40 posts tagged “ireland”
This makes me really angry. Yes, Dell (and other US computer firms) have created a lot of jobs in Ireland in the last twenty years. But they have done so because it was advantageous to them - the Irish government offered foreign business a very attrctive low rate of corporation tax.
Now that the economy has taken a nose-dive, some of these US businesses are having second thoughts. That's fine, it's their right - it's a free market economy. However, when they start to impose heavy-handed tactics on their European employees, like they might try elsewhere (i.e. the US), I get annoyed:
Employees inside Dell's giant manufacturing plant in Limerick were not even allowed to listen to reports on local radio stations as rumours flew of an impending announcement of 2,000 job losses.
Normally, the company's workers can listen to the local radio station, Limerick's Live 95FM, which is broadcast throughout the factory in Raheen Industrial Estate.
However, the station was turned off yesterday morning as the cuts were discussed for over an hour on the 'Limerick Today' show with Ed Myers.
Fearful of possible repercussions from within the company, no workers were keen to go on the record.
"We don't have a union here, so there is nobody to speak for us. But management are afraid to speak also," the worker said.
In some cases, husbands and wives who met through their work in Dell are expecting to be made redundant.
The government also needs to realise that if your job creation strategy relies on foreign businesses, one day those businesses are going to pack up and leave. As for the Dell employees in Limerick - why don't you have a union?
Having once worked for a US-headquartered business that was incredibly insensitive to regional differences - a real one-size-fits-all mentality - I'll be honest and say I'll probably never work for another US firm again.
Conor Cruise O'Brien died last week. A scholar, journalist, government minister, diplomat and opponent of the IRA, he lived the most amazing life. Yes, I was a fan.
He was never afraid of saying the "wrong thing", as he did so often. He was a man of principle, unfortunately more often than not surrounded by cowardly politicians and lilly-livered diplomats. His obituary in the Telegraph was the best of the many I read.
Read the article in its entirety. It's inspirational.
It's what a life looks like when someone lives it according to their beliefs, not caring a jot for what others think of us. He wasn't a saint, he was far from perfect. I just wish there were a few more people with his standards in public office right now.
From this morning's Irish Independent:
ALMOST three-quarters of people who voted 'No' in the Lisbon Treaty referendum mistakenly believed the pact could be easily renegotiated.
A major survey of voters conducted by the European Commission immediately after last Thursday's referendum reveals why a majority of Irish people rejected the treaty.
The publication of the first research into the reasons behind the 'No' vote comes as Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin desperately attempt to garner support across the EU to help Ireland resolve the crisis caused by the result.
The poll of 2,000 voters found:
- Young people voted 'No' by a margin of two to one.
- The vast majority of women voted 'No'.
- A large number of people who do not vote in general elections voted.
- People who did not understand the treaty voted 'No'.
- The huge influx of immigrants into the country was a factor in the 'No' vote.
- More than 70pc of 'No' voters thought a second treaty would be negotiated.
This belief is being attributed to the Nice I and II scenarios, where the treaty was re-run in a referendum after assurances were given on Ireland's neutrality.
The findings show immigration was an unspoken factor in the vote, as people expressed concern about the numbers of immigrants coming to the country in such a short time. The rise in unemployment, allied to foreign workers coming to the country, was also cited.
Mr Cowen faces a battery of questions today on this week's EU Council meeting as he returns to the Dail for the first time since the referendum defeat.
European Union foreign ministers vowed yesterday to keep the treaty alive, despite the vote, but conceded they had no quick solution to salvage it.
But EU leaders will expect to hear from Mr Cowen at a summit in Brussels later this week on whether he sees any hope of winning a new referendum. The second referendum step has not been ruled out by ministers, but is a high-risk strategy.
Mr Cowen acknowledged that Ireland faced a "dilemma" over the defeated treaty, after he emerged from a meeting with British prime minister Gordon Brown.
In an effort to win the support and understanding of his EU counterparts, he met Mr Brown for 20 minutes during the visit of US President George W Bush to the North.
The input of Mr Brown was described as both "measured and constructive" by the Taoiseach. But he also conceded that the Government is now facing a "dilemma" and a "problem".
"I think we are setting the scene for a process of work that needs to take place. It doesn't reduce the fact that there is a dilemma here, that there is a problem here that we have to face and confront," he said.
"But I think we have to do it calmly and collectively and do it in a way which seeks to push matters forward."
Mr Martin said none of his EU counterparts blamed the Government for the crisis. He said all countries vowed to work with Ireland to find a solution to the problem and there were no threats of exclusion from the EU's future.
Meeting EU representatives for the first time since the defeat of the referendum, Mr Martin said the mood was one of a "sense of solidarity".
EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy earlier warned that Ireland would not be "bullied" by the EU. Although he said it was possible "new arrangements" could be made between the Government and EU leaders on the way forward, he said the "sovereign decision" of the Irish people had to be respected.
Happy Bloomsday, one and all...the day we commemorate James Joyce's Ulysses, which was set in Dublin on this very day in 1904.
By way of celebration, I'm going to don a boater and striped blazer, walk with a cane and have impenetrable conversations with everyone I meet.
Or maybe, I'll just continue to work... it is Monday, after all.
Damn. Wish I was in Dublin... though I don't think I'd partake of the traditional menu. Ole' Leopold Bloom certainly had particoolar tastes.
"Mr. Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liver slices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencod's roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine."
As I predicted when the 'No' votes won it in Ireland, several European commentators have decided to ignore the democratic wishes of the Irish people, indicating that only one response to the Lisbon Treaty was acceptable... and it wasn't 'No'.
From this morning's Sunday Times (my emphases in bold):
The initial official reaction to the result was that the verdict of the Irish people “should be respected”. However, it soon became clear that they were regarded as having made a terrible mistake. European politicians queued up to lecture them on the folly of their ways.
“It is not truly democratic that less than a million people can decide the fate of almost half a billion Europeans,” said a dejected Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the German leader of the European Greens.
“We are incredibly disappointed,” said Axel Schäfer, a member of the German Bundestag committee on EU affairs. “We think it is a real cheek that the country that has benefited most from the EU should do this. There is no other Europe than this treaty.”
Giorgio Napolitano, the Italian president, was equally critical, calling for states obstructing integration to be left out of the EU. “Now is the time for a courageous choice by those who want coherent progress in building Europe, leaving out those who, despite solemn signed pledges, threaten to block it,” he said.
There was even a lesson in group loyalty from the Balkans. “Now that they have used the accession and structural funds, when they developed enormously, I’m a little surprised that the solidarity is at an end,” said Stipe Mesic, the Croatian president.
Actually, the Irish decision was the only truly democratic one across all of the 27 member states of the EU. I believe most government secretly feared a public rejection and so avoided the scenario completely by refusing the public a say. Only Ireland was constitutionally obliged to have a referendum, and now, as they say, the people have spoken.
I wonder how voters in the other states would have responded, had they been given the option. Pro-EU attitudes vary considerably from state to state. The UK and most of Scandanavia seems to be generally cooler in their attitudes to integration than say France or Germany.
Let's not forget that the Lisbon Treaty is simply the European Constitution in another guise. And that Constitution was voted down by the people of France and the Netherlands. I don't remember anyone calling for them to be thrown out of the European Union at the time.
A phrase I've heard over and over since the referendum has been 'democratic deficit'. There is a definite democratic deficit across the EU where the public weren't given the opportunity to vote on a treaty that would alter their countries significantly. There was a democrtic deficit in Ireland where the government, and all other major political parties (except the gangsters and hoodlums in Sinn Fein), ran a lacklustre and patronising 'Yes' campaign, assuming the Irish people would line up and do as they were told.
But they didn't.
There was definitely an element of anti-government sentiment in the 'No' vote, some frustration and fear at the slowing economy for sure. But the Government did nothing to stop the wild rumours that the 'No' campaign propogated, such as the Treaty would legalise abortion in all member states and would create a European Army and thus destroy Ireland's cherished neutrality. Utter nonsense, but this took hold over some people in the absence of a solid counter-argument from the 'Yes' campaign. Shameful.
I'm not a Euro-sceptic, I'm all for continuing integration across the EU and for the development of trans-national structures and cooperation. I am, however, solidly against a tiny minority of politicians changing the status quo of the Union without a democratic mandate.
Ireland was not alone in receiving strutural funds from the EU - Spain, Portugal, Greece and the newer members of the EU have all benefitted financially. However, this does not mean these state should simply 'toe the line' or cease to raise their voices in disagreement. The EU has not 'bought' Irish silence.
The EU's leaders knew well in advance that Ireland would have to have a referendum on this issue. They did nothing to ensure that the Irish people were well enough informed or that they could see the benefits of approving the Treaty. There was a generally held assumption that the Irish would be 'good Europeans' and gratefully shout 'Yes' in unison. And when they didn't, there was annoyance, dismay and shock. Why? Why couldn't they see this coming?
If anyone should be 'blamed' for the 'No' vote, it shouldn't be Ireland's voters. It should be the arrogant and feckless politicians who mis-managed the campaign (Brian Cowen, Dick Roche, Mary Coughlin... pathetic).
What next? Well, the Irish government has already said they won't present another referendum on the matter in the next 12 months. I think the heads of EU governments should take a long hard look at this situation and examine what they can do to more effectively sell the benefits of Lisbon and demonstrate they are listening to the public mood. But they have a battle on their hands.
The Irish weren't the only people rejecting the Treaty - they were just the only voices we could hear.
...has rejected the Lisbon Treaty, according to the BBC.
Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern says substantial vote tallies across the country show the European Union Lisbon reform treaty has been rejected.
Tallies are not official, but Mr Ahern says it is clear the No vote is ahead in a vast majority of constituencies.
This would scupper the treaty, which must be ratified by all members. Only Ireland has held a public vote on it.
Mr Ahern is the first senior figure from the Irish government to admit that it looked like the treaty had failed.
"It looks like this will be a No vote," Mr Ahern said on live television. "At the end of the day, for a myriad of reasons, the people have spoken."
He said it looked like other EU countries would ratify the treaty, so an Irish No vote would leave the EU in "unchartered waters".
Earlier, Europe Minister Dick Roche had admitted "it is not looking good", after state broadcaster RTE said that the Yes vote was "in difficulty".
I'm not sure what to think about this right now. Though I predict an anti-Irish backlash in some sections, based on "all the money Ireland got from the EU and this is how they repay us" argument. One could look at Spain, Portugal, Greece and most of Eastern Europe in a similar light - all recipients of major structural funds from Brussels.
I wonder what the results would have been had any other member state been obliged to have a referendum on this?
I also predict the right-wing British press will love this, making lots of pointless comparisons to Dunkirk spirit and keeping the babarians at the gate etc.
Watch this space.
Show us something crooked.
Further to my post yesterday concerning discrimination in Northern Ireland, this morning's Irish Independent carries some more detail on Iris Robinson's Christian ways (tongue firmly in cheek) and her outburst on live radio concerning homosexualists. (My emphases in bold).
THE wife of Northern Ireland's new First Minister, DUP leader Peter Robinson, sparked outrage yesterday by offering to put gay people in touch with a psychiatrist who would help make them heterosexual.
Just one day into his new job, Mr Robinson saw his wife Iris, who is also the DUP's health spokeswoman in the Stormont Assembly, dragged into a massive political row.
The Strangford MP launched a stinging attack on homosexuality on a live radio phone-in show after a 27-year-old gay man was beaten up in a homophobic attack near his home and left with horrific injuries.
Mrs Robinson described homosexuality as "disgusting, nauseous, loathsome, shamefully wicked and vile" and said her strong Christian upbringing meant she would never change her views and nothing would stop her from speaking out on the issue.
Mrs Robinson said she utterly condemned Wednesday night's attack on gay man Stephen Scott, who was knocked to the ground by three young thugs who punched and kicked him as he lay helpless and unable to defend himself in the street.
The victim was attacked in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, and is recovering in hospital where he is being treated for broken ribs, a fractured wrist, leg and head injuries.
He said he thought he was going to die in the attack after which he was left lying on the roadside.
Mr Scott said yesterday: "As far as I'm concerned, the people who did this to me are scum.
"There were three of them against me and I was left for dead."
But Mrs Robinson refused an invitation to meet gay men and women to find out more about the problems and prejudices they face in their lives. Declining the offer from David McCartney of the gay support group, The Rainbow Project, she said: "I do not need to put my hand into the fire to know I will get burned."
She then offered to put gay and lesbian people in touch with a psychiatrist who she described as a born-again-Christian who would help them change their sexuality.
Mrs Robinson told BBC's Nolan Show: "I have a lovely psychiatrist who works with me and who tries to help homosexuals turn away from what they are engaged in.
"He is a Born Again Christian and has links all over the world and I have met people who have been turned around to become heterosexual and who have gone on to get married and raise families.
"Homosexuality is not natural. My Christian beliefs tell me that it is an abomination and that is very clear.
"It is an offence to God, an offensive act and something that God abhors.
"My Christian beliefs tell me to love the sinner but hate the sin, so I condemn the people who went out and kicked that gay man.
"I am clearly not saying that I want people to thrash the living daylights out of a homosexual man or women, because I don't."
But Michael King from the Royal Society of Psychiatrists said there was no evidence people could obtain psychiatric help to stop them being gay. He said such treatment was potentially harmful.
Professor King added: "There is a lot of evidence going back 50 years to suggest that attempts to change people's sexuality in either direction are not possible.
"Such treatments do not work and can actually cause quite a lot of harm. Homosexuality is a state and a sexual orientation and is not a question of behaviour."
My question: if she does in fact "love the sinner", why the refusal to go and meet with some of them to see what they have to say?
Afraid that she might meet human beings and not the jaded stereotypes Paisley and his ilk in the Free Presbyterian Church have been foisting on Northern Ireland since the 70's? Who knows? Who knows what goes on in the mind of someone like this?
But as an elected representative, she has made one thing quite clear - she definitely does not view all the people of Northern Ireland equally and has stated that she will refuse to meet with some of them. Not terrorists, not paedophiles, not rapists. Gays. But in her mind, perhaps they're all pigeon-holed together in the same dark, dank fear-filler corner of her mind.
Concerning all the press exposure she's received as a result of this interview, I wonder what she and her husband (the First Minister) are discussing over breakfast this morning?
RTÉ are reporting that new Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, is already making friends in the Dail:
A spokesman for the Taoiseach has said Brian Cowen regrets any offence caused by remarks picked up on the Dáil microphones after Leaders Questions this morning.
Mr Cowen was heard using a profanity in what the spokesman said was a casual exchange between working colleagues that was not a reference to any member of the house.
After angry exchanges over health Mr Cowen had been questioned by Labour's Eamon Gilmore on price increases and what he said had been the failure of the National Consumer Agency and other bodies to act.
RTÉ News understands that what the Taoiseach said to Ms Coughlan was: 'We need to get a handle on this, will you ring those f***ers.'
That was a reference to the relevant officials rather than the opposition.
Fine Gael criticised the Taoiseach for using unparliamentary language towards the Opposition, but RTÉ News understands Mr Cowen was not referring to Fine Gael.
The party had just been involved in angry exchanges over health spending.
Fine Gael's Dan Neville cited the remarks in a statement, claiming Mr Cowen had displayed his intolerance for the difficult questions which his party had been putting to him on health spending.
He claimed the Taoiseach had lost it and his use of the f-word referred to Fine Gael.
A Government spokesman earlier confirmed the microphones had picked up what he said was 'a private exchange that was not on the Dáil record.'
Cowen threatens Dail hecklers
At one point in the exchanges over health, Mr Cowen told the Fine Gael spokesman on Health, Dr James Reilly, that if the heckling continued, he could arrange that Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny would not be heard in the chamber again.
The row erupted after Mr Kenny questioned the Taoiseach about health expenditure.
A charge that Fine Gael had not backed a single initiative aimed at improving health services drew instant howls from Mr Kenny's front bench.
Dr Reilly was the most vocal, bellowing across the chamber that Mr Cowen was playing the man not the ball.
Amid continued noisy exchanges, the Taoiseach warned that he could organise similar behaviour from his own benches, before bluntly threatening Dr Reilly.
Mr Kenny protested, the Ceann Comhairle intervened and calm was restored.
Bertie Ahern frequently had to endure barracking from the Opposition during Leaders' Questions, sometimes complaining to the Ceann Comhairle.
But Mr Cowen signalled today he would not be taking it from Fine Gael and Labour, even if he has left himself open to a charge of conduct unbecoming of a Government leader.
Dr. Patrick Hillery died earlier today at the age of 84. From the Irish Times:
Dr Hillery, originally from Co Clare, served two seven-year terms as President of Ireland from 1976 to 1990.
His long and distinguished career in public life began in 1951 when he was elected alongside Éamon de Valera as a Fianna Fáil TD for Clare.
He held a number of ministerial posts (Education, Industry and Commerce, Labour and Foreign Affairs) prior to being appointed Ireland's first EEC Commissioner in 1973.
He held the post of vice president of the then Commission of the European Communities, with special responsibility for social affairs until 1976, when he was elected President of Ireland.
Patrick Hillery was born on May 2nd, 1923, at Miltown Malbay, Co Clare. He received his secondary education at Rockwell College, Co Tipperary. He went on to study medicine at UCD where he qualified as a doctor in 1947.
He was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1951 and was to remain a TD for Clare until taking the post in Brussels 21 years later.
He had the unusual distinction of being elected president twice unopposed. The first time, in 1976, the post was virtually imposed on him by his own party at a time of crisis following the resignation of President Cearbhall O Dalaigh.
Despite letting it be known privately that he did not wish to stand for a second term, he was prevailed upon to do so by the leaders of the three main parties and was again elected unopposed in 1983.
He was inaugurated for a second term on December 4th, 1983 at a low-key ceremony in Dublin Castle.
During the 1990 presidential campaign, which was evenutally won by Mary Robinson, controversy erupted over an incident during Dr Hillery’s first term in office in 1982 when the Fine Gael-led government of Dr Garret FitzGerald collapsed after losing a Dail vote.
At the time several Fianna Fáil ministers were alleged to have telephoned Áras an Uachtaráin in an attempt to persuade president Hillery not to dissolve the Dail at the request of Dr Fitzgerald but to call on the then Fianna Fail leader, Charles Haughey, to form the next government.
The late Brian Lenihan who was the Fianna Fáil candidate to succeed Dr Hillery in 1990 first denied that he had been one of those who telephoned the Áras but was later forced to change his initial claim after the tape of an interview with a research student in which he said he had telephoned was then released.
Many believe the incident cost Mr Lenihan the election.
Dr Hillery is survived by his wife Maeve, his son John and his grandchildren. He and his wife also had a daughter Vivienne, who died in 1985.
President Mary McAleese led tributes to Dr Hillery and said she had learned of his death "with deepest sadness".
"Dr Hillery made an enormous contribution to this country at key times in the vital and necessary development of this state.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said Dr Hillery had served two terms as president “with great dignity, skill and generosity.
“In volatile political times, he was a cool head, who exercised his powers wisely, and assiduously protected the independence of Ireland’s highest office.”
He said an offer of a state funeral has been accepted by the Hillery family and the details will be announced later.
Former president Mary Robinson said her predecessor was supportive of the ways she wanted to change the presidency, and funny, warn and generous when they met before she was inaugurated.
Compared to the shower in Leinster House these days, this guy was a gentleman. He will be missed.
