Funferal

A strategy for Irish broadcasting

The BAI has released its , covering the 2011/13 period. Good to see both “ensuring diversity” (in services and content) and “ensuring plurality” among the eight core goals identified, though the community radio sector failed in its efforts to have the three separate strands/sectors reflected at mission statement level (that recognition comes as one of two goals within the broader plurality goal). Worth noting that the commitment to prevent undue concentration in ownership is qualified by a desire to ensure “economic viability” of broadcasting – this argument is, of course, frequently put forward to justify pushing the ownership concentration envelope: “we’re doing it because we care.”

The BAI, of course, replaced the BCI (formerly the IRTC) and BCC in 2009.

Posted in Media regulation, Radio | Comments Off

Reviewing Ireland’s Human Rights Record

Somewhat confusing release from the Merrion Street service, noting the opportunity for individuals and groups to make submissions in relation to Ireland’s first Human Rights review under the UN’s Human Rights Council UPR process. They give June as a deadline for feedback, but the actual UPR.ie site suggests that input should be provided by 21st March.

So what is the UPR? The Universal Periodic Review is a process whereby the UNHRC reviews the record of each member state once every four years, with Ireland’s October 2011 review to be one of the last of the first cycle. The process provides an opportunity – both in development of the country report and in the review in Geneva – for Civil Society actors to provide feedback and input.

So, what issues do you think should be brought to the attention of the UPR process? Limitations in union recognition? The recent eviscerating of oversight bodies such as Combat Poverty and the Equality Authority? Defamation and Blasphemy laws?

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Traitors

I’ve been advocating, privately, the prosecution for treason of David Drumm and other Irish former bankers who are manipulating foreign and domestic bankruptcy proceedings to retain their ill-gotten gains. Having made their fortunes by fuelling a speculative bubble, they then engage in clearly deceptive tactics to avoid their personal responsibilities during bankruptcy proceedings, move overseas to get beyond the scope of Irish law, and have the gall to sue the Irish state for losses in the value of their bank shares, after their pyramid schemes came crashing down. These people are traitors to their nation, and among the lowest form of scum.

Now the Irish government is engaging in another form of treason. The government is signing off on an agreement with the IMF and others, in which they commit the state to changing the retirement age, introducing water charges, and to cut social welfare rates, among other things. These changes are to take place at set times – many of them after the next election will take place. As a parliamentary democracy (and in line with the Irish constitution) international agreements, particularly those which involve charges on the public purse, must be approved by the Oireachtas.

The government, however, is refusing to get parliamentary approval for the MOU – though it has deigned to publish (most of) the text of the agreement. The role of the government is govern, within the legislative bounds set by the legislature. In this case we have a government which is seeking to tie the hands of the legislature and future governments, and which is refusing to submit the agreement for parliamentary approval. Why is that? Joan Burton may have the answer, noting that:

Distinguished economist, Professor Barry Eichengreen, wrote in Germany’s financial daily, Handelsblatt, today that: “Ireland will be transferring nearly 10 per cent of its national income as reparations to the bondholders, year after painful year.”

Traitors. And perhaps a lower form of scum.

Posted in Electoral politics, Income and poverty, International Affairs, International law and structures | Comments Off

A tale of two news stories

Compare and contrast:

There are fears of (more) deaths, particularly of pensioners and the homeless, as Ireland undergoes below-freezing conditions. (That’s not a metaphor for the economy!) Local authorities are struggling to keep roads gritted, with limited budgets available for this purpose (and effect still being felt from repair costs after last year’s record freeze):

Concerns have been expressed about the fate of homeless people in the sub-zero conditions. The Homeless Agency said rough sleeping was being strictly monitoring on a daily basis to ensure there was sufficient bed capacity in emergency homeless accommodation.

At the same time, the manager of Ireland’s soccer team has agreed to take a 5% cut in pay, reflecting the stresses faced by the FAI:

Giovanni Trapattoni said yesterday he had agreed to take the cut, believed to be in the region of €100,000 per annum, after speaking with FAI general secretary John Delaney in Milan last month. … When the reduction is applied to the pay of Tardelli and Fausto Rossi as well as Irish members of the coaching and scouting staff like Mick Martin and Don Givens, the saving should amount to something in the region of €160,000. It is estimated a third of that saving would accrue to businessman Denis O’Brien, who currently pays half of the management team’s major salaries

Not coincidentally, “The Irish Sports Council has contributed €17 million to the FAI since 2004″ – that’s about €3m a year. The ISC is the state body charged with distributing funds to individual governing bodies in sport. The funds provided were earmarked for projects on increasing participation in soccer, and we’re promised that the funds were matched 2:1 by the FAI, but really these things are a matter of shuffling around funds – O’Brien might not have provided his funding for programs aimed at serving previously under-reached groups, but even without that €1.6m, it’s interesting to think about what quality of coaching you could get for €200,000 a year. Would it really be so deficient that it’s worth it for the FAI to continue to increase its €50 debt?

Posted in Income and poverty, Society and culture | Comments Off

More DoE hypocrisy

The Irish educational system has some strange features. One is that while school staff have their wages and conditions set – and paid for – by the Department of Education – they are not viewed, in law, as employees of the Department. Historically this has been used as a fudge to allow school management to hire and fire on the basis of religious ideology – firing single women who became pregnant, etc. – but more recently the ‘distinction’ has been used by the Department to avoid what would otherwise be the legal obligations of an employer.
The Department is in the weird position of directing schools as to the terms and conditions of their employees – including setting the pay-scales of individual employees – but claiming not to be the employer of record. In almost any other situation this would be understood as fraudulent, a shell-game where the Department calls the shots but hides behind front companies. Why the Irish courts have allowed it to continue is beyond me.
Now, the Department has directed schools to reduce the pay of non-teaching staff from January. There will be many more cuts to come, of course, but this one carries the double sting of financial hardship (on some of the lowest-paid in the educational sector) and a paymaster that avoids the legal responsibilities that go with its role.

Posted in Education, Income and poverty, Labour issues | Comments Off

Buddy Pack program packs nutrient punch

The Buddy Pack program in Missouri provides food from a food bank direct to school-age children. Children pick up food at the end of the school week – packaged in backpacks chosen to blend in with those of other children, in order that children participating not stand out and look different. It’s wonderful that this was a consideration in designing the program, but again I’ve got to wonder (knowing the answer) why this program is necessary in a country that is one of the richest in the world, and where politicians talk (without intended irony) of American exceptionalism.

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Communicating in a crisis – what the Irish government did wrong (part 1 of 80-180 billion)

When I talk with my students about PR I explain that the first rule of crisis communication is to ‘fess up – get out in front of the rumours and claims, admitting the truth (in order that you can have a say in framing that truth).

This week the Irish government got that wrong. They lied when asked if there were any discussions with the IMF or the EU – or at least finessed their answers to mislead (rather than merely obfuscate or avoid).These developments can be seen as sensitive – because they are. Any information provided might influence short-term economic developments, affecting the availability of funds for Irish businesses, or whether a business will decide to proceed with an investment in the country. However, providing false information also has an impact – and arguably a longer-term negative impact on the reputation of the government and the state.

At a time when statements/leaks were flowing freely from other governments, the EU, and elsewhere – and when the development (while gut-wrenching for those of us watching from afar) was not farfetched, I cannot understand what it was thought might be gained by having the news dragged out like this.

And now, of course, government ministers are claiming that the only two things that can’t happen are that corporation taxes should rise from their current level [1] and that the government cannot fall. An election, or a change in personnel within the government, would signal uncertainty, which would make this process more expensive (as markets treat uncertainty as risk) and damage whatever authority the government still retains in its negotiations.

[1] The issue of corporate tax levels is an important one, and more nuanced in Ireland than elsewhere. As an island nation (with accordingly higher distribution costs), which built much of its growth (before the property bubble) on inbound foreign investment, having a tax rate lower than the rest of Europe has been cited by multiple observers as one of the keys to the country’s economic success. Beyond the palaver about English-speaking, well-educated populations (both true, but of diminishing significance/value), corporate taxes (and, until recently, high levels of European structural investment) were key elements in the country’s economic growth. However, whether this is the one issue of government policy that should be retained, untouched, beyond the reach of the bureaucrats who are about to take over running the country, is less clear.

Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Electoral politics, Income and poverty, International Affairs, Labour issues, Political activism, Society and culture | Comments Off

Time for an Irish election

Minister for Health Mary Harney has criticized protestors who throw things at her – today it was eggs, last week paint – as she visits different parts of the country:
“‘I think it’s a great pity that in a democracy people don’t use the opportunity to put their perspective forward in a different way,’ she said.”
One basic means by which individuals in a democracy can influence policy is through voting. But with the government still holding off on several bye-elections (it only called one in Donegal following court action) and refusing to call a general election despite record low levels of support, that route isn’t available. Perhaps it’s time for that to change – forget about bye-elections as mini-plebiscites, just have done and call the general election.

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Lessons from Chile: workers’ rights, safety

Posted on the BBC’s live coverage of the miners’ rescue effort in Chile:

Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, a former Ghanian miner and head of a miners’ rights lobby group, tells BBC Focus on Africa that African mining could learn valuable lessons from Chile’s experience. “It is a wake up call for all of us that we cannot take safety issues for granted,” he says. “They have survived because they had basic needs with them – some rations, probably some water. And this is a lesson to us.”

Posted in International Affairs, Labour issues, Online communication, Public Service Media | Comments Off

Dead Man Walking lecture

On Monday September 20, Sr Helen Prejean spoke at Cazenovia College as part of the Reisman lecture series. The author of the book Dead Man Walking (later a film and musical) spoke on the topic of the death penalty.

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