From the Personal to the Political - in a Winter of Discontent

I haven't blogged for weeks now and wondering why, I guess it's that I've been very busy as it's been a time of flux in a lot of ways. Swine flu vaccination has started at work and I am on the first designated team, which has been active for the past week. It is very busy and a new experience for most of us as Mass Vaccination Clinics are a rare enough occurence in Ireland. I would have encountered them overseas particularly in developing countries where they are a staple of UNICEF programmes, and are very effective public health initiatives. I may come back to this in another post.

Meanwhile, back to more personal issues. Our oldest son Shayne and his partner Jany have moved to Ireland from Spain where he has lived for the past seven and a half years. They are together for the past year and a half and are expecting their first child and our first grandchild in February!

Here they are with Migo the dog (who is in Spain until he can come here next year)

We are delighted they are going to be living in Ireland as we miss our kids when they are away even if they can drive us mad when they are around all the time. That's the dilemma of parenthood, isn't it? We spend years waiting for them to grow up so we can reclaim our exhausted suspended lives and then when they leave for college we miss them more than we imagine. The empty nest syndrome is pretty real and I suppose we won't have it for another five or six years as our daughter is only 13 - it'll be some time yet before we can go on holidays in low season to avail of cheap flights, hotels and everything.

That's if we can afford holidays in the gloom and doom that's predicted with the global recession and depression that Ireland seems headed for with the deflation that's happening - no-one is spending as everyone is terrified of what the budget will bring next month - so there is a greater problem here than in other countries.

The country's headed for a winter of discontent - the public sector is becoming increasingly militant as the government seems determined to exact its pound of flesh inequitably from the public servants who are deemed sitting ducks with secure jobs. It is true that we have better job security than in the private sector where profit drives everything, unlike services that are more nebulous to quantify financially, but it is thanks to strong trade unions that this situation prevails.

We have a government who has already hit the public sector with a pension levy averaging 7.5% since April which I wrote about here, and mileage has been cut by 25% for those of us - like me - who use our cars for our jobs. My petrol bill is increasing as the price at the pumps increases and also my service bill is enormous as I do such high mileage that my costs are no longer covered, and the wear and tear on the car is huge.


There was an Irish Congress of Trade Unions-led protest march held in a number of cities and towns yesterday - the one in Waterford attracted about 8000 from different unions whose members were off duty and could go. I was working so only there in spirit. On the 11th November there is a protest by the 24/7 Frontline Alliance to the Dáil in Dublin. This is all part of the ICTU campaign in the run-up to the Budget next month.

Frontline Services Alliance from DCTV on Vimeo.

They comprise the public sector union members who work shifts and whose premium payments are under threat of being cut or abolished as recommended by the McCarthy report, also known as the Bord Snip Nua report) which I referred to in another post. Most nurses, gardai (police), prison officers and army depend on premium payments for unsocial hours and shift allowances to bring up their generally poor basic pay. If these are cut they will be severely affected, as many have mortgages that factored in their premium and shift payments, and they are effectively considered core pay. Even though I don't qualify for these allowances as my job is 9-5, Mon-Fri, we are all showing solidarity with our hospital colleagues, as are most union members.

There is a strong perception that government and the employers bodies are trying to drive a wedge between the public and private sectors but the thing is everyone is angry that the bailouts for the banks seems to be no problem and yet people are being told they need to sacrifice and that €4.2billion must be shaved from the public pay bill and social welfare payments. We are being told to tighten our belts - even though no one is using that phrase as it has too much baggage, harking back to the Haughey days when he was enjoying a lavish lifestyle at public expense while enjoining us all to make sacrifices. That and the recent ex-Ceann Comhairle (Speaker) John O'Donoghue expenses scandal has only added fuel to that whole fire - one law for the rich and another for the proletariat - the rest of the world according to the elites .

Implementing the recommendations of the Bord Snip Nua report would be political suicide for any government and I can't see even the current Fianna Fáil/Green coalition having the stomach for it, especially since it was dissed by none other than the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan TD who seems to open her mouth only to change feet, so frequent are her gaffes; the best being the reference (in a speech to the IDA) Einstein's theory of evolution.

The next protest is the strike action planned for 24th November,; the unions are currently balloting members and we will know in the INO by midweek as our ballot closes on Monday. Most of the other unions have voted for industrial action and we will probably follow suit. No one wants to strike but we want to be fairly treated and not have to undergo further cuts in the budget while NAMA - the National Asset Management Agency - will provide safety nets for the banks which will have us indebted for years to come. Maybe we are trying hard to keep the IMF wolf from our door but there is no guarantee this will work in the long-term with the current measures. I hope that the Lisbon Treaty's ratification by the Czech Republic last week will boost European unity and enhance mutual support and cooperation - we are not like Iceland cut adrift outside the Eurozone and the EU and thankfully our recent ratification of Lisbon will ensure our place at the European table into the future.

Meanwhile, I look forward to the birth of our grandchild in 2010 and it will certainly be a light on our horizon and shorten what otherwise promises to be a winter of discontent. It will remind me to keep things in perspective and that family and friends are what matter. Although it helps to have financial security and stability, we'll get through this recession like we did before, by showing solidarity and resilience in the face of adversity.

A resounding victory - Ireland says YES to Lisbon Treaty

It's all over and yes, Ireland has voted YES to ratifying the Lisbon Treaty. I wrote my last post about this and how divisive it had become in the weeks running up to Friday's vote. I am delighted with the result - the polling went on yesterday from 7.00a.m. until 10.00p.m. and the count started this morning at 9.00a.m.

A group of Labour women campaigning for a Yes vote - Joan Burton TD (Deputy Leader), Joanne Tuffy TD, Roisín Shortall TD and Mary Upton TD are those I recognise (TD = MP)

It was clear from about 10.00a.m. this morning that the Yes vote was coming through and by lunchtime it was all over - a resounding victory for the Yes vote, with a 67% majority in favour, and only 2 out of 43 constituencies voting No and then marginally. Ironically these were both in Mary Coughlan, the Tánaiste's (Deputy Prime Minister) constituency of Donegal, a border county near Northern Ireland. Mary has had quite a time of it lately so this can't help her reputation as a lightweight politician who is out of her depth as deputy leader, having inherited her seat at a young age and coasting along without real challenge in her roles to date. (A recent gaffe included crediting Einstein as having developed the theory of evolution!)

This says it all!

I was surprised at the strength of the Yes victory and while we are all delighted there is no gloating or triumphalism because the issue was bigger than the government - all the main opposition parties united with the government coalition in promoting a Yes vote with the exception of Sinn Féin who were staunchly opposed. The No side are poor losers and have been trenchant in their condemnation of the result. This is in stark contrast to their mantra of listening to the will of the people that they have been preaching during the campaign. Their biggest gripe was that the country voted No to Lisbon in June 2008 and therefore had spoken - and there was no need to put the vote to the people again, that that was treating them like recalcitrant children who needed to be taught a lesson until they got it right.

My argument with that is that the first referendum in 2008 was flawed in that there was a very poor information campaign with it so most people didn't know what they were voting on. This gave the No camp a clear field for scaremongering and they made the most of it, fomenting lies and fear that euthanasia and abortion would be available and foisted on a hapless populace if we went along with the EU constitution. The fact that God doesn't feature in the constitution was another bone of contention, notwithstanding the wish of most countries to keep a separation between Church and State.

The Guardian (UK) reports on the Irish vote - the British are notoriously Eurosceptic at the moment but Ireland is a different story

We have a history of changing our minds politically and I don't think Ireland or the Irish should make any apology for this. People change as do circumstances, and the fact that we voted No last year shouldn't close the door on another chance to vote.
In 2001 we voted No in the first Nice Treaty - about expanding the EU to include new accession states in Eastern Europe. Back to the drawing board and in 2002 we voted Yes to the Nice Treaty.

Likewise with Lisbon. Change often comes slowly - granted, after last year's No the government got reassurances on the issues concerning the doubters - specifically on abortion and our sacred cow of neutrality, as well as retaining a Commissioner - a voice at the top table.

Don't forget Ireland voted No to Divorce back in 1986 again based on fears fomented by the right and supported openly by the Catholic Church that Irish women would lose their homes, and family farms would be ruined by the prospect of gold-digging second wives disinheriting the destitute first family. Of course that was all nonsense as the legislation was there to protect the first family/ex-spouse. And in 1995 Divorce was voted into the Irish Constitution and gave a second chance to the thousands of people in the limbo of separation who could now remarry and not worry about the status of their new families in law.

So there seems to be a tradition of recognising that circumstances and people are dynamic and evolving and in that case there is always a good argument for having a second chance - not just a woman's prerogative to change her mind, but a citizen's!

Ironically, Dutch hubby - while advocating a Yes vote and present as a tallyman at the Waterford count centre - was not eligible to vote in this Constitutional Referendum; it is only open to citizens of Ireland to have a say in Constitutional matters.

Fear and Loathing from NO campaigners - a Good Reason for Voting YES!

It's Friday October 2nd and this can only mean one thing in Ireland - Polling Day for the Lisbon Treaty 2009. This is a controversial treaty which has led to much debate which has descended into bitter squabbling with scaremongering allegations from opposing sides.

The country's roadsides are once again littered with Yes and No Posters - and it is generally agreed that the No posters have been spreading lies and fear, particularly those from an odious and shadowy group that go by the name of Cóir. They appear to be the grown-up wing of that group of far-right activists known as Youth Defence, whose tactics have been roundly condemned in the past. They purport to be a Pro-Life anti-abortion pro-family organisation but they have picketed politician's houses in the past where the views or opinions didn't fit with their rather fanatical philosophies. Many of the No campaigners are staunchly xenophobic and use this to promote their cause, citing the possibility of further waves of immigration to our shores from undesirables from poor countries should Ireland vote Yest to Lisbon Treaty.

Libertas and their leader Declan Ganley have been around since the first Lisbon Treaty Referendum last year - and they re-emerged for the European Elections to run candidates in every country, sure of their ground - only to suffer the ignominy of fading to oblivion when the electorate showed what they thought of them - one candidate in France got in on their platform, to the best of my knowledge. He then said that was the end of his political career, only to resurface last month for another swipe at the Lisbon Treaty. His shady funding sources have been a constant cause for discussion and his refusal to disclose them has lost him and his party credibility, as he is a millionaire businessman whose fortune was founded on communications for the US military in Iraq - though he tries to distance his business from his politics the Irish aren't fools.

Well most of us aren't , though there are many who would have us back in the dark ages of our pre-European entry days - Ireland before 1972 was not a pleasant place - it was church driven for all the wrong reasons - to exert control over a passive scared flock and to keep women in their place - tied to the home whether they liked it or not. Most of my friends overseas couldn't believe it when I told them of the ultimate sanction Ireland had in law against women - the Marriage Bar - which determined that women had to resign from most public service jobs on marriage!

This anachronism only disappeared after we joined Europe - and I am old enough to remember it, as I had many friends in the Civil Service when I was a student in Dublin, and spent many an evening at farewell parties for those who were leaving to get married! This shows a small snapshot of life in Ireland in living memory that to most civilised people would seem to be prehistoric.

This is one reason why I am so passionately pro-European. I haven't time here to go into all the other anachronisms that characterised Ireland in those days -mostly associated with sex - the lack of contraception, the illegality of homosexuality, the demonisation of pregnant unmarried mothers who were shipped off to Magdalen Laundries to be incarcerated as slave labourers - up to the 1990s - and the horrendous child abuse that was institutionalised and about which I wrote earlier in a post on the Ryan Report.

That's why the only sane vote today is a YES vote - for all the reasons I touched on above. The Irish Labour Party (of which I am a proud member) is also advocating a Yes vote. Needless to say I am proud to be a European as well as Irish - I don't believe they are mutually exclusive and indeed I like to think we are all global citizens as human beings - the world would be a better place if there was less ardent nationalism - we have seen where it led us in the last century and the European Union's lasting legacy has been the longest period of peace in Europe in recorded history