Irish Politics, Current Affairs and Magazine Archive - Politico.ie

Speaking on RTÉ radio's Dialogue a number of years ago writer John Moriarty, quoting Philip Larkin's Church Going, said: 'There's that last wonderful stanza:

A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.

One of the more interesting questions to be asked about this election is: Where did all the Fianna Fáilers go? Not, it seems, to H&M to buy themselves blue shirts. Having crunched the numbers, Harry Browne finds that much of the Fianna Fáil vote went left, a result that gives the lie to talk of a solidly conservative centre-right majority in Ireland.

The government is not turning to community development or the community sector as a whole for support. By Ann Irwin.

People are often confused, and understandably so, about community development, often assuming that community development refers to everything that happens at local level – in communities or neighbourhoods. The reason for the confusion is that community development ‘the approach’ has become decoupled from community development ‘the objective’.

The objective of community development is to address poverty, social exclusion and disadvantage. Having lived through an unprecedented period of economic growth, some might believe that this no longer exists in Ireland but we are still a country with relatively high levels of poverty, social exclusion and inequality.

Today, the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland marked 20 years of working to create a fairer society in Ireland and Europe with the launch of a new book.

Ireland and the European Social Inclusion Strategy: Lessons Learned and the Road Ahead, reflects on the substantial progress made in tackling poverty and social exclusion in Ireland over the past 20 years, according to the EAPN. It also acknowledges that even at the height of Ireland's economic success, there remained very significant problems for people at risk of poverty including access to services, increased income inequality and access to the labour market. The book also sets out a vision for a European Union that serves people and society ahead of powerful economic lobby groups, said the EAPN today in a press release.

(Pictured: Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs Pat Carey)

We thought these Fianna Fáil people were without backbone. How we underestimated them.

At least we have got some clarity now. It is not so that Fianna Fáil TDs care about nothing. Nor is it so that the Labour Party necessarily cares about anything.

Our conviction that Fianna Fáil TDs were incapable of taking a stand on an issue that really matters when the chips are down has been shattered, well shaken. As has our suspicion that Fianna Fáil TDs don’t have the courage to threaten to defy the party whip. Well at least they spoke out, even if their defiance deserted them at the vote. These stalwarts are not known as soldiers of destiny for nothing.

Two separate reports contradict Pat Carey's claim that deprivation and social exclusion are being tackled.  By Vincent Browne. 

Pat Carey, the new Minister for Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, showed up early yesterday morning at a seminar on poverty in a European perspective. And as Ministers are expected to do, he read a speech which contained the obligatory self-congratulation that every Minister is now expected to intone about how wonderful the Government strategy has been in addressing the fiscal deficit crisis.

At a conference in University College Dublin (UCD), leading academics and community workers called for a "new agenda" to be created to give the Irish electorate a real political alternative, while Labour's Michael D. Higgins signalled his support for a true left alternative. By Joe Galvin.

The conference, entitled Equality in a Time of Crisis, was organised by UCD's Egalitarian World Initiative and looked at how Ireland could create a "socially just society". It took place in UCD's Quinn School of Business building.

One of the organisers of the event, Prof. Kathleen Lynch, told Politico that the conference hoped to "set an agenda...to interrupt the consensus that the big problem in Ireland is about funding the banks". She said that Ireland has "no left of any substance" and called on left wing organisations to work together to form a real alternative.

The Carnegie UK Trust's report calls for civil society involvement in the creation of a Good Society. But how can this be achieved without an independent, vibrant community sector? By Ann Irwin.

As reported in the Irish Times and in these pages, a significant audience of people attended the launch of the Carnegie UK Trust’s Making Good Society, the final report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society in the UK and Ireland in the Royal Hibernian Academy on Thursday April 22nd. They were told that simultaneous crises in finance, politics and the environment are all in different ways symptoms of an out of control individualism and that there is a need to consider the greater good of society and a shift from an ‘age of me’ to an ‘age of we’.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen is due to announce the make up of his new cabinet in Dáil Éireann at 15.40 today, and Politico.ie will deliver live updates throughout the afternoon as information becomes available.

The abolition of Community Development Programmes (CDPs) is not cost effective and could seriously damage local communities, according to critics of the proposal.

“A CDP is a small part of an ecosystem...take a CDP away...and [other projects] will crumble,” said Cathleen O'Neill of Kilbarrack CDP, speaking on 'Tonight with Vincent Browne' on November 25. For O'Neill, some of the proposals simply do not make sense. “For every euro that is given to a CDP six euros is raised....they're [also] abolishing voluntary boards...as a cost cutting exercise. They cost the state nothing so why abolish them?” Over 50% of the funding received by many CDPs is from non-governmental sources and the figure can often reach 80%. The government provides around €22m a year. For CDPs, the meagre savings made can in no way justify the proposal.

'We will go before the people on the basis of our record in delivering the strongest economy in Europe."

I don't see open rebellion [among backbenchers] but there is a lot of resentment building up against [Michael] McDowell. There are often personal resentments within parties as well as between them but this is different. If he is seen to have dirtied his hands on this one he is gone. Everybody knows that he is another accident just waiting to happen. I have been of the view for the past year that we have got to distance ourselves from the PDs before the election. If we can get the high ground on an issue like this we should take the opportunity to ditch them."