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

Galway Water Situation - Bertie to act

Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink.

This gets weirder and weirder

According to the Indo today "Senior TDs say the party will not "do a Fianna Fail" by pledging the sun, moon and stars in Enda Kenny's keynote speech to its ard fheis tomorrow night." The whole article is here

The really odd thing is this little item from my local election campaign in 2004.

If someone happens to say "We're looking out for everyone not just No.1" I'm going to taking to my bed for the rest of the weekend. Proof, it was needed I was fighting one election ahead of everyone else!

Would I lie to you?

After weeks of telling us that auction politics is bad for us the Taoiseach gave us a big dollop of the bad stuff last Saturday night. Tax cuts and spending commitments galore even if many of them are reheated from 2002 and even 1997 in some cases.

Of course he mentioned absolutely no time frame for the increases or whether or not any change in economic conditions would cause the whole lot to be reneged on.

It is like visiting your in-laws who are telling you not to eat fatty food, and then they give you a huge sticky gateau for dinner. No meat, no veg, just cake. Let's take a look at the main ones in detail.


2% off PRSI: Does the Taoiseach even know what is the difference between PRSI and income tax? PRSI is meant to fund pension and social insurance related, meanwhile the party suggested they would increase €300 per week, how do they plan to fund it? And how does this link up with Seamus Brennan's comments about perhaps having mandatory pensions

And he didn't mention if employers PRSI contributions will have to increase to compensate. Can't see that as going down well with employers.

Index linking: This would be most welcome but why did his government not do that for the first 3 years of this term? And the link to increases in "wages"? What does that meant exactly. How is that measured? Is it linked to the levels in the national agreements? How does that link to the private sector? Or is it linked to the price of a haircut?

Doubling Ph.D graduates: Really? You can commit to double the numbers in the intake but you can't guarantee the output unless the government is going to go crazy with grade inflation as well as everything else.

Pensions up to €300 per week: If inflation averages 5% per year then more than half of that increase will mean nothing to pensioners as it is eating up by general price increases. And what about heating and fuel costs? If the government had committed to program of grants for changing the heating sources to renewable sources for older people who frankly need the heat. And it would reduce the cost to them of heating in the winter.

I suspect that FF strangely have walked lock, stock and barrel into a trap. Either they lied to the media, and a media that is still smarting from

So, they lied to us for the last few weeks and they lied to the press, they lied And somehow we're meant to believe them now? Who would believe them now? The FF manifesto is One lie too many.

It is all one big lie too many. When the FF party campaigned in 2002 they said things they knew were not true, those aren't just broken promises they were in fact lies. They knew then, and we know it now. The promises from last weekend were again lies.

And who would believe them now?

Provenance of FG General Election Slogan

Christ, I'm either totally prescient or I really need to set myself up as a political consultant as soon as possible. About 2 years ago I had a conversation with someone who will remain nameless for the time being and said the key message in what we should have in a slogan was "for a change" and I sent the below in a mail (which I still have a copy of) as a follow up showing how the language should be used and progressively shortened as that time went on to build resonance over time. So, the first part was to be used 6 months out, the second 3 months, and the last one in the campaign itself.

- Just thought I'd remind you of my catchy slogan for the general. Of course, if it's catchy enough you really shouldn't need reminding!

"Isn't it time it was your choice for a change?"

"Time it was your choice for a change?"

"Your choice for a change."

Fact is that without FG there will be no change in government. It has the added advantage that you can shorten it for use in different contexts. And it is also very applicable to the issues that are driving rip-off and so on in that we lack real choice in sourcing services. -

Now have a look see at the picture from FG launch event for the Ard Fheis. Here if you have an IT subs.

I'm just hoping that FG didn't go and pay some crowd of consultants actual cash money to come up with a slogan that I actually gave them just under 2 years ago.

There again the slogan is that obvious in many ways that it could have come from anywhere, hence my thoughts about my prescient. I'm going to have to do the lotto this weekend. Oh, and tomorrow the Swallows shall slay the Dragons. Yatta!

More on the N7

I was struck by the comments in the Indo today from Evelyn Moles on the death of her sister Kate in the pile up on the N7. While she pleads with other motorists to slow and drive appropriate to the conditions in future, she is then quoted saying her sister's death could have been avoided if appropriate systems and signage were in place. It may be the paper putting words in her mouth. Full paragraph below.

"Evelyn said Kate's death could have been avoided if appropriate systems and signage had been put in place on our roads. "The Government and individual TDs need to show some leadership and put the proper systems in place that will help put an end to tragedies like this affecting families again and again.""

I'm not sure that signage was going to prevent this accident from happening. I agree that our motorway and dual carriageway system is lacking in the signage that you would find in most other European countries, but all the signs in world can't force you to ease the foot off the accelerator. Sad truth is if you hit something from the rear, cruel as it may be, you are deemed to have been at fault unless you were yourself rear ended. It seems from the early reports that pretty much everyone was going faster than they should have been on the N7 and were too close to the vehicles in front. Meaning they didn't give themselves time to react to what occurred in front of them.

As things on the road that you may come across go a fire engine is probably the brightest and loudest. If you hit a fire engine from the rear then you were almost certainly going too fast for the conditions. It is a horrible, sad waste of a young life and all the more sad for the fact that it would never have happened if she (along with everyone else) had been going that bit slower as the road conditions required on the day. I'm sure we'll see the usual lack of attention from the media when the inquests are held and the full details come out.

Why stamp duty matters

What seems to have been missed by Cowen and other FF ministers who have chosen to defend the current stamp duty system is that those buying houses have to find the money to pay it from their deposit savings. The money to pay for the stamp duty comes out of your savings not the mortgage. So you if you're bidding on a house which many in the 2nd hand market the price can easily move from one threshold to another. Of course, the minister and the revenue know this which is why the bands from 190,000 to 382,000 move through 5 bands while the next doubling of value involves just one jump.

It might surprise the minister for finance but you're not getting squat in Dublin for under €317,500 these day. So first time buyer or not, if you've saved €32,000 as a deposit and then when you bid on a house and it goes over 317,500 you have to find another €9,525 cash in order to pay for the house. That is a lot of cash to come up with.

Of course the minister is strangely content to force young couples to move out to Meath, Kildare, Wicklow into new estates as it benefits the building industry. The fact that it means new schools have to be built and old ones in more central areas have to demolished is also good for builders.

These are the current bands.

€127,001 - €190,500

Exempt

3%

€190,501 - €254,000

Exempt

4%

€254,001 - €317,500

Exempt

5%

€317,501 - €381,000

3%

6%

€381,001 - €635,000

6%

7.5%

Over €635,000

9%

9%

N7 road accidents: "The scene resembled ’a war zone’"

The unfolding disaster on the N7 has got to see a rethink of the culture of driving in Ireland. 40 collisions on the one stretch of road in the matter of a few hours can't be described as anything but a disaster. I hope that those in a critical condition pull through and those seriously injured aren't too badly hurt.

However, we need to be honest enough with ourselves to ask the hard questions as to whether we have properly functioning warnings for the presence of fog on the route and to what extent driver behaviour was at fault.

The speed limit is the maximum you are supposed to drive at if the conditions are perfect. It is not an entitlement.

FF's response to "Auction Politics"

Don't Panic!

Cowen's knowledge of the housing market

I think it was informative to listen to Brian Cowen on Saturday suggesting that Fine Gael's stamp duty proposals would be some sort of Godzilla to the Irish housing market. It might have occurred to Cowen to tell this to his colleague McDowell who was the one to put the skids under the market last autumn. Cowen devoted quite a while to explain why people won't buy houses because 3 years from now! because the stamp duty would be less.

It might have slipped by Cowen's notice but people have to live somewhere in the interim period if they were to hold off buying their house and that money they pay out in rent isn't going into the equity of their house unlike what their mortgage payments would be. Telling people in advance what the government are going to do aids stability in the market, uncertainty as to what the government is going to do is what causes destabilisation.

The real people Cowen was concerned about and who might decide to hold off on buying houses was not owner occupiers but investors. FF concern about housing is more at needs of the suppliers who provide so much funding for the party and not the average Seamus and Joan looking for a home.

Of course, Cowen told us that the proposals smacked of people who had no knowledge of how the housing market worked. Well, Cowen's primary knowledge of the housing market is based on his experience as a solicitor and that would have been doing conveyancing, a field that was insisting on charging a set % fee of the purchase similar to estate agents (and how the stamp duty system operates today) despite there being no extra work involved in a €150,000 house than in a €300,000 one. Nice work if you can get it.

The new National Consumer Affairs Office

I caught the end of Prime Time last night: BSG is on the same time and frankly I need to the distraction - the final five who could they be?

Have to I was very, very disappointed by the self satisfied performance of Aine Fitzgerald the new head of the National Consumer Agency (NCA). She was asked several times by Miriam O'Callaghan why she thought she would be able to do something about rip offs and she claimed that having a budget of €15 million and powers of "research" would do the trick. Research eh! Didn't sound like she had any inclination of using powers that might any way inconvenience rip off merchants across the country.

I remember watching Carmel Foley who was at the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs the predecessor to the NCA tackling the insurance and legal sectors when she was tasked with finding a means to reduce the costs of car insurance in Ireland and I was really impressed by her. Here was someone who was tenacious and focused and had no time for waffling. It was her work and not the political waffle of McDowell that led to the creation of the establishment of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. Sadly she is since off to somewhere else in the state sector the Garda Ombudsman's office I think. Our gain from the perspective of a well run police force but our loss as consumers.

Sarah Carey - I've got a bone to pick with you!

In her Sunday Times column Sarah Carey revisits the issue of coverage of the Monaghan car crash of last October. She starts off by talking about the lack of coverage that inquests get as compared to the incidents themselves. Strange thing I had posted specifically on the issue of the lack of coverage of inquests last October as part of Damien Blakes efforts to get something together under the technorati label of roadsafetyblog. And I'd commented on the same specific subject in Sarah's own post which she posted a week later on the topic back in November. Now, it's not plagiarism by any means but I've been getting a little more thin skinned of late when folks repeat things I've said or posted whether on the blog or elsewhere as if it was an idea that had popped fully formed into their heads. I suspect that the youtube article in the ST hasn't helped my perspective either.

Sadly this Paddy's weekend has seen yet more road deaths, five in Donegal alone. Of course at this time we can't know what caused each of these deaths and what factors were at play. However, it is likely that when it comes around to the inquests and as the causes are uncovered that discussion in the DeadTreePress will be noticeable again by its absence.

Slightly miffed at the Sunday Times

I'm sort of miffed today at the Sunday Times and Mark Tighe. Mark's piece about the use of youtube by the PDs and the upcoming election appears to be a piece of advertising for the PDs use of YouTube. My own piece " You pay taxes" has had 4 times the traffic that the PD's A Vision for Ireland and was nominated for a Blog Award but doesn't rate a mention.

Richard Delevan and I had a discussion about the issue of election spending limits and the use of Youtube back on Jan 2nd of this year in the comments on his post on negative advertising. Basically, the big cost will be on the production side. And I agree with the comments of Simon McGarr that the contributions of Ciaran Cuffe and Dominic Hannigan are the most effective examples of the format. Short, frequent and focused. Long wandering sagas just bore people.

There again I spent the whole of Paddy's Day doing battle with the flu using the heavy artillery of Lemsip Max so that might be affecting my humour.

Beyond Stamp Duty

The proposals to attempt to reform the current stamp duty regime released by FG during the previous week drew some rather arched criticism from of all people the PDs. This is all very ironic as there is increasing evidence that it was McDowell's thinking aloud exercise that has provided the trigger to the general destabilisation of the housing market. It seems a sufficient number of people started to postpone purchases in the aftermath of his comments because they believed that something might happen in the budget and then when it didn't they've continued to hold off because they are now convinced something might happen after the election.

The key difference is that FG proposals would take affect in a planned, heavily signposted manner over the course of 3 years and announcing it within weeks of the general election are not going to put the brakes on the housing market. As others would point out being the leader of a party requires a completely different set of skills to being a leading figure in a party. This means to be something that McDowell appears to have failed to grasp as yet. And it remains to be seen with the election in the next two months if he will ever get the chance to learn it.

I'm going to do a follow up post on my own view of where we should go with stamp duty, local taxes and other fun topics.

Intruder alert at the white House - Stifler and the Taoiseach!

I was watching the RTe news and noticed that they were reporting that there had been a security breach at the White House when Bertie was giving Bush the ould bowl of Shamrock. Personally, my respect for Batty would have gone up if he had had a go at Bush for coming out with that "Top of the morning", nonsense. I daren't imagine what Bush says as a greeting to Condaleeza Rice when she comes into work.

Anyway, after the giving of the green, the Ahern double act was talking to the press in some hallway or alcove when I realised that in the background was the Stiflermeister himself. In the top shot you can see him clearly, and in the second shot he is clear asking where are all the red haired Irish Catholic females he had been promised.

RTE cock up chip and PIN demo

RTE were covering the changeover to Chip and PIN that kicks in from tomorrow on the 6.1 news, and I happened to notice in their demonstration of how you use the card that they actually put the hologram into the chip read and not the chip side of the Credit Card.

See here - >

Another driving inquest

You can get Irish Times coverage or from the Irish Independent

This crash happened outside Dundalk in last of May of last year (2006). The car wasn't fit to drive, the ABS didn't work and the back tyres were worn and they were doing 90kph in a 50 kph zone at night (3am) when visibility wasn't going to be great.

From the report "In returning a verdict of accidental death, the jury said it felt that had the ABS been working properly, there could have been a different outcome. It added that an inaccurate press release had caused undue grief to both families. A forensic collision investigator told the jury in Dundalk on Monday that the anti-lock braking system was not working and he estimated Mr Hoey had been driving at 90kph at least within a 50kph zone. The jury heard that the back two tyres of Mr Hoey's car were excessively worn and that the car was unfit for use."

So another pair of deaths that were tragically avoidable.

Did any of you lot ever have to make something for a living?

I was watching Mary Coughlan on Q&A this week and since I'm of roughly a similar vintage to Mary it struck me when she was talking about upskilling and the knowledge based economy that she's never really had to do any of those things herself. And not just her. Just look at the work background of the members of the cabinet since 2002.

Bertie Ahern - Bertie was a book keeper for the Mater before become a TD.

Mary Harney - was very briefly a secondary school teacher between her gradution in 1976 and her appointment to the Seanad by Jack Lynch in 1977.

Michael McDowell - a barrister since 1974. Not a lot of make and do in the old law library.

Mary Coughlan - Very briefly worked as a social worker after college before taking her seat in a bye election.

John O'Donoghue - A local solicitor

Dermot Ahern - A local solicitor

Brian Cowen - A local solicitor

Noel Dempsey - Career guidance teacher

Mary Hanafin - secondary school teacher

Micheál Martin - secondary school teacher.

Séamus Brennan - an accountant

Martin Cullen - worked as a sales manager for a wine company. Seriously a wine company!

Dick Roche - Masters Degree in Public Administration. Roche worked as a public servant at the Departments of Posts & Telegraphs, Transport & Power, Finance and at the Department of Economic Planning & Development. In 1978 he was appointed lecturer in Public Administration and Public Finance at UCD. A man so wedded to being a public servant it is hard to imagine him ever having to make something himself.

Willie O'Dea - O'Dea worked as a barrister and an accountant, and lectured at University College Dublin and the University of Limerick well really NIHE Limerick.

Charlie McCreevy - did Commerce at University College Dublin and went on to become a chartered accountant

Éamon Ó Cuív - was manager of Gaeltacht Co-operative, a company involved in agricultural services including timber milling, tourism and cultural development.

Michael Smith - Farmer, so at least he knows something about getting his hands dirty.

Joe Walsh - Walsh was a researcher in the National Dairy Research Centre at Moorepark and ended up as Managing Director of Strand Dairies in Clonakilty.

So it is only the last 3 that actually know what it is like to make or produce something for a living. Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

Harney caught at press launch by voter

On the TV3 news yesterday we had what might have been an early contender for one the moments of the as yet undeclared election campaign. Harney was challenged at the luanch of the latest PD campaign truck/poster on the state of A&E by an voter the lack of any paediatric immunology cover in Ireland. It was on the 5.30pm TV3 news. Sadly, TV3 don't stream or archive their news nor do they do a late night news or I would have recorded it then.

It is reminiscent of this moment for Blair in 2001, not quite as damaging perhaps but a sign of the times for Harney

http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/newsid_1334000/1334131.stm

Strangly no one else covered it or showed the footage though I'm pretty sure RTe had cameras there. I suspect we may see more of this in the rest of the campaign.

So women's rights is political now is it?

Strange that the BCI would find that a campaign to ensure that female babies are allowed the same opportunities as male babies is deemed political and can't be broadcast. The people trying to change the government is political and wrong apparently but the government trying to change the people is non-political and A-OK! See that ad below and make up your own mind.

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.