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EVERY SATURDAY MORNING we take a look at all the best comments left on the site by our readers over the past seven days.
This week talk on the site was dominated by Peggy Mangan, a gay cake-topper, the Pope, abortion and global warming.
So here, in no particular order, are the standout comments from the week that was.
The top 5 articles which received the most comments this week:
1. Pictures: Crowds take to the streets for pro-choice march (573 comments)
2. Dublin business owner in storm over gay cake-topper row (535 comments)
3. Body of Peggy Mangan found in Ballymun (338 comments)
4. Poll: Do you believe in global warming? (333 comments)
5.Priest resigns from Mater Hospital board over decision to comply with abortion law (309 comments)
Some of the best comments left on the site this week
(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)
As part of road safety efforts, Gardaí published a list of the top 10 locations where drivers speed in Dublin. Terry O’Dowd took commentators to task over blaming pedestrians:
Celbridge road, Lucan. My uncle was decapitated there by a speeding driver.
You all keep worrying about your fines though, because that’s what it’s all about.
It’s nothing to do with speed limits being in place for a reason.You’re all great drivers, and would never break the speed limit. Well, unless the speed limit doesn’t suit you and your needs. Then it’s just an annoyance, right?
Along with my uncle being killed, I’m also missing a parent due to a speeding driver. It took six weeks for my father to die after being knocked down at a pedestrian crossing, but it must have been his fault. After all, you shouldn’t have to stop for pedestrians.
Yeah. Those damn Gardaí and their speed traps. How dare they do their jobs by enforcing the law? They really have some cheek
Sinead O’Connor and Miley Cyrus were involved in some online argy-bargy this week. Tom Lawlor didn’t like Miley taking control of the moniker:
Miley’s biggest mistake was cheating on Biddy with that Fidelma one.
Global warming is ‘extremely likely’ to be caused by humans according to UN scientists. Desmond O’Toole hit the nail on the head in our poll on the this issue:
It’s not a question of belief, it’s a question of evidence. We’re not talking fairies at the bottom of your garden here. Also, it’s not global warming, it’s climate change and whether human activity is a primary causal factor.
Emigration and the Irish Disapora was in the news for several reasons ways this week. Brendan Daly showed why there is no catch all reason for the ‘brain drain’:
My wife, kids and I left over 2.5 years ago, we discussed this over the weekend and have to say while we didn’t want to leave, our lives are better by multitudes, we both had jobs at the time. I think that these politicians have a cheek to comment on people who have left, most did not want to leave but for the sake of their family and sanity, they have.
Fine Gael uses giant jigsaw to argue for abolition of ‘hijacked’ Seanad this week. Ronan McGrath chuckled.
As with every jigsaw, our Dear Leader Enda has a few pieces missing.
An abortion rights march in Dublin last week predictably stirred emotion in the comments section. Sharon Reid outlined her heartbreaking story among many others:
Hadn’t heard a thing about it I would have certainly been there, even though I am married and already have a child who is 2-years-old it doesn’t mean that what ever happens in the future I shouldn’t have a choice. My pregnancy was awful and I was hospitalised over it and while I would go through it again for my princess I’m not sure I could go through it for a child that was the result of something horrific or that I may actually die as a result (extremely possible next time with the condition I had on last pregnancy) but it would be a decision my husband and I would come too. The choice should be ours.
In our poll on the Seanad, only 18 per cent wanted it abolished. Derek Cullen gave his reasons:
I agree that the Séanad / Dáil needs to be reformed completely but to just abolish the Séanad without our country’s leader even willing to take part in a debate on why it should be abolished is what is making me wonder, well why should I vote for something when the man leading the party who are looking for this isn’t willing to show me a live argument against the No vote. I would also be very, very foolish to think that Richard Bruton will be presenting a cheque in 2017 to the value of €20m to prove the savings if the Séanad was abolished!
The 6 of the most popular comments this week
Many of the top ten comments of the week all related to the tragic death of Peggy Mangan The top two are included below.
1. Top of the pile, Catriona Lowry received 3,881 thumbs up for this tribute to Peggy:
…so heartbroken for the family… It was so touching to hear her little doggie stayed by her side; not easy for a dog for 4 days with no food! She must have been a wonderful owner and lady. RIP
2. David O’Connor, also offered his contribution and received 1,871 thumbs up:
This is terrible…how come people in her position aren’t issued with gps enabled wrist tags so when this happens they can be quickly tracked and found and brought back out of harms way…
3. One of our top stories of the week related to delays at motor-tax offices. Eric Davies says tax and petrol should be connected and got 1,626 green thumbs:
easy way to stop non payment of road tax is to scrap it altogether and put a fixed amount on every litre of petrol instead, that way those who use the roads more, pay more. those with bigger fuel hungry vehicles pay more, those with smaller more efficient cars pay less. either way it saves a lot of time and money, no need for all those tax offices, the people working in them could be relocated to another sector of the civil service, the money saved could then be used to equip the garda with up to date number plate recognition units in their cars, which would warn them of any vehicle without insuranceor n.c.t.
4. On the story about an Irish store owner refusing to stock a cake-topper of a homosexual couple, Ireland Uncensored says he has the freedom to do so and got 1,571 likes:
Luckily he has the freedom to do what he likes and sell what he wants , I dont necessarily agree with him but just as he has the freedom to do this, members of the lgbt community have the freedom not to shop there
5. An old friend of TheJournal.ie retired from the comments section this week and signed off with a veteran’s wisdom that received 1,270 thumbs up. We will miss you Capt. Adebayo Flynn:
Us irish have a name for being massive boozers but when it comes to tea, we are king.
On a different note, guys I want to say goodbye to you all. I’ve been commenting for about a year now and after probably a thousand or so I have had too much debate and craic with so many of you to split without signing off burning your ears one last time. I wouldn’t leave a party without saying goodbye so here goes.
It’s been a blast and I have learned a lot from other peoples points of view and of course from the articles from the ‘down with the kids’ staff who I wanna give a big shoutout to. But I’m gonna move on as you gotta call it some day. The journals a great site and irish media needs it. The comments section for me was what made it, so thanks for the laughs and education fellow commenters, I am in no doubt you are a massive part of this sites success. I’m gonna watch from the stands now.
In closing I wanna say this,
Be proud of your country and your countrymen regardless of all the sh1t we are going through & I’d ask you not to turn, on each other. Debate using your heads and respect each other, don’t say anything you wouldn’t to someone’s face, have a laugh and keep it real. Like all my comments I ever wrote I’m not writing this to get green thumbs, I’m writing it to say thanks and good luck and I’d be happy to go out the way I came in, on a sea of red thumbs. I love you all, peace out.This one is from the bottom of my heart,
ADEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
6. Finally, TheDailyEdge had an article this week about “14 things all Irish people know“. David Holland added his own and received 1,063 thumbs up:
Flat 7up and toast will cure all diseases, fact.
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I’d have to say, I’d be 100% behind the nurses with this. Bad conditions can only be put up with for so long. In my eyes, they’re doing this for the good of their patients, rather than themselves.
We need to put a few billion more into the health service. Where will the money come from though? Maybe DOB will pay for it.
Print it!
Plenty of inefficiencies can be found in admin staff. They’re still doing lots of manual work that could be done by software.
I spoke with a HSE friend about staffing who said it went like this.
1. Due to cutbacks the number of frontline staff is not being maintained.
2. A senior official appoints a manager to advise where “effeciencies” can be made (instead of hiring more people due to embargo).
3. This cost of the new manager could pay for 2 or 3 new nurses.
4. New manager advises where efficiencies could be made, but also advises new frontline staff needed. (no shit sherlock)
5. Hospital cannot hire staff directly, so instead pays over the odds to a recruitment agency for a temp nurse or HSA.
6. Rinse and repeat.
Example: a Health Care Assistant earns avg €11 per hour. Cost to hospital to directly hire fulltime person HCA: €23.
Cost of hiring per hour via Recruitment Agency €30+ per hour. It actually costs more!
Just another scam brought to by FG/Lb
@James Hanrahan
“2. A senior official appoints a manager to advise where “effeciencies” can be made (instead of hiring more people due to embargo).”
The embargo was lifted some time ago.
“5. Hospital cannot hire staff directly, so instead pays over the odds to a recruitment agency for a temp nurse or HSA.”
In the long run, use of agency nurses saves money because the government doesn’t have to fund agency workers’ pensions.
My wife has been a nurse for twenty years, She has taken abuse and been attacked over the years but she still loves the people, This is the first time I have heard her say she cant take any more, It’s because of red tape and bureaucracy she is spending more time with paper work and ticking boxes then dealing with people and now has had enough.End this unnecessary overburdening and allow the people at the coal face do the job they once love.
Solidarity with the nurses trying to hold together a crumbling system. The government have savaged the wages and working conditions of graduate nurses to help pay for the debts of the bankers. Many have been forced to emigrate and most won’t return to be exploited to pay for a crisis they didn’t create.
More broadly, the interests of private capital always take precedence over the welfare of the majority and this is why our public health system is eternally dysfunctional as explained by Gene Kerrigan recently:
“Here is my favourite-ever quote from a politician. It’s from Brendan Howlin, the current Minister for Thrashing the Social Infrastructure.
No, it’s not the quote from 2011, just before the election, when he asked for our votes and told us: “We are against water charges.”
No, it’s from an interview Brendan gave about a decade after he was Minister for Health. Being a thoughtful man, he had spent some time reflecting on his experience in coalition. He wondered why he and others had failed to deliver “a first-class public health system”.
He had since realised, he told author Maev-Ann Wren:”If we did that, there would be no reason for sustaining a private system.”
And the right-wing want a thriving private health market. They want, according to Brendan, around 30pc of people to pay for private health products.
However, he said: “In order for that to happen, they really required the public [health] system to be inferior. Why else, if it was first-rate, would people pay for a private system?”
That’s the sound of a penny dropping.”
Spent 10.5 hrs in A&E lastnight with my elderly uncle. The few staff that were on duty were ran off their feet with what seemed to be a normal volume of people attending A&E. There only seemed to be one doctor in the place who I could overhear apologising to patients for the long delays. I have to say I felt very sad for the staff on duty, they are being run ragged. The staff were literally running about the place, everyone from cleaners to porters to nurses & doctors. It seemed to be chaos due to a lack of staff rather than a large amount of patients. A large proportion of patients were also elderly people who had been brought in by ambulance and didn’t have any family with them. It was very sad to see these mostly frail bewildered people in A&E on their own on trolleys. Look after your elderly neighbours even to pop in for 5mins. Don’t assume someone else has called in or that your neighbour wouldn’t want you to call in. Maybe your the only face they will see that day.
“”"2. A senior official appoints a manager to advise where “effeciencies” can be made” …
Then the senior official is not capable of doing his own job and should be fired – or have his hefty salary reduced to pay for 2 or 3 more nurses.
Glad to hear Leo commenting on jailing of independents as he has sorted out the hospital crises !!!!!
He’s only interested in raising the price of drink to get more money for the bank repayments. We are only tax payers not citizens. The nurses are true public servants not the politicians.
Time for Leo to step down he is obviously incapable of fixing the problems in our hospitals.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, FG want small government and small public services if you want this American style society then vote for them. I personally want a well funded and motivated nurses, doctors and teachers who have job ownership and receive funding for the needs of society that’s not all about profits that go to the few on the backs of independent many.
John, many people actually want a third way. Well funded services that use money efficiently. Public services like the HSE do not have the right to demand endless cash from people who work hard for their families. People like you who think throwing money at public services is always the answer just help create a culture of endless entitlement. And the PAYE worker is expected to fund that entitlement. It’s not fair. And it’s not moral.
Liam Doran is a disgrace, how long has he been doing his job and has got nowhere for nurses!
Good point. This fella’s been leading these sort of campaigns and protests for years, yet nurses still seem no better off nor any happier than when he got the job.
Logic therefore suggests that either he’s not good at it, or else the role is a pointless one since it can’t actually effect any change. And how much does he get paid again?
Can’t blame the nurses. They work very hard. The government have failed when it comes to tackling thehealth crisis. The minister should have resigned. He spends more time talking about things nothing to do with health.
Maybe they could reopen all the regional hospital departments they closed over the last few years, instead all cases are referred to major hospitals like Galway, Limerick, Cork and Dublin. Sadly all these hospitals were at near full capacity before these closures.
To many people having to travel long distances for out patient and emergencies when perfectly good hospitals in their own locality’s were shut down.
Nurses pay was decimated a few years ago. Especially for the newly qualified. They left in their droves for a better life in countries where nurses are respected and paid duly.
What’s the incentive to return now ? No pay increase or improvement of conditions.
Most of the newly qualified nurses I know that stayed work as nurses assistants as
they are paid better with less responsibility & litigation . This isn’t rocket science. Pay them properly, improve working conditions -.
Leo should resign at this stage, the actions he has NOT taken is costing lives,the state of hospitals s totally unacceptable, and he is responsible, and the decent thing to do is go.
Yeah but Leo is busy adding another tax to the trodden people. Hands in pockets with minimum price of alcohol. What’s next? Muppet…
With the average nurse’s salary at 58k they really should focus on their patients and not Liam Doran trying to justify his undisclosed salary by these ballots for strikes..
Guys, I’m in the same boat; unions disgust me with their selfish greed and opportunism with strikes from enriched occupations like teaching and public services that are for improving their private wealth at the detriment of others… But: this, and other nurses strikes, have a realistic demand – to stop overcrowding and improve conditions. Doran might be encouraging this to justify his massive pay, BUT – this is driven by people on the ground and should be fully supported by the public. Always look at the details before making up your mind.
Really Rory? 58k? A nurse on the top scale of pay after 12 years of service will receive €42,469.
https://www.inmo.ie/_INO/Documents/Salary%20Scales%20at%20the%201st%20April%202014.pdf
You are missing the point. The reason they are stuck on the “money” issue is because realistic solutions to this problem will only be found by offering a package which can compare with private Irish hospitals and UK hospitals. It is all very well the government stating they will hire 144 nurses immediately, but the reality is, and nurses are well aware of it, that the HSE will not be able to fill those posts. What nurse in their right mind would enter into such a chaotic and dangerous work environment when they can nurse elsewhere for less stress and more money?
As long as the package being offered by the HSE cannot compete with others, those 144 posts will not be filled and ED nurses will continue to go to work in extremely dangerous conditions, putting their careers on the line every day. One mistake, and their career is over. So forgive them for seeking a realistic solution. It is not simply “about the money”!
Irish Nurse Eh it is 58k plus…Sunday Business Post had it article on that in October. You are not including allowances which bring the figure to 58K per whole time employee. Sure the government annual accounts had it at 56k in 2005 (http://health.gov.ie/blog/press-release/statement-by-mary-harney-t-d-minister-for-health-and-children-on-the-dispute-by-members-of-the-irish-nurses-organisation-and-psychiatric-nurses-organisation/)
Wow Rory – that is such amazing news. I must tell my sister and all her friends who are general nurses qualified four years and all on 32K that they are entitled to an extra 26,000 euro in allowances every year. Wow I really don’t know how they all missed that extra money. They will be so delighted as they were operating on the presumption that the wages they get are the ones that are paid into their accounts each month – you know, the ones based on the official salary scales for nurses.
I would really appreciate it if you could give me some extra information to pass along to them as to how they can go about claiming 26,000 in allowances per year- given you know so much about it. It would be very helpful to them in getting the average salary of 58k instead of the 32K they currently get.
Paper doesn’t refuse ink Rory. Firstly, you are quoting a report by the government which was published 10 years ago. There have been significance cuts in public sector pay since then.
Your comment stated the average nurses pay is 58k. I am an “average” nurse. I am a staff nurse on grade 9 of the pay scale. As a staff nurse I will never get anywhere near this 58k you refer to. This figure takes all of those in the nursing profession, (directors of nursing, assistant directors of nursing, Clinical nurse managers 1, 2 and 3, clinical nurse specialists, advanced nurse practitioners and staff nurses) on huge wages and all of those on low wages and finds an average. This is not the average nurse.
The average wage for a full time employee in Ireland is €40,000 per annum.
And yet over 50% of all workers in Ireland earned less than €28,500 last year. You can twist figures any way you like but the reality is that the vast majority of nurses on this country will never earn more than €45,000 (including their “bonuses”) in their career. There is no other professional in the public service (Garda, teacher, other healthcare professional) who earns less.
Nurses are right but, does anyone else remember the FG/ILP promises to get rid of trolly waiting?
HSE rep on Morningireland said all items had been agreed on bar one. Money. So it does come down to cash no matter what Inmo say.
Once the min price alcohol and sugar tax kicks in, people will be so healthy hospitals will be obsolete. its fool proof, although I’m not sure we can afford 30 years worth of pensions for each citizen when you factor increased life expectancy
No talk of strikes from the unions the last few years but now the country is back on its feet it has them on the news again. I know our health service needs fixing.
I could be wrong here but the problem of overcrowding in our public hospitals might have something to do with the restriction on the number of consultant doctors within this service?
There are some nurses who earn 80k and some 30k. But the HSE pays on average 58k per whole thime equivalent. I get that that isnt much comfort to those at the bottom, but it doesn’t change the figures. Its the same in most professions…
There are no nurses in ireland on anywere near 80k .average pay would be 30-32k. .
Bedlam without beds, been there. Staff conditions dreadful, Nightingales all.
have your say