From being the meat in the sandwich to being a secret ingredient

What is this obsession with the PDs and food? Eight months ago McDowell was telling us all that the PDs were the meat in the government sandwich, and now they've been relegated by the same man to being some secret ingredient.

It's not like you could hardly call the meat in your sandwich much of a secret. Unless it was a very small piece of meat, and a flavourless piece lacking in texture at that. Perhaps that is what he was getting at.

More on the clowns

I didn't twig that Una Mullaly is in fact Una of Una Rocks. So I withdraw my comments about giving me a ring if she's single as she decidedly taken to the best of my knowledge.

And the Pelican has been in touch with me by mail since I posted (Christ how much like a line from Batman the TV series does that sound?). Seems the Pelican has only just logged into their account today, and discovered a mail dated last Wednesday from Una querying they have copyright clearance for the video. They were out of the country during the week and not checking mail.

I've done some quick searching and it seems this version of "Send in the clowns" is the Judy Collins recording which was a Warner Brothers release and it seems Warner have a deal with YouTube regard the posting of their music. So it's not clear if separate clearance for a posting of the song on YouTube is required. To the best of my knowledge the clip was constructed for use at an FG conference in 2005, and updated slightly for the 2006 Ard Fheis to include McDowell's remark's about Richard Bruton.

I'm not sure if monies would actually need to changes hands for its use on YouTbue but if it were then it would have to be at a rate comparable to what a radio station might have to pay for playing a single tune to a few thousand people. After all YouTube tracks the number who have played the clip, even if they don't track how many have listened to it in its entirety. So how much would that be? I've tried looking at the IRMA site for some information but there isn't any. Perhaps someone from IRMA can tell us what prices they charge?

Willie's back!

This weeks Sunday Independent has a column from Willie O'Dea. So he hasn't gone to ground after all . As this edition of the paper is out after the dissolution of the Dail will it come under the Benefit in Kind form of expenditure during the course of the campaign?

As the entire column is an election broadcast for FF so how can anyone claim is this not a form of free advertising which as to be accounted for in his return?

Send in the clowns - Tribune "attempts" contact.

Strange use of the term 'contact' in the Sunday Tribune today page 11, Una Mullaly writes about the use of copyrighted music in various Youtube clips that political parties and the politically inclined have posted in recent times. She refers in the latter part of her piece to the Send in the Clowns montage piece (we need a montage!.. sorry Team America moment there. I'm all better now). Now there are two main accounts with that clip one of them is mine and the other belongs to someone called BluePelican.

In her piece she says that "The Sunday Tribune contacted the person who posted the video but received no response." I've checked my account this morning and there ain't no mail from the lovely Ms. Mullaly. Of course, if she's single and willing to talk I'm available to talk. The other account which has 2/3 times the hits, and is probably the one she is referring to is BluePelican. I've had a look at Blue Pelican's account on Youtube and the owner hasn't logged into it in 5 months! It's very plain to see if you even glance at their profile.

So I'm not at all sure where the Tribune gets the idea that they have contacted anyone, she would entitled to say that she had attempted to contact the person but failed, however she is not correct to say that she had contacted them.

Its a bit like the local canvassers dropping in the those "Sorry I missed you" cards from politicians when they haven't even ring the doorbell.

I think Richard Delevan who is one of the few people in the DTP on top of the online/webby side of campaigning should have a word with Una about writing stuff that completely undermines the rest of the story. To which there may be some validity.

Eeffing thieving bastards - you'd actually take money from the disabled?

I read this piece by Fergus Finlay (updated link now in Irish Examiner archive) in in Tuesday's Examiner* and I was positively seething afterwards. I would urge everyone to read Fergus's piece and to raise this on the doorsteps with any and all government reps who will be calling over the coming weeks.

My sister, who is a year, a month and a day younger than me, is intellectually disabled (as if she didn't have enough to put up with being my sister) and lives quite happily in Killarney, in sheltered housing managed by the Kerry Parents and Friends of the Mentally Handicapped who do a fine job trying to ensure that people in Kerry can live as independently and fulfilling a life as possible. Finding a place close to home was a process of years of fighting mainly on the part of my mother dealing with the various bureaucracies of the state, during which she was placed in Devlin, Co. Westmeath, Mayfield Co. Cork, Tralee and now Killarney.

It now appears that the department of health (which has historically dropped the ball on supports for those with disabilities) is planning to implement the same regime of charges for those with disabilities as for the pensioners in residential care. Which means they will charge disabled people for living in residential settings. And charge them out of their disabled person's maintenance allowance. The DPMA is currently €184 per week which is less than an old age non-contributory pension and about the same as the dole. So if you are on the dole, and live away from home the state will pay you a rent supplement but if you make the same attempt to live independently as a disabled person the state will charge you for the pleasure? And, get this, the state is also planning to apply this new regime retrospectively! They are right now sending bills to the parents of people with disabilities looking for back payments. Can you fucking believe it?

You know one of the most stressful things for parents of someone with a disability is the ever present thought of what will happen when you're gone. This is someone that you love with all your heart but you know that unlike your other children who you will also worry about (worrying seeming to be in the very nature of parenting, and is something that you don't realise until you become a parent yourself or see friends become parents) that your disabled won't ever be able to fend for themselves completely and they will always need someone to be looking out for them. And when you're gone you hope that your community will care for them and the state which is the community writ large and the mechanism for expressing that care will do what it can.

I actually genuinely thought that Cowen's efforts, particularly in his budgets , were the sign that the issue of treating people with disabilities fairly, and supporting those organisations that work in the area, was now completely part of the mainstream of Irish political life. I thought despite all the other differences I might have with the guy that here is someone that gets it.

I can tell you now that anyone whether from the revenue or the department of health who tries to take or takes by sleight of hand money from my sister will find me on their door beating their fucking head in with whatever comes to hand. When it comes to my sister I will happily get all Timothy McVeigh on you and your place of work.

As Fergus points out unlike the elderly those with disability will almost certainly never have the chance to be members of the work force and accrue money and assets that might be put into paying for their care. Again, I would urge people to read Fergus's piece he manages to be put it much more than I do.

* The examiner has in the last few years become my alternate to the Irish Times, in large part because you can't depend on the Independent to get the days of the week right.

The dead vote scenario

I posted last May about the possible problems that the excessive amount of 3 seaters in Ireland and FF's dominance of the 2nd seats in such constituencies could pose were their national vote share drop into the mid 30s in terms of percentages. Well, the national vote share scenario may be coming to pass if the MRBI poll is the trend of things. I would expect a lot of senior FF figures who have been asked to share their territory reneging rapidly on any commitments given.

For all the talk about PR being a fair system and proportionate and that ever vote counts, it is all to often overlooked that some votes end up not amounting to be much at all. People readily forget that in multi seat PR-STV elections that there is a significant chunk of votes that is left in the possession of the last person standing without a seat in 3 seaters.

And with a minimal spread of candidates selected to ensure that there is no leakage of votes outside your own party you could see further problems in getting someone who is on less than 80% of a quota elected, especially if their running mate is elected without much of a surplus. This can be almost 20% of the vote in 3 seaters. In 4 seaters this danger figure could be 16% and in 5 seaters 13.3%. In those constituencies the presence of so many other candidates would tend to mean that you should be able to pick up some votes. However in places like Limerick West, and Cork South West it would mean candidates who did relatively well losing out and those are high targets for FG. More significantly it could cause problems for FF in Donegal North East, and Donegal South West, costing them 2nd seats that their high preferences vote share might have lead people to think were safe.

Essentially if the seal on the drum is too tight not alone won't it leak but it won't let in any water either.

In praise of posters

I think too people overreact to the sight of election posters. Maybe it was growing up in town with a big festival (All Hail King Puck) but I quite like the extra colour they bring to most towns. And that goes for all party’s posters. I think that some people are actively seeking out things to be annoyed about. Fair enough to complain when posters obscure road signs or are too low and impede pedestrians and motorists. Other than that I think they are a positive contribution and part of the public aspect of our democracy.

The date of the Irish general election

I believe that Bert will called the election early on Tuesday May 1st, having all the other deputies come back to Dublin for the sitting while the FFers get an extra hour in bed and straight onto the campaign trail. It also means that they don't start the election as they would if they call it this week with the MRBI poll as the first spin of the campaign and it could be a bad one. And the Taoiseach was very insistent about calling it in summer 2007 and the 1st of May is the first day of summer.

After covering myself in such glory with my prediction of the French Presidential election I might be better off keeping my thoughts to myself but sure it is what I reckon will happen.

Oh and the date is probably 24th, but he could even go for the 23rd or 22nd. He did say to Harry McGee that he had never mentioned a Thursday.

Where's Willie?

Strangely, no Willie O'Dea in the Sunday Independent today. Where could he be? Hardly running about taking all these posters like the one to the left with his glorious Leader's name wrong on it could he be?

Or were he and a gang up late into the night removing Noreen Ryan's posters since they don't have anyone's name but her own on them.


Or did my other post touch a nerve at Sunday Independent HQ?

Tim O'Malley and the wife-swapping sodomites

or should that be hill-walking suburbanites? Anyway, junior minister Tim O'Malley has been in the local Limerick Press bemoaning the Labour party's proposal that walking access be granted automatically to land that is not being farmed over 150 metres to hill walkers and their ilk. Strangely, the attack from Tim bemoaned the interests of hill walkers from the suburbs overruling those of rural Ireland. This from a man who comes from and lives in a suburban area of Limerick city.

What makes it all the more odd is that anyone familiar with the lie of the land in Limerick would know that it ain't the most mountainy of places. I had a quick look at my ordnance survey map and barring a few hundred acres of the Slieve Felim mountains (a disputed zone with Tipperary I've been given to understand from my sources with the Premier county regime) there ain't a helluva lot over the suggested height of 150 metres.

So why is a minister complaining about something that isn't going to affect any of his constituents? Perhaps the minister was thinking of the Clare hills which as it turns out are in Clare or maybe he thinks that this is a appropriate topic for him to pronounce on in his capacity as minister for Mental Health. Could he be of the view that hill-walkers are not in the best of mental health irrespective of their physical well-being? Does he think it is grounds for detaining participants for their own well being?

French Election Prediction

I dabble in the punditry business from time to time and since the French are having themselves an election to select a new President, and below are my figures. I suspect that support for Sego is weak and Bayrou will surprise by sneaking past her.

Sarkozy - 26%
Sego - 22%
Bayrou - 23%
Le Pen - 18 %
Rest 11%

Time now is 16.15 GMT

Sean Fleming on PrimeTime

A Willie O'Dea for the 21st century? Willie spent years as a backbencher willing and able to try and defend all kinds of government nonsense on behalf of FF, now that he's a minister he can't be doing that sort of thing any more. Well apart from in the Sindo but we've covered that already. However, it seems FF have unearthed a new Willie for a new age, as seen on PrimeTime this evening in the shape of Sean Fleming

Sean found fault with the fact that the FG/Labour plan is dependent on economic performance. Of course it appeared to completely shock him when Richard Bruton reminded him that all such plans and commitments are couched in such language, even the FF plan is dependent on things like growth and the absence of recession. Not that Sean is likely to have read his party's plan. After all when you're a FF backbencher your normal tactic is to promise people whatever they want in the hope that they'll have forgotten about it after the summer.

Sean Fleming then moved on to suggest that the reason for not delivering 200,000 extra full medical cards is down to our economic performance and the fact that not as many people are on social welfare. Yet, if that was the case then why was a number of 200,000 used? Why not say everyone under a a certain income threshold or at a certain percentage of the average industry wage would get a card? They choose the figure of 200,000 and they have to judged on that.

Then he was onto the commitment that all classes for under-9s would be of 20:1 class size. I find it truly bizarre that a government would suggest that the reason for not reaching the class size figure of 20:1 is because of special needs. Was there some explosion of special needs children after 2002 that caught the government unaware? They had been in government for 5 years to that point. Did they not know how many children were in the category of special needs. Of course not, the fact is they never intended on delivering the class size changes. Why? I'm only guessing but what if someone took a look at the nature of the teaching contracts and the allocation of special needs teacher and assistants to schools. I wonder if they would find that their presence is dependent on a certain number of children requiring their assistance. Should those numbers drop then the positions might disappear. Much different to hiring a permanent full time teacher who is assigned to the school for good.

I was a little annoyed (only a little mind) that Katie Hannon, even if she is FF gene pool as she admits herself in her book on the Naked politician, allowed the idea that because most waiting lists for operations are now between 2-5 months that this somehow meets the government promise of 3 months. Also it is worth noting that the clock doesn't start ticking for you being on a waiting list until you see a consultant. So the time you spend between getting sick, seeing your GP and finally seeing a consultant is apparently not waiting at all but some weird kind of limbo. Perhaps someone should get onto the Pope and tell him this is where it ended up!

Willie O'Dea - the unanswered questions

Unanswered because it seems no one in the Dead Tree Press is asking them.

I was drawn a fortnight ago to the Minister of Defence Willie O’Dea's entry in the register of Oireachtas members interest. The minister as many people will know has a weekly column in the Sunday Independent. Now, politicians writing the occasional column or making the odd television appearances is not uncommon nor should it be discouraged. However, a weekly column is a platform for promotion of his electoral chances much like any other piece of advertising and it suggests employment. So why is there no reference to this engagement in his return.

The absence to any reference to his column begs the following questions.

Is the minister actually employed on contract my Independent News and Media and is he paid the going rate for this column? – and why is this not listed on his return?

If not then does he pay a market rate for the advertising space he is being given to convey his political message to the public each week?

If not then this space is being given as a gift from Independent New and Media to the minister and why was it not noted as such on his return?

Those are the only real options.

A senior minister takes up an offer of assistance from a major commercial organisation. An offer that will assist his re-election chances and he then doesn’t declare it in his entry of the register of Oireachtas members’ interests. You would think that this would be headline news, right? Well, while we’ve had the usual prurient interest in who owns how many houses and perhaps the exotic shareholders of some Oireachtas members, there are been no mention of this cosy relationship.

Why is this? It would seem that we have a media that will, rightly in my view, highlight any and all juicy morsels that a TD or Senator may be offered except when the sweetener is from the media itself. The declarations are to inform the public of what interests members have and how they may influence the decisions of Oireachtas members and most especially cabinet members. In the case of Minister Willie O’Dea and Independent News and Media we have a situation where a minister appears to be able to avail of free print space, no favours asked or expected.

In order to cover all the possible forms of inducement the form that members have to return has entries for contracts, gifts or other remuneration. but where is the questioning from our friends in the 4^th estate? Could it be that in the case of their own industry that they feel themselves to be outside the intent of the legislation?

The annual focus on share and property ownership in the returns is regarded as good clean voyeurism but free gifts to ministers in the form of print space from media organisations goes to the heart of what the declarations are meant to be about. Exposing the links to and influences from organisations on our paid public representatives.

I suppose it is much better in the public interest to look at who might have a interest in conflict diamonds. That is much more Hollywood.

NUI how to update the register – call the tax man.

Use our PPS/RSI numbers

Most students from Irish 3^rd level educational institutions will remember those ever so helpful notices in student administration offices telling us that the local social welfare offices had been informed that we were full time students just in case anyone was the slightest bit tempted to try and sign on for the dole while attending third level. Of course to do so they needed our PPS numbers or RSI number as they were called then. So the college administration have on record the PSS/RSI numbers of all students who attended and this in turn means that they have the PPS/RSI numbers of all graduates. That is one side of the problem solved, identifying who can vote.

Now who could possible know where most of these people if they still live in Ireland might be? Why the tax man of course! The revenue has the current address of all taxpayers in the state. Now if the colleges to send on those PPS numbers of graduates to the revenue naturally with the money to cover the cost of one envelope per voter containing a registration form and a prepaid envelope address. Then the revenue could send same to all those PPS/RSI holders they have on record without any concern about a breach of confidentiality. That solves the other side, identifying where people live.

Combine this with automatic registration at graduate ceremonies and we could expect to have an accurate and up to date register instead of the poor condition it is right now. Such measures would increase the registration level from pitiful 30/40% to closer to 90% in my view.

All the information is there in the system it is simply a matter of making best use of it.

Health Service "Employers" - who day?

I'm often struck by the manipulation of language in modern life. During the current dispute with the nurses, that odd grouping the Health Service Employers have been on the box every once and a while.

Now none of these so called Health Service Employers are actually employers in the real sense of the word. They are more like glorified junior vice presidents. It is the state that pays the salaries for the doctors, nurses and other staff at the hospitals. Whatever boards of management may be left over from the days when the nuns or whoever ran the hospitals aren't involved in employing the staff. We employ those working in the health service and we appoint a government every once in a while to run it on our behalf.

Also on the nurses dispute you'd swear from the HSE that there had never been a operation or procedure cancelled or delayed prior to the nurses dispute starting. Thing again strangely the INO isn't saying much about that either.

Declaration of Oireachtas members interests

Get them while they are hot.

Dail members Seanad Members

I would say that Willie O'Dea has a question over his form.

There is a remarkable (hence my remarking on it) lack of consistency about this, some reps list their Dail income as occupational income many others don’t are they supposed to or not? I’m kind of surprised that so few own shares in anything. Maybe it is a generational thing. Though it may be that they are only required to do so if it exceeds a certain amount.

Some like Joe Costello list their SSIA while the majority appear not to list them. (I can’t imagine that the vast majority of TDs didn’t take out an SSIA)

Tony Dempsey has an apartment in Cypress (sic)! CyriUsLee! Does anyone check this record properly? I mean I recall reading the local elections expenditure reports filed with Dublin City Council and we had barefaced falsehoods such as Maurice Ahern brother of the Taoiseach saying his total spending was €750, that is on his entire election campaign. That is non-binding as I understand it meanwhile the register of Dail interests in a meant to be proper track of what people have and there is no consistency to the thing at all.

John Ellis, says he has no shares in excess of 13,000 (that is individually I take it) but his colleague Martin Brady lists the €8,400 in shares he has in the credit union. If these guys can’t fill in a form on their own interests properly then what use might they be to the average punter in helping them navigate the bureaucracy of the state.

Michael McDowell who lists below interests in 4 properties doesn’t seem to list his holiday home down the country in Roscommon that had the planning issues a while back - could be he sold it. Or is it an oversight?

"(1) Half interest as tenant in common of land adjoining home in Ranelagh. (2) 9 Manders Terrace, Dublin 6. (3) 10% interest in block in Eastpoint Office Park, Dublin 1. (4) 33 Old Bond Street, London (part ownership).

Other Information Provided: All owned jointly with spouse. "

Willie O’Dea lists nothing under either Occupational Income or Gifts or Property and Service or Remunerated Position or Contracts. So is his column in the Sindo for free and it isn’t advertising? Surely that has to be counted as a gift in either a free national mouthpiece or something he is paid for?

New PD Leader Poster Revealed

Or as Captain Flashhard might say "Slack Bowel". The other advice must be to avoid a dose of Chris Andrews as he might cause you to "throw it all away" out your rear.

That FF ad in full

Kudos to the Irish Elections guys for this one