Dr. James Reilly TD  says there will be more detail on the delivery of community care services later in the week when the manifesto is launched.   Lots of emphasis on health insurance and insurance provided ‘cure’ but little on the supports provided by HSE and through HSE funding to children, older people and people with disabilities in terms of social service supports – all of which are not health matters but the state has considered them so for decades and it does not look like changing any time soon.

In short what I got today was that 8,000 redundancies across the HSE will be sought and everything will be farmed out to private bodies from hospitals to personal care with very little information so far on how it all will be regulated and what levels of customer service will be monitored – actually Dr. Reilly did not want to talk about regulation but scrutiny.   As I said I didn’t leave any the wiser.

I will be back to these issues when they emerge from the manifestos from all the parties and hope to have a look at the treatment of equality issues also.  I’m hoping for scrutiny across the blogosphere by those writing on technology, human rights and poverty to name a few areas.

The media were of course still interested on the matter of Enda Kenny’s non-appearance at the first debate on Tuesday night.  Enda Kenny said this afternoon that he is busy on Tuesday.  (This has led to #Endasnextexcuse trending on twitter)  He seemed to say he still had a problem with what Vincent Browne said but not with Vincent Browne himself but that didn’t matter now as the schedule had been finalised and he’s at a rally in Sligo/Leitrim.  He was all very relaxed about it anyway.

Audioboos on the debate questions asked of Enda Kenny can be found here – I had problems with the technology and sound levels today but hopefully will get better as it goes on.

I hope the videos shown appear online soon – particularly the one with Miriam O’Callaghan so I can get another look at the  death of Irish blogging.

For the record from this particular hen house  Irish Blogs are far from dead and as a judge (one of 120 this year) I was very impressed at the standards in the categories I judged in comparison to previous years. There are lots of new blogs and the content and effort that goes into them is a sign that things are far from decaying.  Congratulations to the other non dead who also won awards.

Many congratulations to Beaut.ie the Grand Prix winner and to Kirstie, Aisling and Lynnie for all the hard work, enthusiasm and deserved success.

Normal service shall resume from this particular part of the fringe shortly  (someone said something about blogs going mainstream the other night… save me from that particular river please.)

Finally thanks to Damien for putting up with an awful lot of absolute rubbish before, during and after the awards and throwing a party for us to come out from behind the computers and recognise the effort and dedication that goes into writing about whatever we want to because we can.

I blog for fun, for anger, for stress relief from my day job, as a source of pain relief (you wouldn’t believe the nerve endings that can be numbed by a bit of digging and thinking) and simply I blog becuase I can. I’ve also made many friends through blogging and met people outside my usual circles and learnt lots about things I never thought I would know or want to know anything about.

I’m also very happy to be in the company of bloggers like the brethern in Cedar Lounge Revolution, a win I was delighted with!

It was great to be in Cork with so many friends and to meet so many new bloggers and feel the energy there is in Irish blogging. There are so many topics being blogged about in Ireland and the genre continues to grow. I’ll repeat what I said on Saturday about the need for more news and current affairs blogging in Ireland, I’ve been delighted regarding the growth in economics and financial affairs blogging and hope we can see more commentary on social justice issues and news reflection and creation sites in 2009.

A word of thanks to the sponsors, IGO People for the Best News and Current Affairs category and McConnells for the Grand Prix and to all the other sponsors also – the night was hugely successful thanks to their generosity and support.

I didn’t thank my sources in my speech and am very glad to have this opportunity to do so – to those people who send me things, who call or think ‘this is something Maman Poulet might be interested in’ – Thank you so much! Thanks for your trust in me, thanks for also taking calls or emails when I ask questions about something because I’m onto something and need to double check on it. Many of these sources also act as sounding boards as I ask myself questions about an issue and need to convince myself that I’m not losing it completely and that xy or z is worth writing about.

In the top right hand corner of the page you’ll find ways to contact me if you want to get in touch with anything or talk about how to get something to me whilst protecting yourselves.

Thanks also to my many non-blogging mates who put up with me wittering on about blogs, twitter and the like and who support me as I use them as sounding boards also.

To Karen, the blog widow, thanks for the weekend and every week and weekend and putting up with the hours online and non-responsiveness from time to time as I get lost digging and thinking.

And now for a return to normality. I’ll be back later in week when my broadband gets fixed (yup I came home to broken NTL – complete the sentence a blogger without broadband is like…..!) Meanwhile I’ll be figuring out the finer points of Irish ‘pork’ and the ways you might find politicians helping out benefactors and the like even when the walls of the economy are tumbling in.

It was really great to win the Best News and Current Affairs category again this year. I am completely blown away however to win the Grand Prix as it’s being called (very apt we’re all going french with things!) To be selected as Best Blog in Ireland is truely humbling and brilliant at same time. I hear there are videos of speeches somewhere – which i’m sure someone will link to.

Congrats to all the winners – I can’t find a winners list to link yet and after 3 years of live blogging the winners and posting them last night I didn’t get a chance to and I’m not in any condition to do it now.

It was a wonderful night!

PS – Had all 4 of those golden circle names in the Sunday Times from 3 different readers – unfortunately I don’t have the lawyers fees of the ST to cover me! But it’s only the start of it

I’ve also heard that I’ve joined 19 others in a feature in this mornings Irish Times on the 20 essential blogs in Ireland.  Many thanks to Shane for this inclusion – its all getting very oscar like 

If you are at the blog awards tonight please come up and say hello – please don’t take offence if I don’t recognise you or remember you – brain fog moments aplenty at moment.

Thanks to Damien for the whole shebang – it’s the highlight of the  year for many of us and  I’m delighted I was able to make it.

Best of luck to my co-nominees in News and Current Affairs (Sponsored by IGO People)

• newswire99.blogspot.com
• bocktherobber.com
• limerickblogger.ie
• splinteredsunrise.wordpress.com
• youghalonline.com

And in Best Blog Post (Sponsored by KRO Solutions)

• Annie Rhiannon: “Ten Days in Mayâ€?
• Bock The Robber: “Leonard Cohen in Dublin – Concert Reviewâ€?
• Darragh Doyle: “The first timeâ€?
• Hangar Queen: “The Big Lop Offski 2″
• K8 the GR8: “The Secret Fireâ€?
• Tuppenceworth.ie: “Waiting for Obamaâ€?

And no I don’t know who’s in the Golden Circle and I don’t really care It’s that non hysterical anger don’t you know

I’ve made the lists for Best News and Current Affairs Blog and Best Blog Post. Many thanks to readers, commenters and judges. Amazing list of finalists throughout and roll on the weekend’s festivities!

This year a blog can only be in one category as judging proceeds to shortlisting so I’ve chosen to remain in the Best News and Current Affairs Category from here on in and leave the pure Politics to the lads experts to fight out

I am delighted to have reached this stage in both categories. There are a few nominations also knocking around for me in the Best Blog post category and the long list for these will be out by the weekend. Best wishes to all the nominees!

Only 18 days to go to the booked out awards in Cork! Really looking forward to the night/weekend/Irish Blog Week – more of the latter anon!

Cork and the hotel in particular looks like it’s going to be the base for a Bloggers holiday camp for the weekend judging by the numbers who have booked in to stay and the hundreds who are going to attend the awards and are registered already. (Fleeting thoughts of Damien/Gladys doing ‘Hi-de-Hi Campers’ announcements just passed by brain) I’m really looking forward to it!

Back to nominations – one important thing to remember is that you don’t have to be a blogger to nominate – and this is not a case of getting lots of votes in as there is a two stage judging process after nominations where the wheat is sorted from the chaff or something by lots of judges. I think it’s so important that blog readers (who don’t blog themselves) are able to take the most important seat in getting their spake in at the start.

There are a few changes in categories reflecting trends and the ever widening diversity that is blogging in Ireland. There are no nominations for Best Blog with all the category winners going into the Grand Prix for judging/selection at the end. To be nominated the Irish Blog or Blogger has to have been actively blogging between July 15th and December 15th 2008.

So go on off to the nominations page and have a look and nominate some blogs! Nominations close on January 14th.

Then along came the Irish Blog Awards and the recognition of some great women bloggers in the first and second years apportioning of the gongs.

This year however there was a significant shift! The awards were well and truely feminised.

And it continues, each month someone else brings to our attention another great blog written by a woman. And there seems to be a lot of genuine support out there for new voices and to encourage women to write about whatever it is that interests them.

In Saturday’s Irish Times, Aisling (One of the Beaut‘s) McDermott profiled some of the many women involved in blogging in Ireland in a feature in the magazine. There were lovely photos also. (Yup I missed the photoshoot )

It’s a great article capturing some of the wonderful talent out there and remembering the times when being involved in blogging in Ireland seemed daunting or not so female friendly. Thanks to Aisling for the kind words about this particular speck on the map. I’d encourage you to have a look at the other blogs mentioned and go have a read. If you are thinking about starting your own blog you might get some inspiration from some of the women profiled.

*(I have an image in my head that the day of the photoshoot for the article being a bit like that Boots ad with makeup and stuff going on..lol)

Now I have a thing (or twenty) about human rights so contacting me might have been a good idea – pitching to me about a forthcoming event or campaign and saying have a look at this and we’d welcome your comments. Starting the email with Dear Suzy/Maman Poulet would have been even better!!

Oxfam and others have asked bloggers before about different campaigns – they’ve done it with a bit of nouse and understanding about how to pitch to bloggers. Even the Green Party knows about bloggers and getting a list together and asking if you’d be interested and then not patronising the hell out of you when doing so with ‘charidee/marketing’ speak. I bet if I tried to join this outfit they’d have me inviting all my friends to join too and spamming them in a ‘poking facebook’ kind of way.

ammado (with a small a – groan) – I hadn’t heard about them until today’s email – so I headed off to the website to find out more – and here’s the spiel…

‘the global online community of people who care. Providing a free interactive and unique environment, ammado connects nonprofits and engaged individuals to achieve their vision.’

It stinks of Chuggers on the net. Not buzzing in the blogosphere. Well the Irish blogosphere is certainly buzzing about the spam and the way in which the pitch was made.

If the UNCHR had emailed me themselves and said have a look at this I might have been along for a gander – if it were a news story even better – if you had picked one Irish blogger and asked them to blog about it and spread the word ye might of even got somewhere. There are loads of people in the Irish online communities who have advice on approaching bloggers and creating communities. I doubt they’d give ammado a hand now and the hands over the head thing well that’s crap. And ammado don’t want us to blog about the issues – they want us to go to their site and join up and build their community (aka target audience to tap for a few quid every month)

Now on the asylum seekers and refugees thing – when are we going to get angry about the trafficking of young people into Ireland who go missing and are not protected by the Irish State? Putting my hands over my head and taking a photo of myself won’t get them out of prostitution or slave labour – asking questions and getting angry and asking the HSE and Irish government and UNHCR to do something about it might. You see ammado, (aka Amadán to me for ever more) that’s what bloggers do well.