Month: February 2011

THE IRISH National Teachers’ Organisation said Government could afford to pay the cost of teachers’ pensions. The union criticised what it called plans by Government to walk away from pension responsibilities.

The claims came at a meeting for primary and post primary teachers held in the University of Limerick on Wednesday.

At present retired teachers get a pension of half of their final salary after 40 years teaching. These pensions are linked to the pay of serving teachers.

The new proposals would mean that pensions would be decided on “career average” earnings.

“These three proposed changes will be devastating for the pensions of new teachers,” said Sean McMahon. INTO Executive member representing Clare.

“There will be no net benefit from being in a pension scheme as many teachers will pay in far more than they will ever get out. This situation may be open to legal challenge especially since membership is compulsory.”

THE day before the Fine Gael party launched its health policy, party leader Enda Kenny was telling the people of Clare that while the party would cease the reconfiguration of hospital services, it was too late to undo what had already been done.

“It is very difficult to undo work in the medical area once it has happened. As I move around the country I am being asked by so many hospitals, ‘can you restore facilities that have been taken away here?’ and my honest answer is I can’t because people don’t believe a situation like that, but before a service is taken away, before medical facilities are removed that is that time to make a case and Fine Gael has been very clear about that,” he said in response to questions about the future of Ennis General Hospital. “We don’t want anything closed down unless it is demonstrated that there is something better in its place. This is clearly not the case here.

“Fine Gael is committed to retention of medical services here in Ennis and the suspension of the removal of the cardiac facilities. Obviously Fine Gael’s overall view in the longer term is to change the health system to one of universal health where hospitals should be run by local trusts.

“There is little point in proceeding with a process that is blatantly not working as the regional hospital is chock-a-block. Our view is that you should not close down something until you have something better in its place” he said.

Deputy Kenny said that once a patient gets into the system it works well, the problem is getting into the health system quickly.

He also denied allegations that universal health insurance would close a hospital like Ennis describing the suggestion as “absolute rubbish”.

Fine Gael candidate Cllr Tony Mulcahy said the leader gave a commitment to the candidates that the party would retain acute services at the hospital “in their current format”. That would mean the retention of cardiac services and the anaesthetists at that hospital that has already lost its 24-hour A&E service.

FINE Gael leader Enda Kenny came to town on Saturday last looking for what he described as “a history-making event here in Clare”.

He said he had every confidence in the party’s election strategy in the county and was even optimistic that the Banner County would return a record three Fine Gael TDs to Dáil Eireann.

The leader’s confidence comes amid internal issues in the party in Clare that maintain a fourth candidate should be added that is geographically better placed. Suggestions include poll topper Cllr Joe Cooney from the east, Cllr Martin Conway from the north or former TD Madeleine Taylor Quinn from the west of the constituency.

Deputy Kenny said that the decision not to run candidates in these areas was “all choices the party has to make”.

“Last time we ran four and got two against the opinions of everybody. On this occasion we decided to run three and we have two deputies Pat Breen and Joe Carey and the mayor of Shannon Tony Mulcahy. This is an exceptional team and experienced candidates,” he said while supporting the candidates in Ennis.

“I have made the deliberate policy of putting in place the best teams that we can. This is beyond the scope of any one individual and you need teams of professional competent people who are prepared to make decisions in a courageous and in a fair fashion. So I look to Clare and its electorate to judge fairly not only the merits of one candidate but the quality and the power of our plan.

“I am happy that the trio of Pat Breen, Joe Carey and Tony Mulcahy are on the verge of making history here. Their challenge and our supporters challenge is to translate our five point plan and what it means in every town and every town land in County Clare,” he added. “I have great faith and belief in these candidates,” the Fine Gael leader said, but he would not say if that faith extended to making one of them a minister should he become Taoiseach in the next month.

There is currently no Clare TD on the Fine Gael front bench.

AT A TIME when Fianna Fáil is changing its election strategy to run just one candidate in some constituencies, party leader Michéal Martin is confident not only about the two candidate strategy in Clare but that this strategy can return two Fianna Fáil TDs.

The Cork man was in Clare on Wednesday to begin the party’s election campaign and to rally the soldiers of destiny in the Banner county.

He told the gathered media that every constituency was different and he was confident the party has two very strong candidates in Clare.

“I am confident that they can win two seats here – yes,” he said.

“We have two seats, we have two deputies here. We will do very well in this election. We will bring the issues to the people and I think we will be elected. That is my position. Others have their position, I have mine.”

The party leader was well aware that is views did not necessarily tally with the national polls and he was keen on staying well away from any talks of surveys or predictions.

“I think the public out there are generally tired of talking about polls and seats. Obviously it is something the pundits love talking about.

“People are genuinely more interested in the issues, the future and what party has a real credible path to the future and that is what I am thinking of, and I think what John (Hillery) and Timmy (Dooley) have to do is talk about the issues. That is the value of an election campaign that is the value of debate.

“That is why I think it is great the a person like John Hillery takes a very courageous step from a relatively safe environment in a medical career and enters politics and say there is something I want to do something for my country.

“Timmy Dooley is a young man. He could have done other things as well, but he decided to commit himself to public life again.

“The value of a campaign is that you get an opportunity to talk through the issues and flesh them out because the issues are bigger now than they ever have been in terms of the future of the country.

“We cannot hide the real issues from the people. We have got to be honest with them and say there are no easy choices now but if we follow the correct path we will get there,” he added.

THE MAN who oversaw the establishment of the HSE admitted that reform of the administrative area of the organisation was needed.

The former Minister for Health Michéal Martin made his comments while beginning the first leg of the Fianna Fáil election campaign in Clare on Wednesday.

“I felt on the administrative side it could have been stronger at the beginning in terms of how it was structured, and I think reform can be undertaken there; but what I would caution against is any dismantling of the structure. The last thing the health service needs is another big overhaul of structures. In terms of the Fine Gael proposal I think they are very dangerous in terms of health and outcomes,” he said.

The Fianna Fáil leader was adamant that progress had been made in health in the last number of years, but more work needed to be done.

Deputy Martin was also asked to defend the failure of the € 39 million expansion to Ennis General Hospital, which was promised by his predecessor Bertie Ahern (FF) prior to the 2007 General Election, to materialise.

He also faced strong opposition to proposed plans to remove cardiac service from the Clare County Hospital. Deputy Martin attempted to defended previous promises by saying that all political parties made predictions in 2007 in terms of predicted growth of the economy.

He said that the change in that growth lead to change in policy – policy which he attributed to the HSE.

He said that since 2005 a number of people working in the HSE in Clare had increased and that the biggest killers in Ireland – heart disease and cancer – were being tackled.

The Fianna Fáil leader was well aware that the “hospital issue” was not going to go away anytime soon.

“For 45 years for 50 years if you go to Roscommon if you go to Nenagh if you go to Ennis there will always be an issue around the hospital,” he said.

“Where ever you have hospitals that are doing good work like Ennis you are going to have debate about it. You are going to have genuine positions adopted by different people on different sides of that debate and I think that is natural and that is something to be welcomed. This is an issue in this election and I guarantee you it will be an issue again in the next election.”

He claimed the Government put a lot of investment into hospitals and other infrastructure making the required health services more accessible to patients.

“We can now get from A to B anywhere in the country including this part of the country much faster than we could three years ago. That is significant in how you configure your health service and it should be borne in mind,” he said.

“Health is complex. We have to pull together in my view the critical mass of professional people and sufficient volume of patients to make sure we get best hospitals.

“I believe in that. I am not going to pretend to people that I don’t. I am not going to be dishonest with people and say we can do everything on every hospital site. There has been a bit of dishonesty on that debate along the way.”

A MAN burgled a hotel room in Ennis while “in the throes of a very bad addiction” to drugs, a court has been told.

Cathal Mulcaire (29), with addresses at Lifford Lodge, Lifford Road, Ennis; and Apartment 4, 59 Henry Street, Limerick; pleaded guilty to burglary at the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis, on June 16, 2009.

Inspector John Galvin told Ennis District Court on Friday that a hotel bedroom was entered by the accused and another individual at 7pm and a number of items, including a laptop and phone, were taken. The property was not recovered.

“Gardaí were called. The accused was identified through CCTV footage. He was co-operative with gardaí. The property had been moved on by the time gardaí spoke to him,” he said.

The court heard the accused had a number of previous convictions for theft-related offences.

Defending solicitor Daragh Hassett said at the time of this offence his client “was in the throes of a very bad addiction”.

“The goods taken were moved on very quickly. They were swapped to allow him to continue with his ad- diction. He was in a very bad place with a very bad addiction,” he said.

He said that his client has since “managed to wean himself off the drug”, having taken up a methadone programme.

“He is drug-free. He’s no trouble to anybody,” said Mr Hassett.

Judge Joseph Mangan noted: “He has a bad record. The items which he took aggravated the offence. I have to take into account they were not recovered.”

He imposed a six-month jail term and fixed a bond in the event of an appeal.

MASS is just finished and the paper stall outside the front door is doing a roaring trade. Whether you bought the Sunda y Press or Sunda y Independen t depended on your politics; what lorry you applauded also depended on your politics. The Blueshirts lorry; the one belonging to the Soldiers of Destiny.

Jo Walsh was drawn by both. The political junkie in her was born and from there the seed was sown, albeit that she eschewed both Blueshirts and Soldiers in favour of Labour, involving herself in election campaigns in Clare for over 20 years.

There have been Labour highs, Labour lows. In between it’s never been dull and always interesting, whether pounding the streets, or teaming up with fellow junkies from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in election tallies.

And to think that it started over tea – not a cup of Barrys’ Blueshirt best, or whatever brand Soldiers or Labour imbibe. “That’s what I remember,” she says. “Outside mass in Mayo and candidates and supporters arguing about whether de Valera provided tea to people during the war.

“That was the level of the debate, but I was fascinated about it. I re- member strong Fine Gael families and all they’d do was tut-tut about Fianna Fáilers. It was the 1950s and the Civil War thing was still very much there and would come out at election time.

“It was very much rabble rousing stuff in elections then. They’d be on the back of lorries outside mass with loudspeakers, blaring out from loudspeakers. I found it exciting and I suppose it got me interested in politics and interested in campaigns.”

She’s been a junkie ever since, through those highs and lows. “I really got involved after leaving school and moving to Dublin when I got involved in the trade union movement in Dublin. I remember hearing when Michael O’Leary was changing to Fine Gael and this huge disappointment and I was there the night Frank Cluskey lost his seat. He was the party leader and he lost. It was terrible.

“I came to Clare in ‘89 and got involved in the Mary Robinson campaign. I remember working for Fianna Fáil on the tally. The job that the Fianna Fáil crowd gave me was to look out for Austin Currie’s trans- fers, just to see where they were going.

“When I was going up to the Fianna Fáil Director of Elections, Michael Halpin, who was a lovely man, I remember him clearly saying to one of his Fianna Fáil colleagues, ‘who the f ̈ ̈ ̈ ̈ are the 177 people who gave Mary Robinson their first preference in Tulla.’ That presidential election and doing the tally was a great way to get to know people here in Clare.

“Dr Bhamjeé’s election was great too. A cousin of mine in Ennis was working with Dr Bhamjeé and he came along to a few meetings and said he’d like to go as a candidate. It was exciting because people were regarding it as so ridiculous. He had a great confidence about himself. I was his director of elections and we went all out.

“Now I’m an election agent for Michael McNamara and there’s similar excitement but it’s different. Every Labour vote his hard won – he goes down really well on the doorsteps. There’s an energy there and it’s great. All elections are great.”

FARMERS may not hold full sway over general elections as they once did, but nevertheless the agri-vote will elect or unelect countless candidates right across this island.

With roughly 8,000 farms in Clare, the county’s farmers along with their spouses and children will fill a quota for someone come election day.

While much of the power in Irish agriculture has been farmed-out from Dublin to Brussels in recent decades, there are still a number of local farming issues which will give candidates plenty to debate on at the doorsteps of Clare farm houses in the coming weeks.

The Green Party scored a sensational own goal in their handling of the climate change bill. As the last flickers of the coalition were dying out, the Greens were setting themselves alight in the eyes of the farming community, while at the same time handing Fianna Fáil an open goal.

The bill itself was very close to being acceptable to many farmers – but instead of tweaking, explaining and defending their bill, the Greens allowed themselves to be painted antifarming, while Fianna Fáil got to be the knights in shining armor.

That said, Clare Fianna Fáil has presided over the devastation of farm services in the county over the last three years. With much fewer local Teagasc offices, it is still unclear what way the farmers of the only county in Munster without a Department of Agriculture Office will react on polling day.

But the devil is in the detail for most farmers. With most on paper at least, asset rich (home owners and land owners) yet cash poor, the way in which taxes, reliefs and benefits are calculated will made a difference.

A family on a valuable 200 acre farm may be still be unable to afford to send their children to college, de- spite the value of his assets.

Finally, as more farmers begin to reinvent themselves as small business owners, whether in the green economy or selling finished products such as home made cheese or ice-cream instead of milk, many of them will be keen to see which party makes business easier for the small and medium industry sector.