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Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week: DIY February 19, 2017

Posted by Garibaldy in Sunday Independent Stupid Statement of the Week.
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Unfortunately have no time to wade through the Sindo today, so over to you.

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1. An Cathaoirleach - February 19, 2017

This is a very good story about the Provos and their abuse of employment law. Linking it to their pious tweets and statements about the ongoing Tesco strike was icing on the cake.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/sinn-fin-finances-under-spotlight-with-unfair-dismissal-case-35462890.html

Trying to get the woman to sign a gagging clause to their “confidential offer” adds to the interest in the story. Thankfully with the assistance of her trade union official, she stood up to them.

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Ed - February 19, 2017

Not so much the icing on the cake as a crude and predictable attempt by the Sindo to undermine the Tesco workers by linking their strike to a completely unrelated case because something something Sinn Féin something something holding the country to ransom something something Provo bastards.

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paulculloty82 - February 19, 2017

Not to mention the two-page ad spread actively encouraging readers to pass the Mandate picket!

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An Cathaoirleach - February 19, 2017

Are you suggesting that Tesco should not be free to buy advertising space, because you don’t like their message?

The failure of Mandate to even hold a proper ballot on time, to ensure that all staff went on strike together is perhaps a sign of how disorganised it is.

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RosencrantzisDead - February 19, 2017

Are you suggesting that Tesco should not be free to buy advertising space, because you don’t like their message?

Yes.

Are you genuinely surprised that a bunch of lefties are opposed to capital using its resources to undermine workers? Have you mistaken here for politics.ie or FG’s whatsapp group?

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An Cathaoirleach - February 19, 2017

The story is true and accurate. What is your problem with that? Pointing out the hypocrisy is reasonable in the circumstances. Demanding that the woman signs a confidentiality or “gagging” agreement while at the same time demanding public accountability is even worse. You should remember this is public money.

Not liking the messenger is no excuse.

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RosencrantzisDead - February 19, 2017

Twice I read through that article and I still have no idea what the basis for her unfair dismissal claim. The Sindo has no difficulty telling me this woman’s salary, but the grounds for the case?

What a terrible article, regardless of one’s opinions on Sinn Féin.

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WorldbyStorm - February 19, 2017

It’s murky looking and certainly I’d like a fuller outline of all the details of the case, but just one point that staff employed by TDs and Senators have contracts with those TDs and Senators not the parties and they are term limited i.e. the length of a given Dáil or Seanad. That this can be very problematic hardly needs to be stated.

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An Cathaoirleach - February 19, 2017

There is seemingly lots to come out. The story has been swirling around the trades unions for sometime, getting more lurid with each telling.

But the hypocrisy of the Provos calling for public hearings and then demanding that the individual sign a confidentiality clause, as part of any agreement, stands out.

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Ed - February 20, 2017

You claim to be very conversant with talk that is ‘swirling around the trade unions’, but your sympathy appears to lie with Tesco management rather than the workers who are on strike, and you seem to believe that Tesco’s ability to use its vast resources—obtained through tax dodging among other methods—in order to buy anti-union media coverage is a free-speech issue. I’m not sure what trade union circles you move in, but I wouldn’t count on them when the chips are down for workers’ rights.

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2. Starkadder - February 19, 2017

Not a “Sindo” statement, but this “review” of the film “Moonlight” by
Upper Class Twit Camilla Long in “The Sunday Times” plumbs new depths of ignorance and racial patronizing:

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/02/19/youre-not-imagining-review-sunday-times-film-critic-camilla-long-isnt-just-stupid-racist-tweets/

View at Medium.com

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3. paulculloty82 - February 19, 2017

Bruce Arnold has been resurrected from cold storage to join Tom McGurk in seeking that Ireland should rush back under Britain’s economic protection.

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WorldbyStorm - February 19, 2017

urhgghhh… and McGurk is at it again today in the SBP.

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4. botheredbarney - February 19, 2017

I never buy the Sindo, on moral/aesthetic grounds, so I’m glad take a free peek at selected ramblings from the paper highlighted on CLR.

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5. 6to5against - February 20, 2017

Sean Barrett had a piece that linked industrial unrest in the health service with that in Bus Eireann. It contained this important nugget of information:

‘The 2016 Health in Ireland statistics published by the Department of Health show the health spend per head in Ireland at $5,001 in 2014. This is 15pc more than in France at $4,367; 11pc more than in Canada at $4,492; 29pc more than in Finland at $3,870, 56pc more than in Italy at €3,207: 64pc more than in Spain at $3,053; and 26pc more than in the United Kingdom at $3,971.’

Statistics like this are an important part of any argument. One might be inclined to feel sympathy for striking nurses, and for their argument that the health services are poor because they are underfunded. But when you see the statistics, you will surely have to accept that it is in fact the shocking waste in Irish Public Services that is to blame. Again. And, you know, the nurses are partly to blame for that waste, so they should be grateful really that they still have a job……

Michael Taft used to do a great job at debunking this sort of argument, based as it is on a spurious use of economic statistics. But he’s been silent of late, so I did a little digging myself. Not much. Just typed ‘health expenditure per capita’ into google to be honest. But these are some of the figures I came up with from the World Bank.

Ireland $4239
France $4959
Canada $5292
Finland $4612
Italy $3258
Spain $2658
UK $3935
Belguim $4884
Denmark $6463
Germany $5411
Lux’burg $8138
N’lands $5694
Norway $9522
Sweden $6808
US $9403

avg of high income countries: $5251

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.PCAP

So Ireland is not the lowest among our peer group, but its well down the list. and it would take a 24% increase in spending to reach the average of wealthy countries.

And importantly, as the US figure makes clear, these figures are the total national spend as opposed to the government spend, and therefore include spending in private insurance and out-of-pocket costs for those going to see doctors, consultants etc,

So, two things:

Firstly, Barrett’s figures contradict the World Bank figures, but mainly by increasing the number for Ireland’s expenditure. They come from the Dept of health, so one might be forgiven for suspecting ulterior motives.

Secondly, they are an aggregate of public and private spending, and can hardly therefore be used as an argument for maintaining the savage cuts that have taken place in the public system over the last ten years. Indeed, it seems to me likely that what inefficiency there is in Ireland is created, rather than ameliorated, by the peculiar mix of public and private provision of health care.

I’m sure his figures for the transport system are also spurious, but he didn’t bother producing them, so its hard to tell.

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RosencrantzisDead - February 20, 2017

How much of the per capita expenditure on health can be attributed to treatment purchase and pharmaceuticals?

There has been talk of agreeing to bulk-buy medicines with the UK or other EU countries, but I am unsure whether anything came of this. With the recent controversy over cystic fibrosis drugs, we do know that companies have tried to charge Ireland a premium in previous times.

I doubt this will account for all of the ‘overspend’ – whatever that may be – but it might be a relevant consideration.

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