David Higgins

This past month in Irish politics has been one of the most interesting the nation has seen since its foundation. The resignation of four high profile politicians in the space of three weeks shows how fragile our system has become. Both George Lee and Déirdre de Búrca had the guts not only to leave their positions but to leave their seats. On the other hand Willie O’Dea and Trevor Sargent still remain in their Dáil seats even though they are both accused of serious crimes.

To be fair, it must be said that Sargent showed honesty and integrity in his resignation. When the news broke of his wrongdoing he immediately knew that the game was up. By the same evening he had left his post as a junior minister and this reflected well on his character. In sharp contrast Willie O’Dea had to be dragged kicking and screaming from office. Only after Fine Gale tabled a motion of no confidence in him and after Dan Boyle withdrew his support via twitter did the Minister decide to resign.

Now, Willie O’Dea is whining and complaining about his fall from office in the media. In numerous interviews he has talked about how he is a victim of the political process? The simple reality is, Willie O’Dea is only a victim of his own actions. He was the one who slandered a political opponent, he was the one who lied to the High Court and he was the one who misled the Dáil on this matter.

I have no sympathy for him and the people of Limerick shouldn’t have either. Irish Politics is renowned for local favours where high profile ministers will bring investment to their constituencies. In 2007, nearly 20,000 people voted for Willie O’Dea but what good has he done to deserve so many votes? Gangland crime is still a pandemic in the city and job losses from places like Dell have made the city an unemployment blakspot.

As far as I’m concerned, Willie O’Dea is an embarrassment to politics in this country. He is nothing but an arrogant and tactless parasite who I am glad to see exterminated. However, Willie O’Dea is still a TD and it is very likely that he will contest the next general election.

Why is it, that a minister can act this way, resign, and then continue to represent the people as a TD? The simple fact is, that the government needs their support in Dáil votes, otherwise the government will fall. In order to keep itself in power the government will accept any low standard of ethics even if it means accepting support from two TDs who are accused of committing crimes.

Change has come to Ireland they said. Ireland’s Barack Obama, the man with the plan! And to think I was that naive to believe all the hype.

When George Lee announced his decision to run in Dublin South last year, it was the push that got me involved with politics and with Fine Gael. I was so excited to meet him and I was privileged to help in his campaign. I believed his rhetoric about telling his grandkids that he did something when the country was on its knees. I also believed him when he said he’d run again at the next general election!

But the thing that pisses me off the most is that I trusted him. I trusted him so much that I canvassed relentlessly for him. Last summer I devoted two full weeks of my time to his campaign and I sacrificed much of my summer time for this.

I was even there when they counted his votes in the RDS, all 27,768 of them. No other TD in Dáil Eireann has ever received such a large number of votes. We always say that our TDs don’t have the support of the people, George Lee was the exception. He had our full support but he let us down. He couldn’t stand the heat so he got out of the kitchen.

But f**k him I say.

Now he can tell his kids that politics was too tough and that he left after only 9 months!

I ask anyone to point to a national opposition politician who can have a large impact after only 9 months. Many TDs have to wait 9 years until they are given a frontbench position. Enda Kenny waited 9 Dáil terms and went through 9 general elections before he was elected party leader in 2002. Politics is a slow game for life.

It really shows that George Lee had no patience and would not even settle with a frontbench position!

He says that his reasons are his lack of influence in party policy. Which areas of policy though?? He hasn’t specified one area in which he has had disagreement. I think we’d all like to know what the real problems were! Policies have to have a wide support from the parliamentary party. I think he just couldn’t have things his own way! I know that he’s a man to speak his mind but I was truly shocked when I heard the news today.

I can’t believe the news today
Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away
How long, how long must we sing this song?

It’s important that we know which schools are the best in the country. It’s even more important locally. Parents faced with the choice of multiple schools in their area should not have to rely on anecdotal evidence of where to send their child for the 6 most important years of their upbringing.

Factual evidence and statistics should properly rank these schools and they should be made available to everyone.

Feeder Schools list?

Up to now all Secondary Schools have been measured based on the % of students that the school in question sends to third level education. There are so many flaws with this system and even though my own school made the top ten list this year, it’s still an unfair way of measuring performance of teachers and pupils.

In school (A), all the students go to third level but they’ve all received no more than 300 points and they go to do level 6 courses. School (B) has bright and intelligent students however a large group of lads go abroad to find work and another group of girls take a year off for “self discovery”. The rest of its students all score over 400 points and they go to third level.

You would assume that in any case School (B) would have a higher rank due to its higher achieving students. Instead School (A) tops the league with 100% and School (B) sits at 80%.

This system is fundamentally flawed

It’s also flawed when it’s measured by the % of students going on to “University”. Under the Universities Act 1997 only the following 7 institutions are recognised as a university

• Dublin City University
• University College Cork
• University College Dublin
• National University of Ireland, Galway
• National University of Ireland, Maynooth
• University of Limerick
• Trinity College, Dublin

It’s amazing that a law has enshrined a select few colleges as better than any Institute of Technology or any other college.

The Sunday Times today released their list of feeder schools and it ranks the schools by the % of students in “University”. My school, which was in the top ten based on third level is ranked 137th due to this manipulation of figures. What a stupid system!!

The ST didn’t even get my schools figures right. As I said, we made the Irish Times top ten with 100% going to third level. However the ST says that we only sent 95% of our students. It seems to have left out any students who went abroad, further than the British Isles.

I don’t care where graduates go, it’s still 3rd level education!!

What we need is to measure schools by the average number of points the students get. That would make much more sense. It has its flaws too, but it’s a much better system than what we have at present.

What we shouldn’t do is measure by socio-economic background as this recent list tried to do. High School Rathgar came out on top when they took into account the number of Immigrants in the locality, the unemployment rate and the rate of previous participation in third level education.

Immigrants?? What have they to do with this???????

I know people from Knocklyon who go there and they travel 20 minutes by bus. Measuring the locality of the school tells you nothing when students come from all over the city.

If parents didn’t go to third level then it’s not the case that their kids won’t either! Both my parents have little or no 3rd level education, yet my Dad is a successful manager and my Mom is a fantastic house wife, and she runs music classes part time.

Also I need to point out that my school is much better than most, and it’s a public school. Looks like all you posh South Dubliners spent your money on status rather than on education!!

The Celtic Tiger saw a splurge in easy money. If you wanted a loan, you got it! For a car, boat, house, or TV, it was a free for all. Now the banks are out of cash and everything we bought is worth nothing!

The principal of credit is an admirable one. It allows people to get what they want and pay for it later.

However it does not come without a price. Interest is usually applied on a loan but there can be greater consequences.

For some weird reason Shakespeare knows our world better than we do! He saw these consequences quite clearly and many of his great plays detail them.

In 3rd year we studied The Merchant of Venice. This entire play revolves around a loan. The Jew, Shylock, seeks his revenge over Antonio by causing him to default on his loan. Today in Ireland you get sent to jail for this (in the most extreme of cases), but in those days you were removed of a pound of flesh!

Shylock is like a relentless bank that will stop at nothing to get its money back. At least in those days you knew the forfeit of the loan. During the Celtic Tiger the bank told you nothing and the government said that prosperity would last forever!

Even in Hamlet, which I now study in 5th year, the writing is on the wall that loans are to be avoided at all costs.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

It ruins marriage, you lose friends, and most importantly you can lose everything you own!!!

This crisis has been the wake up call us Irish need.  China, who’s population save a large % of their income, is much better placed to deal with recessions like these. Thankfully some of us are taking the message seriously.

40% of adults are now debt free

This good news story shows that Irish people are beginning to save, but for how long?

If we see a boom again will personal spending rocket and will the loan cycle begin again?

It needs to be stopped and people need to realise that living within their means is the best way to live.

The Minister for Communications Eamon Ryan is furthering plans to create a new nationwide Postcodes system for Ireland. This week he has opened up the tender process for a contract to implement the new system.

This means that we will say goodbye to the old Dublin Postcode system. It’s something that all of us know and it will be missed in many ways.

D4, a slang term born out of the Celtic Tiger will be no more. I should take this time to note however that the area of Dublin 4 doesn’t even begin to cover the area that would be considered “posh” in South Dublin. I don’t know why this area caught on as being more posh than anywhere else. My own area of D16 is casually termed D4 squared

Another custom this new postcode system will end is the class warfare style reference to the even and odd numbered Dublin Postcodes. The Northside has odd numbers while the Southside holds the even numbers. This led to certain connotations to certain postcodes.

No focking way I’m going into Dublin 15 roysh!!

A New European style Postcode system will end all this and it will make deliveries to our doors much easier. Let’s see someone try and slag off D1467 . I can’t be certain that’s what the new codes will look like but I imagine it will be similar to other countries.

In France they have a simple 5 digit number code like the US zip codes (e.g 90210), while in the UK it is a 6 or 7 character combination of numbers and letters. In Belgium it is only 4 digits and this is probably because they are a small county. I would envisage a similar situation here.

We may see more spam through our doorsteps as businesses have an easy way to address our houses however I don’t mind. I actually enjoy when pizza coupons and menus come through the door!!

This weekend’s opinion poll in the Sunday Business Post has seen Fianna Fáil gain 4% support since the previous poll which was taken before the budget. Fine Gael and Sinn Féin have loss 2% each.

What has Fianna Fáil done in the past few weeks to deserve 4% of the electorate swinging their way?

Well………nothing!

Unless you’re an alcoholic or a buyer of a new ‘10 car you’ve no reason to change your vote to Fianna Fáil. And I doubt those two groups make up 4% of the electorate!

If anything there should be a drop in support for Fianna Fáil. They imposed a budget which hit the lowest paid in the public service and those on social welfare. Surely there were some votes to be lost from those two groups. Many of those votes were lost from previous budgets but this budget hit families by reducing child benefit and by imposing a carbon levy on fuels. This has impacted everyone and everyone is worse off because of the budget.

If people feel that they escaped the worse in budget ‘10 then they are misinformed. The fact is that, there never should have been a savage budget like budget ‘10 because if Fianna Fáil weren’t in power then this economic mess never would have occurred in the first place!!

People are being led to believe that they have to play their part and considering there’s a €22bn deficit that’s a fair message to send out. However, who created the €22bn hole?!?!?!?! Fianna F***ing Fáil that’s who!

The electorate in this country suffers from memory loss. We don’t remember the bad things that our politicians do and we’ve been led like sheep to the slaughter by FF governments who bought votes by excessive budgets like budget ‘07, 6 months before polling day.

The voters of Ireland need to take a good hard look at Fianna Fáil and realise that they are not the best option on offer. I’m not going to do a Fine Gael plug here. I don’t need to! Even Labour would run a better government than Fianna Fáil!

So, both the government and the opposition want a crack down on head shops. For those of you who don’t know what they are, you should know because they’re everywhere these days.

They sell legal highs such as blow and Mephedrone which are all milder forms of drugs like cocaine and hash. The sensations are said to be less, however in some cases they have a long lasting effect which has drawn casual users to these shops.

Public Anger, expressed as usual through Joe Duffy has moved the majority of the country against the shops however we can’t simply view these shops as bad things, we have to look at the positives.

Jobs! Head shops provide employment and its simple as that. If one shop is opening every week then there’s one person coming off the dole queues every day (assuming that there’s an average of 7 working in the shop).

The next positive is that it removes business from the drug gangs and dealers. With countless gangland murders this month alone, it’s well known that the money that buys the guns is the money that we the people bought drugs with. If these people move from dealers to head shops then they remove the awkwardness of the dealer, they get it for cheaper and they still get the high they were looking for.

Sure, the dealers will still have their loyal business from addicts who buy heroin, but it’s the casual users with money who are keeping the drug gangs going. If we look beneath the surface, head shops can be a solution to gangland crime!

They also have a wider benefit to the economy. If the government were to regulate these shops properly then large VAT receipts could be gained and the legal highs could be liable to levies and tariffs, similar to tobacco and alcohol.

This government regulation must address other aspects before these shops can be welcomed though.

Firstly, they must ban all under 18s from entry to these shops.

Secondly, they must have similar regulations to sex shops. Advertising must be controlled to avoid attracting younger persons and to discourage further people taking up these drugs.

Thirdly we must see proper product control and traceability. We need to know, like any product where it came from and whether it’s safe or not!

If these measures can be met I don’t see why we can’t keep these shops open.

Today’s Exchequer figures make for grim reading.

They show that our tax take has collapsed in the past two years. While this has eased off we still need to raise more in tax to help bridge the €22bn deficit.

Next week’s budget is going to comprise mainly of a carbon tax and a few other taxes to make €1bn. This is part of the €4bn savings proposed in the budget. While the carbon tax is a positive measure, albeit disruptive, it should not be the only tax change we make in this budget.

The first thing I’d plan to do is radically reduce the VAT rate. It’s currently at 21.5%, why not send it down to 11.5%? This would mean an immediate 10% drop in the price of all goods and it would instantly boost consumer spending. This would also lead to job creation and retention in the retail sector. Now, I know that the take the government gets could suffer however I feel it should be looked at. Either way something needs to be done about cross border shopping to the UK and I think this is the first place we should look. 10% might be too much to cut it by but we should definitely bring the rate below 20%.

The second measure would be to introduce a 3rd band of income tax. In principal, I’m not in favour of hunting the rich for cash because it does harm investment. However, there needs to be a perception of fairness and I think a 50% Income Tax rate for those earning over €100k would not do much harm. The fact is that taxing the rich only squeezes a few extra cent from them but it’s a sure move to make everyone else happy. Irish people seem to want to take everything from the wealthy and successful.

Yesterday saw most Public Servants walk out of work to protest at the cuts that haven’t happened yet. From early morning pickets were placed throughout the country at various locations.

However, also from early morning there were traffic jams on the roads leading to border towns like Newry and Enniskillen. Coincidence? I think not. There are private sector workers who had to take the day off to mind their kids who had no school to go to. However it’s likely that at least half of the shoppers were public servants who caused the 7 mile queue into Newry Town Centre this morning.

It’s a PR disaster for the Unions. General Secretary of IMPACT Peter McLoone dismissed this as “nonsense” on both TV3 and RTÉ. He said that public servants turned out in their “tens of thousands” to picket government departments and buildings. That’s great, but what were the other 200,000 public servants doing if only a few tens of thousands of them were out?

Also last night Dublin City saw huge volumes of people in its clubs and bars. One taxi driver commented that it was like a Friday or Saturday night with three times the fares for a Monday. The same taxi-man overheard a conversation between some of his public sector passengers. “They better hold the next strike on a Friday so we get a 3 day weekend”!

Oh poor cash strapped public servants. The world’s smallest violin playing the world’s saddest song just for you!

I passed my closed school today only to find one person on the picket, our Caretaker. Sure, some of the teachers were at the mass protest at the department of education but it seriously shows a lack of solidarity when he’s the only one there. He’d be the lowest paid of the staff of the school and so I sympathise with him. He was out in the cold while other teachers stayed in and corrected homework.

People on the dole should be furious about this. They’ve lost their Christmas Bonus and they are set to lose more from their support after next month’s budget. For many the loss of the bonus has meant that many will forgo buying presents this year with the cash going to repay bills or mortgages. They look at public servants who have the day off and who have the cash to spend up north or in packed shopping centres like Dundrum and they cringe.

This strike really has been a disaster. Sure the government saved a few bob from not paying the workers but it won’t be near the €70m that is borrowed everyday to pay for public services.

Next Thursday we have the same thing again. I can’t wait. I bet the queue to Newry will be 10 miles this time ?

Story Here
Just look at this fella. Smug as hell, just waiting to take your money from you. So why give it to him?

He’s the presenter of Play TV, TV3’s late night game show. It comes on after midnight and it costs €1.50 to ring in, whether you get through or not.

The games are mind puzzles and sometimes the answer is clear or it isn’t. Either way it draws hundreds to ring in and fight for the measly four-figure prizes. However only a handful ever get to answer the questions.

When you ring in you are told simply to try again and the call ends, all for €1.50. Rip-off? Yes, but it’s still your own fault if you’re stupid enough to ring in again!

People have a right to complain but they were the ones who dialled the number. If you actually think that you will win something from these shows then you deserve to have your money taken from you in the first place.