The IPSC National Demo assembly point at the Spire, Dublin.
(Thanks John McDonald)
UPDATE:
(Pix Ruth Medjber)
Later, on Hill 16, Croke Park…
(Thanks Nutmeg)
Category Archives: Politics
Someone has sent out a fake but official-looking press release [above] trying to drag Intel into the Israeli/Gaza conflict. “It’s a hoax,” Intel spokesperson Chuck Mulloy told [Business Insider]
Intel is being targeted because it’s a huge employer in Israel and is in the process of building a $6 billion facility there.
(H/Ts: Gerard Murphy/Cian Byrne)
Speaking in the House of Commons today, British Prime Minister David Cameron had this to say about the ongoing Israeli military offensive on Gaza:
“I have been clear throughout this crisis that Israel has the right to defend itself. Those criticising Israel’s response must ask themselves how they would expect their own government to react if hundreds of rockets were raining down on British cities today.
I spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu again about this crisis last night. I repeated our recognition of Israel’s right to take proportionate action to defend itself, and our condemnation of Hamas’ refusal to end their rocket attacks, despite all international efforts to broker a ceasefire.
It is vital that Hamas recognises the need to enter serious negotiations to end this crisis. In particular, we urge Hamas to engage with the ceasefire proposals put forward by the Egyptian government.”
On Friday in Edinburgh the Scottish Minister for External Affairs Humza Yousaf said:
“I have today written to the Home Secretary and told her that Scotland would be willing to accept Palestinian refugees and urged the UK to also play a part in easing the refugee crisis in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
It is essential that the UN should be allowed to independently investigate all civilian deaths to determine whether there has been any violation of international law.
Our offer of medical assistance to help the humanitarian situation still stands and we are currently in dialogue with the appropriate Governments and agencies to assess whether Scotland can give specialist medical help to civilians caught up in the conflict should should this prove possible.
The Scottish Government also believes that the continuation of the blockade in Gaza is exacerbating the suffering experienced by the people there and tantamount to collective punishment. For that reason I recently wrote to the UK Government to exert further pressure on the Israeli Government to bring that blockade to an end.”
Scotland prepared to accept Palestinian refugees (Scotland.gov.uk)
Prime Minister’s statement on Ukraine and Gaza (Gov.uk)
Pic: Flickr
In a week that saw [at the UNHRC in Geneva] a principal officer at the Department of Health admit that Ireland’s abortion law discriminated against women who could not afford to travel to Britain, Dublin South East TD Lucinda Creighton [on yesterday’s Marian Finucane programme on RTÉ Radio One], chose another story to discuss…
Marian Finucane: “You picked out as well a story in the Business Post called ‘NAMA Offers Deals To Stop Developers Seeking Bankruptcy Abroad’.”
Lucinda Creighton: “Yeah. I just had a quick look at that. I suppose the thing that strikes me about this is that we have to be very careful when we’re trying to resolve the huge problems that we still obviously have in the property sector. A lot of major players who have been embroiled now for a number of years in trying to resolve debt overhang etc with NAMA that we don’t forget about all of the other business in the country that is literally you know collapsing under the weight of debt and this is something that Morgan Kelly and many others have pointed to as one of the biggest challenges to economic recovery in this country so. I have a fear, I have a concern that if we talk about special circumstances for bankruptcy where people involved in property development and speculation in the past and we ignore the huge existing problem and challenge for a lot of people in small business who can’t afford to go to the UK for bankruptcy purposes for example, being truthful. It’s just not an option for them. You know I think prioritising one cohort of business people above others is actually, firstly is completely unfair and secondly actually risks ignoring probably the biggest challenge we have to economic recovery which is getting the small and medium sized enterprise domestic economy back functioning.”
Listen here (scroll to 48 minute mark)
Previously: No Solution
Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland
When asked why no one wanted to appear on camera she said:
“Because now we’re being called racists which we’re horrified. We’re actually embarrassed about it. We’re certainly not racists, certainly not.”
Meanwhile…
“From his account, it was certainly a peaceful protest and there was no threat issued to him. There isn’t any indication that they sought to intimidate him.
I’m not sure that this can be described as racism in terms of what the intention of the local people was.
You might have had exactly the same reaction if it was somebody from up-country that was moving into an area where local people aren’t able to get houses in the locality that they’ve been brought up in.” NI First Minister Peter Robinson.
‘Locals-only’ protest not racist says first minister (Brendan Hughes, Irish News)
Previously: Orange Diss The New Black
Senator Catherine Noone and Taoiseach Enda Kenny
Sir, – Further to Una Mullally’s article (“Getting hot under the collar about ice cream vans”, Opinion & Analysis, June 16th) regarding my recent comments in the Seanad, I feel the need to set the record straight.
I brought up the issue of ice cream vans in the Seanad because when a parent from Wexford raised the topic with me, it struck a chord. The omnipresent chime of the ice cream van at this time of year is just one very small example of the pressures facing parents who are trying to keep their children away from sugar-laden treats. Obesity is not a trivial matter and it is certainly not something I would ever attempt to make light of.
I know all too well that it can’t be solved by regulating ice cream vans; that we need more education; that parents must say no; that children need to be more active; and most of all that a so-called nanny state is not in any way progressive.
Despite taking some flak over the last week, I will continue to talk about obesity and to suggest ideas – be they big or small – on how we can go about reducing it.
Yours, etc,
Seantor Catherine Noone
Leinster House,
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2
Tackling childhood obesity (Letters, Irish Times)
Previously: Sundae Bloody Sundae
Raise The Price of The Morning-After Pill, You Say?
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton
Stephen Rogers reports in today’s Irish Examiner that less than 10% of the Government’s target number of positions on the Gateway initiative have been filled.
With just 270 positions filled on its Gateway job activation programme, the Government has had to change the criteria for access to the scheme to try to attract more participants.
Under the terms of the Gateway initiative, dole claimants who have been on the Live Register for more than two years are paid an extra €20 per week on top of their jobseeker’s allowance to work for local authorities. An average of 19.5 hours per week is on offer in areas including village enhancement schemes; landscaping; tourism ambassadors; animal control; and libraries, and each placement lasts for 22 months.
The Government set a target of 3,000 positions to be filled by the end of the year. Yet by the end of this week only 270 had been taken up since the scheme was introduced more than 18 months ago.
Poor uptake prompts Gateway reform (Stephen Rogers, Irish Examiner)
Previously: Withholding The Dole
Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
Mark Carruthers was joined by Billy Hutchinson (PUP), Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP) and Mike Nesbitt (UUP) on yesterday’s Sunday Politics for a discussion about flegs.
Billy Hutchinson, the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party repeated the claim he made on Friday that he is not a loyalist leader.
As to who put up the flegs, he said “it was Protestants who put them up.”
Previously: Any Fenians Will Do
The Seanad yesterday.
Marvel Gumshoe tweetz:
“Looking at an empty Seanad,. Should we, as we do with some students, link remuneration to attendance?”
Senator Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) has called for the regulation of ice cream vans due to the aggressive selling of ice cream in a Wexford housing estate.
She said:
“One [parent] in particular in Wexford told me that there is an ice cream van that visits her estate up to four or five times a day. It is leading to loads of rows between her and her children in particular one child, you know as to whether or not she should allow that child to have either ice cream, slushy drinks, chewing gums.
It does seem frivolous on the face of it but it relates to an issue of pester power.
It’s not that I’m anti-ice cream but the persistent use of chimes in public streets and in estates is an aggressive form of selling.”
How long? How long must we sing this song?
Previously: Raise The Price of The Morning-After Pill, You Say?