Maman Poulet | Clucking away crookedly through media, politics and life

Entries Tagged as 'Social Policy'

The Bigger Picture

December 14th, 2012 · 6 Comments · Disability, Irish Politics, Social Policy

The debate over the budget both in Leinster House and the media has continued the oppression and invisibility of people with disabilities and older people who require care and support in Irish society. Today in the defence of the cut to Respite Care grant for those caring for people with disabilities and older people Minister [...]

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Draft Disability Residential Standards published

October 26th, 2012 · No Comments · Disability, Equality, Social Policy

The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA)  have begun a period of consultation on draft standards for residential services for children and adults with disabilities. This is the second time there has been consultation on standards in this area with the previous draft published in 2009 without implementation. HIQA say that the standards set out [...]

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Government consultation with people with disabilities

June 26th, 2012 · 1 Comment · Disability, Equality, Irish Politics, Social Policy

Last week I attended a consultation organised by the National Disability Authority on behalf of Minister for State with responsiblity for Disability and Mental Health, Kathleen Lynch.   Your Voice, Your Choice brought together 160 people with disabilities, family members and advocates to discuss a range of issues about Disability in Ireland today. There were [...]

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The State and/of Disability

May 30th, 2012 · 6 Comments · Disability, Equality, Social Policy

The Scottish Human Rights Commission and the Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland have produced a really excellent video on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This is the convention that Ireland can’t ratify because of an 1871 Lunacy Act that has yet to be repealed. Yes 1871. And even if [...]

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Una voce?

April 19th, 2012 · 2 Comments · Irish Politics, Social Policy

I saw the Minister for Children, Frances Fitzgerald, this morning. We were both in Croke Park.  She to attend one meeting and me to attend another.  I was lost.  I could have gone over and said hello and asked her about the Scandinavian model of childcare that her colleague the Minister for Social Protection had talked [...]

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7 year olds and Austerity Politics

April 18th, 2012 · 3 Comments · Irish Politics, Social Policy

The Social Welfare Bill 2012 begins its journey through the Oireachtas tonight . It proposes changes to the entitlement to the One Parent Family Payment, Pension age qualification and also will introduce new fraud control measures. There has been very little said in public discourse about the changes to the One Parent Family payment and [...]

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Amalgamating rights bodies and eroding equality in the workplace

April 11th, 2012 · 5 Comments · Equality, Irish Politics, Social Policy

Last week (when few were watching) Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton published his detailed plans for amalgamating the various employment rights bodies into a ‘ World Class Employment Relations Service’.  The government had previously announced it’s intention to bring all the functions of the Labour Relations Commission, National Employment Rights Authority and [...]

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Fine Gael and the vulnerable, in fairness

April 2nd, 2012 · 2 Comments · Irish Politics, Social Policy

The Fine Gael Ard Fheis was low key enough given the state of the country and the ‘need to hit the right note’. Apart that is from the large crowd outside who those inside were not allowed to see for fear we (media/delegates) would antagonise them. There were 4,000 (depending on who you were reading) present [...]

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Abortion in Ireland – the Numbers

March 2nd, 2012 · 2 Comments · Abortion, Irish Politics, Social Policy

150,000 women have left Ireland to access an abortion since 1980.  More facts on Ireland and Abortion in this animation from the Irish Family Planning Association released earlier this week.

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Healthcare policy in Ireland – a job for the boys

February 26th, 2012 · 7 Comments · Irish Politics, Social Policy

On Friday the Minister for Health, Dr. James Reilly, announced the establishment of an implementation group on Universal Health Insurance. The group according to the department will  ‘comprise a mix of those with executive responsibilities within our health service and external experts.’ The members appointed Dr. Fergal Lynch, Department of Health (Chair) Paul Barron, Department [...]

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