Those who believed that the expected €160 million in revenue from this new Household Charge would go towards providing additional funds for Ireland’s cash-strapped local authorities is in for a rude awakening, as we suspected.

Minister Phil Hogan’s controversial €100 Household Charge is being collected centrally and will provide little extra at local level, unlike the €200 annual charge for second properties, which goes to source.

In most European countries the local charges are designated for use in the areas where they are collected. It now looks like Tipperary funding will be used to clean up Dublin’s inner city litter problem, with any surplus funding used to install water meters, generating a new source of revenue, in desperation.

Take a look at Frank McDonald’s article in today’s Irish Times. it would appear the money flowing into Government coffers from this expected new payment will simply allow a reduction, by an equivalent amount, of the cost of the centrally controlled local government fund.

When you finish reading the above link, do familiarise yourself with the Household Charge website:

The Household Charge is an annual charge introduced by the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 which is payable by owners of residential property. It is a matter for owners of residential properties to register and pay the Household Charge on or after the 1st of January 2012.

The EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland commits the Government to the introduction of a property tax for 2012. We are one of the last countries in Europe that does not fund local services through local property-based charges.

These services are essential to your community. They include: fire and emergency services; maintenance and cleaning of streets; planning and development; public parks; street lighting; libraries; open spaces and leisure amenities. These facilities benefit everyone.

Minister, with respect, businesses and consumers, latter through Parking Charges, here in Thurles have been paying for these services for years. We don’t have public parks, open spaces and free public leisure amenities. Our streets are neglected and beyond the powers of our local Town Council to fix. Planning and Development is non existent. Follow the McCarthy Report recommendations please and reform local government. History will thank you.

It would appear that this Fine Gael government, unlike Fianna Fáil, does not even have the ability to cover up it’s own deceit.

Related posts:

1. Controversial €100 Household Charge Tax
2. New Household Charge Is Just The Beginning
3. Parking Charges To Increase In Thurles

Where Are Our Taxes Going?

Do please take the time to watch this short video hereunder and weep. This is real democracy, at least appearing to exist, in a country containing some 310,000,000 residents, while here on our island, home to 4,400,000 souls and rapidly decreasing, we have no voice as to how our future is to be directed.  The last General Election has taught us that the Irish electorate are, in desperation, close to accepting the Government of this nation by nihilists – Sinn Feiners, Mings, and Micks who fuel protest, without offering any fair solutions to our current difficulties.

I do hope our readers have kept a copy of yesterday’s (January 21st 2012) ‘Sun,’ newspaper, where we are entertained with the headline, on page two, “Minister (Phil Hogan) Admits New Tax Is Unjust.” My Dictionary defines ‘Unjust,’ as “inequitable, partial, unfair, prejudiced, biased, undeserved, unmerited, unjustifiable, not just; lacking in justice or fairness.” With most homes in this country in joint ownership, the keeping of this paper could be used as justified defence evidence, when wives and husbands stand before “Your Honour” to explain why they refuse to pay Minister Phil Hogan’s admitted ‘inequitable,’ €100 Household Charge, which came into effect this month.

Here in Tipperary we ask a series of questions:- What are our taxes used for? Why do we continue to pay bankers annual salaries of €500,000 for work more perceptively undertaken by Credit Union managers, latter earning less than €120,000? Why are we being asked to pay for water carrying lime and other impurities, which rots our copper piping and in most cases from day to day, is undrinkable ? Why is rural Ireland continuously being robbed, to support a Dublin economy, while senior Cabinet Ministers continue to squirrel away any available funding to their own constituencies, bolstering their outcome in future elections? How long will Unions continue to dictate how our Civil Service is run?

Our Libraries, Schools and Courthouses are being threatened with closure, our waste collections systems have been privatised, our streets, pavements and roads are a national disgrace. Local justice, law and order are sliding down the slippery slope, while rape, stabbings and murder are now daily acceptable happenings.

Here in Tipperary, due mainly to a sort of ‘resigned acceptance,’ we continue to elect and support public representatives, with no power at the Cabinet Table and even less ability to protect and reform that which was gifted to us via Bertie, Builders, Bankers and the Galway Tent.

How long can we afford this resigned acceptance?

No related posts.

One of the quotes regularly repeated by grandmother, Eliza Jane, suddenly sprang to mind,  “There are only two things of which mankind ever needs to be ashamed and both begin with the letter D, Dishonesty and  Dirt.”

First I should explain that I personally don’t have a problem with paying tax, but taxes in any fair society should be based only on the principle of ones ability to pay, which is why the fairest form of taxation will always be direct taxation.

The latest Fine Gael budget does not factor in an ‘ability to pay,’ concept, instead stinking to high heaven of both the aforementioned “dishonesty and dirt.”

I will deal only with the dishonest issues surrounding the new household tax in this blog, pointing out again that as a general rule, in relation to household tax and expected water charges, I would certainly agree to paying same, were they applied with fairness and were they ever to actually attempt reform to our now defunct and in some cases unnecessary local government, to the point where same actually served the needs of its people.

Fine Gael have done quite a job cleaning up their pre-election website, removing most of their dishonest and desperate promises, which assisted them in gaining power, this time around. Well they have not cleaned up everything;

Warning: Phil Hogan who assured the public, yesterday, not to worry about security on his Household Charge website, must be somewhat embarrassed over the past few days, since his own website has been identified as far from secure by two top Internet browsers, namely Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, both of whom warn all surfers, that his site contains infectious malicious software ( philhogan.ie – Please do not go there and open.)  Do click on image above for larger resolution which explains.

One deletion from the Fine Gael website was their promise not to introduce flat-rate charge on householders. However, let me remind you of their promise to those who supported them, and whom I trust retain a longer memory than Minister Phil Hogan.

Fine Gael Quote: “Flat rate charges means that houses in standard neighbourhoods worth a fraction of some mansions will pay the same rate of tax. It will be difficult to pay for asset rich but income poor households, particularly the elderly and the unemployed; and it will be deeply unfair for a young generation that paid exorbitant amounts of stamp duty and VAT on the purchases on over valued houses, many of whom now find themselves in negative equity.“

Fine Gael’s apparent opposition to flat-rate household charges, based on fiscal benefit, efficiency and equity, were viewed by voters before the election, as worthy of support. Fine Gael, prior to this election, had made their stance crystal clear.  Michael Noonan told the Dail that a tax on financial property, along the lines of the French tax, would yield between €400 to €500 million, and the great thing about such a tax was that it would have very little deflationary impact, since such a tax would attach itself naturally to only the very highest incomes.

The EU/IMF Memorandum of Understanding, regularly used by Fine Gael Ministers to excuse their poorly thought out policies,  has no mention of a flat-rate household charge. It does state that Budget December 2012 should make provision for a ‘property tax,’ while Budget 2013 should then make provision for a further increase.

Fine Gael lied, this flat-rate tax, now introduced, is just about the most socially inequitable and economically inefficient tax one could possibly ever dream up, short of rule by dictatorship.

If our present Fine Gael & Labour Government ever had a mind to tackle the serious levels of inequality in our society, it would follow examples used by other European governments and increase income tax.

 Rural Ireland Tax Debate Needed

The debate must now commence, as to why those of us, who reside in rural areas, and who in most cases have to pay for digging our own wells, our own sewage system and it’s necessary maintenance, our own waste recycling, etc must now accept flat rate taxes. Rural Ireland with the exception of our towns and villages have no footpaths, we have no parks, we have no street lighting, yet we are expected to contribute for the benefit of the greater good. Has Phil Hogan visited Thurles Town recently, now displaying unacceptable broken footpaths, broken road signs and dirty neglect in evidence everywhere? Do take care coming over Barry’s Bridge Phil, should you accept my invitation, it is in danger of falling into the river Suir.

Yes we do get some benefit from local services, but our rural roads, whose maintenance we already support, through motor taxation, are now no better than gravel driveways, riddled with pot-holes.

Yes despite being in opposition, Fine Gael & Labour, you also must take some responsibility for our current financial predicament, so begin by casting aside the Dirt & Dishonesty. Like Google and Firefox warn ” Something’s Not Right Here!.”

Related posts:

1. Noel Coonan Fine Gael Candidate For Next General Election
2. Fine Gael Party Leader Enda Kenny TD – Visits Thurles
3. Fine Gael Reinventing Government

Mr Kenny clarified that the Irish State is spending €16 billion a year more than it is taking in revenue. He confirmed that in Budget 2012 public spending must be cut by €2.2 billion, and that extra taxes must raise €1.6 billion.  He also confirmed Budget 2012 “will be tough“, and that “it has to be,” and would move Ireland towards a manageable deficit of 3% of our GDP by 2015.

Mr Kenny also confirmed that 50 quangos will be abolished, some through merging, the public sector will be downsized by 23,000 employees by 2015 and a referendum will be held next year to abolish Seanad Éireann.

Mr Kenny informed the nation that, while he believed recovery had begun, the mistakes which brought this country to its knees “must never be allowed to happen again.”

All in all, while his speech may have raised the cost of advertising fees for RTE 1 TV, for both before and after the event, the speech itself was badly written, totally lacking in any inspiration needed to “Rally the Troops,” in these difficult times.

There were no calls of “Your country needs you,” and those of us who expected a little of the rhetoric of either Churchill or Collins, were bitterly disappointed.

Then of course the speech writer’s salary, may have been protected by the Croke Park agreement. This would account fully for this ten minutes of total boredom, which confirmed that this country has now totally surrendered to troops, loyal to “Unternehmen Grün,” aided by members of Fianna Fail, latter found drunk or sleeping on their watch.

Why not share you thoughts with us on tonight’s “Happening,” and indeed we welcome your views on the austerity measures to be announced over the next two days. You can do same, by using the Comment tag underneath this post.

Photo courtesy G.Willoughby

Related posts:

1. The State Of The Nation Financially
2. Ireland – A Nation That Speaks With Their Ears
3. New Coalition Programme For Government

Central Thurles

While many of the issues reported as put forward by “Thurles Traders Unite,” to our Town Council, have as yet not been decided on, the Irish Governments have started a welcome positive initiative to deliver a multi-annual Action Plan for Jobs, aimed at “making Ireland the best small country to do business with in Europe,” and demanding quarterly targets from each involved department.

Under this new quietly welcomed aim, an implementation group consisting of representatives from the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and Forfás will be responsible for ensuring that these targets are met.

Following the publication of Action Plan for jobs, recently by Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Employment Richard Bruton, North Tipperary Deputy Noel Coonan is now calling on North Tipperary County Council to “step up to the mark,” and reduce development charges for small businesses.

Noel Coonan TD believes job creation in the country must be kick started immediately and this requires Government and Local Authorities to work to achieve this aim. County and Town councils “must play their part in removing barriers to creating employment.”

Speaking to Thurles.Info today, Deputy Coonan said:

“One of the biggest deterrents for businesses is development charges. These charges can cripple small businesses who are trying to establish themselves, expand or change the use of premises.   
Businesses are charged exorbitant rates by local authorities for parking spaces, yet the Council is already charging for parking in towns and receiving a substantial income from this charge. There is a real need for local authorities to reduce this charge considerably; this will keep town centres vibrant and encourage footfall in town centres. Land prices are falling and local authorities are paying less to provide car parking facilities in Town centres and this should be reflected in reduced charges for small businesses who are struggling to compete with multinationals. Construction costs have also dropped and we have an opportunity here to encourage rather than inhibit development.”

Deputy Coonan has recently been in contact with the Minister for Local Government Phil Hogan on this issue, whom the latter is reported as stating:-

“My Department is preparing updated guidance for local authorities on the issue of development contributions, which will require local authorities, inter alia, to consider the impact of development contributions on businesses and competitiveness generally in the development of their schemes.  Authorities whose Development Contribution Schemes have come up for renewal since the announcement of the Government’s Jobs Initiative have been advised to consider providing reductions/exemptions in development contribution rates where such reductions/exemptions would help progress the Jobs Initiative.”

The Action Plan for jobs illustrates some determination in Government to tackle the jobs issue and to assist small businesses to generate employment. Indigenous businesses are at the core of job creation strategy. This plan appears to contain some real logical measures, which will help Irish small businesses access credit and generate employment.

Measures will include:-

1. The establishment of a temporary partial loan guarantee which will help Irish businesses access credit.
2. A micro finance loan fund to generate up to €100million which will benefit over 5,000 businesses over a ten year period.
3. Provision of €60 million seed and venture capital funding for high growth Irish businesses, to be matched by the same amount in private sector funding.

Deputy Coonan went on to say:-

“We are determined that these commitments will be adhered to rigorously. The Jobs Action Plan will be a rolling programme with strict delivery targets and systems to monitor implementation. Quarterly targets will be set, and delivery monitored.
The Action Plan for Jobs comes on foot of the report of the Advisory Group for Small Business which was presented to the Taoiseach last week by Minister for Small Business, John Perry. The report sets out the collective views of small businesses, based on the realities of what they experience on the ground and aims to assist businesses to promote enterprise growth and jobs. We need to be ambitious for the future and have set the target for job creation at 100,000 extra jobs by 2015. We remain committed to making Ireland the best small country in the world to do business.“

Small towns like Thurles must now be visited and examined, in a bid to improve competitiveness, support start-up companies, develop employment initiatives and assist with business growth.  While Thurles businesses are fully aware that local revenue needs to be generated, the Thurles town centre would welcome Local Government Minister Phil Hogan to meet and examine this situation which currently exists in Thurles and other rural towns in Tipperary.

The situation presently exists where local small traders are indirectly subsidising large supermarket chains, like Aldi, Dunnes Stores and Lidl, while the issue remains ignored by local Urban and County Councils, latter badly in need of generated revenues.

Related posts:

1. Nothing Green About Tipperary NR County Council.
2. North Tipperary Businesses Will Save Thousands
3. Pall Manufacturing In Tipperary Town To Shut

Disputed Property

The Irish Independent informs us today that this dispute has led to Mr Kelly, hiring a private security firm to block access to the 70 year old pensioner, named as Diana Whitehead, from access to this disputed access road.

The woman, who is reported as separated and living on her own, uses the road, together with local small farmers, who rent land from her, to access fields in rural Tipperary where Ms Whitehead tends to a small number of animals, including goats and donkeys.

A fence had been erected to block the road off, forcing Ms Whitehead to obtain an interim court order, allowing her pedestrian access to her property. She had previously used mechanical vehicles on the lane.

Mr Kelly and Ms Whitehead live alongside each other, outside Portroe, with both of their houses enjoying a spectacular view out over beautiful Lough Derg.

It would appear that the North Tipperary TD Mr Kelly, like his Labour party colleagues, have lost their long held belief in the teachings of James Connolly, whose education in socialism was derived from the writings of Karl Marx.

Marx, you will all remember wanted to take advantage of then existing rebellious chaos and used a newspaper, the ‘Neue Rheinische Zeitung,’ to launch his famous ten point plan, the first point of which was “The abolition of the property /ownership of land.” To use the words of Marx,  “The hierarchical structure of land ownership, and the armed bodies of retainers associated with it, give the nobility power over the serfs.”

It would appear I must now re-visit and examine my own personal definition of Socialism  “Men with nothing, wishing to share it with everyone else.”

Picture courtesy Independent

Related posts:

1. Alan Kelly North Tipperary’s Representative In The Dail?
2. Alan Kelly MEP ‘Desperate’ States Coonan
3. Tipperary’s Eoin Kelly Visits The White House

North Tipperary’s TD Alan Kelly was on hand, as usual, for photographs and a wee opportunity for a TV spot. (Matthew 18:20 springs to mind “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.“)

The new Leap Card is expected to be available to all commuters by the end of this year. €48m has been spent on the system to date over the last eight years and €55m will have been spent by the time the system is ready to roll.

So now you know why Thurles has no funding for it’s proposed and identified €48m, 8-kilometre, 100 metre wide corridored by-pass. The estimated €48M was spent on an integrated transport ticketing system for Dublin.

The new Thurles integrated transport system

Some good news however for Thurles. We may not have to leap over the shallow end of the river Suir to go shopping this Christmas.

Traffic was at a standstill for 2.5 hours today as workers dropped cement bollards and sand bags into the river to protect the only vehicle crossing into our town. Note, I can not confirm that this means that badly needed repairs to the decaying Barry’s Bridge connecting Thurles to the rest of the world is now imminent. It might have been undertaken because of a severe weather and flood warnings from our good friends in Met Éireann.

Like the new Dublin integrated transport Leap card, one of our resident frogs also came out for a look, but he was to be dissappointed, there was no sign of Alan Kelly, RTE or any other of our North Tipperary politicians in attendance.

Still, all is not lost, Thurles Co-Op are offering a great deal in wellingtons and waterproof waders at present.

Related posts:

1. Integrated Plan Generating 300,000 Jobs A Fairytale
2. Shake Up Of Ireland’s Third Level System Imminent
3. Restoration Of Portumna Bridge Nearing Completion

Old Water Mains

Water charges are definitely on the cards or else all the leaking water mains in Dublin are now fixed. This statement is borne out by the fact that grant assistance of €1.29 million has been approved for proposals to carry out extensive water mains rehabilitation work in the Thurles area, under the Water Conservation Stage 3 contract.

While this will no doubt be branded by our local TD’s as part of the present Government’s ongoing efforts to improve infrastructure in the Town, trust me when I say it smells to high heaven as the start of preparation for the implementation of domestic water charges.

North Tipperary County Council plan to replace 4km, approximately, of existing cast iron water mains within Thurles, replacing old cast iron pipes laid during the reign of Queen Victoria.

These water mains have been the cause of substantial leakage in the past, and went ignored during the “Tiger years.” Replacing these pipe sections now will minimise future disruption to consumers.

We understand the scheme will go to tender immediately, with the works advancing to the construction stage as soon as possible.

Here’s hoping they are positioned deep enough underground to avoid a total freeze up, as was experienced in parts of Thurles this past winter.

Related posts:

1. North Tipp Council Issue Boil Water Notice For Thurles
2. Drinking Water Being Tested For High Levels Of Nitrogen
3. Ease Winter Cold Symptoms With Salt Water

Note: ISME is the independent organisation for the Irish small and medium business sector, with in excess of 8,500 members nationwide. ISME’s mission is to independently represent, promote and support owner/managers of small and medium enterprises and be vigilant, decisive, and direct in promoting and defending their interests, while helping members to better manage and grow their business through the provision of excellent information and services.

If you are a small business presently seeking direction, a Minister or Politician (regardless of your party affiliations) a Union organiser, then this text is a must read in full, and at least twice. For in this text Mr Mark Fielding amply expresses the most intimate thoughts and feelings of the people of Ireland today, especially in the light of our current financial state.

Read Mark Fielding’s Address:

“Where there is no vision the people perish.“

“The founders of Thurles Credit Union in 1961 had a vision. I would like to congratulate the Thurles Credit Union, Board, Supervisors, Management and Staff and the members themselves on your anniversary, and on the valuable work that you have carried out since the inception of the organisation in 1961.

Mark Fielding, Chief Executive, ISME.

Credit unions are economically important as they mobilise household savings as loans, and socially important, as that they help create community social capital. Guided by that philosophy, the fundamental business purpose is to provide high quality financial services at fair prices to anyone who wants them. By excelling at this purpose, they build the capital reserves needed for sustainability. They are a vital store of intergenerational capital and a facilitator of community social capital.

In time consolidation may see the network consolidate down to less than 100 larger, sustainable credit unions, while maintaining most of the existing branch footprint. Wisely used, state funding will restructure credit unions into a modern credit co-operative system.

Some local politicians have accused Mathew Elderfield of driving people into the arms of loan sharks.  Perhaps they should consider why so many credit unions are in financial trouble and why others like Thurles CU are in rude health; why lending has been restricted in some and continues to grow in places like Thurles.  It is important to distinguish between a credit union and the people who govern and manage them and here again Thurles is an exemplar.

With the Government and Central Bank intent on stabilising the sector, credit unions need to realise the opportunity it proposes and through prudent management, become a leader in the sector.

When I was asked to speak on this occasion I began to think about what I would have said to a gathering of Thurles people back in 1961, the year of the birth of this fine Credit Union. So Imagine, if you would, what someone like me would say about the FUTURE, back there in 1961, allowing our fancy take flight, looking forward to the next 50 years, back then.

Imagine

Imagine an Ireland where every household owned a colour TV set or two, and a stereo system, an iPod, iPad and a fridge, and a microwave and central heating and double glazed windows and where every person had a mobile phone or two and enough money for a family holiday.
Can you imagine an Ireland where an unhappy couple or one unhappy part of a couple was allowed a dignified exit from that marriage, through no-fault divorce.  Imagine an Ireland where no questions asked contraception was freely available to everyone.  Imagine an Ireland where the stigma of single parenthood had largely disappeared.

Imagine an Ireland with a woman President, or better still, two women Presidents.  Imagine a female Tanaiste or two.  Imagine a female chief justice and a brace of female Supreme Court judges, imagine female Ministers for Health, Education, Tourism, Social Welfare, a female Ombudsman, female Secretaries General of  Government Departments, a female Assistant Commissioner of the Garda Siochana, a female editor of the Irish Times with letters that begin with ‘Dear Madam’.  And then I compound your amazement by telling you that the female minister who will hold two of those offices is in primary school in the Presentation Convent Thurles. In the next 50 years the secretary to three presidents and the secretary to three Taoisigh and the chief of staff of the army are all in Scoil Ailbe, Thurles. They are just the guys in my class.

Imagine an Ireland where the all-pervasive power and might of the Roman Catholic Church has withered.  Imagine schools and hospitals run almost exclusively by lay people; imagine the transformation of once great convents and seminaries and mother and baby homes and industrial schools into apartment complexes and car parks.  Imagine a clutch of Sinn Fein TDs in Leinster House.  Imagine Ian Paisley in Dublin for tea and talks with an Irish President and Taoiseach.  Imagine Aer Lingus being dwarfed by an airline founded by a railwayman’s son from Thurles.
Imagine the choice of coffee.  Imagine tall skinny lattes, and short, robust, espressos, and cocoa dusted cappuccinos and Americanos with shots, all made by trained baristas.

Imagine Top Shop and Marks and Spencer’s and Miss Selfridge and Next and Tesco’s in Thurles and Sunday shopping and 24 hour, 7 day shopping all year round.  Imagine waiting lists for Hermes hand-bags.  Imagine Brown Thomas on the other side of Grafton Street.  Imagine the Kildare bypass, the Drogheda bypass,the Athlone bypass and the Motorway from the Horse and Jockey to Cork, to Galway, Belfast, Waterford, the restoration of tram lines in Dublin, the bus lanes and dirt cheap air travel and great big cars with DVDs on the ceiling and with windows that go up and down when you tell them to.  Imagine the beginning and ending of the plastic bag epidemic.  Imagine smoke free airports and bus terminals and shops and offices.  Imagine, ladies and gentlemen, smoke free pubs, in Ireland.

Imagine all of that and imagine what, you the audience, would have said in response.  It sounds too good to be true. UNBELIEVABLE, FANTASTIC.

Remember Thurles

I would also like you who can remember 1961 to recall what Thurles was like back then and compare them with what you have now. Think of the improvements made to this town, by dint of your hard work and determination. Too often we think of the negatives and allow them to overcrowd the achievements. When I spoke about ministers, chiefs of staff and government secretaries from Thurles, I do that as an example of the excellence that has been exported from Thurles. What about the excellence of the people who stayed and made their livelihoods in this fine town. You, the backbone of the community, you the workers, public servants, business people of Thurles. So often we look at the headline grabbers and tend to forget the real people, the life and soul of this great country, who are entitled to a better life and who will have a better life, because you will work to achieve it.

That is why it is so important that when you rightly give yourselves praise for your achievements over the last 50 Years, we must also take an honest look at the challenges in the coming years and face them as opportunities to better our lot.
NOBODY KNOWS what will happen next – not even our leaders. We walk as a community in darkness down a strangely unfamiliar road, into a new landscape for which there are no maps.

Fifty years ago, there were senior civil servants who tore up a postage stamp to reimburse the State whenever they made a call on the office phone to a member of their family. The public services are still run by honourable and honest people, but those days of efficient patriotism are gone. The period when the health system could be run by five senior administrators is now barely a memory.

Ireland is at present immobilised by “process morons with Blackberries and iPhones“. They assumed critical mass in “the years of the Tiger,” frustrating many people, both inside and outside the public services. It is arguable that even in those times of relative affluence we could not afford them. It is certain that we cannot afford them now.

Everywhere, one hears stories of how the new mandarins and their trade union side-kicks invoke bizarre laws which make the cost of doing business simply prohibitive. Administrators are accused of blocking necessary medical operations in the public health system, which doctors want to perform. Managers are telling educators with decades of experience exactly how to teach their classes. Unions stop the use of new tech with old thinking. Yet these managerial elites, while talking constantly of “innovation“, have a truly impoverished notion of how knowledge is shared: they tend to prefer e-mails and memos rather than complex first-hand face to face encounters.

Ireland Full Of Talent

The country is full of talented, creative persons; but many with a wisdom based on years of experience feel frustrated. Those with good ideas cannot get their hands on the money to give shape to them, while those who continue to reward themselves with big money operate systems designed to block off unconventional, fast-track ideas. It is true to say: “the people with money have no balls and the people with balls have no money.” An over-statement, perhaps, but only just, and I of course exclude our hosts tonight, the Credit Union Movement.

Every time a restaurant with a complex menu or a grocer with a beautiful range of produce falls victim to closure, this isn’t just a bad, single moment in the lives of the proprietors and customers. With each closure is lost a marvellous, possibly irreplaceable store of knowledge.
Every time a surgeon is told that an operation cannot be performed, the wisdom of a team of experts, arduously assembled over years of considered effort, is set at naught. Architectural practices have gone from 100 to seven practitioners in less than three years – the loss of such lore is heart-rending.

Ireland is filled with naysayers – often on fat mileage allowances – telling people why they can’t do this or that. The banks – which a few years ago, were throwing money indiscriminately at all comers – now refuse to support well-costed and sensible projects. The busted banks may well be rescued, but if so, why are they still allowed to treat our Government with disdain; sabotage the economy and why are they allowed to withhold the reduction in interest rates?

Despite all the special advisers and spinners, the political system is remarkably unresponsive to actual human needs. The salary-proofed group of senior public servants must include many who facilitated or propounded some of the weirder policies of the ‘Tiger years,’ and are now still finding €3.6 billion down the back of a sofa. The looting of the public purse by Fás executives has been well exposed, but has anyone explained why, in a time of full employment, Fás was deemed necessary at all?

These were the years in which gobbledegook about a “stakeholder economy” and a “stakeholder society” was cut and pasted into every second press release. The new mantras were all about “centres of excellence”, “innovation” and “smart economy.” PR smoothies, who wouldn’t be found near a church on Sundays, ransacked the language of religion for “mission statements” and “ethical testing.”

A vulgar, heedless populism led to an assertion that big business and unrestrained market forces were somehow compatible with excellence and ethics, and to a widespread distrust of those with real professional expertise. As gesture took the place of structure, the very IBEC people who now call for regulation were just a few years ago the ones baying loudest for deregulation of everything from transport to health services and allowed public sector benchmarking create a cadre of overpaid senior civil servants.

The feel-good gobbledegook was the sort at which Irish people of all backgrounds would have hooted in derisive laughter just one generation earlier, but now it was taken up by managers who called for “sound business models”.
Waiters in cafes and tea shops were trained to punch into a retrieval system the number of customers sitting at a certain table before they could dare to say “good morning”.
People were seized by the crazy idea that information is knowledge and that everything worth knowing could be measured. They became so busy using the new technology of CRM systems to document life, that many of them lost the art of living it or of thinking straight. Too many of us rolled over and let these things happen.

Before the Tiger years, Irish people understood that the real quality of life lies in those things which cannot be quantified. The notion that market forces are vital is plain common sense, but the idea that money should determine everything is a rather recent and barbarous development.

Also is the proposition that people can express individuality through designer labels. For most of their history, Irish people have felt connected to traditions of compassion for the young and old, for the poor and infirm, and money has been subordinate. Our parents and our grandparents understood Einstein’s maxim that “What counts can’t always be counted and what can be counted doesn’t always count”.

There is no point therefore in seeking to return to the spirit of Tiger Ireland. The country needs to make not just a single step forward, but a series of quantum leaps. These will be based on new ideas, combined with old-fashioned values, propounded mainly by those who work outside our sclerotic political system. And that system is sclerotic. It is forever fixated on small details rather than big pictures. It seems unlikely that a political class, which allowed so many problems to germinate in the days of plenty could offer many real answers in a time of austerity. Only a completely new political movement, in tandem with youth sections of the current parties, could tackle the challenges.

It may be that you, the medics, scientists, business people, architects, engineers and educators will, through sheer frustration, provide the nucleus of such a movement. In a coalition also composed of stymied business people and the shamefully treated young, who are being driven away by our failed policies; you could constitute a formidable force. Your calibre would in all probability be superior to that of our current politicians, many of whom cannot think for themselves without the assistance of polls, special advisers and spin doctors.

Importance Of  Youth

The young will have to be brought into politics, but many people now over 50, who have memories of past setbacks and how they survived them, would like to share their knowledge with the community before passing on. There must be thousands of people in businesses, schoolrooms and social services who want something better, not just for their children but for themselves – and right away. One can live with austerity for a few years but only in the certainty that the leadership has a real and viable plan – like the democracies of Western Europe after the Second World War.

There are good people all across the public services who are frustrated by current blockages and who have creative ideas. But we need political leaders who can locate and unleash such people. We need An Smaoineamh Mór and we need to create good ideas. But the necessary reform of the political system, which may be a condition for the implementation of some of those ideas, is not likely to happen solely from within. Most of its beneficiaries are too well embedded to challenge the codes that have produced them.

Our abilities as individuals as businesses as a community as a country are being tested. The key to our success lies in our response to the challenge of change, responses that must be imaginative, resourceful, skillful and bold.

In the end, it’s our ideals, our values that built Ireland — values that allowed us to forge a nation despite 700 years of tyranny; values that drive our citizens still. Every day, we Irish meet our responsibilities to our families and our employees. We take pride in our labour, and are generous in spirit. These aren’t Fine Gael values or Fianna Fail values, nor Labour of Sinn Fein values that we are living by; they are not just business values or labor values. They’re Irish values.

Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions – our churches, our big corporations, our media, and, yes, our government — still reflect these same values. Each time a churchman or woman remains silent, each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, each time a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people’s doubts grow. Each time politicians tear each other down, instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates to silly arguments, big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.

We Need Change

Ladies and Gentlemen, we need change — change we can believe in. But remember this – no one ever suggested that change would be easy. Democracy can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That’s just how it is.

Our politicians in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths and pointing fingers. They can do what’s necessary to keep their poll numbers high, and get through the next election instead of doing what’s best for the next generation.
But I also know this: If people had made that decision 50 years ago, or 100 years ago, or 200 years ago, we wouldn’t be here tonight. The only reason we are here is because generations of Irish were unafraid to do what was hard; to do what was needed even when success was uncertain; to do what it took to keep the dream of this nation alive for their children and their grandchildren.

Our country has had some massive setbacks this past 4 years, and some of them were deserved. But I wake up every day knowing that those are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this country are facing every day. And what keeps me going — what keeps me fighting — is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism, that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the Irish people, that lives on.

It lives on in the struggling small business owner who told me of his company, “None of us,” he said, “…are willing to consider, even slightly, that we might fail.” It lives on in the woman who said that even though she and her neighbors have felt the pain of recession, “We are strong. We are resilient. We will keep going.”

The spirit that has sustained this nation for more than a millennium lives on in you, the people.  We have come through a disastrous 4 years. But we will rise out of this recession, we will be in a better place. A new period stretches before us. We don’t quit.  Let’s seize this moment — CARPE DIEM — to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our great little country once more.

I started out by quoting “Where there is no vision the people perish.”
The fight-back starts here with you, with your efforts, with your resilience, with your vision of a better future. It is up to us.”    [End]

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Ireland's First Lady & Ninth President Elect.

Inaugural speech of President Michael D Higgins

Muintir na hÉireann and friends of Ireland at home and abroad, there can be no greater honour than to have been elected Uachtarán na hÉireann – President of Ireland. I thank you the people of Ireland for the honour you have bestowed upon me and I accept and appreciate the great responsibilities of that office. Citizens of Ireland, you have chosen me to be your ninth President, to represent you at home and abroad, and to serve as a symbol of an Irishness of which we can all be proud. An Irishness which is carried by every citizen and which we must recall and forge anew together.

I enter the ninth Presidency with a sense of humility, but also with confidence in the great capacity of our people, the people of Ireland, not only to transcend present difficulties but to realise all of the wonderful possibilities that I believe await us in the years ahead. I wish to acknowledge the immense contribution of those who have previously served in this office, particularly the two great women who have immediately preceded me.

They have made contributions that developed our consciousness of human rights, inclusion, and the important task of deepening and sustaining peace within and between communities in every part of our Island. It is work I will endeavour to continue and build upon.

As your President, I am grateful for the extent of the support, the strong mandate, you have given me. I also realise the challenges that I face, that we face together, in closing a chapter that has left us fragile as an economy, but most of all wounded as a society, with unacceptable levels of unemployment, mortgage insecurity, collapsing property values and many broken expectations.

During my campaign for the Presidency, I encountered that pain particularly among the most vulnerable of our people. However, I also recognise the will of all of our people to move beyond anger, frustration or cynicism and to draw on our shared strengths. To close the chapter on that which has failed, that which was not the best version of ourselves as a people, and open a new chapter based on a different version of our Irishness – will require a transition in our political thinking, in our view of the public world, in our institutions, and, most difficult of all, in our consciousness.

In making that transformation, it is necessary to move past the assumptions which have failed us and to work together for such a different set of values as will enable us to build a sustainable social economy and a society which is profoundly ethical and inclusive. A society and a state which will restore trust and confidence at home and act as a worthy symbol of Irishness abroad, inviting relationships of respect and co-operation across the world.

We must seek to build together an active, inclusive citizenship; based on participation, equality, respect for all and the flowering of creativity in all its forms. A confident people is our hope, a people at ease with itself, a people that grasps the deep meaning of the proverb ‘ní neart go cur le chéile’ – our strength lies in our common weal – our social solidarity.

Sin iad mór-théamaí na hUachtaránachta atá curtha romham agam, agus mé lán-dóchasach go bhfuilimid ar tháirseach ré nua d’Éirinn agus d’Éireannaigh, sa bhaile agus i gcéin. Ré nua ina mbeidh bunluacha na cothroime agus an chirt, agus spiorad na cruthaíochta, faoi bhláth: poblacht, a mbeidh Éireannaigh de gach aicme agus traidisiún bródúil aisti.

My Presidency will be a Presidency of transformation, recognising and building on the many positive initiatives already under way in communities, in the economy, and in individual and collective efforts throughout our land. It will be a Presidency that celebrates all of our possibilities. It will seek to be of assistance and encouragement to investment and job creation, to innovation and original thinking – a Presidency of ideas – recognising and open to new paradigms of thought and action. It will aspire to turn the best of ideas into living realities for all of our people, realising our limitless possibilities – ár feidireachtaí gan teorainn.

In implementing the mandate you have given me, I will seek to achieve an inclusive citizenship where every citizen participates and everyone is treated with respect. I will highlight and support initiatives for inclusion across Ireland and also make it a priority to visit and to support the participation of the most excluded in our society, including those in institutional care.

I will champion creative communities who are bringing about positive change at local level by giving recognition to their achievements on the national stage. I believe that when we encourage the seedbed of creativity in our communities and ensure that each child and adult has the opportunity for creative expression, we also lay the groundwork for sustainable employment in creative industries and enrich our social, cultural and economic development. In promoting inclusion and creativity, I will be inviting all citizens, of all ages, to make their own imaginative and practical contribution to the shaping of our shared future.

Active citizenship requires the will and the opportunity to participate at every level and in every way – to be the arrow; not the target. Next year Bunreacht na hÉireann is 75 years old and a Constitutional Convention is planned by Government. As President, I encourage all citizens, of all ages, at home and abroad to take the opportunity of engaging with this important review as an opportunity to reflect on where we have come from and on how we might see ourselves into the future.

During my Presidency, I also intend to hold a number of Presidency Seminars which may reflect and explore themes important to our shared life yet separate and wider than legislative demand, themes such as the restoration of trust in our institutions, the ethical connection between our economy and society, the future of a Europe built on peace, social solidarity and sustainability.

The first of these seminars will focus on being young in Ireland. It will address issues of participation, education, employment, emigration and mental health. I hope also that the seminars during the next seven years might encompass consideration of global issues, stressing the importance of the ethical connection between politics, economy, development and society.

In preparing for my Presidency, I recognise that our long struggle for freedom has produced a people who believe in the right of the individual mind to see the world in its own way and indeed that individual innovation and independence of mind has given Ireland many distinguished contributors in culture and science, often insufficiently celebrated.

However, in more recent years, we saw the rise of a different kind of individualism – closer to an egotism based on purely material considerations – that tended to value the worth of a person in terms of the accumulation of wealth rather then their fundamental dignity. That was our loss, the source in part, of our present difficulties. Now it is time to turn to an older wisdom that, while respecting material comfort and security as a basic right of all, also recognises that many of the most valuable things in life cannot be measured.

Our successes after all in the eyes of so many in the world have been in the cultural and spiritual areas – in our humanitarian, peace-building and human rights work – in our literature, art, drama and song – and in how that drama and song have helped us cope with adversity, soothed the very pain which they describe so well, and opened the space for new possibilities.

Our arts celebrate the people talking, singing, dancing and ultimately communing with each other. This is what James Connolly meant when he said that: “Ireland without her people means nothing to me”. Connolly took pride in the past but, of course, felt that those who excessively worshipped that past were sometimes seeking to escape from the struggle and challenge of the present. He believed that Ireland was a work in progress, a country still to be fully imagined and invented – and that the future was exhilarating precisely in the sense that it was not fully knowable, measurable. The demands and the rewards of building a real and inclusive Republic in its fullest sense remains as a challenge for us all, but it is one we should embrace together.

A decade of commemorations lies ahead – a decade that will require us to honestly explore and reflect on key episodes in our modern history as a nation; that will require us to draw on the ethics and politics of memory in such a way as will enable us not only to be sensitive to differing and incomplete versions of that history, but also to remain open to the making of reconciliation or to the acceptance of different versions of aspects and events of memory if required.

A common shared future built on the spirit of co-operation, the collective will and real participation in every aspect of the public world is achievable and I believe we can achieve it together. In our rich heritage some of our richest moments have been those that turned towards the future and a sense of what might be possible. It is that which brought us to independence. It is that which has enabled us to overcome adversity and it is that which will enable us to transcend our present difficulties and celebrate the real Republic which is ours for the making. Every age, after all, must have its own Aisling and dream of a better, kinder, happier, shared world.

Ní díomas ach dóchas a bheidh ag teastáil uainn ins na blianta dúshlánacha atá amach romhainn. Dóchas as ár n-oighreacht shaibhir, as ár ndúchas iolrach; dóchas as ár n-acmhainn samhlaíochta agus cruthaíochta; as an daonnacht choiteann a fáisceadh as stair chasta ár muintire i ngach cúinne d’Éirinn.

It is my wish to be a President for all of the Irish at home and abroad. We Irish have been a diasporic people for a great part of our history. The circumstances that have impelled – and that continue to impel – many citizens to seek employment and a better life elsewhere, are not ordained by some mysterious hand of fate. They challenge our capacity to create a sustainable and prosperous economy and an inspiring model of the good society. We, in our time, must address the real circumstances that generate involuntary emigration, and resolve that in the years ahead we will strive with all our energy and intellect, with mind and heart to create an Ireland which our young people do not feel they have to leave and to which our emigrants, or their children, may wish, in time, to return to work and live in dignity and prosperity. I invite all of the Irish, wherever they may be across the world, to become involved with us in that task of remaking our economy and society.

Agus, ár muintir atá lonnaithe i dtíortha ar fuaid an domhain mhóir, bíodh a gcás, a gcearta agus a ngaiscí siúd ar ár n-aire againn. Tá rian a saothair agus a ndíograis fágtha acu ar gach tír inar lonnaigh siad: ar an gcultúr polaitíochta agus creidimh, sna réimsí oideachais agus sláinte, san eolaíocht, san saol gnó agus sna h-ealaíona ar fad: agus i ngluaiseachtaí éagsúla ar son chearta daonna agus dínit an duine. Ní suarach iad na gaiscí seo mar thaisce inspioráide dúinne sa bhaile.

Let these, then, be our shared hopes, our common purpose, as we face the future. We Irish are a creative, resourceful, talented and warm people, with a firm sense of common decency and justice. Let us address the next seven years with hope and courage as we work together to build the future for our country -an Ireland we all feel part of, an Ireland we all feel proud of.

Muintir na hÉireann, ar aghaidh linn le chéile leis an dóchas agus an misneach sin a bhí is ba choir a bheith i gcónaí in ár gcroí.

Tipperary welcomes you to Office, Mr President and will endeavour to support you in all your future aspirations for Ireland.

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