David Higgins

I’m sickened by a news story that has emerged about a family seeking public housing in Ashford, County Wicklow. A women and her four children were granted a house however they have been forcibly removed simply because the father and husband is a convicted sex offender. The father does not live with the family, it is only the wife and children. The family of five is now living with relatives in overcrowded conditions. What’s most startling about this situation is the support Labour councillors have given to the mob of residents that forced the family out.

When the residents learnt that the innocent family would be moving in, they immediately organised a protest up to Friday two weeks ago. The house was burnt down on Sunday night. One resident defended their actions.

We weren’t a mob. We decided to keep vigil. The protest finished on Friday morning, we were just keeping a vigil and making sure that nobody did move in

As far as I’m concerned somebody knows who burnt down the house and it’s likely to be one of the residents. I’ve no evidence to prove this but there’s no one else who would have had the motive! It’s also shocking that the residents were keeping a constant vigil and not one of them spotted and reported who entered the house to set it ablaze.

An 88-year-old disabled woman who lived next door has also been forced out of her specially adapted home because it is now in a dangerous condition.

If that fire had spread quickly enough the old lady could have been seriously injured or killed in the blaze. The risk of this happening is much higher than the risk of this man re-offending. He has been clean for 18 years and having been independently assessed he is now described as “low-risk”. There isn’t a non risk, he is as safe as possible! Also with residents on such high alert the man would hardly offend in that estate, especially as he is already the prime suspect by default. All this is besides the point. He won’t be living there!!!

The arsonist in this case is a greater threat to this community and I think the residents should focus their attention on finding this man instead of attacking an innocent family!

Councillor Conal Kavanagh and his Labour colleagues have lead the charge against this innocent family on a political level. They have supported the mob throughout and then Kavanagh put a motion down on the council not merely that sex offenders be removed entirely from the Co Wicklow housing list, but that anyone “they consorted with” should be taken off the list. Does this include his friends, his acquaintances, his postman???

I’d warm to the idea of denying the offenders public housing, but this is a step too far.

It’s really about time Labour stopped with their stupid populism. It’s getting out of hand and it’s starting to damage the lives of innocent people.

Today in Limerick publicans were given the go-ahead to open their doors on Good Friday. The special permission granted by Judge Tom O’Donnell allows pubs to open from 6pm to 11:30pm.

While this is a victory in my view, it’s still not enough, and the law must be changed to allow alcohol to be sold on Good Friday like any other day in the year. Why has the government chosen to enforce a Christian practice on its citizens?

I would accept the statement that Ireland is a Catholic country. Well over 80% of the population identifies with this, and including Protestants, we have a population that is over 90% Christian.

However, Christians have free will, and if they are devout in their religion then they will not go to the pub anyway! Closing pubs on Friday will only lead to a loss of business from non-Christians, and it affects more casual Christians who would choose to drink on Good Friday.

It’s time we moved away from church control in this country, and away from laws that restrict an Irish persons right to have a drink. The most recent licensing laws stop the sale of alcohol at 10pm in supermarkets and off-licences! Great, so I’m just going to buy my drink before then, and drink it anyway. It’s unacceptable that the government has attacked liberty and freedom in this way. I don’t see myself buying cans after 10 o’clock, but if I did I should have the right to do so.

If I was in government I would remove this law, and I would allow all pubs nationwide to open on Good Friday, and on any other day they like!

Last night saw yet another head shop vandalised and destroyed. The attack on the store in Sligo town is just the latest in a series of attacks on these new businesses.

The Gardaí arrested two men shortly after the incident. These men are aged 21 and 31. We need to ask ourselves who is leading the charge against these shops. Is it angry vigilante citizens who cannot wait for the government to legislate? Or, is it rival drug dealers?

While much anger has been expressed about the establishment of these shops, I do not believe that ordinary citizens are taking the law into their own hands. People claim that these shops are having a negative impact on their lives and their towns, however it has hit no one else harder than ordinary Joe Druggy. He has been hit with a larger recession than anyone else in this country. Recessions are generally a time when countries experience a rise in drug use and drug related offences. In Ireland, the rise in head shops has taken business away from violent drug dealers.

Drug dealers are frustrated, so they are now retaliating by destroying head shops and making people unemployed in the process.

In my previous post Off with the Heads!?! I highlight the positive aspects of head shops. I argued that drug dealers would lose customers and I have now been proven correct. If drug dealers and criminal gangs could compete with head shops then they would have no reason to risk arrest and prosecution by attacking them!

Keeping these shops open keeps the drug dealers out of business!!!

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 SIPTU, the countries largest union said that it was seeking a 3.5% pay rise for health service workers that they are owed after the 2008 benchmarking. They have threatened industrial action should the government refuse to bow down and kiss their feet!

James Larkin once said

“Comrades – We are living in momentous times.”

There isn’t a quote more appropriate to describe what we face in this country. €400 million leaks from this country every week and this is before €54 billion is spent on NAMA.

It’s clear from these figures that extra money has to be raised to fill that gap in either the form of increased taxation or cuts in public spending. The former has been ruled out by Brian when he said:

“Read my lips, No tax hikes”

So, cuts it is then.

The bulk of these will have to come from the public sector wages and pensions. They are in secure jobs vs. the near half a million unemployed from the private sector, they have secure pensions vs. a loss in the value of pensions for many private sector workers and they are paid significantly more that their public sector counterparts. The pension levy has reduced this wage gap however it still stands at around 10%, or in the case of lower paid workers there’s a difference of over 15%.

It is for these reasons that there has to be a reduction in public sector wages instead of a ridiculous 3.5% rise.

The country can’t afford it and even if we could it would be an insult to the thousands of private sector workers who are struggling through this crisis too.

SIPTU should wake up and smell the coffee. Their threat of industrial action would not only severely damage the economy, were it to be acted upon, but it would also put at risk the lives of thousands of patients in the health service who would fall victim to such action.

Today the ASTI teacher’s union said that its members would no longer attend out of hours parent teacher meetings. 6 of these are held each year in every school to cover pupils in all 6 school years. The union says it is in response to the recent education cuts.

So wait, in protest of cuts they cut something else???

I’m not going to make a huge deal about this because parent teacher meetings are a relatively insignificant part of second level education. It’s simply a chance to meet your child’s teachers in every subject once a year and get feedback first hand on their progress in the junior and leaving certificates. Personally it’s convenient for my parents to meet my teachers and I think it’s important that parents know who’s teaching their children.

However the underlying problem with this is the strength of the unions. They continue to flex their muscles in the run up to the budget, completely opposed to pay cuts and even seeking pay rises in the health service. Cuts need to happen and the unions will destroy this country if they’re allowed have their way.

This year the ASTI celebrates its 100th year in existence. A century of Service they say. Maybe it has been a service up to now but for how long?

This evening on the news there was a report on the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. There is a backlog of applicants this year meaning that payments may reach parents after their children and back in school, thus defeating the purpose of the scheme. Uniforms are very expensive costing hundreds of euro for most families.

I’ve a better solution to the cost of uniforms. Do away with uniforms altogether!

This would put hundreds of euro back into the pockets of families so they can reinvest the money into the important costs of education. Tutoring, books, grinds and stationary.