Latest news with #SocialDemocrats
Irish Times
3 hours ago
- Politics
- 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.'
The Journal
a day ago
- Politics
- The Journal
Minister criticised after recent deportation flight took off without human rights monitor on board
A GOVERNMENT CHARTER flight that flew to Nigeria earlier this month has been criticised after it emerged that no independent human rights observer was on board the flight. Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon accused the government of 'skipping independent scrutiny' in favour of 'theatre' by allowing the flight to make its journey without a monitor on board. These independent human rights observers were on board the government's two previous charter flights, which saw a combined 71 people deported to Georgia. This was followed by a special charter flight this month where some 35 people, including five children, were deported from Ireland to Nigeria. The flight was heavily criticised afterwards by a Dublin school and by a Clondalkin community group as each had members of their community on board. In response to a Parliamentary Question from Gannon about the makeup of the professional personnel involved in the flight, Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan disclosed that 'due to technical reasons outside the control' of the Department of Justice, the human rights observer was not able to accompany the flight to Lagos. O'Callaghan defended himself from criticism of the flights, telling Gannon that planning and consideration had been given to 'ensure the safety and wellbeing' of the people being removed from Ireland to Nigeria. Role of human rights observers The role of the independent human rights observer is to monitor the use of force and restraints for deportees on the flight. Such observers are currently not mandatory for charter deportation flights in Ireland. However, there are requirements to have such monitors so as to ensure fundamental rights are upheld during forced returns of people. These requirements feature in the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT) but Ireland remains the only EU member state yet to ratify the protocol , despite having signed it in 2007. It is included in the current Programme for Government . They had been present at Dublin Airport before the flight took off and later received a debrief from gardaí who were on board the plane, according to O'Callaghan. In addition to Garda personnel, the returnees on the flights were accompanied by a doctor and an advanced paramedic. The flights are carried out by the Garda National Immigration Bureau. Advertisement In his response to Gannon, seen by The Journal , O'Callaghan said the independent observer was briefed by gardaí afterwards. 'For the charter flight to Nigeria the observer was present in Dublin Airport to monitor the operation prior to departure of the charter flight on 4 June 2025 and meet with returnees including the families concerned,' O'Callaghan said. 'However, due to technical reasons outside the control of my Department, the observer was not able to accompany the flight to Lagos. The observer has been debriefed by a nominated Garda escort on the operation of the flight.' Gannon had asked about the number of professionals present on board, including medical staff, child protection professionals and psychological support personnel. The Dublin Central TD told The Journal that the minister needed to clarify whether he believes a human rights observer is 'essential' for the flights. If so, then O'Callaghan needed to outline 'why did he let the Nigeria flight go ahead' without an observer. He repeated a criticism of the minister's use of the flights as a form of PR and a submission to anti-migrant demonstrations seen over recent years. 'Having the Gardaí who carried out the deportation 'debrief' the observer afterwards isn't oversight, it's theatre,' Gannon said. 'This flight involved children. The State has a legal and moral duty to safeguard their rights at every stage, not just when it's convenient. Skipping independent scrutiny when children are being forcibly removed strips away any pretence of a rights-based approach. What we're seeing is a government more committed to appearing tough than doing things properly. Gannon added that the deportation flights will 'go down as a shameful episode' in the life of the current government. 'It may play well in certain corners of the political world, but anyone with a shred of decency can see how wrong this was,' Gannon claimed. The Fianna Fáil minister said he accepted that deportations were 'challenging' for the people involved. He added that they had received legal orders to leave the State and that the flights were required to ensuring that Ireland's immigration system is 'robust and rules based'. He noted that any person who has been ordered to leave the State is committing a criminal offence and 'can be arrested without warrant if they come into contact with An Garda Síochána'. The 2,113 deportation orders signed this year are nearing last year's total of 2,403 orders. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
We are witnessing the death of American democracy
Contrary to general belief, Weimar democracy did not die when Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933. It died the year before under Franz von Papen, a national conservative with social-Darwinist views and a visceral hatred of liberal modernist 'filth' in all its forms. One of his first actions was to end execution by the guillotine – deemed too Jacobin – and return to the ancient Prussian practice of death by the axe. Von Papen exploited a street clash between Communist Red Front dockers and Nazi Brownshirts on Prussian territory to carry out a constitutional coup against the elected Social Democrat government of Prussia, by far the biggest and most important of Germany's self-governing states. He seized control of policing and state security on the pretext that the Social Democrats were failing to uphold law and order. Historian Sir Richard Evans says this Preußenschlag (Prussian coup) of July 1932 was the critical moment in inter-war Germany, opening the door for much that followed. What Donald Trump has done by activating the California National Guard against the protest of the governor, and then bringing in US Marines – both of which his critics argue are unconstitutional – is a very light version of Preußenschlag, but in some ways it is worse. The street protests in Los Angeles were the result of his own theatrical stunt. You could be forgiven for thinking he deliberately provoked the alleged 'rebellion' in order to set this precedent. One can see now why Trump moved so fast to purge the top echelons of the US defence department, including the three judge advocates general. These officials rule on whether military orders are legal, and when they should be disobeyed. They are legally independent by Congressional statute. Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, told us why they had been sacked: it was to stop them posing any 'roadblocks to orders given by the commander-in-chief'. Did Trump mean it when he told his generals to 'just shoot' American protesters during the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020? We may find out. He also fired the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and others deemed symbols of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion', although one might suspect another motive. An earlier chairman – General Mark Milley – refused to ratify the Putsch of Jan 6 2021, and therefore stopped it stone dead. 'We don't take an oath to a king, or to a tyrant or dictator. We take an oath to the Constitution,' he said. Trump is attacking California on several fronts at once, shrewdly judging that Governor Gavin Newsom is the perfect foil. He is stripping the state of its powers under the Clean Power Act to impose tougher pollution rules than federal levels. He has signed an order blocking California's plan to phase out petrol cars by 2035, and another stopping it capping nitrogen oxide emissions. He now is threatening to withhold federal disaster aid for wildfires. Trump called him 'Governor Newscum' and added in his inimitable style: 'You know, hatred is never a good thing in politics. When you don't like somebody, you don't respect somebody, it's harder for that person to get money if you're on top.' Forgive me for sounding jaundiced, but decades ago I covered the Republican crusade under Speaker Newt Gingrich to restore states rights and check the usurpations of federal power. Gingrich and his party are now egging on the federal military occupation of states that stand in Trump's way. James Carville, veteran Democratic strategist and Clinton-fixer, says the Democrats should bide their time and 'play possum', betting that Trump will self-destruct under the contradictions of his own policies. The bond markets will do the job for them. Congress will drop back into Democrat hands like a ripe fruit in the 2026 mid-terms. I never expected to find myself impugning the ruthless Mr Carville for credulous naivety. Declaration of interest: he once carried out a black ops campaign against me personally from an office in the White House, which I no doubt deserved, all is forgiven anyway. Playing possum is what the German Social Democrats did in the early 1930s. Reading the first two volumes of Sir Richard Evans's magisterial trilogy, The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich in Power, I am struck again and again by the refusal of the moderate middle to face up to what was happening. They had a touching faith that the courts would save them. But the judges were ideologically captured, or frightened, or did what most human beings do in turbulent times: they pre-emptively adapted to keep their families out of trouble. The Social Democrats made another fatal error. They assumed that Hitler's eccentric mish-mash of economic policies would lead quickly to a crisis, greatly underestimating the lift from neo-Keynesian rearmament, so like Trump's gargantuan deficits. American democracy has much deeper roots but the imminent bombing of Iran by the US air force gives pause for thought. There may be excellent reasons to knock out Iran's nuclear capability, though doing in this way, flippantly, like a power-drunk despot, conflating non-proliferation with regime change, drives the final nail in the coffin of Western moral credibility. That said, polls suggest that almost 80pc of Americans would applaud the destruction of the Fordow nuclear site, and most would support cutting off the head of the serpent in Tehran. Trump might face a Maga revolt on the edges but the larger bounce in popularity would let him steam roll opposition to his tariff war, his climate war, and his 'beautiful big bill' – a giant transfer of income from poor to rich. I don't believe Steven Bannon's warning that intervention will 'tear the country apart', unless the bombing mission goes awry. The strongman glow will open the window further for Trump's takeover of the deep state. He has already fired the heads of the FBI's intelligence, counterterrorism, criminal investigations, as well as the heads of the Washington and New York offices. He has purged the justice department, now run by a Lord High Executioner from The Mikado, openly touting an enemies list of 'conspirators'. He has forced private law firms to bend the knee. He has put in a loyalist in charge of the CIA, who inconveniently reported in March that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. But that was then, when Trump stood for America First, and staying out of forever wars was policy. He has fired the head of the eaves-dropping National Security Agency and its top officials. He has purged the head of the Federal Trade Commission, who is independent by law, like the chairman of the Federal Reserve. America in 2025 is obviously not Germany in 1932. The Weimar republic was already a cauldron of political violence. That year was the worst of the Great Depression. The country was seething with rage over the cultivated myths of the 1918 'stab in the back' and the Carthaginian peace of Versailles. It is even less like Germany in 1933 when the Nazis used their three cabinet seats to take over the Prussian and federal interior ministries. Within five months the Social Democrats leadership was dead, or in Dachau, or in exile. All rival parties were shut down. No independent newspaper survived. Every organisation from the labour unions, to male choirs, sports teams and beekeeper clubs came under Nazi control. But it is not the same America that was my home for long stretches of the late 20th century. Over the last few days alone: a Democratic US senator was manhandled to the floor, handcuffed and dragged away for asking a question; the Democrat comptroller of New York was seized and handcuffed by masked federal agents after demanding to see a judicial warrant; a Democratic state legislator in Minnesota was murdered with her husband at home, and a state senator was shot and badly wounded, both by an assassin with a hit list of 45 officials. Judges have so far issued more than 60 rulings that curb or restrain Trump's legal overreach. A shocking number have either been threatened, directly or through their families, or face calls for impeachment. 'Our constitutional system depends on judges who can make decisions free from threats and intimidation,' warned judge Robert Conrad, director of the administrative office of the US courts, in testimony to Congress. To no avail: the House judiciary committee shrugged it off, more or less blaming the victims. The drift of events was disturbing even before Iran offered Trump a fresh gift from Mars. I fear that many more lines in the sand will be crossed in the heady aftermath of a surgical video war on the Ayatollah, if that is where we are headed. Play possum if you want. Trump will eat your lunch.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Romania nears deal to form government after weeks of deadlock
BUCHAREST, Romania - Romania's pro-European parties closed in on an agreement to form a government as leaders set out to rein in a budget deficit that's become the widest in the European Union. The National Liberal Party put forward its leader, Ilie Bolojan, to be prime minister. The long-dominant Social Democrats, which declined to designate a candidate, said a coalition accord between the main parties and two smaller partners is likely as negotiators put the final touches on a deal. "It's hard to say at this moment that we're at a 100% probability for a four-party ruling coalition, but I think we're at about 80-90%," Sorin Grindeanu, the Social Democrats' interim leader, told reporters in Bucharest. President Nicusor Dan, a centrist who beat back a far-right challenge to win the country's highest office last month, is expected to nominate a prime minister on Friday, according to people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified as talks take place behind closed doors. Once designated, the premier will have 10 days to form a Cabinet and seek a vote of confidence in parliament. Romania was plunged into its gravest political crisis since the fall of communism late last year with the shock victory of an ultranationalist outsider in a presidential vote, which was subsequently annulled and rescheduled for May. Dan's victory signaled that voters want to hew to the nation's pro-European path amid growing geopolitical turmoil. Dan has made clear that the government's top priority must be to scale back the budget deficit. The parties are seeking to overcome deep differences over how to address a fiscal gap that accounted for about 9% of economic output last year. But the budget remedy, including impending spending cuts and tax increases, is likely to carry political risks - and be exploited by a surging far right. George Simion, who leads the ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, scored a decisive first-round victory in the presidential contest on May 4, prompting the resignation of then-Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu. But he went down to defeat two weeks later. Romanian assets have rebounded since Dan's victory, with the yield on the country's 10-year domestic bonds falling by about a percentage point from over a two-year high last month. The yield now trades at 7.4%, the lowest level since April - but still the steepest borrowing costs in the E.U. The four pro-European parties control 60% of the seats in parliament. The Social Democrats, who won an election in December and have the largest number of lawmakers in the chamber, will join the Liberals, the anti-corruption Save Romania Union and a party representing ethnic Hungarians. Grindeanu said the Social Democrats will deliberate on whether to join the coalition on Friday, expressing optimism that members will sign off. The party had raised the prospect of supporting a minority Liberal-led government without joining the coalition, but opted for a broader agreement. Romania, a member of the E.U. as well as NATO, has pledged to lay out a detailed plan to narrow the deficit to the European Commission by the end of this month. The E.U.'s executive arm has so far refrained from suspending E.U. funds, despite Romania's status under a so-called excessive deficit procedure. It instead called on Bucharest to adopt urgent measures. ---------- -With assistance from Peter Laca. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
RTÉ News
a day ago
- Health
- RTÉ News
Spotlight on CHI far from over after tense committee hearing
Today's appearance by Children's Health Ireland before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health was a very tense and difficult affair. For the committee members, it left many questions unanswered, along with a sense of disbelief about the scale and gravity of events that have unfolded for children and parents. Committee chairperson Padraig Rice, of the Social Democrats, set the scene by saying he struggled to know where to start, noting that they could be there for days at the hearing. Some believed that all confidence in the CHI Board and management was now gone. There remain big questions about the ability of CHI to move to the new National Children's Hospital next year against this background. CHI has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of parents, the public and the political system, and it will likely be back before this committee soon for continuing scrutiny. Former CHI Chief Executive Eilish Hardiman expressed "heartfelt" sympathy for what actually happened. Committee members pointed out that the main events occurred on her watch. She is the Strategic Programme Director at CHI, and will have a key role in the move to the new hospital. The recently appointed Chief Executive Lucy Nugent apologised to families and promised to have CHI regain trust. Senator Tom Clonan said the events were a scandal of international dimensions, accusing CHI of running a three-ring circus and of having a toxic and broken culture with abhorrent work practices. Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane said that what was happening at CHI was frightening. There were questions about why some patients referenced in the unpublished internal review in a range of specialties, may have been affected by a lack of timely intervention, and why CHI has not been in contact with parents to notify them of this potential issue. Fine Gael TD Brian Brennan said it could all amount to one of the biggest medical malpractices in the history of the State. No one is quite sure how and when it will all end. Plus we learned of tension between the HSE and CHI, after claims that the HSE had been notified about the 2022 internal review report around that time. But the HSE told the committee the first its CEO Bernard Gloster and the HSE Regional Executive Officer learned about it was last month. CHI also took a different view to referring the report to An Garda Siochana, believing it did not meet the threshold for referral. The HSE decided to refer it recently. Another major report on spinal surgeries is due soon. And just 60 children out of 1,800 who had hip surgeries since 2010 have been reviewed to date under a lookback programme, which is expected to take six months to complete. There is a long and difficult road ahead for CHI, which has said there are no other live reports which are not in the public domain. The committee heard that a new CHI Director of Operations started on 9 June and the deputy CEO will start on 7 July.
