Maman Poulet

Yesterday Brian Cowen told (shouted at actually) Dáil Eireann that he’ll be leading the country his way. Which of course led me and a few others to be thinking of Frank Sinatra and our dear leader singing a long a Frank.

This led me to watch Leaders Questions this morning in the Dáil waiting for the next song title. Speaking about the new people monitoring Anglo Irish Bank (including the newly knighted by Mr. Cowen SIR Alan Dukes) the phrase ‘I have confidence’ was repeated over and over. This led me to The Sound of Music of which I’m far too well acquainted with.

So now dear readers (in the spirit of a Twenty Major thread on popular culture with and Irish twist which goes on for ages and ages and has me in stitches) I invite you to suggest song titles for Brian to sing-a-long to given the current climate and in the national interest.

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Ivan Yates in case you have possibly missed him is a former Fine Gael minister and former country’s youngest TD turned bookie, stand in presenter on Newstalk and rent a mouth and paid guest speaker. (Really interesting site that – a speaker agency with mouths for hire.)

The rent a mouth part has reached epidemic proportions since the beginning of the recession perhaps because Ivan is both a former minister during previous recessionary times and is now a business person during this recession.

Last week on Tuesday he was on Ryan Tubridy, Wednesday he was on Today with Pat Kenny (nobody in RTE talks to each other obviously) and on Wednesday night he presented The Right Hook on Newstalk as George was away in Washington DC.

That is only last week.  Last night he was a guest on Nightly News with Vincent Browne. Have I missed any other appearances recently?

Which leads me to wonder – Are there no other former politicians or current business men and women who can take part in media discussions or indeed present programmes badly?

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In reply to a Dáil question from Aengus O’Snodaigh TD. the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has announced that IBEC have provided replacements for the two places on the board of the Equality Authority which were vacated last week by Dennis O’Flynn and Finola McDonnell. Those resignations were in a personal capacity. No news on who the new board members are or if ICTU will be making similar replacements.

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In what would be a world first (in terms of an openly lesbian or gay politician) Johanna Sigurdardóttir, Iceland’s Minister for Social Affairs, has said she’s prepared to take on the post of Prime Minister if she feels that she has sufficient support.

You may have heard that Iceland is bankrupt, has had riots recently and lost it’s Prime Minister a few days ago after he resigned. Ms. Sigurdaróttir is a popular politician (a rare thing thing one must admit) and has escaped the brunt of the ire of Iceland’s population (approx:318,000) in the recent turmoil.

According to an opinion poll undertaken by Capacent Gallup in December 2008, Jóhanna Sigurdardóttir is the most popular minister—73 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with her work. Sigurdardóttir is also the only minister whose popularity had increased compared to a similar poll undertaken in December 2007.

Andrew Sullivan thinks that this is the second worst job in the world. I’m wondering what the first is and if it’s six months away for a man from Offaly.

I am also thinking about the reason lesbians and gay men end up getting the hard jobs or finding it hard to get certain jobs in less difficult times? The fostering of children no-one else will being one of the other situations one sees lesbians and gays stepping in.

Anyway good luck to Johanna! May the force be with you as you go where no lesbian or gay man has gone before.

(h/t the wonderful Joe My God)

Update – Iris Erlingsdottir writes about Ms. Sigurdardóttir in The Huffington Post.

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Government Chief Whip Pat Carey yesterday announced the legislative programme forseen by the government for the coming Dáil session which commences this afternoon and ends on April 9. Among the list is the Civil Partnership Bill. Publication of the bill does not mean necessarily that it will be debated in this period.

Harry McGee notes in today’s Irish Times that the legislation has received a hostile reception in Fianna Fáil. No word of late as to any consultations and discussions following the publication of the heads of the Bill and call for responses – although I’ve heard there’s a fight or twenty ahead to get the legislation debated. No mentions of civil marriage of course but I’m sure it’ll not be for the want of shouting about it.

The full list of bills to be published includes

- Employment Agency Regulation Bill
- Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill
- Financial Services (Deposit Guarantee Scheme) Bil
- National Pensions Reserve Fund (Amendment) Bill
- Child Care Bill
- Covert Surveillance Bill
- Criminal Justice (Money Laundering) Bill
- Property Services (Regulatory) Bill
- Criminal Procedures Bill
- Civil Partnership Bill
- Road Traffic and Transport Bill

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Many thanks to a friend for directing me to this morsel in Saturday’s Irish Times article from Mark Hennessy.

HIS TIRED, EVEN exhausted demeanour is frequently commented upon, though it now emerges that the Taoiseach suffers from sleep apnea – where soft tissue blocks the airway at night, depriving the sufferer of deep sleep.

Cowen has had the condition for years, but it was only diagnosed in late autumn. Once diagnosed it can be fixed relatively easily by a simple apparatus that keeps the airway open during the night. Cowen has used the device, and has looked rested on some days, but it is far from clear if he does so every night.

Mr. Cowen has my sympathies, I’m glad he has been diagnosed and receiving assistance and I wish him some good nights sleep.

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You may remember that last year I was looking for recommendations for blogs about European Union affairs to read. Yesterday I read via Jon Worth’s blog of the launch of Bloggingportal.eu. It’s a blog syndicator but as opposed to a mere aggregator it has editors which rate posts and summarise them.

We don’t think the EU is a nasty conspiracy, nor do we love everything it does. So if we find something that’s within those rather wide paramaters, and we think it’s interesting, then we include it!

So who’s behind this?
The idea to embark on this project came from Jon Worth, long-time blogger about EU affairs. 2 posts at his Euroblog – reading Euroblogs, and Getting a grip of the European blogosphere – inspired the project.

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One careful owner etc. etc. etc. (I’m sorry Ciaran et al but…)

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Other than wonder about the nature of the group which helped the mother in the Roscommon Case take a High Court action everyone should be asking

• What were the schools doing?
• What did the doctor or public health nurse do?
• What did the neighbours do?
• The shopkeepers?
• Why didn’t the health board go through other legal means following the high court injunction?

The culture of not telling or non interference is supported by society and influenced by mainstream church teaching in so many ways – no mandatory reporting, no Constitutional protection of children which to be fair to the health board does seem to limit the legal avenues open to it.

The Iona Institute tell us in a recent survey that 72% agree that parents should decide whats best for their children except for cases of abuse or neglect. This is code for no to a childrens rights referendum. These groups and the hierarchy have done and will do their best to slow down any attempt to change the constitution to give children access to rights.

There are many Catholic agencies and groups which oppose stay safe programmes, vaccination programmes, relationships and sexuality education, protection legislation and permit the distribution of ALIVE in churches and other church buildings. Those catholic groups which advocate/d a no vote in the Lisbon treaty did so in part to ‘protect the family’. Some of those individuals/groups providing parenting courses and advice for call-ins on television and radio programmes are deeply involved in Catholic fringe organisations but you wouldn’t know it.

The Church and it’s institutions own school buildings and maintain that they should direct the curriculum and decide on admittance despite state funding. They also have the right to decide who works in these schools. Their leaders don’t quit or get sacked when they don’t obey their own rules and policies on child protection or those of the state. Several government ministers regularly state that Ireland is a Christian country in relation to these and other types of social policy matters.

And the issue which should shock us even more than all the above is that the severity of abuse/neglect in the Roscommon case is still happening and there are even less people out there to report suspicions to (social workers being completely overburdened with cases). When these cases/suspicions are reported they take months or years to be investigated – and then the constitutional protection of the family and lack of full childcare protection legislation in the way.

Read Geoffrey Shannon’s report on the legislative deficits in terms of child protection in Ireland – the government paid him to write it.

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