Tag Archives: Joan Burton

90320745-1Joan Bruton this afternoon announcing an extension to the JobBridge national internship scheme to “allow for further internships in the crafts sector” at a press conference at Farmleigh, Phoenix Park, Dublin.

Meanwhile...Public sector has hired 5,000 JobBridge interns (irish Times)

Donegal Councillor says Job Bridge Figures in Council Higher than Reported (Highland Radio)

(Laura Hutton/ Photocall Ireland)

00144095JustineYesterday’s Sunday Times  reported about a scheduled photocall with Labour leader and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore and Denis O’Brien which took place on October 9.

A spokesperson forLabour’s deputy leader Joan Burton told the paper

“Photocalls for the Tánaiste are a matter for the Tánaiste’s office and the minister has no objection to the same.”

 

Meanwhile…

“There has been considerable public and political unease about the fact that Mr. O’Brien has continued to pop up at various public events, most recently at the New York Stock Exchange. However, the Taoiseach was invited to attend that stock exchange event. The organisers of the event not the Office of the Taoiseach decided who was on the balcony for the bell ringing ceremony. It is perhaps time for the Government to reflect on how it should in future interact with people against whom adverse findings have been made by tribunals.”

“We do not want to return to the days of, “uno duce, una voce“, the immortal phrase which the former Fianna Fáil press secretary P.J. Mara, himself a tribunal veteran, used to describe Charles Haughey, nor do we want a Berlusconi style media-political complex with its attendant codes of omertà undermining the principles of transparent democracy. In this regard I welcome the statement by my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, on the introduction of legislation to deal with the registration of lobbyists, ethics for public representatives and office holders and transparency in public life. We should look back to the 1830s in the United Kingdom and the great reform Acts which were introduced to clean up politics and end the rotten boroughs for election to Parliament.”

“We live in a Republic and the representation of each citizen should be what counts rather than the amount of money a particular citizen can spend. We can look forward to a period of reform in which this Government will change the political landscape and our capacity to report and hold to account lobbyists.”

“The Ten Commandments prohibited murder and envy but they did not put an end to sin. Similarly, this House needs to legislate for transparency and accountability from all elected representatives and office holders.”

 

Joan Burton, March 2012

Previously: Mwhahaha

Bringing Denis Down To Size

00144302(Joan Burton at the Global irish Economic Forum in Dublin Castle last month)

Mark Malone writes:

Its hard to know were to begin. A Labour minister announced yesterday that sections of the police force are to be drafted in to set up road blocks and stop workers in cars outside industrial estates.

When I first heard this mentioned on my Facebook and Twitter feeds I assumed it was some kind of left knee jerk interpretation. (I’m prone to them myself) Then I thought it might be FG spin from either within Burton’s department or the Dept of Finance to politically damage Burton. This was before I realised she said this herself on air, though ‘clarifying’ later in the day that she was referring to industrial estates rather than housing estates. Should we be eternally grateful that a Labour minister in only sending cops to harrass the labouring classes at our places of work, rather than at our homes? This is a deeply authoritarian step for any government to take, and as such it is a risk for Labour in further antagonizing ordinary working class people . Though given that Labour is hemorrhaging support, it seems that the party will face a similar fate to other centrist minor coalition partners right across Europe over the last ten years.

This political policing begs some serious questions too. How exactly is a cop stopping cars of people coming out or heading into a days work going to be able to tell if people are signing on the dole while working. Under what legislation can a police force be entitled to demand your personal information on the presumptive basis that all workers coming out of a workplace might be doing the double.

On what information are they using to pick those to stop. Are they going to stop every car, thereby creating long tail backs for workers in and out of work? I cant help thinking of how the RUC used to stop people coming and going to local GAA matches, creating massive tailbacks, often delaying kick off times. Simple harassment of a population to suits the states aim. What’s the difference here?

Are people who work in industrial estates going to have to do what people in the north used to? Head off half an hour early to build in time being held in a traffic queue by the cops? How long does the Labour/FG government think people will put up with this shit?

 

Joan Burton and the Political Policing of Labour (Soundmigration)

90313954(Eamon Gilmore and Joan Burton at the Labour parliamentary party’s think-in last month)

Beyond that, the country can’t stand Labour. Or its leader. Within the party, Eamon’s leadership is under threat from Joan Burton. Somehow, Joan has positioned herself as the protector of old Labour values, while attacking the unemployed and their lifestyle and slashing away at the social protections that we – in our work and our taxes – have already paid for.

As if Eamon hasn’t enough to worry about, last week he and his comrades got a kick in the teeth from the German SPD. The SPD is negotiating to go into coalition government with Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. And they’ve been laying down conditions that involve this country.

No deal, they told Merkel, until you force the Irish political classes to stop mollycoddling big business. And, Angela – you know how the Irish politicians expect help with reducing the banking debts they’ve heaped on to their citizens? If you want the SPD to prop up your government, knock that on the head.

…In short, Eamon is being shafted by his comrades abroad, his comrades at home are waiting for the appropriate moment to slip a knife between his ribs and the Irish electorate look on him with the kind of distaste usually reserved for a genital rash.

 

We understand Gilmore only too well (Gene Kerrigan, Sunday Independent)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)

Jobbridge.

It’s coming to get you.

…a report by the Department of Social Protection recommends extending the scheme to participants with no previous social welfare entitlement.
As a result, these interns would not receive any payment from the State.
…In a statement, a spokeswoman for Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton (above) said the kind of people who might be out of work and not eligible for social assistance could be someone who was previously self-employed.
In addition, a person could be unemployed but not eligible for welfare because they are under 25 and living at home, or because of the means of their spouse.

No Pay For JobBridge Interns A Possibility (Carl O’Brien, Irish Times)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall ireland)

It’s basically a lifestyle choice.

The Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton (above), has told families facing a cut of up to one-third in their school-children’s clothing and footwear allowance they can get very good value in some shops.

The children of most welfare recipients qualify for support under the scheme.
The payment has been reduced from €150 to €100 for primary school children and from €250 to €200 for secondary and third level students below the age of 22.
“There is a lot of good value in shops in relation to clothing and footwear,” Ms Burton told journalists when questioned…

What?

You were looking for empathy?

Burton Defends Allowance Cuts In Budget (RTE)

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)