Yearly Archives: 2016

90418103

Leo Varadkar, at the unveiling of new ministers last month

Leo Varadkar, new Minister for Social Protection  went on RTÉ’s News at One with Aine Lawlor to discuss the new unemployment figures and his plans to copy the Conservatives  get people, including the disabled, off welfare and into work.

A small tay.

Leo: “Particularly what we’ll be doing in the Department of Social Protection is we’ll be targeting the groups that haven’t managed to get back into work – you know, assisting people with disabilities, one-parent families, also long-term unemployed. So we have Jobs Plus already which is a grant to employers to particularly take somebody off the live register, we have the Wage Subsidy Scheme which assists people with disabilities and particularly now, with…”

Aine Lawlor:“You don’t have to list them off now, minister. But I suppose the question that arises there and a question that’s going to be debated and particularly watched carefully, coming from the Left, is whether these kinds of schemes are simply another version of what the Left would call Tory workfare.”

Leo Varadkar: “Yeah, I’m not sure what they mean by that. I suppose, in my view, you know, any form of work is of value and, if we can take people who are on welfare system, get work and training, there’s always value in that.
But the key thing which I think is of crucial importance is that there is progression and you did see in the past, you know, a lot of people going on schemes, particularly the not exclusively Community Employment schemes and going from those back on to welfare.
And what we want is people progressing from welfare to work and from part-time and low-paid jobs to full-time and better paid jobs and that requires a cross Government approach. But, you know, I don’t like the view that does come from some people on the Left that, you know, some jobs are not worth having. I don’t think that’s the right attitude and I don’t think most people in society would share that view.”

Fight!

Listen back in full here

Yesterday: Paul Murphy: Not Fit To Work

Rollingnews

90419610904196119041960190419610

This morning

Tree sculptor Tommy Craggs puts the finishing touches on a Montreal Cyprus tree on the corner of St. Anne’s Park in Raheny, Dublin 5  commissioned by Dublin City Council.

Tommy began work on the  project for three weeks in Autumn last year and has spent another two weeks this year finishing the project. It is believed the tree Is close to 200 years old.

Tommy worked in forestry until taking up sculpting nine years ago.

In fairness.

Rollingnews

CjK44zrWYAEoGaC

 Diana King, Kitty O’Kane and Collette Devlin outside Strand Road police station in Derry yesterday evening

Three women [Collette Devlin, Diana King and Kitty O’Kane] have handed themselves into a police station in Derry, stating they have procured and taken illegal abortion pills and requesting that they be prosecuted, in protest at Northern Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws.

…The women hope to trigger a trial to showcase the archaic nature of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act – the legislation which makes abortion in Northern Ireland illegal except in extremely rare circumstances.

King, 72, a retired social worker, said she felt compelled to make a stand…  “It is unforgivable how women are being treated. I am handing myself in to the police to inform them that I have procured the nine-week abortion pills on several occasions,” she said before making her way to the police station.

…The three women put themselves forward ahead of younger women, because they no longer have jobs that might be affected by a criminal record.

Northern Irish women ask to be prosecuted for taking abortion pills (The Guardian)

Pic: Gareth Wilkinson

90376622
https://soundcloud.com/liam_geraghty/getting-hitched-in-ireland

“People have redefined what marriage means to them. Marriage is more popular than ever – which is unusual – you might think that with, perhaps, the demise, a little, of the Catholic Church and people turning towards a more secular society that that wouldn’t be so, but actually people are still looking for that commitment and we do marriage very well in Ireland!”

Dr. Lorraine Mancey O’Brien, Director at Irish Institute of Celebrants

A playback of Liam Geraghty on the business of getting hitched in Ireland for ‘The Business’ on RTÉ Radio 1 at the weekend.

Hmmm.

FIGHT/decree nisi!

Top pic: Marriage Equality wedding fair last year with from left: Ed O’Leary and Joanna Charles, Rachel McCaffrey and Nikki Kavanagh, Mark Burns and Anthony Maher.

Rollingnews