I raised this issue with the Taoiseach during Leaders Questions in the Dáil on Tuesday. I welcomed his comment last week in Cleveland in the USA where he had expressed the opinion that a united Ireland will happen ‘one day.’

Predictably, Gregory Campbell rushed to condemn Kenny. But his position was not shared by an online poll in the Belfast Telegraph which produced 46% supporting the Taoiseach’s view that a united Ireland will happen.

However, I put it to the Taoiseach that there is a need to go beyond the rhetoric. Uniting Ireland is one of the great historic challenges facing the Irish people at the start of the 21st century.

The people of this island have the right to independence and self-determination. Partition is unjust, uneconomic and inefficient.

But a united Ireland will only happen when those of those who want it persuade those who don’t that it will be better for them and for their children. It needs a plan, a strategy. We have to demonstrate in practical ways why working as partners and living together as equals on this island is better.

So I called on the Taoiseach to come back to the Dáil in the next short while with an outline of how he envisages securing the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and a border poll.

Not surprisingly the Fine Gael leader looked for excuses to do nothing at this time. He argued that it isn’t the right time for this debate and that the Irish government has to sort out the economy first.

This is entirely the wrong approach. Now is exactly the right time for a debate on this issue in the context of rebuilding the economies on this island and beginning a process of dialogue and reconciliation around Irish unity.

The Good Friday Agreement allows for a border poll. It must be the next step.

Creating Jobs – it isn’t rocket science!

Last month the Central Statistics Office produced new emigration figures for the southern state which revealed that 87,000 people had moved to Australia and Canada and other far corners of the globe. The reason? There is no work at home. Currently 460,000 citizens are on the live register. That’s over 14%. And government policies are making the situation worse – not better.Thousands of home owners are trapped in negative equity; poverty is increasing and government debt now stands at €169 billion. Fine Gael and Labour are committed to an austerity strategy which is pushing up unemployment and driving down the quality of life of families.

They have bought into a political and economic strategy which has seen the state’s economic sovereignty dangerously undermined and the introduction of a succession of punitive measures that have reduced wages, child benefit payments, disability payments and social welfare; and attacked social provisions for carers, older citizens, and the blind. In addition a range of stealth taxes, including the Household charge; the universal social charge; VAT increases; septic tank charges and more have eaten dramatically into the incomes of families.Thursday saw the Taoiseach tell the Trade Unions at a meeting of the Croke Park implementation body that there have to be significant payroll cuts next year. He also warned that there could be no delay in reaching agreement and pointed to the negotiations with the hospital consultants as an example of what can be achieved.

The problem is that the words were barely out of his mouth when it emerged that negotiations between the two bodies representing the consultants and the Health Service Executive on work practices had broken down and the issue would now most likely end up in the Labour Relations Court.

Sinn Féin believes that the Irish government is making the wrong choices and disproportionately placing the burden of paying for the debts of the golden circles on those who can least afford it.Unemployment hurts citizens, drives families into poverty and despair, leads to increased numbers of suicide, the loss of the family home, and social problems for communities.

It drives many of our brightest and best young people to flee to Australia and other parts of the globe.In response to this Sinn Féin has in recent years produced a series of alternative budget proposals, in advance of the annual December budget, that contain practical, effective and innovative proposals to reduce the deficit, create growth in the economy, get people back to work and target youth unemployment.

Like our Wealth Tax proposal these are socially responsible proposals. It is evidence that in the battle of ideas that the Sinn Féin party is prepared to think outside the box in seeking effective solutions to problems.Austerity means cuts. It means reducing public spending by attacking public services. It has been a mantra of Sinn Féin that you cannot cut your way out of recession.

And like our alternative budget proposals, Sinn Féin on Thursday produced an alternative jobs creation strategy. Politics is about political choices and in our Jobs Plan Sinn Féin has produced a fully costed, detailed plan that provides a socially responsible way to reduce the budget deficit while creating and retaining jobs. It calls for an investment of €13 billion into job creation and retention, which will create an average of 156,000 short and long term jobs.

The money is there; in the National Pension Reserve Fund, the European Pension Bank, the private pension sector, and in the money the government plans to cut from its capital budget spend.

This is not rocket science.The scandal is that this government will continue to fritter away the money in the NPRF; put money into toxic banks, and pay off unguaranteed bondholders, while older citizens lose home care supports, and there is one reduction after another in wages; support for lone parents; carers; citizens with disabilities; the blind and the unemployed.

Fine Gael and Labour have no strategic vision of how to invest the money in the National Pension Reserve Fund in a way that can help the economy in the long term.Sinn Féin has a strategy.

It is a thoughtful, rational, well developed and costed plan that will use the available resources in an intelligent – smart way.There will be those who disagree with our proposals. That’s fine. Let them do so constructively and provide their alternative.

What we will not tolerate is the begrudgery that passes for political discourse from Fine Gael and Labour. Their record, like that of Fianna Fáil, is appalling.Remember Fine Gael’s manifesto promised that their NewERA plan would invest an extra €7 billion in energy, communications and water to give Ireland the world class infrastructure?

 There was to be a Jobs Budget within 100 days of the Government being established but this was watered down to a Jobs initiative in May 2011.

 In February of 2012, after a year in office the Government unveiled an Action Plan for Jobs. At its lunch the Taoiseach said it would create an additional 100,000 jobs.
 There has been a loss of 33,000 in the last year.
 
Remember the Labour Party’s promise before the election that it would put in place a €500 million jobs fund to support new ideas and create employment in strategic sectors of the economy?
They promised to establish a strategic investment bank, with a lending capacity of €2 billion, from the National Pension Reserve Fund.
None of this happened. And then there was the Strategic Investment Fund unveiled in September 2011.
It was to provide funds from the National Pension Reserve Fund for investment in the economy, provide capital for small and medium enterprises and the creation of jobs.
Last week in the Dáil the Taoiseach still couldn’t say when the legislation required for the Fund would be produced by his government.
The reality is that none of this is real or meaningful because the government is ideologically locked into an austerity approach that is about cutting jobs and funding from the public sector, and is driving down growth through stealth taxes.
If you want to cut the deficit and increase government revenue while reducing its expenditure, particularly its social welfare bill, then you have to stimulate the economy, reduce unemployment and generate growth.Sinn Féin’s Jobs Plan will do what all of that failed to achieve. It can create real jobs, using real money, and provide the essential growth and stimulus that the economy needs to overcome the disastrous effects of successive bad policies by this government and the last.

Slavery and the Magdalene laundries

Did you know that there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today?  I didn’t. Many are forced labourers and soldiers – many of them children – coerced, sold, traded into involuntary service and over half of forced labourers and almost all of sex trafficking victims are women and young girls.

In the language of the 21st century the word slavery has been largely replaced with the term human trafficking or trafficking in persons. But it is still slavery. It takes many forms from sexual exploitation, forced labour in sweat shops and factories, to debt bondage. And modern slavery is not confined to the developing world. Trafficking in persons is a serious problem in the developed world. According to statistics from the US State department at least 14,500 people are trafficked into the USA every year.
For many the notion of slavery is linked to the slave ships that plied their trade across the Atlantic between Africa and the USA; and the American Civil War that freed the slaves but didn’t bring freedom or equality or justice for many generations.

There were Irish slaves too. Thousands were sold by the British in the 17thcentury to the plantations in the Caribbean while many more were indentured servants – little better than slaves.

But the realisation that slavery today is a world-wide phenomenon that continues to exist in many countries is a surprise.

Each year I attend the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York run by former President Bill Clinton. And each year the issue of human trafficking and in particular of women and young girls, and the conditions of their employment and exploitation as sex workers, is the subject of debate. I was there two weeks ago and this issue was given added weight on the final day of the CGI in a speech by President Obama who dedicated his entire remarks to the issue of modern slavery.

He said: “When a man, desperate for work, finds himself in a factory or on a fishing boat or in a field, working, toiling, for little or no pay, and beaten if he tries to escape -- that is slavery. When a woman is locked in a sweatshop, or trapped in a home as a domestic servant, alone and abused and incapable of leaving -- that’s slavery. When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed -- that’s slavery. When a little girl is sold by her impoverished family -- girls my daughters’ age -- runs away from home, or is lured by the false promises of a better life, and then imprisoned in a brothel and tortured if she resists -- that’s slavery. It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world.”

On the same day that Obama made his remarks Sinn Féin introduced a Private Members Motion into the Dáil to help the victims of a form of slavery that for many decades passed unnoticed in the Irish state and which even today this Irish government is failing to deal with properly.

The Magdalene asylums first opened their doors in Ireland approximately 200 years ago. They were first run by Protestant orders initially seeking to ‘rehabilitate’ prostitutes. The institutions were taken over by four Catholic religious orders.  Over time the state increasingly used these institutions as a place to deal with a multitude of social problems including, poverty, disability, so-called immoral behaviour, babies born out of wedlock, domestic and sexual abuse, youth crime, and infanticide. The religious orders in turn used these girls and women as unpaid labour. The last operating laundry closed its doors on Sean McDermott Street in 1996 with 40 women still in residence, the eldest of them 79, the youngest in her 40s.

Women incarcerated in these institutions worked for no pay whilst the orders ran the laundries on a commercial basis in brutally harsh conditions. There were 10 laundries in Dublin, Waterford, Limerick, Cork, Galway and Wexford. The State provided direct and indirect financial support to the Laundries.

The Ryan Report (2009) details the women’s forced unpaid labour in the Laundries and states that their working conditions were harsh, they were completely deprived of their liberty and suffered both physical and emotional abuse. Those who tried to escape and were caught by the Garda were returned to the institutions.The Magdalene women were excluded by the State from the 2002 Residential Institutions Redress Scheme established to pay victims of abuse in Church run institutions like the industrial school system primarily on the basis that the laundries were privately run and it claimed it therefore had to involvement in the institutions.

In June 2011the government set up an interdepartmental Committee into the Magdalene Laundries for the purpose of clarifying any State interaction with the Magdalene Laundries. Senator Martin McAleese was appointed chair of the Committee. His final report was due in July but the deadline for its publication is now the end of the year.The Sinn Féin motion was intended to support the work of the McAleese committee and to persuade the government to take steps now to alleviate some of the trauma still being suffered by these women all of whom are elderly.

But more immediately the motion was about getting the government to establish a helpline for the women and commit it to support survivors in accessing pensions that they are entitled to for all their years of hard and painful work without pay in the laundries. In opposition both Labour and Fine Gael criticised the Fianna Fáil Government for excluding both the Magdalene Laundries and Bethany Home from the redress scheme. In government Labour and Fine Gael are hiding behind the McAleese report to do nothing.

Worse in their defence of the government’s amendment to the motion, which they forced through on a vote, they questioned the established facts surrounding the treatment of the women. Labour Minister Kathleen Lynch said she did not doubt the sincerity of the women or ‘have sympathy with them for the hardships they faced and endured’ but then did exactly that by arguing that the state ‘cannot leap to conclusions’.

‘The facts remain undetermined’ said Minister Kathleen Lynch.Not true. The facts are well known and have been graphically presented in previous reports, including some by international agencies; by the survivors and in a recent report produced by Justice for the Magdalenes.

These women endured slavery and successive Irish governments colluded in this. That was shameful. But it is even more dishonourable that this government should fail to resolve this issue and chose instead to add hurt to the victims by doubting their veracity. Finally, I recently read a poem by Maya Angelou. It relates to the slavery of black people but isn’t exclusive to them. It says so much about the courage and heroism of those of whatever colour who resist slavery and determine to rise above it. As I read it I thought of the women and girls of the Magdalene laundries.

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.