Eoin's Website » Politics

Do it for many reasons, but mostly for the kids

admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:16:38 +0000

It’s a false ecomony to cut back the numbers of Special Needs Assistants at schools. It’s very cruel to consider this cut while paying back private bank debts to foreign investors. Join a family friendly protest on Kildare St, on Wednesday 13th, at 3pm.

Cuts have to be made, of that there is no doubt, but there is plenty of waste in civil service bureaucracy, and consultants fees, that should be cut ahead of these crucial jobs. Cutting SNA jobs mean that children may have their learning disrupted,and the kids with special needs may find things a lot harder.

I remember when I was at school, children with special needs were kept in a different class to the rest of us, and as such we never really mixed. Many were even in a different ‘special’ school.

Later, I heard from my Mum (a primary teacher) that all children were going to be taught in the same classroom and that special assistants would be brought in to help the children that needed it. A good thing, of course.

Bless her cotton socks, as it was happening many years ago, Mum predicted that one day they would try and cut back brutally on the number of special needs assistants to save money, once people were used to having all children in the same class. I thought she was being alarmist, but once again, Mum was right!

If you care enough – there is something you can do. Join a protest group - this coming Wednesday July 13th, at the Kildare St entrance to the Dail, at 3pm. It’s a family friendly event, bring your kids (or someone else’s!), bring colourful banners, buy some balloons along the way.

There are a few different groups involved in organising the protest, including the Special Needs Parents Association. I heard about it through the Stephen Donnelly office.

This is a hard time of the year to get children and parents to a protest. Please spread the word to all the people you know with time on their hands that care about this. If the cuts go through, they will affect all children in primary school – let’s fill the streets and stop this cut.

The lion’s share of that money will never be seen again.

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 15:03:57 +0000

Something is rotten in the state of Ireland. Here is the CEO of Anglo telling us that the money we have put into that bank will never be seen again. Twenty-two billion euro. Gone.

That’s about five thousand euro each for every man, woman and child. Where has it gone?

It must have gone somewhere, right? If it’s gone out of our pockets it must have gone into someone else’s pockets.

Never, never put the party of Ahern, Haughey and Cowen in power. This loss is the effect of their policies. Their cosy arrangments, non-existent financial regulation, and the fact that they live on a cloud of comfort away from the rest of us.

It angers me that they let this situation develop on their watch, whilst ignoring calls from people to do something about the property bubble.

You can do something about it. Apathy is an illusion. Granted, it’s a comfortable illusion to feel that there’s nothing you can do, but frankly it’s going to be an expensive one if all of us choose it. Choose to do something!

Visit the website of each political party. Read what they say they will do to fix this mess. Then pick a party and get involved. Turn up to a meeting. Get out and campaign. That means talking to people that aren’t interested in politics and trying to get them interested! Showing them how this really, really matters.

Let’s get a government that’s working for us, instead of plunging us deeper and deeper into debt trying to save their own skins.

Oooops! I forgot about that construction company I half-own

admin — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:47:54 +0000

Clerical error leads to TD forgetting about €1m investment

One of the largest property owners in Dail Eireann, Frank Fahey TD, is blaming a ‘clerical error’ for his failure to mention to the Dáil the 50% stake he owns in Sage Construction Ltd. Furthermore, the company owes his wife over €950,000 according to the most recent accounts filed. Neither were declared in the Register of Members interests in 2008 or 2009 and the Clerk of Dail Eireann, Kieran Coughlan, is considering complaints from members of the public alleging that these omissions are breaches of the 1995 Ethics in Public Office Act.

Deputy Fahey has had a history of controversial stories, such as the compensation scheme his department administered where two of his constituents received 75% of the total amount disbursed and one of his last actions as Minister whereby he granted the controversial foreshore license for Shell in Mayo, following in the footsteps of Ray Burke in accommodating the wishes of the oil company.

In response to this latest allegation, the Mail on Sunday reports that Deputy Fahey rushed to have the Register of Interests amended and issued a statement that the whole affair was due to a clerical error. Time will tell if this mistake will be excused or punished.

What’s most frustrating about this episode for me is that his constituents are unlikely to be overly perturbed by this, in the same way that they have not been bothered by other Fahey scandals. I suspect that is so because in this nod and wink politics culture to which Fahey belongs, you actually want the guy to be doing favours for you and as such if he’s doing favours for other people, well that’s just part of politics and you have to accept it because you want the same thing done for you.

And there are probably enough people in his constituency grateful to Deputy Fahey to ensure that he is returned time and time again.

If you want to do something about this – you are free to complain to the Clerk of Dail Eireann (Kieran.Coughlan [at] oireachtas.ie) that Faheys ommission may be a breach of Section 5 of the 1995 Ethics act.

The initial source of the story, for me – http://thestory.ie/

2009 accounts for Sage Construction Ltd – http://www.scribd.com/doc/28788896/Frank-Fahey-Sage-Construction-Accounts

A long webpage with many other details about Deputy Fahey – http://www.soldiersofdestiny.org/tdpropertyportfolio.htm

Do something. Anything.

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:03:47 +0000

There is not a conspiracy of evil capitalists out to destroy our environment and keep billions of people in poverty.

That’s just the unavoidable effect of the system that we have.

Want to change it?

Do something. Anything.