Maman Poulet

Charlie Brooker is must see television at the moment with Newswipe on BBC 4. This segment makes for some uncomfortable viewing for many TV newsrooms in the US, UK and Ireland.

(Things I want RTE to stop doing?

• Putting pol corrs outside Government Buildings when there is nobody there;
• Putting two different correspondents outside different bits of government buildings to do live talkies to Anne Doyle;
• Ciaran Mullooly on a helicopter ‘bringing’ hay to a stranded farmer;
• The Week in Politics and the features with the music and the screen fades…

feel free to add your suggestions.)

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h/t:Feministe

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You may remember when the second stage debate on the Civil Partnership Bill began back in December, Lucinda Creighton, FG TD for Dublin South East, was not present when called on to speak. There has been extensive time given to the debate fortunately and yesterday Lucinda spoke and thanks to the wonders that is the internet and in case you missed it I thought you may wish to see it.

Lucinda has spoken at Iona Institute events and given interviews to the Irish Catholic expressing concern at rights being given to same sex relationships. She had also previously spoke in favour of people being able to object to providing services to or conducting civil partnership ceremonies.  (She also differs greatly with her colleague Leo Varadkar on tax individualisation!)

But the speech yesterday indicates a change of heart on the issues or at least a change of language to appear reasonable but concerned?  She knows a lot of gay couples who live a ‘normal fashion’ in their communities. However we’re not traditional (phew) and she likes and supports traditional families and wants the constitution to protect them.  She doesn’t think people should be jailed for breaking the law either if they refuse to perform a civil partnership (there is similar legislation in place in relation to civil marriage) She even gives a shout out to noted liberal bishop Willie Walsh! Some in Iona and other groups will no doubt be tutting!

(If any other video fairies have footage of other TD’s speaking on the debate please get in touch!)

For an excellent summary of yesterday’s debate please head over to Human Rights in Ireland where Mairead has noted my tongue was firmly in my cheek re Leo’s dating needs.  Fiona has also examined the issues regarding a conscience clause in another post today on HRinI.

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The Irish government should take all necessary steps, both immediate and incremental, to ensure that women have informed and un-coerced access to safe and legal abortion services within Ireland as an element of women’s exercise of their reproductive and other human rights. In the interim, the government should immediately ensure that those abortion services that are currently legal under Irish law be provided to all who need them without discrimination, and that full and accurate information on how to obtain safe abortions both within Ireland and outside its borders be available to all women, without discrimination.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) have today released their report A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland on the human rights implications of Irish legislation and policies regarding residents access to abortion.  The report highlights international law and treaties and how they detail that people should be free from Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and how Ireland’s treatment of pregnant women seeking abortions contravenes this and other rights.

It details the situation facing women seeking access to legal abortion with no clear policy in place enabling these to take place.  HRW chronicle the reluctance of the Department of Health, the medical council and many members of the medical profession in becoming involved in forming policy in the area though attitudes towards the women involved are changing.

Women seeking information on abortion are still at risk of receiving information from agencies (state funded) who do not support a woman’s right to choose or receive impartial information or indeed rogue agencies who are allowed to exist unregulated targeting women.  (See earlier post on the actions of the state in trying to make women feel guilty about attending rogue agencies)

Women travelling outside the state wishing to access a termination continue to face many barriers in organising travel.

The women interviewed by Human Rights Watch described a climate of fear and shame, at least in part attributable to the criminalization of abortion. They explained their concerns about disclosing that they had had an abortion and the burden of secrecy that they are forced to carry. They also described their confusion about whether they could legally leave Ireland to access an abortion in the UK or other parts of Europe, and their concerns about whether to access post-abortion care, legally available in Ireland.

They also described financial constraints. Every woman interviewed for this report told Human Rights Watch how difficult it was to raise the money needed to pay for travel and the costs of the abortion. Even those who were employed indicated that the costs related to traveling created a significant barrier and delayed their access.

Asylum seekers face financial and freedom of movment barriers in accessing abortions abroad.

Asylum seekers are in a particularly vulnerable position. Often isolated, without family and other social support, they fear the consequences of seeking permission to leave the country to have an abortion. They also face additional costs as they have no travel documents, and must therefore apply and pay for emergency temporary travel documents, which are issued by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. They will also have to apply and pay for visas to enter the UK, or Schengen visas to enter into a European Union (EU) country. Currently the cost of a UK visa is £65 (€72).[105] Application fees for a Schengen visa to the Netherlands cost £60 (€67).[106]

A service provider, who spoke to Human Rights Watch on condition of anonymity, described the situation of a young female asylum seeker she had worked with:

She could not legally leave the country. Her difficulties were that she didn’t know where to go … money and her legal status. We made the call to Holland … she needed to get a re-entry visa to return and to apply for a Schengen visa…. She needed a temporary travel document from the Department of Justice—we had a contact there—not sure how someone without a contact would do this…. It took a whole month to organize this. She was just over 12 weeks pregnant when she went to Holland. There were fees attached to the issuing of all the documents and there was no funding available for this.[107]

These issues and recommendations may not be news to many of us, though we often forget about them or have decided that nothing can be done.  But it is the first time in some years that all the issues affecting the human rights of women in trying to access information and services inside and outside the state have been researched and documented in one place.

The Department of Justice by the way don’t think that there is a problem regarding the issue in Ireland and refused to be interviewed by Human Rights Watch and said they had no intentions of doing anything on the matter.

I expect many of the agencies cited to come out denying that there is anything amiss in the country while women silently organise to travel or indeed as one person mentions in the report go through ‘desperate pregnancies’.

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Still getting the links together from the Civil Partnership Debate yesterday (the bill has passed it’s Second Stage and has been referred to the Select Committee on Justice, Equality and Law Reform for the stage where amendments are put and debated.)

However I thought we might try assist Leo Varadkar TD (Fine Gael) in finding a partner he can marry and get a tax relief from (if the partner earns less than 25k).

Yesterday in his contribution to the Civil Partnership Debate (while supporting the bill) Deputy Varadkar spoke about the discrimination he faces as a single person.

I am single and live alone. Being single, I pay a lot of tax. I do not wish to be poor-mouthing but must state I probably pay 40% of my income in tax. As a result I have to pay the mortgage and utility bills on my own, which is the same for the many hundreds of thousands of single people in the State. Ironically, if I were to marry someone earning less than €25,000, I would be able to share the costs of living and reduce my tax bill by €7,000. It seems to be somewhat unfair that as a single person I am essentially paying more tax to subsidise other married people who may earn more than me. This anomaly of the tax system is designed to support marriage. This issue will also arise with civil partnership in that the Finance Acts will be amended to offer the same benefit for those who enter a civil partnership. Single people will effectively be subsidising the lifestyles of married people.

Why should single people have to pay €7,000 more in tax? I accept an issue arises where there is a family. However, in a family there must be children. We should consider changing the system so that those rights apply to families with dependent children. It is somewhat unfair that some Members with the same income as mine, who have stay-at-home wives who chose not to work but spend the day on the golf course or lunching, pay less tax than I do. I do not have an objection to their choice but I object to single people having to pay more tax so that other people have that choice. This anomaly needs to be addressed in our tax system.

So anyone want to design a personal advertisement for the Deputy? (applicants might also want to note that he also said getting rights from cohabiting together after only two years was a bit too short)  I also assume some of the Fine Gael Ladies Lunch crew won’t be too amused by his views on their activities.

Your efforts at ads are very welcome (by me anyway if not the Deputy).

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So when the Civil Partnership legislation passes and is finally enacted same sex couples  should be able to register their relationships in a variety of places that are approved for the conduct of civil ceremonies.

Including….

(It was announced yesterday that Croke Park was registered as a venue for the conducting of civil marriages)

Now maybe the GAA can talk all about what an open and tolerant organisation it is.  But I do think Archbishop Croke will be spinning somewhere.   I can see the ceremony organisers spinning it now as the new Cathedral

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The Civil Partnership Bill Second Stage Debate will resume this Wednesday 27th January some time between 11.30 and 1.30pm. There are two other bills for debate during this time before contributions can be made. Who’s left to speak? Personally I’m still waiting for Lucinda.

You can watch it here and of course join in the liveblog here.

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Is there a shortage of empty houses in Donegal South West? Senator Brian Ó’Domhnaill writes on the Fianna Fáil blog (yes I know I read it!) about debates happening the Dáil and Seanad this week on the Planning and Development Amendment Bill 2009.

Senator Ó’Domhnaill says the bill will make it easier for people to build houses where they have persmission to buildon a site but have not yet started building.  The legislation will permit an extension in planning permission.

I did wonder about the 300,000 empty homes that there are in Ireland at the moment and if the Senator and his colleagues should not be coming up with some ideas of filling them. And then I realised that Senator Ó’Domhnaill is a senator in Donegal South West. The constituency that for the last 8 months has not had it’s full quota of TD’s since the vacancy created by Pat ‘The Cope’ Gallagher’s election to the European Parliament.  And Senator Ó’Domhnaill may just be in the running for selection to contest the by-election if the government ever get round to moving the writ.

There just maybe votes in sites with planning permission and owners with no money to build.

I know a lot of young people and families in Donegal who were ready and willing to get their foot on the property ladder. They achieved their planning permission they were eager to get going.

But the downturn has seen a lot of people lose their jobs and obviously this hinders their ability to start the building process.

I think that’s called  turning a negative into a positive into a…

I didn’t recognise the Senator from his picture – something tells me I won’t forget his face too easily in the months to come.

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The Public Sector Executive Union recently conducted research amongst members regarding their experiences in the workplace of lgbt issues.  (Sunday Tribune article) The survey was aimed at lgbt members but other members also completed it. The initiative was led by the Union President Fiona Lee and Deputy General Secretary Billy Hannigan and funded by EU funding under an EU challenge fund. The response rate was low at 165 but has been pointed to as indicative of a culture withing the service of reluctance to discuss the issues.

I’ve located the results on the PSEU website

42% of respondents indicated that they had experienced discrimination and 32% had been verbally abused. No respondent had accessed the assistance of the Equality Authority or a solicitor in addressing the discrimination.  When asked what their employer could do to improve the situation, many wanted increased dsicusion and visibilty on lgbt issues, but the majority wanted the same entitlements as everybody else.

It is the one thing I’ve heard over and over again from people I’ve spoken to who are civil servants: the forced payments into spouses and children’s funds and no payouts to the ’spouses’ and children of lgbt employees. This situation will change upon the enactment of the Civil Partnership legislation but it has long been a bugbear and non biological children will be excluded from the new scheme given there is no recognition in the legislation.

Respondents were asked to describe negative experiences they had because they were lgbt or perceived to be lgbt. There were 35 responses   (Page 10 &11) including:

My line manager went on a tirade, comparing gay people to paedophiles. It was extremely upsetting, and no action was taken despite bringing it to the attention of a more senior manager.
The view was that the manager in question had strong religious beliefs, and rather than discipline him, we should be more careful in what we discuss. The implication was that the responsibility was on the staff to “not upset” the line manager in question. I was not comfortable in telling the senior manager that I am LGBT, based on that response.

Another said

My immediate superior in my previous Dept told me that gay people were animals and they had no right to life, let alone any other rights.

Another reply

Jeering of LGBT staff. Crude jokes about LGBT people by Line Managers, as supposed humour. Slagging of people, if they are successful and unmarried comments that they must be gay or lesbian, and all they need are ……..(decent prohibits me from continuing)

The overall impression from reading the results and responses  is that people just want to be treated the same as everyone else, not have to watch what they say and receive support from colleagues and management should they need to not only in action but also in atmosphere.  The majority don’t believe sexual orientation has any impact on promotion or other opportunities which is positive to hear, however there is a lack of knowledge of equality policies in the workplace.

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Tell me the last time you remember Martin Cullen being interviewed with regards to his job? He’s Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism in case you need reminding.

Can you remember when you heard him talking about these things? I remember more about John O’Donoghue’s tenure then Cullen. (And not a race meeting or trip to Paris feature in these memories).

Is Cullen blaming his experience with the media on the reluctance to be interviewed now? (I’m just getting the crib sheet ready for him, so helpful am I).

Another issue from yesterdays speech to lawyers etc. is that many people don’t seem to remember when or how Martin Cullen reacted to these allegation or who indeed in the Irish media was making them. Any clues there? (PS. Were there CPD points awarded for attending the event yesterday? Easy mark that really…)

There were many questions about the ways in which contracts were awarded by his department to Monica Leech and about tendering processes etc. But surely Cullen should be naming them or indeed as I said yesterday responding appropriately at the time and not taking the ostrich position. Or did he just not have good public relations advice oat the time? Or no friends in government to help him out as he seemed to allude to yesterday.

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