MEP Childers resigns from Labour

Labour MEP Nessa Childers has written to Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore confirming her resignation from the party.

She says Labour is allowing Fine Gael to pursue endless austerity policies which go against the party’s core values.

“The policy of austerity is discredited in Europe and, increasingly, at home,” she wrote, saying those policies are a “profoundly immoral way to run our country”.

Ms Childers said she had increasingly found herself discouraged and prevented from advocating a distinctive social democratic position within the Labour party.

“While I have remained constant in my views, the Labour leadership has drifted away from a progressive policy approach,” she wrote.

“My attitude is vilified as disloyal or opportunistic when, in fact, I am defending and promoting the party’s core values.”

She said a “low point” for her was feeling abandoned by the party leadership for opposing the appointment of Kevin Cardiff to the EU Court of Auditors.

Ms Childers says she’ll run in next year’s European elections as an independent candidate within the European Socialists and Democrats Group.

The MEP for Leinster resigned from the Labour Parliamentary Party in April.

via MEP Childers resigns from Labour | Irish Examiner.

Labour, Crisis and Heaves – what happens next

The Labour party is in the midst of an internal storm. A storm the leadership is trying to control. We are not used to such events in the Labour party, associating them more with their partner FG and even more with the heyday of FF. However, heaves are not easy to organise or execute, just ask Richard Bruton and Leo Varadkar. It’s a game that requires huge political tact.

So the first thing to ask is why are Labour in this position? That’s simple, firstly they over promised at the election, the buck for that stops with the leader. Secondly, the perception is that Labour are being rolled over by FG. Eamon Gilmore has done himself no favours by being so determined to always show a united front with End Kenny. Distance and the odd falling out can destabilise governments but it is much better for your leadership.

The next question to ask is how serious are the rumours of a possible heave? They are pretty serious. I said at the start of the year that Eamon Gilmore was in a spot of bother and things have got worse since that. Labour are losing far too many personnel. The grassroots are feeling sidelined and angry. Now, we all know that in the normal course of events party grassroots don’t make the big decisions, however, once they start to get agitated they have enormous power as TDs feel the pressure and start to listen to people they are close to on the ground about the implications for their seat. All of those who have walked out of Labour parliamentary party are gone unless the leader changes. The only way to heal a rift is to move on from it and to do that, a leader must be changed. This is even true when a heave occurs. An FF leader never lost a heave vote. It’s what happed after that caused problems. Equally I have always maintained had Richard Bruton and Leo Varadkar and others not agreed to return to the FG front bench and held their nerve, Enda Kenny would not be Taoiseach today.

Labour are starting to realise that the only way they can convince people they are going to change and get tougher is if they start with a new face and perhaps also remove some others at cabinet. Pat Rabbitte and Brendan Howlin will be most certainly in the firing line.

Now, back up the horse, because all is not lost for Eamon Gilmore. He is rumoured to be talking to TDs. That’s a wise move, he needs to know what he’s dealing with then he needs a strategy. The first stage of this would be to try calm fears, and avoid an all out vote against him. Heaves are useless and get no where unless one of your front bench moves to support it. Gilmore can rest assured that he has strong support from his ‘old boys’ he has one weak link, Joan Burton. He needs to stop Joan making any attempts in the short term and just buy some time.

Joan has her own issues. She knows there are limits to what Labour can achieve. If she were to take over then she would certainly be expected to take a tougher line with FG and be far less chummy with them. That’s fine, she also knows that FG are desperate to remain in power and avoid an election so she could get a few big wins on that basis, but it would require brinkmanship and that will weaken the government. In reality such a strategy may start to halt the Labour decline, even gain them a few points but it wont be huge (a few points could be at least 10 seats saved though). However it’s unlikely the government would last full term, she would be looking at an election in 12 -18 months. Timing would be everything. She may well prefer if Gilmore could remain for another year and she could face such a strategy and timescale from next year. However, the opportunity may be presenting itself in the coming months. Timing is everything in such a strategy. This helps Gilmore as he may be able to keep Joan onside for the next while.

That’s valuable breathing space but then he needs to figure out how to use it. He needs to talk to Enda. The chummy façade needs to stop. FG need to realise that they are better off with Gilmore than whomever might replace him, therefore they need to find an issue that they can publicly disagree on, let it carry on, argue, and then allow Eamon a decisive victory that will shore up his support. It may hurt FG but its better than the alternative and if FG are really smart then they can surely find an issue that they know they can afford to lose on but matters to Labour.

That would allow Eamon Gilmore escape from his current predicament, but he’s on the ropes right now and there are a lot of ‘Ifs’ in that strategy. Those in Labour hoping for change need to be far more organised and need to know who they support. No matter how you look at it, Eamon Gilmore is now only Leader at the behest of Joan Burton, she can decide to loyally follow him until its too late (a bit like Micheál Martin did with Cowen) or she can ensure he is removed now and give Labour a fighting chance of showing a new image. The question is does she want the job? Such heaves require a certain steel, an ability to stand by what you do and accept the repercussions, they can even end your career. It needs enormous conviction. All sides will be tested in the months ahead

Labour, Crisis and Heaves – what happens next.

After Budget 2013, Labour’s goose is surely cooked

Even though there are another three years to go to an election, the goose is already cooked for many Labour TDs. By Vincent Browne.

Michael McGrath, the Fianna Fáil spokesman on finance, responding to the budget on 5 December, said: “Fine Gael [in the cabinet discussions] showed that its absolute priority in the budget is to protect those who have most. We are told the Labour Party made valiant efforts to protect households dependent on social protection but, clearly, it has failed.”

Interestingly, at this point, Ruairi Quinn intervened to say: “Not so.”

Even those of us who might be sceptical about Quinn’s denials of having earlier signalled to a parliamentary Labour Party meeting that he had no confidence in Minister for Health James Reilly might be disposed to accept his word on this – ie, that Labour did not make valiant efforts to protect households depending on social protection.

McGrath went on to say: “The price Fine Gael wanted to extract for considering even a modest increase in tax for those earning more than €100,000 was to cut the most basic welfare payments. Fine Gael used the basic welfare payment of €188 per week as a negotiating chip to protect those earning more than €100,000 per year…

“In the face of this resistance from Fine Gael, the Labour Party capitulated and accepted the symbolic fig leaf of a so-called mansion tax that will affect a small number of people and bring in little additional revenue. Principles that are articulated in opposition are forgotten around the table of power.”

It is incomprehensible that the Labour Party would have agreed to break its solemn and much-advertised election promise not to allow any cut in child benefit, let alone this cut – €10 a month for the first and second child, €18 for the third child and €30 for the fourth and other children – and to do so in a way that will cause further terrible hardship to those whom Labour purports to protect.

I suspect this budget debacle was engineered in the first instance by the attempt to stop the flood of cabinet leaks that marked the lead-up to the 2012 budget a year ago, by confining the deliberations to the four ministers on the economic committee: Enda Kenny, Eamon Gilmore, Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin.

As Kenny and Gilmore are otherwise largely preoccupied, this left just Noonan and Howlin, both practised political disasters.

Noonan almost did in the Fine Gael party a decade ago, while Howlin – admittedly ably assisted by Alan Shatter – managed to lose the referendum on Oireachtas inquiries.

By the time other ministers became involved in the overall schema of the budget, I suspect it was too late to unpick the big decisions – particularly the decisions on PRSI, the household tax, respite care and child benefit – to protect the wealthy from increased charges or taxes. But perhaps this is a naive, benign assumption, and it certainly does not disguise the instinctual response of Fine Gael to the crisis: to afflict the afflicted and cosset the cosseted. Nor does it disguise the instinctual reflex of Labour ministers to remain in office almost at all costs, probably believing that this is somehow in the national interest.

An exacerbation of all this has been the disingenuous Labour claim that the budget involved a €500 million “wealth tax package”, whereas the true figure is €114 million in 2013 and €174 million in a full year, as Michael Taft of Unite has shown. The situation was made even worse by Gilmore and Joan Burton telling us how difficult all these decisions have been – for them.

Róisín Shortall again made a telling point at Gilmore in her contribution to the Dáil debate on the budget. She noted how the tax relief on pensions costs the exchequer €2.5 billion annually, and around 80% of this relief goes to the top 20% of income earners.

Pointedly, she asked: “On what basis does the Tánaiste believe it is any way fair that a person should be able to receive a lump sum of €200,000 tax-free? What is the basis for continuing with a regime, given that many thousands of taxpayers and others, who cannot afford to make pension provision for themselves, are in effect paying for the significant tax-free pension lump-sums of some of the wealthiest people in the country?”

It is all very dismal for Labour – made all the more so by Mario Draghi, who made it clear on 6 December that it is very much Frankfurt’s way, not Labour’s way, as far the €30 billion Anglo promissory notes are concerned. Even though there are another three years to go to an election, the goose is already cooked for many Labour TDs.

But there is a modicum of hope.

Tom O’Connor, the political scientist, has shown evidence that a left-leaning majority might be emerging (including Labour among the left). He notes that, in 1987, the left was at 15%, in 1997 at 24%, in 2007 at 25%, in 2011 at 40% and, according to the Red C poll in the Sunday Business Post on 2 December, at 43% now.

It is not entirely improbable that the left (Labour, Sinn Féin, United Left Alliance and left-leaning independents) will be close to 50%.

That might be interesting – or it might, once again, be more of the same.

Image top (the Labour Parliamentary Party at the beginning of the 31st Dáil, in March 2011): The Labour Party.

via Irish Politics, Current Affairs and Magazine Archive – Politico.ie | After Budget 2013, Labour’s goose is surely cooked.

via After Budget 2013, Labour’s goose is surely cooked.

What €325 cut means for one boy with autism

The respite care grant is soon eaten up by the costs associated with having an autistic child, writes Maeve Sheehan

IN the corridors of power, the fight to reverse the cut to the respite care grant has moved on to dissent in the Labour Party and whether its leader Eamon Gilmore is in trouble. In the real world, meanwhile, thousands of families will be sitting down with pens and papers and bills to figure out what impact the Government decision to cut €325 from the €1,700 grant will have on their lives.

The grant means different things to different families. It’s paid out in one lump sum, usually in June, to all registered carers. The payment is supposed to be in lieu of residential services to relieve those providing round-the-clock care to loved ones. Deirdre O’Driscoll, chief executive of Care World, provider of care and respite services to families and the HSE, said the reduced grant of €1,375 will buy one week’s live-in respite care (€1,025) with enough left over to buy extra care hours, which cost roughly €25 an hour.

“This is not simply a cheque that goes into a private care company. It is more of an integrated approach where the family comes up with a solution that’s best for them,” said Deirdre O’Driscoll. “They may not be purchasing home care with that grant. They may pay lump-sum bills.”

It’s basically up to families to choose how to spend the money. For one Galway family, the respite care grant means two hours’ extra therapy every week for their profoundly autistic son.

Cianan, 8, is the second youngest of Niall and Niamh O Brolchain’s five children. With an intellectual disability such as autism, the more training and therapy a child can get, the better his chances. “We do everything we can to help him,” said Niall O Brolchain.

The family have five children aged between five and 19. Niall is a former Green Party

councillor and Mayor of Galway, and was briefly a senator – although not for long enough to qualify for a pension. He left politics after the last election to set up his own e-commerce business, and is doing a postgraduate course in digital marketing.

Niamh is a full-time carer to Cianan, who needs 24-hour attention, and is a recipient of the carer’s allowance and the means-tested household benefits package that contributes to the costs of phone and heating. The O Brolchains count themselves lucky in that Cianan attends a local school where teachers are trained to care for children with autism, and has an assistance dog, a Golden Retriever, who has made an immeasurable difference to his life. Even with the speech and occupational therapy he gets at school, Cianan still needs more.

The O Brolchains pay either €30 or €40 an hour – depending on the qualification of the tutor – for a two-hour session at home each week. The cost of those two-hour sessions over a year comes in at a minimum of €3,000. So it’s easy to see how the €1,700 respite care grant would be eaten up.

There are other costs on top that again, the kind that come with having a profoundly autistic child. The cost of cleaning walls; of repairing or replacing household goods that have been smashed; of regular visits to the doctor for illness or injuries, self-inflicted or otherwise.

A child with autism can be “extremely disruptive” to a family, said Niall. “I know in lots of other areas of care it’s difficult too but autism can be very disruptive at times. As somebody put it recently, a lot of autistic kids are frightened of everything at certain stages of their lives. The merest change of routine can cause havoc, [leading to behaviour such as] throwing things on the ground.

“On an average day, you will have 10 to 15 per cent of the stuff you buy in the shop each week ending up on the floor. Things like flour, jam, we’d buy a number of cartons of orange juice and we’d find that he’s poured them all into vinegar or something. . . and he’ll very kindly come around to everyone in the family and offer it to us.”

The constant watchful caring doesn’t stop at bed time, either. For years, Cianan didn’t sleep. “It impacts on the family in a very, very big way. Anyone with autism will tell you a similar story,” said Niall.

Their son’s condition also takes its toll on their life as a

ANALYSIS PAGE 28

couple. “We can’t have a normal babysitter. We hardly ever get out. It is very expensive to arrange holidays or going anywhere. We rarely do,” he said.

The family is down €1,500 a year since the Budget, between the cuts to the respite grant, child benefit and cuts to the household benefits package.

But the money spent on Cianan’s therapy and his education has made an enormous difference to himself and his family. For a child who did not speak until the age of five, he not only attends Abalta special school but is also able to go to Galway Educate Together national school for a few hours each week.

What the O Brolchains ask politicians to remember is that the respite grant is not just a hand-out – it is paid to families because the State services to look after their loved ones are inadequate. “The respite grant is given in lieu of services because they don’t have enough respite to cater for every person who is entitled to it in the country,” said Niamh.

Parents of children with autism are paying out a hell of a lot more money than is coming in from the Government. “It really isn’t close to enough to giving them the kind of care they need,” said Niall.

“What is much more useful is to have proper respite care services in the first place, where people can step or there are properly managed places where you can bring your child and there will be people on hand to deal with that. Then you wouldn’t need the grants.”

The Department of Social Protection has argued that the cut to respite care will save €26m, at a time when the core pay of carers has not been touched, that the numbers of people qualifying for benefits is rising, and all of this is contributing to the drain on the public purse.

The most recent survey on how families use the respite care grant is six years old and way out of date, in terms of the economic climate in which carers now live.

The survey of more than 2,000 carers found that more than one in four families used the grant simply to cope with their day-to-day financial expenses. After that, about 16 per cent of carers used the money to take a holiday while only 6 per cent of those surveyed used the money to buy in respite care for their loved one. At the time of the survey, the respite care grant was €1,200. (It was increased to €1,700 in 2008.)

But times have changed. During the wave of protests outside Leinster House since the cut to the respite care grant was introduced, family after family spoke of using the money to pay heating or electricity or food bills.

According to carers groups, using the money to fund actual physical respite care for your loved one is at risk of becoming a luxury in itself.

via What €325 cut means for one boy with autism – National News – Independent.ie.

via What €325 cut means for one boy with autism – National News – Independent.ie.

Broken promise: Gilmore in trouble as TDs rebel over Budget

IN a weekend of discontent, furious Labour TDs have declared the controversial cut to child benefit in the Budget a “red-line” issue and have rounded on their leader Eamon Gilmore.

Launching a scathing attack on Mr Gilmore and other ministers, the Labour senator John Whelan said: “This is a Cabinet of grey-haired old men who are detached from the lives of working families.”

In a reference to the expected retirement of most of the Cabinet at the next election, Mr Whelan asked: “Who among them will have to face mothers at the next election to explain their actions?”

At the last general election, Labour vowed to protect child benefit, but the monthly rate was cut in the Budget by €10 per child to €130 for the first three children. The cut come into effect in January. A further cut of €10 is to be implemented for a fourth and subsequent children from January 2014.

The entire measure will cost many hard-pressed families up to €1,500 a year before other cuts and taxes are taken into account, such as changes to PRSI and the property tax.

Of the 45 members of Labour’s parliamentary party, 12 TDs and senators have expressed varying degrees of concern, both publicly and privately, at the direction their party is taking in Government.

It has also also emerged that Labour’s chairman, Colm Keaveney, has written to TDs and senators – in defiance of the party leadership – to ask for complaints, which he has said he will urgently take to Mr Gilmore. While Mr Gilmore and other Labour ministers are anxious to maintain control over internal dissent, Mr Keaveney wrote: “The last week has been a difficult one for us as a party.

“The Budget presented many challenges for us as we are in Government with a party that operates according to a very different set of values and objectives from our own.

“Email me with your thoughts and reflection on the Budget,” he urged, “so that I may express them back to the party organisation and leadership and, in particular, at our next meeting of the executive board.”

As Sinn Fein this weekend mounted protests outside the constituency offices of Labour TDs and senators nationwide, the feedback to Mr Gilmore and his colleagues was unequivocal.

Mr Whelan said: “I am the eldest of a family of seven. I grew up in a council estate in Monasterevin (Co Kildare). Like many families, I know first hand the importance of children’s allowance to help make ends meet.

“This child benefit cut is hard to stomach as it impacts so hard on lower-income families who need it most.

“And now, thanks to this unfair cut, I have Brian Stanley and Sinn Fein protesting outside my office in Portlaoise today, making more noise, when I am trying to make a difference, change things and have these cutbacks on children reversed.”

Another senior and widely respected Labour TD said: “Child benefit has to be protected. The moment I heard the Budget, I knew this was going to be the red-line issue.

“We have created a poverty trap for working Irish families who need child benefit, not as a luxury, but to live, to provide school lunches for the kids.”

In a reference to current unease within Labour, Mr Whelan added: “Roisin Shorthall, who still carries real moral authority in the party, asked if the Budget had been poverty-proofed – and answer there was none.”

Another rural TD told the Sunday Independent: “We’re trying to explain why parents can’t buy school dinners for their children and Gilmore is out in Foreign Affairs talking about saving the world.

“He is not where we want or need him to be. We are losing our entire moral and political platform.”

Despite the outrage, however, the expectation as of now is that the Social Welfare Bill, which implements the cuts in child benefit, will be passed without change in January.

However, there is an expectation that several Labour TDs will either vote against the measure or abstain, thus losing the party whip and joining several former colleagues in opposition, including Ms Shortall.

A campaign to change some of what are regarded as the more severe Budget cuts is likely to be sustained and increased over Christmas and into the new year.

A senior Labour TD said last night: “We are going to be annihilated if we continue on like this. We have already abandoned several of the key promises we made during the election.”

Also yesterday, several TDs expressed anger at the leadership’s failure to secure a three per cent increase in the Universal Social Charge for people earning over €100,000.

There was also huge concern at the implication of PRSI changes, which will result in more reductions in the take-home pay of all workers, and hit low- and middle-income earners in particular.

However, other Labour Oireachtas members are still trying to focus attention on the opposition.

Donegal senator Jimmy Harte said it was “very difficult to justify these tough decisions” but that no credible alternatives had been put forward by either Sinn Fein or Fianna Fail.

He added: “I am very unhappy with a lot of what was in the Budget, the respite care cuts and child benefit. I would have liked to have seen a solidarity tax included.”

Many Labour TDs and senators were scathing in private but unwilling to state publicly their true feelings.

Others spoke openly of how the cuts are difficult to stomach but stopped short of directly criticising Mr Gilmore and Labour ministers.

Meath East TD Dominic Hannigan said: “Nobody likes having to make these cuts. The best we can do is to ensure they are as fair as possible.”

In a further sign of concern within the party, the Labour equivalent of the Fine Gael ‘five-a-side’ group of disenchanted – but so far loyal – first-time TDs has emerged.

Described as “hardcore Labour” and said to be concerned with maintaining the party’s identity, some of the names believed to be involved include Ann Phelan (Carlow Kilkenny) and Dublin TDs Robert Dowds, Eamon Maloney and Michael Conaghan. Derek Nolan (Galway West) is said to be “loosely affiliated” to the group.

Mr Dowds said he held a meeting on Friday in his constituency to discuss the impact of the Budget.

“People realised it was a difficult Budget and that we have very little option at this stage – but it is difficult.”

He felt that ministers Joan Burton and Ruairi Quinn had done a “brilliant job” in ensuring the cuts were limited.

At least seven other TDs, including Mr Keaveney, have also expressed a degree of concern about the party’s direction. They include Michael McNamara (Clare); Brendan Ryan (Dublin North); Michael McCarthy (Cork South West); Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West); Ciara Conway (Waterford); and Mr Hannigan.

Senators John Kelly, John Gilroy, Denis Landy and James Heffernan are also openly disaffected with the “current direction of the party”.

While the anger is palpable within Labour, some in the party described Mr Keaveney’s actions as an open refutation of the party leadership, with whom he has endured a rocky relationship.

via Broken promise: Gilmore in trouble as TDs rebel over Budget – National News – Independent.ie.

via Broken promise: Gilmore in trouble as TDs rebel over Budget – National News – Independent.ie.

Gilmore’s Old Network Protects Reilly Care Racket

The leader of Ireland’s parliamentary opposition, Mr Martin said he had been looking for information on the location of the 20 primary care centre sites for months, while it appears the Labour partnership in the Coalition Government was facilitating a cover-up. It would appear their partners in the so called media of the left such as Indymedia Ireland are also involved in censorship, to protect their former Stalinist comrade now private healthcare lobbyist, Gilmore.

Gilmore’s Criminal Private Healthcare Buddy

The leader of Ireland’s parliamentary opposition, Mr Martin said he had been looking for information on the location of the 20 primary care centre sites for months, while it appears the Labour partnership in the Coalition Government was facilitating a cover-up.

“It took us some months through the Freedom of Information act to get this very basic information, which I have been asking for in the Dáil for the last number of months, I asked the Tánaiste in the Dáil could he produce and would he publish this documentation immediately and of course they refused. The freedom of information request was delayed for a further month, which really illustrates complete contempt for the Dáil, a blatant lack of transparency and we now know why.”

As reported by The Irish Times of last Saturday, Swords and Balbriggan were added the day before the announcement of the chosen sites, while Ballaghaderreen and Kilkenny were put on the list, just hours before it was announced. Indymedia Ireland are also censoring material related to this cover-up, along with censoring material initially published but later removed, related to the murder in a Galway hospital, of a mother refused an abortion, to save her life. Indymedia Ireland are also involved in massive censorship of matters relating to Marian Price, with the removal of a family statement on the seriously deteriorating health of this political internee.

�Shortall who resigned from her post in the Labour coalition on principle, said at the weekend this revelation showed “blatant stroke politics” were behind the decision. Dr Reilly “started off by assisting some of his colleagues and looking after some of his colleagues, and then at the last minute slipping in another four, two of which were in his own constituency.This documentation gives the lie to the many convoluted excuses and justifications that Minister Reilly and his colleagues gave in the Dáil and elsewhere to claim that there was some other criteria used .. other than pure political patronage.”

In October Dr Reilly told the Dáil, that the rationale behind the decision on primary care centres chosen, were made from a list with a “logistical logarithmic progression”. Ms Shortall said the documents demonstrated this justification to be “codswallop”. Likewise the bullscutter on a abortion and the censorshit of Indymedia Ireland relative to Marian Price and Eamon Gilmore, has a distinct whiff of the old sticky, RTE, Brit censorshit contagion. They are a disgraceful example of the sell out of the Irish working class both in parliament and in the Irish media in the closed shop of passes for politics in the clearly unfree Irish state that is compromised to secret dark forces.

The orginal vote of no confindence was called after it was reported that a list of primary care centre sites was altered the evening before its launch to include four new centres, two of which were in Dr Reilly’s constituency. The two centres, located in Swords and Balbriggan, were added to the priority list despite them not being located in the top 30 locations drawn up by the HSE and then minister Róisín Shortall.

Meanwhile Reilly has the neck to insist this morning, that he stood by his actions. “I have made it very clear that I stand over what I did and if I had to do it all again I’d do what I did, there is very clearly a need for primary care centres in all of the locations mentioned.” Mr Martin said he had been trying to get this most basic of information on the location of the centres for several months. Provisional Sinn Féin made new calls or Dr Reilly’s resignation with party health spokesman Caoimhghin O Caolain saying Reily’s position was untenable following the revelations about the timing of the amendments to the primary care centre priority list. He said the plan needed to be revisited and revised in a publicly accountable way to ensure there was no bias involved in the allocation of the centres.”

Eamon Gilmore who has firmly supported Reilly, should also resign immediately, along with all of the agents involved in systematic media censorship in Ireland, of all articles related to the progressive resolution of problems stemming from ignorance in Ireland, as a result of persistent censorship in both the corporate and infiltrated media of Ireland.

Related Link: http://irishblog-irelandblog.blogspot.com/

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore says he has full faith in Dr James Reilly

Related Link: http://podcastireland-irishblog.blogspot.com/

Ms

via MI5/MI6/ Media Mafia Ireland – Indymedia Ireland.

via Gilmore’s Old Network Protects ReillyCare Racket.

Gilmore bypasses Reilly on children’s hospital decision –

 

TANAISTE Eamon Gilmore is carrying out his own research on children’s hospital locations in a sign of a breakdown of trust in Health Minister James Reilly.

The behind-the-scenes moves illustrate just how poor the working relationship is between Dr Reilly and the Labour Party.

As a result, Mr Gilmore’s advisers are talking with the various bidders and compiling their own file on where to locate the new national facility, the Irish Independent has learned.

Mr Gilmore’s desire to be informed independently of the decision-making process follows the controversy over Dr Reilly’s selection of primary care centres. “He does like to get his own information.

“Based on recent events, you can’t say it’s surprising,” a senior government source said.

The children’s hospital will be the largest capital infrastructure project agreed by the Government.

The race for the facility is neck-and-neck between St James’s Hospital and James Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, with the Coombe in third place as an “alternative” and the original site in the Mater Hospital in fourth.

“James’s and Blanchardstown stand out, followed by the Coombe and then the Mater,” a senior government source said.

Dr Reilly has got an expert report back assessing the options for the hospital.

The Dolphin Report, named after its chairman Frank Dolphin, didn’t rank the different locations, leaving it up to Dr Reilly to make a recommendation.

The decision is due to be agreed between Taoiseach Enda Kenny, the Tanaiste and Health Minister before being brought to Cabinet for ratification.

But the trio has yet to meet, with no date scheduled for the discussion.

Despite Mr Kenny saying a fortnight ago that the decision would be taken within 10 days, there is no sign of it coming to Government.

Dr Reilly will formally take the decision to his cabinet colleagues with the endorsement of the Taoiseach and Tanaiste.

Mr Gilmore’s officials have had meetings with a number of those involved in the various bids. There has also been specific information requested from bidders.

via Gilmore bypasses Reilly on children’s hospital decision – National News – Independent.ie.

via Gilmore bypasses Reilly on children’s hospital decision – National News – Independent.ie.

Two-thirds of Irish support gay marriage new poll shows |

A new poll shows that 66 percent of Irish adults support same-sex marriage.

According to the Journal.ie, the Behaviour and Attitudes poll in the Sunday Times found that among the 971 people who were surveyed earlier this month believe in gay marriage with legal entitlements.

The poll showed support for gay marriage is slightly stronger among women than men and is higher in urban areas than in rural areas.

While the majority of those polled believe in legal same-sex marriage, 26 percent believed that current legislation should remain where it stands where gay couples can only enter a civil partnership and eight percent said they did not know or had no opinion on the issue.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has described the issue of gay marriage as the “civil rights issue of this generation.”

via Two-thirds of Irish support gay marriage new poll shows | Irish News and Politics spanning the US, Ireland and the World | IrishCentral.

via Two-thirds of Irish support gay marriage new poll shows | Irish News and Politics spanning the US, Ireland and the World | IrishCentral.

People Before Profit, TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, condemns the Taoiseach for “deliberately and cynically misleading the Dail” during Leaders Questions this afternoon. | United Left Alliance

In a statement this afternoon, Richard Boyd Barrett TD, condemned the Taoiseach for deliberately misleading the Dail during Leaders Questions. In response to a question about the plight of Home Help workers and those who rely on their services, the Taoiseach, rather than answering the question, repeated a false claim made by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore in the Dail last week, relating to disability cuts in the Dun Laoghaire area.

The Taoiseach was referring to Leaders Questions on 11 Oct, when Deputy Boyd Barrett raised the issue of cuts to Angels Quest Respite services with the Tánaiste. At the time, the Tánaiste misled the Dail and said that Deputy Boyd Barrett was “using” the issue of cuts to disabled people for his own political gain and claimed that he had an email in his possession written by Deputy Boyd Barrett, which confirmed this.

The Taoiseach repeated this claim again today and also said that Deputy Boyd Barrett had advised the parents of children affected by the cuts to the respite services to not meet with the Director of Services.

In fact the email referred to was written by one of the parents affected by the cuts to respite services and a member of the executive committee of the Carmona Parents and Families Friends Association. Eamon Gilmore knew this when he falsely claimed it was written by Deputy Boyd Barrett. Unless the Tánaiste also mislead the Taoiseach, the Taoiseach would also have known when he repeated the claim today that Deputy Boyd Barrett was the author of the email.

(See original email pasted below and subsequent comments by parents group on Tánaiste’s misrepresentation of the email and its authorship.)

Deputy Boyd Barrett said: “Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have deliberately and cynically misled the house. They said things that were completely untrue and that they knew were untrue when they said them. In the process, they also misrepresented and trivialised the concerns of parents of the disabled children who are in Angels Quest – falsely claiming they had refused a meeting with the director of services to discuss the future of Angels Quest. Eamon Gilmore and Enda Kenny knew I had not written this email and yet they said said I had. They knew the parents had agreed to a meeting with Carmona Services but claimed they had not. This is a disgraceful abuse of their positions as the most senior politicians in the country and disgraceful abuse of the Dail itself.

via People Before Profit, TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, condemns the Taoiseach for “deliberately and cynically misleading the Dail” during Leaders Questions this afternoon. | United Left Alliance.

via People Before Profit, TD, Richard Boyd Barrett, condemns the Taoiseach for “deliberately and cynically misleading the Dail” during Leaders Questions this afternoon. | United Left Alliance.

The Central Bank to Move Premises

This morning the Central bank announced that it would move premises within the next twelve months. A spokesperson for the bank stated they needed a location more suitable to today’s working environment. A site outside the city centre has been located.

A statement from The Taoiseach office said that the friends of Dr. James Reilly were not involved in the ownership of this site

Real News Nibbles from Around the Country

Fingal

 Labour Party Mayor Challenges Gilmore to sack Reilly

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Mayor of Fingal Cian O’Callaghan, the chairperson of the council in north Dublin, believes Gilmore must compel Dr Reilly to resign.

“The Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore TD must insist that the Minister for Health James Reilly TD resigns with immediate effect. The latest revelations show yet again that Minister Reilly is failing to reform our healthcare system in the best interests of the country,” he says.

“The wrong Minister in the Department of Health resigned last week. James Reilly has failed to deliver on key reforms regarding consultants pay, reducing the bill for generic drugs and rolling out free GP care for people with long term

Dear Mayor

Examine the achievements of both and you will observe Shortstaw achieved nothing whilst Reilly got scored two own goals. The best result would have been two resiginations.

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Westmeath

T.D. Willie Penrose has described Róisín Shortall‘s resignation as “a warning shot” to the government.

Deputy Penrose, who himself resigned as a Labour Party Minister of State last year, over the closure of Columb Barracks in Mullingar, discussed Ms. Shortall’s decision on Midlands 103 last said

“This is a warning shot across the bows of Government, and especially to the Fine Gael element therein, that we are not there to be walked upon or to roll over,” he said.

Willie wake up there is no ammunition left in Mullingar

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SLIGO

From The Champion

Anti-Zionist slogans have appeared along one of Sligo’s busiest roads.

In green and red ink, they were daubed on a wall at the entrance to steps beside Markievicz Road.

The steps lead up to Barrack Street, which overlooks the town.

The slogans call for a “Free Palestine” and “Zion Out.”

What the press missed further down the road was no asylum anywhere for Kenny

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ROSCOMMON

Roscommon County Council has been criticized for not taking seriously the health and safety of the people of Tibohine, after its decision to grant another waste facility permit at a site in the area.

Last month, the Council granted Biocore Environmental AD1 Limited a waste facility permit for 19,000 tons of waste. This was despite of objections raised by Tibohine residents, Tibohine Action Group, Tibohine Community Friends, AWN Consulting and the Inland Fisheries Ireland.

And I thought Roscommon was the wastelands

How big a liar is the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore?

Just another Whopper

On the evidence of broken promises, his undertakings do not stand up to examination.

Lie Number 1: You can see him on YouTube during canvassing during the last election promising labour would not be making disability cutbacks. If you were to ask the Minister the same question, today the likely response would be we did not make any cutbacks or the circumstances have changed.

Lie Number 2: with Labour in Government, he stated that the future of Mullingar barracks was secure. Mullingar Barracks is now no more and with it, 200 years of history have disappeared down the swanee.

Lie Number 3: After the defeat of Lisbon treaty act one he stated, “We will not be supporting a rerun of the treaty” oh dear what happens it turns out at more or less the same Wikileaks cabals highlight, he was saying the reverse to the US Embassy and state department.

As for The Roisin  Shortall Saga well that another story f backtracking and shifting sands and one suspects many a lie

Well now, we know a politician will promise with a straight face even when he knows the destiny of the pledge is the back boiler of infinity.

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“Politicians, like bombers, seldom see their victims…” – Donald Boudreaux,