In passing reference to the Moriarty Report… March 23, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics.add a comment
However, the Independent TD for Tipperary North said he “totally rejects the tenure” of Moriarty report. In a statement, Mr Lowry said Mr Justice Moriarty “has outrageously abused the tribunal’s ability to form opinions which are not substantiated by evidence or fact”.
Small point, doesn’t he mean tenor? Or was he picked up incorrectly by the Irish Times…
Rosaleen McDonagh for Seanad Éireann March 22, 2011
Posted by Tomboktu in Feminism, Human Rights, Inequality, Ireland, Justice.3 comments
Here’s who I’ll be using my vote for.
You too, you can reform the Seanad by giving Rosaleen McDonagh your number one vote. The Seanad needs change not abolition. It needs new voices. It needs diverse voices. It needs to bring forward the diversity of Irish society in a way that is not happening in the Dáil.
Rosaleen McDonagh is an Independent candidate. She has no familial or political affiliations with politicians or political parties. As a Traveller woman with a disability, Rosaleen is an alternative voice. The call for change, for political reform, comes from the margins of Irish society whose voice is not heard in the sheltered realms of the Oireachtas.
Rosaleen is running for the Seanad to:
Change politics and reform the Seanad by offering a new voice, perspective and analysis, Reinvigorate the debate for economic, social, political and cultural equality in Ireland, Advance Travellers’ rights and secure a new deal for a community that has been confined to the margins of Irish society for generations. Give visibility to issues of human rights in particular for people with disabilities, for women who experience violence, for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, and for other minority ethnic groups in our society.
Moriarty …… March 22, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.Tags: Irish Politics
14 comments
I see that the second (and final) report of The Moriarty Tribunal is out.
It doesn’t reflect well on Denis O’Brien and Michael Lowry (although oddly enough The Irish Independent thinks Ben Dunne is the big story from the report).
A little taster….
In the cynical and venal abuse of office, the brazen refusal to acknowledge the impropriety of his financial arrangements with Mr Denis O’Brien and Mr Ben Dunne, and by his contemptuous disregard for his taxation obligations, Mr Lowry displayed qualities similar in nature, and has cast a further shadow over his country’s public life,”
another bit …
“In aggregating the known payments from Mr. Denis O’Brien to Mr. Michael Lowry, it is apposite to note that, between the granting of the second GSM licence to Esat Digifone in May, 1996, and the transmission of Stg.£420,000.00 to complete the purchase of the latter of Mr. Lowry’s English properties in December, 1999, Mr. O’Brien had made or facilitated payments to Mr. Lowry of £147,000.00, Stg.£300,000.00 and a benefit equivalent to a payment in the form of Mr. O’Brien’s support for a loan of Stg.£420,000.00. The value of those sums, in today’s terms, is obviously well in excess of the amounts transferred at the various times mentioned in this Report.”
So what happens now?
I’d assume that there will be lots of media coverage of the report but will anything concrete come from it?
Don’t mention the [European] Green parties experience of government… March 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Irish Politics, The Left.1 comment so far
I’ve a fair bit to write about the Green Party over the next while, in part because it seems to foreshadow some of what may occur with our new Coalition government, in part because what was at one time perceived by some as a functional part of the left once it arrived in government appeared to be anything but and in part because there are reasons why some discrete Green presence in the Oireachtas is necessary, or at least one which has a clear voice on the issue of climate change, but more on that again.
Anyhow, the news on Sunday that John Gormley was doing the near inevitable and not contesting the leadership of the Green Party can hardly have come as a surprise to anyone.
The muted noises from Dan Boyle and Eamon Ryan as to their own ambitions in that regard can hardly be surprising either.
It sounds glib, but is it unreasonable to enquire leader of what?
From being a reasonably successful political formation of the Green part of the political spectrum, at least in European terms, the GP first saw its local and then its national representation annihilated. There’s some talk about them coming back sometime but pure practical politics suggests that any resurgence may take at least two elections, if it is possible at all.
They are currently in a far worse situation than they were in 1991 when they gained their first seats at local elections (ten or so as far as can be made out). By 2004 they had 18 county and city council seats. As is well known at the 2009 local elections they fell back to 3.
In 1991 they had one TD, who had been elected two years earlier. It took them until 1997 to see another elected bringing their numbers to 2. 2002 and 2007 both saw 6 TDs elected.
The most obvious point to be drawn from this is that the GP had a remarkably precarious local representation for a party with up to 6 TDs and one which didn’t bode well for either longevity or security in the face of profound political and economic pressures.
But again, that’s all for another day’s analysis.
Meanwhile Dan Boyle was fairly boosterish in his pronouncements.
Senator Dan Boyle, party chairman, would not be drawn today on whether he would contest the leadership. But he was confident the party could rebuild. “It’s not a unique experience,” he said. “The German Greens, the Belgian Greens and the Czech Greens have all had similar experiences. It’s something of a rite of passage almost for the Green Party in terms of their first experience of parliament, their first experience of government.”
Really? I’m not sure that if I were in the position of former public representatives of the GP I’d be taking that line.
Firstly there’s the oddity of the sentence construction ‘in terms of their first experience of parliament, their first experience of government’. It may be a simple verbal misstep, but it’s quite telling, is it not? I worry that this indicates a continuing belief that somehow the Green Party by dint of some intrinsic quality remains above the political fray and is in some ineffable sense [to most of us] different from all other parties. Because the reality is that the GP had its first experience of parliament in the late 1980s and been represented in the Oireachtas ever since, until now.
As to the second point, ‘their first experience of government’ and positioning that in relation to the European experience of its counterparts let’s consider the evidence.
The Czech experience is uncannily similar to the Irish one. Six Green Deputies elected in 2006 who governed as part of a right of centre coalition until 2010 when all six lost their seats. The GP representation in the Czech parliament is now, if the figures are accurate, confined to an Independent who sits ‘under the umbrella’ of the Green Party. Whether those GP members running for the Seanad manage to emulate that trick remains to be seen, but the chances of them taking a seat are very very low (by the way, the Irish Times suggests that of the three remaining senators only Dan Boyle is running for the Seanad, but surely so is Níall Ó Brolcháin?).
The problem is that as of now it is far from clear whether the Czech Green party will regain seats in the parliament. They might, but they may not.
The Belgian experience on the face of it is more cheery. There the Green parties – because there are two, one Ecolo is Francophone and the other Agalev (now known as Groen!) – entered government in 1999 with a liberal, socialist coalition. They were in power until 2003. When they left the Flemish party lost all nine of its seats. Ecolo lost 7 leaving only 4.
The 2007 elections brought better news with the retitled Groen! gaining 4 seats to bring it to 4 and Ecolo adding another 4 seats to their tally. 2010 saw even better news, marginally anyhow, when Groen! gained another seat while Ecolo stayed static.
Whether though this is directly comparable with the Irish situation is an open question. Despite the significant divides in Belgian society, both culturally and politically, a Green presence continued to be extant at national level even when the Flemish party was wiped out at that level. This obviously isn’t going to be the case in Ireland (though worth noting the continuing presence of the GP north of the border).
Let’s finally examine the German situation. A moments consideration demonstrates that it simply isn’t comparable. At no time was a Green presence in the Bundestag in any danger. Sure, they were rebuffed following their participation in coalition with the SDP, but hardly to a great extent. In the Federal Elections in 2002 after their first term in office they actually saw their vote increase and their number of seats go up 8 to 55. In 2005 they lost, count ‘em, all of four seats going down to 51. And at the last election they went up to 68 seats.
What to make of all this? So far while the plight of the Green Party in Ireland isn’t exactly sui generis, given the problems faced by their Czech counterparts, there’s no clear evidence to suggest what happens next.
With that being the case it might be better not to try to talk up comparisons that don’t seem on further consideration to be either appropriate, or that optimistic.
Socialist Voice – March Edition – from the CPOI March 22, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Economy, Irish Politics, Sinn Féin, The Left.69 comments
To download the full file please click here.SV-75
The March edition of Socialist Voice is now available. And it’s a very interesting read giving a broad critique of the election results. A guarded welcome for the ULA, rather critical of Sinn Féin and a strongly positive piece on new Independent TD Thomas Pringle. There’s more detail on the Repudiate the Debt campaign and an overview of the union struggles in Wisconsin.
Enda Burning the Bondholders? March 21, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Uncategorized.12 comments
Amidst Yesterdays one sided minor match in Croke Park, I borrowed a copy of the Mail from a Colleague. What was there only a kite flying exercise from Simon Coveney about Burning the Bondholders
Enda Kenny will stun European leaders this week by telling them he intends to ‘burn’ bank bondholders, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
He is determined to ease the pressure of debt on Irish taxpayers.
The Taoiseach will tell Thursday’s Brussels summit that it is now coalition policy to force speculative bondholders to share the debts incurred by reckless Irish banks, according to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney.
It appears the Stress tests being carried out on the Irish Banks show that a full bailout of the bondholders, in conjunction with the EU/IMF deal is unaffordable and it really is a case of defaulting sooner rather than later. (You’d have to wonder why its taken two and a half years after the Bank Guarantee to ascertain the potential full bank losses?)
‘We don’t think that it’s fair or equitable that Irish taxpayers should be required to take on all of the debts associated with the mistakes made by Irish banks and by banks who lent money to Irish banks,’ he said
Asked whether Ireland’s massive debt was manageable and whether a sovereign default was a possibility, the Cork South Central TD said: ‘There is no question of not paying back money that is borrowed from the IMF or the EU. The only issue is around bank debt.
So is Enda going to renegotiate the EU/IMF Deal and Burn some bondholders? … we’ll see.
Whilst Enda and the Lads are off in Europe acting the tough guys, is there any chance someone could renegotiate those deals about our offshore assets?… you know the deals… the ones done by those bastions of honesty Ray Burke and Bertie Ahern. God knows with Oil prices the way they are and future uncertainty over supply, if ever there was a time to even increase the taxes on profits from these assets from the current 25%, its now.
Paddy Healy Seanad Election Address March 21, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Irish Politics.Tags: Irish Politics
14 comments
Received this today…
Paddy Healy, Former President, TUI,
Independent Candidate for Seanad Eireann
Tireless Campaigner for Education and Public Services
An Independent Voice for All Public Servants including Teachers, Lecturers, Social Workers, Health Workers, All Administrative and Maintenance Staff , and all Public Service Pensioners as New Government Promises to eliminate 25,000 Jobs
A Voice for Academic Freedom As New Government Reinforces Existing Threats and Department of Education threatens further pay cuts for Lecturers.
Paddy Healy 086-4183732, paddy.healy@eircom.net,
Blog: http://paddyhealy.wordpress.com
Tá Leagan Gaeilge ar mo bhlog—
A Voice For Post-Doctoral Researchers,Postgrads and Temporary Teachers
A Voice for all employees, the unemployed, Occupational Pensioners and the Needy at Home and Abroad
Tireless Campaigner
Paddy is Chairman of the National Public Service Alliance—an informal alliance of public service trade union activists which is fighting public service pay cuts, pension levy, work overload, staffing moratorium and destruction of conditions of service under the Croke Park Deal.
He is Convenor of the Campaign for Academic Freedom which recently held a gathering of 200 academics in the Gresham Hotel to resist threats to academic freedom, permanency and tenure arising out of the implementation of the Croke Park Deal in Third level institutions: The New Government in its programme threatens:
“We will introduce radical reform in third level institutions to maximise existing funding, in particular, reform of academic contracts and will encourage greater specialisation by educational institutions.”
He is resisting the imposition of business models on 3rd Level education as proposed in the Hunt Report.
He is organising opposition to the shameful treatment of Post-doctoral Researchers in third level institutions and seeking a permanent career structure for researchers and a new deal under which Postgraduate Students carrying out teaching work would get properly paid for each hour worked. He is totally opposed to the attempt to make Student Nurses work for nothing.
He is Chairman of the Campaign to Reverse the Pension Cuts which is organising a legal challenge to the recent public service pension cuts. He is fighting for the removal of the Universal Social Charge which is unfairly reducing private occupational pensions.
He is campaigning against cuts in public services such as health, education and social work and the elimination of jobs under the staffing moratorium.
He is campaigning for the restoration of the full quota of Special Duties and Assistant Principal posts in schools.
Job Creation and Investment
He advocates a major programme of state job creation in sophisticated modern industry to employ the 100,000 qualified people who are now on the dole and being forced to emigrate.
He is continuing his long standing campaign to increase investment in Education at all levels.
About Paddy Healy
More at http://wp.me/PKzXa-2
Chair National Public Service Alliance, Global Solidarity Champion, Former President Teachers Union of Ireland(TUI), Lecturer in Physics(retd),
Research Interest: Musical Instrument Acoustics, Former member of Governing Body and Academic Council DIT, Ag Freastail ar Daonscoil na Mumhan sa Rinn gach blian, Former Treasurer Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed(INOU), Former Executive Member Dublin Council of Trade Unions.
He Lives at Griffith Court, Fairview, D 3 and is a native of Clonmel, Co Tipperary
Radical Change Needed
To make possible the objectives set out above, Fundamental Change is required.
Government Policy
Irish sovereignty must be recovered by facing down the EU and the IMF and insisting on a structured negotiated default under which the debts of banks, then privately owned, would not be paid while rescuing small investors and credit unions. The capitulation of the New Government to the EU/IMF will lead to disaster.
Mortgage Debt on principal domestic residences which was inflated during the property bubble must be reduced. Interest rates must be frozen and the capital sum reduced to current house values. Evictions must be banned.
The 90 Billion lent out recklessly by finance houses since 2003 must be recovered. This can be done by the imposition of a tax on large assets outside the domestic residence and the farm.
Reductions in Social Welfare, and increased taxes on the lowly paid must be reversed.
Cuts in Public services must end now. Cuts in disability services and in Special Needs Provision are particularly reprehensible
Trade Union Reform
The ICTU leadership has failed the members of trade unions. Members of the leadership sat on the Board of the Central Bank and on the the National Social and Economic Council(NESC) and on bodies such as the Board of Fás through the period of reckless borrowing and extreme right-wing policies. Apart from faint bleatings, nobody shouted stop.
Now there are 450,000 people on the dole, one thousand per week emigrating, public service pay and pensions cut, thousands of frontline posts eliminated, massive increase in workload of teachers, lecturers, nurses, other health professionals, social workers and public servants generally, cuts in social welfare benefits etc
Now the, The SIPTU leader who is also ICTU President is reported as having given qualified support to the formation of a FG-LAB coalition whose programme for Government contains a commitment to eliminate 25,000 public service jobs!! “Siptu chief Jack O’Connor claimed the Programme for Government was the best of the alternatives available” Irish Independent 07/03
There has been a total leadership failure in ICTU.
The calling off of campaigns and the supine acceptance of cuts and income reductions has disoriented thousands of members.
In my forthcoming book which is available on line at http://wp.me/pKzXa-gw ,I argue for complete renewal of the trade union movement both in its leadership and structures to restore control of the unions to members. This renewal must come from within the movement without legislative interference. The title of the work is : “How ICTU Failed US, the Necessity for Election and Regular Re-Election of General Secretaries.”
Supporters Who Recommend NO 1 Vote for Paddy Healy
I am very grateful to the 160 public servants who are recommending a vote for me to colleagues. I regret that the full list can only be read on my Blog at:
http://wp.me/pKzXa-gB
All have added their names in a personal capacity
Domhnall Sheridan, Chair Dublin Colleges (DIT) Branch, TUI
Cathleen Bowen, Retired Hospital Manager,
Secretary, Campaign for Reversal of Public Service Pension Cuts, Cork
Ben Bishop Chair Dublin City Post Primary Branch, TUI
Dr Colmán Etchingham, Chair NUI Maynooth Branch
Executive Member, Irish Federation of University Teachers
Prof Vincent Toal, School of Physics, DIT
Oisin Kelly, Former Education Officer, UCD Students Union
Prof Kathleen Lynch, Equality Studies, UCD
John O’Sullivan, Lecturer in Engineering, CIT, Cork
Dr Gordon Dalton, Chair Association of Research Contract Staff, UCC,
President of Irish Research Staff Association.
Sean Connolly,Teacher,Rathmines College of Further Education. Dublin
Professor James Heffron MRIA, Department of Biochemistry, UCC
Prof Tadhg Foley, Emeritus, NUI Galway
Dr. Tony Bonfield, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.
Prof Sean Tobin, Emeritus, NUI Galway
Dr Keith Breen, School of Politics, QUB
Peter Homan,Outreach Worker , South Dublin, HSE
Prof Mary Gallagher, French Studies, UCD
Professor Dermot Barnes-Holmes, Psychology, NUI Maynooth
Andy Storey, Lecturer, School of Politics,UCD,
Chair Action From Ireland (AFRI)
Donnacha O’hEallaithe, Indreabhán, Conamara
Dr Kevin Farrell, Executive Member, TUI
Gerald Brennan, Chairman Cork City Schools, TUI
Barry Williams, Chair, Co Louth Branch, TUI
Manus Brennan, Executive Member, TUI , Donegal Town
Deputy Seamus Healy, TD, South Tipperary
James McMorrow, Co Leitrim Branch Secretary, TUI
Josephine O Donnell, CEO VEC, Co Longford (Retired)
Prof Michael Cronin, DCU
Fergus Hastings, Staff Officer, GISC, Castlebar.
Professor Gary Henehan, Food Science, DIT
John Evoy, Gorey Adult Learning Centre Manager, Co. Wexford VEC
Dr Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn,Director, Maths Centre, DCU
Andy Storey, Lecturer, School of Politics,UCD, Chair AFRI
Kieran Walshe, Boyne Branch, TUI
Oliver McCormack, Teacher (RETD), Tullamore, Co Offally
Dr David O Brien, Lecturer, DIT
Bernie Freeman, Clerical officer, HSe West, Nenagh, Co Tipp
Dr Eilish O’Donohoe, Lecturer in Chemistry, DIT
Cedar Lounge Revolution wins Best Political Blog award at Irish Blog Awards. March 21, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Culture, Irish Politics, The Left.29 comments
Well, that was a nice surprise. Apparently we were nominated at the Irish Blog Awards and won Best Political Blog.
This was in the face of extremely strong competition (and by the way the BPB award was sponsored by Politics.ie).
Reading that the Award ceremony was in the Europa Hotel in Belfast, a spot I’m particularly partial to, was entertaining. I’d most certainly have made the trip north – anonymity be damned!
And surprise it was. I had no notification of it that I can find and neither did any of the others on here, though in fairness let’s be clear, blogging is a curious activity in that it can find one caught within certain constraints, and it’s a full time job simply to keep up with ones own blog, and those blogs that one is most aware of, let alone the broader processes in the area. More substantively the election clearly diverted attention away from it for all of us contributing to the CLR.
Anyhow, not to worry. I’m sorry to hear that this is the last Awards and fair dues and many thanks to Damien Mulley for keeping the Awards going for over half a decade.
Two thoughts come to mind. First this is a political blog, but that – thankfully – isn’t all it is. Secondly this is very much a group blog, if it wasn’t for IELB, Tomboktu, Garibaldy, Yourcousin and others (not forgetting those who have been contributors in the past), those who send in emails, press releases, and other material, and all those who’ve supported and continue to support the Left Archive through donations, suggestions and whatever, and equally importantly everyone who comments or lurks there wouldn’t be a CLR. So thanks to everyone whose been involved in whatever way and continue to be.
Left Archive: No Quarter – Ireland’s Anti-Fascist Magazine, Issue 2, 2005 March 21, 2011
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Anti-Fascist Action (Ireland), Irish Left Online Document Archive.8 comments
To download this document please click on the following link: AFA2005
Issued by Anti-Fascist Action in 2005 this reasonably well produced magazine has a broad range of material. Articles range from one remembering Kit Conway, Spanish Civil War veteran to interviews with Residents Against Racism and pieces on the situation at Irish Ferries. This is indicative of a strongly left wing emphasis to the document, and also indicative of the broader political stance of those involved in AFA.
That the identity of the organisation itself is somewhat opaque, with the only contact details being a PO box, and the AFA website, perhaps indicates the sensitivity of activism in this area.
The editorial which was written during a period following the 2002 election and during which there appeared to be some political instability suggests that:
Since we last went to print, the political landscape has altered quite dramatically. While huge changes have taken place in the nature and scale of inward migration, for example, many of the same challenges that existed for anti-racists and anti-fascists in 2002 persist today. Deportations and state harassment of non-EU citizens have, if anything, become more widespread and vicious in the intervening period. Dawn raids on the homes of immigrants by the Gardai and our own brand of ‘rendition flights’ of these immigrants back to their own countries of origin are now more commonplace than ever.
It notes that:
The macroeconomic arguments about our country’s labour needs into the future lie beyond AFA’s remit and in any case cannot be predicted with any degree of accuracy. However, what does concern us is the degree of opportunism being displayed at present in relation to theories of ‘displacement’ of Irish workers by foreign ones. Apart from the fact that the statistics don’t bear this out, certain politicians hope to gain mileage by playing to the gallery with misleading anecdotes of occasions when this has happened.
It also notes that:
It is clear that the pro-establishment parties are on an election footing. While AFA has never been under any illusion that the Labour Party especially represents working class interests, it is still telling when even they are flagging the canard of future threat of foreign displacement. With the prodding of their paymasters in ICTU and the main pro-establishment unions, Labour are now cynically and for their own ends hoping to appeal to their ‘Old Labour’ base while relentlessly pursuing ‘New Labour’ policies.
There’s an overview of John Tyndall, the British fascist which is entitled ‘A Lifetime of Failure’ and other pieces on Russian Nazis and Frank Ryan.
A useful addition to the Archive.
Another thing about the new Dail …. March 21, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Irish Politics.Tags: Irish Politics
2 comments
A lot has been said and written about the make up of the new Dail and the impact it is having in the chamber. A massive government majority and an opposition that includes a decimated Fianna Fail , The new Technical group and of course Sinn Fein.
Outside of the Dail already you can see a different make up of panels on both Television and Radio. For instance tonight’s Week in Politics on RTE had a panel of Dara Callery of Fianna Fail, Roisin Shorthall of Labour and Peadar Tobin of Sinn Fein. So despite having two thirds of the seats in the Dail, the Government had only a third of tonight’s panel.
Across various broadcast media the make up of political panels has changed giving higher public profiles to various TDs. For instance, the four Dublin based ULA TDs Clare Daly, Joan Collins, Joe Higgins and Richard Boyd Barrett have each featured at least once on Vincent Brownes show since the Election. Sinn Fein have also provided a number of panelists there too.
So aside from an increased profile from featuring in Dail debates, the Left (and others), due to both its Dail success and Dail arithmetic has an increased profile in the broadcast media.
