Skip to main content

Does the Irish Government know what “Brexit” means? – Irish 10 year plan in response to Brexit

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Does the Irish Government know what “Brexit” means? – Irish 10 year plan in response to Brexit

On Wednesday (15 Feb) Newstalk reported that the Taoiseach will announce a 10 year plan in response to Brexit here. I expected to read about a plan that would talk about supporting the exploration of new markets for Irish companies selling currently into the UK; a plan for getting tourists from elsewhere to visit Ireland to make up for the short fall of tourists from the UK and a plan to deepen our relationships with the other EU countries (#WhoNeedsTheUKAnyway).

But I certainly didn’t expect to read about a plan that will “focus on areas such as investments in roads, public transport, and energy.” Something MAJOR went wrong here! One of us, either Enda Kenny or myself, has NO clue what “Brexit” means?!

My understanding is that “Brexit” means that once it happens, one of 27 countries, Britain, which is made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, will leave the EU. That country won’t pay any more money into the EU, but will also not get any money from the EU anymore. All contracts that currently regulate relationships with other countries in the EU will stop being valid for the exiting country and everything has to be arranged new with this country. Ireland does a lot of business with Britain, so there will be some impact, but the ONLY area Brexit will impact Ireland is in matters that have to do with borders and markets as fas as we currently know.

How does have focus on “investments in roads, public transport (!!!!!) and energy” have anything to do with a Brexit? Enda Kenny is quoted saying “That new Plan will show how we will invest in roads, in public transport, in energy, in water, in schools, in higher education and in hospitals and health facilities. It will include detailed, funded plans to complete the national road network, including links between Dublin and Derry and Donegal, and to accelerate delivery of critical public transport infrastructure.

“It will include substantial investment in the ports and airports that Ireland will need as a successful, global trading nation. And it will support the achievement of our international climate change obligations and our national objectives for sustainable development and environmental protection.”

I accept that streets to Derry (in Northern Ireland) could be affected by a Brexit, but how does Brexit affect public transport? Or education? Or hospitals? Or national objectives (the clue is in the word, Mr Kenny!!) for sustainable development and environmental protection?

Has Endy Kenny lost it completely? NOTHING of that plan will prepare Ireland better for a Brexit than doing nothing. Now having such a plan is a VERY good idea for a country and it is surprising that this was not considered anyway, but needed a Brexit as a trigger. Is it a matter of “…we only look after our own country if another country leaves the EU”?

Very very odd!

Economy, Odd, Politics, ,

ALL American Ambassadors are gone!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
ALL American Ambassadors are gone!

ALL American Ambassadors have been removed from their posts and consequently the USA is right now without ANY representatives outside of the USA. In a very strange and definitely unusual move, Donald Trump informed all US Ambassadors around the world tha they will have to have left their post before he became president.

US Ambassadors are usually political appointments and it is not unusual that they change when a new president takes office, but normally there is a grace period to get things organised, to give the existing ambassadors some time to get back home and to appoint the successors. Not this time! And to make things even more harsh, the order was sent to all ambassadors around the world just two days before Christmas on 23 December.

Kevin O’Malley, the most recent US Ambassador to Ireland, who is an Irish American attorney from St. Louis was in a plane on Inauguration Day to get back to the US as ordered. He was nominated by Barack Obama on 05 June 2014.

Ireland being at the lower end of the priority list for Ambassador appointments (The position was left vacant for nearly 2 years from December 2012 until September 2014!) might have to wait a while to get the next ambassador.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI0IJplzPqg

Dublin, Elsewhere, Odd, Politics, ,

President Higgins’ visual impairment!?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
President Higgins’ visual impairment!?

Visual impairment is no fun in most cases. It is certainly not a choice and impacts the life of every affected person in a HUGE way. “Normal” seeing people expect that they have a field of vision of a good bit more than 180 degrees (including peripheral vision). So, imagine how it would affect you if out of 180 degrees a massive piece of that semi circle was missing. Blacked out or so hazy that you can’t make out what is there.

No severe medical condition regarding his eyesight is known about Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland. But it seems that the piece of that semi circle that he can’t seen can easily hold between 10,000 and 100,000 people. Because that’s the number (10,000-100,000) that were killed by the state in Cuba. At least 78,000 are estimated to have died trying to flee Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. (see www.quora.com/How-many-deaths-was-Fidel-Castro-responsible-for )

Fidel Castro was a brutal dictator in Cuba! Yes, there are some good things that he did in the areas of medicine and education, for example. But any absolutist leader will achieve SOME positive things and wil help SOME people. Even Hitler and Stalin did some positive things.

But how can you completely ignore the oppression of the people of a whole country, the killing of up to 100,000 and the fact that in all Castro’s years in power, he didn’t allow a single free election? How can you be soo blind that you talk of Fidel Castro as a leader “whose view was not only one of freedom for his people but for all of the oppressed and excluded peoples on the planet”. Freedom of his people!?!?!?!? He killed 78,000 who were prepared to risk their lives to get away from that freedom! He did give his people so much freedom that they weren’t allowed to vote once in nearly 50 years? And Fidel Castro the dictator, the oppressor allegedly cared about “all of the oppressed ..on the planet”?

No big problem, if Mr Higgins (or Comrade Higgins) has that opinion. Still wrong, but who cares about his ideology. But it was an absolutely shocking statement by a president of a democratic European country.

Irish, Odd, Politics, President, ,

US Elections – The UN-democratic Democracy!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
US Elections – The UN-democratic Democracy!

Every democratic country tries to adopt a system that is as democratic as possible while at the same time protecting the interests of the ruling parties. We have that in European countries (including Ireland!) and we have the same in the US. But depending if you are on the winning side or on the losing side, some of these un-democratic rules can be particularly upsetting.

Most of us experienced this on Wednesday after the US Presidential election. It all happened in a country geographically far away and we were not even allowed to vote, but to think that it won’t affect us would be a big mistake. So the whole world had a stake or at least a keen interest in the US elections and the shock afterwards was HUGE. I don’t think I saw any non-election related Facebook message on Wednesday or Thursday.

It is bad news that a misogynistic, racist egomaniac who has not the slightest bit of political experience and who has frightening views in nearly every area from the use of nuclear weapons to climate change and from the building of a wall on the Mexican border to his opinion about Russia’s Vladimir Putin will become the new president and many couldn’t understand how the votes could get it so wrong.

But interestingly, the voters didn’t get it THAT wrong. A majority of voters voted for Hillary Clinton. Not a BIG majority but Hillary Clinton got 60,231,953 votes which is 47.7% and Donald Trump got 59,893,663 votes, which is 47.4%. So the difference is only approximately 330,000 votes, but it is a definite majority for Hillary Clinton on what the Americans call, the “popular vote”. The decider, however, is the “electoral vote” and that is a very odd system. The electoral vote was won by Trump with 289 votes versus Clinton’s 228 votes. (Michigan and New Hampshire are not finally counted yet, so another 21 votes have to be distributed.)

So the next president of the biggest democratic nation in the world is NOT the person that got most of the votes in a democratic election, but the person that only came second. ODD!

Have a look at this video clip here if you want to understand more about how the Electoral College concept works.

 

Elections, Elsewhere, Politics, , , , ,

Pay Demands – The start of an unstable and damaging period?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Pay Demands – The start of an unstable and damaging period?

It started all with the LUAS Drivers who demanded a crazy increase in their salaries. They didn’t get what they wanted, but they got an increase. Next were the Dublin Bus Drivers, then the Gardai and in the meantime the TDs got also a nice increase of about 9,000 per year. Then the teachers. And they will all get less than they want, but importantly, they will get SOME increase.

With all this, is it a surprise that suddenly EVERYONE in the public sector wants more money? But is it justified? Or justifiable?On Friday FIVE (!!!) more unions announced that they will be looking for pay increases as the Irish Times reported here.

Many think that some of the pay increase demands are totally out of control, but in other areas it might make more sense. The problem however is that once the unions smell “blood” they will go after pay increases like a bloodhound. Justified or not!

Keep in mind that NOBODY needs a union unless there is a dispute, so it is very much in their interest to create a dispute! It justifies their existence and keep the union bosses in a very well paid job.

Any type of unrest is bad for the competitiveness of a country and damages the reputation. So it is in the interest of Ireland to sort out all unrest as fast as possible. An unstable period would be severely damaging in the context of attracting new investment from abroad. But it also doesn’t make sense to give in all cases. Where the salaries are too low, they should be increased, but where unions demand unjustifiable increases, the government should have the courage to refuse ANY increase.

Economy, Politics, Society, Unions, ,
 
Malcare WordPress Security