On our knees

I agree with Aodhán Ó Riórdaín Labour TD for Dublin North Central when he says it’s time to end the prayer at the commencement of each day in the Dáil. It’s only around since the 1930’s and suggests to me subservience of the business to Christianity. That is not how a republic should do its business. No offence intended to anyone who believes in Christianity, I’m one myself who goes to church regularly. It is in the interest of each church that there is a separation of church and state. The Catholic Church will be the biggest beneficiary of any separation.

Churches do not need the state to comply with their values for a church to develop. The latest census shows that the evangelical religions are the ones showing the largest increase in membership within the state. When I went to school, some teachers would start class with prayers and others wouldn’t. I’ve never started a class with a prayer preferring a role call. Maybe a roll call should be held at the start of each day’s business in the Daíl?
I was hugely surprised to hear that some local authorities start their monthly meetings with a prayer too. Glory be seems the prayer of choice in Castlebar. I’ve never said a prayer in Wexford Borough Council and never would simply because it is not what I’m elected for. We start each monthly meeting with a vote of sympathy to anyone in the community who has an association with the community who has died since the last meeting. The we stand I silence, some members join their hands in prayer, others like me stand in silence and put their hands by their sides. Curiously the minute always ends with one particular member blessing himself and sitting down! Each respects the deceased in their own way, in the absence of any death the meeting proceeds as per the agenda with no reflection. I’ve always assumed that other local authorities behaved the same.

I don’t see any problem with that, I’ve asked in the past that the minutes silence remember people that I’ve known who’ve died and I’ve included the victims of the famine when there used to be a National Famine Commemoration Week. Sinn Fein has used this to remember dead hunger strikers. There’s more important things to be discussing than prayers but in the week that the Cloyne Report effectively undermined the Catholic Churches hopes at credibility in the area of child protection it may well be best now to encourage the Catholic Church as the main Christian church to go its own way. Ending public prayer to a Christian concept of God may well be a symbol that we’re all moving off our knees.

Can John O’Donoghue jump the next hurdle?

John O’Donnoghue must decide whether he’s Ceann Comhairle or Hector Ó hEochagáin. Both share a love of matters equine. Both have been at Bertie Ahern’s side, O’Donoghue as a Minister, Hector famously hung out with Bertie on TV before Bertie was just hung.
Being elected is an honour. Being Ceann Comhairle is a position of enormous trust. You don’t have to run in the nest election. As minister, John clearly enjoyed enormously his time in office and he’s got the receipts to prove it. He was clearly bitten by the travel bug and unfortunately he’s yet to be cured. There is no body to scrutinise his expenses. Many of his expenses are bona fide and relate to his function. Nobody denies him the right to travel abroad on oireachtas business and to get his expenses covered. But in his own words however they seem a little high. If by releasing the details at the time of the Lisbon Referendum he thought he’s escape undamaged he could never have been more wrong. And I accept that he has been a fair chairman of proceedings in the Daíl.

John O’Donnoghue is now living in another world. I remember John O’Donnoghue when he had a direct moral compass. John was very clear on how wrong doers should be punished. It was as clear as the view from the Ring of Kerry on a bright Summer’s day. Zero tolerance was his mantra then. Set his enormous expenses claim against the economic slump John now more resembles Nero tolerance, fiddling while Rome burns. As a consequence I have very little sympathy for him in his present predicament. He ruthlessly put the blame personally on his opposite number Nora Owen for all the failings of the Gardaí or the Department of Justice. In the words of the newspaper article that elected him to office, it’s payback time. I think John O’Donnoghue should stand down as Ceann Comhairle. He will become a distraction as the controversy rumbles on and on it will continue until its inevitable conclusion. John is reaping a whirlwind that he sowed himself many years ago. Why did he need to order limousines to transfer between airport terminals. Why was he giving enormous tips to drivers of a value beyond the amount paid to unemployed people in this country? No one begrudges him an interest in horse racing but why can’t he pay for this interest out of his own pocket? No one begrudges him the endearing company of his wife however does her presence by his side abroad constitute Daíl business?


John O’Donoghue has lost touch with the mood of the people. It’s time for him to meet with party leaders and explain how he will restore the standing of his office in the eyes of the people. I think that’s best done by him vacating the job. What is key now is whether he’ll go or have to be pushed. I wonder what odds Hector is giving? I think however that FF & the greens may well brazen it out on this one and hang on to him despite it all.

All 4 provinces head to Leinster House for education cuts demo

Molesworth St was chock a block last night as thousands of parents, teachers, and some pupils gathered to vent their frustration and indeed anger at the budget cuts that Minister Batt O’Keeffe is determined to roll out in schools around the country. The demonstration was organised to coincide with Labour’s motion condemning the cuts most notably the impact on Pupil Teacher Ratio, the disadvantaged and special needs education. The meeting was addressed by the leaders of teacher unions, patrons and parents associations, as well as Labour leader Eamon Gilmore and Fine Gael’s Education Spokesperson Brian Hayes.

Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe is determined to press ahead full in the knowledge that the greens are on board despite their agreement prior to entering government to increase the spending on tackling disadvantage and reduce further the PTR. It is clear that FF & the Greens have the numbers to see off the opposition and will hang together rather than hang separately. As a teacher I take exception to the minister claiming that teacher unions are hysterical and scare mongering of the highest order. The facts are that school bus fees will rise to €300 per annum, Education for Special needs will be ignored and that English teachers will be limited to 2 maximum. Add to that the cuts in funding for LCVP, LCAP and Transition Year and the ban on substitution for colleagues absent on school business. This farcical plan will mean teacher reps unable to attend VEC meetings. I’ve already refunded money to 2 classes who had hoped to travel to a college laboratory in January. The suggestion that its only going back to 2007 is ludicrous, I remember 2007 very well, it was the year my soccer team won the Wexford Wicklow League Cup, in 2009 there will be no such competition, there'll be n soccer team. It is teams like this that make school tolerable for some pupils. when I go to watch Wexford Youths I take pride at how many ex-pupils play in the League of Ireland.

However the motion will further embarrass the Greens and FF. It is clear that next week will see farmers outside the Dail and this is a group that is well organised and will get a similar number to the gates of the Dail. In the back ground there’s also the possibility of protests by the disabled and I get the idea that for weeks to come the budget cuts will be a hot issue. Once Christmas is over and the fiscal position tightens even further as the banks call in the guarantee scheme and unemployment rises, I believe a supplementary budget is inevitable. Lets be clear it’s going to be like this all the way to the local elections in June. All the bluster about greens pulling out is just that, aimed at shoring up what’s left of their credibility.

Ask yourself this, if there was a general election and the greens succeeded in holding a number of seats who’d take them serious in any negotiations to form a government? Could you keep a straight face if sent to negotiate with Paul Gogarty? That may be in the future but what’s certain is that in the short term the issues that brought about 12,000 people onto the streets last night persist.

I was delighted to see a good representation from Co Wexford. The piece of video shows a number of parents from North Wexford marching immediately outside Leinster House. It was good to meet so many Labour colleagues; Cllr’s Michael Conaghan, Aodhán Ó Riordáin, Seán Ó HArgáin, Ged Nash and soon to be Cllr Maria Parodi as well as Roisin Shorthall, Eamon Gilmore, Ciaran Lynch and Michael D. Fianna Fail and The Greens may have inadvertently brought back to the Irish people a sense of community and collective concern. I wondered for an hour or 2 on budget day if Ireland had lost its sense of outrage as a result of economic affluence. Thankfully I was wrong. I’m barely audible with the noise from the demonstration. You can listen by clicking, unfortunately the FF & Green government is not for listening. On another note, I was pleasantly surprised as I drove up to Dublin to see that the hills around north Wicklow had a covering of snow. I'm dreaming of a white Halloween !