Miriam Lord: It's been like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds on Merrion Street since the sun started to shine
Mooney Goes Wild should do a programme from Leinster House.
For starters, there is the squawking and squealing
Dáil
Chorus, which never happens too early in the morning and runs all through the year with long breaks for the holidays.
And then there's the wildlife.
Rats. Mice. Inside and out.
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Slugs in the basement. Bluebottle infestations. Incontinent pigeons. Black ants. Randy moths. Foxes breaking and entering.
And don't mention the dive-bombing seagulls snatching grub from unwitting snackers on the plinth.
Here's the latest on the wildlife front. It seems the seagulls are upping their game and launching a ground war to go with the usual aerial offensive. Their target is
Government Buildings
.
From the Taoiseach down, nobody is safe. The corridors of power could be destroyed this weekend.
Maintenance sent an email to all occupants yesterday explaining the situation.
'As we are experiencing some (rare, much-needed and well deserved!) warm weather at the moment, a lot of windows in the building are open during the day.
'Please ensure that any windows you may have opened during the day are closed before you leave in the evening, including any windows on the corridors.
'Your co-operation is much appreciated as we have had a few seagulls visiting!'
Apparently it has been like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds on Merrion Street since the sun started to shine with seagulls ducking in through the open windows once people go home and making themselves at home.
Eating anything they can find and pooing with abandon. The chequerboard ministerial corridor will be ruined entirely.
It couldn't be that bad?
A bird fancier tells us: 'If they don't close those windows they'll come in on Monday morning and it'll be like Dumbo the Elephant was flying around the place all weekend'.
Who has the knives out for Jim O'Callaghan?
Is everything all right, Jim?
Justice has always been considered a tough ministerial gig.
But things must be very bad in the St Stephen's Green HQ if
Jim O'Callaghan
's interesting aside in the Dáil on Thursday is anything to go by.
During questions on Justice,
Gary Gannon
of the Soc Dems asked the Minister what he intends to do to alleviate 'the worsening crisis of prison overcrowding, where over 350 people are reportedly sleeping on floors and prison numbers are at a record high'.
Jim began by saying he has already embarked on a prison visiting programme.
'Since I've been made Minister I've been to Cork Prison, I've been to Cloverhill and I'm going to another prison on Monday,' he revealed.
'I intend to visit every prison – if I'm lucky enough to survive in office for a sufficient period of time...'
What? Sufficient period of time?
There are 12 active prisons in the country – 10 traditional 'closed' prisons and two 'open' centres. Once he completes his next visit on Monday, Minister O'Callaghan will have four tours under his belt with just eight more prisons to go.
That shouldn't take him too long. At the rate he's going he might even achieve the full set before the summer recess.
If he's lucky enough to survive, that is.
Who has the knives out for poor Jim? Is the Coalition at breaking point already? Is there something we should know?
The
Government
wasn't formed until late in January. It's a bit early for the Minister for Justice and Insecurity to be talking like that.
Social Democrats rejig senior roles
The Leinster House rumour mill cranked into action on Thursday with rumblings about big changes afoot in the
Social Democrats
.
Sinéad Gibney
, the party's then spokesperson on foreign affairs, was mentioned in dispatches. She recently refused to say whether she would remain in the parliamentary party if the suspended TD
Eoin Hayes
was readmitted.
The Dublin Bay South TD was suspended indefinitely for misleading the party over when he sold his shares in a firm which supplies the Israeli military.
The rumour was unfounded. Sinéad was not leaving the party nor was Eoin returning – at least, not yet.
Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney. Photograph: Stephen Collins/Collins
In a somewhat less dramatic development, the Soc Dems announced their deputy for Dublin Rathdown was being replaced as spokesperson on foreign affairs by Senator Patricia Stephenson in a rejigging of senior roles.
Sinead is now spokesperson on enterprise, trade and rmployment; arts, media, communications and culture; and efence.
She later said: 'I know that
Gaza
in particular is a hugely important topic for everybody right now, so it is important to say this is not going to stop me or any other member of the parliamentary party continuing to work on Gaza and hold this Government to account on its inaction.'
The week before, when still wearing her Foreign Affairs hat, Sinéad passionately called on the Government to use its position within the European Union to persuade Europe to finally stand up to Israel as it continues its monstrous onslaught on the people of Gaza.
As a mere Opposition TD, Sinéad does not have the power to do this. 'All we can do is use the parliamentary tools that are available to us. We will continue to raise this again, and again and again. I will continue to attend protests. I'll keep getting my nails done with the Palestinian flag.'
That's one way of nailing your colours to the mast.
At the news of Sinéad's replacement,
Alan Shatter
, the former
Fine Gael
minister for justice and diehard defender of Israel, was out of the starting stalls as soon as he could straighten his blinkers.
'The Social Democrats should clarify whether regularly painting their nails with the Palestinian flag remains the party's foreign policy priority or whether its now abandoned,' he gleefully tweeted.
Apart from providing social media fodder to the former minister for justice, Sinéad's tone-deaf nail art comment – given the unfolding catastrophe in Gaza – raised eyebrows among politicians in Leinster House.
We hear some of them are now calling her 'Nailson Mandela'.
Simon Harris surprises Seán Kyne with a cake for a roundy birthday
Happy birthday to Senator Seén Kyne, Fine Gael's leader in the Seanad.
The former TD for Galway West, who lost his seat in 2020 and is in his second term in the Upper House, was 50 yesterday.
On Wednesday, party leader
Simon Harris
surprised him in Leinster House with a birthday cake. It's a miracle the smoke detectors didn't go off with the amount of candles on his Colin the Caterpillar.
Seán was chairing a meeting of senators in the party rooms when Simon burst through the door with Colin the Caterpillar cake ablaze on a big plate.
He hadn't been expecting the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs – who has a hectic travel schedule at the moment – to turn up out of the blue like that. As his colleagues burst into a chorus of 'Happy Birthday', the red-faced and mortified senator didn't know where to look.
McEntee not taxed by questions on inheritance tax
Independent Ireland TD Ken O'Flynn is among a number of TDs and senators who have been asking the Government to reform the inheritance tax system so people who don't have children can pass on the same tax-free amount to their loved ones as parents are allowed to leave to their children.
'Is it equitable that parents like yourself, Minister, with two children, can leave up to €800,000 tax free' he asked Minister for Education
Helen McEntee
, who was standing in for the Tánaiste at Leaders' Questions on Thursday, 'where people like myself with no children ... can [only] leave €80,000 tax free to loved ones? That's 10 times less. The system penalises the childless citizen of this country for the simple fact that they do not or perhaps cannot have children.'
At present, parents and some grandparents can pass on €400,000 to a child tax free.
Other relatives can leave someone €40,000 tax free. For everyone else the limit is €20,000.
The Minister gave a sympathetic but non-committal reply. 'As a Government, we have made changes to our inheritance tax system over the last number of years. I appreciate it does not apply to the scenarios you're referencing…'
The State is telling many thousands of childless people they 'are less deserving and their relationships with their niece, nephew, siblings or lifelong friends simply do not count' argued the TD for Cork North Central.
He gave a striking example of the unfairness of the measure: 'If I leave all my money to the dog's home, the dog's home pays absolutely zero tax. So therefore, the chihuahua has more rights in this country than the childless citizen or my niece or my nephew.'
He got another woolly response.
'This is about all of us collectively looking at our rules and how we can make them more equitable, fairer and how we apply them equally. We have to do so, however, within the parameters and contexts available to us. I am very aware of this and I am sure the Minister is open to doing that.'
Meaningless dogswallop, as the chihuahua might say.
No-show from the Others on union recognition Bill
On Wednesday, the Dáil had a lively discussion on
People Before Profit
's Union Recognition Bill.
Concluding the debate, PBP-Solidarity's
Paul Murphy
began by noting that it was ending 10 minutes ahead of time.
'It's because the Lowry group, who fought so hard to get their time to speak on these matters, don't presumably consider it important to come and speak about trade union rights, or maybe they are embarrassed because they are going to vote against trade union rights later on today.'
The final Opposition speaking slot was for speakers from the 'Others' group. Nobody showed up.
We checked the result of that night's vote.
The Coalition voted against the Bill.
The combined Opposition – parties and independents – supported it.
Two of the three members of the Lowry Udders without Government jobs –
Barry Heneghan
and Gillian Toole, voted down the Bill to allow trade union recognition in workplaces.
Michael Lowry
didn't vote.
Danny Healy-Rae
didn't vote either.
Of the two non-Government supporting independents who are also in the Udders category,
Mattie McGrath
didn't vote and Offaly's
Carol Nolan
voted in favour with the Opposition.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Letters to the Editor, June 21st: On public service, the cost of living and sunscreen
Sir, – A stream of commentary in the columns of The Irish Times has crystalised a sobering truth, that ' Our administrative and legal procedures simply cannot unblock the logjam in time to prevent serious damage ', as Michael McDowell put it. ('There is a way to break the logjam in infrastructure', June 18th). Before last Christmas, Patrick Honohan, former governor of the Central Bank, wrote in an Irish Times article: 'The issue is not so much what the aims of public policy should be... the problem has been in delivery'; and recently an Irish Times editorial spoke of our 'sluggish' administrative processes. A simple example illustrates the depth of this dysfunction: a friend of mine, an experienced property expert who spent much of his career in the public sector, repeatedly attempted to draw attention to suboptimal performance in a prominent State body (mirroring wider poor performance manifest in the ballooning housing crisis) and to offer solutions. As a last resort, he wrote to Taoiseach Micheál Martin in January and, after several reminders in the meantime, he finally received a reply this week, six months on, saying that his letter had been forwarded to Jack Chambers, Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitisation. The Office of the Taoiseach publishes a national risk assessment annually which sets out the '24 strategic risks facing the country in the short, medium and long term'. READ MORE Pandemics, war, housing and social cohesion are mentioned, for example, but never mentioned in this annual assessment is the overarching risk, which if not addressed, compounds all other risks, namely, administrative incompetence and inertia. The Civil Service is not up to the job. Just for example, with 15 grades and associated sign-off authorities above the level of Executive Officer, and several more below EO, Civil Service structures are not fit for purpose in this day of digitisation and AI; reasonable public expectations of personal accountability, with consequences, are thwarted when things go wrong, be it in the national children's hospital, nursing homes, the Office of Public Works, policing or the degradation by nitrates of Our Lady's Island lagoon. To achieve progress on his extensive portfolio of responsibilities, radical public service reform has to be front and centre for Mr Chambers. – Yours, etc, EDDIE MOLLOY, Rathgar, Dublin 6. Rent pressure zones Sir, – While most attention has focused on the likely impact of changes to rent pressure zones (RPZs) on future rents, little consideration seems to have been given to their consequences for house prices. 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The high cost of living in Ireland Sir, – Your front page article ( 'Ireland second most expensive country in Europe ' June 20th), will come as no surprise to anyone holidaying or on business in mainland Europe this year. We have just returned from Cyprus where a bottle of decent supermarket wine was €5.50 (€10 here), 20 cigarettes were €4.30 (€14.50 here) and a litre of unleaded diesel was €1.32 (€1.74 here in rural Donegal). Against an average monthly rent of ¤2,000 in Ireland, €850 a month could get you a furnished two-bed apartment in Paphos with access to a pool and a five-minute drive from the beach and all shopping amenities. Of course, wages are lower (minimum wage of €6.60 an hour there, €13.50 here) but that's irrelevant if you are working from home for a multinational – your salary is the same wherever you are, or like us, you are on a fixed pension income. Around 76 per cent of Greek Cypriots speak English, all government documents are in both languages, they drive on the left and you can keep in touch with news in English from British Forces radio or the English edition of the Cyprus Mail. Annual sunshine hours are 3,000 against 1,500 in Dublin. After 11 years in Ireland we've had enough and are planning a move. If it wasn't for the cat, we'd be there now. – Yours, etc, KENNETH HARPER, Burtonport, Co Donegal. Sir, – Eurostat's finding that Ireland is the second most expensive country in Europe came as no surprise. Donegal friends of ours recently returned from Venice, and when I asked if it had been expensive, they replied: 'Not really – after living in Ireland, Venice seemed quite reasonable.' When Venice starts to feel like a bargain, something has gone badly wrong. – Yours, etc, ENDA CULLEN, Armagh. Sir, – Your recent reporting on Ireland being the second most expensive country in the EU is a timely reminder of the factors driving up costs for households and businesses. Among these, fuel stands out: not because of global market volatility, but because of Irish taxes. We believe Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe should establish an expert group to review how fuel for transport and home heating is taxed. Its remit should be clear: It should secure fair revenue for the State, support the shift to renewable energy and protect vulnerable consumers from punishing costs. Current policy hits hardest those with no alternative. That's not sustainable – environmentally, economically, or politically. – Yours, etc, KEVIN McPARTLAN, Chief executive, Fuels for Ireland, Dublin 1. Sir, – Your article (' Ireland's grocery prices are still soaring. How can that be? 'June 16th) cites many reasons for the huge grocery price hikes which we've all seen in the past year or so. 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It doesn't appear that the supermarkets are taking climate change seriously. – Yours, etc, MARY SIKORA, Rosscarbery, Co Cork. Child poverty is not inevitable Sir, – The latest child poverty monitor from the Children's Rights Alliance is not just a wake-up call, it's a national shame. In one year, more than 45,000 more children in Ireland have been pushed into consistent poverty, bringing the total to nearly 103,000. This is not a statistic. It is a searing indictment of political choices, public apathy, and a system that continues to fail our most vulnerable: our children. Poverty is not inevitable. It's the result of policy decisions that too often favour economic metrics over human dignity. Today, children account for nearly 40 per cent of those in consistent poverty. Thousands go to bed hungry, live in insecure housing, and miss out on the most basic joys of childhood. This, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The Government has made welcome commitments, free school books, hot meals, GP access, but these measures, while helpful, are broad strokes. They do not touch the core of the crisis. The housing emergency is pushing nearly 4,800 children into homelessness, and 230,000 more live in material deprivation, families forced to choose between food and heat, rent and clothing. This is not just a policy gap. It is a moral failure. After nearly four decades working in developing countries, I've seen poverty in its harshest forms, from the famine zones of Africa to the slums of Calcutta. I still remember a six-year-old boy abandoned to die in a sewer. He survived, but only just. His story lives with me because poverty robs children of their worth and their future. While the context is different, children in Ireland are being let down in ways that should horrify us. This isn't just about numbers, it's about values. Do we value children only in rhetoric? 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There are things to envy about the Australian way of life, skin cancer is not one of them. – Yours, etc, BEN AVELING, Ranelagh, Dublin. Nuclear weapons and disarmament Sir, – How can a country with nuclear weapons insist that another country should not have them? The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is signed up to by 191 countries, including five states that have nuclear arms. This treaty, as well as aiming to prevent the proliferation of nuclear arms, looks to the disarmament of those weapons already in existence. As far as I am aware no such disarmament has taken place since the putting in place of the treaty in the 1970s. Don't those with the power to disarm nuclear weapons not know of the utter devastation caused by the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or of the still evident effects of Chernobyl? No country should have nuclear weapons. The fact that some countries do have them causes others to develop these weapons. Can the double standard be stopped and a serious effort made to comply with the aims of the NPT to stop both proliferation and disarm already existing weapons? The consequences of not doing so are unthinkable. – Yours, etc, MARY FITZGERALD, Terenure, Dublin. EuroMillions dejection Sir, – Unlike Brian Cullen (Letters, June 20th) I had a longer period of excitement as I didn't check my tickets until I heard where the winning ticket was sold. My wish always, if it's not me (we have to live in hope!), is the winner is someone who needs it, remains in good health, takes the best of advice and puts their winnings to good use and gives to worthy causes. Again, unlike Brian, 'who just has to go and buy another ticket', I wonder is it some sort of post big jackpot Lotto dejection/ depression that I did not purchase a EuroMillions ticket in my local Centra this morning as the EuroMillions jackpot is ONLY ¤17 million tonight! – Yours, etc, JOE WALSH, Dublin.
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
AG says he cannot help on legal query over Shannon flights that may aid Israel's Gaza war
Attorney General Rossa Fanning has told the Social Democrats that he is not in a position to assist after the party appealed to him to check whether Irish policy on flight inspection at Shannon Airport is consistent with EU customs law. The party's foreign affairs spokeswoman Patricia Stephenson had previously called on the EU anti-fraud watchdog, OLAF, to launch an investigation into the inspection of flights into Shannon which she said may be facilitating Israel's bombardment of Gaza . She also wrote to the Attorney General, along with her party colleague Gary Gannon, asking whether Irish policy is consistent with the State's legal duties under both EU law and the Genocide Convention. In a response, Mr Fanning wrote that while he appreciated the party had written to him 'with the public-spirited concern of conscientious members of the Oireachtas', he was unable to assist as his constitutional role 'does not extend to providing analysis of legal matters to individual members of the Oireachtas'. READ MORE He said that furthermore, 'it would be neither appropriate, nor in accordance with my legal position, for me to act as a conduit in bringing such concerns to the attention of the Government'. [ Ireland seeks 'legal clarity' over Shannon stopover for US deportation flights Opens in new window ] 'As members of the Oireachtas, I trust you will have the opportunity to express to Government directly the concerns you raise in the correspondence to DG TAXUD [Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union] and OLAF.' The Social Democrats have said there is credible evidence that military contractors and private aircraft carrying dual-use goods are moving through Irish airspace and Irish territory en route to Israel. Ms Stephenson has previously said that under EU customs law, Ireland is required to carry out risk-based inspections. 'That means prioritising flights operated by arms brokers or those on known weapons trade routes. That's what the law says - and right now, Ireland isn't following it,' she said. [ New aircraft inspection system planned to prevent illegal transport of weapons through Ireland Opens in new window ] Speaking on Friday after receiving the AG's letter, Ms Stephenson said: 'Given the response of the Attorney-General, it's now important that the Taoiseach clarifies if the Irish State is indeed in breach of EU law in choosing not to inspect planes that are arriving in Shannon and then travelling out of the European Union directly from Ireland. 'Obviously our concern is one of moral failure, regarding Gaza and the weapons travelling through Ireland, but the State can't continue to operate outside of EU Customs and VAT requirements while maintaining this appalling indifference to what is happening in Shannon Airport.'
Irish Times
6 hours ago
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on caring for older people: deserving of dignity, gratitude and respect
Much is rightly made of the statements of intent and idealism that characterised the foundation documents of this Republic. These included the Democratic Programme unveiled at the meeting of the first Dáil in January 1919, in which 'The Irish Republic fully realises the necessity of abolishing the present odious, degrading and foreign Poor Law System, substituting therefor a sympathetic native scheme for the care of the Nation's aged and infirm, who shall not be regarded as a burden, but rather entitled to the Nation's gratitude and consideration'. At the centre of that poor law system established under British rule was the workhouse, which was feared and detested in equal measure. While independent Irish governments subsequently sought to develop a more humane and empathetic social contract, the care of our elderly population has for far too long been compromised, sometimes egregiously. There is excessive reliance on nursing homes, a dependency more alarming given the shortcomings in Ireland's history of institutional care. There has also been a dramatic shift towards the privatisation of these homes. In the 1980s, public nursing homes accounted for roughly 60 per cent of total beds nationally, but a report from the ESRI last year highlighted that in 2022, '83 per cent of all Long-Term Residential Care (LTRC) home beds were provided by voluntary/private sector LTRC homes, with private for-profit operators alone contributing 74 per cent'. Considering the recent revelations by RTÉ Investigates, the Minister of State for Older People and Housing, Kieran O'Donnell, has said he has 'concerns' about the scale of privatisation and has ordered officials to study this issue . The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has highlighted the need to give it more power in relation to private nursing homes and their corporate owners. READ MORE The current controversies are all the more disturbing given it is 20 years since distressing images of the use of Buxton chairs to restrain elderly nursing home residents at the Leas Cross home in Dublin. A subsequent report by consultant geriatrician Desmond O'Neill described the care shortcomings at the home as 'institutional abuse'. As was often and remains the case, various concerns had been raised but it took journalistic exposé to bring matters to a head. In 2022, our population aged 65 years and over was 781,400 and is set to reach over one million by 2030. The number aged over 85 is projected to rise to 301,000 by 2051. What has been uncovered must generate an urgent dynamic to address the care of our elderly, who now, no more than when their needs were voiced by the architects of Irish independence, need to be treated with the dignity, gratitude and respect they deserve.
