It’s now less than one week away until the Ógra Fianna Fáil National Youth Conference begins at the Great Northern Hotel in Bundoran. This will be my 5th NYC, my first being in Cavan in 2004.

Over that time, I’ve played a relatively active role in Ógra, founding Meath West Ógra and acting as its first Cathaoirleach and also serving a term on the National Youth Committee. I spent time in the Con Colbert Cumann in UL where I served as Treasurer and Leas Cathaoirleach. It hasnt always been plain sailing. In the time, I’ve lost two elections to serve as Leinster Ógra Ard Comhairle Representative. Im laying out my Ógra CV because I want you to know that the following isnt me looking in from outside and giving out. I care about how our party utilises its young members and how young members can shape our party into the future.

The Present Situation

At every Youth Conference, we elect a Youth Committee to run the affairs of Ógra; to plan its activities and to represent the views of young people to the senior party.  At the moment, we elect 17 people ranging from the Leas Cathaoirleach to Youth Committee reps for the provinces.  The Cathoirleach of Ógra is a member of the Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party and is usually under 35 years of age.  They meet or should meet every 6 weeks or so and organise events, plan campaigns and develop policies. With the greatest respect to the present Youth Committee and I hold my hands up here for my time on the Youth Committee, we are lucky if we have one half decent campaign each year and I am still waiting to hear of an Ógra policy that doesnt simply restate Government policy. I dont believe that this is due to a lack of desire from the part of the committee members. There is a stagnation in Ógra due to the way it is constituted. I feel that it is reactive rather than proactive. We make an announcement after some  thing happens. We dont make our position known before a Minister announced a policy. Can it be said that we are representing the views of Ógra members?

Our campaigns revolved around the same issues year on year. While all worthy causes, we must move outside our comfort zones and attack issues that are fresh and topical. Even though we have over 6000 members of Ógra, it is the same faces at the same events year on year. We need active , enthusiastic people in each constituency ready to campaign on an issue. We shouldnt have to bus the Youth Committee to each event. It should be run by one Youth Committee member liaising with the local Ógra unit.

A friend of mine who served on the Ard Comhairle for Ógra recently told me that the secret to being reelected was having weak units in your area. Once you are in, all you need to do is keep the others weak and you have that position for as long as possible. This is endemic in Ógra today. At next weeks Ógra NYC, there will be only 4 elections with two of them being the 3rd level positions which are always contested.

Ógra Fianna Fáil has no media presence because of the reasons outlined before. Contrast that with Young Fine Gael who today attacked one of their TD’s over his stance on the Drink Driving legislation. When has Ógra ever refuted some of the arguments made by our TD’s when it was clearly wrong. Why did Ógra not respond to Mattie McGrath’s comments regarding the benefits of consuming drink and driving? The answer is because Ógra is afraid. It’s afraid of not being 100% loyal. I think loyalty to party members and to the party are noble traits; but loyalty to what is right is what we all as citizens should aspire to. The people will respect that more than licking the asses of Oireachtas members.

So how do we fix Ógra?

Ógra needs to go back to basics. It needs to look at its Aims and Objectives and decide how it can achieve them. They must be achievable and worthy of effort.

The Youth Committee needs to be streamlined to ten members as follows:

Uachtaráin Ógra / Ceannaire Ógra: Elected head of Ógra Fianna Fáil. Should be automatically appointed as a Vice President of the Senior Party and to the top Ard Comhairle committees.

Communications and New Media Director: Deals with Ógra’s online and new media profile. Is the first point of contact  for journalists.  Will chair the Communications committee that would train local FF media points of contacts etc.

Policy Director: As it says on the tin, co-ordinates Ógra policy development. Will chair the Ógra policy think tank composing of interested members from across the country.

Campaigns Director: Again, self-explanatory. Directs the Ógra campaigns once a policy or an initiative has been agreed upon. Works closely with the Policy Director and the Communications Director to achieve the required goals.

The Ard Comhairle Representatives for the following areas also sit on the National Youth Committee: Leinster, Dublin, Munster, Connaught, Ulster and 3rd Level.

Ógra needs to be a bottom up organisation with the Youth Committee acting as the facilitator of Ógra endeavours on a local basis. To facilitate that, a new level of Ógra structures needs to be developed. I think Regional Councils can be the driving force behind reinvigorating Ógra units. They would mirror how a CDC would be organised. It would meet in a plenary session 3 times a year and would allow policy to be developed, campaigns to be planned. It would provide support to the Ógra CDC’s giving them practical advice. The Ard Comhairle member for an area would not be allowed to hold any position on the Regional Council but would serve as an Ex Officio member and bring their deliberations to the Youth Committee.  Likewise a 3rd Level Council would serve as a focal point for 3rd level cumainn. The Regional Councils would also be a welcome boost to the Ógra calender with events spread out more evenly and more locally.

How would we elect these positions?

All Elections would be by the one member one vote system. The various Youth Committee Directors would be directly elected for the positions they seek. They would be accountable to their electorate the following year. No member of Ógra should lose out on their right to vote in an election because of the inability of their CDC officer board to register the unit. Deals could not done as easily. Candidates would have to convince individual members of their value and not merely rely on the head honcho in an area to bring the votes.

Financing

Ógra needs to be self financing. It mustn’t be afraid to organise events as fundraisers. People should be allowed to donate to Ógra as a unit in itself and know that the money will be used for Ógra. Individual units must be responsible for financing their events. We cannot simply go to the senior party with an open palm. They will respect us more by standing on our own two feet.

I would never dare to assume  that the above is infallible. It probably isn’t and I am certain that others have equally good plans but we need to start some where. Ógra needs to stand up and be counted, both within and outside the party. We are more than canvass fodder. We are the future of the party.

See you all in Bundoran! Ar Aghaigh le Fianna Fáil – Ar Aghaigh leis an obair!!

Enda Kenny has today claimed that he can lead Fine Gael to an overall majority in the next Dáil. Speaking on Marian Finucane this morning, Deputy Kenny said “he does not think it is beyond the bounds of possibility that his party could win an overall majority in the next general election.” As well as blustering on about how his party is the only party with a plan, he said he wouldnt cut child benefit. Now forgive me if I’m narky this morning because of a Sore Throat and having my morning slumber interrupted by the wish-washy tones of a has-been Fine Gaeler waffling and meandering in search of column inches, but the Government and Fianna Fáil have a plan. The Smart Economy Framework, the Programme for Government and other documents set out the Government’s stall in relation to the next number of years. This man is a muppet!!!

However, I do accept that Fine Gael will pick up extra seats at the expense of Fianna Fáil in the next election. Labour and Fine Gael should form the next Government, and if they dont, they should be all shot at dawn by their party members. I dont however accept that things will be as bad for Fianna Fáil as is predicted or nearly as bad as some political commentators hope.

Here’s how I think it will pan out – General Election April 2012

Fianna Fáil: 33% (55)

Fine Gael: 32% (65)

Labour: 19% (25)

Greens: 3% (1)

Sinn Féin: 5% (6)

Ind’s / Others: 8% (14)

Fine Gael and Lab will form a Government. Fianna Fáil will go into opposition badly bruised but not destroyed. FF will regroup for a year or two, allow water to flow under the bridge between their term in office and the new government. Radical reorganisation of the party and a mammoth overhaul of the Fianna Fáil policy platform.

Three to four years later, cracks will appear in the coalition or maybe sooner if any reform needs to be implemented. Government falls or Enda goes to the people (he’ll be shocking old this stage), and bang….Fianna Fáil is back!!

So it’s nearly time for Budget 2010. Times are tough and things need to be cut and money needs to be raised. Do you have any suggestions for how we can make some cuts that wont affect services or how to raise money? Tough, I know!! If there are any stand out ones, I will pass them on to the Minister; maybe he will use them!! You could have a cut or a tax named after you

I’ll start with a few of my own:

1. Cut the allowances for teachers by 20% i.e. fees paid to teachers to supervise  and to correct the Leaving and Junior Certifications. Or go further and make it a condition of employment that a teacher does one or the other.
2. Those is receipt of say more than 20 hours Home Help per week would not be entitled to respite unless it can be justified medically. There are many people out there with Home Help and Carers from 9am till 6pm which allows their full-time carers to go to work and lead a full life. Respite money should be directed more towards those who need it most.
3. Release all prisoners who have less than 6 months remaining in their and who do not pose a threat to society i.e. those who failed to pay back a loan etc. Once released, they can be seconded to the local authority for work placement in lieu of their time in prison

That is 3 of my ideas. I have more of my own but I’ll wait till others come up with some of their own suggestions.

Over to you!!

The OECD were in Dublin today to launch their 2009 Economic Survey of Ireland. This is report compiled every 2 years or so and looks at the macro and micro economic conditions in Ireland. It contains a wide number of recommendations. While scanning through it, as geeks like me do, I noticed that it has recommended that the school leaving age be increased to 18.

Does any one have any opinion on this? Personally, I would be in favour of this change as it would allow for a far greater overhaul of the Irish Secondary School system. At present, kids can leave school at age 16 which is usually post the Junior Certificate. The Junior Cert isnt worth the paper it’s written on. Many of the jobs available to kids who leave school at this age are low skilled and dead-end. During the Boom years, many kids left school early to go work on the building sites; where are these people now? By and large, they are either on the dole or emigrating out of the Ireland now.

If we could extend the time spent in school, we could offer a far broader range of subjects, spread out over perhaps 3 years at Leaving Cert level. There would be enough time to incorporate different modes of assessment i.e. continuous assessment, terminal assessment and self assessment. With this extra time, there would be ample scope to allow for some work experience for all students so that when the time comes to choose their college options, they will be, hopefully, far more certain of their career paths. And for those who chose not to go on to further education, they will leave schools with a far higher standard of education, communication skills and word based experience.

Hey guys, I’m looking to broaden out the scope and content on the blog. If you have a burning issue in you that you want to write about, let me know. It can be about something already on the blog and you want to add to it or some thing completely new.

Give me an email donnachamaguire – at – gmail.com ! Look forward to hearing from you!

The Central Statistics Office has released figures today showing that the number of people signing on fell by 3000 in October. This is the fist fall in 2 years. The unemployment rate fell back slightly from 12.6% to 12.5% in September.

The seasonally adjusted figure dropped by 3,000 from September to 422,500 and the total live register fell by over 7000. While only a marginal drop, this drop along with the strong export figures last month shows that we may have turned a curve.

I also noticed this in the CSO Report; some thing I actually didnt know. 

“The Live Register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers (those who work up to three days a week), seasonal and casual workers entitled to Jobseekers Benefit or Allowance. Unemployment is measured by the Quarterly National Household Survey and the latest seasonally adjusted figure, for April to June 2009, is 259,500 persons unemployed.”

The Supreme Court has today upheld the right of Portmarnock Gold Club to exclude women from full membership of the club. Following a 3-2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that “Portmarnock was not a discriminating club because its principal purpose was to cater only for the needs of a particular gender”. A section of the Equal Status Act allows groups that cater for only one gender to be exempt under the legislation.

The Equality Authority has welcomed the ruling as it gives clarity to the legislation. It has also called on the Oireachtas to review the Equal Status Act with respect to this section. For more info, please visit RTE.ie.

I think the Government and Fianna Fáil in particular need to look at this issue very carefully and to also address some of the other anomolies in legislation. Did you that at present, a gay or lesbian teacher can be fired from his or her position if the school authorities feel it goes against the ethos of the school? As far as I am concerned, once the salaries of a school are being paid by my taxes, then no one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. Would it be ok for a school to fire a non white person if the school changed its ethos to reflect that?

I read in todays Irish Daily Mirror that the Department of Education and Science have drawn up plans to scrap the Junior Certificate. These plans, which I believe have been discussed at cabinet, would save over €30 million per year in terms of the expense of organising and correcting the exams.

Minister O’Keefe said in September that he is favour of a radical shake up of the Junior Certificate system and that we need to move away from the rote learning style of education that is so prevalent in Ireland today. I have to totally agree with the Minister on this issue. The proposals, as outlined in the Irish Mirror refer to a system of continuous assessment throughout the first 3 years of secondary school. This is undoubtedly better than terminal assessment. It gives pupils a chance to see how they are progressing and allows teachers ands parents to intervene far earlier in a child’s education if there is a cause for concern in his or his learning.

Strange how the Teaching Unions i.e. the TUI and the ASTI are against any such proposals. All educationalists accept that continuous assessment is a far fairer and more exact indicator of a childs educational development. Yet they are against it. Would it be because their members would lose out on the lucrative exam correction fees each summer, or the allowance for supervising exam centres? Or perhaps, they know that many of their members wouldnt be up for working all year-round. Many teachers focus all the attention on to the exam at the end of the Junior Cert. They look at the cycle of exam questions and teach to that level. There is no incentive to go beyond the narrow scope of the exam.

It is important to remember that even with continuous assessment, schools would still be free to set summer and winter exams. Junior Certificates would still be issued but this time based on a child’s endeavours over a 3 year period instead of a week in June.

Minister O’Keefe should bring these new changes in not because of the money saved but because of the better education we will give our children.

RTÉ.ie are reporting that a new Report  on Licensed Premises has been published. The report was carried out by the Business School in DCU. The most starting figure is that 1500 pubs or niteclubs have closed their doors in the past number of years. Some of the main reasons cited for these closures included falling revenues, more stringent Drink Driving Laws and the Smoking Ban.

To me, the funny thing about this is that despite having 1500 pubs or clubs closed, we  still have an endless choice of where to go and drink in this country. Take the example of my town of Kells; I would guesstimate that there at least 25 pubs in the town with a population of roughly 5000. That’s one pub for every 200 people.

They cite falling revenues as one the principal reasons why some of these licensed premises have had to close. Well of course its a  reason, why would anyone frequent a place which charges over €7 for a vodka and coke when you can buy a bottle of Vodka in your local off-license for around €21. The very fact that pubs think its ok to charge on average €3 for the tiny bottle of coke shows that those running licenses premises in this country have lost the run of themselves.

Add to this, the habit of a lot of niteclubs increasing the prices after a certain time of night really shows the lack of business acumen most publicans have. No wonder you see girls with naggons of vodka in their handbags! I readily accept that there are governmental levies applied to all drinks but the mark ups being charged by pubs and clubs is a bleeding disgrace.

If pubs and niteclubs want us to start frequenting their establishments again, they need to make their drinks value for money. Offering €3 a pint is fine, but why charge people who dont drink pints full whack  their spirit and a dash. Come on!!

Then again, as I said earlier and on previous posts, the Irish people have too many pubs to choose from as it is. The Irish addiction to drink needs to be broken.

Some people are confused as to my position on the Roman Catholic Church. Here’s the story. I was baptised and confirmed as a Catholic. I attend Mass every few weeks. I believe in the Church doctrines i.e. transubstantiation, papal infallibility, immaculate conception, virgin births and being pro-life. I have no real desire to change any of the above or any of  the theological basis of the church. I do however take umbrage with two main issues – the Church ban on contraception and priestly celibacy.

Contraception

As I stated above, I am pro-life. This stance has evolved over the past number of years from a position of being neutral and even some times pro-choice to near militant pro-life. I am now at the stage in my life where I can see where there are justifications for ending a pregnancy i.e. life of the mother is at risk, and where the child if born will suffer severe pain and most certain death. Here is where I just cannot understand the Churches position. The Church is against using Abortion as a means of contraception. Therefore, the most immediate thing that should be done is the stop the high levels of unwanted pregnancies. Using a condom does not kill a foetus, it simply places a barrier thus stopping the sperm from fertilising the ovum and forming a zygote which in turn is implanted on the wall of the vagina. I dont see any killing of babies here, do you? The argument that it is stopping the natural progression of life being created is a bit of bull to be honest. Sure what happens if people cannot produce sperm or ova, should they have not been allowed to marry in the first place? St. Thomas Aquinas states that “And the end of matrimony is the begetting and upbringing of children: the first of which is attained by conjugal intercourse”.

I’m looking for help in understanding the Churches position on this matter. I really want to understand. Any devout Catholics out there to enlighten me?

Priestly Celibacy

Last week, we heard about the new Apostolic Constitution for Anglicans who wish to be in full and visible communion with the Pope . Included in this new Constitution is the ability of currently married Anglican clergy to become fully licensed Catholic priests and keep their wives. If I were a Catholic priest or indeed a Catholic seminarian, I’d be rightly annoyed at this. The church is saying we will bend our rules for Anglican converts but will remain stringent with Roman Catholics.

Let’s look at the history of the whole thing. Prior  to the 11th Century, priests could be married across the Christian Churches. Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Churches of the West (Roman Catholic) and East (Orthodox) spilt due to issues regarding who was top dog so to speak. As before, priests in the Orthodox Church were allowed to marry but then could not become a Bishop. However, in the Western Church, priestly celibacy began to be enforced until such a time where it became nearly dogmatic. Some people have claimed that the Church Hierarchy was worried about church property and especially land. What would happen if a married parish priest died? Who would inherit the land However, in the 21st Century, I think there are enough legal mechanisms to allow us bypass any of these concerns, don’t ya think? The other main reason used in favour of priestly celibacy is that a priest must be free from family pressures and ties to tend to his parishioners. Again, has the Orthodox Church crumbled as a result of these pressures? Indeed, has the Anglican Church been damaged by their priests and Bishops being married? I think not.

On the above two issues, I cannot see any justification for the ban on Contraception and the enforcement of priestly celibacy.