Did Ivor ever own Kilcrohane?

// July 15th, 2010 // No Comments » // Seanad

So it now appears that Ivor Callely did indeed transfer ownership of the holiday home in Kilcrohane in April of this year to his wife. Yet given that he was transferring it to her and must thus in theory have owned it prior to this, he didn’t list it in his register of interests in 2006 while a TD nor at the end of last year for 2009 while a member of the Seanad. So is it the case that any property that his wife had an interest in with him wasn’t view by him as needing to be listed? Given that the property was bought in 1992 it seems odd that it just slipped his mind that he owned it for more than a decade and a half.

And to add some local juice to the story the law firm of Sen. Denis O’Donovan (O’Donovan Murphy & Co) handled the land cert for this property back in the mid 90s! This would be the same senator who was on the committee. While there might well have been no contact, it would seem that to ensure that all was seen to be above board that the good Senator might have informed the committee of this and removed himself from reviewing the case.

Is Michael McDowell considering a run for the Seanad?

// March 24th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Seanad, declan ganley, seanad eireann

Reading his interview with the Sindo a few weeks back many would have wondered at his reversal of his long held position over the role and need for the Seanad, then Jason ponders if he could have a future role in Irish politics as a kinder gentler Michael. Though it was queried who could he run for and  where might he run. After all unlike Nixon he couldn’t run for an equivalent lower office such as governor of California because we don’t have them. Mayor of Dublin is likely to be too administrative for someone of the policy inclination of Michael McDowell.

From those seeds I began to wonder if this means that he could consider a run via the university panels for the Seanad. As someone who ran (and might do so again) the biggest single problem is name recognition, even above that of cost. Michael McDowell starts with that as a given. He might be seen by some as a divisive figure and not likely to be that transfer friendly but if he polled reasonably over 12% he would be well placed to get a seat based on previous elections and where else would you get elected in a 3 seater with that.

In other Seanad related matters in recent weeks, we’ve been Feargal Quinn up his profile with an interview in the Sunday Times along with his TV show on rescuing/revamping small retailers. I wonder if he has sensed something in the wind too.

Let’s get Joss Whedon to write Ireland’s Eurovision entry

// February 5th, 2010 // No Comments » // Seanad, Uncategorized

I was thinking about stuff yesterday and the idea occurred to me that someone who would be perfect to organise the writing of a decent tune for Ireland’s Eurovision would be Joss Whedon. Who else from outside the usual suspects would get the sheer scale of Eurovision? I mean the UK is thinking of sending Jedward (I hope we aren’t)

While I’ve love a number like this

but this with some drama thrown in might be just the thing

or something with a hint of the power ballad about it

Update : Hat-tip to Ewan for suggesting we go with Neil Patrick Harris.

Who is that mystery man with Martin Cullen?

// January 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Seanad, Uncategorized

The Irish times apparently doesn’t know who this mystery man is*. Well, I can reveal that it’s none other than fellow UL grad Ian Noctor who from what I recall was working with Monica Leech at the time. Given his CV it somewhat surprising that no one at the Irish Times could identify him. And I don’t believe his presence in this photo would lead anyone to think that he was involved in an inappropriate relationship with Brian Cowen.

*I was tempted to say the mystery man is Brian Cowen but that was too obvious even for me.

An open letter on Seanad Reform

// October 21st, 2009 // 8 Comments » // Seanad, enda kenny, fine gael, seanad eireann, seanad reform

The proposal that Fine Gael policy should be to abolish the Seanad after the next election as announced by the party leader Enda Kenny leaves me in two minds. As a means to put down a marker to the government and the Seanad more generally that reform of politics must happen now or else, it is without equal. This reform can start this side of Christmas by extending the franchise beyond TCD and the NUI by legislation, and with notice of a referendum on wider reform to be put before the people by the time of the next summer recess. The choice is now very stark: reform or die.

I am quite sure that this idea will have widespread popular support amongst the public. Yet the mere popularity of an idea is no reflection on its merit. Though I understand and indeed share in the view that the charade of reform has gone on too long, I also believe that a genuine case can be made for the need for bicameral system given the enormously local focus that the current electoral system forces upon TDs. That is the work that TDs do and must do in order to be elected, and a reduction from 166 to 124 in the number elected in this way will not shift the burden sufficiently to allow major change to occur.

We should be in no doubt; the general public are debating ideas considerably more unthinkable than the mere abolition of the Seanad. If such debate continues to occur in places ignored or unheard by party politics then it will be to the detriment of us all. For the moment I would ask that the policy should be one of reform now or die, rather than die now. For that reason, I would ask that the policy to be adopted be with the proviso that it would be reviewed should substantive political reform be implemented prior to the next general election. We should say that we are planning to act but if the government were to implement, not simply announce or propose or set up a commission or look for another report, but actually implement reforms that will match the parameters of cost reduction, increased powers of scrutiny and compellability for committees as outlined over the last few days then we would be prepared to give it the chance to work. This has the advantage of throwing the focus back onto the lack of action by all the government parties and also sets an immediate clock ticking on the issue with concrete milestones that all the issue to be revisited to our advantage. If there is no move on the university seats by Christmas say then it becomes topical again, if there is no bill and referendum by the summer recess then the same. We can keep the pressure on the government at each step. Let us accept that the Seanad is now drinking in the last chance saloon but we should not be so rude as to eject it before it has finished its drink and had the chance to demonstrate, really demonstrate that it can change.

Yet as someone who stood independently for the Seanad in 2007 in large part on the issue of reform, I am minded that party members of all major Irish political parties have no substantive input into the formulation of party policy. Ard Fheiseanna of all hues have long passed into the realm of mere staged managed speaking and photo opportunities for election candidates. A process colluded in by the media who hype up the merest prospect of any real debate as a sign of in-fighting and division instead of the sign of vibrancy it really is. While a leader should and must have the right to initiate policy ‘on the hoof’ in reaction to events, no events have occurred in the last week requiring such a policy shift.

Now more than ever, we need politics to be a genuine battleground of ideas, new and, if long neglected, old. These ideas must be examined, debated, tested and contested at every step. Political parties exist because they are a means to reflect and express the collective views of their members, from the person at the branch level to the highest of our public representatives. After all, it is those members who have to argue the case for those views to the wider citizenry in the hard slog of canvassing, leafleting, and ultimately by standing as candidates for election. That is why it is necessary for there to exist some real means for their views to be heard in advance of most policy decisions. Party members, even elected representatives, should not be placed in a position of having to ‘like it or lump it’ when it comes to the adoption of policy. At the very least, the views of members should have the chance to be heard on policy.

I will say this, the fact that Fine Gael are the ones who stand to gain most in the next Seanad elections means the party can’t be accused as the government will be of changing the rules because they are going to lose out in the next elections.

PfG - is it a mandate to gerrymander the next Oireachtas?

// October 13th, 2009 // No Comments » // Seanad, green party, seanad eireann, seanad reform

The Program for Government: a possible mandate for a gerrymander?

An interesting constitutional problem, thrown up by the outcome of the local elections, which has not as yet been covered in the mainstream media is that no government comprised of FF and any likely set of partners can now to command a majority in the Seanad after the next general election.

Even if they were to form a government with someone like the Labour party, they would end up falling just short. Forming a government with anyone else from SF to the Greens and independents or all of the above does not even come close to a Seanad majority, even with the Taoiseach’s 11 thrown in.

I recall some casual references to this amongst friends at the time of the local elections counts about how this would impact on the Seanad and a few people have written about it on-line Michael Cosgrave for one but no one in the mainstream press that I can find. It could be that the story wasn’t sexy or imminent enough when the counts were happening and then simply fell off the radar. Yet it has important implications in that FF would only be able to claim a partial victory in the next general election no matter what happens in the Dail.

Coupled with this are effects within the FF organisation with the knowledge that the lifeboats that would be available to those who lost out will be much reduced. Looking back over recent electoral history I can’t find FF ever going below 17 seats even in opposition; they did have only 11 Senators in 1954 which was a time of considerable electoral turmoil with new parties being formed. With the surety of 20 or so Seanad seats on the back of their storing local presence, FF was always able to install a mixture of Senators who had different roles: some were bright new prospects for the next general election and there were those who had been just deposed but who still might make it back, and then there were a couple of Seanad only heads. With only a dozen seats now likely to be available if they were not in government that mixture simply would not be possible. And the role of HQ in selecting candidates would again come under scrutiny with such limited chances of success.

Looking at the change in numbers in more detail, in 2007 of the major parties FF had 556 votes, FG had 385 votes and Labour had 129 votes. After the changed landscape of the local elections of 2009, it is now likely that FF would have 218 cllrs + the new Dail members and those outgoing 28 Senators. On current polls that would be under 300 votes, even exceeding the polls would leave them only on about 320.

FG in contrast would start with circa 340 votes from the councils alone and perhaps another 80 to 90 more votes from new TDs and outgoing members of the Seanad ending up well north of 400 perhaps even a possibly 420 or more. Lab could have 160/170 votes from councils and TDs. The remaining 200 odd votes are scattered across SF, smaller parties and independents; a good number of who are FF gene pool so there is a bit of hope for the party. Yet even in the best case scenario that the next election was to throw up the unlikely possibility that the Dail was to be returned exactly as it is now FF would still start with little more than 300 votes in the Seanad elections and would struggle to maintain even close to the number of outgoing Seanad members they had.

I’ve done some rough sums below and am in the process of running through the previous election with the new numbers to confirm this outcome. I’ve started with the scenario most benign to current government as the current Dail arithmetic is preserved, and the same rough proportions of non-aligned councillors and Oireachtas members as before to support the FF, FG and Lab candidates. SF continues to lack the votes to get anyone elected on their own and it would seem with Labour no longer requiring their support that they would be on their own. The reason the alignment of independent is so benign is that post the general election and with a government formed of the Greens and PDs, independents would be more inclined to support a FF Seanad candidate as they would necessarily have access to the levers of power. So it is possible that it could get worse.
Guide: Panel Name Total Number of Seats/ Current seat allocation and Quota in 2007

Cultural and Educational Panel 5 / FF 3 FG 1 Lab 1 Quota 179
FF might even struggle to elect 2 in the 5 seater Cultural and Educational Panel where they got 3 the last time. It’s that bad for them. More likely is for them to get the 2 though.

Administrative Panel 7 seats / FF 4 FG 2 Lab 1 Quota 134
FF would solidly have the votes for 2 seats but beyond that for 3 seats could be a real problem. Not an insurmountable one as while there are no PDs and only 2 Greens, there are a few ex PD cllrs and gene pool FFers to round things out. But if there is an insurrection about candidate selection and too divided and internal competitive a ticket then that 3rd seat would slip away.

Agricultural Panel 11 / FF 5 FG 4 Lab 1 SF 1 Quota 90
3 seats should be safe here but the 4th is likely to be a bridge to fair.

Industrial and Commercial Panel 9 / FF 5 FG 3 Lab 1 Quota 107
FG would start with 4 in the bag and likely another one

Labour Panel 11 / FF 5 FG 4 Lab 2 quota 90
FG would have 5 here and possibly 6 if FF were to end up swapping places with them on 3 seats with Lab most likely getting 2.

Likely Outcomes
So FF would be looking at getting from the Labour panel 3 + Ag Panel 3 + C&E 1/2 Admin 2 + I & C 2/3 leading to a worst case situation of 11 seats and a best case of 13. So even adding in the Taoiseach’s nominees of 11 they would have a minority in the Seanad come what may. A period of cohabitation would be in order. The most likely outcome is 12 seats.

FG would have Labour panel 5/6 + Ag Panel 5/6 + C&E 2/3 Admin 3/4 + I & C 4/5 Worst case 19 Best case 24. Most likely

Lab would be able to get only the same one seat per panel this time though this time without needing the assistance of SF. Without the help of Labour SF would most likely lose their one seat as it is hard to see the various independent and the more generally left leaning groupings giving SF the advantage of a Seanad seat.

Is it absolutely impossible for FF and Lab to get enough for the Taoiseach’s 11 to bring them over the top? No. But is it likely? A strong no is the answer to that too.

I had been looking at this for a few weeks now but I have to wonder what implications this has on the new Electoral Commission’s (as announced in the PfG document) plans to yet again report on a new electoral system for the Seanad. Might a charge of gerrymandering be levelled at the new Program for Government? This charge would be most easily made if the changes result in FF and the Greens being able to dilute the influence of the local authority members on the Seanad make-up. A not unreasonable idea but it would be a real pity if this idea came to be seen as FF changing the goalposts once they could no longer win.

Clear breach of data protection act as Tanaiste seeks to interfere in Seanad election.

// June 27th, 2007 // No Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

Dan Sullivan, an NUI Seanad panel candidate, has lodged a formal complaint with the Data protection office after it was revealed in the Irish Times that the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, had circulated a letter within FF giving electronic access to the NUI panel register containing the personal educational details of over 100,000 graduates of the NUI.

Dan a UL graduate originally from Killorglin, Co. Kerry, seeking to highlight the failure to extend the franchise to those outside TCD and NUI and is also campaigning to oppose the HSE’s introduction of residential charges for disabled adults attempting to live independently. His campaign information is available at www.missteps.ie

Only now that the main government party fears they might lose their majority in the Seanad are they falling over their own legislation in order to reach out to NUI graduates.

“It is remarkable that Fianna is now so concerned about making contact with graduates when it could have put in place measures such as allowing the revenue to send registration forms to graduates based on the PPS/RSI numbers that the colleges have on record.” said Dan. “The government has had plenty of opportunities to fix the register but it is only now that they are fighting for their own political lives that they can be bothered to do anything. “

It is also suggested by minister Cowen that the register be retained by local Fianna Fail members of use in constituency business perhaps including targeted mails shots to graduates when the next local elections come. The government really appear to think that the personal records of Irish citizens are theirs to do with as they wish in order for them to win office. Allowing people to have copies of a confidential document to peruse at their leisure and for their own enjoyment is act of gross misconduct

The NUI itself has not made the register available in this manner online because of concerns about secure access. The NUI should seek to recover the files in the possession of Fianna Fail and if possible access their histories to see if they can ascertain whose copy of the register it is and action must be taken to sanction that those involved. If I had circulated the register in this fashion I would be subject to sanction.

It is a clear breach of the documented understanding under which NUI Seanad panel candidates were allowed to purchase copies of the register for a fee of €149. It would seem that in addition to a breach of data protection legislation that Fianna Fail may also have infringed on the copyright of the documents involved. “Fianna Fail passing around for free what others candidates had to pay for in order to cover the cost of maintaining the registers is pretty rich in my view “, said Dan.

It is even more peculiar that someone would have passed these documents on to a marketing company who it was reported in the Sunday Times sought €5,000 as a “modest” sum for updating and maintaining the register. A feat that could be done for no cost if the data held by the colleges was reconciled with that held by the revenue. It is also unclear what future use the marketing company will put the register to. The findings of the analysis of the register carried out by a direct marketing company would imply that the government should have thought about addressing the real issues with the register rather than mere titillation over people from the early 1900s being on the register.

This matter is made all the more serious as the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner is part of the department of finance, and the letter has been sent by the Minister for Finance. It would seem when the rules are hard or inconvenient the first reaction of the government is to ignore them.

While one of the FF candidates, Sean O’Connor has spent his time and connections with the press making great play of the presence of people who are most likely dead on the register, there has been comparatively little attention given to the decreasing numbers of graduates being added to the register year on year despite the considerable increase in those graduating. In recent years the increase in numbers on the register is around one thousand per year for the entire NUI, yet UCD alone is graduating four times that number each year.

Many candidates are operating with limited finances and have to account for all donations and services rendered to us. Distributing work such as tracking down graduates would be something we would have to pay for, yet Fianna Fail are farming it out to their membership to the benefit of their selected candidates while make no record of the donation of such work.

It would seem appropriate that the lead FF candidates Dr. John Hillery and Sean O’Connor who were intended to be the prime beneficiaries of this intrusion into people’s person record should now consider withdrawing from the Seanad races for TCD and NUI.

ENDS

Yes, it reads weird but I’ve sent this out as press release to one or two people and will send it more widely tomorrow morning. However you, dear readers, get it first.

My nominators and supporters

// June 24th, 2007 // No Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

I noticed that Shane Ross who running for the TCD panel has made big play of who his nominators are. Amongst them are Willie Walsh, David McWilliams and Sarah Carey.

My nominators and assenters are not quite as well known I suppose, but I think they are quite broadly representative of NUI graduates and regular Irish people generally. They might not be quite the council of ten perhaps rule by the great and the good is something that democracy was designed to avoid.

I would like to acknowledge Professor Don Barry, President of UL who offered to sign up as a nominator. However, I had at that point taken a number of birds in the hand as it were and my list was completed.

I’m not going to name them as I’m the one putting my head in the public eye not them:

My start half were from Killorglin in one way,shape or form

1) I had three cousins in the one family who are NUI graduates but it turned out none of them were on the register thankfully one of their wives was. She is a teacher. From Killorglin

2) Then there was a friend of hers from Killorglin who is also a teacher.

3) The daughter of a former work colleague of my father’s, also a teacher. From Killorglin.

4) The brother of a mate from Killorglin who working for a company involved in construction.

5) A mate from school in Killorglin who is a partner in a law firm in Dublin.

6) A work colleague at UL and someone I did some teaching for.

7) A political acquaintance who is probably much better known than I’m ever likely to be. Originally from Meath now living in Dublin.

A colleague at UL from Tipperary.

9) A colleague at UL from Carlow.

10) A former housemate and a fellow engineer who is from Westmeath.

I must be doing something right

// June 23rd, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

Interesting to see yet more pieces in the national papers on Saturday on the issue of Seanad Reform this time in the Independent from my fellow Kerryman and then from a TCD candidate in the Irish Times. And also on the cover of the Irish edition of the Sunday Times. Yet the mainstream press appears solid in its steely resolve not to allow some upstart who went to UL be the spokesperson for an issue that affects them directly.

After all who do we think we are? Instead why not give an NUI graduate or TCD graduate a platform to say how they feel our pain and hope that we will go away. Well, I won’t, the issue won’t and we won’t. It is an issue that is straightforward to fix and long past time to fix it. And I suspect everyone knows it.

Not that this issue alone would be sufficient to get anyone elected. However, it would seem that at least some of the candidates are twigging that there is a constituency out there who recognise the urgent need to reform the Seanad and are eager to elect someone who is hungry to get cracking on the work involved. Combine this with the growing possibility of the government lacking a working majority in the Seanad and you get a concerted effort from them not to allow someone from outside the government parties get a seat.

Indeed, I had another NUI candidate call me today to emphasis their personal commitment to extending rights to those of us outside the NUI or TCD. I reckon that as more folks are seeing that there is merit in the points I’ve been making, the more it will start to everyone’s agenda.

Misquoting Gandhi, I think we’re possibly in the third phase.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then some fight you while others join you, then you win.”

Recycling old promises for Seanad

// June 18th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

Interesting how any number of people are claiming how interested they are in Seanad Reform now that we have an election but they were remarkably silent

Take Joe O’Toole who said in 1997 while campaigning for election that “On the canvass, however, he has discovered the depth of resentment among graduates of universities other than the NUI or Trinity who are not entitled to a Seanad vote. “I agree. Why on earth should votes be restricted to these two universities, one established by a queen and the other by a cardinal. If elected I intend proposing changes.”"

Doing something would have made sense even his own perspective of looking to protect his seat as primary teaching graduates of Mary Immaculate and St. Patrtick’s Drumcondra can no longer vote. Sadly no action has been taken.