Gerry Adams's Blog, page 79
December 6, 2011
A Scrooge budget for Christmas
The budget has dominated the news in the south for the last weeks. A series of leaks from Ministers had raised heightened fears around likely budget measures by the government.
These fears were entirely justified for those on the receiving end of a series of swingeing cuts and stealth taxes. There is no disguising what has been a savage Budget which leaves struggling families and working people to carry the can for the greed, incompetence and corruption of others.
In his broadcast on Sunday evening the Taoiseach talked about fairness and said, "You are not responsible for the crisis", and then proceeded to make ordinary citizens pay for the greed and corruption of the political elite, the bankers and the developers.
As this government has protected the wages and pensions of those at the top of the political system so too has it shielded bankers. Twenty two of the top fifty Anglo Irish Bank executives are still in place and nineteen of them are earning over €175,000 per year.
During his Sunday night broadcast the Taoiseach mentioned jobs 15 times and spoke frequently of the need to create work. "Work provides focus. Work gives us independence. Work gives our families hope". He said.
And then he introduced measures that will costs jobs. The €750 million cuts to the capital budget will mean between seven and nine thousand less jobs. The government is also committed to cutting 6,000 public service jobs. The money taken out of the pocket of low and middle income families is money taken out of the economy –out of the local shops – and this will also cost jobs.
The government has already accepted in its medium term fiscal report published at the start of November that there will still be 390,000 people on the dole in 2015. And it would be much worse but for immigration which since the start of the year has seen 54,000 of our mainly young people leave for foreign shores.
Today there are 444,000 people on the live register. That is 15,000 more than when Fine Gael and Labour won the election. It is an indictment of their policies and a reflection of their failure.
The budget will have a devastating effect on some of the most vulnerable in this society.
• The government has introduced a cut of 20% in the fuel allowance.
• They have cut child benefits: despite the pre-election promises the cuts in child benefit will cost a four child family €432 in 2012 and €768 in 2013.
• They have introduced punitive measures targeting those in part time employment at a time when there are 444,000 people on the dole.
• They have also introduced cuts to disability allowance and mental health provision and payments to lone parents have been cut.
• Community nursing homes are to be closed and there will be a €100 household charge from next January.
• At the same time as introducing this scrooge-like Christmas budget the Taoiseach sought and secured a €35,000 a year pay rise for a political crony – a former press officer for Fine Gael who has now been appointed as a special adviser to Minister Richard Bruton.
The government choose to go after children, the disabled, lone parents, widows, carers.
The media spin for Labour party spokespersons in particular was that the budget would protect social welfare payments and it would not cut the basic unemployment rate.
But the truth was different. The cut in the Fuel Allowance from 32 weeks to 26 weeks is an attack on older people. More of them will now experience fuel poverty – in other words colder homes for more months of the year. Child benefit – a red line issue for Labour during the election campaign – was cut; disability benefits for the under 18s were abolished; lone parents were targeted; widow and widowers pensions were attacked; the back to education allowance was cut; and the cut in rent supplement will hurt people on low incomes.
Community Employment schemes and community projects which frequently provide the safety net for vulnerable citizens – our young and sick and elderly –will be severely damaged.
The government also deceived citizens over the actual size of the cuts being introduced. It claimed for example, that social welfare cuts were €475 million. But that is just for 2012.
• In a full year social welfare is cut by €811 million.
• Health is cut by a total of €797 million.
• Education by €316 million.
What sort of society will there be next year after these cuts have wrought their damage and the government introduces another 2 billion plus of cuts?
And all the while that Fine Gael and Labour are cutting and slashing at those who can least afford it they have handed €20.7bn, of taxpayers money over to the banks, including €3.1bn to Anglo Irish Bank. It will pay another €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish in three months time.
As Pearse Doherty said in the Dáil, "No wealthy person ever died from having to pay more taxes?"
And he's right. 5,000 citizens die prematurely every year because of inequality in areas like health. Up to 2,000 people die each winter due to cold related illnesses.
In light of this budget with its cuts and stealth taxes how many more this winter?
This budget is the same old story from this conservative government and despite the Taoiseach's claims, the fact is that those at the top have not made sacrifices.
The choices this government took – and Labour should be ashamed – was to demand that our young and elderly, citizens with special needs, our carers, our sick, lone parents, women, citizens on low and middle incomes and the unemployed pay for the greed of the golden circles, the political elites, the developers and bankers.
Sinn Féin firmly believes that Irish people have the intelligence, the will and the ability to build a real republic, to reorganise our affairs and to create a fair society based on equality.
• That requires a fairer tax system that targets wealth and lifts the burden of the least well off.
• It requires real investment in health and education services.
• It demands a job stimulus package which will get people back to work, and increase state revenue. That's the way to reduce the social welfare bill.
• It means the end to bailouts for bad banks and bondholders.
• It means the elimination of wasteful public spending.
• And the end to excessive pay and pensions in the public sector.
The Irish people cannot afford to subsidise rock and roll life styles for former Taoisigh or special advisers when Special Needs Assistants are being cut.
The 90th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty which partitioned Ireland is a reminder that decisions can have far reaching and negative consequences.
Sinn Féin believes that economic recovery is possible based on a strategy of fair taxes, investment in jobs, debt restructuring, growing the all-Ireland economy and protecting public services and those on low and middle incomes.
The Irish people deserve better. We deserved a better, fairer budget. There is an alternative. It is based on equality and fairness.
These fears were entirely justified for those on the receiving end of a series of swingeing cuts and stealth taxes. There is no disguising what has been a savage Budget which leaves struggling families and working people to carry the can for the greed, incompetence and corruption of others.
In his broadcast on Sunday evening the Taoiseach talked about fairness and said, "You are not responsible for the crisis", and then proceeded to make ordinary citizens pay for the greed and corruption of the political elite, the bankers and the developers.
As this government has protected the wages and pensions of those at the top of the political system so too has it shielded bankers. Twenty two of the top fifty Anglo Irish Bank executives are still in place and nineteen of them are earning over €175,000 per year.
During his Sunday night broadcast the Taoiseach mentioned jobs 15 times and spoke frequently of the need to create work. "Work provides focus. Work gives us independence. Work gives our families hope". He said.
And then he introduced measures that will costs jobs. The €750 million cuts to the capital budget will mean between seven and nine thousand less jobs. The government is also committed to cutting 6,000 public service jobs. The money taken out of the pocket of low and middle income families is money taken out of the economy –out of the local shops – and this will also cost jobs.
The government has already accepted in its medium term fiscal report published at the start of November that there will still be 390,000 people on the dole in 2015. And it would be much worse but for immigration which since the start of the year has seen 54,000 of our mainly young people leave for foreign shores.
Today there are 444,000 people on the live register. That is 15,000 more than when Fine Gael and Labour won the election. It is an indictment of their policies and a reflection of their failure.
The budget will have a devastating effect on some of the most vulnerable in this society.
• The government has introduced a cut of 20% in the fuel allowance.
• They have cut child benefits: despite the pre-election promises the cuts in child benefit will cost a four child family €432 in 2012 and €768 in 2013.
• They have introduced punitive measures targeting those in part time employment at a time when there are 444,000 people on the dole.
• They have also introduced cuts to disability allowance and mental health provision and payments to lone parents have been cut.
• Community nursing homes are to be closed and there will be a €100 household charge from next January.
• At the same time as introducing this scrooge-like Christmas budget the Taoiseach sought and secured a €35,000 a year pay rise for a political crony – a former press officer for Fine Gael who has now been appointed as a special adviser to Minister Richard Bruton.
The government choose to go after children, the disabled, lone parents, widows, carers.
The media spin for Labour party spokespersons in particular was that the budget would protect social welfare payments and it would not cut the basic unemployment rate.
But the truth was different. The cut in the Fuel Allowance from 32 weeks to 26 weeks is an attack on older people. More of them will now experience fuel poverty – in other words colder homes for more months of the year. Child benefit – a red line issue for Labour during the election campaign – was cut; disability benefits for the under 18s were abolished; lone parents were targeted; widow and widowers pensions were attacked; the back to education allowance was cut; and the cut in rent supplement will hurt people on low incomes.
Community Employment schemes and community projects which frequently provide the safety net for vulnerable citizens – our young and sick and elderly –will be severely damaged.
The government also deceived citizens over the actual size of the cuts being introduced. It claimed for example, that social welfare cuts were €475 million. But that is just for 2012.
• In a full year social welfare is cut by €811 million.
• Health is cut by a total of €797 million.
• Education by €316 million.
What sort of society will there be next year after these cuts have wrought their damage and the government introduces another 2 billion plus of cuts?
And all the while that Fine Gael and Labour are cutting and slashing at those who can least afford it they have handed €20.7bn, of taxpayers money over to the banks, including €3.1bn to Anglo Irish Bank. It will pay another €3.1 billion to Anglo Irish in three months time.
As Pearse Doherty said in the Dáil, "No wealthy person ever died from having to pay more taxes?"
And he's right. 5,000 citizens die prematurely every year because of inequality in areas like health. Up to 2,000 people die each winter due to cold related illnesses.
In light of this budget with its cuts and stealth taxes how many more this winter?
This budget is the same old story from this conservative government and despite the Taoiseach's claims, the fact is that those at the top have not made sacrifices.
The choices this government took – and Labour should be ashamed – was to demand that our young and elderly, citizens with special needs, our carers, our sick, lone parents, women, citizens on low and middle incomes and the unemployed pay for the greed of the golden circles, the political elites, the developers and bankers.
Sinn Féin firmly believes that Irish people have the intelligence, the will and the ability to build a real republic, to reorganise our affairs and to create a fair society based on equality.
• That requires a fairer tax system that targets wealth and lifts the burden of the least well off.
• It requires real investment in health and education services.
• It demands a job stimulus package which will get people back to work, and increase state revenue. That's the way to reduce the social welfare bill.
• It means the end to bailouts for bad banks and bondholders.
• It means the elimination of wasteful public spending.
• And the end to excessive pay and pensions in the public sector.
The Irish people cannot afford to subsidise rock and roll life styles for former Taoisigh or special advisers when Special Needs Assistants are being cut.
The 90th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty which partitioned Ireland is a reminder that decisions can have far reaching and negative consequences.
Sinn Féin believes that economic recovery is possible based on a strategy of fair taxes, investment in jobs, debt restructuring, growing the all-Ireland economy and protecting public services and those on low and middle incomes.
The Irish people deserve better. We deserved a better, fairer budget. There is an alternative. It is based on equality and fairness.
December 4, 2011
The Minister who farted a mouse
Last week public sector workers in the north went on strike for one day against an effort by the British Tory Government to force them to pay more in pension contributions and to cut pensions.
Sinn Féin supported this action and these workers. There are also many other people without jobs or pension provision who are being attacked by the Tories.
And not just in the north. In the south we have our own little Tory government which is also inflicting inequality on citizens. This will be most evident next week when on Monday and Tuesday, our home grown Tories in Fine Gael and Labour will produce their first budget in government.
Government statements and a series of planned Ministerial leaks have already given us a good sense of its shape. In addition, to the embarrassment of the government the detail on a two per cent VAT rise was passed to the German Parliament two weeks ago. German Parliamentarians had the opportunity to scrutinise this proposed increase to be announced in the budget before the Dáil!
On Monday the budget to cut €2.2 billion from public services will be outlined. The following day it will be the new taxes to be introduced to raise €1.6 billion. The amount of hardship this will cause to families struggling to pay bills is significant.
The stupidity of this economic strategy will be evident next month when the government hands €1.2 billion of tax payers money over to unguaranteed bondholders in Anglo Irish bank. A move it is neither legally nor morally nor ethically obliged to do.
But the flaw at the heart of government policy was evident last week, even before the budget is unveiled, in its failure to tackle the issue of highflying pensions for former government Ministers, civil servants and judges.
On Tuesday this blog challenged the Taoiseach on this issue in the Dáil. Did you know that over 30 former ministers are paid more than €100,000 a year in pensions? But in addition they receive these pensions before they reach pension age and while they are still employed.
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen receives €151,061; the former Minister for Health Mary Harney, gets €129,805; former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes, receives somewhere in the region of €150,000 as chairman of state-owned Anglo Irish Bank (now the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation) and draws down a ministerial pension of €94,467.
The former Labour Party leader Dick Spring has a pension of €121,108. He receives this at the same time as a basic salary of €27,375 he gets from the partly state owned AIB on which he serves as a public interest director. He also gets €3,000 for every committee meeting he attends.
Talk about the boys looking after the boys!!!!!
I was therefore surprised when the Taoiseach responded saying that the government was also concerned by all of this and that Minister Howlin was going to come into the Dáil and announce changes.
However my surprise soon turned to disgust when I saw the half hearted measures the Government were prepared to take. The measures announced by the Minister served only to add insult to injury. Yet the same Minister will announce savage cuts to public services on Monday.
The cuts announced by the Labour minister were tokenistic. The measures will mean that former Minister Ray Burke, imprisoned for corruption, will lose €1 a day from his pension of €104,000 while former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen will still retain pensions of €147,000 a year.
In effect it was all a piece of political sleight of hand – a piece of media spin to give the appearance of responding to public outrage without actually doing very much. Speaking in the Dáil I described it in slightly more colourful language. I said to the Taoiseach: "Yesterday you promised an elephant and Minister Howlin farted and produced a mouse. It's a disgrace."
It beggars belief how a Government which claims it has no money for job creation, for hospitals, for children with special needs, for carers, for students, still has plenty of money to protect these political elites.
Given their election promises many citizens will be disappointed at the Fine Gael position but it is particularly shocking that this is being done by a Government which includes the Labour party.
The Labour party seems to have lost its way in Government. Labour TD's were elected on a platform of political change, an end to cronyism and made firm commitments to the electorate that they would protect child benefit and oppose increases to student fees.
They have fully endorsed the failed policies of their predecessors in Government. Given the amount of policy U turns since the election I often wonder what the purpose of Labour remaining in this Government is. Considering the Budget that TD's will be asked to vote on next week maybe some other Labour TD's will ask themselves the same question.
Sinn Féin supported this action and these workers. There are also many other people without jobs or pension provision who are being attacked by the Tories.
And not just in the north. In the south we have our own little Tory government which is also inflicting inequality on citizens. This will be most evident next week when on Monday and Tuesday, our home grown Tories in Fine Gael and Labour will produce their first budget in government.
Government statements and a series of planned Ministerial leaks have already given us a good sense of its shape. In addition, to the embarrassment of the government the detail on a two per cent VAT rise was passed to the German Parliament two weeks ago. German Parliamentarians had the opportunity to scrutinise this proposed increase to be announced in the budget before the Dáil!
On Monday the budget to cut €2.2 billion from public services will be outlined. The following day it will be the new taxes to be introduced to raise €1.6 billion. The amount of hardship this will cause to families struggling to pay bills is significant.
The stupidity of this economic strategy will be evident next month when the government hands €1.2 billion of tax payers money over to unguaranteed bondholders in Anglo Irish bank. A move it is neither legally nor morally nor ethically obliged to do.
But the flaw at the heart of government policy was evident last week, even before the budget is unveiled, in its failure to tackle the issue of highflying pensions for former government Ministers, civil servants and judges.
On Tuesday this blog challenged the Taoiseach on this issue in the Dáil. Did you know that over 30 former ministers are paid more than €100,000 a year in pensions? But in addition they receive these pensions before they reach pension age and while they are still employed.
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen receives €151,061; the former Minister for Health Mary Harney, gets €129,805; former Fine Gael leader Alan Dukes, receives somewhere in the region of €150,000 as chairman of state-owned Anglo Irish Bank (now the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation) and draws down a ministerial pension of €94,467.
The former Labour Party leader Dick Spring has a pension of €121,108. He receives this at the same time as a basic salary of €27,375 he gets from the partly state owned AIB on which he serves as a public interest director. He also gets €3,000 for every committee meeting he attends.
Talk about the boys looking after the boys!!!!!
I was therefore surprised when the Taoiseach responded saying that the government was also concerned by all of this and that Minister Howlin was going to come into the Dáil and announce changes.
However my surprise soon turned to disgust when I saw the half hearted measures the Government were prepared to take. The measures announced by the Minister served only to add insult to injury. Yet the same Minister will announce savage cuts to public services on Monday.
The cuts announced by the Labour minister were tokenistic. The measures will mean that former Minister Ray Burke, imprisoned for corruption, will lose €1 a day from his pension of €104,000 while former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen will still retain pensions of €147,000 a year.
In effect it was all a piece of political sleight of hand – a piece of media spin to give the appearance of responding to public outrage without actually doing very much. Speaking in the Dáil I described it in slightly more colourful language. I said to the Taoiseach: "Yesterday you promised an elephant and Minister Howlin farted and produced a mouse. It's a disgrace."
It beggars belief how a Government which claims it has no money for job creation, for hospitals, for children with special needs, for carers, for students, still has plenty of money to protect these political elites.
Given their election promises many citizens will be disappointed at the Fine Gael position but it is particularly shocking that this is being done by a Government which includes the Labour party.
The Labour party seems to have lost its way in Government. Labour TD's were elected on a platform of political change, an end to cronyism and made firm commitments to the electorate that they would protect child benefit and oppose increases to student fees.
They have fully endorsed the failed policies of their predecessors in Government. Given the amount of policy U turns since the election I often wonder what the purpose of Labour remaining in this Government is. Considering the Budget that TD's will be asked to vote on next week maybe some other Labour TD's will ask themselves the same question.
November 28, 2011
Justice for Abuse Victims
In May RTE broadcast a 'Prime Time Investigates' programme 'Mission to Prey' which identified a number of Catholic priests alleging they were abusers. Subsequently the state broadcaster apologised when it emerged that false accusations were made in the programme against Fr. Kevin Reynolds. It paid substantial damages to him.
Within days of the libel action being settled the Cabinet met, discussed the issue and ordered an inquiry by the Broadcasting Authority. A speedy response to a serious issue.
Less speedy has been the response by successive governments to the allegations of an appalling litany of sexual abuse against patients which occurred in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital over three decades beginning in the early 1970s. Bernadette Sullivan, a former nurse, exposed the scandal almost 20 years ago. She then established in 2008 the support and advocacy organisation, Dignity 4 Patients.
Dignity 4 Patients is patient-centred organisation, which delivers support and advocacy services to people "who have experienced sexually inappropriate behaviour whilst a patient. Our services are designed to help patients understand what has happened and to provide a safe place to talk and access support and information. We aim to assist those patient/victims and their families on a path to healing and recovery."
It has also been campaigning for a Commission of Inquiry into the Drogheda allegations.
Two years ago Fine Gael and Labour brought forward a very good motion to the Dáil in support of the Lourdes victims. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny supported this motion. So did the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore and the Minister for Health James Reilly. Dr. Reilly was an outspoken critic of the then Health Minister Mary Harney's refusal to hold an inquiry. The opposition motion was narrowly defeated 76 to 73 by Fianna Fáil and the Greens.
In April this year the now Health Minister James Reilly performed a political U-turn by ruling out an inquiry into the abuse allegations. It was suggested by a Health department spokesperson that this 'may' have been because the Smyth review last autumn had advised against an inquiry because it might affect possible criminal proceedings. However, Bernadette Sullivan pointed out that Minister Reilly was critical of the failure to hold an inquiry both before and after the Smyth review.
Four months later in July I received an email from a victim of the abuse in Lourdes Hospital. He was responding to Enda Kenny's Dáil speech in which he criticised the Catholic Church for its failure to co-operate with inquiries into abuse by members of religious orders.
In it the victim included an email sent to him two years ago following the failure of that earlier motion in which Mr. Kenny said: "We did not wish to divide the Dáil on this issue but the government of Fianna Fáil and the Greens voted down our request ... I know they were wrong to do this."
That same month Minister Reilly changed tack again and raised hopes among victims. On July 21st at a meeting with the Joint Committee on Health and Children he acknowledged that; "Many people have suffered as a consequence of not being able to have this issue aired in public and I have discussed it with the Attorney General. Notwithstanding the reports to date, I have the agreement of the Attorney General that we will, following the referendum on the Abbeylara judgment, have an Oireachtas committee inquiry to investigate fully this issue when the committees have restored their rights to compel witnesses to attend."
Minister Reilly also said that he hoped the inquiry; "... will address the outstanding issue and give people the sense that justice will be done. Justice will be done in the courts in any event but this matter goes beyond that."
The referendum was not passed but the issue of justice for those who have suffered abuse remains, and as he accepts, is a matter that goes beyond the courts.
As well as the hurt done to victims there is also the failure of the state thus far to reassure the public that the systemic flaws in the health service, that failed to prevent the abuse in Lourdes hospital, have been properly addressed.
Last Monday evening I attended a meeting in Drogheda of the Dignity 4 Patients group. The sense of anger and hurt and frustration among victims was obvious and distressing. On Wednesday I raised this issue in the Dáil and asked the Taoiseach if he would establish an independent Commission of Inquiry into these events as he promised in opposition, and announce this before the Christmas recess.
He refused, instead offering to meet with the leaders of the opposition to discuss this matter. This was a disappointing rejection of a request which the Taoiseach has a clear record of supporting.
It is also in stark contrast to the speed with which the Cabinet moved on the RTE case.
What is the delay? Why are the rights of these victims being ignored by the state? Whatever the reason it is not good enough.
An inquiry is needed. An Inquiry is long overdue. The victims have a right to the truth. The public has a right to know that the health system has put in place procedures to prevent a repeat of this.
There are also other related issues that need to be resolved. Dignity 4 Patients has had its core funding cut. The 200 plus patients who rely on it and many of whom do not trust the health system, are to be denied the support and advocacy service it provides. The Minister has to reverse this cruel decision.
Victims I have spoken to have also asked that the Minister authorise the release to the victims of the evidence they individually gave to the Drogheda Review held by retired High Court judge TC Smyth. The review itself was never published and thus far the individual evidence provided by victims has been withheld from them. That decision also needs reversed.
In the Programme for Government agreed by Fine Gael and Labour after the election the two government parties committed to building a new Ireland based on 'fairness' and in which government would protect the "vulnerable".
The victims of abuse in Drogheda Hospital are 'vulnerable' citizens seeking justice. Two years ago Enda Kenny castigated Fianna Fail and the Greens for their stand.
He was right then. But he will be wrong now if he does exactly what they did.
Within days of the libel action being settled the Cabinet met, discussed the issue and ordered an inquiry by the Broadcasting Authority. A speedy response to a serious issue.
Less speedy has been the response by successive governments to the allegations of an appalling litany of sexual abuse against patients which occurred in Our Lady of Lourdes hospital over three decades beginning in the early 1970s. Bernadette Sullivan, a former nurse, exposed the scandal almost 20 years ago. She then established in 2008 the support and advocacy organisation, Dignity 4 Patients.
Dignity 4 Patients is patient-centred organisation, which delivers support and advocacy services to people "who have experienced sexually inappropriate behaviour whilst a patient. Our services are designed to help patients understand what has happened and to provide a safe place to talk and access support and information. We aim to assist those patient/victims and their families on a path to healing and recovery."
It has also been campaigning for a Commission of Inquiry into the Drogheda allegations.
Two years ago Fine Gael and Labour brought forward a very good motion to the Dáil in support of the Lourdes victims. The Taoiseach Enda Kenny supported this motion. So did the Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore and the Minister for Health James Reilly. Dr. Reilly was an outspoken critic of the then Health Minister Mary Harney's refusal to hold an inquiry. The opposition motion was narrowly defeated 76 to 73 by Fianna Fáil and the Greens.
In April this year the now Health Minister James Reilly performed a political U-turn by ruling out an inquiry into the abuse allegations. It was suggested by a Health department spokesperson that this 'may' have been because the Smyth review last autumn had advised against an inquiry because it might affect possible criminal proceedings. However, Bernadette Sullivan pointed out that Minister Reilly was critical of the failure to hold an inquiry both before and after the Smyth review.
Four months later in July I received an email from a victim of the abuse in Lourdes Hospital. He was responding to Enda Kenny's Dáil speech in which he criticised the Catholic Church for its failure to co-operate with inquiries into abuse by members of religious orders.
In it the victim included an email sent to him two years ago following the failure of that earlier motion in which Mr. Kenny said: "We did not wish to divide the Dáil on this issue but the government of Fianna Fáil and the Greens voted down our request ... I know they were wrong to do this."
That same month Minister Reilly changed tack again and raised hopes among victims. On July 21st at a meeting with the Joint Committee on Health and Children he acknowledged that; "Many people have suffered as a consequence of not being able to have this issue aired in public and I have discussed it with the Attorney General. Notwithstanding the reports to date, I have the agreement of the Attorney General that we will, following the referendum on the Abbeylara judgment, have an Oireachtas committee inquiry to investigate fully this issue when the committees have restored their rights to compel witnesses to attend."
Minister Reilly also said that he hoped the inquiry; "... will address the outstanding issue and give people the sense that justice will be done. Justice will be done in the courts in any event but this matter goes beyond that."
The referendum was not passed but the issue of justice for those who have suffered abuse remains, and as he accepts, is a matter that goes beyond the courts.
As well as the hurt done to victims there is also the failure of the state thus far to reassure the public that the systemic flaws in the health service, that failed to prevent the abuse in Lourdes hospital, have been properly addressed.
Last Monday evening I attended a meeting in Drogheda of the Dignity 4 Patients group. The sense of anger and hurt and frustration among victims was obvious and distressing. On Wednesday I raised this issue in the Dáil and asked the Taoiseach if he would establish an independent Commission of Inquiry into these events as he promised in opposition, and announce this before the Christmas recess.
He refused, instead offering to meet with the leaders of the opposition to discuss this matter. This was a disappointing rejection of a request which the Taoiseach has a clear record of supporting.
It is also in stark contrast to the speed with which the Cabinet moved on the RTE case.
What is the delay? Why are the rights of these victims being ignored by the state? Whatever the reason it is not good enough.
An inquiry is needed. An Inquiry is long overdue. The victims have a right to the truth. The public has a right to know that the health system has put in place procedures to prevent a repeat of this.
There are also other related issues that need to be resolved. Dignity 4 Patients has had its core funding cut. The 200 plus patients who rely on it and many of whom do not trust the health system, are to be denied the support and advocacy service it provides. The Minister has to reverse this cruel decision.
Victims I have spoken to have also asked that the Minister authorise the release to the victims of the evidence they individually gave to the Drogheda Review held by retired High Court judge TC Smyth. The review itself was never published and thus far the individual evidence provided by victims has been withheld from them. That decision also needs reversed.
In the Programme for Government agreed by Fine Gael and Labour after the election the two government parties committed to building a new Ireland based on 'fairness' and in which government would protect the "vulnerable".
The victims of abuse in Drogheda Hospital are 'vulnerable' citizens seeking justice. Two years ago Enda Kenny castigated Fianna Fail and the Greens for their stand.
He was right then. But he will be wrong now if he does exactly what they did.
November 23, 2011
There is an alternative
Since it came to power last February the Fine Gael/Labour government has blamed every bad decision, every u-turn in pre-election promises on the last government. Everything is Fianna Fáil's fault.
It is a fact that the current economic mess in the south is primarily a result of the bad policies of the last coalition government, but this government has chosen to implement the same austerity strategy.
Last week it produced its medium-term fiscal report which sets out its financial outlook for the next four years. It cleared up one important issue would the cuts to the budget be €3.6 billion or €4 billion? They opted for €3.8 billion. It also revealed that government predictions of a 2.5% growth next year have now been revised downwards to 1.6%.
Spending cuts will make up €2.2 billion. This includes a €750 million reduction in capital spending which is the equivalent of at least 7,500 jobs lost. New taxation measures will see increases in VAT (up from 21% to 23%), excise duties, carbon tax and a property tax.
All of these will hit low and middle income families hardest.
This blog found the government's acknowledgement that unemployment levels in four years time will be almost equivalent to where they are today – and that after four years of four austerity budgets – to be the most revealing fact in the report. The Government's plan will mean that 382,000 people will still on the live register in 2015, at a minimum.
Where is the hope for citizens? If emigration were not taking place at the rate of up to 50,000 a year unemployment levels would in fact be significantly higher in four years time. As a measure of the success or failure of government policy that adds up to a big F.
The negative impact of current government policy is evident in the fact that this time last year the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government told the people that there would have to be a budget adjustment of €9.8 billion over the next four years.
Earlier in the year, the Fine Gael/Labour government increased that adjustment figure by €2 billion. Last week they added €600 million to this. The state now needs an adjustment of €12.4 billion.
The reason this keeps going up is because the government's deflationary policies are not working. Flat taxes are not working. Not investing in the economy and expecting exports to lift all our boats is not working. As unemployment rises and wages shrink, and people have less money to spend, then money raised through consumption taxes, like VAT, are collapsing.
There is an arrogance about this Government, as there was with the last. They talk and think like right wing economists. They don't look at the impact of their policies on citizens, on families, the young and elderly and the sick.
People are being squeezed. The accumulation of three years of austerity has not fixed the economy but more importantly, it has pushed many families into poverty. And this Government says it plans four more years of the same.
That's why Sinn Féin puts people front and centre in our Pre-budget submission - 'The Route to Recovery' which we published earlier this week.
Sinn Féin has repeatedly argued that there is an alternative to the politics of Fine Gael and Labour, and of Fianna Fáil and our pre-budget submission spells that alternative out.
We believe that the deficit caused by the disastrous policies of the last Government and of this one has to be reduced and the state can't continue borrowing large sums indefinitely.
But the plan to reduce it by 2015 by imposing savage cuts to frontline services and levying flat taxes on struggling households will be hugely damaging socially. There is no real difference between the tweedledee policies of this government and the tweedledum politics of the last.
After the general election in March Labour asserted that reform begins with the banks and it committed to 'tearing up the blank cheque policy on banking that has undermined our very sovereignty'.
Yet three weeks ago the government gave more than €700 million to unguaranteed bondholders in Anglo and plans to hand over another €1.2 billion in January.
The government promised to prioritise Job creation yet unemployment is higher today than it was when it came to power. And according to its own medium term fiscal report last week there will still be almost as many people unemployed after 4 years of their austerity budget.
The government also promised an end to cronyism but reports this week confirm that it's still jobs for the boys at the top as Fine Gael and Labour appoint over 20 people with connections to both to senior positions on state bodies and within the judiciary.
And Labour specifically pledged that the choices it made would be fair. Tell that to the thousands of students who protested in Dublin last week over broken promises by Eamon Gilmore and Ruairi Quinn; or the families in mortgage distress; or those who have lost their jobs and see no hope of employment because of the policies of this government.
Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission is a costed, effective alternative to the policies of the government which is focussed on economic recovery based on fair taxes, investing in jobs, debt restructuring and growing the all-Ireland economy.
We are for a fairer tax system that targets wealth and lifts the burden of the least well o0ff, for example by abolishing the Universal Social Charge. We are for investing in jobs (which will increase state revenue and reduce the social welfare bill) and the elimination of wasteful public spending. And we are against paying out billions in the promissory notes to Anglo Irish and would restructure the remaining unguaranteed, unsecured bonds.
Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission is about protecting public services and those on low and middle incomes. We have shown that this can be done through taxing wealth, eliminating wasteful public spending, stimulating the economy, and tackling exorbitant salaries in the public sector.
We have put forward effective proposals that would create new jobs and retain existing ones and puts the needs of the Irish people above the needs of banks and bondholders.
For any of you who wish to know more about our pre-budget submission go to www.sinnfein.ie. It's all there.
But be assured there is a viable alternative to the policies of Fine Gael and Labour and there is hope.
It is a fact that the current economic mess in the south is primarily a result of the bad policies of the last coalition government, but this government has chosen to implement the same austerity strategy.
Last week it produced its medium-term fiscal report which sets out its financial outlook for the next four years. It cleared up one important issue would the cuts to the budget be €3.6 billion or €4 billion? They opted for €3.8 billion. It also revealed that government predictions of a 2.5% growth next year have now been revised downwards to 1.6%.
Spending cuts will make up €2.2 billion. This includes a €750 million reduction in capital spending which is the equivalent of at least 7,500 jobs lost. New taxation measures will see increases in VAT (up from 21% to 23%), excise duties, carbon tax and a property tax.
All of these will hit low and middle income families hardest.
This blog found the government's acknowledgement that unemployment levels in four years time will be almost equivalent to where they are today – and that after four years of four austerity budgets – to be the most revealing fact in the report. The Government's plan will mean that 382,000 people will still on the live register in 2015, at a minimum.
Where is the hope for citizens? If emigration were not taking place at the rate of up to 50,000 a year unemployment levels would in fact be significantly higher in four years time. As a measure of the success or failure of government policy that adds up to a big F.
The negative impact of current government policy is evident in the fact that this time last year the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government told the people that there would have to be a budget adjustment of €9.8 billion over the next four years.
Earlier in the year, the Fine Gael/Labour government increased that adjustment figure by €2 billion. Last week they added €600 million to this. The state now needs an adjustment of €12.4 billion.
The reason this keeps going up is because the government's deflationary policies are not working. Flat taxes are not working. Not investing in the economy and expecting exports to lift all our boats is not working. As unemployment rises and wages shrink, and people have less money to spend, then money raised through consumption taxes, like VAT, are collapsing.
There is an arrogance about this Government, as there was with the last. They talk and think like right wing economists. They don't look at the impact of their policies on citizens, on families, the young and elderly and the sick.
People are being squeezed. The accumulation of three years of austerity has not fixed the economy but more importantly, it has pushed many families into poverty. And this Government says it plans four more years of the same.
That's why Sinn Féin puts people front and centre in our Pre-budget submission - 'The Route to Recovery' which we published earlier this week.
Sinn Féin has repeatedly argued that there is an alternative to the politics of Fine Gael and Labour, and of Fianna Fáil and our pre-budget submission spells that alternative out.
We believe that the deficit caused by the disastrous policies of the last Government and of this one has to be reduced and the state can't continue borrowing large sums indefinitely.
But the plan to reduce it by 2015 by imposing savage cuts to frontline services and levying flat taxes on struggling households will be hugely damaging socially. There is no real difference between the tweedledee policies of this government and the tweedledum politics of the last.
After the general election in March Labour asserted that reform begins with the banks and it committed to 'tearing up the blank cheque policy on banking that has undermined our very sovereignty'.
Yet three weeks ago the government gave more than €700 million to unguaranteed bondholders in Anglo and plans to hand over another €1.2 billion in January.
The government promised to prioritise Job creation yet unemployment is higher today than it was when it came to power. And according to its own medium term fiscal report last week there will still be almost as many people unemployed after 4 years of their austerity budget.
The government also promised an end to cronyism but reports this week confirm that it's still jobs for the boys at the top as Fine Gael and Labour appoint over 20 people with connections to both to senior positions on state bodies and within the judiciary.
And Labour specifically pledged that the choices it made would be fair. Tell that to the thousands of students who protested in Dublin last week over broken promises by Eamon Gilmore and Ruairi Quinn; or the families in mortgage distress; or those who have lost their jobs and see no hope of employment because of the policies of this government.
Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission is a costed, effective alternative to the policies of the government which is focussed on economic recovery based on fair taxes, investing in jobs, debt restructuring and growing the all-Ireland economy.
We are for a fairer tax system that targets wealth and lifts the burden of the least well o0ff, for example by abolishing the Universal Social Charge. We are for investing in jobs (which will increase state revenue and reduce the social welfare bill) and the elimination of wasteful public spending. And we are against paying out billions in the promissory notes to Anglo Irish and would restructure the remaining unguaranteed, unsecured bonds.
Sinn Féin's pre-budget submission is about protecting public services and those on low and middle incomes. We have shown that this can be done through taxing wealth, eliminating wasteful public spending, stimulating the economy, and tackling exorbitant salaries in the public sector.
We have put forward effective proposals that would create new jobs and retain existing ones and puts the needs of the Irish people above the needs of banks and bondholders.
For any of you who wish to know more about our pre-budget submission go to www.sinnfein.ie. It's all there.
But be assured there is a viable alternative to the policies of Fine Gael and Labour and there is hope.
November 21, 2011
TAXI ! - A Boston Visit
Me and your man were in a taxi. On our way to the airport in Boston.
'You Irish?' he asked.
'Yep' we told him.
'So am I' he said 'You look like that guy Gerry Adams,' the taxi driver said.
'You know he can't get into this country. It's a disgrace'.
Your man looked at me. The taxi driver looked in his mirror at the two of us.
'You probably get this all the time,' he continued.
'But the resemblance is amazing He is my President. I tell all my customers that. Especially the Brits. They have a nerve. Keeping him out. Our government needs to take a stand.'
'What's your name?' I asked.
'Bob' he replied. 'I love the Irish. Jimmy Cagney! I love Gerry Adams and Jimmy Cagney. Saw a great movie. All about the IRA. Shake Hands With The Devil. Saw it years ago. Jimmy Cagney made great movies. Forget about Sinatra and the Chairman of the Board and all that Italian bullshit. The Irish ran Hollywood. Jimmy Cagney and Spencer Tracey. And Maureen O Hara and Johnny O Wayne. They were real stars!'
'Johnny O Wayne' your man queried.
'Yup' Bob went on.' As Irish as shamrock. John Wayne was his stage name. He made great movies too. You guys flying Aer Lingus? You here on business?'
'At a conference. The Boston – Northwest Ireland: Golden Bridges.' Your man said.
'It was very good. All about building bridges of goodwill and commerce, culture and education between Massachusetts and Northwest Ireland. It is hosted annually by the Irish Echo.'
'Read it all the time' said Bob. 'Great wee paper.'
'Yes' said your man. 'It is. I keep in touch with what's happening here in Irish America by going online. The Irish Echo is Irish America's oldest — and biggest-selling newspaper. It is distributed across the USA and beyond through the internet.'
By now we were at the Airport. Bob helped us with our bags.
'Have a good flight' he told us 'Give my regards to the old country. And to Gerry Adams. I wish that guy the best of good old Irish luck'
'Ok' we told him. 'Good luck to you too'.
And then he was gone. Me and your man made our way towards our gate.
'Johnny O Wayne?' I said to your man.
'Jimmy Cagney?' your man said to me. 'You dirty rat!'
'You Irish?' he asked.
'Yep' we told him.
'So am I' he said 'You look like that guy Gerry Adams,' the taxi driver said.
'You know he can't get into this country. It's a disgrace'.
Your man looked at me. The taxi driver looked in his mirror at the two of us.
'You probably get this all the time,' he continued.
'But the resemblance is amazing He is my President. I tell all my customers that. Especially the Brits. They have a nerve. Keeping him out. Our government needs to take a stand.'
'What's your name?' I asked.
'Bob' he replied. 'I love the Irish. Jimmy Cagney! I love Gerry Adams and Jimmy Cagney. Saw a great movie. All about the IRA. Shake Hands With The Devil. Saw it years ago. Jimmy Cagney made great movies. Forget about Sinatra and the Chairman of the Board and all that Italian bullshit. The Irish ran Hollywood. Jimmy Cagney and Spencer Tracey. And Maureen O Hara and Johnny O Wayne. They were real stars!'
'Johnny O Wayne' your man queried.
'Yup' Bob went on.' As Irish as shamrock. John Wayne was his stage name. He made great movies too. You guys flying Aer Lingus? You here on business?'
'At a conference. The Boston – Northwest Ireland: Golden Bridges.' Your man said.
'It was very good. All about building bridges of goodwill and commerce, culture and education between Massachusetts and Northwest Ireland. It is hosted annually by the Irish Echo.'
'Read it all the time' said Bob. 'Great wee paper.'
'Yes' said your man. 'It is. I keep in touch with what's happening here in Irish America by going online. The Irish Echo is Irish America's oldest — and biggest-selling newspaper. It is distributed across the USA and beyond through the internet.'
By now we were at the Airport. Bob helped us with our bags.
'Have a good flight' he told us 'Give my regards to the old country. And to Gerry Adams. I wish that guy the best of good old Irish luck'
'Ok' we told him. 'Good luck to you too'.
And then he was gone. Me and your man made our way towards our gate.
'Johnny O Wayne?' I said to your man.
'Jimmy Cagney?' your man said to me. 'You dirty rat!'
November 17, 2011
The Ballymurphy Campaign – A Landmark judgement
The Ballymurphy Massacre campaign has taken a huge toll on the families involved. This blog has watched through countless meetings with Irish government Ministers and British Secretaries of State, and many others, family members of those killed recount time after time the heartbreak and trauma they have lived with every day for over 40 years.
It doesn't get easier in the telling and it doesn't get easier listening to. The wounds are raw. The emotional upset is deep and distressing. The tears are real and painful.
The decision of the north's Attorney General to reopen 10 of the 11 Ballymurphy cases is a landmark judgement which gives hope back to those families that their long journey toward truth and justice may now succeed.
It also vindicates the importance of having policing and justice powers transferred from London to Belfast.
The Ballymurphy story begins 40 years ago in August 1971. Internment was introduced by the Unionist regime at Stormont with the backing of the British government. In the early hours of August 9th heavily armed British soldiers and RUC personnel invaded nationalist areas across the north and dragged hundreds of men away from their families.
In the Ballymurphy area the British Parachute Regiment was sent in. Their function was very clear – to use violence to pacify the local population.
The British state had already put in place legal and judicial measures to make it safe for British soldiers to arrest, beat, torture or kill citizens with impunity. In Ballymurphy this led to the killing of 11 local people over a three day period.
Few people can imagine the terror and the trauma that families in nationalist areas of the north endured on internment morning and in the days and weeks afterward.
Thousands of homes were raided and ransacked; some of those arrested were forced to run the gauntlet of British soldiers and were beaten unmercifully; and a small number were taken away and tortured. And in Ballymurphy 11 people, including a priest and a mother of eight children, were shot dead.
Fewer still can understand the horror which those 11 families suffered as they discovered that their loved ones had been shot and killed by British soldiers.
Or the torment and frustration and anger they experienced as the British state moved to ensure that the actions of their soldiers were covered-up and lies told about those who died.
The killings left 46 children without a parent. Many of these children were evacuated to this part of the island, mostly to military camps as refugees.
Briege Voyle and her sister were in Waterford when a RTE news bulletin on the television told them that their mummy had been buried that day.
Briege described it as being "like a nightmare. We couldn't grasp it" she says; "We stayed with relatives but cried to go home. We imagined home would be like it always had been but it wasn't. It was an empty shell without my mummy. We had already been through a terrible ordeal but it didn't stop there. The paratroopers continued to torture us. They used to sing "where's your mama gone" outside our door and you couldn't walk down the street without them taunting you. We were all so terrified."
None of the dead was involved with any armed group. They were all unarmed civilians.
The success by the British state in covering this up meant that Ballymurphy became a forgotten massacre.
Now, as adults, the children and the surviving siblings of those killed want the names of their loved ones cleared.
The Attorney General's decision is an important step in the right direction. The new inquests must now be held without delay and the families must be provided with the necessary resources to ensure that all of the facts are uncovered.
This blog raised the Ballymurphy campaign in the Dáil on Tuesday. Jan O'Sullivan TD the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade with responsibility for Trade & Development gave a commitment on behalf of the Irish government to "assist" and "support" the Ballymurphy Massacre families "in their search for justice". She also recommitted the Taoiseach to meet with the families.
This is welcome but the words must be followed by action by the government.
The families also believe that the role of the British state and of its armed forces warrants a full, thorough international investigation and an apology from the British government which recognises their innocence.
The names of those who were killed:
Fr Hugh Mullan (38); Frank Quinn (19), a father of two; Joan Connolly (50), a mother of eight; Daniel Teggert (44); a father of 13; Joseph Murphy (41), a father of 12; Noel Phillips (18); Eddie Doherty (28), a father of four; John Laverty (20); Joseph Corr (43), a father of six; John McKerr (49), a father of two; and Paddy McCarthy
(44).
It doesn't get easier in the telling and it doesn't get easier listening to. The wounds are raw. The emotional upset is deep and distressing. The tears are real and painful.
The decision of the north's Attorney General to reopen 10 of the 11 Ballymurphy cases is a landmark judgement which gives hope back to those families that their long journey toward truth and justice may now succeed.
It also vindicates the importance of having policing and justice powers transferred from London to Belfast.
The Ballymurphy story begins 40 years ago in August 1971. Internment was introduced by the Unionist regime at Stormont with the backing of the British government. In the early hours of August 9th heavily armed British soldiers and RUC personnel invaded nationalist areas across the north and dragged hundreds of men away from their families.
In the Ballymurphy area the British Parachute Regiment was sent in. Their function was very clear – to use violence to pacify the local population.
The British state had already put in place legal and judicial measures to make it safe for British soldiers to arrest, beat, torture or kill citizens with impunity. In Ballymurphy this led to the killing of 11 local people over a three day period.
Few people can imagine the terror and the trauma that families in nationalist areas of the north endured on internment morning and in the days and weeks afterward.
Thousands of homes were raided and ransacked; some of those arrested were forced to run the gauntlet of British soldiers and were beaten unmercifully; and a small number were taken away and tortured. And in Ballymurphy 11 people, including a priest and a mother of eight children, were shot dead.
Fewer still can understand the horror which those 11 families suffered as they discovered that their loved ones had been shot and killed by British soldiers.
Or the torment and frustration and anger they experienced as the British state moved to ensure that the actions of their soldiers were covered-up and lies told about those who died.
The killings left 46 children without a parent. Many of these children were evacuated to this part of the island, mostly to military camps as refugees.
Briege Voyle and her sister were in Waterford when a RTE news bulletin on the television told them that their mummy had been buried that day.
Briege described it as being "like a nightmare. We couldn't grasp it" she says; "We stayed with relatives but cried to go home. We imagined home would be like it always had been but it wasn't. It was an empty shell without my mummy. We had already been through a terrible ordeal but it didn't stop there. The paratroopers continued to torture us. They used to sing "where's your mama gone" outside our door and you couldn't walk down the street without them taunting you. We were all so terrified."
None of the dead was involved with any armed group. They were all unarmed civilians.
The success by the British state in covering this up meant that Ballymurphy became a forgotten massacre.
Now, as adults, the children and the surviving siblings of those killed want the names of their loved ones cleared.
The Attorney General's decision is an important step in the right direction. The new inquests must now be held without delay and the families must be provided with the necessary resources to ensure that all of the facts are uncovered.
This blog raised the Ballymurphy campaign in the Dáil on Tuesday. Jan O'Sullivan TD the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade with responsibility for Trade & Development gave a commitment on behalf of the Irish government to "assist" and "support" the Ballymurphy Massacre families "in their search for justice". She also recommitted the Taoiseach to meet with the families.
This is welcome but the words must be followed by action by the government.
The families also believe that the role of the British state and of its armed forces warrants a full, thorough international investigation and an apology from the British government which recognises their innocence.
The names of those who were killed:
Fr Hugh Mullan (38); Frank Quinn (19), a father of two; Joan Connolly (50), a mother of eight; Daniel Teggert (44); a father of 13; Joseph Murphy (41), a father of 12; Noel Phillips (18); Eddie Doherty (28), a father of four; John Laverty (20); Joseph Corr (43), a father of six; John McKerr (49), a father of two; and Paddy McCarthy
(44).
November 13, 2011
The Irish diaspora
"Nice to see you two gentlemen again."
Mike was our friendly conductor on the express train on Friday morning as we travelled from New York to Boston. His family roots are in Dungannon and Pomeroy. He's a Tyrone man and proud of it.
As he introduced himself he flicked back his coat to reveal a small radio with its aerial wrapped in green, white and orange.
Coming out of the New York Times on Thursday morning after a meeting with its editorial board I was stopped by 0ne of the maintenance staff. He is a native of Blackrock in County Louth.
They are just two of the millions who make up the Irish diaspora in the USA and many millions more scattered across the globe, who are proud of their Irish roots and heritage.
It's the one solitary advantage of being recognised. I meet the Irish everywhere. On trains and planes, in streets and hotels, in New York and London, and Perth and Jerusalem, and Capetown. Every townland and parish the length and breadth of Ireland has a son or daughter in the diaspora.
Many of them were represented at the Friends of Sinn Féin dinner in New York on Thursday night in the Sheraton Hotel in New York. Over 800 Irish Americans demonstrating their solidarity with the struggle for freedom and unity in Ireland through their support for Sinn Féin.
The host dinner committee had done it again. Despite the economic difficulties it was a packed house.
Mary Lou McDonald was there for her first Friends of Sinn Féin dinner in the USA and her first visit to New York. She was given a warm and enthusiastic welcome and after the speechifying was over there was a queue of well wishers looking to say failte and to get their photo taken with her.
I was reminded of my first frenzied visit to New York which in part brought me to the same hotel. It was February 1994. Bill Flynn had organised a peace conference and the issue of a visa for me was causing headaches for the governments.
The British government was lobbying like mad to have the Clinton administration say no. As far as they were concerned the north was an internal matter for the 'United Kingdom' and everyone was told to butt out.
But Irish America was having none if it and launched its own intense lobbying campaign. As a result this blog got a 48 hour visa for New York. And one of the key events of that visit was a speaking engagement with hundreds of excited Irish Americans in the Sheraton Hotel. Some of those who organised that event 17 years ago were also involved in planning the FoSF dinner.
So, Thursday night's dinner was an opportunity for a little nostalgia. But it was also a time for reflecting on the substantial progress that has been made since then – in no small way helped by Irish America.
It is also my custom at the New York dinner to provide a sort of report back on the work of the preceding year. And the last 12 months have been eventful!!
Last November when I returned to Ireland it was to go straight into the Donegal South West by-election. That saw Sinn Féin inflict a serious defeat on the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government and Pearse Doherty elected as a TD in the Dáil.
Did you know that in the year since then Sinn Féin has fought five additional major elections? The general election in the south, the Assembly and local government elections in the north, a Seanad election, and most recently the Presidential election.
Six elections in 12 months! As well as the Dublin West bi election.That's an incredible number of major elections for any party to fight in such a short time. And remarkably each of those elections saw Sinn Féin significantly increase our representation - quite an achievement!
At a personal level it's also been a year of change. 12 months ago I was still the MP and MLA for west Belfast. Today I'm the TD for Louth and the leader of the only real opposition party in the Dáil.
All of these changes were most obvious in the recent Presidential election. The first ever undertaken by a member of Sinn Féin. It was a short tight campaign and in a funny way New York is part of that story also. Martin was there when his candidancy was announced.
Nine months ago Sinn Féin won 9.9% of the vote. At the end of a hard six week campaign Martin McGuinness took 13.7% of the first preferences. In 31 out of the 38 constituencies we fought in February he increased our share of the vote. In 21 of those constituencies he increased our vote, and in four of the five constituencies we didn't contest last February he took over 10% of the vote.
A very good result for the Irish republican project. And a solid electoral base for the local government elections in two years time.
Martin also succeeded in placing republican issues like Irish unity on the political agenda. He also introduced into the debate the fact that Irish citizens living in the north and passport holders within the diaspora, are denied the right to vote in Presidential elections.
As Michael D Higgins begins his Presidential term it is important that we raise again and again the right of Irish citizens living in the north of Ireland and others in the diaspora who hold Irish passports, to vote in future Presidential elections.
Next year the Irish government has said it will hold a constitutional convention. The Irish diaspora has to be part of that.
I said that to the large crowd who gathered in Boston for the Golden Bridges Irish Echo event. Our diaspora proved its value as an indispensible supporter of the peace process. It also has a vital contribution to make as we seek to reshape and reimagine Ireland in the 21st century.
And as the centenary celebration of the 1916 Rising and of the Proclamation approaches there is a role for Irish America in commemorating these events.
Ireland is an island in transition; in part because of the peace process but also because of the economic crisis. There is an opportunity to build a new Ireland – a new Republic, and the diaspora can play a positive and constructive role in that.
Mike was our friendly conductor on the express train on Friday morning as we travelled from New York to Boston. His family roots are in Dungannon and Pomeroy. He's a Tyrone man and proud of it.
As he introduced himself he flicked back his coat to reveal a small radio with its aerial wrapped in green, white and orange.
Coming out of the New York Times on Thursday morning after a meeting with its editorial board I was stopped by 0ne of the maintenance staff. He is a native of Blackrock in County Louth.
They are just two of the millions who make up the Irish diaspora in the USA and many millions more scattered across the globe, who are proud of their Irish roots and heritage.
It's the one solitary advantage of being recognised. I meet the Irish everywhere. On trains and planes, in streets and hotels, in New York and London, and Perth and Jerusalem, and Capetown. Every townland and parish the length and breadth of Ireland has a son or daughter in the diaspora.
Many of them were represented at the Friends of Sinn Féin dinner in New York on Thursday night in the Sheraton Hotel in New York. Over 800 Irish Americans demonstrating their solidarity with the struggle for freedom and unity in Ireland through their support for Sinn Féin.
The host dinner committee had done it again. Despite the economic difficulties it was a packed house.
Mary Lou McDonald was there for her first Friends of Sinn Féin dinner in the USA and her first visit to New York. She was given a warm and enthusiastic welcome and after the speechifying was over there was a queue of well wishers looking to say failte and to get their photo taken with her.
I was reminded of my first frenzied visit to New York which in part brought me to the same hotel. It was February 1994. Bill Flynn had organised a peace conference and the issue of a visa for me was causing headaches for the governments.
The British government was lobbying like mad to have the Clinton administration say no. As far as they were concerned the north was an internal matter for the 'United Kingdom' and everyone was told to butt out.
But Irish America was having none if it and launched its own intense lobbying campaign. As a result this blog got a 48 hour visa for New York. And one of the key events of that visit was a speaking engagement with hundreds of excited Irish Americans in the Sheraton Hotel. Some of those who organised that event 17 years ago were also involved in planning the FoSF dinner.
So, Thursday night's dinner was an opportunity for a little nostalgia. But it was also a time for reflecting on the substantial progress that has been made since then – in no small way helped by Irish America.
It is also my custom at the New York dinner to provide a sort of report back on the work of the preceding year. And the last 12 months have been eventful!!
Last November when I returned to Ireland it was to go straight into the Donegal South West by-election. That saw Sinn Féin inflict a serious defeat on the Fianna Fáil/Green Party government and Pearse Doherty elected as a TD in the Dáil.
Did you know that in the year since then Sinn Féin has fought five additional major elections? The general election in the south, the Assembly and local government elections in the north, a Seanad election, and most recently the Presidential election.
Six elections in 12 months! As well as the Dublin West bi election.That's an incredible number of major elections for any party to fight in such a short time. And remarkably each of those elections saw Sinn Féin significantly increase our representation - quite an achievement!
At a personal level it's also been a year of change. 12 months ago I was still the MP and MLA for west Belfast. Today I'm the TD for Louth and the leader of the only real opposition party in the Dáil.
All of these changes were most obvious in the recent Presidential election. The first ever undertaken by a member of Sinn Féin. It was a short tight campaign and in a funny way New York is part of that story also. Martin was there when his candidancy was announced.
Nine months ago Sinn Féin won 9.9% of the vote. At the end of a hard six week campaign Martin McGuinness took 13.7% of the first preferences. In 31 out of the 38 constituencies we fought in February he increased our share of the vote. In 21 of those constituencies he increased our vote, and in four of the five constituencies we didn't contest last February he took over 10% of the vote.
A very good result for the Irish republican project. And a solid electoral base for the local government elections in two years time.
Martin also succeeded in placing republican issues like Irish unity on the political agenda. He also introduced into the debate the fact that Irish citizens living in the north and passport holders within the diaspora, are denied the right to vote in Presidential elections.
As Michael D Higgins begins his Presidential term it is important that we raise again and again the right of Irish citizens living in the north of Ireland and others in the diaspora who hold Irish passports, to vote in future Presidential elections.
Next year the Irish government has said it will hold a constitutional convention. The Irish diaspora has to be part of that.
I said that to the large crowd who gathered in Boston for the Golden Bridges Irish Echo event. Our diaspora proved its value as an indispensible supporter of the peace process. It also has a vital contribution to make as we seek to reshape and reimagine Ireland in the 21st century.
And as the centenary celebration of the 1916 Rising and of the Proclamation approaches there is a role for Irish America in commemorating these events.
Ireland is an island in transition; in part because of the peace process but also because of the economic crisis. There is an opportunity to build a new Ireland – a new Republic, and the diaspora can play a positive and constructive role in that.
November 7, 2011
OCHON OCHON.'You should have used your considerable influ...
OCHON OCHON.
'You should have used your considerable influence to get us tickets for the MTV Music Awards!'
'What?'
'Tickets. For Lady Gaga.'
'Tickets? What do you mean tickets?'
'I mean tickets. Tickets. To see Lady Gaga. I missed seeing her because you didn't make the effort.'
'You wanted to see Lady Gaga?'
'Yup. I like Lady Gaga. But you left it too late for tickets.'
'What do you mean? I left it too late? You never bought a ticket for anything in your life'.
'I won't even ignore that. I always pay my way. But it was in Belfast. I'm stuck in Dublin with you most of the time so it's not my fault that I cudn't get a ticket.'
'You left it a bit late. It's Monday. The gig was last night.'
'I asked you a month ago. Don't you remember? We were in the City Hall. No problem! That's what you told me. No problem. That's what you said. My friend the Mayor will sort us out. Gan Fabh. That's your exact words'.
'When was that?'
'The day we bumped into Tom Hartley in the City Hall and he was showing off his tickets for The Odessy. As you know Tom is a big Justin Bieber fan. He was delighted with himself. Do you remember now?'
'Aye'
'Aye? That's all you can say? Aye?'
'Aye! And I did ask. Our Mayor. That's who I asked. That very day. I offered to carry his chain. I said I thought he was the very best Mayor who ever came out of the Short Strand....'
'Ballymacarret!'
'What?'
'Ballymacarret'.
'Okay. An Tra Gearr. And he - our Mayor – he said I was to leave it with him'.
'Well you certainly did that.'
'Stop huffing. If you have an issue get in touch with the Mayor.'
'I didn't ask the Mayor. You're the big shot around here. I asked you. You let me down. Again!'
'You cudda gone down to see Snow Patrol. That was free'.
'I wanted to see Lady Gaga.'
'I'll get you a CD'.
'Biggest music event in the history of Belfast and I missed it. All because I relied on you. Lady Gaga live. And I wasn't there'.
'Probably the only Belfast republican to miss out!'
'You don't need to be so sarsastic'.
'Ach you shud stop going on. And on. And on.'
'And you shudn't make promises you don't keep.'
November 2, 2011
The billion-dollar bond and the great Irish rip-off
So the countdown is at an end. Today the Irish Government will stand by and watch as Anglo Irish Bank hands one billion dollars, or over €700 million of Irish tax payers' money, over to an anonymous bondholder. By the end of January that amount will have risen to €2 billion.
It is doing this exactly one week to the day after Enda Kenny agreed to a 50% discount on Greek sovereign debt at a European conference during which the Irish Government did not even have the nerve to raise the issue of the mammoth Irish debt burden.
The sequence of events that have led to this transfer of Irish citizens' money illustrates the absurdity of the policies being pursued by this Government.
The next budget will take place at the beginning of December. It will be the fifth austerity budget. The Fine Gael/Labour Government plans to take around €4 billion out of the economy through flat tax increases and swingeing cuts.
The Government PR machine is in full flow to ready the public for the adverse impact this huge adjustment will cause for citizens. For the fourth year in a row, the people of this state are hearing the same arguments, though this time from a different government. It's still about how citizens have 'to be responsible'. How we lived 'beyond our means for years'. How we are nearly there and must take 'a little more pain'. How well we are doing and how impressed Europe is with us.
The latter is the most frequently used line. Every Minister trots it out in the course of interviews. According to them this state is being held up by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the Europe an Central Bank as a model for getting it right; for doing what we are told. They proclaim that we are not the Greeks or the Italians or the Spanish; as if we are somehow better than them!
It is the worst kind of patronising and jingoistic nonsense.
There is no logic, no rhyme or reason for the Government to pursue its current course of bailing out bank bondholders. What galls this blog most is that the government claims that it is powerless to do otherwise, while at the same time sitting at a negotiating table in Europe like nodding dogs when the halving of Greek sovereign debt is being agreed.
But nothing takes the biscuit more than the fact Fine Gael and Labour continue to treat citizens as though we are all stupid.
Take for example the soft-spoken, inaccurate, lecture Enda Kenny delivered to the Dáil last week in response to a question from this blog regarding the payment of this bond.
Mr Kenny claimed that the Government had to oversee the payment of this €700 million bond because the last Government had placed €31 billion of promissory notes in Anglo Irish Bank. There is no linked up thinking here. The Government would not be defaulting on the promissory notes if it ordered Anglo not to pay this private bondholder.
Enda Kenny cannot keep up with his own Government's 'line'. For most of the week the cabinet has been running with the theory that this bondholder will not be paid out of Irish taxpayers' money, but instead out of its own resources. Apparently Anglo has sold some American holdings and can meet its bond responsibilities. Can someone please explain how a bank which has received €30 billion of Irish taxpayers' money and is completely insolvent, can be described as having its 'own resources'?
This line jars completely with Enda's previous assertion that the bond had to be paid because the last Government had 'committed' us to it by handing over the promissory notes.
Then we have Michael Noonan saying that the bond must be paid because we are 'working the EU/IMF programme'. On Thursday night's Six One on RTE he claimed that we had the choice to either 'repudiate the programme, or work the programme and the Government was working the programme'.
Here's a newsflash for you, Minister:
There is no commitment to pay bank bondholders in the programme!
Minister Noonan's uneasy grasp of Ireland's finances was further laid bare in the same interview when he claimed that Greece was getting an awful deal and would be stuck in an EU/IMF programme until at least 2020. 'Imagine' he said incredulously if the government had to tell Irish taxpayers 'we had to have ten more years of austerity budgets'.
Considering a 50% write-down of sovereign debt for this state would mean that we effectively lose €85 billion worth of debt, how does this lend itself to ten more years of austerity? And after all, nobody is claiming we need a sovereign default like Greece.
What Sinn Féin is saying, and what others from the left to the right of the economic and public spectrum are also saying, is that we need to stop honouring private banking debt because it is not our responsibility and it goes against market practice.
For example, if the Government got the ECB to write off the €31 billion in promissory notes that are essentially owed to them, that would reduce our debt to GDP by 20% and save us up to €85 billion by 2031, including interest servicing of the capital €31 billion.
The Government could also choose to stop Anglo paying out the billion-dollar bond on Wednesday. If it saved this money, and the other €1.2 billion that will be paid out by the end of January then it wouldn't have to have such a punitive austerity budget on 6 December. Everyone could be grateful for that.
Will the Government listen? What do you think?
It is doing this exactly one week to the day after Enda Kenny agreed to a 50% discount on Greek sovereign debt at a European conference during which the Irish Government did not even have the nerve to raise the issue of the mammoth Irish debt burden.
The sequence of events that have led to this transfer of Irish citizens' money illustrates the absurdity of the policies being pursued by this Government.
The next budget will take place at the beginning of December. It will be the fifth austerity budget. The Fine Gael/Labour Government plans to take around €4 billion out of the economy through flat tax increases and swingeing cuts.
The Government PR machine is in full flow to ready the public for the adverse impact this huge adjustment will cause for citizens. For the fourth year in a row, the people of this state are hearing the same arguments, though this time from a different government. It's still about how citizens have 'to be responsible'. How we lived 'beyond our means for years'. How we are nearly there and must take 'a little more pain'. How well we are doing and how impressed Europe is with us.
The latter is the most frequently used line. Every Minister trots it out in the course of interviews. According to them this state is being held up by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and the Europe an Central Bank as a model for getting it right; for doing what we are told. They proclaim that we are not the Greeks or the Italians or the Spanish; as if we are somehow better than them!
It is the worst kind of patronising and jingoistic nonsense.
There is no logic, no rhyme or reason for the Government to pursue its current course of bailing out bank bondholders. What galls this blog most is that the government claims that it is powerless to do otherwise, while at the same time sitting at a negotiating table in Europe like nodding dogs when the halving of Greek sovereign debt is being agreed.
But nothing takes the biscuit more than the fact Fine Gael and Labour continue to treat citizens as though we are all stupid.
Take for example the soft-spoken, inaccurate, lecture Enda Kenny delivered to the Dáil last week in response to a question from this blog regarding the payment of this bond.
Mr Kenny claimed that the Government had to oversee the payment of this €700 million bond because the last Government had placed €31 billion of promissory notes in Anglo Irish Bank. There is no linked up thinking here. The Government would not be defaulting on the promissory notes if it ordered Anglo not to pay this private bondholder.
Enda Kenny cannot keep up with his own Government's 'line'. For most of the week the cabinet has been running with the theory that this bondholder will not be paid out of Irish taxpayers' money, but instead out of its own resources. Apparently Anglo has sold some American holdings and can meet its bond responsibilities. Can someone please explain how a bank which has received €30 billion of Irish taxpayers' money and is completely insolvent, can be described as having its 'own resources'?
This line jars completely with Enda's previous assertion that the bond had to be paid because the last Government had 'committed' us to it by handing over the promissory notes.
Then we have Michael Noonan saying that the bond must be paid because we are 'working the EU/IMF programme'. On Thursday night's Six One on RTE he claimed that we had the choice to either 'repudiate the programme, or work the programme and the Government was working the programme'.
Here's a newsflash for you, Minister:
There is no commitment to pay bank bondholders in the programme!
Minister Noonan's uneasy grasp of Ireland's finances was further laid bare in the same interview when he claimed that Greece was getting an awful deal and would be stuck in an EU/IMF programme until at least 2020. 'Imagine' he said incredulously if the government had to tell Irish taxpayers 'we had to have ten more years of austerity budgets'.
Considering a 50% write-down of sovereign debt for this state would mean that we effectively lose €85 billion worth of debt, how does this lend itself to ten more years of austerity? And after all, nobody is claiming we need a sovereign default like Greece.
What Sinn Féin is saying, and what others from the left to the right of the economic and public spectrum are also saying, is that we need to stop honouring private banking debt because it is not our responsibility and it goes against market practice.
For example, if the Government got the ECB to write off the €31 billion in promissory notes that are essentially owed to them, that would reduce our debt to GDP by 20% and save us up to €85 billion by 2031, including interest servicing of the capital €31 billion.
The Government could also choose to stop Anglo paying out the billion-dollar bond on Wednesday. If it saved this money, and the other €1.2 billion that will be paid out by the end of January then it wouldn't have to have such a punitive austerity budget on 6 December. Everyone could be grateful for that.
Will the Government listen? What do you think?
October 31, 2011
REFLECTIONS ON AN ELECTION.
Martin McGuinness is a trail blazer. That much must be clear. Even to his detractors. A life devoted to struggle has seen many examples of this. Martin, in good times and bad, has had many opportunities and occasions to draw on these pioneering qualities. The net outcome has generally benefitted the people he struggled alongside. It has also, particularly in this time of peace, assisted those, in time of war, who would have been or seen themselves as his enemies or opponents.
Rarely has this been acknowledged by the great and the good. But no matter. None of this is done to win favour with them. They know that. They have their values. We have ours.
The Presidential election brought all this to the surface.
Martin is the first Sinn Féin person ever to contest a presidential election. He fought a six week campaign. And as a result of this, despite the short time involved, many of the issues he argued for are now firmly on the public agenda.
These include voting rights for Irish citizens.
The need for a new Republic based on genuine core republican values.
The fact that there is an alternative to greed and corruption and austerity. The need for and merits of Irish unity. The imperative of an ongoing process of reconciliation. For reunification through reconciliation.
The issue of victims was also raised. Legitimately by relatives of some victims. This is a matter which needs to be dealt with. Properly and in a manner acceptable to all victims.
There has also been huge attention and comment on the Frontline debate and Martin's outing of Sean Gallagher's involvement with Fianna Fáil leaders and with its former leaderships' corrupt practices, fundraising activities and with policies that have brought the Irish people into the awful economic and social mess that is the cause of so much distress and hardship.
Sean Gallagher's problem wasn't that he was involved in this. It was that he was denying such involvement and presenting himself as a casual and occasional volunteer from the Fianna Fáil grass roots – alongside many other good and decent people who undoubtedly work for that party.
At the time of the Frontline debate opinion polls indicated that this stroke might work and that the premature rehabilitation of this type of unacceptable politics was almost upon us.
Hugh Morgan had contacted our campaign office and given us a break down on Sean Gallagher's approaches to him. He had already spoken to the media about this. He turned to us when this failed to get traction and we decided to ask Mr Morgan to brief Martin in advance of the Frontline programme.
We also decided that Martin should challenge Sean Gallagher on this. We did so – and Martin challenged Sean Gallagher- in the knowledge at that stage in the campaign, depending on how Sean Gallagher responded, that Michael D Higgins would be the main beneficiary of any such challenge. Martin was and is entirely satisfied that this was the right thing to do. So am I.
Michael D Higgins will be a very good President. I wish him and Sabina and their family well. I gave Michael D my second preference vote. The tally people tell me that many of his voters returned the favour to Martin a thousand fold.
Martin McGuinness' entry into the Presidential election was bound to lead to a reaction from the Dublin establishment. Our campaign team knew that. A small cadre of the usual media suspects, particularly, although not exclusively, in the Independent Newspaper group led the charge. Some of these at least have been consistent over the years. Revisionists, two-nationists, supporters of Section 31, the odd hard boiled old fashioned partitionist and opponents of the peace process, were provoked into action once again. Nothing but the same old story.
We should not tar all the media with the same brush or rail against robust scrutiny even if we suspect the motivation. Good, fair and balanced interrogative or investigative journalism is to be applauded. And RTE should be especially encouraged to provide such a public service. After all the tax payer foots that particular bill.
There was a certain hysteria within the wider political establishment. This hysteria was led by Fine Gael, best personified by Gay Mitchell's strident negativity, and most memorably represented by the attack on Martin by Fine Gael ministers and Chief Whip Paul Keogh a month or so ago. Their contribution was entirely self-serving and cynical. And arrogant. That is an emerging and growing trait of that party.
Especially in Leinster House.
Little wonder Fine Gael did so badly. In the bi-election. The referendum. And particularly the Presidential election.
Well hard cheese!
Every doggie has its day and on this issue their day has come and gone. It has passed. That much is clear.
They obviously need to be given time to come to the new dispensation which now exists across this island. Like the unionist leaderships most of them, though maybe not all of them, will come around. Until then this infuriating and self-serving negativity is just something they have to go through. Thankfully we don't have to wait for them to play catch up. The rest of us can get on with narrowing the political gap between north and south. That gap was considerably closed in the course of this presidential election campaign.
For that and for many other achievements thank you Martin.
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