We Must Re-value our People: Re Government Advisor Pay Rise

The disgraceful €35,000 pay rise given to Fine Gael Government Adviser Ciaran Conlon has prompted me to conduct a a survey of how we value our employees or even our people in this country. For instance if Ciaran Conlon is valued at €127,000 per annum for the post of Government Adviser then doesn't that mean that a Paediatric Nurse should be valued at €1,270,000 per annum? Or perhaps to save the country a fortune we could reverse that and value our Paediatric Nurse at €127,000 per annum and pay Mr Conlon €12,700? I'm going to post this Blog on Twitter and I want all Tweeters to  Tweet a  Profession or job to compare with Mr Conlon's job. And I want you to value that job using Mr Conlon's remuneration as a landmark amount to compare professions.

I think Mr Conlon should come clean in public and in the media to explain what this very important job consists of. Does he actively seek and find tens of thousands of jobs in Ireland? Is it that he can type fast that he's so valuable? Maybe he's good at IT? Can he make a cup of tea? Now I don't want to be unfair to Mr Conlon so I'll pose those questions to a Paediatric Nurse. Maybe we should ask Mr Conlon can he find the vein of a 2 hour old baby to set up a saline drip? Can he control life saving machinery of a gravely ill 5 year old girl? Well those and other things such as making the tea for all the little ones in the Paediatric Ward I feel is a more important job, a more important contribution to society, than Mr Conlon can ever achieve. If Mr Bruton feels he doesn't know enough about his job then he shouldn't have went up for election until he educated himself.

Now here's how I would like all you tweeters to respond to my survey. Think about a few professions to compare with Mr Conlon's. Not many people will know that there are a squad of very brave people who's job it is to keep the sewers of Dublin in working order. I leave it to your own imagination as to what these people have to do down the sewers all day preventing blockages and dealing with your human waste before going home to their families in the evening.

But there are many more important and valuable contributions to society than Government Advisers. Firemen and women. Ambulance personnel, Gardai, army personnel in the Lebanon, waste disposal officers (bin men), hospital porters etc, etc etc. But I'll leave it to tweeters to choose a job and value it in comparison to a Government Adviser at €127,000. We really do need to stop valuing a Barrister at €2 million and a hero in the army at a few thousand. 

I'll Vote Yes for 2012 Referendum if I get the Following:

There's going to be a referendum in Ireland in March or April to decide if we are going to hand over the rest of our powers to govern this country to the European Union. I will be voting No against anything to do withe the EU despite the fact that I have in the past been a Euro enthusiast. But if I get the following I will vote Yes:

1. A 100% increase in disability benefits and allowances in Ireland.

2. A 50% increase in funding to the HSE.

3. A 25% increase in Education Funding with a further 25% towards children with a disability in Education.

4. A Wealth Register which anyone having earnings or assetts above €250,000 would have to sign in the first six months of 2012. The register would be published and open to inspection by the general public. It is important that the Irish people get knowledge of the identity of the 30,762 millionaires divulged by Fintan O'Toole on Vincent Browne's Tonight programme on TV3 last year.  

5. A 50% reduction in legal costs and fees in Ireland, particularly fees for Barristers.

6. A Wealth Tax with the emphasis on tax diverted from the poor and middle income people to those earning more than €100,000. The theory that these rich people will leave Ireland if they are asked to pay their way is fine by me. The cream of Ireland have already been leaving in their hundreds of thousands. As long as they drop their cash and their passport in a wheelbarrow before they board the plane Bye Bye. By the way the cream of Ireland is led by for example Paediatric Nurses. They are also much more skilled, knowledgeable, and valuable to this country than any over paid and over valued Fine Gael Government advisor.

7. Anyone with an income of less than €22,500 would be exempt from income tax.

8. Ireland should have total and exclusive fishing rights returned to the control of the Irish Government and the EU should give a €2 billion grant to Ireland to build an Irish Naval fisheries protection fleet.

9. All Agriculture restrictions must be lifted by the EU on Irish Farming and exclusive governance of agriculture be returned to Ireland from the EU.
10. Ireland should apply to the United Kingdom to return to the sterling area and leave the Euro in a planned and orderly fashion if the above demands are not forthcoming from the European Union Authorities.

An Open Letter to Alan Shatter TD

Alan, I posted a Blog on Blogger.com on 30 May 2011 but no-one has told you about it. I heard within the last few weeks that your Department are now processing 6,000 convicted persons through the prison system in Ireland. The majority of these people are guilty of poverty crimes such as no TV Licence, no car tax, inability to pay fines and other petty crimes. My blog on the 30 May  was in response to a crisis. Now the crisis is so serious that your department is allowing sentenced prisoners to spend four and a half hours in prison after sentencing. This make a mockery of the courts, the Judges & magistrates and the sentences proffered. I called for a general Amnesty in May because the Penal System had shown then that it was collapsing. It has now collapsed. You Mr Shatter are in charge of a failed Justice System. Please use the period of Christmas Day to New Years Day to give an Amnesty to All Non Violent Prisoners in Ireland. Cut spending on Prisons by 80% overnight in 2012.  

Support the Property Tax

I do strongly believe in a  property tax. And €100 a year is far too little to pay. I think the property tax should start at €1000 a week for all property valued at over €2 million. Some of this tax should be diverted to children with disability. A special tax should also be introduced for anyone with income or assetts of over €0.5 million. 

RTE TV Licence

I'm looking for a TD to ask RTE Telivision/ Radio in the Dail how much they spend on advertising on the most stupid media exercise on the globe. The TV Licence. RTE are insulting the population of Ireland by the advertisement/s they currently have on a half hourly basis on all thier outlets. I suspect they spend twelve times more on the stupid, insulting advertisments than they ever expect to take in from the destitute suicidal population of Ireland. If I had a choice, buy a tin of baby food for my two month old baby or pay to watch the most anti poor broadcaster on earth, Radio Telifis Eirraenn. Well I will take the humane route and take my two month old baby to Mountjoy Gaol in Dublin because I cannot afford to pay the TV Licence.

Be Patriotic. Shop in the North.

Got a lot of stick on Twitter today for defending the poor, disabled, the old, blind, trolley ridden and unemployed. I am of the opinion that being a millionaire is morally wrong in Ireland today. And it should be considered a serious criminal offence. @scullybones on twitter profoundly disagrees. The other thing is Pat Kenny feels it is un-patriotic to shop in the foreign North. Well I think that it is un-patriotic to contribute to the starvation of your four children under five years old. In Dundalk. Particularly if one of your children is disabled and just escaped being abused by Brendan Howlin's chainsaw on DA for kids.