Léargas

On the signing of the Good Friday Agreement George Mitchel famously said that that was the easy bit. The hard part was going to be implementing it. And he was right. The twists and turns from April 10th 1998 to April 2013 have been many. At times the process has collapsed. At other times it looked as if securocrats and the wreckers were going to succeed and the whole peace process was going to unravel. But with patience and perseverance 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement was achieved we have stable power sharing arrangements and political institutions that are working and continue to enjoy popular support. So successful has it been that the Agreement is seen by many internationally has an example of how deep rooted conflicts can be resolved. International delegations are regular visitors to the Assembly, and unionist and republican leaders frequently travel to trouble spots around the world to speak about our unique Agreement. Of course, it isn’t a perfect agreement. It wa...

Margaret Thatcher was a hugely divisive figure in British politics. Her right wing politics saw Thatcher align herself with some of the most repressive and undemocratic regimes in the late 20 th century – including apartheid South Africa and Chile’s Pinochet. Her description of the ANC and Mandela as terrorists was evidence of her ultra conservative view of the world. She championed the deregulation of the financial institutions, cuts in public services and was vehemently anti-trade union. She set out to crush the trade union movement. The confrontation with the miners and the brutality of the British police was played out on television screens night after night for months. The current crisis in the banking institutions and the economic recession owe much to these policies. And she went to war in the Malvinas. But for the people of Ireland, and especially the north, the Thatcher years were among some of the worst of the conflict. For longer than any other British Prime Ministe...

  Drumboe was cold but the welcome was warm. This year the powers that be had decided I would be the main speaker at the Drumboe commemoration in County Donegal. People were glad to see me and I them. The surrounding mountain peaks had coverings of snow but unlike Belfast there was none on the roads or footpaths. But it was bitterly cold. It had a sharpness that cut to the bone and left ears numb. The Drumboe commemoration is held each Easter at the republican memorial to the IRA volunteers of County Donegal who from every generation have fallen in pursuit of freedom and sovereignty. The Celtic Cross and the small plot that holds it, can be found at the end of the main street of Stranorlar, just before you cross the arched bridge that brings the traveller from the north side of the River Finn, to Ballybofey on the south side. Stranorlar was among the first garrison towns in Ulster in the 16 th century built after the plantation. Even today there are no schools or c...

  US Secretary of State John Kerry   This blog was written as I returned from the USA two weeks ago following a few hectic days marking St. Patrick's feast day. I get to travel a lot even when I don't feel like it. From the Meath East by-election to Washington DC is a tidy number of miles but there is a rhythm to stress free travelling which I follow now for years. The key is not to get stressed, to be on time and to be mindful that there is an end to every journey. It is also a good thing not to be overwhelmed by schedules   - especially Sinn Féin schedules. Go with the flow. And get a walk when you can as often as you can. So from Belfast to Newark across the Atlantic in my sleep before solid ground welcomes my feet and the rest of me to the USA. A few train switches and then the almost three hours railway trek to DC. Nineteen hours later and collapse into bed in a downtown hotel room. Weather? Cold, wet and windy. Sinuses on a Tet offensive. Not enough ...

Today I hosted a briefing in the Dáil by parents from the Happy New Ear group. The group have been campaigning for the introduction of a bilateral cochlear implant programme. Currently, children in this state who are profoundly deaf only receive one cochlear implant, rather than the two which is accepted as best international practice. I urged TDs and Seanadóirí who attended todays briefing  to become champions for those children and adults in need of bilateral cochlear implants and to increase our lobbying of the Minister for Health in advance of the budget estimates in June for Budget 2014. This is a very winnable campaign. It is an issue that the government can fix. It needs political will. The HSE has commissioned a business plan to be submitted in June for inclusion in its estimates for Budget 2014. We need to increase our efforts to ensure that this business plan is comprehensive and effective and that the necessary funds are included for a bilateral cochlear im...

  Two weeks ago the European Council met. The meeting focused on the “European Semester” and the economic priorities for the EU in 2013. It is clear, both from the economic priorities emanating from the Council and its approach to the Cyprus crisis, that the EU is wedded to the failed policies of austerity. There is nowhere the dynamism and determination needed to tackle the jobs crisis across the EU.   However it is the events in Cyprus that have dominated political and public attention in the period since that meeting.   This morning in the Dáil there was an opportunity for party leaders to speak on the Council meeting but most speakers concentrated Cyprus. It is there that we see the real dysfunction at the heart of the EU approach to the economic crisis.   The fact that the Euro Group, including Minister Noonan, would sign up to a bailout which contained a levy on bank depositors under and over €100k, while sparing Senior Bondholders in the banks, ...

This week saw Sinn Féin publish a Bill which seeks to repeal the Property Tax. The Financial Local Property Tax Repeal Bill is about lifting the burden of this unfair tax off families and households and to replace it with alternative measures to raise taxes, including a wealth tax. The record of this government in its two years in power has been appalling. Fine Gael and Labour were elected to undo the damage of Fianna Fáil but have chosen instead to implement Fianna Fáil policies. The government’s austerity policies are driving up poverty and disadvantage. Emigration and unemployment are at record levels; public services, particularly health, are in crisis and there are more cuts to be imposed this year; the economy is flat lined and another new tax – the family home tax – is to be forced on households in the coming months.   Both Labour and Fine Gael opposed the property tax in opposition. The Taoiseach said in the Fine Gael election manifesto that: “ Fianna Fail’s p...