Labour in a Rabbitte Stew

How did we get here? It’s the question on every Labour supporters lips this week.  The collapse of the Labour vote in Meath East and the slump in Labour support in the polls. Listen to the media analysts and they will point to a number of things; a perception that election promises have been broken, the liberal agenda and the failure to put as Barry Desmond used to say “manners on Fine Gael” and even communications!

But let’s analyse the slump. It didn’t happen since 2011. It started long before that, About 3 years Labour were in the mid 20’s in % support in opinion polls.  The slide started before the general election so that while Labour won a record number of seats in the Dail unlike 1992 its previous peak when it hit 33 seats rising during the campaign, it hit 19.5% on a downward slope during an election campaign.  And that’s where the promises came in. Promises were made in order to shore up support in the campaign itself. In the absence of these promises Fine Gael would have had a working majority. 

The popular view is that Labour broke General Election promises.  So Ruairi Quinn signed up to protect students from an increase in college fees at a time when FG wanted a graduate tax and FF wanted to jack up fees straight away to €3,000. Labour said that they would protect child benefit and in fact child benefit for large families such as my own have been cut not to the degree that FF cut it but that’s beside the point.  The claim by Eamon Gilmore that it would be Labours way or Frankfurts way is often thrown back at Labour.  The reality of the prom note was that the ECB in Frankfurt are less than happy about what they describe as the Irish operation. Wexford may not be indicative of the national perception as Labour did indeed keep the one promise it made here on the development of the General Hospital. 

But once theres a perception its out there and that’s that. But add to that the fact that Croke Park 2 has been badly received and is losing Labour the public service vote or that the bombastic style of Pat Rabbitte is turning the electorate off. Throw into all that the Meath East bye election where  Eoin Holmes was a good guy who came across well in the media but was undermined by those in the party who should know better. 

So where do we go from here? There is funadementally something wrong with the party that predates the General Election that saw support slip away in 3 stages first before the election, next in the immediate period to Christmas 2012 when it steadied at 13% and finally the freefall since then.  Unlike the Greens or PD’s there was no one moment but it seems to me that the party is turning off vital sectors that have traditionally been the bedrock of support; those on social welfare, public servants, middle and lower classes, commuters in neagitve equity who looked to Eamon Gilmore when he said “Is Feidir linn”

So lets fix the problem; first renegotiate the programme for government to insist on the inclusion of policies that will see the wealthy pay significantly more in tax, bring down top rates of pay in the higher echelons of the public service and public life. Tackle bankers pay and assure people in the family home who are behind on their mortgage due to a reduction in income.

Next we need to see a change in cabinet members. firstly there are not enough women in cabinet and secondly there are too many Dublin Labour Cabinet members. If that means that the party leader has to make way then so be it. Nobody is above the party as any previous leader will testify.  I’ve always held the view that on the day that Labour entered government that Eamon Gilmore showed poor judgement. When senior members were arguing about who should have been Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Eamon missed an opportunity to show leadership and say “Look, I’m the leader and this job is a very hard one, I won’t ask anyone to do something that I’m not prepared to do myself.” Eamon could have been a good minister in that department, instead he’s in Foreign Affairs when there’s little input within the economy.

Finally call a special delegate conference and put the programme for government to delegates and let them decide if they want to stay in government. If the message from Meath East is worthwhile listening to then the feedback from Labour members is doubly valuable now.

The Zombie is dead

In the last 2 years the expression “Labours way or Frankfurt’s Way” has been thrown back at Labour from the right wing cynics.  Often these people take the term out of context.  It was a line contained in a speech by Eamon Gilmore during the 2011 General Election.  He was speaking about how Fianna Fail and Fine Gael had accepted the financial straight jacket of the bail out terms set out by the Troika.  Of the troika it seems the IMF & EU are capable of being flexible in relation to the conditions of the bail out. The EU needs a country to emerge from the fiscal hell of bail out.  The IMF was not the boogie man it was held up to be. It’s the end of 2 things, Anglo (IBRC) debt and the promissory note by which FF & the greens bailed out the failed bank.

It’s the ECB, our friends in Frankfurt that Eamon Gilmore identified who need to get real in relation to the impact of the bail out.  Liquidating IBRC or Anglo is something that should have happened in 2008. It’s exactly what the ECB may not like but austerity isn’t just for citizens, perhaps it’s for institutions too. The dry reference to the Irish operation and taking note of the arrangement between the Irish government and the Irish Central Bank can cover a multitude of things now and into the future. Our friends in Frankfurt may need to swot up Irish politics.

The politics of the liquidation is interesting. Labour opposed the bank guarantee on the basis of a liquidation being a better than the state bailout.  The logic of that position is to liquidate. Sinn Fein supported the bail out and now oppose the liquidation. There is a perverted logic in that too if you’re a banker, developer or believer ion socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.  Strange given that the party is concerned at the number of state employees earning more than €100K and IBRC has a significant number of them. Predictable given that the legislation halts any legal actions against IBRC and there still remains the matter of the Quinn assets to be decided by the courts. Sinn Fein have been hugely supportive of Quinn.  What happens to Quinns properties now will be a matter for the court and the liquidator.  It’s not the first time company law has needed emergency legislation.  Administration was brought in to save PMPA, Examinerships to save Goodman.  The more convoluted and complex the fiscal shambles becomes the more exposed Sinn Fein policy is exposed for its naivety. Are they spooked by the independents right and left?    

The liquidator will pass on performing assets to NAMA and then dispose of the left overs.  Many employees may be re-employed at NAMA but under different contracts and salaries.  Ironically Libertas who opposed the Fiscal treaty argued voting No would lead to a better deal on bank debt.  In fact the opposite has proved correct. The beast is dead, deeply regretted by Gerry Adams and Libertas but I for one, shed no tears. Time to move on.

Roisin Shortall walks tall

It’s a day on from the bombshell resignation of Roisin Shortall from government.  I was shocked by the move but to be fair, knowing Roisin as I do, She is an honourable woman. What you see with her is what you get. She has always been someone of values who believes in principle. today I was reminded of how over 10 years ago as Education spokesperson she raised the teachers dispute despite it being very unpopular.  About 20 years ago she was one of a number of Labour TD’s to resign the whip in protest at the Cahill Plan for Aer Lingus.

 The debacle will stand out for the remainder of the time that this government is in power as a watermark. But it shouldn’t. The loss of Willie Penrose shouldn’t have happened either.  When Willie resigned it was put to Labour that a local decision cannot be made as the wider interest demanded a strategic organisation of the defence forces.  So Mullingar lost its barracks while Athlone retained its military presence.  Here we have the direct opposite, local decisions are now being made when it suits Fine Gael. Strategic organisational decisions to plan the delivery of a service can now be made based on local criteria. The logic for the decision that led to Willie Penrose’s resignation is now binned.  If anyone should reflect on the last 24 hours and ask what if, it’s Willie.

So let’s park the personality issue because I have no insight into how relations work within a department and instead let’s look at the policy and in particular the criteria around the decision.   If you look at the list of primary care centres Ballymote in South Sligo is 25km from the Ballaghderreen centre that was added by Dr Reilly. Balbriggan also added by Dr Reilly is 14 km from Laytown which in turn is 11 km from the Drogheda primary care centres.  Minister Reilly points to population in the case of Swords demanding a primary care centre so let’s grant him that. Nearly 50,000 do have health need.  So are there 50,000 people living in both North Roscommon and South Sligo to justify each getting a primary care centre? Do these bordering areas have such high levels of deprivation? Or is there a big enough population between Drogheda, Laytown and Balbriggan to justify 3 of the 35 centres to be built nationally? 4 if you add Swords a motorway junction or 2 south of Balbriggan?

A lot of Labour voters and members have contacted me in the last 24 hours to make it clear that they resent the behaviour of Minister Reilly towards Roisin Shortall. That makes this matter different to the resignation of the whip of other Labour TD’s.  This will have implications for day to day government into the future and make framing a budget harder.  I’m not saying there won’t be a budget, the reality is that there will be as the need to drag the country out of the FF & green slump is all consuming and essential.

However it will make all the work like the children’s referendum, the public service, local government  re-organisation which is upcoming fast, all harder. This was needless.     

The Life of Reilly

Our Health Minister James Reilly has an almost impossible job.  Being Deputy Leader of the main government party usually brings with it enormous kudos.  Instead in this government his role as deputy leader of Fine Gael is often forgotten both in the media and in politics.  He is technically one heart beat away from being Taoiseach.  Politically he is an Irish mile away from ever being Taoiseach.  Until the 2011 election Reilly had an outstanding reputation on the floor of the Dail as he harried Mary Harney  about misdiagnoses, co-location and health cuts.  When the right wing of Fine Gael failed to ditch Enda Kenny 2 years ago Reilly was the surprise appointment to replace Richard Bruton as FG’s new no 2.

That all seems an age ago now.  To his credit the mammoth that was once the HSE is on its way out the door. The extension to Wexford General Hospital did get the nod from his department although I’ve been known to credit my colleague Brendan Howlin with that on one or two occasions!  I get the feeling that for Dr Reilly the tide may be turning within his own party.  My ears pricked up recently when I heard a TD who was passed over for preferment by Enda Kenny say on radio he’d bought a 2^nd hand Merc. As one who likes to read political tea leaves that was an interesting statement given that ministers are required to provide their own car.  Reilly remains surprisingly to me one heart beat away from controversy.  I’m not going to rehash the Revenue or Stubbs controversy but these do raise eyebrows.   The country pile and how salaries at the top end of the health service seem to remain immune to cuts are also mentioned in despatches.

North Dublin politics is rough as I well know from my time living there.  To give him credit he re-invigorated Fine Gael in Fingal after they lost their seat there when he could have stayed outside and developed his successful practice and continue in medical politics. His FG predecessors there were steeped in FG history and while he won his seat easily he doesn’t have the sense of FG tradition of a Kenny or Bruton.

Looking forward to the end of the year, all ministers will have a tough estimate to thrash out given the targets set by the Troika.  I may be alone now in detecting in FG an isolation of his position given Leo Varadkar’s accurate clarification of the government position on the CPA but given all that this government has been through in the last 18 months one wonders if there may be a reshuffle in the offing after the budget and referendum are out of the way?  The ministerial crown (no pun intended Senator!) may be on Reilly’s head but is there just now a question mark over how long more it may be there?

Don't Panic!

In “Dads Army” you always knew when chaos was about to occur. Private Jones would pop up to calm everyone down by shouting “Don’t
Panic”. The recent tribunal findings in relation to Michael Lowry and Dublin County Council seem to have touched a nerve in Fine Gael. It’s been common political knowledge for many years that Fianna Fail couldn’t have got trashed County Dublin without some acquiescence on Fine Gael’s part.
To be fair there were some Fine Gael councillors who were as opposed to what went as there were Labour. I know how Fine Gael people think as I’m off that political extraction and this issue in north Dublin 30 years ago effectively made my mind up for me as to which political path Iwould take in life. There are a lot of genuine people in Fine Gael who must be scratching their heads and asking themselves was it this they signed up for? Fine Gael people who opposed Michael Lowry in
Tipperary when political opportunism would have made it easy to jump ship along with someone who was owned lock stock and barrel by Ben Dunne and Denis O’Brien in turn.

So It’s these people I really feel sorry for when I hear Enda Kenny tell us to calm down. A party’s
reputation is its real value. If they had calmed down 15 yearsa go there wouold be no fine Gael in that party of the country now. The lesson is there from Fianna Fail as to how to trash a dominant political brand, Haughey, Reynolds, Ahern and Cowen each succesively drove Fianna Fail political support downward over a generation as the population had enough of their vacuous and treacherous nonsense.

Enda Kenny is seen as being an honourable and decent man. That’s why recent gaffes such as at Davros and today’s suggestion that we all calm down damage his credibility. It’s the perception that he may
not grasp the real underlying culture of failure of corporate governance and ethics in Irish business.
Or if he does then these values are not believed by some of his senior colleagues.

In the round it may not have a significant impact on the day to day finances and the need to return this state to financial stability. But was it not the same culture of business, media and politics where lines were
blurred that got us into this mess decades ago?

Lets be blunt about this. Meeting Michael Lowry and spending the day with Denis O’Brien at Wall St is not an issue that will collapse the government overnight when the reality of meeting Troika deadlines underpins every last thing that can be funded in this state but it will tarnish relations as Lowry’s indulgence by his former party may well impact on perceptions of how Fine Gael operate relations at cabinet. The illjudged comparison between government’s survival and a paranoid vigilante played by Charles Bronson made by a senior Fine Gael backbencher is crass and should be withdrawn. It’s not clever politics to tweet about death wishes a week before a Labour Conference. But remember “Don’t Panic!”

Celebration Time? Come on!

I’ve a lot of time for Fine Gael. Let alone some of my friends, some of my family would be Fine Gael. Government is about change and it’s also about giving hope. To be fair
this government has at least had the competence and credibility that its predecessor could only envy. Credibility is a valuable currency, it can be earned and built on but when its lost its
lost and gone for ever. Enda Kenny may not be a Garret Fitzgerald but he’s no Brian Cowen either. That’s why his government is credible.

Both Labour and fine Gael ran on different policies during the General Election ironically side showing the outgoing government intellectually in debates. Despite this the present government is working well as it has put together a reasonable compromise programme for government.
Most objective people recognise this. So then why did Fine Gael wish to celebrate a year in government and on the day that the state owned bank AIB announced 2,500 job losses with the
Occupy Merrion Square stunt?

Interestingly the celebrations wished to highlight Fine Gael achievement in government as opposed to Government achivements. There are many government achievements that should be flagged; Anglo bondholders burnt, Minimum wage restored, Interest rate cut on the bail out,
continued adherence to the troika bailout package, household tax in place, successful promotion of the state by Obama and QE2 visit. While much needs to be done on reducing
unemployment the government has made a start on rebuilding a shattered economy,
but is it not too early and too little to celebrate? The country has stabilised but has it turned
the corner? I’m not so sure about that
What made Fine Gael different at the last election was the wish to end gaelige in our schools, restore stag hunting and abolish joint labour agreements and fillet the public service by 30,000. This clearly hasn’t happened and won’t be happening. Many Fine Gael backbenchers have called for the ending of the Croke Park Agreement. That hasn’t happened and it won’t be happening either. It’s due to run about 2 more years and will be renegotiated next year. It may well be a better year to renegotiate than this year. Economic conditions may allow a better deal for public sector workers in the future than at present. I suspect a few Fine Gael TD’s may think this too and see a closing window on their hopes for putting the boot into civilservants.

It may well be a matter of less to celebrate into the future for the back benchers. Earlier this week I was at a meeting organised by the INTO highlighting how the cutbacks in education had impacted in Wexford at primary level. While there was realism among the teachers as to how deep the financial trouble remains, there were few celebrations. So it will continue for sometime

Our word is our bond!

Remember John Bruton? John was the last non FF Taoiseach who in his short period in office who led the Rainbow Government. John spent most of the last decade as EU Representative in Washington. Now on the eve of the ousting of the Fianna Fail government, John has spoken about the economic crisis that this new government faces from day 1. Strange that it seems to be the prerogative of former Fine Gael leaders to put their successors on the spot, Alan Dukes fronts up a banking pariah, Garrett Fitzgerald supported some aspects of Fianna Fail and Green banking policy while Michael Noonan ditched the Fine Gael economic stimulus plan as soon as he was appointed Finance spokesperson.

John reminds us that our word is our bond as a nation. Implicit in this is the suggestion that credibility is only something that a nation should worry about. So we should stand by our EU partners in the commitment to pay interest rates that will strangle our economy. I don’t agree with John Bruton, he’s wrong. A country that enters into agreement to pay what it cannot afford has no credibility. Our word and our bond have been devalued. I don’t like when someone puts on the green jersey to appeal to us about saving the country when in fact they prefer to save the economy.

While I don’t suggest that you should randomly burn bond holders the sooner some subordinate bond holders understand that they will not get their bonds cashed for some considerable time and that the effective value of what they think they are owed may not be what they expect and that they should plan accordingly for their own black hole in their accounts wherever they are, the better for everyone. Reputational damage happened long ago, there’s no such thing as a reputational transplant!
What people wanted in the General Election is a straight up honesty from the new government. First in line for realism should be the sub-ordinate bond holders and the ECB. The people will accept honesty and what it entails if they see those who could have done something been told a few straight facts. But let’s not forget our own Sir Humpreys in the Central Bank and the ex Regulator who failed to do their jobs. I hope that one result of the new government will be that the facts of how Fianna Fail and the Greens crashed the economy can be set before the people. Honesty doesn’t cost much and if that’s all we as a country can afford then it’ll be a sobering day for all.

Tales from the canvass; Sprinting a marathon!

After the phoney war comes the campaign. After the campaign comes the vote. After the vote comes the count and after the count comes the post-mortem. If you survive all that, there’s the chance of being in government. So the good news in Wexford is that we’re not even half way through General Election 2011 despite what the papers will tell you!
I’m already putting a few of our “windfall” posters by as I’m beginning to suspect we’ll need them for later in the year. My view is that nationally Fine Gael will exceed 70 seats and will seek the support from independents. The independents don’t need to be like minded, I could think of a few so called left wing independents who would walk willingly into FG’s arms if they could gain influence. The possibility of the Greens surviving and scotching FG’s manifesto pledge for reversing the hunting ban in return for a continued Green presence in the Custom House is also in the mix. Add to that the Sunday Independent business editor, fund manager Shane Ross who would see common cause with the right wing of Fine Gael in hacking at public services, or as they call cuts now “doing the heavy lifting”.
The mood music from Fine Gael has been extremely hostile to Labour. It’s not personal it’s policy. Lucinda Creighton who recently threatened to quit if not considered for ministerial office seems to have had second thoughts judging by her attack on Jack O’Connor’s call on union members to vote Labour. The subliminal signals are FG want an overall majority with the proviso of being nice to everyone that you meet on the way up as you may just need them on the way down. So sweet talk while firmly letting them know who FG thinks is boss. I think FG is making a huge mistake, one that will undermine the new government with whoever ends up in government with them and I’m of the view that it may not be Labour.
So lets just tease this one a bit and think past next Friday. The worse place to be next Saturday is in opposition. Look who you’ll be alongside, FF, SF, ULA (strong personalities but no agreed leader). Labour may well be there, may be not! Some independents some independents may be not. There is no way into government from that position and FG know that well. So the divided nature of the opposition will play into FG’s hands in the next Dail. But taking a divided opposition for granted may cause a government problems.
So given that the FG led government should last 2 full terms that will see Enda Kenny into retirement, and then who leads FG? One of the turks who eats dinner in the evening who seemed to lack political nous last June? Can’t see Labour last long in that government after Kenny, can you?
If they go the Indo route, some independents will be favoured over others, how long will it take for one or 2 to do a George Lee? Would FF gene pool independent TD’s who see themselves as only delivering to their area be acceptable as FG supporters to the D4 urban support? How long would the reported love affair between Fine Gael and Dublin last once FG’s rural tendency find their voice in power?
Will FF offer support for FG if they follow the 4 year program as set out by the outgoing government and will FG walk into that trap?
So, in the meantime the pitch for votes continues in Wexford. Liam Twomey’s posters implicit beg Labour supporters for preferences by his suggestion that they vote local vote Liam. There’s one of those on my road but I’ve never seen Liam in the area!
John Browne seems to have a poster malfunction with plenty of speech bubbles popping up on his posters suggesting that John didn’t exactly look after the interests of the people. On Wednesday Eamon Gilmore will be in Wexford to support Pat Cody and Brendan Howlin. This campaign will go down to the wire on Friday night. The race is still on.

Out with the old and in with the new

Ironically for the day that’s in it that former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should announce his retirement at years end, 19 years after Mikhail Gorbachev threw in his hand . But threre the comparison ends. Whereas Gorbachev never achieved his goal of reconstructing the Soviet Union into a modern socialist state, Bertie the sociaist sure changed our society for many’s a year to come and I for now know that as I’ll be paying his bills as well as his pension for quite some time yet.
Bertie’s greatest achievement wasn’t the Good Friday Agreement, I’ll credit that to John Hume the genuine and greatest Irishman ever. No, Berties’s greatest achievement of which there were very many was hoodwinking the Irish people into the fairytale that he was the Dubs and Man U loving Bass drinking working class lad from the inner city who made it to the London School of Economics and created the wealth that was described in the media as the Celtic Tiger. I can never take any of that away from him. He was none of tha. the genesis for our tiger economy of the late 90's was put in place by the Rainbow. By 2001 Fianna Fail had trashed it and replaced it with a consumer boom
Once the Bertie myth had been put out there by a compliant media led by O’Reilly who saw advantage and profit for themselves the re-creation of our country as the ideal right wing playground for the illusion of wealth that is Ahern’s Fianna Fail, the slump was inevitable. Ahern's first move was to create a post intellectual society where tax write offs or buy offs or celebrity politics sub planted debate and discussion. If you suggested a bust you were talking down the economy (as some economists who wouldn't share my analysis did and they were right). Bertie famously turned up on RTE’s “The Premiership and Hung with Hector. Dumbing down rather than levelling up. The acquiescent media and an opposition that competed with one another to bed down with the Frankenstein that he’d created rather than square up all played their part in trashing the state.
I remember at one election commenting to any one who’d listen that Labour was neither sadly big enough to pose a threat to Fianna Fail nor thankfully small enough to be of use to them. Ahern found his toadies, a TD from the Gaeltacht who wanted to watch BBC, Lowry who feared a tribunal report, Healy Rae, the greens and of course Harney and her zealots in the PD’s. The rest isn’t so much history as the evidence needed for a treason trial. In reality I don’t think we will see here what the Icelandic people will get from their PM who tee-ed up their slump when he goes on trial.
We don’t have government for the people by the people. Our unique democratic system is more government by alibi for the guilty. Lehman Brothers, Europe, the regulator, the Central Bank, the builders and the bankers all according to Ahern were outside this control and if he was in power he’d have kept a closer eye on things as the recently reminded the Poles.
The reality is that our current mess resulted from his and Fianna Fail’s abandonment of their responsibility to protect the state from the collateral damage of moneymen and cowboys doing the only thing that that they know what to do. Those of us who are more cynical would say that the moneymen could only do what they did with the support of Ahern and his toadies.
He didn’t enter politics 40 years ago for the money but he sure got out of it for the pension. Thanks for nothing Bertie! You’re a leprechaun in comparison to real politicians like Hume or Gorbachev.

We are where we were left!

I’m tired of clichés being trotted out as a glass ceiling to box in disenchantment. We are where we are ranks as one of the worst offenders! In fact we are where we were left or more likely abandoned. While most of us face in to a windy or wet Easter spare a thought for Sean Fitzpatrick who has a pad in Marbela that he can get away to free gratis courtesy of a FF appointment to the board of Aer Lingus, who this week announced a record loss of €80M.
If that doesn’t move you then think of how David Drumm feels as he cowers behind his front door as Charlie Bird gapes in his letter box innocently asking him “Why are you ducking down?” Fair play to Charlie, I know his time is almost up as Washington correspondent but thanks for the priceless 90 second clip where he tracked down Drumm to his New England trophy home. Drumm owes his former employer Anglo Irish Bank over €8M (and it seems I and other tax payers are now liable for over €6m) and he is where he is and I’m where he left me!

Make no mistake about international opinion. Just because the international movers and shakers in the financial world approve of the overall figures coming out of Merrion St doesn’t mean there’s another way of arriving at the same figures. All the international lenders want from us is money, where it comes from they’re not bothered. So lets not worry too much about the FF and Green line that international confidence is being restored in the economy. What really matters is the confidence of the ordinary person to spend. There’s little indication that the spending will resume and the reason is that wage cuts and unemployment mean that there is very little spare money.
That’s why the agreement reached between the government and the public service unions will fail. It did nothing about restoring wage cuts.
Indeed the suggestion that less workers will do more work and in return pay cuts will be held back till 2014 shows a lack of understanding of how badly hit many particularly low paid public sector workers are. I’m not hugely surprised, last year I met a woman who worked in Social welfare who said that she’d be better off claiming rather than administering unemployment payments. Here's where the 2 threads plait together. Many public sector workers are fed up seeeing there wages cut by a government that has no problem finding as much money as will be needed to bail out the bankers
In my own case, to propose that teachers work an extra hour is a kite being flown. The suggestion that schools would open for another hour is wide of the mark. Given synchronisation of school year and contracts for school buses what it really means is an extra class contact hour in the week for each teacher. That would mean less time to do the preparatory work for practicals, less time for my post of responsibility but more importantly less jobs for teachers.

The likely alternative to accepting this deal is another pay cut at the end of the year. The follow on response will likely be non co-operation with inspection or Whole School Evaluation and a retaliatory further pay cut by Cowen and Gormley. What happens in my area will happen in others. Its very depressing for those of us who work in the public sector. To be fair to Cowen and Lenihan they’re doing what you’d expect them to do so where is the leadership from the union side? We need a vision to oppose the right wing orthodoxy of "There is no alternative" or "We are where we are" school of economics. I'm pleased my union executive have given this deal a thumbs down, I understand that each union is autonomous in accepting or rejecting. Its not enough to sit back and allow the government agenda to go unchallenged.
If that happens the net outcome of the Celtic Tiger will be a race to the bottom in every sector and the starting gun has been fired in the sack race.

FF & Greens threat on union subs is illegal

Those the gods destroy they first make mad. I’m reminded of this wisdom this week when I hear Minister Dempsey responding to the air traffic controllers dispute with a suggestion to ban strike action in essential services. The cabinet’s union bashing continues with suggestions that they will refuse to pass on union deductions from their employees in an attempt to break opposition to pay cuts. This threat should be ignored by public service workers. I say; Bring it on, Let me explain; It’s my view that any such attempt is illegal under data protection law.
It seems that they have learnt nothing in all their years in power other than bullying their workers. About 9 years ago my own union ASTI were locked in a bitter pay dispute with the government, a dispute that we lost and one that I believe our union has yet to fully recover from. Part of our action was to work to rule and not to supervise for absent colleagues. As a result school boards of management closed schools on health and safety grounds although staff were in situ and willing to work. The government moved quickly to withhold 5 days pay from teachers over the Christmas holidays. .

I was particularly annoyed by this move and was one of 42 teachers to take their case to the Data Protection Commissioner in January 2001. I pointed out that my membership of a union is a matter for me and the union concerned. The only reason I had notified the department of my ASTI membership was to facilitate me in paying my union dues, in exactly the same way that VHI, pension, AVC payments etc are processed. I pointed out that the salaries section had no other dealings with me and that if the department had an issue with me that they were obliged to write to me directly asking me if I had been party to a work to rule protest and then following a response taken the action they did


The commissioner investigated my case and found in my favour. The government was obliged to return the deducted pay, not just to me but to every teacher. This 2001 decision is highly relevant to the government’s latest plan.
The Data Commissioner satisfied himself that data relating to my ASTI membership “was obtained by the Department for the sole purpose of deducting ASTI subscription from salary and remitting such deductions to the ASTI and for no other purpose. Using the data for another purpose contravenes section 2 of the Data Protection Act 1988.” Following this decision the Department of Education was warned not to repeat this action as a heavy fine would be imposed.

There are many similarities in what happened to me and what the government is now proposing to do to IMPACT, SIPTU, CPSU members. If what is reported happens, Brian Lenihan will direct officials to assess each employee record, cancel their subscription to the union and presumably return it to their pay packet without written notification from the employee whose money it is in the first place. If they don’t do that they will have to hold on to their employees money against the employees instruction provoking a Fr Ted situation where the money will be resting in their account!
The facility to deduct union membership from salaries was offered to the employee from the state, not from the union. The state pays the union at the direction of the states employee. They cannot unilaterally decide to withdraw that facility without entering into a discussion with its employees. They cannot, to quote the judgement, take information for the purpose of facilitating payment and use it for a political purpose of discommoding a union. Am I the only one who sees this as being a breach of an employee’s confidential data and rights? If you can try this one on with an employee’s union subvention what’s to stop a similar move to thwart payment to a health insurance provider if the government doesn’t like the cut of them too?


Since I started teaching how we were paid has changed enormously. We were told that it was all about the cashless society. The ATM (beloved of those of us who cast a sceptical eye in bench marking) replaced the cheque. But what we’re getting now is the amoral society. One where the Greens and FF will do, as they put it euphemistically, what has to be done to put this country back on its feet. There’s many a public servant who’ll be on their feet soon enough but not in the way that Cowen and company imagine.

ICTU spell it out to FF & the Greens

The ICTU rally in opposition to cuts in government spending in Waterford saw about 8,000 union members from the south east march in fine dry weather to let the government now exactly how they feel. Nationally almost 80,000 took to the streets to put Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan on notice that they expect the government to pursue those who made most during the boom years to pay up when it comes to finding the money to keep public services going.

It’s unfair to describe the protest as a public sector protest about avoiding pay cuts. Notable in attendance were community workers from FAB in Wexford opposed to cuts in funding to the CDP budgets.
FAB is funded under the RAPID scheme and does valuable work within estates where unemployment is high and there is a huge reliance on social welfare and funding to maintain the community. These women were there because they know that funding cuts will set them back years while those who have made a fortune in this country will still hold on to their cash oblivious of the real need in their country. But it wasn’t just about workers it was about retired workers too, some of whom I met and spoke to.
I was delighted to meet so many of my Labour colleagues from around the region, Cllrs Denis Landy, Seamus Ryan and Tomás Walsh all marched behind the Labour banner. My ASTI colleagues were out in force as were INTO, IMPACT, UNITE, TUI, INO and of course SIPTU. I was delighted to see the entire Wexford SIPTU office at the rally afterwards at The Glen. Pleased also to see Rory, fellow Wexford blogger flying the Wexford flag and the red flag from the same pole.
Led by a band from The Glen, the march went along the Quays and back via Ballybricken. There was a strong show of firemen and ambulance workers to underpin the depth of feeling in the 24/7 group of workers. As I passed the garda station at Ballybricken I thought for one moment I saw the “Super” give us the clenched fist from his 3rd floor office! There was a clear message from the platform from ICTU, Mayor Halligan of Waterford and other union speakers that ordinary workers are being put to the pin of their collar and didn’t deserve what was being done to them. Those who run Irish society were setting worker against worker.
As one speaker from TEEU said; first it was self-employed worker against employed worker, then it was private sector worker against public sector worker, after that it was worker against unemployed and recently he’d heard someone try to divide the long term unemployed against short term unemployed. What’s next; young unemployed against older unemployed? Teachers have an unpalatable choice, oppose pay cuts and the government will sack your younger teaching colleagues and your working conditions will deteriorate. Accept a pay cut and the very colleague who you feel should keep their job will find the mortgage payments a difficulty. That’s the reality, just 2 years after being told by Bertie Ahern that anyone who was sceptical about the boom should commit suicide. Some Republic!