The Politics of Envy

When you live in a society where cutting is almost a sacrament, It had to come to this. The “controversy” about funding the extension of Wexford General Hospital A&E is evidence of a new type of politics, where an austerity ethos  can be used to varnish reality.  So forgive me for throwing out a few facts to spoil the party or indeed the Sinn Fein or Fianna Fail party lines.

Wexford General Hospital annually treats over 33,000 patients at it’s A&E.  The A&E is housed in a converted pharmacy in the hospital since it was built about 20 years ago because funding at the time was not provided for the planned  A&E.  The A&E serves much of the county as well as Arklow.  I’ve brought my kids, pupils and neighbours to the hospital where I’ve nothing but praise for the hospital and its staff.

The failure to provide a proper A&E in Wexford has always been the hospital’s week spot.  In 2007 Wexford General Hospital was a priority for construction or so local FF TD John Browne told us at a meeting in Wexford in 2006.  When no progress was made on the matter another protest meeting and March followed in 2010.  All the time while Fianna Fail were telling us the project would proceed an application to extend Waterford Regional Hospital’s A&E to a capacity of 80,000 was going through planning. There was never a suggestion that the new A&E there would mean Wexford A&E would close as Waterford naturally had New Ross and Carrick on Suir in its hinterland and reconfiguration would see south Tipperary A&E being cared for in Waterford.  It’s a great pity that Sinn Fein & Fianna Fail are playing the old trick of playing one town off against another.  Unfortunately it is backfiring in Wexford and will back fire elsewhere soon enough.

During the 2011 General Election the single biggest issue in Wexford was the retention of the local A&E services.  Labour unashamedly campaigned to retain the services and to lobby for the A&E to go ahead.  The revelation that the hospital was not prioritised in the HSE capital program is a statement of facts that was common knowledge at the time, there is nothing new in what RTE’s “This Week” broadcast today.  The facts are the project went backwards when FF were telling us it was going ahead!

Secondly all this nonsense on the part of the Board of the HSE about not sanctioning the project until July 2011.  I was Mayor when the project was announced and was present at the announcement. So too was the senior HSE official who we on the council were told was in the lead in relation to the development work.  how do I know that he was in the lead? Because when the council wrote to the HSE looking to meet with it, the board referred us to the same official!!  In the picture above you’ll see Brendan Howlin cutting the ribbon on the new Scanner on the day he announced the A&E was going ahead.  Surrounding him are the Clinical Director and Hospital Manager.  Speaking on the rostrum that day was the senior official nominated by the HSE in relation to the extension work.   There wasn’t a sign of any stroke being pulled.  Perhaps the HSE may have internal communication problems?

 So here’s the rub make a promise on a campaign and keep it and Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail will clobber you.  On the other hand if you make a promise and don’t implement it quick enough the same parties will attack you for breaking your promise.

RTE’s Greatest ever Irish person result; Boyzone 3 First Dail 2

The decision by RTE to find out who we think is the greatest ever Irish person reveals much of what we think about ourselves at present. No scientist, no writers, no poets, no actors, no sports stars, no protestants or anyone from religious life are listed. Political giants who shaped our nation whether I liked it or not; O’Connell, Parnell, Cusack, Davitt, De Valera, Lemass, Whitaker, Larkin, all missing from the final list of 10. No business man (Arthur Guinness must be spinning in hs grave)not even Michael O'Leary after his Hanger 6 stunt could get in ahead of former air hostess Adi Roche.

The 10 voted by the public says a lot about Ireland in the 21st century; Bono a tax dodging humanitarian rock star, 2 who were shot dead, Collins & Connolly, another who died from a drug overdose Phil Lynott, just 3 women 2 of whom were former Labour presidential candidates, Adi Roche, Mary Robinson as well as Sonia O’Sullivan, and the late Stephen Gately one of 2 members of Boyzone originally nominated. Incidentally the initial list of 40 nominees contained more member of Boyzone when you add their manager Louis Walsh than members of the first Dail! I wonder if they’d had a bigger short list of 50 would Mikey Graham have edged out Countess Markievicz?

I voted for James Connolly. If there was PR I’d have continued my preference for Noel Browne and Mary Robinson. There are many left off the list I’d have loved to seen nominated Dr Kathleen Lynn, former FF TD who founded a children’s hospital in the 1930’s, Countess Markievicz first woman to be elected to Westminster, Ernest Walton, Nobel prize winner, WB Yeats ditto, Grace O’Malley or Nano Nagle surely should be there? What about Gay Byrne? As a broadcaster and as someone who’s changed attitudes to road safety? I’d have him there. Sonia a rare world class athlete who brought great pleasure to the country doesn't make it past the tape!

The late Frank Cluskey said that there was no point in having a vote unless you knew the outcome beforehand. I know where he was coming from on this one. I’d have thought that nominees would have been drawn from a wider base. Yeats once said that Irish Protestants were no petty people, RTE seem to have another view. Not one Northern Protestant included. Instead we have a mish mash of celebs and lefties! I’d be happy if any of the 3 I’ve picked win, but there must be more to Ireland than these. John Hume is also a man of real substance and vision, But Stephen Gately, Bono or Phil Lynott all of whom I’ve seen perform? Did I think I was looking at the greatest Irish person ever? Not really, Michael Collins apparently could work a crowd much better and at least had vision and left the country something more valuable.

We as a country are celebrity driven that live in the present but also lives in the passive. We’ve arrived at the stage where TV3 will send its Expose team round the entertainment world to interview celebs but doesn’t put resources into investigative journalism.
But we’re also humanitarian minded; It’s extraordinary how many humanitarians there were in the initial list. But where was Sir Rodger Casement in the nominees? It seems as if there is a disconnect between the present and the past and its just present day humanitarians or celebs who count. Perhaps in another 10 years we might expect celebrity chefs, Reality TV presenters, NAMA execs listed?

In the meantime I think the top 5 will be Collins, Connolly, John Hume, Mary Robinson and Bono with Hume to win. Connolly was listed by BBC some years back in their competition to find the 100 greatest Britons ever. But lets wait and see what September brings. In the absence of any Wexford person on the list I’m concurrently running my own poll to see who you think was Wexford greatest ever person. Pick from Brendan Corish, Eileen Gray, Fr Murphy, John Redmond and Colm Toibin.

The Spin to Newry

Yesterday’s one day public service strike was according to RTE a bonanza for traders in the border town of Newry. RTE news claimed tailbacks of 3 miles on the southern approaches to the town and blamed a sudden influx of southern shoppers mostly on strike for the gridlock. Anyone who read my recent post on the fascination within RTE for the Healy Raes will understand that the state broadcaster has a pavlovian urge to ditch balance when it comes to stories reflecting the government agenda. A year ago, a minor contamination of pork products was hyped by news management, to take the Education demonstration off the front pages.

This year George Lee inferred as he was going out the Montrose door that suits don’t like it when he speaks his mind. Even today Derek Mooney warned his guest Eddie Hobbs not to criticise the government lest those upstairs would give him a carpeting. Newstalk’s Eamon Keane says that he cannot get cabinet ministers on his show because he won’t agree to play by the rules. The evidence is there that the state broadcaster doesn’t want to rock the boat with the government.
But there is a difference between rocking the boat and crossing the line. Reluctance to rock the boat suggests the crew want to maintain control of their craft. Crossing the line on the other hand suggests to me that you stop becoming objective and start becoming a player in the events that you should be covering objectively.

Yesterday morning there was an accident on the A1 south of Newry. That and the ongoing road works (until 2010) at the roundabout for Forkhill caused a tailback quickly. Both incidents are noted on the reliable website aaroadwatch.ie. Strangely RTE attributed the gridlock caused to strikers who were absent from work. While RTE had crews available to cover the floods nationally (as is fitting) the only crew available for coverage of the effects of the strike outside of the Dublin area was the Belfast crew who were sent to Sainsbury’s in Newry who filmed a youth from Dublin pointing to a man off camera claiming he was a striker. The reporter also filmed a parent leading 2 young children around the shopping centre.
Things get even more curiouser and curiouser! There are no media reports of ASDA at Enniskillen or Strabane being overrun with southern shoppers, well no more than usual. Are we to conclude that strikers living close to the M1 are more prone to slip across the border on a day off than those who live in Sligo or Donegal?

Peter McLoone of IMPACT describes RTE’s claims as nonsense. I’ve never met Peter but he’s from Donegal and possible understands ordinary people better than Bryan Dobson because he works for them. I’ve previously posted my views on cross border shopping, it’s called the free market and I see nothing wrong getting value across the border if you cannot get it at home. Mary Harney told us to shop around, why should we be criticised for practising what they preached?
But this is not the real point of this post. Yesterday a spin was put on a small number of people who did go to Newry because their children were off school and a construction was put on it that large numbers of the 235K public service strikers were up in Newry. RTE owe strikers and the government nothing it does owe the country objectivity and the facts. Yesterday they failed the country and spun the spin to Newry rather than ask why cabinet ministers were unavailable to answer hard questions. RTE then has the neck to criticise the referee in the Ireland France match!

Kenny’s Paisley interview “ A terrible beauty”

For a week Pat Kenny has been hyping the appearance of former First Minister of the Northern Assembly Ian Paisley on The Late Late Show. Ian, the man who said “not an inch” and “Seal the border” and Pat, the man who ended up in court in a boundary dispute with his neighbour, it had all the makings of a hum dinger. However Pat let the cat out of the bag when in introducing Ian when he said the focus would be on his private life.
With the giggling audience and Ian junior smiling all the way through the show, it seems as if Martin’s part as a Chuckle Brother has been replaced by the now sidelined Ian junior or Ian Óg as some people call him. I wonder what those who followed him down the road to gaol would think of the love in?Pat Kenny missed a golden opportunity to ask Paisley how he would react to Major Ronald Bunting’s remark that he regretted ever meeting him? Given Paisley's now avuncular public persona, surely such a staement is now more relevant than ever? Not one mention in the interview of anyone of the victims in the northern troubles, many of whom are in a premature grave because of Big Ian. Pat Kenny returned often to ask about religion, interestingly Paisley seemed to infer that Catholics weren’t true Christians and needed to convert in order to be saved while his wife Lady Paisley referred to “So-called Loyalist Paramilitaries”. The reality is that many “so called loyalists” manned barricades to bring down the 1974 power sharing executive at the request of her husband. To my mind Gerry Fitt was a man before his time, not for nothing does Seamus Mallon refer to the present process as Sunningdale for slow learners.
However the distribution of slow learners is equally distributed across the sectarian divide in the north. Earlier this week there was an extraordinary scene when many relatives of the victims when were addressed by the Bradley/Eames commission on their proposals for dealing with the past. Raw tension re-surfaced as the meting got under way when another who shares responsibility for the slaughter, Gerry Adams, was taunted by relatives of protestant victims. While Gerry faces into an uncertain future as President of Sinn Fein in the light of his poor leadership in the 2007 General Election, Ian seems to relish in his “One Foot In The Grave” routine, a cross between a latter day St Paul after Damascus touring the dominion with his words of wisdom for a new generation and a dotty grand uncle where the audience is invited to omit what happened in the black and white TV days. Gerry Adams has been there already.
Tonight’s interview comes almost 10 years on from Gay Byrne’s sucker punch on the Late Late to Padraig Flynn and 10 weeks from Rody Molloy’s implosion on Kenny’s radio show. It can be done on this show and also by this host but tonight won’t be one of those nights that people will talk about in years to come.

Road to Oz paved with best intentions

Last night’s Late Late show was the most depressing I’ve watched in sometime. Don’t get me wrong my only criticism of is of one topic in particular, one I never thought I’d see again and that’s emigration. On a human level I have huge sympathies for the 20 something’s that Pat Kenny interviewed who sat in the front row left with no alternative but to go abroad for work. Having been part of a similar generation 20 years ago faced with the same likelihood, the word emigration brings an empty feeling to my gut. To be fair one or two of the guests may well have gone to Australia anyway for a year out in search of downtime, fair enough I’ve no problem with that either. My interest in the matter is the overt message that there is little work for young people now in Ireland, especially if you’re in construction so go to where the work is. Sadly emigration, even in the limited options now available, is where these young Irish now see their future, and that is surely the biggest failing of all of the mistakes of this government.

In the context of the present world economy there’s few places where there isn’t a recession. Australia seems to be the obvious place for most people. Last July I met a parent of a former pupil and when I enquired as to how he was I was told that he had lost his job in an architect’s office. I sympathised and said I hoped it wouldn’t be a case that he’d have to emigrate as there weren’t too many countries where there may be a need for architects other than Australia. His mother then went on to tell me that if nothing came up he was going out in August which he eventually did. Sad to relate that he’s not the only one going south and that he won’t be the last.
I can remember Gay Byrne telling us day after day 25 years ago that the country was “banjaxed” and that the last one leaving should put out the lights. It’s easy to say but the effect of those words on a generation of young people is damaging. We now know that the country wasn’t banjaxed and that money was stashed away from revenue in a black hole. When unions pointed this out they were told that there was no black hole, no money leaving the country for the Isle of Man, Channel Islands or Cayman. Now we know much better. Just as we have another symptom of the 1980’s back in the form of emigration I wonder has tax evasion returned too? I note that Ryanair are opening new routes to Spain from Knock and I wonder how so many people in the 2 countries appear to have so much money to support such a service when both economies are in difficulty. Property over there is much cheaper as they followed policies similar to our own government.
The reality is that emigrants from Ireland may find it harder to get into the US due to security considerations and the UK and Europe may be no better than here as these economies are in recession also. Some people call it the confidence to spend, others call it reluctance to pay now but whatever the reason no one wants to buy and that’s a huge problem in the economy. But if money came out from under the bed would it not be economically more productive? This is the rainy day that the wealth should have been kept for. I know that the sustainability means you cannot keep building houses but if school buildings were constructed, better insulation installed in houses I, like Eamon Gilmore, believe far fewer people would have to emigrate. Would it not be more productive to our economy to have these young people here than abroad, returning only at Christmas time?
RTE used to run a regular feature at Christmas where Jim Fahy would go to Knock Airport to report on the return of emigrants from Mayo to London after the Christmas break. No stronger image existed of a failed right wing policy. 1 million people emigrated between 1921 and the 1991. Jim is still on the payroll of RTE, what’s the bet he’ll be back in Knock Airport next year? With no change in direction I think it’s a likelihood.

Cowen’s Late Late Wexford “fun”

There’s an old saying that it started on the late late show. True the programme that gave us P Flynn’s self destruction, the Terry Keane outing, the Annie Murphy scrap and so many others down through the years has finally run into the buffers. Today’s Sunday Tribune reports that prior to An Taoiseach Brian Cowen agreeing to an interview from Wexford Opera House in September this year he insisted on knowing the questions, the guests and ensuring that no ambush from the audience would be allowed.

A Freedom of Information request revealed the extent of contacts over a 2 month period prior to the show preceding the Taoiseach’s appearance. Late Late researchers went to extraordinary lengths to assure the Taoiseach that the interview would be of the soft focus variety. In the words of an email sent to his department in an attempt to entice him on air after the economy was drifting leaderless it would be "fun". Given that immediately prior to the show the cabinet had spent the month of August on their hols one wonder show much more soft you can need? And in light of these facts what does that make of one FF Oireachtas member who this week claims that RTE is too left wing in its coverage of current affairs? That sounds like someone who hasn’t moved on since the 1960’s when RTE authorities were regularly sacked because of “conduct unbecoming”. For anyone interested in how FF believes RTE should behave watch “Scannail” later this week which deals with “The Spike” a drama censored by then Minister Gerry Collins about 30 years ago.

The reality of relationship between the broadcast media and the government is a lot more complex than that but for some people it has yet to move on. According to one insider in local radio an FF supporting independent on his local radio station refuses straight interviews on air favouring the presenter instead to read the questions he has himself composed prior to the interview and supplied to the station. RTE relies on the Minister for Communications to approve a license fee increase and to intervene to regulate sports events as free to air. Compared to how in the past Blair attacked the BBC (under the same commercial pressures) over the Iraq dossier, RTE has never fundamentally undermined the government on an issue of national importance. Reading the tribune today I see why.

There relationship between media and politics should be one of balanced tension. One acting as the guard dog on the other, not the media as the lap dog for the bulldog. Political and commercial decisions have often taken priority over the public’s right to know. The environment created thus has given us the politician as a celebrity, personality and ultimately some sort of hyper sensitive species. It provides the milieu where Senator Jim Walsh is given time to pontificate about Podge & Rodge unchallenged at a time when jobs are being lost, OAP’s and school children feeling the brunt of his cuts. What’s the bet a Christmas TV special featuring Brian Cowen or Mary Coughlan as a guest? As Bunny Carr used to say “Stop the lights”