Opposing Gerry Adams

I find it very disheartening by Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein releasing a statement demanding that the Finance Bill here in Ireland be abandoned. The Bill is a key piece of legislation that needs to be finalised. We as a country have to show the economic world that we can behave rationally, work together and be able to determine our own affairs. If the Finance Bill was to be left to a new government then the upcoming election debates would be overrun by parties arguing over budgetary policy. A budget which is virtually set itself due to the four year plan. The election needs to be about who has the best policies to reinvent this country and return the country to a robust economic footing, all round growth and getting the thousands on the live register back working. It is democratically responsible for Fine Gael and Labour to hold back their Motions of No Confidence, they are doing the jobs given to them by the people and that is to deliberate, propose and implement laws while representing their constituents. It is not the job of our public representatives to blindly oppose any measures proposed by the government but to work with measures they seem necessary to pass and to recommend and demand amendments. An election regarding the budget would indeed be a benefit to Sinn Fein because as a party who proclaim to represent the working people, would oppose any measures of austerity that are unfortunately required in these unprecedented economic times. I along with the vast majority of the country did not want to see the IMF and the EU bailing our country out but because of the grave mismanagement by Fianna Fail we had no choice but to accept their help. It is now up to the representatives of the people of this country to show responsibility and confidence that we can work with the international bodies to enable a return to the money markets for Ireland and indeed argue for an interim reduction in the EU/IMF interest rate.

Leaving Certificate Student options

As a student in the University of Limerick, I feel sympathy for the Leaving Cert students who visited the campus during the past open days here. Following next Decembers budget where state funding to third level institutions is expected to be cut by 3% they will face a significant battle to secure a college place. College administrators have had to cut costs by on average 6% over the past 2 years. But now to reduce costs further they will have no choice but to cap the number of places available on courses or even reduce the amount of places on offer. If they do not do this the quality of Third Level education would decrease in this country, significantly damaging the accreditation of Irish Qualifications abroad. It is vital also that the standard of Third Level education here do not drop to ensure investment in our Universities like Limerick for research and to encourage foreign students to study here in Ireland. How can our government claim to be pursuing a ‘Smart Economy’ when they are squeezing the countries institutions to the breaking point? The standard even needs to be raised in some cases, as the fiasco where the Psychological Society of Ireland revoked accreditation from the American College Dublin, leaving most of the 62 students involved having to transfer to another Institution. The current government is failing to direct investment into the country and thus isn’t incentivising companies to hire graduates. The draconian budget brought in at the time of the start of the recession severely limited growth in this country. Graduates in this University and others with honours degrees and masters are flocking abroad to Australia and Canada because of the lack of opportunities here. Even some who have been fortunate to be offered a job have turned it down in favour of heading on the plane abroad due to the reduced pay, long hours and poor benefits.

Abolishing Seanad

Reply to letter in the Irish Independent 5th January

I agree with John Murphy (Letters 5^th January) that the abolishing the Seanad would require the Constitution to be seriously altered but find that we need a solution to the problem now. I fully support the need for a new Constitution, as the current one is not fitting to our changing country. Why not instead of abolishing the Seanad, diminish it, albeit temporarily. Instead of writing a complex referendum to abolish it and change our political system to a Unicameral Oireachtas change the composition of the House, have a referendum that abolishes the voting of members to the House. Let the Seanad with a bare minimum of three members, appointed by the Taoiseach. The constitution would remain intact and all references to the Oireactas containing two houses remain valid. It in effect allows the Seanad to be defacto abolished. It solves the problem in the short term, A referendum could be held within a year or two to revitalise the upper house in a new form or hopefully to implement a new Constitution. The Seanad does have the power to really represent different sections of Irish life instead it currently and has been the grand old retirement home or crèche for career politicians. While the Dail is wholly representative of the electorate, it is very party political, the whips rule all, a radical reform in my view would be to remove this from a new Seanad and make it non-party. The University representatives that we have today are a step in the way of the ideal Seanad Composition. A body representative of for instance public sector workers should have a Senator, labour groups, employer organisations, emigrant communities, old age groups, students should all be able to contribute to the debating in the Oireachtas and this can be achieved through a reformed Upper House. The Seanad should represent a cross section of Irish life to fully review and recommend changes to legislation but importantly to avoid the pitfalls of party politics. This great Seanad debate should not be a mask though for the much more serious reform of the Dail. No matter what happens in the Seanad, the Dail is the power holder, an Upper House only supplements the Lower. That again is another reason for a new Constitution, changes to the Dail would again dilute the Constitution even more. I hope that the parties following the election rise above the previous hurdles and power struggles to implement real changes.