Maman Poulet

Someone’s been getting a bit of flack for his comments last week, but is Leo blaming it on the reporting or the reading of the reporting or misreading? Note the last line – all his own work!

From today’s Irish Times

Madam, – Last week I spoke in the Dáil on the Civil Partnership Bill during which I addressed tax implications that may arise from the introduction of civil partnership. I drew attention to the fact that the tax system can require a single person to pay considerably more tax than a married couple that earns more, despite the high cost of living alone.

I pointed out that this tax advantage is also given to married couples with no dependent children and even married people who do not live together. The major beneficiaries of this anomaly are wealthy couples with no dependants.

I said this was unjust and that extending the tax benefits of marriage to civil partners would result in further disadvantageous treatment for singles. This aspect of my speech was picked up in an article on Page 6 (January 28th).

I went on to argue that the State should instead, give the tax benefit to the “family unit” to recognise the cost of raising children and the social good of family life. In fact, the tax system barely recognises families at all and only does so through a special tax credit for families headed by a single parent and a small credit for the stay-at-home spouse. This was picked up on Page 8 by another reporter.

Unfortunately, some stay-at-home parents read the article on Page 6 but not on Page 8 and got the wrong end of the stick, totally. I wish to have the matter clarified and to restate my support for favourable treatment for families. I do not, however, believe that single people should be treated less favourably than married couples or civil partners where there are no dependent children involved. These views are my own. – Yours, etc,

LEO VARADKAR TD,

Leinster House,

Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Update

Thanks to Joe in the comments for showing us this letter in the Independent. I think Jedward and Vanilla Ice’s soon to be number 1 maybe rather apt here.

I AM not sexist and I fully appreciate that being a mother is a full-time job. Jane Dignam (Letters, January 30) has got the wrong end of the stick.

Clearly, she neither heard nor read my speech. Nor did she bother to contact me to check the facts. Rather, her letter is a reaction to an article in another paper, which has since been clarified.

I wish to re-state my support for the favourable treatment of stay-at-home spouses with dependent children.

However, I do not believe that single people should be treated less favourably than married couples where there are no dependent children involved — a situation which will be exacerbated if the taxation advantages of marriage are extended to civil partners.

Civil partnership was the topic of debate. These views are my own.

I sincerely hope that Ms Dignam raises her children to be more dispassionate and discerning than she is.

I highly recommend that she reads the Irish Independent, instead of the other paper.

Leo Varadkar TD

Dublin 2

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Next week is European Cervical Cancer Prevention Week. There are a number of developments recently in screening for cervical cancer – some I’ve previously written about which have concerned me but it’s vitally important that women continue to be screened for the disease.  (And for the many lovely lesbians who read this blog -  I know there are a few of ye – please read all the way to the end of this post – no switching off allowed!)

The Prevention Week is organised by the European Cervical Cancer Association (ECCA) and events will be taking place all over Europe to raise awareness about the disease.

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has partnered with CervicalCheck, the National Cervical Screening Programme, to promote the week in Ireland and to ensure that Irish women become better informed about cervical cancer.

If you are out getting your hair done next week you may get information on cervical cancer from your hairdresser as the IFPA have partnered with the Irish Hairdressers Federation

All 330 member salons of the IHF will help distribute Pearl of Wisdom campaign badges and information leaflets about CervicalCheck, the national cervical screening service, to woman during their hair appointment for the duration of the Prevention Week. It is hope that women will be encouraged to make an appointment when invited by Cervicalcheck to organise their cervical smear test.

• Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women under 44 worldwide.

• Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women under 44 in Ireland

• In Ireland 50% of all cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in women aged 46 and under. Average age of death from cervical cancer in Ireland is 56

• Mortality rates from cervical cancer have increased 1.5% per year since 1978.

I should also point out that finally lesbian women are being encouraged to have cervical smears, something that I’ve spoken about and campaigned for over 15 years. (Many doctors in Ireland had previously denied that lesbian women needed to have smear tests) There are to be a series of information sessions for lesbian women organised by Cervicalcheck and I’ll post a link to these when I get more information.

Guidelines on the issue of testing women who have sex with women/lesbians have been issued by Cervical Check.

4.3.9 Women who have sex with women (WSW)

Cervical screening recommendations do not differ for WSW/ lesbian women regardless of their history of sex with men. Cervical neoplasia and CIN lesions can be found in WSW who report no history of sex with men. Transmission of HPV requires only skin to skin contact. Furthermore sexual practices among WSW could potentially allow for intra-vaginal deposition of HPV both through digital-vaginal contact and shared sex aids. Studies show that most WSW (53-99 per cent) have had sex with men and that many (21-30 per cent) continue to have sex with men. Among these women, acquisition of HPV from male partners presumably occurs at a rate per contact similar to that of the heterosexual population. Women infected via this route could serve as a source for subsequent viral transmission to their female partners (Marrazzo et al, 2001).

So whomever you have sex with, or not,  smear tests for women are available and women are going to be invited to take them – we need to encourage each other to take up the appointments and make sure we get tested and look after ourselves. And we need to ensure the funding for the screening and the high standards remain in place.  All young women should be able to be vaccinated against HPV too, not just 12 year olds.

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Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, was responding to the committee stage of the Social Welfare Bill (No. 2) in the Dáil today – (after Gogartygate). The bill provides for the cuts in social welfare of 4.1% for all social welfare payments for those under 65 and a cut in childnd I benefit. I heard her roll out the following:

I am pleased Deputy McEntee raised the issue of deaf people. One could conclude from the contributions of Deputies that blindness was the only disability. While blindness is a terrible disability, in fairness to people with other disabilities I am glad Deputy McEntee specifically referred to deaf people.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: That is a cheap shot.

Deputy Mary Hanafin: Unfortunately, those who receive disability or invalidity payments will be affected by the cuts. Deputies have asked how much it would have cost if we had not reduced payments to those in receipt of disability payments and so on. The cost of not doing so would have been almost €108 million. It would have been necessary to find this expenditure in other Departments or in my Department’s spending.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: What about tax breaks?

Deputy Mary Hanafin: I was asked whether I had spoken to disability groups. I met representatives of these groups separately and they attended the pre-budget forum.

Deputy Róisín Shortall: The Minister is running for cover.

Deputy Mary Hanafin: It is worth repeating that they placed greater emphasis on services on the ground and in the community. They want and need these services – Deputy Crawford is nodding his head – because they are very important to people with disability.

Deputy Seymour Crawford: They are very angry.

Deputy Mary Hanafin: Cutbacks have not been made in respite care beds, day care places, primary care teams or any other services available to people with a disability.

Deputy James Bannon: Has the Minister visited hospitals in Longford and Westmeath?

Deputy Mary Hanafin: An additional €10 million has been provided to deliver more home care packages. The choice facing us was whether to reduce payments, bad as such a step is, or place the burden on the Department of Health and Children. I believe that if one reduced services by more – there are many with disabilities who would agree—–

Deputy Róisín Shortall: That was the Government’s choice.

Deputy Mary Hanafin: —–it would have impacted upon such people more seriously.

Ah Day Centres – Person Centred rather than Day Centred seems such a long long way away. And Nothing about us without us even further.

The Service providers do all the talking to keep their services and their clients in those services and the NDA do the policy whispering and the Ministers the weak excuse making.

I doubt anyone representing people with disabilities argued for an income cut over a service cut. The cost of disability is not factored into payments as it is so it would be farcical for groups to favour a cut in payments.

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Fresh from interrupting the Today with Pat Kenny outside broadcast in the Savoy Cinema in O’Connell Street in Dublin, the Community Development Alliance launched CAMA outside the GPO yesterday. (You can listen to the interruption here – (real player required and it’s about 41 minutes in.)  Conor Lenihan and George Lee were said to be a bit put off by it, oops.

The Community Assets Management Agency was launched by people involved in Community Development Projects throughout the country.  Many of those outside were dressed in costumes from 1916 as a proclamation was read. Those who have benefited from the services provided spoke alongside the activists who are leading the campaign.

You can also watch Noreen Byrne from the North Clondalkin CDP speak about the impact of the cuts there and Rita Fagan from St. Michaels CDP lead the group in song. (You may remember Rita from her appearance on Tonight with Vincent Brown where former banker Mike Soden made those remarks about Lone Parents.)

Kitty Holland’s report in the Irish Times includes a quote from Minister for State John Curran regarding the future of the CDP’s, one third of which are due to close and many others to be merged or otherwise severely cut.

Minister of State at the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, John Curran, confirmed today the CDP programme was under review. “I will shortly have a full report on the findings and recommendations,” he said.

It was his intention not to wind-up CDPs but to ensure “a more focused programme with clear objectives, simplified and streamlined delivery structures and better integrated actions, leading to significant administrative savings and impact efficiencies”. This would involve some closing, he said.

You wouldn’t think that the Minister was dealing with peoples lives, never mind livelihoods from the tone of his comments. A scene from Yes Minister?

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While unions, government and the private sector bicker over pay cuts, higher taxation and ‘you earn more than I do’, communities across the land are being decimated by cuts, amalgamations and the steamroller that is the politics of bulldozing the oppressed.

The cuts in services in the field of anti-poverty projects, community childcare, community health, meals on wheels, drop in services, drug rehabilitation projects, projects, youth work organisations ,and community regeneration go largely unreported. It’s not about builders, trophy houses, ministerial salaries or politicians expenses – it’s about the lives of young old, parents, disabled and able bodied and traditionally disenfranchised and those who work with them who have fought hard to build and support themselves and others.

An alliance of community workers and projects are launching CAMA - if you are sick of NAMA this new agency will probably be easier to understand, transparent, able to whistle blow and far more important and feasible to fight to see established.

The Community Development Alliance has set up a new agency to protect the most vulnerable people in Ireland. CAMA aims to protect the Community Development Projects that are being closed down at a time when their services are most needed. Community Development Projects give a voice to those people and communities who consistently experience poverty; we empower people to set up the services, politics and programmes aimed at reducing poverty and inequality. CAMA aims to articulate and protect those those voices.

The board of CAMA and the Community Development Alliance calls for the retention of the CDP programme, with all of its values and ethos protected, including the bottom up approach, and the retention of all community assets that were sought for and fought for in the name of those people and communities who are poor, vulnerable and left out on the margins.

We urge the government to listen to us and reverse the decision to close projects down. It will only hurt the young, the old, the poor, the disabled, the excluded and the marginalised – and it will cost the state more in the end. CDP’s have a proven track record as a ‘value for money’ and it attracts five times more funding that the Department gives to the programme.

The first public event hosted by CAMA will take place on 11am on Friday November 6th at a Press Conference. The venue is a public one, outside of the GPO, on the streets, in solidarity with those communities and CDP’s who will soon lose their projects and community premises and services. CAMA will announce it’s alternative vision for a more equal society.

Speakers will include those who experience poverty and disability, voluntary boards of management, and board members of CAMA. If you believe in equality and a fair share for the poor then please come and hear us.

So that’s 11 am at the GPO on Friday next – all are welcome – if anyone is free with a camera and wants to blog it even better. I hope to be attending in my own Special Purpose Vehicle!

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Today’s Questions to An Taoiseach specifically about his Department of the Taoiseach raised the issue of PR companies and the way Government tenders are awarded. The word Twitter was heard in the Dáil and Ciaran Cuffe was not involved. It was time for me to get out my shovel.

Deputy Enda Kenny: The Government information service provides information about Government decisions. Every Minister who makes an announcement makes a Government announcement specific to a Department. What is the relationship between the Government information service and public relations firms contracted to Departments when the end result is much the same?

I would like to bring two cases to the Taoiseach’s attention. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform launched a PR awareness campaign on knife crime in February, and he allocated €200,000 even though it never got off the ground. There has been a 72% increase in knife crime and the use of offensive weapons in five years that have led to proceedings. Three out of ten offenders are aged under 20. The aim of the campaign was to access social networking websites and promote the campaign in tandem with a national campaign in schools. The on-line campaign was a total flop. Only 17 followers made contact on Twitter and there were 39 friends on Facebook. There are 170,000 people between the age of 18 and 20 in Ireland, so this campaign has failed completely to resonate with the group for which it was intended. A PR firm was contracted to promote the campaign, but it stated that it only held six out of 12 planned workshops. That is 12 workshops across 733 secondary schools, which speaks for itself. In 2001, the “Cool Choices” alcohol awareness programme cost €50,000 and was off-line within five months.

Is there a system of monitoring public relations contracts on awareness campaigns approved by the Government? Does any group look at the advertising consultancies involved? What does the Taoiseach think of the Quigley report, produced in 2005? It recommended that the Department of Finance should consider providing advice on the monitoring and the recording of work done under those contracts and in respect of the quality of the work they carry out.

The Taoiseach: If there are any particular public awareness campaigns related to a Department, they should be referred directly to that Department. I do not have any information on those campaigns. As I said already, there is no group that oversees PR contracts. These are matters for individual Ministers and Departments. Arising from the Quigley report, a need was identified to bring forward guidelines. These guidelines were provided and the Secretaries General of all Departments are aware of them, and must utilise them where they are relevant. There is no group looking after that.

The Government information service has no role whatever in the procurement of PR contracts for Ministers and Departments. It is a matter for Departments to work with public procurement rules themselves.

The campaign referred to by Enda Kenny is the How Big Do You Feel Campaign?

This is was a knife crime awareness campaign launched in February which was based on the use of social media.

From their Bebo page – (372 profile views and 226 friends including many 2fm Dj’s and the like.)

The ‘How Big Do You Feel’ Campaign aims to highlight the risks and consequences of carrying a knife. Here, we offer you the chance to have your say.

What do you think about carrying a knife? Is it cool? Do you know anyone who has been stabbed or has stabbed someone? How has this affected their life? Don’t be shy, leave a comment, do our quizzes, interact with our blogs.

Let’s prove to everyone that carrying is knife is just stupid!

So for 39 fans on Facebook and 15 followers on Twitter(to correct Enda they were following 17 others but only had 15 following them back) and a few hundred ‘friends’ on Bebo and a load of workshops that didn’t happen the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform allocated €200,000. (The Gardai said last month that online component of the campaign cost €4,500 )

I knew I had not heard about this before or seen anything on Twitter or Facebook (750k Irish users, over two thirds of who are over 25). While I may not be a young male in the habit of carrying a knife or tempted to, if the Gardai were using social media in such a way I’m sure I and lots of others online would have heard about it. But nobody seems to have told anyone. And yes this might be where FAIL is more than appropriate.

And the PR Company? According to the IE Domain Registry – Carr Communications. (Managing Director of Carr Communications, Tony Hughes wrote recently that ‘Social networking websites provide the opportunity to network on steroids’. As someone who knows a little bit about social media and an awful lot more about steroids I’d be questioning the dosage used!)

So Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform/Garda Siochana, next time you want to run a social media campaign that gets noticed you might talk to a few of the many people in Ireland inside and outside PR that actually know something about it? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s all very well to sell people the buzzwords and set up the sites but you actually need to know what to do with the tools and it might actually work! Money for old rope and a huge disservice to the very positive work with young people online that many are engaging in also comes to mind.

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Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend the Green Party Convention in Wexford this weekend. There is however excellent coverage online from bloggers and the Green Party themselves with livestreams, liveblogging, twittering TD’s and a convention blog page.

Tonight party leader and Minister for Environment, John Gormley, welcomed delegates to the conference. He brought good news – well he needed to!

One of the issues that has caused deep concern and upset in our party has been the changes to the Equality Authority. Those changes resulted in the resignation of Niall Crowley, a man of integrity and principle, and that was very regrettable.

At our membership meetings I undertook to have those changes reversed. And I’m very glad to report to you this evening that we have succeeded in our mission. The planned further decentralisation of staff has been stopped and a further review of funding for the Equality Authority to ensure that it can do its work effectively.

I want to thank the Taoiseach and the Minister for Justice for their cooperation in this matter. It shows that we can work out those difficulties in Government.

The announcement has been greeted very positively by delegates but there is very little detail contained within.  A couple of thoughts which are probably taxing the minds of many after tonights announcement and presumably will form questions being asked of and by Green Party members.

1. Is the review announced tonight separate to the Value for Money Report undertaken by Deloitte and Touche  last Autumn which has already been completed and the Department for Justice have not yet released?
2. What can be done to repair the tremendous damage that has been done between the civic society sector, social partners and the Authority?
3. What will happen regarding vacant positions on the Board to ensure independence, fairness and transparency?
4. What is the situation facing staff who have already moved? Two separate legal sections in Dublin and Roscrea does not make much sense?  Given the chairpersons admittance on Wednesday that calls for information and case numbers are remaining steady it surely makes sense to strengthen the legal department as much as possible.
5. There are staff in Dublin who have been replaced recently and not decentralised.   Does this announcement mean that no more staff will be decentralised and that other staff positions saved from financial cuts will also not have to move to Roscrea?
6. Will the Equality Authority and the Irish Human Rights Commission be finally made directly accountable to the Oireachtas and fully independent from the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, as required by international law?
7. I wonder if someone will also apologise to staff (present and former members) for the stress of the past few years.  They’ve become political puppets as decentralisation was used as a weapon against a successful respected agency protecting those most at risk in our society, and not as an infrastructual investment feature of state policy.

Joanna McMinn, Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland was a guest speaker at tonights conference. She is also Chairperson of the Equality and Rights Alliance. Joanna welcomed the announcement but pointedly referred to assertions  earlier in the week that it was business as usual at the Equality Authority and said it could not be the case.  The news was “a step in the right direction” towards rebuilding Ireland’s equality and rights infrastructure but no organisation can survive a 43% budget cut intact and Joanna also pointed to the situation facing the Irish Human Rights Commission – who have had their budget cut by 24%.

If anyone didn’t believe me through the past 8 months of blogging the cuts, threats and censorhip, well maybe today’s column puff piece by John Waters may have convinced you of the game being played.  I assume the Green Party are aware of the state of play and will be using video replays and postmortems aplenty at each stage of the next few vital months monitoring the possible restoration of human rights and equality infrastructure of the state.  No pressure so!

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Yesterday I heard about a seminar being organised by Strawberry Media where Joe Rospars, New Media Director for the Obama campaign was to speak. It was pitched at bloggers and political and techie types and I was among the first to sign up and the organiser asked me to blog about the event and spread the word.

Now a little bit of background – In recent weeks it’s been apparent that Fianna Fáil were ramping up social media activities, there was a twitter account and then a sign up for online engagement with bloggers and encouragement for party members to blog.  I signed up to be kept informed as I’m on mailing lists for other political parties and I’ve helped run events for all parties and none to attend to discuss social media and blogging.  And I cover elections online.

Finally the largest party in the state were getting serious about online engagement and this was to be welcomed as far as I was concerned – I’m into people doing things online whatever the colour of their poltical bib.  I then heard that Blue State Digital (whom Rospars founded) were working with Fianna Fáil on the new strategy and things started to click into place.  Strawberry Media are working with Fianna Fáil and BSD as the Irish partners in the project.

But this seminar tonight was not advertised by Strawberry Media to bloggers as being part of the Fianna Fáil online engagement strategy. We were going to hear from the Obama online media guru – many of us had already supped from the Democratic Move On cup when Zack Exley came to talk at the EU Commission Representation in Ireland event in October. So we were looking for more detail and information and in just over 24 hours the event filled up.

Anyway off to the seminar I go,  a good sprinkling of bloggers – most of whom were not political bloggers but more social media types, there were lots of FF members and press and media handlers there also. There were also members of other political parties there – who thought they were going to a seminar presented by Joe Rospars.

We get welcomed by a Fianna Fáil staff member who introduced the party General Secretary Sean Dorgan. Sean proceeds to welcome us to the launch of the party website and says that they were glad to have bloggers there and some Ogra FF members to hear more about Blue State Digital from Joe Rospars.  There was an explanation of the involvement of Strawberry Media in the project and words about FF online in the future. The was a lot of activitiy happening on twitter during the event with people wondering what event they were at – but nobody in the room from the party or the company seemed to be reading  Twitter – Problem one!

The FF website is up on the screen and lots of FF types are around room making sure everything is ok. Camera Crew and photographers are there too. No politicians from the national stage that I could see.

Joe starts his input with a video about the Obama campaign and a brief exploration of the logistics involved online and offline in organising the movment and the campaign. The input ends with the Fianna Fáil website and this website stays up during a question and answer session. If I were a non alligned political blogger/social media type at this stage I would be very confused – Problem Two.

Questions are posed by FF candidates, members, journalists and bloggers and range from questions on Obama related issues, Blue State Digital directions (more about this in another post from me later) and questions about Fianna Fáil’s online strategy.

There has been a very negative reaction tonight to the way the event was run from mainly non political aligned bloggers and social media enthusiasts.

If Fianna Fail wanted to launch their online engagement strategy to an audience of bloggers and social media activists then they should have done the full bells and whistles launch and invited us all – we would have been there with bells on no matter if we voted or not. In fact from many in the room I think they would have offered up lots of advice and many questions and commentary. Last week Bord Gais Energy did something similar with an audience of bloggers – it worked really well because it was up front in that a company wanted to talk to a group of bloggers about a new project.

Did Fianna Fail mislead us tonight on what we were going to? I don’t think Strawberry Media did – they wanted people to hear Rospars – Fianna Fáil just misjudged how to do things with the very varied audience in the room.

The media company involved asked us did we want to hear Joe Rospars speak and lots of us said ‘yes please’ and they knew how to handle things and I think it was a pity they were not allowed to run the event as it was advertised.  As for Joe I won’t remember much about his speech because I was reading the reactions on twitter and watching the reaction in the room – a number of questions asked were not answered and little new information was gained.  The fact the new website was on the screen in the room led to FF specific questions being asked  – Cue Problem 3.

If it were a Fianna Fáil web strategy launch we’d probably have learnt so much more and FF would have lots of blog posts on the new project and engagement.

Finally to add to confusion regarding the night I wonder who I gave my name and email address to when I signed in at the door? Because at the end of night Joe was telling us all to email Fianna Fáil as if we were at a FF event.

Now if people are wondering about all the noise and negativity tonight it’s simply because people became very confused at what event they were actually at.

Update:

• Gavin has text of event invite as sent to FF members – hence the confusion!
• Brendan on  how not to use social media in politics
• Green Ink tells the story pictorially
• Damien Blake the organiser from Strawberry Media (and Fianna Fáil Councillor  and blogger) takes it on chin and demonstrates how to respond!

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The Government published proposed legislation last month which discriminates against lesbian and gay couples and heterosexual non marital couples also. In the month since it’s publication I have seen one article in the Irish Times and one reaction from any of the lesbian and gay organisations. I’ve no idea why groups have been so silent – any guesses?

The Adoption Bill 2009 is being handled by Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Barry Andrews. (Press Release here) The legislation has been long awaited and is especially needed to fully enforce the Hague Convention.

In the interests of clarity, the current adoption legislation is being incorporated into a single piece of legislation, by bringing forward existing provisions into the Adoption Bill 2009 and restating or updating those provisions as appropriate. ‘The result of this is to create a single standard for both prospective adoptive parents and children, regardless of the circumstances or the location of the adoption’ continued Minister Andrews.

The bill outlines the circumstances which will be permitted for making an adoption order or recognising an inter country adoption. Same sex couples are specifically excluded by the mandating of marriage or single parent adoption in specific circumstances as being pre-requisites. Note also the requirement for ‘good moral character’ but no explanation on what that might be!

Section 33 (4)

(4) The Authority shall not make an adoption order, or recognise an intercountry adoption effected outside the State, unless—
(a) the applicant and, if the applicants are a married couple,
each of them has attained the age of 21 years, or
(b) the applicants are a married couple and one of them is the
mother or father or a relative of the child and either of them has attained the age of 21 years.

Section 34

The Authority shall not make an adoption order, or recognise an intercountry adoption effected outside the State, unless the Authority is satisfied that the applicant or, if the applicants are a married
couple living together, each of them—

(a) is a suitable person to have parental rights and duties in respect of the child, and
(b) without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (a), is of good moral character, in good health and of an age so that he or she has a reasonable expectation of being capable throughout the child’s childhood of—
(i) fulfilling his or her parental duties in respect of the child,
(ii) promoting and supporting the child’s development
and well-being,
(iii) safeguarding and supporting the child’s welfare,
(iv) providing the necessary health, social, educational and other interventions for the child, and
(v) valuing and supporting the child’s needs in relation to his or her—
(I) identity, and
(II) ethnic, religious and cultural background,
(c) has adequate financial means to support the child, and
(d) has been provided with appropriate information, advice and counselling concerning adoption.

The full text of the Adoption Bill is available here.

To try to discover the reasons for excluding same sex couples I contacted the Office of the Minister for Children and I’ve spoken with Minister Barry Andrew’s press officer. I was then asked to email in my questions. Despite several contacts I’ve received no reply.

Meanwhile ICTU has called for amendments to the bill including calling for same sex couples to be eligible for adoption and point to a European Court of Human Rights Ruling.

Same Sex couples should be eligible for consideration for adoption: Secondly, we draw your attention to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights that the welfare of children is not served by excluding individuals from being considered as adoptive parents because of their sexual orientation. The case, EB v France, centred on the decision of the French Courts to exclude EB, a French woman, from adopting a child as an individual because she is a lesbian. While Ireland does not exclude individual lesbian and gay people from consideration as adoptive parents, The issue in Ireland is that same-sex couples are excluded from consideration as joint adoptive parents. This impacts especially on the growing number of couples, lesbians in particular, who are parenting children and have no mechanism to establish a joint legal connection with their child, nor does the child have a mechanism to establish a legal claim on both parents. Recognising the primary principle that the welfare of the child is paramount at all times, and that no person has a ‘right’ to adopt, same-sex couples should be eligible for consideration for adoption, subject to the rigorous assessment process for married couples and single adopters already in place. Such an approach is in line with other EU Countries such as Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, England and Wales.

The Bill is now going through the Oireachtas having received a second stage reading in the Seanad last week. There were contributions calling for amendment to the bill on the matter of adoption by same sex couples from Senators David Norris and Ivana Bacik.

And finally to find out the reasoning for the exclusion of same sex couples from the Bill we have the response of the Minister to dwell upon.

The right of same-sex couples to adopt is a sensitive issue. Adoption is a right that is afforded to children, and the right of a child to a family is at the core of adoption legislation. There is also a right in my view which must be considered, that of same-sex couples. Their rights need to be explored. The Civil Partnership Bill is the forum at present for the extension of those rights. I am an extremely strong supporter of those rights but this Bill is not the appropriate forum for that. I believe their rights will be visited on another occasion but at present we are in a legislative process with the Civil Partnership Bill. This will afford greater rights to same-sex couples, and rightly so.

The Adoption Bill is clear. It states that if more than one person is to adopt, they must be married to each other. Unmarried, heterosexual couples and homosexual couples are treated in the same way in that they are not allowed to adopt in this country. Single people may adopt in circumstances where they satisfy the Adoption Board about eligibility and suitability. I accept this is a sensitive area and core issue. It is a demonstration of the type of society we wish to live in, and I believe it is something we will continue to debate in the future.

So because same sex couples can’t marry they are not being discriminated against as unmarried heterosexual couples can’t adopt either! Such brilliance in manipulation of the law Minister.  And he mentions the Civil Partnership Bill yet to be published but the heads of bill published last year do not contain anything on the matter of children’s rights and the rights of non-biological parents at all. Maybe the Minister knows something we don’t but he won’t be telling me about it seemingly!

I doubt many lesbians and gay men are even aware that this legislation is going through the Oireachtas at the moment or if they would be aware what to do if they were aware. But if organisations who claim to represent lesbians and gay men are lobbying on the issue it would be good to know what points they are making to protect and strengthen same sex families. Or maybe some other arrangements are being made in the forthcoming Civil Partnership Bill and we should not feel that the Government are discriminating against us?

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News continues to emerge about rents dropping throughout the state which is not a bad thing for those seeking private rented accomodation following years of high rents and crazy landlords (otherwise knowns as the market!)

However Fine Gael’s Social Welfare Spokesperson, Olwyn Enright TD., thinks that rent allowance needs to be reduced now also in line with the drop in rent.

While it may sound like a logical idea in the current climate it is fairly clear from Ms. Enright’s suggestion that she has never had to apply for rent allowance before or tried to rent accomodation whilst being a recipient of the allowance. She surely does know the difficulties that people who are entitled to rent supplement go through in accessing accomodation through her constituent work. (And it makes her suggestion without any other policy change on support for those receiving the allowance all the more stupid though she does say ‘Obviously, the interests of tenants and the provision of good-quality accommodation must be protected’, but goes on to look for cuts and does not say how this protection would operate.).

The majority of accommodation advertised by landlords/agencies on DAFT.ie in Dublin City states that rent allowance is not accepted. Where it is accepted it’s clear from many of the adverts that  accomodation is often of a lesser quality  in comparison to properties which do not accept the allownce.

Also Ms Enright has no proof that rents in this ‘lower end’ of the sector are falling at same level as rental prices of property for those who are not on the social welfare benefit.   If rent does fall then the level of the allowance payable should drop naturally anyway.

It’s not the social welfare recipients fault if his/her rent does not fall either and I foresee a lot of Community Welfare Officers being told to get more people out of their ‘expensive’ accomdation fairly quickly.

Instead of suggesting a complete overhaul of housing benefit/support including measures which would prevent landlords from refusing to accept rent allowance particularly to those who may lose their jobs during their leases Ms. Enright has gone for the populist stance. One started this week with Monday’s Goodbody report which also emanated from the lunar regions for logical application and understanding by the authors.

Other suggestions that Ms. Enright might make that would save the money and improve the system that she seeks to address would be

• that applications be merged with jobseekers allowance applications or other benefit applications.
• Community Welfare Officers and other social welfare officials be able to liaise with housing standards and tenancy regulators regarding housing standards and tenant welfare issues.
• The Rental Accomodation Scheme should be extended with more staff directed to it within local authorities in order to meet the demand.
• the Department of Social and Family Affairs need policies addressing specific sectors within the now growing number of those in receipt of the allowance – single people, those with children, people with disabilities and health support needs and recognise rent supplement levels and accomodation needs are different for these groups.

Many of the points made above are carried in several reports commissioned by governments and support agency over the years and gathering dust in the Department or Civil Service.

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