Léargas

Yesterday I contributed to the second stage on the debate of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013. The first Dáil vote on the Bill is now expected after Order of Business on Tuesday after 5pm. For those interested in the progress of this important legislation below are my remarks. “Minister, I am personally not in favour of abortion. That is my strongly held view. But I am not here to legislate for me. Especially not on this issue. I have a duty and responsibility to legislate for citizens – in this case pregnant women whose lives are at risk. So, I and Sinn Fein will support the Protection of Life in Pregnancy Bill. Sinn Féin believes that Irish society has a responsibility to not only address the issue of abortion but also to address the fact that thousands of Irish women travel to Britain each year for abortions. We also believe that all possible means of education and support services should be put in place to prevent crisis pregnancies. Sinn Féin

  Mise with Mayor Cathal King     M ind M indR – A Mental health directory   Further to my tweets from Tallaght about Mayor Cathal King’s launch of a unique and ground-breaking initiative on Mental Health. Last year Cathal proposed that the Council develop an app for the Iphone and android phones providing a directory of mental health services for the area. The idea was to provide easy access to services by location, type, age group, useful links and emergency services. After a lot of hard work by the council’s IT department and with the support of a variety of other organisations, including Comhairle na nÓg, South Dublin County’s Youth Council , this morning the app - Mind MindR - was launched. The iPhone version is up and running and the android version will be out within days. It would be brilliant if this idea could be replicated across the state and across the island. Niall Ó Donnghaile has tweeted to say he is investigating developing this app for Belfa

As those who follow twitter or my blog know I like to walk and to cycle. My schedule doesn’t allow for me to do these as often as I would like but when the opportunity presents itself I jump in with both feet. This is bike week. It’s an annual event organised here and elsewhere around the world to promote cycling and through it encourage a healthier life style for citizens. Wednesday was the third annual Dublin City Lunchtime Cycle event for workers who spend their days in and around the centre of the city. Along with a half dozen comrades from the Dáil I joined thousands of others in bright beautiful sunshine to take the 5k cycle from Grand canal Square. The craic was good and it was a thoroughly enjoyable half hour. A great way to see Dublin and stay healthy.

The Dundalk Gateway Report is one of a series of nine such reports covering the performance of the Gateways that exist across the state. Gateways were established to provide a strategically placed centre of economic growth and to facilitate these areas to grow to their full potential. The Dundalk Gateway region which covers Dundalk Town and north Louth faces a number of unique challenges including the fact that is exists along a border area. This has played a key role in how Dundalk has evolved and has heavily influenced the local economy. It is especially important in the time ahead that there is greater co-operation across the border and that initiatives like the Memorandum of Understanding between Louth County Council and Newry and Mourne District Council are expanded. The fact that Dundalk is located almost mid-way between the two largest urban centres and economic zones on the island – Dublin and Belfast – is an advantage that must be exploited more.. The Dundalk Gat

The debate on the future of the Seanad continued this week in the Dáil. Last Thursday the Taoiseach moved the 32nd Amendment of the Constitution (Abolition of Seanad Éireann) Bill 2013. It contains 40 amendments to the Constitution which will remove all references to the Seanad. It is thought that the amendment will be put to the vote in a referendum in October. If passed the amendment will abolish the Seanad after the next general election and before the first sitting of new Dáil. It will allow for some 75 deletions of the constitution dealing with the composition of the Seanad, and which cover relations between the Dáil and the Seanad in respect of legislation.   The government intends pushing the Bill through its second and remaining stages by the end of the week. In my contribution to the government’s plan to abolish the Seanad I said: “The real starting point of this discussion should have been about how best we can organise our democracy and governmental system

This morning I was among almost two thousand, mainly young people, who attended President Obama’s visit and speech in the Waterfront in Belfast . It was a good speech which recognised some of the challenges and issues still outstanding from the Good Friday Agreement and subsequent agreements. The President is here as part of the G8 summit. Over the next 48 hours he and the other leaders of some of the world’s richest states will meet in the Lough Erne Hotel resort in County Fermanagh to discuss matters of pressing concern. According to the organisers the agenda for the two day conference ‘will focus on economic issues, specifically trade, tax avoidance matters, transparency on how gas, mining and oil companies function, as well as international violence, and political reform that will allow citizens to hold their governments to account’ . There will also, they say, be a concentration on the civil war that is tearing Syria apart.’   Almost 100,000 people have been killed

This week the Sinn Féin Dáil team introduced a Private Members Bill to repeal the Irish government’s family home tax – property tax which takes effect in July. Fine Gael and Labour combined to vote it down in the Dáil on Wednesday evening. Notwithstanding this Sinn Féin is committed in government to repeal this tax. Our Finance (Local Property Tax Repeal) Bill was about lifting the burden of the government’s unfair property tax from families and households and replacing it with alternative measures to raise taxes, including a wealth tax. It was about undoing one of many bad policy decisions taken by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in the past two years. Fine Gael and the Labour Party were elected to undo the damage caused by Fianna Fáil, but they have instead chosen to implement Fianna Fáil policies. This has led to greater inequality, poverty and disadvantage. This week the cuts to the respite care grant take effect and will hit 77,000 of our most vulnerable citizen

There was enormous sadness at the news of the death of Fr. Matt Wallace at the weekend. A county Wexford man he had served as a priest in west Belfast for most of his time as a priest. This is a short blog in memory of a remarkable man and priest. Fr. Matt I slipped up the side of Holy Trinity church and  joined the people standing at the front  door. Matt's clann were standing across from us in a line talking quietly. I noticed how well the church grounds looked. The crowd at the gate thickened. More people joined us. Turf Lodge was hushed. The sun shone. The birds sang. It all seemed surreal. Normal. Then the coffin was lifted from the hearse and carried into the porch of the church.  People started to applaud.  Matt was home. Home in Holy Trinity. His family wept. So did the rest of us. Poor Matt. Such a good straight decent man. Struggling. Giving. Slagging. Praying. But never preaching. Funny that. A priest who didn't preach. Not in the conventional sense.