It would appear that Enda Kenny hides while his ministers speak about the “fact” that there is little they can do about European developments – because the die is cast by a previous government. The government has failed to secure a drastic reduction of the interest rates charged on our bail-out which should, morally, as we are bailing banks at their behest,  be in line with ECB’s current lending rates to banks i.e 1%.

However, while you might think Ireland is marginalised from the centre of European decision-making, our main party of government Fine Gael,  is in fact in a European political party, the European People’s Party, the EPP.   The dominant members of their EPP are M.E.P.s from Angela Dorothea Merkel’s Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands aka CDU and Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy’s Union pour un Mouvement Populaire aka UMP. At the European level Fine Gael is partnered to the political parties, politicians and politics that could determine our path to progress and prosperity but who chose to demand our penury.

While Fine Gael might state that Merkozy are running the show and there is nothing they can do, they still remain political allies and partners of our persecutors.
While 24 of the 27 countries at the EU remain voiceless and while Sarközy and Merkel define our bailout; Fine Gael is silent. Why?
Because Fine Gael, the main party of government in Ireland, is in fact their political partner.
In Europe they are in the same party!!!!
In Europe Fine Gael, the UMP and the CDU are as one!
They vote as one and they speak as one. They are the European People’s Party. This is the largest grouping in the European Parliament and therefore we must ask Fine Gael are you with us or are you against us?
They have not withdrawn from the hard-conservative right-wing Thatcherite grouping of our fiscal persecutors…. they stay on-board and happily do the bidding of their right-wing amalgamation (party) at both a European and a national level.

See the European People’s Party by country here http://www.eppgroup.eu/members/en/default.asp

The next time Fine Gael say their hands are tied why not ask them why they are politically welded as collaborators in Europe to both Sarkozy and Merkel at the highest levels of European governance.  The EPP states

As the largest political group in a Parliament where non-socialist parties now enjoy a clear majority, the EPP Group is in a stronger position than any other to set that body’s political agenda and to win its most critical votes. This strength is reflected in the fact that, since 1999, the EPP Group has been on the winning side of more votes than any other group in the European Parliament’s monthly plenary sessions.

Why can Fine Gael not use this power they have, being in the EPP, to be on the winning side of a vote for Ireland?  The next time Fine Gael tries to pass the buck to Merkozy you might ask them why they are they happy and willing partners at the European level as members of the Merkozy’s European People’s Party.

It is fair to say that Fine Gael’s fiscal policies and the policies of Merkozy are at one because they are one and the same. The draconian bail out terms merely allow Fine Gael to introduce their policies and blame others. Their own fiscal depravity such as sacrificing the poor, our services and our national assets is countenanced because this is what they want to do. Just as they are Merkozy’s political partners at the European level, they are Merkozy’s satellite party in Ireland.

People Korps  23. 1 .12

Written number systems originated in the same area (now part of Iraq) -

The earliest known writing for record keeping evolved from a system of counting using small clay tokens that began in Sumer about 8000 BC….

The cities of Sumer were the first civilization to practice intensive, year-round agriculture, by perhaps c. 5000 BC showing the use of core agricultural techniques, including large-scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and the use of a specialized labour force. The surplus of storable food created by this economy allowed the population to settle in one place, instead of migrating after crops and grazing land. It also allowed for a much greater population density, and in turn required an extensive labour force and division of labour.  Sumer was also the site of early development of writing, progressing from a stage of proto-writing in the mid 4th millennium BC to writing proper in the third millennium (see Jemdet Nasr period).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer

There is an interesting wiki page on the history of writing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_writing  (enter into searchbox to access this page)

The earliest writing, and the first use of symbolic written numbers, were both concerned with recording the number of animals and the quantity of grain stores.

Counting and recording food stores was not an idle pastime, but necessary to calculate (and ration)  that sufficient grain was there to see the population through to the next expected harvest.

The earliest known writer of literature was a woman, an Akkadian princess from Sumer, called Enheduanna.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enheduanna (an example of her work –   http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.cgi?text=t.4.07.2&display=Crit&charenc=gcirc&lineid=t4072.p7#t4072.p7

Enheduanna was a magnificently powerful and expressive writer.  She was also a high priestess of the moon goddess – not coincidental perhaps, as the phases of the moon have traditionally been used a guide to optimal planting times.

Middle Bablyonian legal text in its envelope

The concept of writing spread outwards from Sumer, and new forms of writing were developed, one of the early ones being in Egypt. There were also, thousands of years later, completely separate developments of writing – in America ( Mexico)  first and also in China.  Both Mexico and China had complex agricultural systems in fertile, irrigated lands.

Writing is important to social development -

 The great benefit of writing systems is their ability to maintain a persistent record of information expressed in a language, which can be retrieved independently of the initial act of formulation.

Writing has made possible the accumulation of and rapid spread of knowledge and culture through large populations and has also allowed for an increasingly rapid development of new knowledge, standing on the shoulders of what was known before.

The benefits of writing were constrained when each copy had to be hand written. Many important works have been lost from that period.

The development of the printing press in the 15th century “cracked open” the potential of writing for societal development. Written works were far more accessible and less likely to be lost.

16th century press capable of printing 3,600 pages a day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_press

The internet (developed in the 1950s-80s), likewise, provided for an exponential effect on the sharing and spread of knowledge, in that it is a much cheaper and more readily available global means of access to writing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet

There are thousands of free books and articles (damn you, pay walls!)

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Lee Kleinbeck and the first Interface Message Processor

All of these developments have come about on the back of the general level of technological and scientific development in society.

One would think that writing might be challenged by the development of telephony and recorded sound – I have just listened to a talk by Conor McCabe, on youtube, for example, that once would have been more likely shared by means of a pamphlet, or that would not have been heard beyond the initial live audience.

But writing is in many ways superior – a moment’s lapse of concentration when listening to a recording means the tedium of playback and listening again, maybe more than once. Reading a written version, one can go at one’s own pace.

Perhaps the next step will be some form of direct plug-in of information into the brain.

C. Flower  21/02/2012

People will be unwilling to publicly express their opinion if they believe they are in the minority. They will also be more vocal if they believe they are a part of the majority. Thus, the more marginalized you become, the less you speak and so spiral into a fully marginal position.   This works because we fear social rejection. and that when a person appears to be rejected, others will back away from them, fearing being rejected because they associate with the rejected person.    It also makes marginalization a powerful way of eliminating political and social competition.    Public opinion is the “attitudes or behaviors one must express in public if one is not to isolate oneself, in areas of controversy or change; public opinions are those attitudes one can express without running the danger of isolating oneself.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/spirals_silence.htm

The crucial points of the theory are

People have a fear of being rejected by those in their social environment, which is called “fear of isolation.”
People are constantly observing the behaviors of those around them, and seeing which gain approval and disapproval from society.
People unconsciously issue their own threats of isolation by showing signals of approval or disapproval.
Threats of isolation are avoided by a person’s tendency to refrain from making a statement about something they think might attract objections.
People are more willing to publicly state things that they believe will be accepted positively.
The spiral effect begins because when people who are seen as representing majority opinion, often authority figures, speak out confidently. The opposition feels a greater sense of fear of isolation and is further convinced to remain silent, since they perceive themselves to be in the minority. The feelings continue to grow in either direction exponentially.
A strong moral component is necessary for the issue to activate the spiral.
If there is a social consensus, the spiral will not be activated. There must be two opposing forces.
The mass media has a strong influence on this process.
Fear and threat of isolation are subconscious processes.
The spiral of silence only “holds a sway” over the public for a limited time.
If a topic activates the spiral of silence, this means that the issue is a great threat to social cohesion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence

Criticisms

The critics of this theory most often claim that individuals have different influences that affect whether they speak out or not. Critics believe that there are three potential influences besides the fear of isolation that could cause the spiral of silence. [46]
1.) Many researchers have studied whether influences of close social networks can influence a person’s willingness to speak. It is found that people have the same opinion of their social networks. However, it is not clear as to whether our fear of isolation is greater among acquaintances and stranger than in our close networks. “In the smaller context of friends and family, we may feel safe expressing our opinions since we already perceive their opinions as similar to our ours.” [46]
2.) Scholars have also questioned whether personal characteristics have an influence on whether a person will willingly speak out. “Naturally, if one has a positive self-concept and lacks a sense of shame, that person will speak out regardless of how she or he perceives the climate of public opinion.” [46]
3.) Another influence critics give for people choosing not to speak out against public opinion is culture. The culture that a person lives in greatly affects their willingness to speak out. “Not every culture holds freedom of speech in as high regard as the United States, and in some cultures, open expression of ideas is forbidden. “ [46] Some cultures are more individualistic, which would support more of an individual’s own opinion, while collectivist cultures support the overall groups opinion and needs. Cultural factors could also be gender. “Perhaps another explanation for why individuals do not express minority opinions can be made: that women’s perception of language, not public opinion, forces them to remain quiet.” [46]

Thinking back to the time of the Bank crisis in Ireland, and how taxpayers learnt that they would be paying that for the greed and mistakes of the elite few, the prevailing attitude was that there wasn’t anything we could do about it, mass media reinforced the mantra by politicians that the bank bailout was “the only show in town ” even though there were other options available.

Some people spoke and acted out, the ‘call for a general election’ campaign, was one, that had support, but it never gathered momentum. People felt that there was nothing they could do to stop austerity measures being enforced on them, and on political forums and elsewere the protests were laughed at, and mocked.    How many people would have liked to show their support but were silenced into doing so, by the ‘majority’?    Eygpt demonstrated that results are possible from protesting.

Then there was Eirigi, who occupied some bank buildings, they were outwardly ridiculed for doing so, because their political stance didn’t sit comfortably with people, but I wonder how many people inwardly supported what they were doing, but were afraid to voice this support, because Eirigi weren’t popular judging by mainstream opinion ?

Another example was the first Gulf  War, and I’m sure the findings could easily be also applied to the second Iraq war

This study analyzes actual and perceived support for the Persian Gulf War in the United States.   Data were collected from 292 residents of New Castle County, Delaware, during the 1991 Gulf War.    Results show that support for the war was not the strong consensus reported in mainstream media.    In fact, 53.1 percent of the respondents fell within the neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree ranges of a support for the war scale.    Only 6.6 percent of the respondents were in the strong support range.    However, responses were significantly higher on an item measuring perceived support for the war.     Consistent with Noelle-Neumann’s spiral of silence theory, perceived public support for the war was a significant predictor of support for the war even after 13 variables were controlled.      The alternative explanation that subjects were ‘projecting’ their own perceptions onto the public, is discounted by the finding that liberals, moderates and conservatives did not differ in their perceptions of public support.

http://ijpor.oxfordjournals.org/content/7/2/91.abstract

The ‘Occupy’ movement will be an interesting one to watch.   Will the mainstream media and ‘majority opinion’ succeed in limiting support for it, or will people, encouraged by events in Egypt and else were, speak out and get behind it?

Mutley    8.1.12

Much has been made of the role social media has played in both the Arab Spring and the subsequent Occupy movement.  Some argue that social media has been a revolutionary game changer. Others argue that Facebook and Twitter provided indispensable tools but that these were of a mere logistical nature. While they spread news of the revolution and rallied people around it, the genesis of revolt was entirely independent of them.  The truth, however, most probably lies in a convergence of both views.  To grasp the importance of logistical tools that bypass state control and allow control of one’s own narrative, you just have to remember fax machines were banned as recently 1989 in the West Bank and Gaza.   Social media proved indispensable in rallying crowds and providing a picture of a reality rarely seen on state or mainstream media.

Throughout history tyranny feeds off lies. The tyrant distracts his oppressed people by spewing propaganda that demonises some ‘other’.   But now truth can counter lies.   People can communicate with each other. With communication comes empathy and understanding. Empathy and understanding erode the foundations of tyranny.  The rise of Al Jazeera could be attributed to the fact that it was one of the very few conventional media outlets whose coverage was in sync with the reality portrayed by digital media.  There is, however, another more subtle but perhaps far more revolutionary force at play behind this digital drama.  Just like the printing press in its day, social media is reshaping how we access and process knowledge and thereby our whole relation to society’s constructs.  French philosophers Gilles DeLeuze and Felix Gauttari have argued that structure of Western knowledge and the power which stemmed from it was hierarchial, vertical in nature.  With limited access to knowledge, you arrived at a subject, planted yourself and then worked your way upwards to greater awareness; the dynamic was like a tree.   This notion is conducive to the idea of the superior, of looking up to the leader.  The digital age is changing all this. With the computer link one processes knowledge in a horizontal fashion.   The French philosophers coined the term rhizomatic for what they saw as this new approach. You don’t move above others in a horizontal trajectory. The idea of superiors, those on top, does not make sense here. The much vaunted ‘leaderless’ nature of the Occupy movement can be seen as a manifestation of this new reality.

Although in its infancy, some see the grounds for greater democratic promise within this new reality.  The either/or world view of the old hierarchial body politic is being replaced by the more inclusive both/and of the digital age’s more democratic horizontal nature.  Others argue that there is revolutionary progressive potential in the unprecedented speed and scope of today’s transmission of ideas.

Occupy as meme

BBC Newsnight Editor Paul Mason sees the nature of the Occupy movement as mirroring an internet meme.  A meme, Mason says, is an effective action that transmits itself independent of any democratic structures and party political hierarchies.  ”A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices….so what happens is that ideas arise, are very quickly “market tested” and either take off, bubble under, insinuate themselves or if they are deemed no good they disappear.   Ideas self-replicate like genes”.   Today’s global village features the compression of both time and space and this is plays a crucial role in how we, the global populace, share ideas, interact and conduct politics.  With internet-mediated forms of collective action we see a massive ‘speeding up’ of how social symbols and practices are produced, reproduced, adopted and internalised.  ”We can think of the internet as a bank of ideas, and the really successful meme occurs when one of those ideas chimes massively with the population it encounters, summing up a shared or individual experience or viewpoint to the extent that users wish to perpetuate it as somehow representative of their position, often amending it slightly on it’s way.”

The printing press as previous ‘software’ change

Some dismiss this notion of the Occupy movement as a meme as mere mystification of technology. Far from challenging the very nature of our body politic, cynics argue that digital innovation has given us little more radical than the ability to watch Glee on a smart phone sitting on the metro.   But it is early days yet and trivial use by no means negates serious and revolutionary potential.  English writer Aaron Peters notes one could have adopted a similar dismissive attitude to the revolutionary nature of the printing press.  ”Bear in mind that after the arrival of the printing press the first pornographic novels came about within a few years, while the first regularised scientific journals took a little over a century,” Peters says.  The last time we changed society’s ‘software’ was when we ‘switched over’ to the printing press.  ”The changes we will see with how the distributed network impacts the existing social and political apparatus through its impact on political, cultural and social memes could be as big as those it affected the last time the ‘software’ changed with the rise of typographic print and the printing press.”Like the internet today, the printing press led to a qualitative speeding up of memetic reproduction of symbols and practice.  ”The consequences were the Reformation, the nation-state, scientific rationalism and the formation of the Habermasian public sphere.”  The effects were seismic, giving us the modern world as we know it. And now the modern world is facing another seismic change.

We are on the threshold of something potentially epic as “the institutions built in previous eras of information scarcity will increasingly no longer make sense as we enter the era of the internet’s information abundance.”

A challenge to national, parliamentary democracy itself.

“My impression is that the last year, as well as subsequent years to come, will show that how the ‘people’ make demands on political power is changing beyond all recognition. Where it ends is possibly with a challenge to national, parliamentary democracy itself.” Peters says.  ”The software is obsolete; things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.”

Kevin Barrington   6.1.2012

“Occupy doesn’t know what it wants,” or so we are told.  Allegedly Occupy is a global movement of i-phone wielding, privileged malcontents shouting “NO”.  In an Irish context, it’s a crusties meets Father Ted  ”down with that sort of thing”  affair.  A recent Vincent Browne show saw one of the movement’s rare appearances on the Irish ‘mainstream media.’ And the viewer was treated to variants of the above dismissals by panelist John McGuirk.  McGuirk, giving a polished performance, came across as the epitome of the slick conventional politician. Robin Wilson, the Occupy spokesperson was not so polished.  Probed by Browne, Wilson said Occupy “wanted democracy.”  Vincent told pointed out we had just had an election, a democratic one. Wilson said the government had betrayed us by not burning the bondholders. Vincent pointed out that the Fine Gael manifesto had never made such a promise. To McGuirk’s delight, the Occupy spokesperson faltered. But empathetic to the Occupy cause, Vincent let the spokesperson off the hook Because whatever about the details, the system had failed the people. They were paying an unjust price. They had been had and they knew it.

Ex Fianna Fail, ex Fine Gael, ex Libertas and unsuccessful Independent candidate labels Occupy as incoherent

McGuirk, however, capitalised on Wilson’s unsure performance to paint the Occupy movement as uninformed amateurs, novices out of their depth.  The ex Fianna Fail, ex Fine Gael, ex Libertas and unsuccessful Independent candidate implied Occupy was incoherent!  McGuirk is a poster boy for the traditional political world, an analogue world of either/or. You were for something or against it.  You were either for capitalism or you were for a workers’ revolution.  If you said NO, you were beholden to explain what you said YES to.

And if you could not clearly do this, the inference was ‘leave it to the big boys, leave it to your betters.’ But the dawning digital age does not see the world in such simple divisions.  The simple either/or point of view is being overtaken by a more novel one of both/and. According to McGuirk’s rules, Wilson had lost the game. But what he didn’t seem to realise – and what the Occupy spokesperson failed to clarify – is that Occupy does not want to play by these rules.  It does not want to play the game, it wants to find an entirely different form of sport.

A coup d’etat by a corporate criminal class

Occupy does not claim to have the answers. But it knows that the current system is broken. In the movement’s parlance, the system places the interests of 1% above that of 99%.  And in the meantime it appeals for the restoration of law and order. For fairness. For social justice.  Curiously Chris Hedges of the New York Times sees the Occupy movement as the voice of “true conservatives.”  Hedges argues that democracy has been hijacked by radicals. And the radicals are a criminal elite who have pulled off a corporate coup d’etat.  The true conservatives demand that law and order be restored by bringing the criminal class to book and that democracy be rescued from the corporate elite who have hijacjked it.

The view that a corporate criminal class is seeking to guard its ill gotten gain has been highlighted by some of the more infamous scenes from the Occupy movement. Frenzied Madrid police beating peaceful seated protesters and the now infamous Lt Pike casually pepper spraying kids like he was watering roses have beamed out powerful images showing not just the delinquency of the system but the near psychopathic realms to which the 1% will stoop to defend its privileged position.  These are loud and powerful messages dramatising the forces Occupy is opposing.
Much less dramatic and less discernible is the novel, subtle way in which the movement is seeking to establish what it stands for.

What Occupy says Yes to cannot be captured in a youtube clip.  Tentatively, the Occupy movement is trying to find a way out of the quagmire and trying to discern a whole new way of playing the whole game. The aim is a popular, collaborative new form of democracy which will be robust enough to resist being hijacked by special interests. And that, to put it mildly, is no small or easy task.  A challenge to national, parliamentary democracy itself.  The Occupy movement is a picket line on the dysfunctional politics as we know it.  Whether Occupy will succeed is anyone’s guess but one thing is pretty certain, it is throwing an unforgiving spotlight on how the current system has failed the people.

Kevin Barrington  5.1.12

It’s bright for late December;
The kettle coughing to find rhythm.
I tugged a curled curtain cuff,
A sleeve of fleece clustered on the D-rail,
Bonnets perched on post-caps.

We stepped into the dull sound-box
Of snow,
Shallow where the pipes ran.
The ritual of whimpering had stopped
As you strained to pick a single flake,
Big but slow enough to avoid,
I thought.

Your eyes were blue at last
Sparkling twitches
In a silence absolute
And deafening.
A crystal glittering, finds a path
To your cheek
And you smile at me in confusion.

Our first real moment together
But I tell you,
‘She’ll hit the roof if she catches us
Out here.’
So I cóck the door handle gentle behind,
Closing Christmas to the bigger children.
The kettle has boiled.

5intheface  31.12.11

Come the hour  (midnight xmas eve) you could hear a pin drop, sometimes a tear drop amongst the uncanny silence in the dark.

Individual men were having their ”Dickens of a Christmas” confronting Ghosts of Christmas’s past, Christmas present and Christmas’s yet to come. As with ”Scrooge” in” A Christmas Carol”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol

Psychologically, Christmas caused them to recall happier moments/or not, in different environments and so ”the seasonal spirit” had their minds elsewhere.

I’m not the greatest of singers, but Prison bars and yards and concrete blocks produces a hauntingly toned vibration that suits my voice and can be heard through every cell and beyond the block.

In eerie silence I began to say the words in rolling rhyme  (slow song)  ”Silent night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright, Round yon Virgin, Mother and child”

After ”Holy Infant” and so on, I caught the sound of the first tears with the words ”Sleep in Heavenly Peace”

For days previously the screws had placed a wee Christmas Tree near to the prisoners phone booth. A wee mind game they enjoy.

As I went to the phone I was singing to the tune of ”Walking in a Winter Wonderland” but changed the words to ”Later on, If you wanta, You can dress like Madonna, ”Walking round in Women’s Underwear!”  (Reverse Psychology)

Being a mixed Religion remand wing I’m surprised I got beyond ”Round yon Virgin” without an uproar from opposing religious based groupings.

Not a word.
Silent remained the night and the Peace was Heavenly.

Trow   24.11.2011

The primary function of special advisers will be to secure the achievement of Government objectives and to ensure effective co-ordination in the implementation of the programme for government. The role and duties of special advisers are described in section 11 of the Public Service Management Act 1997. In summary, these are (i) providing advice; (ii) monitoring, facilitating and securing the achievement of Government objectives that relate to the Department, as requested; and (iii) performing such other functions as may be directed. kildarestreet.com

Public Relations
plural noun
[also treated as singular]

the professional maintenance of a favourable public image by a company or other organization or a famous person:

OED Online

Special Advisers’ Statements of Interests

A special adviser is required under the Ethics Acts to prepare and furnish to the office holder who appointed him or her a statement of any registrable interests held by him or her which could materially influence him or her in the performance of his or her official functions by reason of the fact that such performance could so affect those interests as to confer on or withhold from him or her or his or her spouse or civil partner or child or child of a spouse a substantial benefit. The office holder is required under the Ethics Acts to lay any such statement before each House of the Oireachtas within 60 days of its receipt by him or her (a separate statement of any registrable interests of spouse or civil partner or child or child of a spouse is also required to be furnished, but is not laid before the Oireachtas). Unlike statements of registrable interests furnished by members of the Oireachtas, which are published by the Clerk of Dáil Éireann or of Seanad Éireann as appropriate in a register of members’ interests, special advisers’ statements are not published. However, under the Standing Orders for each House, all documents laid before each House shall be considered public. Accordingly, statements which have been furnished to the Standards Commission by special advisers may be viewed and copied by request to the Commission’s Secretariat. (SIPO Annual report 2010)

The Government has had  imposed a “salary cap” of €92,000.00 for these posts, which are not advertised.

An Taoiseach Enda Kenny has appointed four to his “kitchen cabinet”. They will cost the taxpayer €440,000 a year.

Not including the new Government press secretary, former head of the Fine Gael press office Feargal Purcell and Cathy Madden who is there for Labour, formerly of  98FM and Newstalk. Salaries unavailable as yet but predecessor  Eoghan Ó Neachtain was paid  €138,655 last year.

Mark Kennelly a Veteran FGer (€168,000) first worked with Fine Gael during the Rainbow Coalition as a researcher at the European Parliament. He was then elevated to the position of special adviser to Michael Lowry in 1995. He played an “important role” in Programme for Government negotiations and operated as Mr Kenny’s election tour manager.

Andrew McDowell also breaking the salary cap at €168,000. An “economist in the Fine Gael tradition”. First cousin once removed to Michael McDowell and another ex-Forfas. Joined FG in 06 where he worked for Finance spokesman Bruton and later Noonan. Angela Flanagan and Paul O’Brien are both former party policy officers, each earn €80,051 .

An Taoiseach has also received training from Anton Savage. Savage would be familiar from his work on TV3′s The Apprentice: You’re Fired and his regular slots on Matt Cooper’s The Last Word on Today FM. He has recently taken over the Sunday morning slot on the same station after Sam Smyth’s departure. His work with Fine Gael comes under his  consultant hat with The Communications Clinic where he is also Managing Director.

The PR and training company  was set up by parents Terry Prone and Tom Savage after leaving Carr Communications.  Terry who has worked with several governments over the years (Haughey, Garret, Bertie, P Flynn) recently worked on Fine Gael’s Presidential campaign with Gay Mitchell and writes a weekly column in the Irish Examiner while Tom Savage is chairman of the RTÉ board.

Also helping Fine Gael during the general election was Mark Mortell, presenter of  the Down to Business show on Newstalk and former PR for Sean Dunne. He had what was described as a “floating role” in deciding strategy and returned his job as Director at Fleishman-Hillard PR after the election. Mortell is a former Fine Gael councillor and his relationship with Enda goes back 30 years. As Tourism Minister Enda appointed Mortell as chairman of Bord Failte where he worked with current FAS director general Paul O’Toole.  There were some eyebrows raised in February when Fleishman-Hillard was granted a consultancy contract with FAS estimated to be worth €300,000

Tom Fabozzi is Fine Gael’s “Director of Media & Research”. He came from TV3 where he was producer of Tonight with Vincent Browne and Ursula Halligan’s old show The Political Party. He holds a masters in Political Communication and will be “responsible for developing and implementing the Party’s communication strategy”. Hopefully 2012 will see better then  dodgy youtubes and woeful Irish Times columns.

Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore’s chief handler is Mark Garrett who the Phoenix describes as one of the “Blairite modernisers” in the party and is another one over the cap on €168,000 . He was formally PR at the Competition Authority and worlds largest consultancy firm,McKinsey’s  in New York. They have a colourful history to say the least including many of their alumni heading Enron.  Connolly would be a big fan no doubt.

Colm O’Reardon again over on €155,000 is policy director for the party and has worked for the ESRI so we have big hopes. Colm is brother to Labour deputy Aodhán Ó Ríordáin. Jean O’Mahony a policy analyst is in the €80,051–€98,424 range.

Finbarr O’Malley is legal advisor on €83,337 and also linked to Rabbitte’s department .

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney had drafted in former chief executive of Greencore USA Fergal Leamy. He had quite an impressive CV which again warranted a breach of the cap at €130,000. He has since vacated the position, perhaps having looked into the abyss we don’t know.  Here two, Áine Kilroy,  a former researcher for Fergus O’Dowd and netting €80,05. Former Parliamentary Assistant Caitríona Fitzpatrick has been appointed as press adviser but is not a special adviser

Seán Mac Cárthaigh (€83,337), was Dublin correspondent of The Irish News before moving to Paris for The Times (London). More recently he was Assistant Editor of The Sunday Business Post. Sean is now advisor to Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan having previously been director of public affairs with the Arts Council. Also there is retired Kerry school teacher Jim Kenny - his salary is “in line with the guidelines set down by Government on staffing ministerial offices”.

Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald has hired Marion Mannion on €80,051.  Fellow Lucan native Cllr William Lavelle and former legal adviser to Enda Jennifer Carroll MacNeill split the same between them.

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte has hired former chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents’ Association Simon Nugent for again over at €97,200

Helping Ruairí Quinn are John Walshe and Deirdre Grant. Walsh (€92,672) was Education correspondent and Editor at the Irish Independent for over 18 years while Deirdre Grant (€86,604) is a former TV3 programmer and wife of Karl Brophy, Independent News & Media’s Director of Corporate Affairs.

Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan has hired Claire Langton at €80,051 and Sean McKeown at €92,672 who was Chief Executive Officer of the Kilkenny County Enterprise Board. Mary Kenny has worked with Minister for Finance Michael Noonan since forever and gets €83,337 for her troubles.

Noonan had a new press advisor appointed 14/11/11 replacing Eoin Dorgan who is gone into the DOF.  No details as yet.

In health Mark Costigan who was a Deputy Government Press Secretary and a former spokesman for Mary Harney has been retained by Dr James Reilly at  €92,672. Previously he was a journalist, including Political Editor for Today FM .

Also here, Sean Faughnan who has been a Fine Gael policy adviser for the last few years and in the €80,051–€92,672 range. He drafted Fine Gael’s “Faircare” plan and picks up the always one award as a former investment banker with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

On Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton’s team is Ciarán Conlon who hit the headlines on budget day. As the government prepared to take over a billion in cuts to welfare and services it emerged Enda Kenny had overruled his two finance ministers to again break the cap and pay Conlon a tidy €127,000.

More heroic efforts over at TheStory.ie  give us an insight into the exchanges leading up to an Taoiseach’s rejection of Howlin’s compromise.

Speaking on Tonight with Vincent Browne on the second night of the budget Brian Hayes said Conlon came from the private sector, thus warranting a comparative salary. In written answers from October Howlin lists the advisers and takes extra care to point out how wonderfully qualified each of them are. However for Conlon all we get is two lines.

Mr. Conlon’s qualifications:BA (Economics) NUI Maynooth, MA (Economics) UCD

Conlon began his career at UCD and later Dublin Chamber of Commerce. He worked with MRPA Kinman Communications (Now branded as MKC Communications.) Home to plenty of familiar faces over the years and PR consultants to several departments and quangos.

What is also missing is his time as   Fine Gael communications director and more recently director of election planning and strategy.

So we must wait and see where exactly in private sector he came from?

Despite Conlon’s considerable and indeed valuable PR experience Conor Quinn is here as press adviser  on €80,051. Quinn was previously employed by Mr Bruton on his parliamentary staff as a part-time policy adviser and served as parliamentary assistant to Simon Coveney.

Brendan Howlin had concerns that if Enda allowed Conlon to break the cap, other Ministers would look for the same. In what looks like a effort to prove himself right, the public expenditure Minister lobbied to pay his adviser Ronan O’Brien €133,600. In the end O’Brien who worked Ruairi Quinn while leader of the party had to settle for a paltry €114,000. Over 20k over the cap. Also here Anne Byrne who was Member of the Medical Council 1984-1993 and Programme Manager in Health and Environment under previous administrations. She was also an adviser to Leas Cheann Comhairle 2007-2011 and picks up €83,337.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has taken on academic  Thomas Cooney and Jane Lehane who has been his parliamentary assistant since 2007. Both in the €80,051–€98,424 range.

Liam Cahill is former head of hunting lobby group, RISE and former head of PR for AIB and Intel. He was programme manager to Fianna Fáil minister David Andrews in the Reynolds government. Worked for Pat Rabbitte while Labour were in opposition. Now PR adviser to Fine Gael Minister Shane McEntee.

A full house!

Kathleen Barrington is one of Ireland’s best journalists, full stop. Her work in the SBP over the last few years has earned her hero status among some of us. The articles (which can be found linked on Politicalworld.org) were vital in piecing together the murky events that brought us here. This Summer she was appointed special advisor to Joan Burton in social protection. While everyone wishes her well it was somewhat disappointing news to say the least.

There is a poignant moment in the clip of Enda launching of all things the “new” IFSC strategy. As the Taoiseach waffles about the bankers lofty plan and a “responsible on-shore tax jurisdiction”. Kathleen is spotted coming out the door of government buildings behind.

However, Joan’s alignment with Barrington lends some credence to the theory that she was overlooked for a finance post because of certain official’s discomfort with Joan asking the “wrong” questions while in opposition. Let’s hope Joan and Kathleen are playing the long game. Naivety could be getting the better of me there but with so little to hang on to we take what we can get.

Joining her in social protection is solicitor Ed Brophy. He worked in Endesa Ireland as the Legal and Procurement Director. Previously he was a Senior Associate in Arthur Cox Solicitors. Again over the cap at €127,796 

Despite originally telling us his pay would be “in accordance with rates approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform” Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar secured another break in the cap for Brian Murphy who is set to receive €105,837.

Defending Enda on the Ciarán Conlon issue Minister Varadkar said that higher salaries had to be given in order to attract a high calibre of people, which was the very thinking behind Jobsbridge no doubt.. Mr. Murphy was Director of Commercial Affairs with the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association so may be staying with Leo if he ever makes it to health.

More interestingly Murphy is chair of the Fine Gael National Executive and a former adviser to Gay Mitchell so hardly needed much coaxing despite the Minister’s claims.

Nick Miller here two and paid ahem, “in accordance with rates approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform”.

Chief Whip Paul Kehoe for some reason needs an advisor and hired Mark O’Doherty. Salary not available

Róisín Shortall who being a junior minister had not been expected to appoint advisers managed to secure one of those exemptions that almost everyone else who asked got and hired Irish Times journalist Maev-Ann Wren part time.

Not to be out done “exceptional circumstances” also allowed Junior Minister Creighton to take on former children’s television presenter  Stephen O’Shea. Never say she is not committed to job creation. O’Shea has worked for Fine Gael and Lucinda in the past but more impotently, knows Zig and Zag. Let’s hope the Minister of State for European Affairs isn’t planning on sending Dustin back out.

The Super in Super Junior entitled Willie Penrose to two advisers. Back on the dole queue (unless  retained by Willie’s replacement or can get his Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county council seat back) is unsuccessful Labour general election candidate Aidan Culhane, who was TD Alex White’s running mate.

FG kindly provided a list of the FF/GP advisers last year and it is still available here.

On there you can find details of Brian Cowen’s six (that’s six) advisers and the rest of Fianna Fáil’s extensive staff including senator Avril “council estate” Power. Who was earning almost 95k a year working for Mary Hanafin.

The Government, on the recommendation of the Taoiseach, has appointed Mr. Martin Fraser, Assistant Secretary, Department of the Taoiseach, to be Secretary General to the Government and Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, with effect from 1st August 2011. Mr Fraser has been an Assistant Secretary in the Department since 2007, having previously been Director of the Northern Ireland Division. He replaces Dermot McCarthy, who retired in September. Dermot was appointed Secretary General to the Government in January 2000 and Secretary General of the Department in July 2001. He features here because he sat at the cabinet table and surely wasn’t short of advice. I had flagged his departure during the summer on the forum and the original figures released (drumroll) €114,000 a year and an immediate lump sum of €342,000. Much to my surprise when the hullabaloo kicked off in September the numbers had taken quite a jump. Compensation for the prospect of a post in Rome disappearing we’ll never know?

FIVE (Oireachtas Retort)

6.12.2011

Authors notes:

You may notice the o and e are interchangeable throughout this post. Would appreciate any ahem, advice on the correct spelling.

Next time a Minister compares Social Welfare in the North to ours you can gently remind them that in Britain, the highest paid adviser earned €164,000 last year.

As I wrote this it was hard not to notice there isn’t a single woman over the cap and most appear to be in the “basic” 80k range including those who have been with TDs for some time unlike these talented blow ins from the private sector. While I am of the firm belief that almost everyone featured is paid too much (especially as spin is order of the day ) it seems even the gravy train has catching up to do .

While this Government is spending less then the last shower. Wasting less money the Fianna Fáil is hardly much of an achievement. Based on these incomplete figures breaking the cap cost the government savings of €527633. More if you include advisers to junior ministers and the chief whip and into millions over the lifetime of the government. I know a bondholder wouldn’t wipe their nose with it but that money would go a long way towards SNAs, bags of turf and medication that makes life just manageable.

Instead the coalition offers a bailout to the world of PR for people who apparently refused to work for ninety two thousand euro per year.

The ULA is calling for a change in direction…The ULA believes there can be no just or sustainable solution to the current crises by bowing to the dictatorship of finance and the markets. There is no solution,only worse crisis, on the basis of ‘satisfying the markets.’ We favour democratic public control of key economic resources as the only way to ensure that peoples needs are put before the profits for the few. There can be no reliance on private investors to create jobs.  (page 1)

The ULA proposals use numbers based on reports from CSO, Revenue Commissioners, Credit Suisse and TASC. Both VB and Vadaker admitted on the programme that they hadn’t actually read the full document (its four pages long) and consistantly misquoted the numbers from the document. Furthermore the fact that both VB, Varadker and the Indo journalist refused to accept the numbers and as a result then distorted them, is their problem – not a problem for Joe Higgins. For example Varadker completely misread the document about the effective tax rate for earners on a income over €100,000 – Varadker claimed 78% the actual figure from the document is 58%. VB also attempted to claim that the ULA job creation proposals were similar to FG, stating that the ULA wanted to create 150,000 jobs over five years while FG’s proposals were for 100,000 jobs. Two points on this one 1. FG’s proposals are based on providing ‘incentives’ for the private sector and hope the private sector will create the jobs – but the private sector are on an investment strike and during period of economic crisis have never created jobs – and – 2. The ULA proposals involve creating 150,000 immediately over a three month period through public investment and providing the fund to ensure these jobs are maintained for at l]east five years. Varadker claimed that the ULA would need to find €20billion to implement their proposals because the straight off the top because burning the bondholders would mean no money from the IMF/ECB (an over-estimate but we will use it) – So where would the ULA get the money – 5% asset tax on the richest 5% of the population = €10billion (source Credit Suisse) Doubling the effective tax rate on all income over €100K (a graduated rate based on income with an effective rate of 58%) = €5billion (source Revenue Commissioners) Stopping payment to Anglo Bondholders (to start with) = €3.5billion Stopping the payment of interest on IMF/ECB money to bail out the banks = €6.8billion (2012 estimate – source Dept of Finance) Capping public sector pay at €100K = €264million (source Dept of Finance) Total = €25.564billion Where does the funding for a public investment programme come from – estimated cost €26billionover five years NPRF = €5.3billion Surplus from savings above = €5.56billion Changes to pension funds tax breaks (€2.2billion over 5 years) = €11billion (minimum – the measure is designed to significant increase investment in the Irish economy by Irish pension funds, currently only 1% of the €70billion pension fund pot is invested in Ireland) Savings from reduced expenditure from remedial public sector works (eg renovating the water mains network) = €2.5billion (minimum) Total = €24.3billion This does not include other measures like increases in CAT, CGT, Corporation Tax etc.

Jolly Red Giant  2 Dec 2011

Our teachers, fired by God knows what ancient grievance, would take time from teaching us our three R’s and catechism to instil in us kids a fervent hatred of the rival school and in particular their snooty superiority in hurling. Songs of support were composed and rehearsed, chants were practiced, and some years the alternative wording, far more blood curling than even our teachers would allow, were circulated in secret amongst the kids only to be launched on match day to surprise our teachers and shock everyone else within earshot.

Examples of our rival’s nastiness were helpfully highlighted by our teacher such as their practice of grouping together around their teachers and staring across the pitch, sometimes in silence, at our chanting supporters. This obvious attempt to intimate our lads never worked and howls of derision were directed back at them while some of our more talented mimics would show their bravery by making like primates up and down the touch line, racism was never an issue as we were all milk-bottle white. The disdain they showed for their jerseys, socks and even sometimes a boot (they never had the decency to leave two matching boots) leaving them carelessly behind seemed designed to show how richer they were than us, who had to cherish our gear. But the most galling aspect of this rivalry was that by the use of their superior skills they invariably defeated us. Superior skills or not, we still considered defeat at their hands a dreadful injustice.

One particular and typical match stands out in my memory. As defeat was looming ever nearer, and our hurling ever more reckless, and our teachers shouting ever louder and shriller, all against a background of chanting which would now be considered “threatening with menace” our star forward found himself without his hurley and in the path of a scorcher of a shot which was destined to go wide. Being a secret soccer player (the ban on “foreign” games being then still strictly enforced) our hero knew exactly what was required of him. He met the rocketing sliothar with his forehead as if it were a soccer ball, thus rendering himself unconscious and the score line less embarrassing for our team.

In those days helmets, gum shields, and using temporary unconsciousness, as an excuse for not finishing a grudge game were unheard of, and would have been frowned upon as unIrish had they been heard of. And so our dazed teammate was returned to the fray and our half forward line were directed to launch their shots not to him, but at him.
Boys “self esteem” had not yet been invented and anything with “self” and “steam” in its title would probably have been taken as a particularly vigorous form of masturbation, probably of Protestant origin, and so our teacher, while afterwards praising the star forward’s commitment, assured us that as he was a bright pupil no harm was done, if however the same knock had been taken by us dullards in the half-back line what meagre brains we had would surely have been irretrievably scrambled , they did have a wry sense of humour, those teachers.

It was many years later when I met the woman who would become my wife and all of whose brothers hurled for our nemesis that I learned the truth. Our mutual rivalry had all the mutuality of the hang man and the hanged man. The only effect of our one sided rivalry was to convince the other school that ours was a school comprised entirely, man and boy, of border-line imbeciles and way-beyond-the-border-line psychopaths. One Brother in law swears that his teacher used our hurling style to illustrate to his class the kind of demented fury which made the Vikings so feared.

Before they played us their teachers would warn the collected kids to stick together, don’t get isolated, safety in numbers. When the final whistle blew they were to change quickly and depart. Under no circumstances was anyone to go back for any boot, jersey or sock left behind. Anyway the uncouth savages would probably have the article torn to shreds and be gnawing on the remnants.
These memories of our one-sided rivalry so many years ago came flooding back as I read the recent discussion on the wearing of the poppy. I am not sure why they did, but did they did. The mind works in mysterious ways, or maybe it’s just my mind. Come to think of it, maybe that teacher was not joking about the half-back line.

Eamo. 12-11-2011