Léargas

Suicide knows no boundaries. Neither international borders or class or gender or age protect against it. This week the Minister for Health in the Executive revealed that there have been 15 suicides in Belfast since July. Almost every day three families on this island are faced with the devastating news that a family member has died from suicide. In some particularly harrowing circumstances this may the second or third member of a family to die in this way. Last year 289 people died in the north from suicide. In 2009, the year for which the last full figures are available, 552 died by suicide in the south. That means by the end of this year, 2012, it is almost certain that around 900 citizens will have died by suicide. Of the 289 who died in the north in 2011, 74 were in Belfast and 216 were male. This would appear to bear out a report in early October by the Office for Suicide Prevention in the south that men in their early 20s and women in their early 50s are at greatest risk

Yesterday and today there have been Statements on the Economy in the Dáil. It is a device which is used occasionally to allow the Dáil parties and members to speak on an issue of concern. I had ten minutes early this afternoon to make my contribution: "Last month the Central Statistics Office produced new emigration figures for this state which revealed that 87,000 people had moved to Australia and Canada and other far corners of the globe. The reason?   There is no work at home.   Currently 435,000 citizens are on the live register. That’s 14.8%. And government policies are making the situation worse – not better. In my own constituency of Louth 17,293 were on the Live Register at the end of September. These figures have remained stubbornly consistent in the 18 months the Government has been in office. The only thing that has prevented these figures increasing has been the old social safety valve of emigration. In addition thousands of home owners a

I have to admit that I have never heard a lot about the Homeless World Cup. Have you? But that changed for me on Tuesday when the Irish team that participated recently in Mexico City visited the Dáil for an event hosted by two Sinn Féin TDs Sandra McLellan and Desi Ellis. From late September through to this month over 700 homeless men and women, representing 59 teams, arrived in Mexico City from 55 countries around the world. The tournament has a competition for men and one for women. It ran over nine days between the 6 th and 14 th of October. It was won by Chile who beat Mexico 8-5. The Mexican women’s team won their competition defeating Brazil 6-2. The competition was held on a field constructed in the Zocalo. This is the historic main plaza or square in the heart of the City. The Zocalo has been a focal point of gathering for people since the time of the Aztecs. The Homeless World Cup was founded 11 years ago in 2001. It draws support from tens of thousands of

  There is an 80 year old partially sighted woman living just outside Drogheda who recently had a hip replacement operation. Consequently she has limited mobility. The Health Service Executive allocated her a home help package of 30 minutes a week! Last Thursday I met with older citizens outside the Dáil who were there with the group ‘ Older & Bolder’, which is an NGO committed to defending the rights of the elderly. They were lobbying for the immediate reversal of government cuts to Home Help and Home Care Packages. Many of those participating were older citizens dependent on their home help service and worried and angry and distressed at the government’s plans. The Director of Older & Bolder Patricia Conboy, warned that the government’s cuts “ will devastate the prospect of safe and healthy ageing at home. They actually contradict government policy of supporting people to age safely at home.” The government’s attitude to the provision of home helps reflects F

A little bit of history was made in the Seanad chamber in Leinster House last Friday. The inaugural meeting of the north south Inter-Parliamentary Association took place. Unionists and nationalists and republicans from all parts of this island rubbed shoulders and participated in the first meeting of a unique and innovative political institution that has its roots in the Good Friday Agreement. Strand 2 of the Agreement allows for the ‘Assembly and the Oireachtas to consider developing a joint parliamentary forum, bringing together equal numbers from both institutions for discussions of matters of mutual interest and concern.’ Later in October 2006 agreement was reached at St. Andrew’s in Scotland which saw the re-establishment of the Executive and Assembly the following May. And once again it was agreed that a North-South parliamentary forum would be established. George Mitchell memorably told me and Martin McGuinness, after the Good Friday Agreement was achieved and he was goin

Last month the Central Statistics Office produced new emigration figures for the southern state which revealed that 87,000 people had moved to Australia and Canada and other far corners of the globe. The reason? There is no work at home. Currently 460,000 citizens are on the live register. That’s over 14%. And government policies are making the situation worse – not better. Thousands of home owners are trapped in negative equity; poverty is increasing and government debt now stands at €169 billion. Fine Gael and Labour are committed to an austerity strategy which is pushing up unemployment and driving down the quality of life of families. They have bought into a political and economic strategy which has seen the state’s economic sovereignty dangerously undermined and the introduction of a succession of punitive measures that have reduced wages, child benefit payments, disability payments and social welfare; and attacked social provisions for carers, older citizens, and the blind.

Did you know that there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world today?   I didn’t. Many are forced labourers and soldiers – many of them children – coerced, sold, traded into involuntary service and over half of forced labourers and almost all of sex trafficking victims are women and young girls. In the language of the 21 st century the word slavery has been largely replaced with the term human trafficking or trafficking in persons. But it is still slavery. It takes many forms from sexual exploitation, forced labour in sweat shops and factories, to debt bondage. And modern slavery is not confined to the developing world. Trafficking in persons is a serious problem in the developed world. According to statistics from the US State department at least 14,500 people are trafficked into the USA every year. For many the notion of slavery is linked to the slave ships that plied their trade across the Atlantic between Africa and the USA; and the American Civil War that freed