Letters To The Editor 2005-05-20
Time for action
In face of the government's refusal to move on issues which are fundamental to the lives of disabled people, two leading, national representative organisations of people with disabilities – The Forum for People With Disabilities and the National Association for People with an Intellectual Disability (NAMHI) have exercised the mandate of their membership to withdraw their co-operation with government on the Disability Bill 2004.
The issues which the disability sector had made clear to the government were essential were:
•An unequivocal right to an independent assessment of need for every disabled person, which must not be resource dependent;
• The serves identified in the assessment of need must be provided within a reasonable and agreed time frame;
•The Bill must provide for clear protection of disability specific resources;
•The provisions regarding Sectoral Plans must take account of the wider needs of people with disabilities. Each government department with relevant services must provide a Sectoral Plan.
•A clear statutory duty on all government departments to include disabled people when planning and delivering services.
The government has refused to move on these points, and would make no commitment to consider creating any statutory duty.
It was confirmed by the Taoiseach to the chairperson of the Disability Legislation Consultation Group (DLCG) at a meeting on this evening, that although he would formally reply in writing to the request of the DLCG seeking a meeting, and that if the DLGC thought it necessary, the possibility of a meeting at some stage in the future remained open, these fundamental issues would not be on the agenda and that he could not change government's decisions on these matters.
In light of this response and the fact that the Disability Bill is due to complete Committee stage in the Dáil, the Forum and NAMHI had no option but to act in accordance with their members wishes and pursue their fight for a Bill which respects the rights of people with disabilities, as promised in the programme of government, independently of the DLCG.
Sean Smyth
Belfast
More info – NAHMI: 087 6611890 or 087 6573730; Forum for People with Disabilities: 087 2857683
Refuelling at Shannon
Bush costing Ireland money
The disgusting waste of money spent on preparing for George Bush to land for a refuelling stop at Shannon on 10 May when he didn't land at all is an insult to this State.
Imagine the good causes this and other wasted monies spent over the years by the Government could have gone to. Shame on you.
Paul Doran
Dublin 22
Religion
Sensitive atheists
The Irish Catholic is a deeply sensitive being indeed and certainly doesn't enjoy being bashed. It seems atheism, agnosticism and an increasing secularisation of society are to blame. Well, guess what, we atheists are also sensitive. The difference between a Catholic and an atheist is that the atheist is not offended by the existence of the Catholic. The Catholic, on the other hand, finds the existence of atheism intolerable, threatening, deeply offensive. The atheist sees the existence of religion as a human but not necessary interpretation of the world based on the delusion that human beings are incontrovertibly superior to other animals and are therefore immortal. We are not offended by the existence of religious belief; we are, however, offended when religious discourse interferes in rational discourse influencing legislation that applies to all individuals.
Liberal thinking on this island emerges battered and bruised from centuries of Catholic totalitarianism. Such was Catholic offence at freedom of expression that great writers such as Joyce and Beckett had to leave the island forever. What devout and hyper-sensitive Catholics need to realise is that there is nothing to be feared from secularisation. Secularisation has proceeded in equal step with the advance of human knowledge. After all, only for secularisation, we would still be afraid to talk about the heinous crimes perpetrated by the religious orders in this country over the centuries for fear of incurring "offence". Free thinkers in this country have been "bashed" and marginalised for long enough. We regret that our existence causes offence to religionists, but more importantly, we regret that religion sees itself as supreme in matters of human legislation with a rich history of misogyny, homophobia and paranoid intolerance. If I may allude to Joyce, Irish catholics need to fix their cracked looking glasses and examine themselves carefully, as it was not we who "bashed" them, but themselves.
Gearóid Coleman
Dublin 15
Education in Northern Ireland
Cuts don't make sense
How can cutting £100 million pounds off the education budget benefit my children's education? Perhaps the new Stormont direct minister for education Angela Smith could explain not only why her government is imposing these cuts on our education services but also how the chief executives were able to administer the education budget effectively until last year. Yet this year the five chief executives were able to overspend by £100 million, especially when they are supposedly supervised by locally elected councillors who are allegedly representing us on the five education boards.
Sean Smyth
Belfast
Aiding and abetting murder
Ireland's involvement in war in Iraq
The import of your editorial "Aiding & abetting murder" must be startling for many readers. So much so, they may be inclined to dismiss it as unreal.
I spent three years with the Campaign to End Iraq Sanctions Ireland (CEISI) and later with the Anti-War campaign. There is no doubt in my mind that your proposition is accurate. But, maybe even worse than that, Ireland was complicit in the retention of the Iraq Sanctions for more than 12 years, sanctions that killed more than a million Iraqi citizens, half of them under five years old. There was so much evidence (from impeccable sources) for this view that I wrote to the Secretary General, Dept of Foreign Affairs 23 June 2004 saying "It seems clear that some staff in your department were guilty of criminal negligence in their failure to expose, and attempt to end, the worst scandal of all – the State's cynical complicity in the 'genocide' by deliberately retained long-term killer sanctions in, and the illegal invasion of Iraq.
"I'm requesting you to investigate this allegation as a matter of urgency and take action to remove staff whose advice, and or action or inaction have proved them inadequate to their posts."
On resigning from the post of UN Assistant Secretary General and Humanitarian Aid Co-ordinator for Iraq, 30 September 1998, Dennis Halliday said, "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral."
His successor Hans Von Sponeck (2000), Jutta Borghardt (2000) Head of the World Food Programme in Iraq and three UNSCOM inspectors also resigned and condemned the sanctions.
Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaking in 1998 against the sanctions imposed in violation of international law said: "How can you expect me to condemn human rights abuses in Algeria and China and elsewhere when the United Nations themselves are responsible for the worst situation in Iraq."
It is good that someone in the media has the guts to bring us back to the stark reality of our criminal involvement in the horrendous illegal war on Iraq. Hopefully others will follow suit so the utter cynicism of our position in wanting disarmament and peace in the North while aiding and abetting mass murder in Iraq becomes clear to all. Maybe then we'll get some action from the people and the politicians.
Seán Mac Giobúin
Dublin
Creating a viable Opposition
Fine Gael's identity problem
A Party of the Progressive Centre is how Fine Gael describes itself on its website.
What does that mean? Is it merely a phrase coined to shroud that old adage "All things to all men" in some type of respectability? Ideologically it's vacuous and sounds suspiciously like Tony Blair's renowned tactic of triangulation (listening to both sides of an argument and then adopting a view firmly in the middle of both in an attempt to maximise one's own support – the essence of the New Labour project's success up until the Iraq war.
On his first day in the Dáil as a young TD, Enda Kenny said that he wanted his political career to be about bringing "the greatest good to the greatest number". If that aspiration is to be fulfilled, he must surely realise that Fine Gael is in need of a lucid, non-flimsy precis of what it stands for.
The Party has formulated many new policies, but few if any have been succinctly and memorably projected to embed themselves in the general electorate's minds. The brand new supporters that Fine Gael must acquire to bolster the Dáil seats of an alternative coalition government will treat ambiguity with disdain, shrug their shoulders, and adopt the better-the-devil-you-know approach in the ballot box.
If Ireland is not to stagger down the same depressing political alley as the UK by sticking with a jaded government simply because there is no alternative then Fine Gael must now demonstrate its convictions and character in a concise and captivating manner.
Otherwise, the goal that will give Bertie Ahern his Blair style hat-trick will progress right into the centre of the Fine Gael net.
ANDREW GREANEY
Clontarf, Dublin 3
Ahhh, election fever is over. Yes, finally we can get some sleep, stop trying to figure out those ever-stranger statistics on television and begin the frantic search for interesting foreign elections (vote transfer patterns in Lithuania anyone?).
It's also that time when the parties start thanking their supporters, the voters, the Academy – whoever they want. And the DUP will be doing a hell of a lot of thanking.
But I'd like to send out a personal thank you to all those DUP voters who decided that they didn't want the responsibility of running their own part of the world. No, they didn't fancy getting anything done or in any way moving on, they instead voted for the party they know won't secure any agreement, form a government or make any progress.
Why? I can't say I know for sure, but all the evidence points to a lack of willingness or perhaps even ability within the unionist community to move forward.
Look at the evidence. For decades, the UUP skirts along as the leading party and stalwart of Unionism: male, conservative and unchanging. But the world and the North changes around the UUP, so they begin to adapt and negotiate the Good Friday Agreement – it's progress. At the next Westminster election (2001), they go from ten MPs to six MPs. The anti-agreement DUP goes from two to five. It's a warning from Unionist voters, "we don't like change".
But the UUP goes on, still supporting change and the Good Friday Agreement. In this election they go from six seats to one. The DUP goes from five to nine. The message is Unionist voters cannot and will not move forwards.
So let's hope that they can change and realise that standing still isn't a tenable strategy, it's just lazy.
Michael Pidgeon
Monkstown, Co Dublin
In his letter last week ('No vote for the British presence', page 31) Joe Lynch, Limerick, stated: "No one voted to keep the British in Ireland. As the root cause of conflict in Ireland is the British presence, this fact must be faced sooner or later. By ignoring it, the newly-elected politicians are only storing up trouble for a future generation."
Exactly! That is the point which we in Republican Sinn Féin have been making for the past one hundred years;that the potential for continued conflict remains as long as Westminster continues to claim jurisdiction over six of our counties. But those in Leinster House find it easier to attack the messenger rather than address the message. Late last year, agents of this state illegally removed from the hotel in which we were holding our Árd Fheis, 11,000 euro belonging to us and have refused to return it and, two weeks ago (ie: on Saturday 7 May) they attempted to prevent a Republican Sinn Féin rally, held to commemorate the twenty-two Irishmen that have died on hunger strike between 1917 and 1981, from taking place.
These State politicians, and their servants consider Irish republicans to be their "enemy", as indeed they have since they were set up by the British in 1922. The real threat to a peaceful Ireland comes from Westminster, not from Republican Sinn Féin. This state may someday succeed in "closing us down" but that alone will not solve their problem. Opposition to British interference in Irish affairs has shown itself in every generation during the last 836 years and we in Republican Sinn Féin know that that spirit will be true to our ideals for another 836 years and more should that be necessary.
John Horan (PRO)
Comhairle Ceantair Atha Cliath
Republican Sinn Fein
223 Parnell Street
Dublin 1
One of the few consolations of living in an economy-driven society, is that we probably know the price, if not the value, of everything. However, even that scant comfort is gone, as the National Roads Authority has clearly demonstrated. They do not even know the price of the huge over-runs on their budgets. Now, we are living in a society that does not know the price, nor the value of anything.
Brid Connolly
Maynooth,
Co Kildare
Your use of the Peters Projection in "State of the World" is commendable, and would be even more so if it showed Tibet, as well as Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Inner Mongolia.
Under international law, Tibet is an independent country currently under colonial occupation by the People's Republic of China. China disputes this, of course, and its fellow UN Member States choose to turn a blind realpolitik eye (while keeping the other sharply focused on trade opportunities, including arms).
The Dalai Lama and Tibetan government-in-Exile have consistently stated for decades that in any negotiated agreement Tibet could have "genuine autonomy" and China could have control of foreign affairs and security, but that is a solution yet to be agreed for the future. For the present, might I request that Village respects international law as regards the status of Tibet – even if few others are willing to do so?
NEIL STEEDMAN
Chairman, Tibet Support Group Ireland
Editor's note: We are aware that Peters Projection does not name some territories. However, due to our licensing agreement we are unable alter any part of this map.
Local misinformation
"Another myth," said Shane Cassells, Meath Co Councillor and the Fianna Fáil candidate in the recent Dáil Election, during a live radio interview on Thursday 12 May, when he responded to a comment that the M3 motorway will go through Dalgan Park. (Dalgan Park is the home base of the Columban Missionary Fathers.)
The M3 will in fact go through Dalgan Park, consuming 40 acres of prime land, destroying the riverside walks and the wide natural environment enjoyed by a great number of people Cassells is supposed to represent.
One would expect Peter Cassells, being a local public representative, to know the route and structure of the planned motorway in every detail. He clearly does not, since the interview was actually held in Dalgan Park!
Tommy Hamill