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Dail Holidays again? Or maybe not!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Dail Holidays again? Or maybe not!

The Dail (Irish Parliament) is known for its propensity to take time off. The Fianna Fail government was heavily criticised in recent years, that despite serious issues in the country the parliament needed their loooong holidays. That was the OLD government that held on to the many and long holidays. But all has changed since the elections! Or has it??

Breakingnews.ie reports at www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/taoiseach-cancels-mid-term-break-for-dail-525874.html this:

Taoiseach cancels mid-term break for Dáil
26/10/2011 – 12:14:30
The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has cancelled a mid-term break for politicians next week.

The Dáil was due to adjourn tonight until Tuesday week.

But after opposition from Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and People Before Profit, Mr Kenny announced the Dáil will now sit on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

There are two HUGELY interesting aspects in this small article.

1) The party that for decades held steadfastly on to the much too long holidays is now opposing them. Fianna Fail opposed the mid-term break!

2) The party that came to power with the promise that they will change all bad habits and will reform a broken system that the previous government left behind had NO intention to cancel the holidays. If Enda Kenny hadn’t suggested that there should be holidays, the others would not have had to oppose. So Enda Kenny from Fine Gael no better than the previous leaders from Fianna Fail?

You probably are wondering if the people that didn’t oppose really think they are in school, because the mid-term break is for schools only! I wonder too! Odd!!

Politics, , , ,

Referenda – Vote YES and NO!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Referenda – Vote YES and NO!

This Thursday, together with the Presidential election, the citizens of Ireland (i.e. not me!) will be asked to vote for or against two referenda as well. One is to change the constitution so that the salary of judges can be economically adjusted, meaning REDUCED. And the other to allow the Dail (Irish Parliament) or the Seanad (Upper House) to “conduct an enquiry that they consider to be a matter of general public importance”.

I didn’t give much attention to the referenda, like most people, but today I checked the wording of the new article in the constitution and I am shocked.

The referendum about the judges pay is no problem. I would definitely vote YES. If all other employees of the state have to live with less money, then judges should too!

But the other referendum would give the Dail or Seanad more or less the same power as a court has. The principal of separating judiciary and executive powers in a democratic state is hugely important, but this article will severly impact that.

I believe the idea was to give the parliament the power to investigate issues that in the past were given to tribunals and that cost a huge amount of money and never produced any results, but I don’t think the tribunals were the right approach. Irish politicians like Lowry, Bertie Ahern and others who were dodgy as hell should have been in front of a court not in front of the members of parliament to explain their acts. It is NOT the role of a parliament to replace courts!

So I hope that it will be a clear NO to the second referendum! It has to be reworded to be acceptable.

Justice, Politics, Society, ,

Sean Gallagher stumbles!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Sean Gallagher stumbles!

I have declared that I would vote for Sean Gallagher as the new president …if I was allowed to vote. But in the last debate of all presidential candidates, Sean Gallagher stumbled the first time.

Because I wasn’t able to see the whole debate, I am not exactly sure how it all happened, but seemingly Martin McGuinness declared that someone rang him and told him that Sean Gallagher collected a cheque for Fianna Fail from the caller a few years ago.

Interesting in the context of Gallagher’s repeated attempts to distance himself from any FF involvement, but not scandalous in itself. If he collected a cheque for a party he was involved and did deliver the cheque to the party, I don’t see where the scandal is. Sure it doesn’t really tally with Gallagher’s preference to be seen as unattached to Fianna Fail, but that is still no disaster.

He was an active Fianna Fail member and it would have been better to accept and admit that and then to tell people that there is no danger from an ex-Fianna Fail member as president because the president has zero political power anyway. But for some reason people in Ireland are EXTREMELY sensitive to Fianna Fail membership.

Much less so than they are to Sinn Fein or even IRA membership!

I never thought much of Fianna Fail (always found it funny that they had “fail” in the name!) and I never liked Bertie Ahern even during the times when he was admired like a god by many. But on the other hand, I don’t think either that because one party has been involved in a lot of bad things and has contributed significantly to damaging the country, that then all members are automatically bad apples.

So I still have no problem with a former Fianna Fail member as a president of Ireland, but I wish Sean Gallagher had handled the conflict better. The worst sentence was probably when he declared that he had “no recollection of receiving a cheque”. This is the wording that was used by all the corrupt or dodgy former Fianna Fail figureheads. BAD choice!

I don’t think collecting a cheque on behalf of your party is a terrible thing, but I would imagine that Sean Gallagher’s support in the presidential race experienced a severe drop in that moment.

On a side note: Interesting that the politician with the darkest and dodgiest past, Martin McGuinness, was the one that threw the dirt at Gallagher!

Elections, Politics, President, , ,

The Presidential Candidates

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The Presidential Candidates

Not being a citizen of Ireland means that I am not allowed to vote in the Presidential election next week, so instead of putting my opinion on a ballot paper, the only way I can share my opinion is here in this forum. ;-)

I listened to lots of discussions and interviews with the candidates over the last few weeks and I find most discussions odd. Because of the role of the Irish President (see my previous post here) the majority of questions is totally irrelevant.

If we assume that the new president has absolutely NO political influence, then what else differentiates the candidates and who is electable and who isn’t.

Here is my personal opinion (in alphabetical order by last name):

Mary Davis
Was it just herself who thought she is suitable? Her claim to fame is that she was the CEO of a charity that organised a successful event (the Special Olympics). She was handsomely paid for that job and it seems that she did what was expected from her. Her reward was that she was put on lots of other boards and in public roles and was paid for all of them as well. I had never heard about Mary Davis before she seemingly nominated herself (not sure if that was the case, but in essence it was not much different). I have zero positive or negative emotions when I think of Mary Davis and for me that is enough of a sign. I can’t see any reason why she should become president.

Sean Gallagher
I like Sean Gallagher, he is straight talking, he has different ideas (no posters, send all election pamphlets in one envelope, etc) and he has been very approachable in the past at events where I met him. I liked him as a” Dragon” on Dragon’s Den and I think that’s where he was good. I did and still don’t understand why he thought becoming the Irish President is a good idea. I would not really want him as president, because I think he is a lot more useful in a business role, maybe even in a political role than as a president.
However, if someone had to represent me, I wouldn’t feel too upset if it was Sean Gallagher. BTW: His political affiliation in the past is in my opinion not a big problem. Fianna Fail members are not outcasts, the party was lead by morally corrupt and self-centered people, but that doesn’t make everyone in the party a bad apple.

Michael D Higgins
An old little man that could easily be your granddad or the little hobbit from the little house down the road, but as a president I can NOT imagine him. In my opinion he also is definitely too old for the role. In 7 years at the end of his time, he will be 77 and considering that he already appears more like 90 than like 70, it is just too late for him. It probably doesn’t help that I encountered him about 2 years ago in rather relaxed atmosphere where he came across more deranged than statesman-like.

Martin McGuinness
For me it is much too early for an IRA member who killed or condoned the killing of many civilians to become the president of Ireland. I am not saying that IRA members will always have to be excluded, but Martin McGuinness had his arms to deep in the muck. I would really feel uneasy if he was the one representing me. He has done a huge conversion from his past to the now, but I don’t think it will ever be enough. I wouldn’t want Ian Paisley either as a president. They were all too entrenched in all the hatred.

Gay Mitchell
Who?? Gay Mitchell has left Ireland a long long time ago (to take up EU roles for years) and I don’t think he is enough part of Ireland to have the right to represent Ireland. Apart from that, he doesn’t even have the support from all his party. He was a compromise candidate. He represents boring establishments, something that Higgins and McGuinness interestingly don’t represent despite their party nominations. An absolute NO as a president.

David Norris
David Norris? A born entertainer, an actor, a laugh when he is performing. …but as soon as it gets serious the wheels AND the gloves come off. Underneath the lacquer there is a totally ego-centric bully who tries to shout down people and who has some rather twisted opinions in some areas. I would happily see him in a play, but I don’t trust him with serious stuff. When he withdrew from the competition I thought he did the right thing, but why did he come back? What had changed? He withdrew because he thought he was not a suitable candidate. Why suddenly was he suitable again a few days later? Not a representative for anybody else but for himself.

Dana Scanlon
Does she even deserve to be considered as a serious candidate? She tried it before and failed dismally and she will do the same again. I can’t see a single political opinion that I share with her. I can live with that! But I can’t even understand her moral positions.

Shockingly there is not a lot of positives in these assessments. There is definitely no outstanding candidate, but just a whole bunch of mediocrity. So, who would I vote for? Taking out the people I could not vote for doesn’t leave much. In the end it comes down to personality and to the person that in my opinion has the highest level of integrity and that is Sean Gallagher.
No, he is not my dream candidate, but he is a good compromise that could definitely grow into a statesman role. Pity that he is then gone from the business/economic end, but we will survive.

Elections, Politics, President, , , , , ,

Role of President in Ireland

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
1 Comment
Role of President in Ireland

In a few days the next Irish president will be elected and the news have been full with reports about all the good intentions the candidates have for turning around the country. The only problem is that the Irish President has no influence over any day-to-day politics. His/her role is purely ceremonial with a very small and very controlled and limited political brief.

Many argued in the last few weeks that the role should be abolished, that Ireland doesn’t need a president and that the money for keeping the role is wasted.

I don’t agree with that. I think it is necessary and appropriate to have a superior power in a republic that is independent from politics. Someone who can represent the country without representing a certain political direction. Yes, there are cost involved, but it is a well justifiable luxury. ..better justifiable than the huge number of 160 TDs (members of parliament) for a tiny country like Ireland. (Germany has 622 members of parliament for 81 mio inhabitants, that’s 7.68 per 1 million people. Would a similar ratio apply to Ireland, Ireland would have approx. 35 members of parliament instead of 160!)

But back to the President:
Having a president makes sense, but it seems that the 7 candidates (and their interviewers) are not really clear on the role of a president.

A few months ago I was at an event where Mary McAleese, the current Irish President was expected as well. Because a junior minister of the Irish Government was speaking first, Mary McAleese was not allowed to be present until the junior minister had finished his speech. As a president she has to stand over party politics and I would understand if she isn’t allowed to agree or disagree with the opinion of a member of the government, but protocol prescribes that she is not even allowed to be in the same room with a publicly speaking politician. That is just crazy! Are a president’s ears so sensitive that we must protect them from the political waffle?

If a president is not even allowed to be present when a politician speaks, is it then really thinkable that a president will be able to create jobs or has ANY other political influence?

And if he/she doesn’t why don’t we stop asking the stupid questions about their intentions and goals (i.e their political program) as a president?

The new president is there to visit countries, shake hands and smile for the camera. There is no other role!

Elections, Politics, President, Uncategorized, ,
 
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