Maman Poulet

I’ve noticed in the last few days that Ciaran Cuffe, potential new minister is scrubbing up very well. Today this photo of the Green Party Parliamentary Party 2010 was released.  Has he been to Louis Copeland?  What has happened to the tweedie type jackets?

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As I mentioned last night the Catholic Bishops have published a leaflet on marriage yesterday.  Except it’s not really about marriage is it?

The full contents are now available to read on their website.

There is loads of stuff in this to poke holes in but let’s not forget that the church are trying to change the message from the mess they have been in for years – well some of them are anyway – it’s no mistake that Diarmuid Martin was not around at the launch of this yesterday – I don’t think he supports the publication or the contents given his previous statements on it.

And the last paragraph is very interesting

What should I do?

Contact your TD or a member of the Seanad.
Write to, email or text your local media.

Debate the issue.
These are important matters about marriage and the family and about respect for freedom of conscience. These proposals should not go unchallenged.

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Maybe this can be a new series for MP. (submissions to tips @ mamanpoulet.com )

Yesterday evening a ministerial press release landed in my inbox – I didn’t know about the launch of a political pamphlet by Niall Crowley for the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland but it obviously got up the nose of  Minister of State for the National Drugs Strategy, Community Affairs & Integration John Curran.

So a press release was duly drawn up (no coincidence that there is a reshuffle next week) but it’s so poor and indeed draws more attention to the pamphlet – which is not a research report but is a political opinion on the actions of the government and what they really say about attitudes to minorities and migrants in Irish society. The release is below in it’s entirety as it was sent to the press list.

I laughed when I saw the paragraph in the release on the Equality Authority – it’s work continues? Ah yes split over two offices still, with less staff and a slashed budget and a muzzled board. And it’s widely agreed that the cuts nearly two years ago now to the Equality Authority and Human Rights Commission’s budgets have had nothing to do with the recession. Indeed it’s expected that the equality areas of government policy are going to be moved from the Dept of Justice because the Green Party are not happy with how they have been handled and have been taking a lot of heat and Brian Cowen is fed up of the messing.

The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism have gone completely, so the crime figures he quotes are more difficult to gather.

But in pure political communications terms I’m wondering who wrote the release and what exactly were they trying to prove? Because if you were to reflect on integration and migration policy in the last few years you might be left wondering if there is a government policy and in the lack of a policy that all this minister can do is say it’s not really as bad as Crowley makes out and has no success stories or positive spin to show at all but just picking holes in figures obscurely. I mean if it was really a poor publication wouldn’t the best thing for the Minister to do be to ignore it rather than respond so unconvincingly?

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On Tuesday night an amendment to the Finance Bill was agreed in the Dáil. Amendment No. 3 was proposed by Joan Burton.

The Minister shall within one month from the passing of this Act prepare and
lay before Dáil Éireann a report on a cost-benefit analysis of tax expenditures
provided for by this Act, setting out the costs of tax foregone, and the benefits in terms of job creation or otherwise.

Here’s the Leas Ceann Comhairle Brendan Howlin putting it to the house.

( from Alexia Golez on Vimeo.)

On Wednesday morning, the government proposed an order of business which would have seen the Amendment debated again. Over night it seems the government had realised it did not intend to accept the amendment and they wanted to have a second go at it. It’s a bit like Wonder Woman’s golden belt – put it round the amendment and everyone will forget it was ever spoken about and the issue could be voted on again – the right way this time – well the defeated way if you were the government.

Now the opposition weren’t too happy about that plan and Ceann Comhairle Seamus Kirk got himself into a terrible mess trying to put the order of business to the house.  There was a precedent being set here, the government are defeated on something and they want to have a second go at changing it.

Later yesterday the debate on the Finance Bill was restarted and still the government were trying to get Amendment No. 3 re-taken. The opposition continued to protest. Minster for Finance Brian Lenihan then had to intervene and say that matters should proceed as the opposition wanted and that the amendment would go to the Seanad and he would have it re-amended to increase the timescale involved.   Brian Lenihan should have been paying attention when the amendment was put to the house if they didn’t want it to be accepted.

All this a day after Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly made a stinging attack on the powerlessness of parliament and the role of the Executive in policy making without debate or consultation.

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The Catholic Bishops have been having their spring meeting for the past three days and the press conference today saw them complain about unfair treatment by the media and also express their concerns about the civil partnership bill.

The Press release sent out at the end of the meeting says that the bishops are going to publish a leaflet on Marriage.

‘Why marriage matters’ – statement by the Bishops’ Conference on the Civil Partnership Bill

Bishops agreed to publish a leaflet ‘Marriage matters’ in support of marriage and family life.  This leaflet expresses concern about aspects of the Civil Partnership Bill, currently before the Oireachtas.  The leaflet summarises key elements of Catholic teaching on marriage between a man and woman.  It reiterates the importance of the family as the natural primary and fundamental unit of society and therefore deserving of special protection by the State.  It also highlights that other forms of relationships are not of the same nature and status as that of marriage as the basis of the family.

This information leaflet will be released as a statement, published by Veritas, made available in dioceses and on www.catholicbishops.ie.  Bishops encouraged everyone concerned to inform themselves and to read ‘Marriage Matters’.

Patsy McGarry reports in the Irish Times this evening

Bishop Jones also expressed grave concern about the Civil Partnership Bill at the press conference. He said the bishops had discussed taken a Constitutional action against the Bill should it become law. “As you know marriage and the family are enshrined in the Constitution and the State has an obligation to protect and promote marriage and family life,” he said.

“We are really very concerned that the Civil Partnership Bill is going to undermine marriage by conferring all the rights on same sex unions as marriage, equating same sex union to marriage itself,” he said.

Where the refusal of the Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern to allow an opt out clause for people who had conscience problems when it came to association or involvement with same sex ceremonies he said the bishops were “very worried about that. Very worried.

The people involved in the ceremonies beyond the couples are the registrars, Bishop. And they are simply being required to do their jobs.  And we know you don’t give a toss about this conscientious objection and just don’t want any rights given to ‘the gays’.

Of course they are late to the party here – the bishops intervention comes 8 months after the publication of the bill when it’s about to enter committee stage and supposedly long enough after the publication of the Murphy and Ryan reports for their graces to rear their heads.   It’s Civil Partnership but the church leaders are far from civil and of course siding with the extremists (yes they are!) who will be partying for days or at least trying to.  David Quinn’s phone calls giving out to them earlier this year have been productive! (Yes he did call them giving out loads that they were chickens not saying anything).

Update:  More from Patsy McGarry on the forthcoming episcopal (m) utterings  in Thursday’s Irish Times  including the line that Same Sex Unions are ‘incapable of realising the specific communion of persons that is marriage’.  Well if it’s their particular  communion that we can’t realise that’s fine so, that’s not what most same sex couples wish to ‘aspire to’.

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I was lucky enough to see Mat Fraser perform most of his new show ‘From Freak To Clique’ when he visited Dublin in December. I’m delighted to hear he will be back again this Thursday at the Axis in Ballymun with a full production and think you should go see him because he’ll wreck your head (in generally a good way!)

I’ve followed his work on television and podcast over the years and enjoyed being made uncomfortable, laughing uncontrollably and often being furious. The chance to see him last year performing a striptease, doing all the wrong right things with prosthetics and re-enacting the freak show genre is something not to be missed.  He’s very very bold (aka cheeky). There are also jokes about the paralympics and other issues which you won’t hear being made too often in the mainstream.

Fraser’s show charts the history of disability on stage, screen, in music, sport and ridiculing real life, including his own career. Using his trademark brand of PC free comedy, songs, poetry and characters, this will engage, challenge, and charm audiences into submission. With sexy songs and poignant poetry, subversive striptease and mutated magnificence, this is not a show for the easily offended, or under 16’s!

I hope he gets a full house and heres to getting to see a lot more disability theatre and performance in Ireland in the years to come.  (Also see his interview in Saturday’s Irish Times)

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A roundtable on LGBT Rights hosted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights is taking place tomorrow in Dublin.

FRA will bring together experts in LGBT rights in a roundtable meeting on 9 March in Dublin. These will include representatives of governments, cities, police, civil society organisations, academics, the European Commission and the Council of Europe. Under discussion will be ways to combat discrimination, bullying and harassment experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. The meeting will present good practice examples of combating bullying and harassment in schools, tackling hate crimes and ensuring safety for LGBT communities. It will also be an opportunity to review existing gaps in, and constraints upon, the development of long-term LGBT friendly policies, and to transfer knowledge and experience.

The agenda can be read here

Is it just me or did anyone else not know it was happening? Maybe someone is liveblogging it? Any of our esteemed local organisations telling anyone it’s happening?

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Opinions regarding Irish attitudes to abortion in various circumstances has been measured in research commissioned by Marie Stopes Reproductive Choices released today. The research is being released in conjunction with a new booklet on reproductive choices being launched by the organisation on International Womens Day. (Marie Stopes is a Dublin based sexual and reproductive health specialist service providing (for a fee) unplanned pregnancy counselling and contraception services.)

The research indicates growing support for legalised abortion in Ireland and an understanding of the different situations faced by women in unplanned pregnancies.

- More than three quarters of respondents (79%) agreed that termination of pregnancy should be permitted if the woman’s health is at risk;
- Nearly eight out of 10 respondents (78%) agreed that termination of pregnancy should be permitted if the pregnancy is the result of sexual abuse / rape or incest;
- Just under two thirds of respondents (62%) agreed that termination of pregnancy should be permitted if there is evidence of a profound foetal abnormality;
- Over four out of 10 respondents (41%) agreed that termination of pregnancy should be permitted if the woman believes it is in her and / or her family’s best interest;
- Three per cent of respondents felt that abortion in Ireland is not acceptable under any circumstances.

The results of the research have been welcomed by the Irish Family Planning Association and are broadly in line with Irish Examiner commissioned research by RED C published earlier this year which showed that 3 out of 5 18-35 year olds believed that abortion in Ireland should be legalised.

In addition to the results themselves I’m interested to see that the research was conducted by YouGov PLC, the first research in Ireland by this company that I’ve come across. YouGov online research is used extensively in the UK by media groups, political parties and organisations researching a wide range of topics. The research for Marie Stopes was conducted in December 2009. The total sample size was 1002 adults. YouGov say the figures have been weighted and are representative of all adults from Ireland(aged 18+).

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The Houses of the Oireachtas are busy at the moment releasing videos and information leaflets on the work of the Dáil and Seanad, maybe also known as trying to restore faith in our political institutions. They can be viewed here. The one below shows 3 members in their home environments reflecting on life as a TD or Senator.

Not all videos are embeddable but I’m working on that – you have to see the one about passing a bill. Some people really need to learn how it happens – I wonder does it work?

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I was sent this invitation to an event later this month which is being organised by the Iona Institute.

‘Reducing teenage pregnancy and sexual activity: What works and what doesn’t’
Venue: Davenport hotel, Dublin 2

Date and time: Thursday, March 25, 8pm

Chair: Sean O Fearghail TD

The Law Reform Commission has recently recommended that contraception be made available to minors without the permission of their parents. The theory is that this will help reduce teenage pregnancy.

But is this true? The British experience would suggest it is not. The Iona Institute has therefore invited a leading expert on this topic, Professor David Paton of the University of Nottingham, to present what the evidence really has to say in this area.

Drawing on a wealth of evidence, he will show that involving parents in decision-making is a crucial factor in reducing teenage pregnancy and sexual activity.

Professor Paton holds the Chair of Industrial Economics at the Nottingham University Business School. His research on the determinants of teenage pregnancy has been discussed in the House of Commons and House of Lords and has been the subject of considerable press, radio and TV coverage.

He has published a number of articles exposing the failures of UK Government policies in reducing teenage pregnancy.

The chair of the meeting will the Sean O Fearghail, Fianna Fail TD for Kildare South, He is the Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.

What is the person given the responsibility for chairing Oireachtas discussions on health and children doing chairing a meeting of a private organisation which ‘promotes the place of marriage and religion in society. We defend the continued existence of publicly-funded denominational schools. We also promote freedom of conscience and religion.’

It’s not surprising to note that the Iona Institute have several supporters in Dáil and Seanad Eireann who they get to chair lectures and public meetings. Sean O Fearghail TD however is no ordinary interested backbencher when he’s paid a stipend to chair committee proceedings in the Oireachtas on matters concerning Health and Children. I assume discussions and invited expert opinions on this matter in the Oireachtas will be more balanced?

By the way on Professor Paton – he’s a professor of industrial economics, his other specialist subjects? Betting and cricket.

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