21st century students – A crowd of wimps

I think all the talk of revolution was a bit premature.

The Union of Students of Ireland is organising a protest march in Dublin this afternoon against the possible re-introduction of third-level fees. The USI said that, weather permitting, it is expecting up to 20,000 students to march in the protest.

Weather permitting??? Feck, what would the students of ’68 make of such squeamishness? These students brought Western civilisation to the brink of collapse and daily invited the weather gods to do their worst to dampen their revolutionary passion and rage.

21st century students? – Nothing but a crowd of wimps.

Copy to:
USI

Questioning the new system of allowances and expenses for politicians

The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission has adopted a new system of allowances and expenses for TDs and Senators. According to the chairman of the commission, Ceann Comhairle, John O’Donoghue, the new system will:

“Bring greater transparency and accountability to the way members of the Houses of the Oireachtas receive expenses and allowances.”

(Irish Times, 21st Jan.).

Two of the changes mentioned in the Irish Times report are:

A standard all-in monthly parliamentary allowance on a cost-neutral basis that would make the system more simple and streamlined for members and more verifiable and accountable from a public perspective and, for the first time, the attendance allowance paid to all politicians will be recorded and verified by party whips. Apparently, non attendance will result in non payment of the allowance.

I had a number of questions regarding this new system particularly regarding the standard all-in monthly allowance so I rang the Ceann Comhirle’s office for clarification and was promptly told that all queries must be made in writing.

I emailed my questions today.

Dear

In relation to our phone conversation of yesterday the following are my questions regarding the new system of allowances and expenses for TDs and Senators that was adopted by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and was welcomed by Ceann Comhairle John O’Donoghue as follows.

“I am pleased that my commission colleagues have adopted this progressive and important step.” (Irish Times, 21st Jan.).

Standard all-in monthly parliamentary allowance on a cost neutral basis.

What allowance/s does this new allowance replace?
How much is this new allowance?
Who monitors the payment of this allowance?

TDs attendance allowance.

According to the Irish Times report party whips will play a part in the verification of this payment.
What other department/person is involved in verification?
Will the public/media have access to verification records?

Publication of new system of allowances and expenses.

Is the new system of allowances and expenses available to the general public?
If so, how can the general public access the document?
If not, why not?

Rule that all questions to your office must be in writing.

Is this an official rule backed up by law/regulation or is it a local office rule?
What provisions does your office offer to citizens seeking information but who do not have access or ability to make a written submission?

Yours sincerely
Anthony Sheridan

Revolution in the air

The dreaded ‘R’ word has entered the public arena. Revolution was being openly discussed on Morning Ireland and Today with Pat Kenny this morning and it seems poor auld Bertie was its first victim.

He was prevented from participating in a public discussion in NUI Galway last night after being jostled by students protesting over the planned reintroduction of college fees.

Bertie, who, I assume, would claim had nothing to do with the present crisis, just wanted to talk about his life and times and accept a gong from the college’s Literary and Debating Society in appreciation of his tireless and patriotic efforts for his country.

I just hope NUI Galway coughed up Bertie’s attendance fee; after all, he’s struggling to cope on his €100,000 TDs salary, €164,000 pension, up to €100,000 in mostly unvouched expenses, and a raft of other ‘perks’ for those who have served their country so well.

People like the corrupt Ray Burke on a pension of €100,000, the disgraced Padraig Flynn on almost €100,000 and the (I’m too sick to give evidence) former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds on €103,000.

Mmm…maybe I shouldn’t be describing the word revolution as ‘dreaded.’

Irish logic

“There’s no impropriety in anything we’ve done in that bank.”

This is the view of Sean Quinn regarding his dealings with Anglo Irish banks.

In the same interview he also says he fully accepted that a €288m secret loan from his Quinn Insurance arm to other family companies to fund the stock market gamble on the bank’s shares was in breach of insurance regulations.

So, no impropriety but we did breach insurance regulations – Irish logic.

Too sick to tell the truth

I see former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds continues to enjoy a hale and hearty lifestyle (Nine News,12th report) despite been deemed unfit to give evidence at the Mahon Tribunal because he, apparently, suffers from a cognitive impairment.

His political colleague, the corrupt Haughey, successfully employed the ‘medical excuse’ for years in order to avoid accounting for his crimes.

As I recall, there was one occasion when Haughey was ‘too sick’ to give evidence but as soon as the ‘danger’ had passed he embarked on a world cruise. The State was more than generous in facilitating his lies.

Welcome to our world, Professor

Quotes from an article penned by Professor John Crown in yesterday’s Sunday Independent. (My emphasis)

“I know I will be accused of wandering outside my sphere of competence when I say this, but my 15 years in Ireland as a returned emigrant, as a doctor working in the health service, and as a concerned observer of our system of government, has forced me to conclude that we are a failed political entity.”

“At the core of our public governance is a dysfunctional interface between inexpert ministers and senior civil servants who have generally risen to the top of their departments on the strength of their adroitness at navigating its bureaucracy. The ministers are unfortunately drawn exclusively from a cohort of generally mediocre, frequently nepotistic TDs, whose entree to national politics was based not on a grasp of the big issues of state, but on their ability to manipulate a local constituency party machine. These observations explain the now-exposed incompetence of our Government, an incompetence which was obscured from our view by the Celtic Bubble.”

Welcome to the world of Public Inquiry Professor.

The naked emperor

Brian Cowen’s problem is that he believed all that guff about how super intelligent he was, about how he was going to make mincemeat of the opposition and in particular how he was going to destroy Enda Kenny during Dail debate. It’s clear now that he’s no more than a bumbling, naked emperor.

His recent love in with 94 TDs and Senators seems, however, to have given him a boost. ‘Go out there and tell them who’s boss Brian’, they probably urged him. And so he did:

“As long as I am running this Government I will run the Government as I see fit..”

Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore had to remind the ‘naked emperor’ that he was answerable to the Dail.

Absent leadership

Irish Independent report

“Since the Dail finished its last session on December 18, an estimated 13,000 workers have lost their jobs and the problems in the banking sector, the property market and the exchequer finances have continued to worsen.”

“The Dail broke for Christmas on December 18, at a time when an average of 945 workers a day were losing their jobs.”

Cowardly strategies continue to endanger children

For decades the Catholic Church has hidden behind the ‘legal advice’ strategy in order to avoid taking responsibility for widespread child abuse within its ranks.

Other strategies include failing to report abusers to the authorities and protecting abusers by moving them around with subsequent horrendous consequences for thousands of children. At a softer level we have the usual excuses of being on a ‘learning curve’ and the issuing of endless but useless apologies to victims.

Recently, the antics of the clergy have become even more bizarre. Despite almost universal calls for him to resign the Bishop of Cloyne has steadfastly remained in position preferring to defend himself with the usual inane excuses.

Just when it seemed his position was becoming untenable in steps Cardinal Brady with a strong defence, declaring, that in his opinion the bishop should stay. After all, said the Cardinal, didn’t the man apologise.

Within days, the befuddled cardinal was so overwhelmed by the negative reaction to his views that he issued an apology for defending the bishop’s apology.

But by far the most bizarre and outrageous defence of the indefensible came from the editor of the Irish Catholic. Utilising yet another cynical strategy, that of blaming someone else, in this case the Government, the editor makes the ludicrous suggestion that by not resigning Bishop Magee is actually protecting children.

“If Bishop Magee had resigned before Christmas, the Cloyne affair would have disappeared off the news agenda and life would have returned to normal. Except for the fact that little would have been resolved in the real terms of putting children first and sorting out this national issue of protecting children absolutely, once and for all.”

What next – pedophile priests be allowed free reign in order to keep the problem in the public consciousness?

Copy to:
Irish Catholic (Editor)

Are you ready boots – Start walking

I wish President Obama every success in his attempts to bring peace to the Middle East but why, oh why did he have to appoint George Mitchell as peace envoy? Does he not realise the great suffering his decision will bring on the Irish people?

From now on every report on Mitchell’s progress in the Middle East will be previewed with a detailed account of the part he played in ‘Our Peace Process.’

Indeed, it is evolutionary impossible for any RTE newsperson to mention the name George Mitchell without recounting in great detail the part he played in ‘Our Peace Process.’

‘Our Peace Process’, which, it could be argued, has been going on for about 800 years, is lauded as a model for the rest of the world to follow. For feck sake, it went on for decades, the Good Friday Agreement alone took about twelve years to implement and that was after years of endless talks about talks about talks.

As George himself says:

“This was almost 800 years after Britain began its domination of Ireland, 86 years after the partition of Ireland, 38 years after the British army began its most recent mission in Ireland, 11 years after the peace talks began and nine years after a peace agreement was signed. In the negotiations which led to that agreement, we had 700 days of failure and one day of success. For most of the time progress was non-existent or very slow.”

You can almost feel the manic frustration in his words.

During negotiations it was obvious that Mitchell was on the brink of insanity, that at any moment he was going to start walking until he reached the Atlantic and then – keep on walking.

It’s likely that Mitchell had only one condition when Obama asked him to deal with the ‘easy’ Middle East conflict – No landings in Ireland, not even over flights, I’ll travel via the North Pole if necessary.

But Irish citizens will have no such escape. Already, deep in the bowels of Montrose, the old news reports and documentaries, anything featuring Mitchell, are being dusted down in readiness for broadcast.

Time, methinks, to put on the boots and start walking for the Atlantic.