Wanted: emergency budget

Sir, – It is now clear that austerity policies are not working. The domestic economy will remain recession this year. The Government has accepted that employment, consumer spending and investment will fall again. We are experiencing a worrying rise in income inequality, with nearly one-in-four in the country suffering from deprivation. Women and children are particularly adversely affected. We are entering into a lengthy period of low-growth, high debt and high unemployment, while creating a society with deep social injustices, not least for young people who have no sustainable jobs and no future in Ireland.

We need a Plan B. We urge the Government to adopt emergency policy measures that can create jobs, generate sustainable growth, raise incomes and reduce poverty. This is the only sustainable route to economic recovery and fiscal stability.

Such a Plan B must include a substantial investment programme directed at infrastructure, education and labour skills. From Next Generation Broadband to pre-primary education, to a modern water and waste system, we must create new wealth-generating assets that will grow jobs, income and the economy in a sustainable and environmentally just way. This can be funded from part of the €15 billion or more the Government currently holds in cash and assets.

We need to redistribute income from high incomes and large wealth-holdings to low- and average income-earners, whether they are in work or reliant upon social protection, or both. This will lift demand in the economy, boost enterprises and create new jobs.

This should be done through new taxation measures on capital, property and high incomes.

We need to end overall spending cuts in public services, social protection and community projects; these are depressing employment in the private sector due to declining demand for goods and services, while undermining public sector reform and efficient management. It is socially demoralising and politically damaging.

We need to face up to the burden private banking debt is placing on the economy. In particular, repaying the debts of Anglo-Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide is economically irrational and socially obscene. The total cost of bailing out these dead banks could exceed €70 billion over the next 20 years. The Government must take immediate action to renegotiate this debt with a view to redirecting these payments into investment, public services and living standards.

Repeating past failures is no longer an option. We, the under-signed, call on the Government to launch an emergency budget that will instigate a Plan B for jobs, growth and a socially just and sustainable Ireland. – Yours, etc,

AILBHE SMYTH, Feminist Open Forum; ALISON SPILLANE, Irish Feminist Network; ANASTASIA CRICKLEY, Department of Applied Social Studies, NUI Maynooth; Dr ANDY STORY, School of Politics International Relations, UCD; Dr AUSTIN CARROLL, General Practitioner; ANNA QUIGLEY, Director, Dublin Aids Alliance; Sr BERNADETTE Mac MAHON, DC, Vincentian Partnership for Justice; BREDA GRAY, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick; BRIAN DONOVAN, Business owner and Director, Eneclann Ltd; BRID O’BRIEN, Head of Policy, Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed; BRID MAGUIRE, Psychotherapist; Fr BOBBY GILMORE, Columban Missionary Society; Dr COLM O’DOHERTY, Dept of Humanities and Social Science,Tralee IT; CHARLES STANLEY SMITH, Former Chair An Taisce; Dr CHRIS MCINERNEY, Dept of Politics and Public Administration, UL; CHARLES GILLANDERS, IT Director; Dr CONOR MCCABE, Historian and Author; DEREK SPEIRS, photographer; DONAGH BRENNAN, Editor, Irish Left Review; FIONA FITZSIMONS, Historian and Director of Eneclann Ltd; FRANCES BYRNE, CEO, OPEN; Dr GAVAN TITLEY, Dept of Media Studies, NUI Maynooth; Dr HARRY BROWNE, School of Media, DIT; HELEN LOWRY, Chairperson, Community Workers Cooperative; Dr HELENA SHEEHAN, Prof Emerita, DCU; JAMES KELLY, Film Producer, Feenish Productions; Dr JOHN BARRY, Centre for Sustainability and Environmental Governance, Queen’s University; JOHN BISSETT, Community Worker, Canal Communities, Dublin; JOHN BAKER, UCD School of Social Justice; JOHN SUTTON, Public Communications Centre; JOE LARRAGHY, Dept of Applied Social Studies, NUI Maynooth; JOHN LONERGAN, former governer, Mountjoy Prison; Dr KATHLEEN LYNCH, Centre for Equality Studies, UCD School of Social Justice; LIAM HERRICK, Director, Irish Penal Reform Trust; LINDA KELLY, Cork Feminista; MALACHY BROWNE, Editor, politico.ie; Dr MARIE MORAN, Equality Studies, UCD School of Social Justice; Dr MARY MURPHY, Dept of Politics, NUI Maynooth; Dr MARY McAULIFFE, Women’s Studies, UCD School of Social Justice; MICHAEL BARRON, Director, BeLonG To Youth Services for LGBT young people; MAUREEN WARD, Chairperson, Irish Traveller Movement; MAJELLA MULKEEN, Dept of Humanities, IT Sligo; Dr NAT O’CONNOR, Director, TASC; NIALL CROWLEY, Equality Consultant; NIAMH McCREA, Dept of Humanities, IT Carlow; NIALL WALSH, Leitrim Sculpture Centre; Dr PEADAR KIRBY, Dept of Politics and Public Administration, UL; PHILIP WATT, former director National Consultative Committee Racism and Interculturalism; RACHEL MULLEN, Co-ordinator, Equality Rights Alliance; ROBIN HANON, Director, European Anti-Poverty Network; RONNIE FAY, Director, Pavee Point; Dr RORY HEARNE, Community Worker, Regeneration Co-ordinator, Dolphin House, Dublin; SIOBHÁN O’DONOGHUE, Director, Migrant Rights Centre Ireland; Dr SHEILA KILLIAN, Kemmy Business School, UL; Dr Stephen James Minton, School of Education, Trinity College Dublin; SUZY BYRNE, Blogger and Disability Activist; Dr TERRENCE McDONAGH, Dept of Economics, NUI Galway; THERESE CAHERTY, Irish Feminist Forum; Dr TOM O’CONNOR, Dept of Social Studies, Cork IT URSULA BARRY, School of Social Justice, UCD. C/o Parnell Square, Dublin 1.

The campaign is calling for the suspension of Anglo/INBS repayments as a first step towards renegotiation and writedown of the debt. The bulk of the re-payments are government issued “promissory notes” – a promise to pay money in future. Debt write downs happen all the time. A pause while we get a write down and stop rolling over and paying debts that are not ‘ours’ would be in line with the policy of both parties in government before the last election. Not that they seem to remember that. It is high time that they were reminded.

More on this fabulous European campaign and the organisations behind it.

My experience in Ireland has been that many lesbians are involved in work in the area of domestic violence but refuse to work on or acknowledge domestic violence in same sex relationships. But no all lesbians want to do is get married. There have been some changes but there is much more discussion, acknowledgement and action needed. Where would Irish based women experiencing domestic abuse from another woman go? (Garda LGBT Liaison officer list as of November 2011 is here - other suggestions in the comments please!)

The book initially examines the impact of the Celtic Tiger both it’s development and operation on all parts of Irish society.  The authors look at the cyclical nature of boom and bust and its impact on the lives of people socially and economically.  In terms of equality and societal impact of the economic system the book questions the nature of the Irish state and the values if any that have been attached to statehood. They show who won and who lost in the first republic and it’s latest collapse.  There are frequent illustrations of who never won anything at all including people with disabilities, those living in areas of socio-economic discrimination and women.  Power was ceded to markets, new elites were created and centralised.

There are examination on recent debates on political reform and whether anything will come from them and what is is needed for real reform in Ireland which might lead us towards a second republic. (Political reform cannot happen in isolation to economic or social reforms and this has been a noticeable deficit in the discussions to date which many political scientists have engaged in or led. )  The programme for government is examined for any possibilities for more equal participation and benefits for those who have been excluded.

There is reflection on the role of civil society, left wing and progressive movements and political parties and they argue that the biggest challenge lies with the civil society movement rather than political parties.  A movement which as I’ve commented on before is riven with splits, financial controls of funders and failure to develop key messages.  The added impact of professionalisation and exclusion of those who are claimed to be represented is also critical in the challenges to be faced by this sector.

Many of the texts written to date on why we are in the state we are in do not look at the impact of the collapse on people or examine the structures created to manage people.  Mainly it has been reflection on what happened to buildings and those who built them and those that funded them.  This text remedies this hugely and will be essential reading not only for formal students of Irish Studies and the social sciences but also those interested in making a change and being part of the change in the nature of the discussions on austerity and the type of society we wish to live in.

I have a copy of the book which I would like to give to a blog reader.  If you are interested in winning it why not leave a comment with your email (which is hidden) and I will do a draw on December 5th.

Towards a Second Republic is published by Pluto Press.

There will be further book reviews and give-aways in the coming weeks. If you are an author or publisher and have a book that you think would be of interest to me or my readers please don’t hesitate to email me at tips (AT) mamanpoulet.com

SAFE Ireland who support the development of services to women and children affected by domestic violence, count and document the numbers using the services and analyse the responses and need, lost their core funding and decided not to compromise themselves either in changing into a corporate/enforcement body for the refuge sector.    They are closing down and won’t be replaced.

The reaction of Labour Women.

HSE using savings constructively? Surely there has to be more of a response or critique than this?

Assume that you can insert the names of many other organisations into future tweets from Labour Women over the coming months as the HSE, Dept of Justice, Department of Social Protection and others withdraw funding to many womens, community and rights organisations.

Bondholders or improving the response of the state to women affected by domestic violence?

At least Labour Youth opposed University fees and joined the campaign.  Labour Women obviously don’t feel as passionate about the sisterhood.   Values? Dim distant memories.

Other organisations are being told of their funding cuts at the moment.  More will be told in the coming weeks.  I may make a list of the fallen – the previous government decimated the community development sector.  Now the rights and policy sector are up next for further possibly fatal cuts.

I don’t think groups should be kept open for the sake of it by the way.  I’m quiet happy to see PWDI gone – they were a group who didn’t do a lot, didn’t represent people properly and cost a lot of money doing it.  The really sad thing is that people with disabilities have no critical analysis or autonomous space as both philanthropical and governmental funding has proved not suitable to support people’s voices to be heard.

Update

Labour Women have commented to say that their tweet was not fully indicative of their response and that it was their facebook comment that was tweeted.

The Minister in his answer addressed matters to do with in cell sanitation but also reported on the complaints made regarding the Dóchas Centre which I referred to over the weekend.

You can read the full content of the debate here. The specific points on Dóchas are extracted below with my emphasis applied. Both the issues of the dignity of prisoners was addressed and issues regarding the release of prisoners. The Minister maintains that prisoners were not strip searched in front of male prison officers.

The Dóchas Centre remains overcrowded and a multi agency plan for the release of prisoners with mental health difficulties and disabilities is needed. Issues regarding whether prisoners with disabilities and mental health difficulties should be imprisoned in Dóchas at all were not addressed in the Ministers reply and I would hope that politicians and others monitoring human rights issues will continue to highlight the many other problems that exist in the centre.

Readers may also be interested in a statement from the Women in Prison Reform Alliance which was released last week on the publication of the Prison Visitor Committee report.

I now turn to the issues with regard to the Dóchas Centre to which the Deputies made reference, both of which occurred in 2010. The House will appreciate that all prisons are subject to search procedures to maintain safety and security and there are specific rules governing the search of prisons and prisoners. Rule 6 of the Prison Rules 2007 provides that prisoners can be searched where the Governor considers, upon reasonable grounds, that such search is necessary for the purposes of ensuring that a prisoner is not in possession of a prohibited article, confiscating a prohibited article and ensuring safe and secure custody and good government of the prison. Searches conducted under this rule may consist of the removal and examination of all the prisoner’s clothing and the examination of the prisoner’s body in as seemly a manner as is consistent with the necessity of discovering any concealed article. A search under this rule must be undertaken by a prison officer of the same gender as the prisoner being searched.

I am informed by the Irish Prison Service that the search undertaken on 9 November 2010 prior to my appointment as Minister and commented on by the visiting committee, was a targeted search for contraband undertaken by staff from the operational support group, OSG. The OSG team comprised of staff drawn from a number of prisons. The function of the male officers was to search areas of the Dóchas Centre where female prisoners were not present including prisoners’ rooms, recreational areas, visiting areas, kitchen, roof-top, workshops, the school and yard.

All prisoners were brought to the reception by Dóchas Centre staff to be searched and placed on the BOSS chair, supervised by a female OSG officer. Two female assistant chief officers attached to the Dóchas Centre supervised the operation while prisoners were coming and going from the area. I have been assured that all other staff in the area were female and attached to the Dóchas Centre. On completion of the search in the reception area, all prisoners were escorted to the gym area where they remained for the duration of the search operation, supervised by Dóchas Centre staff. No further searching of prisoners occurred while they were in the gym. At no time was the BOSS chair located in the gym.

All individual searching of the women prisoners was carried out by female staff. The visiting committee, in its report, states female offenders were required to remove their clothing, including underwear, in the presence of male officers. I have been assured by the Irish Prison Service that this did not happen. The use of the BOSS chair does not necessitate a person being stripped of their clothing. On this occasion, all prisoners placed on the chair were covered in towels to protect their modesty having had their clothing removed at an earlier search stage. The chair includes a flat metal detector which is affixed to the seat. When an inmate sits on the chair it scans the person’s body cavities in a non-intrusive manner and an alarm will sound if contraband is detected.

The search teams confiscated a number of items which appeared to be non-prison issue property for a prisoner in a closed prison. Any such items were recorded and retained and given to the management of the centre on the understanding that management would determine whether such items were allowed in the prison. I understand these included scissors, screwdrivers, pliers, drugs, mobile phones, phone chargers, a syringe, a metal comb with a sharpened end, alcohol and various other contraband items.

Following a meeting with the Inspector of Prisons concerning the Dóchas Centre search operation, all staff have been circulated with guidelines on the use of the BOSS chair. The Governor has supplies of dressing gowns for all future searches and has advised that subsequent searches have not raised the same issues. As Minister, I regard it as unacceptable that towels only and not dressing gowns were made available to prisoners for the search detailed in the 2010 report of the visiting committee. It was also unacceptable that the prisoners were covered by towels only when being scanned by the BOSS chair. This should not have occurred. I am informed that procedures are now in place which respect the dignity of the prisoner and ensure that searches are conducted in a professional manner by the staff involved and I expect these procedures to be fully complied with.

As regards the release of a prisoner from the Dóchas Centre, I have been informed that the director general of the Irish Prison Service had the circumstances surrounding the release investigated. The investigation found there were some procedural failures and these issues were dealt with directly by the director general with the Governor of the Dóchas Centre to ensure that such a situation could not re-occur in future. I regard the manner in which this prisoner was treated as entirely unacceptable.

The report also made a number of recommendations on the incident and a working group has been established to oversee their implementation. This group is due to meet in the near future and consists of the Governor of the Dóchas Centre, the Governor of Mountjoy, the director of operations and representatives from both human resources and operations directorates. Arising from the work of the implementation group, it is envisaged that a comprehensive set of guidelines on releases will be issued to ensure such a situation does not occur in future.

I wish I meant to be so humorous. The weeks before a budget divide and scare people and cause huge hatred and myth making in the media and amongst the general public. Some people have nobody to fly kites for them or stop the flight path.

Last week Eamon Gilmore said that he didn’t like the way the last government was involved in ‘sponsoring of a campaign of abuse and vilification’ against public servants.

I hope he would advise the members of his party and their officials not to add to the distress of families, the ‘less well off’ and vulnerable people further in the pre budget spinning, leaking and kite testing that is taking place at the moment. Maybe he could call out his partners in government if he sees them doing it too. Surely the nation deserves better.

It is with regret that this committee notes a distinct shift from the ethos on which the success of Dochas was built and the committee express concerns over future direction of the prison.

Dochas Prison Visiting Committee Report

I have visited the Dochas Centre (in a personal/unpaid capacity) on a number of occasions over the past two years. I have not spoken about it publicly as I wanted to protect the privacy of the women I have met and spoken with. Indeed privately I have also been reticent to speak about what I saw and heard. I have reported my concerns to authorities on what I observed on one occasion.

Each time I met with groups of women and after I had completed my task, I discussed how they felt in terms of safety, how they were listened to, their role as carers (many had disabled children, siblings, parents) the lack of privacy they had in making complaints about how they were treated. Some spoke of the prison as a previously safe space, in fact one where they might want to return to because of the threats to their lives ‘on the outside’.

The atmosphere in the prison had changed dramatically in the past 18 months. Security had been tightened but also the attitudes of care and attention to the needs of women had changed. Clothing was in short supply. Personal care items were also difficult to access. Education classes were cancelled regularly as a prison officer had to be available while classes were ongoing. They had to be accompanied across a yard (a tiny space) to get from the accommodation block into the education block. No prison officer, no classes.

I was also struck about the care that many women offered to the very vulnerable people in their he population.

During one of my visits this year I observed a woman with intellectual disabilities and mental health difficulties displaying signs of distress and self harm in the public areas of the prison. This was a daily occurrence according to other prisoners. They wondered how someone with her disabilities could be sentenced. They said that they tended to her personal care as much as they could. They also wondered what would happen to this woman when her release date approached. This woman should not have been in prison from my observations. After 20 years working with people with disabilities I was extremely concerned and I reported the matter. I don’t know what happened to this woman.

I do know that prisoners with diminished capacity receive little or no support in the Irish prison system. Many people who do not know or understand what is happening to them or why they committed a crime are incarcerated in the general prison population and the staff are not trained in how to support them. And then there is the issue of what happens to these people when they finish their sentence.

There is no adequate preparation for release in Irish prisons. If you are someone with mental health problems or no support or home to go to upon release there is little surprise that some re offend to get back in.

While general health is catered for, the Visiting Committee question whether prisoners suffering serious mental health concerns can be adequately cared for in Dochas Centre.

The publication yesterday of the report of the Prison Visitor Committee is important for a number of reasons.

• Prisoners have reported to me that they cannot meet with these Visiting committees on their own without fear of later being targeted by Prison officers
• The fact that these committees are planned to be scrapped under the public reform plan announced this week. While there is a prison inspectorate they have a very small staff and again prisoners cannot report abuses and concerns without fear of intimidation/victimisation by prison staff.

The things I won’t forget are the screams of a 3 year old child who had just been brought to see her mammy and was leaving the prison with a social worker and the screams and the self harming actions of that prisoner with disabilities

As a nation surely we have a duty to both protect society and those who have been convicted of committing crimes against society.

While the changes to Dochas happened under the watch of another minister surely Alan Shatter must act quickly to ensure that women are not strip searched by male officers, that prisoners with disabilities and mental health concerns are no longer housed in Dochas, and that those who have completed their sentences are supported with a plan of reintegration and thus impacting on re-offending.  In addition the Minister must ensure that abuses of prisoners can be safely reported and investigated and that the system of punishment in this country meets the highest possible standards of care and protection whilst conducting the sentences that have been set.

- The 300 richest people in Ireland are worth close to €50bn.

- Excluding housing values the top 1% control 34% of Ireland’s wealth.

- The government plans to cut expenditure, services and infrastructure twice as much as they plan to raise in taxes in Budget 2012.  The services that they will cut are more likely to be used by the 99% and thus cuts in those services will affect those on low incomes far more disproportionally.

- Over €8 million paid to 109 former government ministers in the form of ministerial/TD pensions. 30 of whom earn over €100,000 in pensions alone.

The campaign launched this week is not about increasing income tax and charges for those on low incomes but about taxing wealth and creating growth.  Something which successive governments have failed to do and the richest in Ireland have constantly found ways of avoiding taxes or have benefited from tax avoidance schemes.

Since activation is the topic de jour how about we activate some of the richest people in this still very wealthy country to step up to the plate and pay their fair dues?

This solidarity (because their country needs them!) could look like

1. A levy on assets and property worth over €1 million
2. High net worth Irish citizens paying their dues here so that the number of tax exiles decreases
3.  Eliminating tax breaks for those with high incomes so that they pay their fair share
4. A levy on financial transactions over significant amounts (Tobin Tax)
5. A higher tax rate on incomes over €100k

Claiming Our Future are calling on a change in the choices that are being made and the impacts of those choices.  Austerity harms our chances of recovery far more than taxing wealth ever will.

More on this campaign and how you can take action is available on the Claiming Our Future website. There is a lot more you can do other than signing a petition.  Start talking to friends, family and your public representatives about the values you want in society, the fairer, more equitable sharing of the load and the fact that cuts to services and incomes of the less well paid effect our economy badly as more people have less money to spend.

There is an alternative.