There are no accidents like…

// October 23rd, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

roadsafetyblog

road accidents. In fact there are no road accidents at all, the Gardai now prefer to call them ‘incidents’ as it is not a good idea to prejudge whether there was in reality anything accidental about what has occurred.

If you drive at 100kph on a 50 kph zone and hit a wall, that isn’t an accident at all but might be more correctly termed negligence. We can’t sue people for causing their own deaths and we rightly do not have crime of suicide anymore. And no it couldn’t have happened to anyone, it could only happen to someone who was driving at such speed in those conditions.

The media with their liking for the dramatic love to show us the scene and talk about the terribleness of the loss of life involved and how sad everyone in the locality is. What the meeja utterly fail to do with remotely the same emphasis is tell people about the outcome of inquests and investigations in the causes and circumstance surrounding the incidents. Pinning the blame appears to be something that happens behind closed doors despite the public nature of the inquests.

When it comes to creating a picture of why we have the level of road deaths we do what tends to happen is the media show us the scene, give us some superficial details and then each individual member of the public makes up their own back story as to what caused it based on their own bias, effing women drivers, slow drivers, drunks, drugs, speeding young fellas, learners, foreigners. Basically, it is a matter of think for yourself on less than all the information and takes your pick. The meeja give us say 30% of the facts and let people draw their own conclusions. The problem with this is that no one’s viewpoints are ever challenged. If they aren’t challenged why would they change?

Since all national politicians are elected based on locality pretty much none of them are going to speak out on the issue in a manner likely to cause hurt to Mary from down the road who lost her youngest in a road crash at 2am in the morning. So it is down to people who aren’t elected to say the necessary but painful truth. Most of the people who die on the roads are complicit in their own deaths. Yes, I guess I do come across as a heartless bastard but we need some less heart and more cop-on applied to the situation.

As part of this is the idea of general grief. We expect public figures to feel grief for people they never met and didn’t know. I’m not going to bed at night weeping for those who are dead in such circumstance. I do feel a general regret for their families but for the people who are dead I don’t feel anything but anger and annoyance. And that is the only feeling that will lead to something being done. There is some old phrase about nothing becoming someone like the manner of their passing, well if it is at the wheel of a car whether drunk or speeding in the dead of night then all that means is you were a fraking idiot.

NUI election process

// October 12th, 2006 // No Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

I’m going to attempt to blog my way through the Seanad election process, in part as a means to open up the process to the great mass of people. And slightly as a form of therapy for myself!

First off, some of the costs involved. The NUI Seanad register costs all of €140 for each copy, both the hard copy and electronic copy versions. They update it every year and it is released into the wild on June 1st. Now that could mean that people need to have two copies if the election takes place after June 1st. A significant issue when you consider that the more recent graduates are probably closer to home.

I’ve not bought a copy yet. Well, it is hardly suitable bedtime reading material. It would seem likely that the register consists of home address for graduates, which given how many of them have flown the coop in recent years and attempted to clamber on the property ladder makes the darn thing next to meaningless for the older graduates.

It should also be noted that current members are advantaged in having an allowance of Oireachtas envelope available to them. This is of considerably more advantage in their case when you consider the dispersed nature of the Seanad electorate. Is it any wonder no one seems to beat an incumbent?

NUI Seanad Declaration

// October 3rd, 2006 // 4 Comments » // Seanad, seanad eireann, seanad reform

I’ve been talking with some people (I believe that is part of the vernacular for this sort of thing) and have decided that in the interests of highlighting a particular issue which I believe warrants attention and which spans party boundaries that I would put myself forward for election for one of the NUI seats in Seanad Eireann.

Cutting to the chase I’m going to be seeking a nomination as a candidate for one of the NUI Seanad seats as a means to give people an opportunity to vote and in doing so highlight the fact that more than a quarter of a century after there was a referendum on it (1979) that graduates of other universities and colleges in Ireland still don’t have a vote for the Seanad. Whatever happened to one person, one vote?

I recognise from the outset that the likelihood of getting elected is considerably limited by the simple fact that as a non-NUI graduate I won’t be easily able to tap into any particular alumni base. However, there are now a considerable number of DCU, UL, QUB, UU graduates and also those from the I.T.s who also hold postgraduate degrees from NUI colleges and vice-versa. I believe that they would look favourably on an opportunity to voice their support for extending the franchise.

In this sense I intend to use the PR-STV voting system as a means to highlight the issue. Much along the idea of a preferenda I am asking people to vote for me No.1 to highlight the issue and then subsequently to transfer to the candidate of their choice thereafter.

If elected, I would seek on my first day in the Seanad to present legislation to reform the election Senators to ensure the principle of one person, one vote is respected within the context of the 6 seats constitutionally set aside for higher education. There was a time when one could continue with the idea that the University of Dublin represented a section of Irish society that needed some particular shielding. Now, it is as likely that the minority tradition in Ireland will have attended some other institution within the state or without. And if the intent is truly to include people from the other tradition on the island then why deny graduates from QUB or UU a vote?

6 seats, one person, one vote.

There will be more information over the coming days here.

Bertie’s few bob

// October 2nd, 2006 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

In his television interview, An Taoiseach clearly indicated that he purchased his current house for ‘closer to €200,000′ and obtained a mortgage to do so after the 93/94 period during which he received €50,000 in the form of what he has described as a ‘loan’. As anyone who has borrowed money from the banks will know the banks require you to indicate if you have any other outstanding loans that may impact on your ability to make your repayments.

Surely, if the money An Taoiseach received was a loan then the bank will have a clear record of this fact. If they do not possess such records it is because it was not a loan or he lied to the bank when making his mortgage application. He either lied to them then or is lying to us now. And it is unusual for someone to be required to provide a lump sum for something like their children’s education in a separation settlement. It would be more the norm to require them to provide that amount when the children require it.

It is hard to believe that An Taoiseach feels that he could as minister for Finance be speaking about the Irish economy in a personal capacity at any time while he was a minister. That he was telling business people domiciled outside the state about what he thought was going to happen in the Irish economy (which is what Senator Tom Kett helpfully has told us Bertie was doing instead of having the craic), receiving money for doing so and yet sees nothing wrong with doing so is beyond GUBU.