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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwSACUD_sdo
YouTube: Hugh O’Connell
Updated 11.59pm
THE SEANAD IS debating a special motion to annul an EU directive on organ transplants – signed into Irish law a year ago – which a Fianna Fáil senator claims is flawed.
The European Union (Quality and Safety of Human Organs Intended for Transplantation) Regulations 2012 is being debated in a special session of the upper house today after Fianna Fáil senator Mark Daly secured a debate on the law.
Opening the debate, the leader of Fianna Fáil in the Seanad, Darragh O’Brien, said that though there was no prospect of the legislation being annulled a “proper focus [has been] brought to bare on this whole area of organ transplantation” because of the debate.
The Minister of State for Primary Care Alex White is representing the government with Health Minister James Reilly on holiday. Daly and Fianna Fáil faced criticism from the Fine Gael leader in the Seanad, Maurice Cummins, who said the recall is a “political stunt”.
He said that in signing the EU directive Ireland has “signed up to a clear legal framework” on organ transplants “the aim of which is to ensure the safety and quality of organs as well as the protection of organ donors and recipients”.
Cummins said he hoped senators will speak about the directive and the regulations it lays out and not confuse this debate with that about an opt-in or opt-out system for organ donations.
Independent senator Jillian van Turnhout said she supported a motion to recall the house last year but said she was not supporting it this year as the past 12 months had afforded ample opportunity to debate Ireland’s organ transplant system including in two Oireachtas debates.
“Part of me wonders, it’s almost as if Senator Daly is trying to invoke the memory of Bobby Ewing [a character in 'Dallas'] stepping out of the shower and forgetting that the past year has happened,” she told senators (see video above).
Later, her fellow independent Dr John Crown recalled the ‘Who Shot Jr?’ plotline in ‘Dallas’ and asked: “Where is JR? Why is the Minister himself (James Reilly) not here to answer this charge?”
Fianna Fáil senator Terry Leyden said that the Attorney General’s advice – that any attempt to recall the Dáíl an annul the legislation would be illegal – was itself “absolutely flawed”. He said that Mark Daly “has done the State a great service”.
Fine Gael Senator Colm Burke said that in 2000 there were 150 people waiting for kidney transplants, by 2010 it was over 650 and acknowledged that there are issues that need to be addressed.
He said that there are over 1,828 people on dialysis in Ireland, costing €118 million every year but said that the legislation being debated in the Seanad is not related to this.
Sinn Féin senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh said there was an onus on legislators to deal with the issue in its entirety and that any discussion about organ transplants should address the larger issue of healthcare provision in Ireland.
Fine Gael senator Jim Daly said that he had met former GAA star and living donor Joe Brolly recently who, he claimed, agreed with him that Daly was “talking through his derriere”. He said if the legislation is annulled there will be no “objective quality and safety standards” for transplants.
Independent senator Rónán Mullen said that time afford to the concerns of private members is “paltry” and therefore the recall of the upper house was welcome. Earlier his fellow independent, Katherine Zappone, said that there was no rationale for having two authorities dealing with organ transplants.
Fianna Fáil senator Mary White said that the recall of the Seanad had been a victory for the house, for Daly, and those awaiting transplants.
First published 10.51am
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A lot of politicians seem to be upset over the weekend about an artist depiction of an eviction, rather than the evictions themselves.
It’s seems to be an attitude of ‘so what if evictions happen but don’t you dare paint us in a bad light’
Im not a sinn fein supporter but this is a storm in a teacup. The real scandal is the government lifting the evictions ban. Ó Broin has given them ammo to shoot at him and deflect from themselves.
@Brian Dunne: why should private property owners have their legal rights reduced in favour of people who have no ownership of the property?
@Brian Dunne: 100%
@Brian Dunne: The knee, not the foot!
@Tipper Irie: Because the wellbeing of all the citizens in an emergency situation overrides the business and commercial interests of the few. It always has in a civilized society. We’re not America.
@Brian Dunne:
I’m not a sinn fein supporter but ..
@GERARD KENNELLY: yes Gerard, i am not a supporter of sinn fein. I have never voted for them.
@Tipper Irie: Maybe THEY should blame the government then either way someone has to, theey fk’d up rightly. Not because of the whole eviction, but by letting too many scroungers into the country Irish and Foreign a like.
@Tipper Irie: O’Broins trajectory is certainly lamenting what is going to be asked of the Gardai. The firm in Dail Eireann are tactical and cunning by provoking, turning tenants against the smaller landlords with perhaps one property, and being charged a whooping 52% tax on their rent. It’s the big Developers with many properties that can withstand this. I’m hazarding a guess you are the latter?
@Tipper Irie: here here. Spot on. Not enough free houses is the problem. Plenty houses for people willing to work and get a mortgage.
@IronMan2020: What about low paid workers? At least they are trying, they are not sitting on their backsides doing nothing. We need to stop funding life long scroungers, people who are well able but have no intention of working. Having a low paid job should NOT make you ineligible for a home, on the contrary, we should bee helping those who are trying to better themselves and get themselves or their families into a position where they can be productive members of society.
@Trash CanMan: Very true but not a line you will find many TDs willing to agree with!
@Trash CanMan: Agreed the big problem is that the people who are working on minimum wage 40 hours a week are worse off than those not working at all. They have made it too lucrative to not work… between different schemes and top ups on social welfare.
@IronMan2020: false. Only 14.5% of those who work earn over €100k. Which is pretty close to theMINIMUM requirement for a mortgage. I I think it’s
@IronMan2020: false. Only 14.5% of those who work earn over €100k. Which is pretty close to theMINIMUM requirement for a mortgage. I I think it’s a
@Trash CanMan: except with FULL employment these scroungers are really a myth of Lieo’s, remember his welfare fraud campaign that cost more than it saved. Look to the real cause of our problems not deflecting onto myths that don’t exist to point it cause the crisis.
@IronMan2020: FFG has implemented employment legislation allowing for zero( now banned I think) minimum hour contracts which benefit employers by absolving them from obligations such as holiday pay, redundancy pay, Sickness leave etc and other full time employees benefits/rights. Social welfare, public money, is then used to raise incomes to a minimum existence level. This isn’t social welfare, IT IS CORPORATE WELFARE instigated by FFG. Look to the real cause not the victims of this massive con.
@Benny Mchale: that doesn’t answer the question. Removing property rights from legal owners is a very slippery slope. Pensions are a property for example.
@M Bowe: your talking BS regrettably I earn no where near that… but I cut the cloth to fit what I do earn, what I can afford to buy.
@M Bowe: what a pathetic comment, comparing the famine to this shows hyperbolic ignorance in the extreme.
@Martin O’Reilly: seems to me you are wrong on all your guesses, but when you need to rely on a guess to make a point you should know you are not making a reliable or factual comment. You gave not answered the question either.
All this news deflection isn’t going to change the homelessness situation.
How could he possibly think that would not be offensive
@Michael Graham: He was just lamenting, do you not get it? There is a very strong possibility this is about to happen sooner than later. The developer landlords will get private security firms to do their dirty work. Empathy will not prevail, and we are well versed in our history that such provocation leads to trouble ahead.
@GERARD KENNELLY: Oh I see where you are looking through rode tinted glasses at an invasive army, and their comrades in the RUC etc. Please construct some argument of realities before you comment.
@Michael Graham: O Broin has vilified landlords for the last number of years and effectively promised that “when” SF get into power, they would remove all rights from landlords. This has frightened many small landlords out of the market and compounded the housing rental shortage. As for the Tweet, more populist politics, which this time has backfired.
An organisation that bristles at the mention of their recent bedfellows or fellow travellers, feel free to compare/equate our Gardai with crown force bailiffs .
Risible.
The present government would do well to remember that evictions did happen, and people tossed onto the road of Ireland with no place to call home.
The present government has replaced the English landlords of the past, with there own brand of eviction helping the wealthy landlords and developers to evict sitting tenant’s.
@Jimmy Kiely: fair comment. It was law back then n we can argue it is law today but it is the role of Gov to implement policies to protect ppl in times of crisis.
We have imported over 400k ppl since the 2016 census. As successful as our economy has been and creating loads of jobs it hasn’t been sustainable from an infrastructural point of view.
We are currently at crossroads where we take the liberal road and decide to look after our citizens and try create a more equal society or we continue down this road of winners and losers.
@Jonny Parkinson: I’m a FG voter n i think they have created an amazing environment to do business but haven’t regulated how quickly it grows and now the entire system is under so much pressure. At work we can’t get more staff for the warehouse all applicants are from abroad but if we employ them we are making the problem worse.
How is anyone even comparing this to the famine! 1845- Starvation, forbidden education, religion, genocide, no hope, no benefits, no chance. Not even close to todays reality, have some respect
I don’t see the problem here, Garda have been present during evictions in Ireland, I seen it with my own eyes. Irish agents working on behalf of British absentee landlords evicted thousands of Irish people from their homes so what’s the difference today?
@ggg: Wow ggg, you have been busy, been too thousands of evictions and managed to work out that they are all for British absentee landlords. Tell us more, how did you mange to see all this, with your own eyes!!?
No shame…divisive troublesome tweets. Mask slips again
With the glasses and the scarf he looks like a character from Hogwarts in that photo.
Harry Squatter.
Scrapping the bottom of the barrel again,,and no shame
History repeats itself, as they say, it’s only the actors that change.
The image is actually quite good, and accurate, once there is a court order in place.
Remember, only certain types of court orders are actually enforced:
Eviction Order – enforced
Access Order – not enforced
Protection Order – enforced
One thing for certain the amount of people using “the masks slips” shows its not only the Shinners who have groupthink.
Exactly as the artist intended and no lies within . What is the problem exactly. The truth ?
The eviction ban was only meant to be temporary and should be lifted. However they should have improved the rights of tenants before lifting the ban. Landlords should not be allowed to enter the rental market as a “hobby second income” you can’t be a landlord 1 week and then decide you won’t be the next. Being a landlord should be regulated as a long term investment. Landlords are currently taxed like they did a bit of overtime, treat them fairly tax wise and then demand higher standards for tenants in return.
By the by, IRA during the War of Independence killed innocent civilians too. I don’t think the Provos had a monopoly on that.
@AnthonyK: Not forgetting Ballyseedy by the Free State.
And Why have a conversation, nothing illegal only the Gardai there at evictions. Those bringing up the past wrongs of SF if history serves me FF destroyed the whole Country with a civil war and today by stealth taxes against the people
After so many years of adversity I suppose its hard to expect sf to have any respect for the garda!!
I am a spectator, and certainly not a party faithful of any party. O’Broin was only lamenting what the government and intrigues may have the Gardai be ordered to comply with. Who knows, this could become a reality. It is certainly pointing that way. I’m sure the political thought will be to let private security firms do the dirty work paid for by the Developers alias landlords with many properties.
This should serve as a lesson to those who might be led to believe Provisional Sinn Féin represent an alternative to FF/FG. As usual they play to multiple audiences but climb down and toe the establishment line when push comes to shove
Disgusting, do the honourable thing and resign.
Try and get one when your house is been robbed good luck with that
Do Sinn Fein recognise the authority of Garda Siochana as the lawful Police force in the State.
Listened to Mary Lou on the 6pm news yesterday evening when Catriona Perry asked her to comment on the tweet. She spent 5 minutes talking complete bluster about the Government’s failures without answering the question.
Outrageous behaviour to edit in Garda to eviction scene. These ignorant politicians need to educate themselves on the existing eviction laws. If they do not like them, change them. We all know those who shout loudest about the evictions are satisfied to sit on their arses and do nothing. Ireland deserves better.
Garda = RIC
Have always looked on O Broin as a psuedo lefty posh boy who is always trying to give himself some “street cred” by posting incendiary comments.The new breed of Shinner i assume thats more acceptable to the electorate.A bit like the Tory party in the UK.
Populist rewriting history once again.
I personally think it’s quite unfair to be pressuring and putting blame in landlords. If they evict, no doubt the house will be taken up by someone else. The numbers then add up. As for numbers…well, ain’t that the problem, not that I’m saying from where or who, just numbers. The division sum dies not divide: thus illogical maths.
Deep water alert
It wasn’t offensive at all
I HOPE THEM TWO WERE NOT KISSING
have your say