The Monaghan car crash - Lives lived and lost in vain

roadsafetyblog

As part of Damien Blakes efforts to highlight the problem of road deaths I created this post back in October. The event that prompted this was the deaths of five young men in Monaghan in a head on collision.

There were other posts from many other bloggers under the technorati tag of roadsafetyblog .At the time my own particular take on the situation was on the relative disparity in coverage given to the crash when it happens compared to that given to the inquest or the uncovering of the causes which tends to happen much later. Others commented on other aspects of this crash or road safety more generally. One in particular Sarah Carey received quite strong condemnation for having the insensitivity to voice an opinion about the circumstances when the cause of the crash had still to be determined at an inquest. Yet she was not alone in being attacked for having an opinion. Indeed, some folks took it upon themselves, and it appears have done so again, to try and intimidate people from commenting on this incident. Well, I said my piece at the time and I'm saying it again now. And I'm not going to be shut up or go away.

Let us start with some facts. At the inquest held this past week we were told that both drivers involved were substantially over the alcohol limit, were driving at speeds which would not have been appropriate during daylight not to mind 2am at night and at least one of the drivers didn’t have his seatbelt on.

Pathologist Dr John Ryan said that Ciarán Hagan had a blood-alcohol level of 201mgs per 100ml and a urine-alcohol level of 253mgs. He was driving alone in his Blue Golf, and it was he that crossed the road, he was doing 100km per at 2am on a road that allows for 80km maximum during daylight.

Dermot Thornton had a blood-alcohol of 147mgs per cent and urine-alcohol level of 196mgs per cent. He was driving the Red Golf at 125 km with the 3 passengers on a road that allows for 80km during the daylight. The blood and urine levels of both drivers would indicate that both had what is euphemistically “a good bit to drink”.

No one has said as much but it is plain that since one of the cars crossed over the median of the road to travel in the opposite at speed towards the other car that both drivers were engaged in reckless and irresponsible behaviour by speeding and driving while drunk. Whether both or one of them was playing "chicken" according to what it is generally understand to be chicken doesn't matter. They could have been blindfolded and naked, playing the banjo for all the difference it makes. They were hammered and driving dangerously at night. 201mg for 100ml of blood is blind fucking drunk in anyone's language.

I appreciate that this is a terrible loss for the families and friends of those concerned. Yet, we do everyone a disservice if we allow that to blind us to the wrongness of their behaviour. Imagine for moment that these two cars had not met each other but instead if they had each individually encountered some stone cold sober couple with their children in their car returning from a wedding. Those would be the innocents not either of these two drivers.

We will change no one's behaviour while we persist in honouring the dead who did not die with honour. We have as a nation a terrible tendency to view such deaths as if they were something that had simply come upon the people concerned. These lads were not struck down by a terrible disease. They were their own victims. The Japanese as a nation have a similarly self evidently stupid attitude to WWII acting as if it was some awful thing that happened and which they were simply innocent bystanders in instead of something they had been active participants involved in.

If it was a member of my family I would be angry with them for being so fucking stupid. I wouldn’t love them any less but I would be angry and disappointed with them and I would not seek to defend what they had done.

Some would say that the rest of us should try to do something so that their deaths might not be in vain. We can’t do that. Their deaths were in vain, will always be in vain and nothing anyone does can change that. They did not intend to die but they did know what they were doing and their deaths are a waste. And people who waste are…. We should not seek to honour them. We should have sympathy for the families but not for the men themselves. It is vanity and self indulgence that led to these deaths. At the time of the crash many said that we should not be so quick to pass judgement. Well, now we’ve had the inquest where are the apologies for attacking those who pointed out what was reckless and dangerous behaviour?

Did they deserve to die? No. However, they did not deserve to kill anyone else either. It would not be right to say they killed themselves but it would seem correct to say that they killed each other. If society has any blame in this it is the local society that they were apart of that glorifies racing about the place at speed. And this has nothing to do with rallying or loving cars. The Scots and Scandinavians have strong rallying traditions and nowhere near our level of road deaths perhaps because they have the cop on or respect for the lives of others to know not to drive as these lads did on a public road.

We as a nation need to think more about the lives we can still save rather than those that are gone. We can't simply leave people alone in their grief while those who continue to drive as these young men did are killing people up and down the country. These young men may have loved life but they evidently had little respect for the lives of others.

If they chose to buy some land and race about on it and end up killing themselves then it would be one thing. However, when you behave as they did on a public road then don't expect me to weep for your passing.

It was noted that the deceased had all been loved by their families, neighbours and friends and that their deaths had left a huge void in the community. I can understand your friends and family missing you but truth be told I’m not sure why anyone else should. Or why we should be expected to mourn the loss of people we never knew. When you really love someone you know they have faults but love them anyway, to try and hide such faults when they have contributed to their own deaths is truly to do a service to the dead.

We’ve had the inquest and the relative silence of the press has been deafening. Where is the strong media focus now that we do know the factors involved in this shameful lose of life? The reason for highlighting the reckless behaviour at the time is the chance we might have the most effect on those who might do the same. It is far too late once the sudden horror has passed. Not much point in seeing Charlie Bird on the roadside or getting the big Sunday paper coverage now.

You can find the Irish Times coverage of the inquest here and from the Independent here.

Beyond Proctor & Gamble

Over on Irishelection Simon of the dossing times has made a good point about how we need to see past the current problems in Irish manufacturing to what the solution might be to the wider problem of having sustainable economy growth.

One aspect I would pick up on is the availability of low cost warehouse style office space something that is still shockingly expensive in Ireland no matter where you go to look for it. Part of that is the result of we not having a previous manufacturing base that left hollowed out shells of buildings. Of course the people in Stanford didn’t really need to worry about heating that much but the fact is that it is more profitable to leave much space lie empty that lease it out.

Also, the point of FDI was to use it as a boost to the economy while we were supposed to be spending the money in ramping the economy up for the move to the model you suggest, much like some doing overtime or working in a crap job while they went to night school or saved to pay for an expensive course. Instead I would contend that the government has squandered all the money we the people earned on the societal equivalent of plasma screens and PS3’s.

State socialism vs. Naked Capitalism

I've tried to sum things up before but I think the paragraphs below come closest to expressing my view on the failings of the soviet union.

The problem for the soviet style socialism was that it ignored and was in turn undermined by human nature, while capitalism for all it's faults uses human nature as the engine to make it work. Socialism tries to change human nature, capitalism uses it.

It is more straightforward and easier to try and make a pure capitalist system work in a more equitable manner than to get a socialist system which may be more equitable in theory to work at all.

See - I really was there.

I'm the one in the middle looking for an escape route if I was to snatch an award and run for it.

Frakking RSI

I woke early on Monday morning with a shocking pain in my right arm and nothing I did would make it go away. Took some Solpadeine and while it dulled it, it didn't leave. After some thought I ended up get a shot in the arm from a doc ( and at what cost!). Probably it was cortisone but I didn't ask. It was not a pleasant experience at all and I've gone and bought myself a wrist support thingy, and I'm going to source a proper chair for the table the computer is on so I can make sure I'm at the right height. Hopefully, just a warning scare and nothing more. I have an aunt who got very bad arthritis in her late thirties so there is possible something lurking in the genes.

I was thinking that I should be claiming that I didn't win because my v'cast was too controversial. That somehow the government moved to have it and Mr. PotatoHead suppressed. I don't believe that at all. The winning entry was much more of a video that mine and I can see why the judges went with it. Actually, I'm not even sure if a v'cast belongs in a Blog awards. However, I wasn't going to make that point while I was still in with a chance to win.

In more political news the prospect of jobs losses at P&G at Nenagh should be sending alarm bells ringing at the department of Trade and Industry. Though whether there is anyone home to hear those bells is an open question. Michael Martin only does the good news I guess. My previous post on Dell is beginning to seem worryingly prescient.

Irish Blog awards - no prize for moi.

The Irish blog awards passed off peacefully, I would generally agree with most of the winners. The event itself was excellently organised, had very classy prizes and bottles of Champers for the winners too! Major kudos to Mulley and his team, they were very professional throughout.

One thing I did think was lacking was a certain loquaciousness in the acceptance speeches. Seriously folks, have you no mothers to thank? There was a very pretty press person from the IT who was hoping for good copy from the awards and who I suspect I insulted by asking if she was a cub reporter. I was very much intending to make up for my gaff by providing as much quotable material as possible if I got the chance. Sadly, it was not to be. I was going try and that the academy. Also, I had entertained hopes of getting a chance to appeal for votes for the Seanad but instead had to do it person by person.

I suppose it is more evidence that blogging allows a platform for folks who wouldn't dream of hopping up on a stage and gasbagging it away for ten minutes. The mix of people was great, not just a 20something sausage fest type gathering. Folks over 30 and ladies too. It was all very convivial.

While I didn't win for Video cast I did get complimented by twentymajor which is kind of the blogging equivalent of missing out on the best short live action movie Oscar only for a big time director to tell ya that he liked how you shot the action sequence.

Got a License to drink - 0018

Another thread popped up on p.ie about underage drinking with the suggested solution of reducing the number of off-licenses.

My personal view is that a much better solution is that we should require everyone to have a license to drink (including a test which you can take once over 18!), and should your progeny be found imbibing when too young to do so, that you as parent would lose your license for a period. Might encourage a few parents irrespective of social class to make more of an effort to know where their kids are and what they are up to.

Obtaining the license suits in nicely with my broader opinion which is that we are seriously lacking in Ireland a proper rite of passage into adulthood. I'm not suggesting that we send all lads or lassies at 18 off to some island to kill a animal and smear themselves in its blood but becoming an adult is a messy enough process without the strange absence of an generally accepted social indicator of this important stage in each citizens development.

Irish Blog awards - Fantasy football!

Simply pick your winner and you get 5 points and since we have a running order we can give bonus points for how many in a row you get.

This is the Running order of the Irish blog awards

The Full Shortlist

Best Videocast
* Best Designed Blog
* Best Podcaster
* Best Podcast
* Best Business Blog
* Best News/Current Affairs Blog
* Best Sport & Recreation Blog
* Best Technology Blog/Blogger

* Spot prize raffles *

* Best Use of the Irish Language in a Blog
* Best Newcomer
* Best Personal Blog
* Best Group Blog
* Best Specialist Blog
* Best Political Blog
* Best Music Blog
* Best Arts and Culture Blog
* Best Photo Blog

* eBookers raffle for a holiday*

* Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere
* Most Humorous Post
* Best Blog Post
* Best Blog

PD Deputy Leader in zombie massacre

Just to remind us all, this is Liz O'Donnell from her website



And to our left this is Liz discussing Irish Overseas Aid policy with Simon Pegg. How blatant can you be in trying to curry the support of young people! Am I right or am I right?

Why Gaybo is right about drugs

Gay Byrne's recent comments about whether we should consider legalising drugs is a interesting contribution to debate that for too long has been stagnant and seems to involve too many people who have a vested interest in the current situation continuing rather than it ending.

Looking at the facts of the premise that he starts from that the "War on drugs" as fought for the last 40/50 years has failed is absolutely correct. Drug consumption has increased and it spans all social and economic classes. We are expending every increasing resources on trying to stop the supply and we devote far more of our resources toward tackling supply compared to demand.

And despite the fact that drugs do affect everyone, it is still the case that the vast majority of those most directly impacted by drugs are those from the most disadvantaged communities, those with the lowest school leaving standard of education and the highest rates of unemployment. Day in, day out, children in these areas are giving a demonstration of the vast monies to be made from breaking the law as they see dealers in the neighbourhoods.

Of every time someone uses drugs they are taking a risk. There again every time you cross the street you are taking a risk, we build pedestrian crossing and education people to know the risks. We do not ban crossing the road.

Of course, Ireland or indeed any number of EU countries acting in concert could not and should not take an unilateral steps to legalise drugs while sharing common travels zones with countries that have not and would not make such a change. However, if there was a joint decision to be made what might that approach look like. I would suggest that it would be very different to that outlined by Patrick Kenny in the Irish Examiner today March 1st

Show or Substance - Noel Whelan

I picked up Noel Whelan's Show or Substance over the weekend. It was more for research than anything else as I'm not completely at ease with being armed with the tools to assess the various party's take on the issues from someone who was so recently a FF candidate and is obviously still very much an advisor to them.

It is hard to tell if he is meant to collecting together the policy positions of all the parties and comparing them especially when no policy for either the PDs or FF is posted separately. Of course, this is natural enough since both are in government they do not have separate policies at this point. Instead, we get the policies of the parties compared to the government's take on things. And there is no real highlighting of inconsistencies, perhaps I was hoping for some better presentation beyond the novel style text, even some bulletin points making it easier for Seamus Public to compare what is said would help.

I'm not finished but I would for the moment note there are a number of factual errors such as the glaring one given the Whelan's professed expertise is the coverage of elections that SF won a council seat in Limerick East in 2004. SF didn't win any city or council seats in Limerick in 2004.

What's a Binge these days?

I must admit that I have a problem with the alteration in the media mindset of what is a night on the tiles. According to the medical profession a binge is 4 pints or more in a evening. I'm not sure when the medical profession were called in to define a binge but while 4 pints or more may breach some medical barrier it is far from what most people would have viewed as a binge.

I'm not even clear why someone would bother to leave the car at home, get a taxi into somewhere to consume 3 pints over the course of 3/4 hours and then a taxi home. You're spending way more than 50% of your night's out money purely on transportation!

Also, I heard someone from the vintners association on the radio, Newstalk this morning talking about "the billions that is spent on urban transport" and who the rural sector is missing out. It might stun the guy from the vintners but there is far from billions being spent on the running of Dublin Bus or the LUAS and more significantly those services take in a lot of money to get as close as possible to covering their costs. Bus Eireann on the other hand has the bulk of unprofitable rural routes where the bus takes 4/5 pensioners into town for their shopping during the day. No harm in my view but we need some realism about the extent to which those living in an urban setting are already subsiding those living in rural areas.

I'm favourably disposed to doing something to prevent rural decline but falsely claiming that "Billions" are spent running some utopian urban public transport network that patently does not exist is not the way to go about getting people on your side.

After Motorola, is Dell next?

The return of Michael Dell to the helm of the company he founded would seem to herald a renewed focus on lower costs with the target of regaining their position as the No.1 PC company in the world. And what does this mean for Ireland and Limerick in particular?

Despite the protestations that Dell's new plant in Lodz, Poland is for solely for extra capacity and to service new markets it is hard to avoid the nagging suspicion that the intent is to replicate the efficiency of the Limerick plant in a much lower cost environment. A considerable number of the Dell employees in Limerick at present are Polish and this would create a ready made supervisor structure for the Lodz plant should they decide to relocate. It is possible and indeed likely in the event of any relocation that Dell would aim to retain their network research centre which is quite recent and also retain some of the Limerick facilty as a distribution hub for the UK and Ireland. This would still mean job losses running at over a 1,000. Such a event would represent a major indictment of the government's efforts to address competitive costs in the Irish economy and the fact that the lack of competitive pressures has allowed some players in particular sectors to exploit the sweat of others to excess.

Ireland's competitiveness has been eroded over the last 5 years as costs have increased in large part driven by sectors that not, from solicitors to hair dressers, estate agents to restaurants these are the main private sector drivers of increased costs. Yet the state itself stands indited of increasing costs of doing business.

It is hard to avoid a believe that someo commentators can't read beyond the press releases they are given whether by the state or the private sector. When the national broadcaster RTe can't tell the difference between high salaried development jobs being lost at Motorola and new call centre jobs at VMWare you have to question their basic knowledge of the tech sector. The jobs lost at Motorola are those of people with 10/20 years software development experience and somehow RTe are happy to be spun with the notion that call centre/tech support jobs are an adequate replacement.

As someone who comes from a tech background, I've a degree in electronic engineering and a general interest in construction and any aspect of making things, I've always found the lack of awareness when it comes to the technical world that we have to suffer from out friends in the fourth estate worrying.

If someone like Dell were to pull out or begin a process of withdrawal from their manufacturing from Ireland to somewhere like Lodz then I believe it will spell the death knell of Celtic Tiger 1.0. Do we have time or a government with the ability to get CT 2.0 out the door in time to safe our long term growth?

The Labour Civil Union bill and Colm O'Gorman's leader's reaction

I was struck when listening to the radio on last Tuesday night by the vehemence of Minister McDowell's response to the opposition during the debate about the Labour civil union Bill.

It then occurred to me that it must be even more strange for Colm O'Gorman, someone for whom the notion of civil unions in Ireland is of more than academic interest, that the party he is now a member of and a candidate for was playing politics with this issue.

What exactly is so defective about the Labour Bill? Indeed, what was so terrible about the Labour Bill that meant that he as minister for Justice wasn't proposing amendments and then passing it into law with a view to revising it later. Instead he has long fingered the proposal for a number of years at least.

Perhaps the truth lies more in the fact that the PDs may be dependent on the transfers of FF candidates in a number of constituencies and irrespective of the PD's own position it is important not to spook the FFers.

The so called progressive Arab world and U.L.

I was looking for some news on blogs and came across this awful story. And to think this is one of the so called progressive Arab nations that the US is so keen to promote.

And to think my own alma mater is allegedly "after me" for this lidal, biddy veedayooh. I guess I can hope to avoid a spell in cokey.

Mention in 'da paper'

My nomination got a mention in the paper or should I say da paper today. One minor inaccuracy I'm a UL graduate and as such not an NUI graduate, won't want people to think I was try to deliberately mislead anyone.

NUI Update on the register

I was talking with someone from the NUI recently and it appears there may be something of a quandary over the registers of the two university panels.

There is a new register available every June 1st. The register to be used for an election is meant to be the one in effect when the Dail is dissolved. For this upcoming election it is widely believe that the Dail will be dissolved mid April. Meaning the new 2007 register would not be used, reverting to using the existing 2006 register. This means that recent graduates will not be included on the register.

However, when a similar situation arose in 2002 the NUI used the new register which they had compiled even though it had not yet come into effect. In the same election TCD on contrast used its previous register.

This time out the pressure is on TCD to use a new register as in the preparation of the 2006/07 register they misled 700 voters who had properly set in their registration forms

The boxes that the votes were in were overlooked/lost/misplaced. Senator Norris of TCD has raised a stink - rightly so in my view. It now seems that the best way for TCD to get out of their problem is to use their new register which should include these 700 names along with any other new folks. Unless they perchance mislay some of them too! However, that in turn means that the NUI is highly likely to also use a new register. So what you might say? Well, one thing is that candidates need the register in order to campaign .And given that the resources the NUI and TCD allocate to the task of updating their registers typically have from end of Feb to beginning of June to complete their task, slightly more than 3 months but this year they may need to issue the register earlier perhaps 6 weeks earlier in 50% of the time they would normally have. With it would appear at this time no extra resources allocated. And also no actual deadline to work against since they don't know when the Dail will be dissolved.

Either a decision should be made to use the existing register unless the Dail is dissolved after June 1st or more resources need to dedicated to updating the register to ensure that the work can be completed in time.

NUI

Last autumn, I declared my intention to contest the NUI Seanad panel. Since then I've been hugely encouraged by the support I've received from people across the country and beyond. I am contesting this election for the 23rd Seanad as an candidate for the NUI Constituency. Feel free to read some biographical information

While the main reason for deciding to contest these elections is that as a UL graduate I, like many others, not allowed to vote in the Seanad elections, that isn't my only concern. I am seeking to draw attention to a number of other issues. Amongst them

A reversal of the imposition of residential charges on disabled adults.

A commitment to resourcing research and facilitating lifelong learning.

Broader Seanad Reform to allow all Irish citizens a vote.

Reforms to ensure consistency in sentencing and the delivery of real justice.

I'm running as an independent but doesn't mean that I'm indifferent to the government. I'll be straight with you, if you genuinely believe that the last ten years of government have been the remotely close to the best we could have aimed to have then I'm probably not the guy for you. We've had governments that have contented themselves with not rocking the boat, cabinets of mediocrity and a Taoiseach more in the moulds of middle management than leadership.

I believe that we have more in our grasp that we imagine. And if we were to lift our eyes above,

I know that much of my views will sound like they were lifted from the script of the West Wing but would that be so bad?

McDowell sells own grandmother for votes

I can't help wondering if the dangling of an offer of €300 per week for pensioners might not come to be seen as the PD's Eircom and taxis moment of election 2007.

It has been just...sort of..thrown out there with no context for the increase. I initially thought it was rushed in response to the Labour tax cuts but then it is the frontpage of the PD freebie in yesterday's Indo. Why €100? Why not €123 or €94? Perhaps Michael likes nice round numbers, or he's scared of the number 23, maybe he thinks the public are too thick to work out that this money is going to be at the expense of something else.

Naturally, McDowell is not so much selling his own granny but trying to buy ours (or in my case my mother). Yet even my mother at the time of the last election when they gave the Gold medical cards to every pensioner over 70 was complaining that "sure many of those over 70 didn't need the cards as they had plenty of money to pay for visits to the doctor" and pointed out that it should have been the kids who got medical cover as a matter of course because that is when it is needed. After all, she had been a parent and had some experience of when parents help with their children's health. Most older people have been parents too.

Indeed, I suspect many grandparents in and around Dublin in particular will look at the state of the schools their grandkids are going to, the distance that their children have to travel to find a childcare place because they aren't able to live anywhere close to them.

Also, what does it say about a government that is desperately trying to get young people to take out personal pension cover when the state is stepping in and giving a massive boost to the pensions of those who didn't make such a provision. It is hardly setting a good example now is it? There are so many conflicts between this proposal and other areas of government policy it seems hard to understand it in any context except that of an election.

If the government made some effort to reduce heating and energy prices for the elderly, ensured that we had mixed communities so they weren't left alone to fend for themselves, and that their families could live reasonably close to each other such that grandparents could see their children and grandchildren that would do much more than a €100 per week.

Comfort and company is what most older people need and lack. A €100 bribe per week isn't going to provide either.

Ah sure go on - vote for me!

I seem to have gotten nominated for the Irish Blog awards in two categories, Best Political Blog and best Videocast.

The full list of nominations for the Irish Blog Awards is up. There is quite a strong line up of political and current affairs orientated blogs across the categories, and there are a few that I had not come across before.

Even more shockingly I'm up for two categories! Best Political Blog and Best Videocast for "You pay taxes". The Best Political Blog category has some really heavy hitters and I'm quite a novice at that side of things so I'm not expecting a significant showing there. However, I might actually stand a chance in the Best Videocast section. In the interests of non-partisanship I'm happy to follow the tack of the Taoiseach and will accept votes and support from whatever quarters they may come.

Please don't try to vote twice as that will void your votes. And it is worth noting that voting will close on February 16th at 5pm so don't leave it too late.

And I'm offering to do the narration live for the "You pay taxes" clip if I win!

Ethics

With the proposal from the government that we should have new ethics legislation to stop Bertie doing what he did when he took cash for a 'dig out' before I wonder if I should follow the lead of a FF Seanad candidate and send a book to all FF councillors, senators and TDs.

This one seems like it might be appropriate.

Luntz on Irish politics - part 2

There was another dose tonight of what RTe believes passes for American style focus groups as part of a Week in Politics season. I think a number of things were interesting, one was the dislike of Cowen which is something that the opposition could use particularly in urban areas. The reaction to Bruton's comments was good. Harney and McDowell seemed to catch the brunt of things from the audience members. There was no mention or reference to any FF ministers, and Labour appeared not to get much screen time or attention.

Michael 'Vicky Pollard' McDowell

Recently, Minister McDowell appears to have lost the plot. He is coming across as petty and silly as his partner in government throws winks at all and sundry in a desperate effort to ensure that he has alternate options for his dance card after the election. It is behaviour strangely reminiscent of a possessive lover bitching about other parties that his current partner FF is casting his eyes at.

Oh er look at Labour, isn’t she fat?

Sinn Fein, they’ve no breeding. They're completely nouveau riche.

And the Greens she's a flaky spend thrift, buys all her clothes from a charity. She never washes herself and she smells…

This is what passes for intellectual debate in the law library these days I guess.

Representing or representative?

The Tony Killeen saga drags on. According to our friends in the fourth estate he is coming under increasing pressure to resign. From where? Bertie? Killeen's defence appears modelled on the Bart Simpson mantra of 'I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, you can't prove anything.'

It is quite unlikely that he will stand aside at this point though the view taken by the Irish Sundays will tell all in the end. I suspect in the various publications at the weekend there will be an effort to move the issue on from specific to the general.

The unfortunate people in all this are the family and friends of Robert Lynch. For them it is much more than a conversation piece about the specifics of a letter from a junior minister and it is entirely about the personal loss they have suffered. Perhaps, if Killeen or his 'people' had made some effort to check the facts they might have been spared all the raking over their loss.

The odd thing is that many people in the meeja are choosing to talk about how this is all bundled up with the work of TDs in asking questions and making representations to organs of the state. Does it strike no one as wrong that in republic that a civil servant should answer a question from one citizen when in the guise of a TD while stonewalling other citizens?

I've had half post in my mind for the last 6 months about the difference between TDs and other public reps representing us instead of being representative of us. The Irish electorate has always exhibited a preference for TDs who they feel are one of them or like themselves. This is all well and good but kind of defeats the point of a democracy. You see the point is to elect people who will represent you to the best of their ability on the issues of day, not to be representative of the kind of person you actually are. Certainly, the TD should represent your views on matters political but we tend not to worry so much about that at election time rather it is often of more concern that the TD look and sound like you.

In essence my view is that TDs are meant to be professionals at their job of working for us. I might think it a good thing that I get on with the plumber when he calls to fix a problem with the boiler but I really do not want him to be like me when it comes to fixing the plumbing or we'll all be drowned inside of 15 minutes. I believe he should be better at doing his job than I would at it. That is why I pay him to do it and don't do it myself.

Sadly, we've done the complete opposite when it comes to public reps and elected captains of football teams and the popular lad from school or the friendly auctioneer, or the lassie who hold a tune. Sure, we've lucked in sometimes in that a number of them have proved up to the job they've ended up with, the depressing fact is that for the most part we ended up with TDs who do no better than if they had been randomly selected as our representatives much like happens for jury duty. And they get the run around from civil servants who are selected for their ability to do their jobs.

Is it any wonder we have Martin Cullen as minister for transport?

Tony Killeen - vote for my staff, they do it all

This story doesn't seem to going away, but it also doesn't seem likely to cost Killeen his job.

My personal view is that as a TD he ran for election largely based on what he does for his constituents, then we find out he does not actually do these things for his constituents it is in fact his staff that do them (who are in part or wholy funded by the taxpayer who provide money for a constituency office). This being the case why then do we not get to vote for his staff if they are doing the work rather than him?

Irish blogs awards

The nominations for the Irish blogs awards are now open and this is the post where one would normally expect to hear the poster asking/begging/pleading for people to nominate their blog for consideration. You can do it here.

However, I would have to say that compared to some of the more established politically orientated Irish blogs out there I don't reckon I would rate very highly given my inconsistent and infrequent rate of posting. My own fault.

Still if anyone feels they must, feel free. Just don't be disappointed íf my name doesn't end up appearing in lights. I won't be. And the best of luck to those who are nominated.

You pay taxes so we don't have to

For all my talk about new technology and its potential impact on the next Irish general election you'd think I would make more of an effort to use it. Well here is a start



It is something I knocked together in about half an hour. I admit it is somewhat harsh but not nearly as harsh as it could be.

Seanad Reform

We've had quite a few reports in total on Seanad reform down the years since the Seanad was created by DeVelera as part of his 1937 Constitution. The most recent document looking at the issue is the Seanad Reform report published in 2004.

In fact as the report notes there are have been 11 previous reports on Seanad reform prior to this. That would tend to make any future proposal the unlucky 13th. It might be an idea to spare this next report a few problems by addressing what we can.

Naturally as UL graduate, I want the government to legislate to provide for the 7th amendment to the constitution and to extend voting rights to those graduates outside of TCD and the NUI. As a nation we haven't tend to go to the bother of amending the constitution willy nilly and when the proposal is passed by a margin of 9:1 you would expect that the state would have gotten around to acting sooner than now. As part of this we need to act to fix the registers for the third level seats and here's my suggestion how to do it.

Beyond that regarding the broader reform of the Seanad which are arguably more important but which will take more time and requires constitutional change. I believe that we should value and respect the intent of the original Seanad which is that it would represent sectoral interests and recognise that the role of the Seanad should not be to become the source of an alternative government.

It is very feasible to have 60 seats elected by all the population, choosing on the day of the election which panel they would wish to vote for and in turn which candidates on those panels. The actual panels on offer could be decided at the time of the census, with the number of seats for each panel being allocated in proportion to the number of votes cast on election day. The Seanad could be fixed term or elected on the same day as the Dail I see merits in both ideas.

There may be merit in the idea that we have provincial Seanad panels for the four provinces. The reformed third level seats in this scenario would form part of the educational panel. People would only be able to vote for one panel.

Such a system would also allow for Irish emigrants panel with a minimal seat of one senator open to those who have registered with their Irish embassy.

Regarding votes in the Dail for those overseas, I believe that we should look at some form of observed proxy voting from the embassies. In other types of elections the votes of those overseas can be merely added to the total once the elections is completed. In our form of PR, it would be necessary to have the completed ballot papers be present at the count centre at the time of the opening of the boxes.

Were BUPA blocked from public sector group schemes?

Part of the basic problem with Risk Equalisation (RE) as the government have chosen to implement it is that the vast block of older people with health insurance who simply didn't move. Why was that?

Could it be that many people are actually members of group schemes rather than individual members and it is at this top level of those who selected which schemes were available that the choice has been made not to move. For example taking just the teaching sector the TUI, INTO appear from their websites have only VHI group schemes. Whereas the ASTI seems to have a 10% saving for both VHI and BUPA though their site only hosts a document related to VHI finances but not one for BUPA. Why would public sector organisations be favouring the VHI, I wonder? Could it be ideology, or protecting public sector jobs at the expense of the taxpayer? It would also seem that SIPTU also has only a group scheme link-up with VHI. Most private sector organisation will offer their employees a choice of scheme and then fund that group scheme with the usual discount since it is a group scheme.

It would be illuminating to know the extent to which public sector organisations are locked into group schemes with VHI and employees were not offered an option to choose between the 3 competitors. I continue to be surprised that no one in the dead tree meeja has bothered to investigate this.

I suppose this means the question in focus should be did large public sector organisations which had links with the VHI and the concept of a state operated monoploy insurer refuse to allow BUPA pitch for their group schemes?

Gun Crimes - solved or sorted?

The Garda commissioner has said today Dec 15th 2006 that of the 23 gun murders this year 8 are solved and they are close to solving 3 more. However, solved does not mean people being arrested or charged, not to mind convicted and sent to jail.

Part of the problem we have in Ireland now is that the Gardai are solving crimes but they can't bring convictions. We saw that with the Gardai's knowledge about two of the men killed in Dublin this week. Both 'Martin "Marlo" Hyland' and the man killed in the IFSC were done to the Garda but where they are jail?

Our hard working forefathers

Every budget time in Ireland there is a cap tiping reference to paying back our forefathers who made this country what it is. Now, I have no general objection to taking care of our older people and especially those who have fallen on hard times or find themselves unable to take care of themselves. However, the suggestion that each and every one of them had slogged all their lives to provide for the overall wellbeing of the nation as if they were all engaged in some national struggle just doesn't hold water.

It is the sort of wishy-washy nonsence that makes most people under 40 in Ireland wonder if the past really happened at all. We're forever hearing about how much easier and relaxed life used to be in days gone by. If that were the case then they can't have worked as hard as people have done in the last 10 years.

Oddly enough you never hear about paying back our forefathers for the appalling mistakes they made, instead that is all the past, water under the bridge. If you turned 65 last year in 2005, you would lived through the 60s when educational opportunities expanded widely, then in 1977 more than half the population voted for the FF manifesto that abolished rates, car tax, and did they worry where the money was going to come from? They've made out like gangbusters in the property market in large part because of planning screw up they were directly responsible for.

I know plenty of people nearing retirement or who have retired who worked damn hard in Ireland and they will be the first to tell ya about the wasters in their areas who never worked a hard day in their lives. They are disgusted to find that their contribution is lumped in with those others who didn't pull their weight when times were tough.

For help our older people, but do it because they require the assistance and not because of some smokescreen of how it is something that each and every one of them earned.

The Shamday Independent.

In today's Sunday Independent (Dec 10th 2006) on Page ten of the Life magazine, one of their writers a Pat Fitzpatrick does a Top Five piece as a guide to rugby

Their No.1, is "Limerick : The myth states that only the common man plays rugby on Shannon-side, so Limerick's middle class need to take working class lessons if they want to go to Thomond Park. In any other place, this would involve lessons in how to behave on the buses, what to say at greyhound racing and the best way to fold your tabloid under your arm. However, in Limerick, these are the signs of an aristocrat. There, you need to study top tips for driving a getaway motorbike, the beginners guide to walking free from court and the dos and don't's of showing your guns to Pat Kenny."

Now, I'm as much in favour of free speech as the next person but this sounds quite out there even to me. Firstly, and as if to prove the person writing the piece made minimal effort to ground their humour in reality, the real myth about Limerick and rugby is that everyone plays it and everyone is a fan indeed that even disaffected teenge goths are aficionados of the game unrivalled throughout the world. There is no suggestion that only the common man plays it. Seriously, what game is Pat Fitzpatrick suggesting middle class kids in Limerick play, ice hockey?

And Pat then moves on to make comments about working class people being the sort to use buses, frequent greyhound racing and read tabloids. Hmmm, we're really going to sort out traffic problems by implying that the better class of person doesn't need to take the public transport unless its on rails. While I'm not much of a fan of greyhound racing I recognise that the folks driving into most greyhound racing stadiums around ireland could buy and sell the rest of us. And isn't the home of greyhound racing in D4? Ok, it might be the Ringsend part of D4 but it's less than 10 minutes from Lansdowne rd. Lastly, isn't the Irish Independent a tabloid these days?

Then to finish up by claiming that all of Limerick's working class are criminals displays a lack of concern for personal safety that would make one certain that Pat Fitzpatrick has to be a pseudonym. Fact is that few criminals would choice to use a moterbike in this weather, far easier to steal a car and burn it out. walking free from the courts is usually assisted by the judicacry and showing your gun to Pat Kenny is such a primary school thing to do. Perhaps, that is where Pat heard about it during sos.

madame guillotine

I wrote the following last summer and sent it to the local press. Needless to say, it didn't get carried by any of them. The reason for revisiting it now is that Cllr Cosgrave would have absented herself from Dublin City Council meetings for 6 consecutive meetings after tonight but she turned up and made it her first meeting since March. If she had missed this meeting it would have been possible to rule thar she had vacated her seat and to select a co-option to replace her. So she struggled through the wind and the rain and passport control to ensure her grip is retained on her council salary. And she should at this point have lost most of her allowance for expenses as they are meant to be paid pro rata with her attendance. You know when everyone talks about the various scandals that happened down the years on local authorities and people comment as to why no one ever printed anything. Well now we know why. When the media can''t even be bothered to expose someone who doesn't turn up for work when the meetings are held in public sure why would they bother paying attention to what happens in darkened corners.

She has so much more to be proud of when it comes to the more local focus of north central area committee meetings where she has attended all of...zero meetings this year. She has asked no questions nor put forward any motions to the city council or the area committee during the entire year.

I'm also curious to know as to whether or not she claiming to be tax resident in France and thus claiming her council salary tax free? Or does she claim to be tax reisdent here but uses French public services and how the French authorities must feel about that. And could her actions have anything to do with the rejection of an attempt in January 2006 to demolish her house at Foxfield rd., Raheny (or at least it is still the place she is registered to vote at) and build 10 retirement condos? She was quite vocal about her dislike of new apartments, but sure when it would herself profiting her tune has changed. Anyway, below are my comments from July. They seem too mild now.

July 2006 -

'I feel very disappointed for the people of Artane and for Cllr Bourke personally that Cllr Cosgrave couldn't bring herself to support a Northsider for the position of Lord Mayor of the city instead favouring the Southside again for this position.' said Daniel Sullivan reflecting on the defeat for local Labour councillor Paddy Bourke in the Mayoral election. 'This is the second year in a row that Cllr. Cosgrave has chosen to throw her toys out of the Democrat Alliance pram. And it would seem that she was intent this year on voting against the Democratic Alliance candidate whoever the candidates on offer were. She did this, despite the fact that she was returned at the last election as part of that same offering, which the people supported in huge numbers. I suppose she expects Fine Gael voters should be grateful that she didn’t vote for the Sinn Fein candidate for Mayor Cllr Christy Burke. Or is she saving that for next year’s performance.'

Contrary to some of the reporting she was not expelled from Fine Gael last year, rather she simply lost the party whip in the council chamber for a period. That sanction appears only to have whetted her appetite for destruction. Dan Sullivan commented 'I think the appropriate expression is 'Spare the rod and spoil the child'.

The Cllr. in addition to turning her back on Donaghmede and Dublin for the sunnier climes of France for much of the year has decided to completely abandon her roots in Fine Gael. It is a very sad end for what was a long tradition of representation in the north east of Dublin.' Speaking as someone who stood unsuccessfully for Artane in 2004, I believed at the time and still believe that it was much better to tell the truth rather than to say something you don’t believe simply to get elected. I believe in telling it like it is. “Let justice be done, though the heavens fall”. Contrastingly, Cllr Cosgrave has, I believe, decided to deceive the entire electorate in Donaghmede and most especially the people who voted for her. It seems it was always her intention to be a part time commuter councillor. Jetting in from foreign parts when it suits her, I’m sure Marie Antoinette would be most impressed. If the councillor had any honour left, she would resign her seat now and allow the position be filled by someone who would be more available to the people of Donaghmede all year round.

Irish national debt in the 1980s - the figures and the facts

I keep having to do this so much on various sites that I've decided to have it on my blog to make it easier for me to find and reference. The figures I've used below come from the NationalTreasuryManagementAgency and the Irish government's own sites.

These are the figures in euros for Ireland's national debt

At the end of 1977 -National debt was €5,370
At the end of 1981 - National debt was €12,945 that is more than 240% of the 1977 figure.

That would be while we were governed by the oh-so fiscally responsible folk in FF we're governed by right now.

And in all honesty the beginning of year 1983 was the first one that the FG/Lab coalition had actual power and a chance to decide what to do. From June 1981 to Feb 1982 they had barely time to look at the books (and had to introduce a supplementary budget because of how reckless Haughey had been.). And the figures have to be viewed in comparison to the rate of inflation which in turn affected the interest rates

1982 - 14,816 which is a 14.45% increase on previous year

1983 - 18,274 which is a 23.33% increase on previous year

1984 - 21,358 which is a 16.87% increase on previous year

1985 - 23,492 which is a 9.99% increase on previous year

1986 - 27,440 which is a 16.8% increase on previous year

1987 - 30,085 which is a 9.63% increase on previous year

So, that is just over a 100% rise in 5 years. The numbers come from the government's budget figures used in 2002.

So when some people love to harp on about how the national debt doubled from 1983 to 1987 they are ignoring the fact that the FG/Lab government started off with an inherited deficit, in a sense taking over a control of an accelerating debt level. The deficit (or overspend) was of the order of nearly 10% from FF going from one year to another which they had to reduce. So the level of national debt would have risen by 70/80% even with no further borrowing had taken place simply due to the very high interest rates at the time, and that the debt meant recession and a lack of investment and further jobs losses which in turn meant fewer people in employment to pay taxes and more people out of work and drawing benefit so spending was going up.

It is also a factor that from 87 to 91 emigration from Ireland peaked which reduced the current expenditure demand on the FF government in terms of social welfare. Anyone remember Brian Lenihan telling us "after all, we can't all live on a small island' in an interview to Newsweek in October 1987? Of course not.

And lastly, people defending FF and attacking FG for what happened in the 1980s economically choose to forget that the spending Haughey committed the state to involved repeating current expenditure like hiring civil servants just to get the dole queues down. The incoming government simply wasn't in a position politically to sack them.

Water shortage in the northside area

Water Tankers will be at St'Brigid's church, Howth rd and behind UCI Coolock.

You can request water delivery at 2224220 or 6796186

More here -> water shortage

BA cross

BA have got themselves into some trouble last week over preventing a member of staff from wearing a cross to work, or did they? Is perhaps the truth that it is the media falling over themselves to be even handed that have instead dug a hole, got someone to kneel down behind the company and pushed BA into it.

Fact is, as the BA reps have pointed out repeatedly, they have a uniform policy against the wearing of any jewelry at work, and a necklace with a cross on it is when all is said and done jus that - jewelry. Wearing a cross is not a core aspect of being a Christian or a Catholic for that matter.

I wonder sometimes if there aren't people who go looking for things to be offended about.

Update - BA have decided to 'review' their uniform policy. I think for commerical reasons they had to do this but the media have created a dangerous precedent here. As noted on HIGNFY, someone could ask to wear a dead goat around their neck and as it is part of their personal interpretation of their faith, in this case Satanism.

Let's give it back

I'm struck at budget time with how proud the minister appears to be that he took in more money than intended as if he has somehow created more money (which as minister he can do but that fuels inflation), when it fact he has simply taken more of the public's money out of circulation than he had actually intended.

I can't help but feel that there is something wrong about the smugness involved in all this. Given that much of the increase this year is as a result of house prices running ahead of where they were expected to, it seems doubly cruel.

My suggestion would be why don't we do what the US federal government does and issue rebates or one off increases in tax credits when this happens? That way we would all share in the wealth that results from our economic activity.

Boot camps and bright coloured hoodies

Odd that all this bruhaha has blown up on monday about 'boot camps' as I was asking mates of mine over the weekend how come no one had come up with a 'make the little feckers break some rocks' type hard time proposal. Of course, as someone pointed out the last thing you want to do is take a nasty piece of work and make them a more physically fit, nasty piece of work.

Now, I'm pretty sure that I'm not being bugged by Billy Timmins, but it was somewhat coincidental. There again, if I was being bugged they might have stayed around as the idea we came up with was making those guilty of anti-social but non-violent offenses clean chewing gum off the pavement of our city streets in bright pink overalls on weekends using plastic utensils. And then take pictures and display them in public places. (OK, the pink overalls is my late addition to the idea)

Basically, make them feel bad, embarrass them, make fools of them. Anything, but make them feel like big lads because they got nicked.

L'etat c'est everyone else

I've a personal view that when someone says 'the state' should do or pay for something that it is useful to substitute the words 'everyone else' for 'the state' and see if the idea still makes since. Try it at home, it's free and makes some things that are on initial viewing quite complicated seem a lot more straightforward.

Another year older, another budget

We're getting plenty of never mind the quality feel the width from the government about the estimates. I'm put in mind of a builder telling someone that they still haven't finished building their extension but bragging about how much more they have spent than they had previous intended to.

I was wonder how the issue will percolate down to the local authority leve. It would seem on initial reports about the place that the local authority grant has not risen to match inflation not to mind the commitments made as part of benchmarking. It would seem in part that the government is aiming to force the local councils to increase charges and as such create resentment against the opposition parties that are now in control of most councils around the country.

Of course, all this robbing Peter to pay Paul sleight of hand is going to have an immediate direct impact on local authorities most directly in the form of waste charges as budgets for the coming year. The government negotiated with the unions a few years back and agreed a partnership deal with increased pay for local authority employees. Then they did the dirty on the local authorities by not increase the contribution from the central fund to cover this increase.

I believe that paying directly for something such as the bin collection service places the issue in sharp focus for most people. to hear some talk about it you'd swear it was tiny minority of households that produced all of our waste and in fact we were all producing too much. I got myself into some hot water a few years back when I queried the comments from a public rep who appeared to be opposing the change in the Dublin City charges system from one that charged everyone the same amount to one that charged based on how often you put your bin out. In fact what annoyed me most was that while I had pointed out the problems with the intial plan the same person had publicly supported that previous reform package which was even less responsive to the amount that people put out and as such would have rewarded recycling efforts much less than the system introduced. Well, sure, you makes your choices and let the voters decide, and we live and learn.

Of course, any charge system should have a consistent national waiver system to address the issue of affordablity that affects those on fixed incomes and treats everyone fairly. That does not mean that someone getting the service for nothing would be able to dispose of all the waste you would like for nothing. There are issues to be addressed particular to different groups such as the issue that many older people have with disposing of pants for incontinence, there again I'm not sure that should be going into the regular wheelies bins as it is. I would think that there should really be a separate free collection for people in such situations.

On a minor political issue, I wonder where will Cllr Cosgrave place her vote when it comes to the budget for Dublin City Council? It would be nice but naive I suppose to think she might pay a visit and consult her constituents and those who voted for her as to what she should do.

Fixing the electoral register.

See here is the thing, if you filled in the form and gave it to the collector, and it got lost in the system, what is there to stop it getting lost again if you fill it out now and have it returned by nov 25th?

And being a complete ninny but why do we not have a rolling register? Instead we have a deadline of Nov 25th and the register next comes out on Feb 15th of the following year. That is nearly 3 months to update and print something?

Surely, at this point the orginal register from which the printed version is made is electronic, probably a greate big excel file and that can be accessed via the web as we can see from checktheregister.ie so why can't they update the changes as they are going along? Each Monday morning the latest version replaces the version that was previously being accessed and then we can see well before Feb 15th and the final version being printed if we're on the damn thing.

Christ you would really wonder some times if the lads in the Dept of the Environment even know what century it is.

I will correct myself on one thing, the register comes out on Feb 1st and comes into effect on Feb 15th.

See it takes 2 whole weeks to distribute them. Odd that a publishing company and on-line sales sites can get you a copy of the new Harry Potter into hundreds of thousands of homes in the space of 2/3 days, we take 2 weeks to distribute the register to around a thousand locations.


But there is no IT job involved, the work of making the register available has been finally done and all this is copying a new version of the files up the same location once a week.

A rolling register would spread the cost and make it cheaper rather than having this false peak and who knows perhaps associated overtime.

Can anyone seriously think of a valid reason why we do this whole once a year deadline thing?

The most recent illustration of the farce our electorate register are
the revelations last week that a number of TDs have been struck off
the register despite personally preparing and handing in their forms.
If they are being targeted for elimination then what hope for the
rest of us?

As many people are now aware the Dept of the Environment has at long
last started to embrace the modern age and you can check if you are
on the register online using www.checktheregister.ie . Those who do
not have access to the net can continue to check at their local Garda
station or Post Office. If you are not on the current draft register
then you must fill in the form and get it into the council by
November 25th.

What is not understandable is why we do not having a rolling
register? By means all print and provide a paper copy once as year as
we already do, but we should spread the work of updating the register
throughout the year. All alterations to the register should require a
written note to be attached to the electronic master record. If
someone is removed the note should explain why that was done, just as
we have to provide a written form to be added. It would be very
interesting to hear why these Labour TDs were targeted for removal.

And finally, we should automatically add people to the register when
they are issued with a PPS number.  Of course, only with the voting
rights appropriate to their status in the Irish electorate system.
The means to fix the register are so straightforward one would have
to wonder why it hasn’t been done already? E-voting has shown we
can’t trust the government to count the votes and now it seems we
can’t trust them to let us vote.

There are no accidents like...

roadsafetyblog

road accidents. In fact there are no road accidents at all, the Gardai now prefer to call them 'incidents' as it is not a good idea to prejudge whether there was in reality anything accidental about what has occurred.

If you drive at 100kph on a 50 kph zone and hit a wall, that isn't an accident at all but might be more correctly termed negligence. We can't sue people for causing their own deaths and we rightly do not have crime of suicide anymore. And no it couldn’t have happened to anyone, it could only happen to someone who was driving at such speed in those conditions.

The media with their liking for the dramatic love to show us the scene and talk about the terribleness of the loss of life involved and how sad everyone in the locality is. What the meeja utterly fail to do with remotely the same emphasis is tell people about the outcome of inquests and investigations in the causes and circumstance surrounding the incidents. Pinning the blame appears to be something that happens behind closed doors despite the public nature of the inquests.

When it comes to creating a picture of why we have the level of road deaths we do what tends to happen is the media show us the scene, give us some superficial details and then each individual member of the public makes up their own back story as to what caused it based on their own bias, effing women drivers, slow drivers, drunks, drugs, speeding young fellas, learners, foreigners. Basically, it is a matter of think for yourself on less than all the information and takes your pick. The meeja give us say 30% of the facts and let people draw their own conclusions. The problem with this is that no one’s viewpoints are ever challenged. If they aren’t challenged why would they change?

Since all national politicians are elected based on locality pretty much none of them are going to speak out on the issue in a manner likely to cause hurt to Mary from down the road who lost her youngest in a road crash at 2am in the morning. So it is down to people who aren’t elected to say the necessary but painful truth. Most of the people who die on the roads are complicit in their own deaths. Yes, I guess I do come across as a heartless bastard but we need some less heart and more cop-on applied to the situation.

As part of this is the idea of general grief. We expect public figures to feel grief for people they never met and didn’t know. I’m not going to bed at night weeping for those who are dead in such circumstance. I do feel a general regret for their families but for the people who are dead I don’t feel anything but anger and annoyance. And that is the only feeling that will lead to something being done. There is some old phrase about nothing becoming someone like the manner of their passing, well if it is at the wheel of a car whether drunk or speeding in the dead of night then all that means is you were a fraking idiot.

NUI election process

I'm going to attempt to blog my way through the Seanad election process, in part as a means to open up the process to the great mass of people. And slightly as a form of therapy for myself!

First off, some of the costs involved. The NUI Seanad register costs all of €140 for each copy, both the hard copy and electronic copy versions. They update it every year and it is released into the wild on June 1st. Now that could mean that people need to have two copies if the election takes place after June 1st. A significant issue when you consider that the more recent graduates are probably closer to home.

I've not bought a copy yet. Well, it is hardly suitable bedtime reading material. It would seem likely that the register consists of home address for graduates, which given how many of them have flown the coop in recent years and attempted to clamber on the property ladder makes the darn thing next to meaningless for the older graduates.

It should also be noted that current members are advantaged in having an allowance of Oireachtas envelope available to them. This is of considerably more advantage in their case when you consider the dispersed nature of the Seanad electorate. Is it any wonder no one seems to beat an incumbent?

NUI Seanad Declaration

I've been talking with some people (I believe that is part of the vernacular for this sort of thing) and have decided that in the interests of highlighting a particular issue which I believe warrants attention and which spans party boundaries that I would put myself forward for election for one of the NUI seats in Seanad Eireann.

Cutting to the chase I'm going to be seeking a nomination as a candidate for one of the NUI Seanad seats as a means to give people an opportunity to vote and in doing so highlight the fact that more than a quarter of a century after there was a referendum on it (1979) that graduates of other universities and colleges in Ireland still don't have a vote for the Seanad. Whatever happened to one person, one vote?

I recognise from the outset that the likelihood of getting elected is considerably limited by the simple fact that as a non-NUI graduate I won’t be easily able to tap into any particular alumni base. However, there are now a considerable number of DCU, UL, QUB, UU graduates and also those from the I.T.s who also hold postgraduate degrees from NUI colleges and vice-versa. I believe that they would look favourably on an opportunity to voice their support for extending the franchise.

In this sense I intend to use the PR-STV voting system as a means to highlight the issue. Much along the idea of a preferenda I am asking people to vote for me No.1 to highlight the issue and then subsequently to transfer to the candidate of their choice thereafter.

If elected, I would seek on my first day in the Seanad to present legislation to reform the election Senators to ensure the principle of one person, one vote is respected within the context of the 6 seats constitutionally set aside for higher education. There was a time when one could continue with the idea that the University of Dublin represented a section of Irish society that needed some particular shielding. Now, it is as likely that the minority tradition in Ireland will have attended some other institution within the state or without. And if the intent is truly to include people from the other tradition on the island then why deny graduates from QUB or UU a vote?

6 seats, one person, one vote.

There will be more information over the coming days here.

Bertie's few bob

In his television interview, An Taoiseach clearly indicated that he purchased his current house for 'closer to €200,000' and obtained a mortgage to do so after the 93/94 period during which he received €50,000 in the form of what he has described as a 'loan'. As anyone who has borrowed money from the banks will know the banks require you to indicate if you have any other outstanding loans that may impact on your ability to make your repayments.

Surely, if the money An Taoiseach received was a loan then the bank will have a clear record of this fact. If they do not possess such records it is because it was not a loan or he lied to the bank when making his mortgage application. He either lied to them then or is lying to us now. And it is unusual for someone to be required to provide a lump sum for something like their children’s education in a separation settlement. It would be more the norm to require them to provide that amount when the children require it.

It is hard to believe that An Taoiseach feels that he could as minister for Finance be speaking about the Irish economy in a personal capacity at any time while he was a minister. That he was telling business people domiciled outside the state about what he thought was going to happen in the Irish economy (which is what Senator Tom Kett helpfully has told us Bertie was doing instead of having the craic), receiving money for doing so and yet sees nothing wrong with doing so is beyond GUBU.

Idle speculation

this was originally written before McDowell was coronated.

Folks it is the end of the government. Bertie signalled as much as did Harney when both referred to the need for 'stable government'.

The PD elect a new leader and Bertie views the current program for government as being at an end and requiring renegotiation and McDowell or whover bails pulls out of government.

FF run on a election campaign of it has be us and Labour, and it would suit the PDs to be running against that option, they retain enough seats to be taken seriously and regrow some strength in opposition. At least that is the strategy as Harney and Ahern see it.

From the TV, Fiona wants McDowell as leader, Minihan doesn't, Parlon suggest he wants McDowell but that is in order that McDowell presides over a loss of seats and Parlon can then take over after the election. Harney, I believe also wants McDowell mainly as it allows him to get the blame for the election result.

Floating Aer Lingus

One of the main concerns around the floating of Aer Lingus is around the strategic nature of air travel for an island nation and the value of the slots into UK airports in particular Heathrow and the possibility that a private company might be tempted to sell those assests to companies which might fly into those slots from non-Irish destinations.

My suggestion would be that the current Aer Lingus would continue to exist as a state owned holding company and that it would own the landing slots, it would in turn then license those slots to the new floated Aer Lingus entity. This would be mean the slots would be retained in the control of the Irish people while Aer Lingus the transportation company would be free to expand.

FF backbenchers

So, the FFer backbenchers are complaining about being ignored by the government. So now at last, they must have some idea of what most of the citizens feel like when dealing with this government.


The grand ould duke of Cork he had two dozen men,
He marched them up to see old Bertie
And he marched them down again

When they were up, people feted them.
And when they were down, people ignored them.
And when they were only halfway up,
No one knew what to do with them.

The Grand old Duke of York he had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again.

When they were up, they were up
And when they were down, they were down
And when they were only halfway up
They were neither up nor down.

On the passing of Charles Haughey

This last week the Northside has lost one of her most noted sons, and while I would be of a very different political persuasion, I recognise the depth of genuine human emotion that many people feel at this time. As it is well known he said of himself

"I have done the state some service and they know't. No more of that."

but the piece goes on to say ask us

"I pray you, in your letters,

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate,

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,

Nor set down aught in malice: then must you speak

Of one that loved not wisely but too well;"


At such times, we should not be quick to parcel up a life into mere pluses and minuses like some bookkeeper adding sums to see if the credit and debit balance out, but rather should look at a life as a whole thing. We should speak of him as he was, splendidly right at times, the building of the IFSC, free travel, and horrendously wrong others, opposition to the Anglo-Irish agreement, failure to tackle the national finances, being dependent on the largesse of others. The state too has done him some service too, and he know’t, No more of that. The greatest justice we, as Gaels, can ask for any life is for people to tell the whole tale, to leave nothing out and let the future draw its judgement where it may.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis!

Letter to the Editor - June 2nd 2006

Madam, - The case which has lead to the voiding of a section of law intended to protect children from sexual predators is another example of a failure to plan or anticipate outcomes.

Surely the Attorney General's office and the Department of Justice was aware that this case was coming before the Supreme Court. And it should have occurred to someone at some level that the court might rule in favour of the plaintiff. And it would be expected that some thought would have gone into how to address that outcome and its possible effects.

The simple issue of competence at the heart of this is that (a) people should have been aware an event was about to occur; (b) they had to have some idea of possible outcomes; and (c) they should have prepared some measures to deal with those outcomes should they arise. Call it anticipation or planning - I believe the term used in politics is "being on top of your brief".

The basic fact remains that the system has failed because of a lack of due attention by those in high office to what was going on around them. If not one single person of significance loses their job over this, then we are being told as bluntly as you like that no matter what happens, no matter how big the screw-up, no matter how dire the consequences, no one in this Government will ever take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. - Yours, etc,

DANIEL K. SULLIVAN, Beaumont, Dublin 9.

Something must be done!

I'm trying to compile a list of the various statements that ministers come out with that give the impression that something will be done about a specific issue but which in fact contains no commitment to act on the issue itself. Feel free to add to it.



1) We are identifying the problem

2) We are examining the problem

3) We have commissioned a report

4) We have received a report

5) We will be releasing the findings in due course.

6)We're awaiting the translation of the report

7) We are examining the findings of the report

8) We are reviewing the actions necessary in the light of the report.

MRBI Poll - the hidden problems.

I think the recent MRBI poll (published May 19th) boils down to the following, taken on the day itself of those prepared to give an opinion less than 1 in 3 of voterswill support FF and over 1 in 4 people will support FG. If after the long summer of world cup football, beautiful weather and fine women FF are still under 35% and FG are still over 25% then the whole thing is completely wide open from then on until polling day.

If FF did get over 35% in the September poll then I would expect them to give into the temptation and go to the country with a budget based election, it would represent their last chance to get enough support to have the seats to do a deal with Labour. We all know that FF +PDs isn't going to happen.

The PDs maxed out the last time and their only objective this time is to keep their losses at such a level that they don't become completely defunct. I would say that for this to happen they will need a minimum of 4 seats and at least 2 of Harney, McDowell and O'Donnell. For if it was Grealish, O'Malley (Limerick East), Sexton and A.N. Other from Dublin that survived then they would be finished as a party. They can possibly limp on after the loss of one from Harney, McDowell and O'Donnell but not the loss of two.

If FF are under 35% then they will wait it out and go for late Feb, hoping that the actuality of any budget freebies and the usual post Christmas bounce might carry them through. They can’t leave it until May as their support has consistently dropped as the year progresses. And they leave themselves totally at the mercy of events. And let's remember that we are all being told Bertie's isn't a gambler, isn't it a gamble wait for something to happen that might help them than to strike when the picture looks even just plausibly good.

It should be noted that I’ve had 3 / 4 separate reports in the last 2 months about printers here and outside the jurisdiction being put on a retainer for September and October by FF. They are committed to keeping the option open for a quick run as the light gets dark.

Fact is that FF doesn’t have the membership/manpower anymore to completely dominate the canvassing side of things like they once did. Will they have more than any single party on the ground, probably. Though FG would push them closer than they have for many years. Now for FF as a government party the battle must be on the TV and the airwaves, they will have money to burn and they know that ending up in opposition with SF would mean the probable loss of even more seats next time out to SF, irrespective of any gains they might hope to make back from FG, Labour, Greens and the defunct PDs if they bounced back. They simply can’t beat SF in an auction election. Truth is no one can beat SF in an auction because SF will happily promise you the farm because they know they won't do a deal after the election and so won't be called on to deliver.

With all else that happened in recent years the biggest campaigning problem for FF is that their public representatives who are seeking reelection don’t want to be encountering the members of the public who are annoyed about one thing and another. Sadly for them, the Fianna Fail party didn’t take the opportunity to completely lance the boil of public discontent back in 2004 but rather their TDs and most especially ministers avoided engaging the public and left the local election candidates to fend for themselves for the most part. And boy are those local reps sore about it.

The local FF candidates took the heat and bore the losses but it didn’t satisfy the public. I wonder for the local FF councillors how many will kill themselves to get some of the no show FF TDs and ministers back into power? After all, many of the younger ones who did survive ’04 may reckon this is their best means to get a run out the next time themselves. Let the public knock off the sitting TD and there is an opening in the next election, re-elected them and those young people who take the hit in '04 are locked out for another couple of cycles. One thing FF people are is ambitious.

Take a local example, if Deirdre Heney doesn’t run in DNE do you think she will burn as much shoe leather for Haughey or Callely in DNC as she did for herself in '02? Or if she does run in DNE will the local FF councillors there bother to help her and deprive themselves of any chance of run for a generation? Hardly.

The dangers of the 1 in 3 question for FF TDs

Ireland once had what was termed a 2 and 1/2 party system. It might be now said to have a 2 and 7/8s party system.

The Irish electoral system has by in large been kinder to the larger parties in terms of seat bonuses when comparing to the smaller parties.. Both FF and FG have benefited from this since independence. However, FF have been by far the greater beneficiary in the last two general elections. In the ‘02 General election they got somewhat less that 42% and got 49% of the seats available. One of the many contributory factors, though not the only one is the number of 3 seat constituencies in areas where FF are strongest.

However, this very preponderance of 3 seat constituencies in which FF hold 2 of the 3 seats becomes a major issue for that party when their national support drops below the figure of 1 in 3.

The Irish electoral system of Proportional Representation (PR) by means of the Single Transfer Vote (STV) actually will guarantee you 2 seats out of 3 for 50% +2 votes of the total valid poll if you run just 2 candidates and if it is evenly shared between those two candidates. This amounts to a vote of a slight bit more than 50% getting you all of 66% of the seats in those 3 seats constituencies. This is a whopping 15% bonus. Not bad at all for a supposedly proportionate voting system. Indeed, in practical terms getting 40% will usually mean you get 2 seats in such 3 seat constituencies if it has been reasonably competitive, say if the smaller parties such as the PDs, Greens, and SF have contested along with an independent or non-party candidate. In order to ensure that the % figures remains on the right side of 40% FF will often run sweeper or some might say spoiler candidates who are designed not alone to ensure that their total amounts to over 40% but that the remaining vote can't coalesce sufficiently around two of the remaining candidates. This increases the chances of a result of 2 from 3 even if one of those two is elected without reaching the quota.

However, as the total % available to the 2 main FF candidates drifts down towards 1/3 or 33% the likelihood of another 2 candidates getting enough votes to squeeze out one of those 2 FF candidates starts to increases exponentially. The other factor here is the intra-party competition and the tradition of appeals to "lend me your No.1, sure John is ok." This has lead to the situation arising, which seems to cause such surprise in so many observers from overseas, of long time sitting TDs losing their seats to their running mates who some might have been as being on the under billing.

Taking Donegal SW as an example FF got 42% there which mirrors their national result almost exactly and their two candidates

Donegal SW in 2002

FF Pat Gallagher 7,740 21.72% 0.87
FF Mary Coughlan 7,257 20.36% 0.81
FG Dinny McGinley 4,378 12.29% 0.49

________________________________________
FG James White 4,680 13.13% 0.53
SF Pearse Doherty 2,696 7.57% 0.30
IND Joe Kelly 3,091 8.67% 0.35 (5)
IND Thomas Pringle 2,630 7.38% 0.30
Lab Séamas Rodgers 1,079 3.03% 0.12
SF Tom Dignam 1,133 3.18% 0.13
IND Gwen Breslin 951 2.67% 0.11

Now, imagine if the national picture is again mirrored here with exactly the same line up and FF were to drop 6%, coupled with a corresponding reversal in the rates of transfers that occurred in ’02. One possible group of scenarios is that the loss is evenly divided between the two FF candidates. In a situation where the 6% were to coalesce around one of the unsuccessful candidates White or Doherty, or the final successful candidate McGinley then they should be able to ensure that 2 from those three would be elected. Only if the 6% is scattered evenly (with the attendant attrition when transferred) would the two FF TDs be favoured to survive. In ’02 the transfer rate to the FF candidates was 25% compared to up to 65% internal to the non FF candidates. Even when Doherty of SF was eliminated in ’02 40% of his vote was available to be transferred between the two remaining FG candidates.

FF Pat Gallagher 18.72% 0.87
FF Mary Coughlan 17.36% 0.81
FG Dinny McGinley 12.29% 0.49 (18.29% 0.49)
________________________________________
FG James White 13.13% 0.53 (19.13% 0.53)

SF Pearse Doherty 7.57% 0.30 (13.57% 0.30)
IND Joe Kelly 8.67% 0.35
IND Thomas Pringle 7.38% 0.30
Lab Séamas Rodgers 3.03% 0.12
SF Tom Dignam 3.18% 0.13
IND Gwen Breslin 2.67% 0.11

Couple such a reduction in the total party vote available with the greatest fear of any Irish politician, that the perception that they are safe will get out and they will see that on election night their 1st preference vote will go wandering about assisting others who were not in any real danger at all. Some have made a tradition of this electoral poor mouth and become such quota sitters that in area where once their party challenged for two seats they are now fighting it out over the one (Kerry North is an example of this for FF, Galway West for FG).

So in the DSW situation outlined above where the 6% is evenly distributed would most likely not happen at all. Instead, we would get the following.

FF Pat Gallagher 20.72% 0.87
FF Mary Coughlan 15.36% 0.81
FG Dinny McGinley 12.29% 0.49 (18.29% 0.49)
________________________________________
FG James White 13.13% 0.53 (19.13% 0.53)

SF Pearse Doherty 7.57% 0.30 (13.57% 0.30)
IND Joe Kelly 8.67% 0.35
IND Thomas Pringle 7.38% 0.30
Lab Séamas Rodgers 3.03% 0.12
SF Tom Dignam 3.18% 0.13
IND Gwen Breslin 2.67% 0.11

In this situation Coughlan could possibly not be saved. Note the drop we are talking about from 42% to 36% is not as great as some of the polls are currently predicting.

Political compasses

You are a Social Liberal (76% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (33% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

I have to say I have my doubts about this one, there again it is an American one and from an American perspective perhaps I am a democrat.

1140 days to go

Not a lot to report that would be interest to the casual viewer though I've been given some considerable pause to wonder if the political life is worth anything when you see behaviour like that at the PD conference where policies are recycled in such a brazen manner.

The Pretty Desperate Partyif you ask me.

In the future there will be dinosaurs

I need to blog more, or write more and perhaps at a later date convert that writing into blog entries at least.

There was an interesting discussion, or it was the beginning of an interesting discussion about pensions in Ireland on Q&A last night .

Part of the fiction around pensions is that the income people get from their pension is the return on some investment that was made on their behalf. In the public system what happens is that what you as S. TaxPayer pay in PRSI goes start out the door into the pocketboook of O. Pensioner. This is how it has been since state pensions were first introduced in Ireland as part of Lloyd George progam back in 1908 i think it was. The state started to collect money off people and pay it out to the old on the basis that the people they were collecting it off would get a pension in turn when it was their time.

Interestingly, many of those who would have been collecting in the 1950s/1960s were shuffled off this mortal coil by the Great War, so that helped to balance the books a bit.






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