The Sinking of the Coalition
April 7, 2024
Seven Australian World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers lost their lives after being targeted by Israeli forces in Gaza the other day.
Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital devastated in two-week battle leaving 100’s of Plaestinians killed clear evidence Israeli troops are systematically attacking hospitals across Gaza.
Its clear for all to see Israel wants no safe refuge for any Palestinians in GAZA. Hamas is merely cover for the real agenda which is to annex GAZA, drive out Palestinians grabbing their land which they eventually will use to resettle Israel occupiers.
Meanwhile the US to continue to arm the invader. Lets hope Israel steps back from the brink and chooses CEASEFIRE soon.
Congrats to Leo Varadkar for seeing the writing on the wall. He avoids the drubbing the electorate will give Fine Gael in coming elections. 17 FG TD’s to step down and not run in next election. Likewise Simon Coveney, Deputy Leader of Fine Gael, to step down. They would all appear to be leaving a sinking ship.
Recent referendum results have exposed the bubble of FF/FG coalition. Efforts to drum up support for a referendum considered wasteful, unnecessary, uncalled for, ill-conceived and totally out of step with the views of the Irish public, failed.
Its likely the Irish public have woken up to realise the referendum bubble, occupying the minds of the coalition, extends to more than the wording of the recent referendum.
The coalition bubble extends to mindless propaganda elsewhere, especially in regard to Housing and Health. In housing, the public are vacuously brainwashed with the mantra that “Housing for All” of Fianna Fail, is not only working, but housing is taking off.
From https://www.darraghobrien.ie/
“We were the first political party to recognise the unique importance of home ownership in Ireland. Our ‘Housing for All’ policy, is a plan which sets us on a pathway of delivering
NEWLY ANNOUNCED MEASURES UNDER HOUSING FOR ALL:
- Reducing the cost of construction by scrapping development levies required to connect new homeswith services (roads, water etc) from 25th April. This will deliver average saving of €12,650 per home.
- Vacant Property Refurbishment Grant Increases (Croí Cónaithe) of up to €50,000 for vacant properties and up to €70,000 for derelict properties. It has been extended to cover houses built upto 2007 & available for properties intended for rental as well as owner-occupied”
made this environment difficult and more highly contested. The termination of the SHD
process and introduction of the LRD process at local authority level will improve this general
environment, as will the updating of development plans in the light of the NPF, with
appropriate OPR oversight.”
General government taxes, including social contributions, are now in excess of €100 billion and have doubled compared with 10 years ago. These receipts make up almost 95% of all general government revenue.
In 2022, more than half (51%) of taxes came from direct taxes. This included income taxes amounting to €31 billion and corporation tax of almost €23 billion.
In the last three years, corporation tax receipts have almost doubled from €12 billion in 2020 to €23 billion in 2022.
Taxes on products accounted for 26% of taxes, including VAT of €19 billion and excise duties of €6 billion.
VAT increased by 16% in 2022 compared with 2021.
PRSI receipts were €14 billion in 2022, up 19% on 2021.
The amount of corporation tax compared to income tax ” €31 billion and corporation tax of almost €23 billion. “
What a giant war chest of money from corporation tax? Government currently bake in spending from corporation tax at €24bn.
Let’s take a walk around the coalition’s record bubble spending over the past number of years and look at the state of our economy.
Taoiseach in waiting Simon Harris says he will builld 50,000 houses per year up to 300,000 to 2030.
Housing policy to date has been an abysmal failure with rising prices in housing along with shortages insuring young Irish people are priced out of the market for the foreseeable.
Nonsensical and absurd interviews regularly given by Darragh O’Brien Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage regularly tout his successful achievements of homes built numbering allegedly 30,000 last year (lots of them studio rooms rent only, alongside grant incentives to first time buyers.
Only the clueless would not accept the abysmal failure FF policies keeping supply consistently below need therefore guaranteeing rising house prices.
I should include a particular reference to his nonsensical ‘shared equity’ and first time buyers grant that cost taxpayers potentially billions in waste. The truth is grant assistance is pocketed by developers. If the cost of a property is X and the developer knows the purchaser has a grant of Y, the developer raises the cost of the property to X + Y.
FF policy is money down the drain for Irish taxpayers whether its building the most expensive Children’s hospital in the world with a credit card to charge what they will to Irish taxpayers, given to developers; or, grant assistance that goes straight into the pockets of developers.
The answer is to build houses regulated to be built and sold at guaranteed and fixed prices for both developers and house purchasers.
There is a bigger mess involved than described above, but that’s for another day.
In regard to building of accommodation for asylum seekers, the mess is more absurd.
Its curious to see the developing accommodation crisis for asylum seekers against the background of the failure of government to deal with the housing crisis for native Irish people. Failure of government has been due to state reliance on the private sector alongside the state’s unwillingness to provide public housing of its own accord eg comparable to the rate of building of Dublin/Cork/Limerick suburbs in the 1950’s that were build directly by the state with local authorities.
“The Department of Integration has set a target of 14,000 State-owned beds by 2028 as part of a move away from full reliance on private providers.
The announcement comes amid heightened scrutiny of the Government’s handling of asylum-seeker accommodation, with the State currently not able to provide housing for all male arrivals – in contravention of international commitments.
Moves to accommodate asylum seekers in some towns’ only operational hotel have led to angry backlashes, including at the D Hotel in Drogheda and the Racket Hall hotel in Roscrea.”
It would appear international pressure with the embarrassment this has caused is forcing government to do what it has failed to do in the housing sector, namely, to reach beyond the private sector and build public housing alongside private housing.
Believing this coalition will deliver on its promises is another matter entirely. The coalition bubble has failed to deliver except for making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
HSE and government policy in health has been an unmitigated “trolley park” disaster
https://www.irishtimes.com/health/2024/03/02/whats-wrong-with-university-hospital-limerick/
“A reconfiguration of services in 2009 saw the closure of emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s in Limerick city, and their replacement by minor injury units that shut their doors at 8pm.
That left the midwest with only one model 4 hospital, the biggest type of hospital that has a 24/7 emergency department, an intensive care unit (ICU) and specialities.
“It’s a mathematical problem,” says Daly. “You have over 400,000 people heading to one A&E in the region when there are five or six of them in Dublin. It will never be fixed until they are reopened.”
By way of comparison with the midwest, the south/southwest has a catchment population of 900,000, two model 4 hospitals and three model 3 hospitals, a type of hospital that provides 24/7 acute surgery and medicine, and critical care.”
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41351614.html
Government’s role in the above mess currently led by Stephen Donnelly Misiter for Health has been a complete debacle fed by chaotic risk management and planning disaster. There are 150 new beds in the pipeline. There is no consideration of reopening as model 3 hospitals the closures of Ennis, Nenagh and John’s against growing population needs. Instead,
“A new multi-million euro HSE nursing home in Tipperary will be run by a private provider as a step-down facility for University Hospital Limerick instead of for elderly residents, the HSE has confirmed.
Local Labour TD Alan Kelly condemned the decision as “absolutely disgraceful” while the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation said it was “extremely disappointing”. The move has also been criticised by advocates in the Midwest Hospital Campaign.
The 50-bed nursing home, which is nearing completion, had been set to replace St Conlon’s nursing home in Nenagh following infrastructure concerns identified by nursing home regulator Hiqa.”
The chaotic mess led by government and HSE is founded upon sky rocketing salaries for public servants lacking accountability for the above mess.
The structure of the HSE is not fit for purpose it needs assessment and evaluation data to measure against its failure to supply the needs of a modern health service.
Too much is spent on wasteful salaries that would be eye watering in the private sector never mind the public sector. We’ve too many unperforming chiefs and too few frontline workers contrained by too few sources, namely, hospital beds required to service a growing poplulation.
The FF and FG propaganda bubble fed by corporation tax windfalls that disguises incompetence and falling standards will hopefully be given a pin next time around in coming elections. Meanwhile, we’ve the spectacle of 15 td’s stepping down as they escape the sinking ship.
Hopefully, the verdict of the Irish public will be similar to that verdict given by the Irish public in recent referenda.
Hard to believe they could have made such a mess over the past 12 years, but they’ve outdone themselves.
Its surprising we’ve not seen such a plethora of resignations from FF in recent times. We’ve not been lucky enough for Micheál Martin leader of FF to take accountability for his role in the mess and gift the Irish public with his resignation.
We’ll have to wait for coming elections to see to that.
till again…..
Extraordinary Political Event
March 13, 2024
I don’t usually have time to listen to Joe Duffy on RTE Radio 1. While driving I turned the radio on, the day shortly after the Referendum ‘No’ result came in comprehensively beating the government’s proposed ‘Yes’ vote.
I listened to a long list of contributors from highly intelligent women mostly, giving their reasons why they voted ‘No’. As a man, I agreed with their criticisms of the referendum campaign and I was encouraged as they were by the result that showed the respect Irish people have for the role of motherhood endorsed by our constitution, their support for those with disabilities and their carers, who pointed out the deep flaws in the proposed amendments to our constitution.
But it was one woman who spoke I found the most interesting contributor of all. She described how she was a ‘Yes’ voter. She had not paid too much attention to the campaign weary of hearing both sides of the argument she often found confusing.
She said she was embarrassed that she had taken the government parties on trust and it was only on listening to the result and paying attention to the comprehensive arguments against the ‘Yes’ vote, that she now completely regretted her ‘Yes’ vote. She vowed she would never let the same thing happen again. She would not take the government on trust ever again, but would examine the detail of any government proposals they would put forward in future!
The above has profound implications for our political system. Our system hitherto has been tribal though some argue this has been changing in recent years. Many individuals vote as their families have voted for generations. The tradition in certain families was to vote Fianna Fail or Fine Gael as was the custom of their families across generations.
The greatest political event signaled by the recent referendum result is not the comprehensive ‘No Vote’, it is rather the comprehensive loss of trust of the electorate in their politicians, in their tribal allegiances. The electorate has woken up from sleep walking to the tune of their politicians.
Kudos to the outstanding contribution of Michael McDowell with his forensic, legal analysis of the extreme flaws in the ‘Yes’ campaign’s arguments and the constitutional mayhem this would lead to in our courts challenged to deliberate on “Durable Relationships”. His experience as a ‘Senior Counsel’ was invaluable to the ‘No Campaign’.
Beliieving the campaign a completely wasteful government distraction from emergency measures required in housing, health and education, I avoided writing about it satisfied with my ‘No Vote’.
Kudos deserved by the outstanding contribution of the former Sinn Fein member, leader of Aontu, Peadar Toibin https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/aontu-only-political-party-advocating-for-no-no-vote-on-upcoming-referendums-on-care-and-family/a429817941.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_McDowell_(politician)
One can only half imagine the outcome for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael if referendums were held on
- Government’s Housing Policy
- Government’s Trolley Crisis
- Government’s Treatment of Asylum Seekers
Government will postpone any plans it might have had to hold an election next June but it must hold an election by March of next year.
It is likely government parties will be trounced in that coming election. Just as in the Portuguese election its likely the growing divide between rich and poor in Ireland, failure of government to address needs in Housing and Health https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Portuguese_legislative_election
will see government parties and government ministers held accountable for their failures.
Hopefully more people will wake up to the need for detailed examination of legislation and government policies, in particular, Fianna Fail’s ridiculous and nonsensical failure of a ‘Housing Policy’, with even more holes in it than Michael Martin’s support for ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum.
Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien wants to future proof planning legislation restricting the rights of citizens to seek judicial reviews of decisions amde by An Bord Pleanala.
Pretty soon we’ll have the legislative embodiment in Ireland of George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ led by an increasingly totalitarian Ireland bureacucracy led by politicians such as Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar compelling and dictating obedient/compliance to the EU.
Unless we wake up, ditch current government by saying NO to proposed Planning Legislation making a bigger mess, to give one example.
I’ve not mentioned asylum seekers being treated like animals, or the tourist industry being destroyed by totaliitarian government refusing to build decent accommodation for native and emigrant alike.
As in Laurel and Hardy, the recent referendum result is ‘Another Nice Mess You’ve Got Us Into’… I’ll leave you to make sense of the parade of government TD’s announcing they voted NO, even though their parties told them to vote ‘Yes’. Should they be expelled? Can we believe what they say, if they stay?
till again
Ending Wars!
February 26, 2024
We were led to believe rearming the Ukraine to the level it has been currently funded would lead to the expulsion of Russian troops from the Ukraine and the defeat of Putin forces. In a significant turnaround, Russia is now on the offensive and Ukrainian forces are in retreat.
Its time to call a halt to the carnage and the huge cost of war in civilian and loss of life on the battlefield. Its time to negotiate a new treaty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donbas
” Minsk Protocol, this was signed on 5 September 2014.[70] As this failed to stop the fighting, another agreement, called Minsk II was signed on 12 February 2015.[71] This agreement called for the eventual reintegration of the Donbas republics into Ukraine, with a level of autonomy.[71] The aim of the Russian intervention in the Donbas was to establish pro-Russian governments that, upon reincorporation into Ukraine, would facilitate Russian interference in Ukrainian politics.[72] The Minsk agreements were thus highly favourable to the Russian side, as their implementation would accomplish these goals.[73]”
The largely pro Russian and Russian speaking population with large ethnic origins from inside Russia itself has made this region a hotbed of pro Russian and pro Ukrainian Independence conflict. Both East and West have stoked the fires of conflict with Russia fearing NATO and missile threat from this region pointed at Russia and vice versa.
Its time to stabilise this region bringing peace to both sides. Let a treaty guarantee borders allowing Pro Ukrainian citizens of the Dombas to leave the region if they so wish while allowing pro Russian citizens to live there in safety and peace. Donetsk, largest city on the Dombas has been under attack virtually since 2014 in a silent and hidden war that has gripped the Dombas since 2014.
War mongerers in the West would seek to continue to pour billions into arms sales to Ukraine just as the same war mongering hawks supported the Vietnam War to continue it indefinitely.
Its clear the US Congress just as they stopped the Vietnam War, can block the funding that will end the conflict in the Ukraine.
The notion that Russia has any further goals in mind other than the annexation of the pro Russian Dombas region, is nonsense. If true, it would guarantee Putin’s defeat amounting to an act of self destruction for Russia.
Dombas has been the cause of dispute between Ukraine and Russia. Allowing Russia to control this region in return for a guaranteed peace for Ukraine, Dombas and Russia would bring about a peace the world needs right now.
The alternative is that US will beggar itself funding a war it cannot win, costing untold numbers of lives, massive destruction and damage to countries even beyond the borders of this conflict.
Meanwhile, the US acting like a pariah state stands alone with Israel against the rest of the world refusing to demand immediate ceasefire in Gaza that would save countless numbers of lives of Palestinians with Israeli forces currently aiming to continue its genocide in Rafah.
Extraordinary interventions by Saudi Arabia and China typically show a united front against this terrible and criminal conflict.
Ironically, the credibility of not only the US is at stake, but the very credibility of the UN itself as a force for peace in the world.
What the UN should be debating is the expulsion of the US and Russia from the UN as they are proven to violate the basics tenets of the UN
https://legal.un.org/repertory/art2.shtml
“The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.
1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfil in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.
5. All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter, and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action.
6. [See separate study]
7. [See separate study]”
The right to VETO should be removed from the UN in favour of majority rule.
Its beyond the time we should see UN troops sent by member countries, sending in troops to defend the people of Palestine against annexation and genocide by Israel.
The idea that Israel can destroy Hamas by the annexation of Gaza and the death of circa 30,000 innocent Palestinians, is beyond belief.
Such inhumanity will only inflame Hamas into a force that draws deadly energy from such inhumanity.
Irish history has taught this lesson. Not only is Israel waging a war against Gaza and Hamas, it is waging war against itself.
Till again….
The Sinking of the HSE
February 16, 2024
Part 1
Last remaining hospital in Rafah attacked by Israel:
“Four Gaza patients dead as oxygen cut off during Israel raid on Nasser hospital, doctors say – latest
Rafah in southern Gaza was also hit by Israeli airstrikes ahead of a planned ground invasion into the city…”
Cover pretext was they wanted to locate remains of dead hostages? Why would a hospital rank with infection unable to disinfect surgeries of blood because of lack of cleaning agents, keep dead bodies?
The real reason for the attack on this hospital is to designate no area safe in Southern Gaza including Rafah. They want it destroyed and made unlivable. Their main aim is to herd the population onto a small coastal strip unfit for living Al Yamas https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-aid-groups-say-israel-designated-safe-zone-in-gaza-offers-little-relief/
From there they want the Palestinians evacuated elsewhere in the humanitarian catastrophe that will ensue.
Israel is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan to the east, the Red Sea to the south, Egypt to the southwest, the Mediterranean Sea to the west, and the Palestinian territories – the West Bank along the east and the Gaza Strip along the southwest.
How far these countries are willing to disengaage from the conflict is being tested currently by Israel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_peace_treaty
It is noted ” “The Egypt–Israel peace treaty[1] was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, and Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, and witnessed by Jimmy Carter, President of the United States.[2]“
“The peace treaty between Egypt and Israel was signed 16 months after Egyptian president Anwar Sadat’s visit to Israel in 1977, after intense negotiations. The main features of the treaty were mutual recognition, cessation of the state of war that had existed since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, normalization of relations and the withdrawal by Israel of its armed forces and civilians from the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel had captured during the Six-Day War in 1967. Egypt agreed to leave the Sinai Peninsula demilitarized. The agreement provided for free passage of Israeli ships through the Suez Canal, and recognition of the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba as international waterways, which had been blockaded by Egypt in 1967. The agreement also called for an end to Israeli military rule over the Israeli-occupied territories and the establishment of full autonomy for the Palestinian inhabitants of the territories, terms that were not implemented but which became the basis for the Oslo Accords.
The agreement notably made Egypt the first Arab state to officially recognize Israel,[2] although it has been described as a “cold peace””
The war in Gaza is in breach of the above agreement, Israeli military rule now occupying Gaza, full autonomy of the Palestinian occupants of the territories now apparently replaced with annexation of these territories. Egypt has reinforced its border with tanks prepared to defend its territory.
The question is if Israel moves against Rafah will Egypt and surrounding countries move to defend the Palestinians and their own territory against the Israeli army. This will likely lead to full scale war in the Middle East with Israel having the most to lose. The Suez canal and international waterways will not be capable of defense by Israel, the US and the UK.
Part 11
The HSE has just announced its budget.
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0214/1432338-hse-warns-it-will-need-extra-funding-this-year/
“The HSE recruitment freeze is delaying the handling of complaints about child disability assessments and leading to several new High Court challenges each week.
Ms Justice Niamh Hyland was told there are insufficient staffing levels to deal with the volume of complaints coming through to the National Disability Complaints Office under section 14 of the 2005 Disability Act.
Under the 2005 Act, a qualifying child can apply for an assessment, to be completed within six months, of their health and education needs arising from their disability. They are also entitled to an assessment report and a statement of support services they will receive.
They can complain via a statutory mechanism if they are unhappy with any part of this process.
Last November, an existing embargo preventing hiring managerial and administrative staff was extended to nearly all roles, save for consultants, doctors in training and 2023 graduate nurses and midwives.”
I agree with the embargo. The HSE is a bloated management structure where administrative staff and managers far outnumber the number of frontline staff, be they doctors, nurses or other professionals. Essential staff to deal with complaints made against the HSE should be made an exception to the embargo alongside the provision of other frontline staff.
In an ideal world, half the management jobs in the HSE should be cut and those managerial staff retrained as doctors and nurses. The numbers of hospital beds need to be doubled. Stephen Donnelly Minister for Health interviewed on RTE on the news that University Hospital Limerick had reached unprecedented numbers of those on trolleys, 150; some on trolleys from between 8hrs and 17hrs, he was haplessly pointing to the increased funding of the hospital over the previous year. That staffing levels had been increased.
Throughout the interview he haplessly mentioned the word “Reforms”. I wasn’t sure if he was asking a question as to why “Reforms” had led to this situation, or that “Reforms” were on the way. The interview did not pursue the matter.
The solution to the crisis in Limerick is very simple, more hospital beds!
If there are only 50 hospital beds, it doesn’t matter how many staff there are, or what increased funding staff are given, only 50 patients can occupy those beds, the rest go on trolleys.
Funding of the HSE disappears into a Black hole. A root and branch investigation into the management structure required. There are too many overly paid managers duplicating each others work slowing down the real work that needs to be done.
In Tallaght Hospital as if it were the 1950’s, staff carry around bundles of patient notes in folders. a proper computer system can make bureaucracy efficient and less reliant on useless duplication and wasteful resourcing.
Hospital beds, professional, frontline staff be they doctors, nurses or other medically trained staff, are needed, not an inefficient, broken and sinking HSE weighed down with a management structure unfit for purpose.
The HSE bureaucracy and incompetence of the Minister for Health unable to address the shortcomings of the bureacuratic mess that is the current HSE, will likely see the HSE sink further into failure morass/sinkhole unable to address the needs of the Irish population.
Trolley numbers are likely to exceed past records, waiting lists will increase.
Meanwhile,
“
National Children’s Hospital cost has risen to more than €2.2bn, Donnelly confirms
Varadkar says Government will not be putting any more funding towards the project
“
Well, tendering for the project was so incompetent, they agreed on a vague proposal and approximate cost, then gave a credit card to the developer, that allowed changes to be made on the go, costs added to the card, as changes were made. This ‘make it up as you go approach’ has led to the project having the distinction already of being the most expensive Hospital built in the world to date.
Its unlikely they will stop adding to the credit card additional changes.
The hospital was built in the wrong place. It’ll be difficult for both staff and patients to get there. It’ll be impossible for staff to find close by accommodation.
No provision has yet been made for the cost of the provision of staff and their accommodation.
The present government has not a good record in serving this country with the numbers of doctors and nurses required to service current needs, never mind the specialised needs for a bureaucracy and staffing levels required, to open a new hospital!
Perhaps more attention needs to be paid to the staffing and running of this hospital before it opens!
till again……..
No Vote for Biden Here!
February 4, 2024
Part 1
Unfortunately, the US public cannot vote for Berni Sanders in the coming US election. Here, he clearly speaks on the unspeakable horror being perpetrated before our eyes by the Israeli army. Over 2/3rds of buildings in Gaza to date severely damaged if not irreparably destroyed. Such buildings include schools, universities, hospitals. Bombing, a policy of genocide, indiscriminate use of dummy bombs and mass killing have so far taken a toll of more than 27,000 dead, a majority being women and children, not to number the unspeakable injuries of those injured and the trauma including starvation and deprivation targeting the Palestinian population of GAZA.
Policies and recent statements from Netanyahu clearly indicate rejection of ceasefire as Gaza is further decimated: the intent is to make conditions unlivable for its population.
A preferred solution for Israel appears to be an attempt to herd the population from allegedly “safe” areas to coastal areas. They hope NGO’s will supply tents with humanitarian aid, prior to the persuasion of other countries to agree to absorb the Palestinian population herded to that place of evacuation .
Berni Sanders achieved very little support for his position.
Support for Biden and his war machine appears strong. Initial commitment by Biden to a 2 state solution for Israel and Gaza has now weakened following Netanyahu’s snubbing of this position, to a somewhat delirious ‘we can work it out’ vacuous support of Israel.
Israel appears fully committed to annexation of Gaza, occupation and assimilation of its territories.
Israel is guilty of atrocities in the West Bank that appear to support eviction of its Palestinian population from these areas as well.
To bring about change and the needed ceasefire demanded by the rest of the world’s population and end support for Biden’s hypocritical support for Israel while condemning Putin’s aggression in the Ukraine, it would appear the US public will be forced to vote for Trump.
They deserve a better choice to help them improve the decaying infrastructure and falling standards of living in the US that support apocalyptic and unaffordable, wasteful, unethical and immoral military campaigns abroad.
Both economically and militarily and climate wise, the world is being dragged by poor leadership to a poorer future it’s not prepared for.
Given the bloodied hands of Biden, I’d be forced to vote for Trump!
Who knows what consequences for the above mess lie in store for all of us?
Part 11
In a curious case of apparent double jobbing as Simon Harris Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science of Ireland, has just tweeted “Our new student housing policy has seen 521 more beds go to construction in DCU & Maynooth, Next step is to get plans for accommodation in from Technological Universities across the country. Deadline of next month.”
He’s late in the game with a move that should have now built the required accommodation. Should have been completed 15 years ago.
Now he’s asking for plans perhaps out of embarrassment its only cuckoo funds building exorbitantly priced unsuitable accommodation active in the market for the past number of years. Cuckoo funds incentivising exploitation of students with tax incentives provided by his government.
Judging by the late build of the National Children’s Hospital, it will be a long time before a sod will be turned in the ground on any of those builds. Darragh O’Brien Minister for Housing has maybe derogated or disposed of responsibility for student housing to Simon Harris.
Clearly, money required to construct housing at the levels needed is not there.
Clearly the ECB alarmed at our recklessness in our last property crisis, ghost estates(we could do with some of those now, they’ve disappeared it seems into the ether), have shackled government tying spending down with “Fiscal Space” prudence.
All government can do is encourage private developers to soak up demand they cannot satisfy.
Extreme levels of under supply and soaring rent costs only the very rich able to afford unconscionable property prices. Government has neither the wit nor the power to build at levels required to make housing affordable.
“In 1925 Siemens started the works with Dr. McLaughlin as managing director and Professor Frank Sharman Rishworth, who took a leave of absence from University College Galway, as chief civil engineer. A completion time limit of three and a half years, with penalty clauses for failure of adherence to this limit, was written into the contract.[7] Around 150 of the skilled workers and engineers on the power station were Germans. A camp was set up for the workers that included living quarters for 750 men and a dining room that seated 600. Initially employment for 700 was provided, whilst at its peak there were 5,200 employed during the construction phase, with this dropping back to 2,500 near completion.[7]” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_hydroelectric_scheme
There are no equivalent or similar plans to roll out construction of new homes in Ireland to make them affordable. Washing its hands of the issue, its been left to cuckoo funds and private developers to bail out government and address such shortfalls.
It would be charitable to say government policy has not inflated house prices with grants to first-time buyers. So far reform of planning issues such as land development costs and a dysfuntional An Bord Pleanala are proposed as future aims of government, rather than matters of immediate concern.
Government plans to house refugees and asylum seekers have reached a new low with tents being offered to asylum seekers. 37 properties have recently as of Dec last, been purchased by government to house asylum seekers and apparently though plans are vague, they will be rolled out on a phased basis over coming months.
Unable to address the numbers of homeless and house those 13000+ currently seeking emergency accommodation see https://homelessnessinireland.ie/ .Asylum centres present a new challenge to failing government policies on homelessness.
We endure the ludicrous situation of Darragh O’Brien, Micheal Martin and Leo Varadkar congratulating the success of government in its Housing For All report, this was typical nonsense propaganda from July last year 2023:
”
“At the half-way point of the year, building has started on almost 13,000 homes and we have strong momentum heading into the rest of the year. We are confident we will meet or exceed our house targets for the next year of 29,000 homes, student accommodation and refurbishments. Planning permissions granted in quarter 1 were 40% higher than the same period last year, and more people are buying their first home than in any period in well over a decade. Over 700 first-time buyers are being approved for mortgages every week. This is the highest figure since records began.”
https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/a212e-housing-for-all-july-update-q2-2023/
Affordability and supply is a measure of the success of government policy to date:
https://www.daft.ie/new-homes-for-sale/dublin
Look down the page “a two bed terrace house at The Blossoms At Tandy’s Lane, Adamstown, Lucan, Co Dublin on sale from €475,000
Prices of new homes have become unbelievable under this government.
Schools in Dublin can no longer attract new young staff who are choosing to emigrate instead to countries with better prospects such as Australia. They can no longer afford or find rental accommodation in Dublin.
What this government is good at doing is muddying the waters with propaganda and lies.
Black is not White in spite of what this government clearly claims to be the case in its ludicrously ‘Housing for All’ failure.
Till again
Cead Mile Failte Tents!
January 12, 2024
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee was on the RTE Radio1 this morning 11.01.24 speaking about government policy on asylum seekers. She didn’t know much, she couldn’t answer a question on what might be on a proposed White Paper to be brought before the cabinet in 2/3 weeks by Minister for Integration Roderic O Gorman https://www.thejournal.ie/roderic-ogorman-interview-6256121-Dec2023/
She said Government is doing everything it can to put a roof over the heads of International Protection applicants, but women and children must be prioritised. Either she was telling the truth or she was lying. She was not telling the truth.
If she was telling the truth, she can do no better than oversee a situation where 500 asylum seekers are living in tents in this freezing weather, she should be fired with someone else put in her place to do the job. Nobody is fired for incompetence in Ireland.
Her incompetence is contributing to the fact that government is now on its way to exceed 500 Protection applicants living in tents, that number can very quickly rise to 1000 Cead Mile Failte Tents.
Let’s examine possibility she is lying and there is more that can be done to house asylum seekers. It’s possible, indeed extremely likely, there is a lot more she can do to avoid asylum seekers seek Cead Mile Failte in a freezing cold tent a danger to health.
Abundance and oversupply of office accommodation with poor planning has allowed too many office buildings built, compared to apartments and homes required for housing accommodation.
We could re-prioritise the building of office blocks converting existing office block accommodation to bespoke accommodation for asylum seekers.
A less incompetent and more enlightened system would reprioritise building of office blocks to build affordable apartments. Construction workers building empty office accommodation could instead be re-designated to building much needed affordable homes. Outsourcing and remote working provide for this.
We know that poor housing for our upwards of 13000 homeless does harm children’s health and development as set out in recent ESRI report. Building homes we could bring down the cost of health care and save lives.
Given lack of affordability, lack of supply of housing, we might reconsider targeting the retrofitting of homes, its labour intensive aspect using such workers to build emergency accommodation to a high energy standard. Energy efficient, DIY conversions of homes are within the scope of most homeowners.
Nothing is being done, there is a considerable lack of joined up thinking that will contribute to the establishment of an Ireland of tented accommodation, that may grow and grow into ghettos of a worse kind than the slums that were prevalent in the 1930’s. Expect homelessness to contribute to riots on our streets and the emergence of lawlessness.
“For nearly 150 years, the wretched, squalid tenements of Dublin were widely judged to be the worst slums in all of Europe. By the 1930s, 6,400 tenements were occupied by almost 112,000 tenants. Some districts had up to 800 people to the acre, up to 100 occupants in one building, and twenty family members crammed into a single tiny room. It was a hard world of hunger, disease, high mortality, unemployment, heavy drinking, prostitution and gang warfare. But despite their hardship, the tenement poor enjoyed an incredibly closely knit community life in which they found great security and indeed, happiness. As one policeman recalls from over half a century ago, they were ‘extraordinarily happy for people who were so savagely poor’. ( From Dublin Tenement Life: An Oral History https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dublin-Tenement-Life-History-Slums-ebook/dp/B00JMEUKL4)
Not only are we failing to deliver housing, we cannot even plan due to incompetence at the highest levels in government, a strategy and plan to aim for to end homelessness, never mind put that roof over the heads of those living in tents.
(Download here 284237)
One recommendation in the report:
“A key recommendation from Sweeney (2022) is that a national agency such as the Land
Development Agency be used to acquire and regulate the use of land for residential
development. Such a body would have the capacity to acquire public and
private land to develop 
for residential purposes. This would result in the
speculative component of land prices greatly reduced resulting in a
potentially sizeable reduction in a key cost of housing construction.”
We’ve had the LDA since 2018, its built virtually nothing. Its perhaps more under resourced that our dysfunctional Planning system. Its filled with a suffocating and bureaucratic incompetence with a performance result clear evidence it needs binning.
According to the ESRI Planning for the Future has not taken into account our expanding and ageing population. The report ends with the ludicrous observation.
“It has also become a concern that An Bord Pleanála, the State planning agency, is substantially under-resourced. The government has, however, passed a bill which seeks to
reform the planning system considerably – the Planning and Development Bill.”
Clearly the ESRI is compliant to the dictats of government with obedient, subservience to the status quo. Its lacking in creativity and wearing a blindfolding lack of ideas.
Sadly, the report does not critique the supposed reforms of An Bord Pleanala to give us a detailed synopsis of these reforms, or whether it regards such reforms are adequate.
At most the ESRI is window dressing of government policy with lack of any cohesive direction that should be followed other than vague notions regarding the building of modular homes. Its not an https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_hydroelectric_scheme that brought electricity to the homes of Ireland importing thousands of workers from abroad to do the construction work.
It also has the ridiculous assertion: “It is one role of government to set policy priorities and it is not possible for analysts to rank objectives such as housing, climate and healthcare. However, analysts can provide frameworks and approaches which aid the task of
prioritisation, especially across competing projects. It is in that spirit that our
recommendations are presented.”
IT manages to censor itself lest it might make any policy recommendations worthy of note by government.
I would have thought its main priority is to advise government on what government should prioritise; not be less meaningful than a Greek chorus in Shakespeare.. a group of actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation.
Let me nudge the ESRI by suggesting instead of money spent on retro fitting homes, that the building of homes with roofs be prioritised:-)
Undated handout photo issued by the Department of the Taoiseach of Gormanston military camp in Co Meath, which will be used to house up to 350 Ukrainian refugees in military tents as an emergency measure. Issue date: Monday July 18, 2022.
In Poland, with a more enlightened attitude to asylum seekers than that found in Ireland, offices have been turned into shelter for vulnerable refugees, check out the following link
There has been little debate in Ireland on this subject:
“A housing expert has said creating accommodation for asylum seekers in office blocks “is the right way to go”.
“We have to house people in whatever way we can that is fit for human habitation,” Professor Tom Phillips told Newstalk radio.
Prof Phillips, from the school of architecture at University College Dublin, was commenting on the announcement that former office blocks in Galway and Santry are to be used to provide accommodation for international protection applicants.
The Government is also planning to tender for floating accommodation to house asylum seekers amid unprecedented pressure on the State’s integration system, which Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described on Tuesday as a “major crisis”.
However, if it proceeds, the use of so-called floatels is not expected until later in the year, meaning it will not help the Coalition’s push to drive down the current number of “unaccommodated” asylum seekers.”
The above was published by Vivienne Clarke
You do notice the lack of discussion of the topic on RTE by Helen McEntee or indeed by Minister for Integration Roderic O Gorman in the latter part of 2023 or indeed hitherto in 2024.
Whether it is incompetence by this government of FF/FG or by some hitherto unknown foreign edict that comes from the top in Brussels perhaps in the European Central Bank, there is staunch resistance to the institution of any public building programme not undertaken by private funding from cuckoo funds or elsewhere.
Sadly, with the experience of the long delayed National Children’s Hospital, hypothetically, even if there were at this late stage plans afoot to house asylum seekers in office accommodation, the trope of delay and deny, would set such long term Planning and Delivery targets, as out of the question in satisfying the needs of those in tents enjoying our government’s Cead Mile Failte.
Other conspiratorial theories postulate it is the European Central Bank specious arguments regarding Fiscal Space that prevent real government action on our housing and construction sector with adequate Public, Social Housing Programme ready to begin affordable housing. Perhaps they’ve manacled our current government in the wake of previous Bertie Ahearn led building programmes that led to ghost estates. There again there are a plethora of landlords in government making a fortune out of rents who may not want the price of houses to reduce.
Without the above, given that incompetent government is failing to provide affordable, social housing for its own homeless, its inevitable consequence is that the likelihood is, in flaunt disregard of international rules governing the treatment of asylum seekers, asylum seekers face further abuse by our dysfunctional housing market and dysfunctional government.
The asylum seeker offered the 1000th tent should be given a special Cead Mile Failte prize in honour of that glorious occasion!
There is abundant accommodation available to house asylum seekers. In Poland there are many examples of office accommodation upgraded to small apartment living. In Ireland remote working along with hybrid remote working creates opportunity to re-designate emergency provision of office accommodation.
Incompetent government has failed to grasp the nettle and re-designate office accommodation that can be set aside to provide the emergency needs of asylum seekers.
The reason is unquenchable support for cuckoo funds at the expense of the needs of people. Cuckoo funds are the main sources of funding for office, commercial type accommodation. Government needs to step in with smart plans to address the oversupply of office accommodation and end its cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers.
Both in health and education incompetent government ministers trumpet empty promises to end our housing crisis that is now leading to a crisis in education with teachers unable to afford rented accommodation in Dublin. Lack of planning alongside a dysfunctional planning system is guiding young graduates, nurses, doctors and teachers out of our Health and education service where they head for distant land possibly never to return here.
If planning in health and education is mooted by government, it is derisory and inadequate and delayed composed of more denial than any semblance of effective leadership.
University Hospital Limerick is still the most over crowded hospital in Ireland. “There are currently 626 patients currently waiting for a bed in Irish hospitals, new figures show.” There are plans for an extra 138 beds to be delivered in 2 yrs, perhaps double that again some years after that. But there is no guarantee staffing will be guaranteed. So such beds may lay vacant if they are built. Juding by delays with the National Childrens Hospital now due to open in 2025(?), I woouldn’t bet on it.
It might be prescient to require Irish graduates to stay in Ireland a number of years following their graduation. Increasing numbers of training places in Irish medical colleges or training colleges for teachers are not part of government discourse.
Delay and denial in the politics of housing construction has led to a wasteland of provision of Irish housing stock that until recently was building ghost estates across the land?
The word incompetence is not one to be chosen lightly but the standard of appalling lack of delivery of basic services people require continues to worsen downward with spiralling house prices and scarcity of accommodation and increasing unaffordability.
Government plans to tackle the crisis becoming more nonsensical by the day.
Keep counting those tent numbers.
Cead Mile Failte.
till again….
Scumbags!
December 3, 2023
International War Crime of
Genocide
Invasion of Gaza by even more monstrous attacks of Israeli army led by Netanyahu continues with ever increasing civilian casualties death toll now exceeding 15,000. Is it not time international sanctions were mounted against Israel and Netanyahu whose true goal becomes clearer by the day: ethnic cleansing of Gazans, removal of the population of Gaza north and south from their homeland, expansion of the state of Israel to include the whole of GAZA.
The razing of GAZA to the ground, the death toll amongst the 15,000 already dead 2/3 of them old people and children require Netanyahu’s immediate arrest to face war crimes.
Kamala Harris US Vice President needs to do more than urge the Israeli government to show more restraint to protect civilians caught up in the war.
In the last 24 hrs in one of the heaviest bombardments of the war Israel has targeted apartment buildings in Jabalia refugeee camp killing over 700 civilians packed into these buildings.
Many of the dead urged by Israel to travel south to seek safety there only to find they were lied to.
Israel through this bombing campaign is embarking on a campaign of genocide against the people of Gaza. This is an international war crime with evidence on the ground that speaks for itself.
Its absurd not to demand sanctions against Israel instead of empty calls for Israel to respect innocent civilian lives Israel clearly shows no respect for. Raining down bombs on such civilian targets is an international war crime against humanity itself.
Its clear Israel want to ethnically cleanse the Gazan population of over 2 million people from Gaza its ultimate goal to drive them across the border into Egypt.
“Al-Mawasi is a strip of coastal land 14km long 1 km wide, “Al-Mawasi (Arabic: المواصي) is a Palestinian Bedouin town on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip, approximately one kilometer wide and fourteen kilometers long, that prior to Israel’s unilateral disengagement plan in 2005 existed as a Palestinian enclave within the Katif bloc of Israeli settlements. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, al-Mawasi had a population of 1,409 in mid-year 2006. “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mawasi
Israel is attempting to herd 2million Palestinians into this desolate, remote wasteland of sand dunes next to the mediteranean…..while they raze the previously safe southern Gaza to the ground, destroying homes, institutions including hospitals, to ensure Palestinians cannot return.
A dystopian, post Palestinian Gaza ruled by the miliary might of Israel in a post apocalytic annexation of Gaza. This is not science fiction, its reality every evening on your tv news!
Riots in Dublin Fallout
GUBU was an abbreviated term coined in 1982 to describe a chilling crime and its ramifications,: Grotesque, Unbelievable, Bizarre and Unprecedented’.
GUBU also describes rioting on the night of November 23 in Dublin city centre.
Government would have us believe the riots that took place in Dublin city centre on the night of November 23 was the doing of ‘scumbags’ .
Initial government response was to announce gardai numbers would increase by 50 to police Dublin streets, bodycams would be issued, pepper spray and water cannon would be made available.
Government announced an extra 700 – 800 gardai training in Templemore. The real figure, according to Labour’s Alan Kelly, is 663.
Government lost control of Dublin streets on the night of November 2023 and there needs to be political accountability. Justice Minister Helen McEntee needs to show political accountability and resign.
Only a few months before the riots took place.
“(1)Members of the Garda Representative Association, which represents rank and file officers, have overwhelmingly voted no confidence in the force’s most senior officer, Commissioner Drew Harris, by 98.7 per cent.
The GRA issued 10,803 ballots, of which 9,129 were returned as valid votes.
Of those, 9,013 voted no confidence in Mr Harris, with 116 voting confidence in him.
Announcing the outcome of the vote in Dublin, GRA general secretary Ronan Slevin said it was the largest return for a ballot in the history of the association.
“It is a loud and clear message that we as an association have lost confidence in the direction of where policing has been led in this country,” he said.
“And, as such, it is now in the hands of Government to stand up and take action.”
That was in early September, a couple of months later and the centre of Dublin is out of control. Drew Harris should resign immediately.
Harris should take responsibility for his failure to protect this brave, lone garda(see video), fighting to survive as he attempts to bring public order back onto the streets of Dublin. Without proper equipment, head gear or support from fellow officers.
Harris should take responsibility for his failure to support him and for leaving him in harm’s way
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XT6k9bYp2pU
Both Mc Entee and Harris should resign over their inept response to the riots in Dublin.
Government housing policy has been a failure, rents on new houses, already out of control have increased by 11% over the past year. Health out of control, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly asked for increase of 2 billion for Health budget for 2024 was allocated only €708 million.
The effects of this on out-of-control waiting lists and recruitment for understaffed hospitals, lack of hospital beds dealing with ongoing trolley crisis, still to be felt. Completion date for our National Children’s Hospital continues to be put back costs rising beyond anything that was envisioned. Its now the most expensive hospital build in the world.
The policy was, we need a hospital, here’s a blank cheque, not sure what’s needed financially, just build and write cheques as you make it up. You couldn’t make this up!
Both emigration and immigration are out of control. A leap in the numbers of young people forced to leave due to lack of affordable housing in Ireland by over 20% last year alone.
Immigration has been a chaotic mess created by government. Currently we’ve run out of accommodation. Arriving refugees in the middle of winter are being put into tents.
Initially, refugees into Ireland were given full social welfare benefits, not only entitlements to housing and accommodation.
This led to 30-40% of refugees arriving in Ireland originating from other EU countries where the social welfare benefits were not as good by a wide margin. These refugees had already been processed and received into other EU countries. How can they be called refugees when they are economic migrants?
Is this not the most incompetent government, by a wide margin, Ireland has ever had?
Lest it be considered McEntee’s response to the Dublin riots is adequate, consider the following.
Government policy has been turning parts of central Dublin into a ghetto for many years now: Deprivation is endemic in many parts of the inner city over 50% absenteeism from schools. Drug dealing endemic addicts visibly shooting up visible from nearby office buildings.
Last July a US tourist was viciously assaulted https://bit.ly/3RrpMyf nearly losing his life. Shops and businesses are regularly subjected to intimidation and shop lifting https://bit.ly/3RrpMyf Random assaults by gangs are common occurrence.
Government failure to develop the centre of Dublin has led to the rapid deterioration of the city centre and parts of its northern perimeter left to suffer years of neglect crime figures increasing. On one street alone, Gardiner St, there are 1700 people living in poor accommodation, if not squalid conditions.
There are poor prospects for young people on the receiving end abandoned by society.
A future government should address the needs of the inner city by talking to its inhabitants and finding out what would improve their lot.
Investment in youth is required.
On the policing side, radical change is required. McEntee’s response to the crisis is as miserable as her governments response to the housing crisis. More gardai are required far beyond the miserable numbers announced by McEntee are required, to police Dublin Streets with a policy of zero tolerance.
New leadership with innovative and progressive thinking needed.
Templemore should be closed and relocated to the centre of Dublin eg Collins Barracks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_Barracks,_Dublin
Recruits could immediately be deployed for some of their training accompanying serving Gardai on the streets of Dublin. Perhaps a new constabulory of part-time gardai needs to be created to radically increase the numbers deployed in Dublin on an emergency basis..
Currently gardai are understaffed by more than 2000 needed to bring them up to less than adequate numbers.
We should think more about the needs of that lone garda on O’Connell Street and the real needs of abandoned scumbags in deprived areas of Dublin with only a hopeless future offered to them by incompetent government.
Instead of showboating announcement of a pkg of €250m https://theliberal.ie/varadkar-announces-govt-will-spend-hard-earned-irish-taxpayer-money-on-cop/.
A similar investment fund should go to helping inner city deprived communities to rebuild with health, educational and enterprise government support inputs.
Prevention is better than cure!
till again
1.
2.
Taoiseach’s Figures on Templemore Garda Recruits Completely Inaccurate
Tell the Truth and Shame the Devil!
November 25, 2023
Its hard for any civilised person to accept the harrowing and profound effects of war in Gaza that so far has had with, according to The Washington Post, 11100 killed, that’s approx 1 out of every 200 of the Palestinian population. Even harder to accept are the lies told by Netanyahu that attacks on Gaza are focused on Hamas and are designed to protect the general population. Northern Gaza has been razed to the ground, the civilian population forced to flee under fire, hospitals attacked. Even harder to accept is the response of the West to the conflict.
Its encouraging to see the Times of Israel reporting even within Israel support for Netanyahu is imploding. There are great and good people in Israel shocked at what is happening:
When the UN voted for a humanitarian truce https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/countries-that-voted-against-un-cease-fire-resolution-will-be-remembered-palestinian-envoy-to-uk/3036516 Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called it “despicable” and rejected it.
The US supports the Israeli war against Gaza limiting its intervention to support for a brief truce to allow the hostages question to be settled. It has not demanded a ceasefire. Shame on the US!
Meanwhile Netanyahu continues to perpetrate lies and propaganda to excuse the ongoing efforts to raze northern Gaza to the ground as his efforts continue to force the population of Northern Gaza to the south.
The purpose of the war is not to break Hamas, as such inhuman suffering brought upon the Palestinian population will only result in further support for Hamas, from those who’ve lost their homes and loved ones. Hamas is but an Israeli distraction, an opportunity it has seized, to cover up its true intent, which is to invade and vanquish Gaza and repopulate it with Israeli settlers, be they military or civilian after the war is over.
Meanwhile, attention is turning to Southern Gaza.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67518819
“With the bulk of the Gaza Strip’s estimated 2.2 million people now crammed into the southern two thirds of the Strip, many of them homeless and traumatised, is a larger humanitarian disaster looming?
One of the last straws might be the sight of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, huddled in tents, amid the sandy fields of a place called al-Mawasi.
According to the UN relief agency for Palestinians (Unrwa), almost 1.7 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since 7 October. Most of them are in the south, living in overcrowded shelters.
UN officials speak of already desperate conditions, with tens of thousands of people sheltering in schools, hospitals and, in some cases, tents.”
“For several weeks, Israeli officials have been talking about a solution – a so-called “safe area” at al-Mawasi, a thin strip of mainly agricultural land along the Mediterranean coast, close to the Egyptian border.
In a post on social media on Thursday, Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s spokesman for the Arabic media, told Gazans al-Mawasi would provide “the appropriate conditions to protect your loved ones.”
But how realistic is it to expect more than two million people to shelter there while the war rages nearby? And just how “appropriate” are conditions at al-Mawasi?”
Clearly, Netanyahu is hell bent on attacking Southern Gaza in the next phase of the war. Last week he was excoriating NGO’s for not being fast enough building tent cities for the population of Gaza.
Clearly annexation of northern and southern GAZA and expulsion of its Palestinian population if not extermination of the Palestinian population, is his true military goal in Gaza. Netanyahu appears to be given free license to rampage over Gaza without any effort to bring about charges of crimes against humanity against him.
Meanwhile, in Ireland riots in Dublin are allegedly blamed on lunatic thugs rampaging out of control in the centre of Dublin on the night of November 24. No doubt rampaging thugs participated but true blame lies in the economic mismanagement of our economy in spite of continuing growth in the economy.
Notwithstanding numerous warnings including a random attack on US tourists visiting Dublin not so long ago, violence on city streets, due to lack of garda presence, was an ongoing problem. Gardai are understaffed by about 2000 gardai. Most that came out of an emergency cabinet meeting to respond to the rioting, was that body cams were to be introduced!
Under supply of capital investment in housing, education , health infrastructure is a symptom of our descent into rentier capitalism.
“In current political-science and international-relations theory, a rentier state is a state which derives all or a substantial portion of its national revenues from the rent paid by foreign individuals, concerns or governments.[1]
The academic use of the term rentier states and rentier states theories (RST) became well known after the works of Hazem El Beblawi and Giacomo Luciani on the development of oil-rich countries, known as petrostates, in the Persian Gulf.[2] They show that rentier states receive income without an increase in the productivity of the domestic economy or political development of the state, that is, the ability to tax citizens. The unequal distribution of external income in rentier states has thus a negative effect on political liberalism and economic development. With virtually no taxes citizens are less demanding and politically engaged and the income from rents negates the need for economic development.[3]”
Our taxes come mostly from Corporation tax from a small number of FDI companies how long this will last, no one knows. Landlords and high income earners are favoured while the taxes required to provide the infrastructure and development the state requires, are largely ignored. The cost of public services including development of an adequately resourced police service, is kept well down under lock and key.
Recent figures of homelessness rising to past the 13000 mark and riots in Dublin streets are the result of this incompetent handling of our economy.
Its a lie to tell the Irish people that such events in Dublin are not caused by incompetent handing of our economy, that they lie beyond our control, in the hands of lawless thugs alone.
Lies, however, are a feature of political discourse and are often unchallenged by the third estate. When will the state broadcaster RTE challenge the figures of homes being built by FF ‘Housing for All’ policy. It should be a simple matter to take a camera crew and visit those home to see where they are and how they are contributing to ending or mitigating homelessness. Nah, its far easier for RTE to entertain with visiting politicians singing out learned statistics that mislead and are false.
Simply put economic incompetence has homelessness figures rising with the cost of home ownership still through the roof unaffordable for all but the few. It would also be interesting for RTE to unearth who can afford housing and how they afford it, wouldn’t it?
Shame on the politicians of the world including those in the US not calling on Israel for immediate CEASEFIRE….if only to protect the children of GAZA, never mind their families.
The need for extra hospital beds to end the trolley crisis, has gone largely ignored by rentier politicians, the need for further infrastructure eg in water, largely ignored, the need for affordable housing, largely ignored, the need for extra gardai to patrol and keep the peace, largely ignored.
Perhaps riots on Dublin streets call for a more equal distribution of wealth and power that hitherto has been extracting wealth and power from the 96% sending it to the pockets of the rich 1%. A more equal distribution of wealth should begin by funding public services including the gardai to make such services fit for purpose. Otherwise, where will this end?
till again….
Israeli Cease-Fire
November 4, 2023
I’m neither pro Israeli nor pro Palestinian. There are good people on both sides. There is evil on both sides. Evil appears to be getting the upper hand. The October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas is widely condemned, rightly so. Not so the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
“GAZA – OCTOBER 30: (EDITORS NOTE: Image depicts death) A woman mourns as she carries body of her child who lost his life after Israeli attacks at Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital as Israeli attacks continue on the 24thday in Gaza City, Gaza on October 30, 2023. (Photo by Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)”
Pop. (2017) 1,899,291; (2023 est.) 2,226,544. Gaza strip
https://www.britannica.com/place/Gaza-Strip
Better look at the conflict, from the point of view of the children of Palestine, the innocent, who suffer the most.
“Briefing reporters in Geneva on Friday UN health agency (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said that in Israel, where 1,400 people have been killed so far, and in Gaza, where over 9,000 have been killed according to Hamas run authorities, 70 per cent of the victims are women and children“(1)
“The Gaza Strip has almost exactly the same land area as Las Vegas but more than three times the population. Its largest city, Gaza City, is more tightly packed than New York City, with more than 650,000 people living within its 18 square miles.” Almost 3/4 of the total area of Gaza is given over to citrus fruit farming.
“In politically stable times, as much as one-tenth of the Palestinian population travels daily to Israel (where they are not allowed to stay overnight) to work in menial jobs. Political tension and outbreaks of violence often led Israeli authorities to close the border for extended periods, putting many Palestinians out of work. As a result, a thriving smuggling industry emerged, based on a network of subterranean tunnels linking parts of the Gaza Strip with neighbouring Egypt. The tunnels provided Palestinians with access to goods such as food, fuel, medicine, electronics, and weapons.”
It seems Israel wants to raze Gaza to the ground, turn northern and southern Gaza into a demilitarised zone and conquer Hamas that way. Perhaps set up a concentration camp policed by Israel. Deliberate bombing of heavily populated civilian areas with a death toll so far of 9000 is horrible to watch on tv, on a daily basis. Israel should know better.
Before rushing to judgment on this blog with any anti-Semitic or anti-Palestinian fed prejudice fuelled by hatred, or any form of preconceived prejudice, or ideological bias, have a look at the conflict from the point of view of the children involved:
“EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / TOPSHOT – A man reacts while carrying the body of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli air strike from a morgue for burial in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 11, 2023. Israel declared war on Hamas on October 8 following a shock land, air and sea assault by the Gaza-based Islamists. The death toll from the shock cross-border assault by Hamas militants rose to 1,200, making it the deadliest attack in the country’s 75-year history, while Gaza officials reported more than 900 people killed as Israel pounded the territory with air strikes. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)”
The documentary “Born in Gaza” should be played before all peace negotiations to focus minds and divert from hatreds based on revenge and retribution that threaten not only local peace in the Middle East but world peace.
https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81077863
Key to unravelling the conflict is the problem posed by dark leadership in Israel and in Palestine led by Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu seems hell-bent on extending the bombing campaign in Gaza. His bio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Netanyahu:
1. Netanyahu, Prime-minister and leader of the right-wing Likud Party in Israel
2. In 2005 inside the Gaza Strip 21 Israeli settlements were unilaterally dismantled and Israeli settlers and army evacuated from the strip. He was bitterly opposed to this.
3. in 2008 he bitterly opposed the Israel-Hamas cease-fire, “The 2008 Israel–Hamas ceasefire was an Egyptian-brokered six-month Tahdia (an Arabic term for a lull) “for the Gaza area”, which went into effect between Hamas and Israel on 19 June 2008.[2] According to the Egyptian-brokered agreement, Israel promised to stop air strikes and other attacks, while in return, there would not be rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. Once the ceasefire held, Israel was to gradually begin to ease its blockade of Gaza.[”
4.”before returning as Prime Minister again after forming a coalition with right-wing parties after the 2022 election. Netanyahu and his government coalition partners pursued wide-ranging judicial reform. The judicial reform efforts were met with polarized reaction, with opponents of the judicial reform holding mass protests across the country over the course of many months.”
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Benjamin_Netanyahu
War on Gaza is a distraction from continuing charges of corruption allegedly behind Netanyahu’s dictatorial efforts to control the judiciary.
Continued bombing of Gaza is being encouraged by Netanyahu who appears to be hell-bent on a long war against both Hamas and the people of Gaza. The aim would appear to be to drive out the population of Gaza forcing them across the border to live in Egypt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdel_Fattah_el-Sisi
Abdel Fattah El Sisi President of Egypt since 2014 is a friend of Israel supporting the 2-state solution. He will not allow such border crossings realising this would be the end of Gaza for the Palestinian people who live there.
Countries like US and Australia are calling for a pause in the conflict:
“… so many countries, like Australia, have been calling for humanitarian pauses on hostilities as a necessary first step.
In affirming Israel’s right to defend itself, Israel’s friends – including Australia – have consistently emphasised that the way it does so matters. We know it is extremely difficult to defeat a craven terrorist group that has burrowed itself in civilian infrastructure, using civilians as a shield.”
The above solution is a recipe for disaster leading to further death on all sides. A full scale CEASEFIRE is required, followed by diplomatic efforts to broker a solution. It is of grave concern that neither the US nor the EU are calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Merely a pause so that aid can be given to stricken hospitals who may be fuelled up to carry out operations while bombs rain down on them and on the population they serve?
With the extremes of Hamas on one side, and the reckless militaristic extremes of Netanyahu, this can only lead to further disaster and hell-bent chaos.
We cannot condemn Russia for its bombing of civilian areas in the Ukraine, without at the same time condemning both Israel and Hamas, for their violations of laws designed to protect civilians in times of conflict.
It’s a ludicrous failure on Israel’s part in the face of such overwhelming loss of civilian life in Gaza, to claim it is doing its utmost to protect civilians. The purpose of the bombing and siege of Gaza, starving hospitals and civilians not involved in the conflict, is to annex Gaza driving its population out just as the Khmer Rouge did in Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
“On April 17, 1975, less than two weeks before the fall of Saigon, the Khmer Rouge seized Phnom Penh and immediately began to drive the city’s 2 million residents into the countryside. This was the first stage in its brutal attempt to transform Cambodia into a primitive communal utopia”
https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/tl03.html
Terror and genocide is happening right now in Gaza.
The death toll so far in Gaza is over 9000 dead, 2 thirds being women and children.
https://time.com/6331133/israel-gaza-biden-military-support/
“As Israel races through its stockpiles of ammunition and air defense interceptors, it will be heavily dependent on longstanding U.S. support to replenish its stockpiles. The U.S. has promised to surge its military support for Israel, even as criticisms mount over the Biden administration’s failure to prevent the biggest recipient of U.S. military aid from causing significant civilian casualties in its offensive. ”
“As human rights groups voice their concerns about the civilian cost of Israel’s military operation in Gaza, the U.S.’s part in sustaining the IDF is increasingly being questioned.
Because of the U.S.’s unique role in supporting Israel militarily, “The United States bears a special responsibility to ensure its assistance does not contribute to devastating civilian harm and violations of international humanitarian law,” says Annie Shiel, U.S. advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict.”
It’s a sickening development that the best some world leaders can come up with is a recommendation that a humanitarian pause be brought about to the conflict, not a call for immediate CEASE-FIRE.
It’s concerning that Israel and countries like Germany are seeking to misrepresent all criticism of their policies as anti-semitic.
I’ve great respect for both Islam and Judaism with their emphasis on family values, the value of tradition, culture and learning. Evil extremes on every side will try to hide their destructive efforts behind falsehood and hate.
As an observer, it’s obvious to me the way forward to peace lies in the hands of Egypt and Israel, Abdel Fattah El Sisi of Egypt and a future government of Israel.
We may broker peace with a 2 state solution involving Gaza being run jointly by Egypt and Hamas along cease-fires that existed in the past. Clearly, Hamas and Israel cannot resolve this conflict.
Bringing together Egypt and Hamas as joint rulers of Gaza respecting the borders and integrity of Israel to peaceful coexistence, is a way forward to end the carnage that threatens to spread.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67304185
“One of Hezbollah’s aims is the destruction of Israel, which sees the group as a more formidable enemy than Hamas. Hezbollah has a vast arsenal of weapons that includes precision-guided missiles that can strike deep into Israeli territory, and tens of thousands of well-trained, battle-hardened fighters.”
“The Biden administration is also, in public and through back-channels, warning Iran against escalating the situation. Iran supports the so-called Axis of Resistance, an alliance that includes Hezbollah – its most important force – as well as militias in Iraq, Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas.”
By replenishing its munitions used to bomb the children of Gaza, asking only for a “pause” in the conflict, the US is embarking on a reckless path of major catastrophe putting peace at risk for all.
“Egypt was one of the first countries to support the Palestinian Declaration of Independence and officially recognized Palestine on 15 November 1988. During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Egypt has provided significant humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories through the Rafah border crossing.”
Egypt has earned the right to broker peace in Gaza. It will not come from Netanyahu’s hell-bent pursuit of mayhem and destruction and removal of the Palestinian people from Gaza.
Peace will not come by the Israeli annexation and appropriation of Gaza and their subjugation of the Palestinian people who live there.
till again..
(1) https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/11/1143157
Housing Price Rise For All
October 20, 2023
Adding to evidence and proof this government is the most embarrassingly, incompetent government, we’ve ever had, by far the most incompetent in Europe, consider the following. Micheal McGrath TD, https://www.fiannafail.ie/tds/michael-mcgrath
“On March 11th 2021, The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr. Michael McGrath T.D. announced his consent to proceed with the Blackpool Flood Relief Scheme in Cork City. The Minister, in pursuance of the powers given to him by Section 7 of the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, has confirmed the said scheme on 12 March 2021, subject to conditions as set out and agreed to by the Commissioners for Public Works in Ireland who are the sponsoring agency for the scheme and which will be implemented by them and Cork City Council…….
The flood relief scheme will be funded from within the allocated €1 billion for flood risk management over the period 2018-2027. Provision for the cost of the scheme is included in the Office of Public Works’ multi annual capital allocation.“
McGrath has a long history of involvement in Co Cork flood relief schemes. See here,
“Many businesses did not have flood insurance because of floods in the past, so there could be a need to go further with financial aid, and that was being considered, he said. The Government would do everything it could and he acknowledged that €20,000 might not go far enough for some businesses, he added.”
Think about this, why should insurance pay out insurance to homes damaged by flooding when eg in Midleton, Co Cork there is a flood relief scheme embroiled in delays due to planning objections and other delays. McGrath spoke on radio of a new planning initiative beginning first quarter of 2024(not tomorrow) that might be further delayed by planning objections.
Flood relief schemes with planning objections should not be delayed by these objections. Legislation to provide for CPO, urgent works to safeguard businesses, should not be held to ransom by incompetent government unable to tackle thorny legal issues.
The real incompetence of McGrath is shown in his sleeping laissez-faire attitude that planning issues should be left alone to take care of themselves. Instead of dealing with legislative or even constitutional changes preventing Compulsory Purchase Orders, causing severe damage to communities, he’s asleep at the wheel.
McGrath’s solution is to give grants to businesses of up to €20,000 on flood compensation, when the business in question could be flooded repeatedly during the coming winter. While a new initiative fraught with a legal minefield of planning objections, is planned to begin next January…
If there is a severe bend in the road causing large casualties on a monthly basis, why should some landowner whose field required to take out that bend, be allowed to sabotage work for the public good, that can even save lives?
Leaving aside the shortfall in the Health Budget that will not address our waiting lists and contribute to even further shortages in frontline workers because of imposed embargos on recruitment, frontline staff continuing to emigrate because of poor conditions, the budget has been a disastrous, missed opportunity.
It neither addresses the real issues of health, housing or flood relief, instead only ensuring the present mess, will be further funded.
Costs at our National Children’s Hospital continue to escalate while the deadline for completion is kicked further into the future, now it’s pushed forward to 2026(they hope to kick the can away from the embarrassment of a mess in 2025 during the election).
I can’t see any way in its present format, plans for this hospital, will not have to be scaled back. Otherwise, it’s likely the completed hospital, as has happened so many times in our health service, will lay unopened and idle, without enough staff required to open it.
The debacle of providing accommodation for nursing staff has not even begun to be addressed with affordability issues, the hospital location near the centre of the city, an expensive area for accommodation, with traffic and access issues.
Housing price rises are inevitable. The government has clearly failed its public mandate to increase supply and affordability. Cost of rebuilding a home last year jumped by 21% this year prices gone up another 12%.
Government efforts to address affordability have been an unmitigated failure that have pushed up housing prices, helping first time home buyers to take unaffordable mortgages. Unaffordable prices, boosted by the developer’s incentive to charge higher prices, knowing government will subsidise buyers to afford them.
Government have been wasting taxpayers’ money not to bring down prices, but to raise them up to present unaffordable levels!
Its clear present laissez-faire policies by government fill pockets of landlords, developers, cuckoo funds at the expense of homeowners and those seeking to get their foot on the property ladder.
It’s interesting to inquire how the government with such a clear mandate from voters to fix our health and housing crisis, have got this so wrong. One theory is membership of the European Union has come with budget constraints on spending particularly an outcome from the crash of 2008-2010 imposed by the Troika consortium of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund that provided a bailout to Ireland.
Growing centralisation and bureaucracy most acutely seen in the debacle of the Land Development Agency that has built next to nothing since its inception, alongside ineffective and disastrous handling of planning issues, is a hallmark of this government and its lack of achievement in both health and housing.
Provision of housing, from land banks owned by the state has been ignored, in favour of supporting the private sector. The dysfunctional housing sector in a state of cardiac arrest unable to meet even the narrow and limited targets provided by the government in its budget, is not responding to the defibrillator provided by grants to first-time buyers, or its appalling shared equity scheme.
Spending on public infrastructure eg housing and health is severely curtailed. Emphasis in Europe is on curtailing public spending, as the Fiscal Advisory Council let us know each budget. Instead, a new paradigm of encouraging and incentivising the private sector is followed. This would explain the budgets led by FG/FF in recent years that have grants for first-time buyers to purchase homes at otherwise unaffordable prices.
We need to evaluate present policies by analysing and commissioning reports on how more successful policies eg in the Nordic countries, can apply here at home.
The electorate would have no problem with this if it increases our housing supply, fixes our hospital waiting lists, improves our infrastructure building new hospitals, schools and universities and homes needed by new families.
What instead is apparent is the abject failure of these incompetent FG/FF policies to deliver the same. It would appear in spite of our wealth from Corporation Tax, government is succeeding in running our young people into the ground giving them little hope for the future.
It would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to inquire why our government is so silent in its condemnation of Israel, as it commits the war crime of pounding residential areas of Gaza to rubble, starving its people of medical and humanitarian relief, while it so openly condemns Russia for war crimes in the Ukraine?
till again…
The coming commercial real estate crash
Colmbrazel's Blog 