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SINN FÉIN IS gathering in Wexford this weekend for the party’s annual Ard Fheis where delegates will hear from senior party figures and ordinary members over the next two days.
As well as a copy of the 1916 Proclamation and a helpful glossary of Irish terms translated into English, the clár or agenda for the event includes some 176 motions that delegates will debate and vote on between now and Saturday night when president Gerry Adams will give his keynote address.
Among the motions are calls for the continued opposition to and eventual ending of austerity, calls for a united Ireland and pursuing a 32-county strategy on many policies.
We’ve picked out a few motions that have caught our eye and will be considered this weekend:
1. Decentralisation
Motion 4 expresses concern about the regional disparity in economic recovery and calls for the “exploration of the potential social and economic benefits of decentralisation of public sector jobs out of Dublin and Belfast”. This is interesing in light of the fact that the much-lauded decentralisation by a previous government in the early 2000s was largely viewed as having failed. In fact it was scrapped altogether by the current administration two years ago.
2. Another semi-state… in the cloud
Motion 9 calls for the creation of a semi-state company that would “provide a reliable cloud computing platform hosted in Ireland” for businesses to help operate and grow their enterprises. Given the controversy over Irish Water, one would have thought there wouldn’t be a lot of appetite for another semi-state right now or indeed in the years ahead.
3. 4G for everyone
Not content with a cloud computing semi-state, Motion 13 calls for the provision of 100 per cent 4G mobile phone coverage across the island. Who pays? The Northern Executive and the governments in London and Dublin. The motion also calls for the abolition of roaming charges across Ireland.
4. No more charity for religion
Motion 18 calls for the status of religious institutions as charities to be revoked in the “26 counties” or Ireland, as most of us know it. It also says that religious institutions “should not have a special position” in Irish society, so as that the same tax laws should apply to them as to ordinary companies.
5. A police watchdog
Given recent controversies over penalty points, Motion 42 is pretty timely in that it calls for a “truly independent policing authority” in the 26 counties with legislation to give effect to this.
6. Political training
Among the motions under the ‘Party Development’ section are Motion 50, which calls for the roll-out of a new Sinn Féin political training course ahead of the European and local elections. Other motions in this section focus on gender quotas, condemn the media’s treatment of women, and call for a review of party structures ahead of the 2016 elections.
7. Conscience vote on abortion
Motion 58 calls for all Sinn Féin members to be allowed to “articulate and vote on the issue of abortion according to their conscience”. A motion similar to this was backed by TD Peadar Tóbín last year but defeated. Now back in the party, Tóibín will doubtless be pushing this matter again ahead of a possible Dáil vote on legislation to include fatal foetal abnormalities as grounds for a termination.
8. No more fluoride
It wouldn’t be a party conference if there wasn’t a debate on the merits of fluoride. Motion 83 states that there are “no longer any public health reasons to continue water fluoridation” and calls for the repeal of legislation which gave effect to this. Unlike with other parties, this motion is backed by Sinn Féin’s parliamentary members in the 26 counties, no surprise given it recently introduced a bill in the Dáil which would have repealed the Fluoridation of Water Supplies Bill. The government rejected it.
9. Viva Venezuela
Among the party’s motions on foreign policy is Motion 116 which commends Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro “and his comrades” for their continued success in implementing the Bolivarian Revolution in the trying circumstances after the death of Hugo Chavez. The motion also condemns “the attacks of the right-wing forces on the democratic process” in the country and attempts to destabilise Maduro and his “clear and transparent” victory in last year’s elections. Not something that all western governments would agree with.
10. Pylons
There is already a meeting on the fringes of the conference being planned to debate the whole pylons issue and the lengthy Motion 127 calls for the government to proceed with the proposed projects only on the basis that they will be underground – essentially opposing all plans to install high voltage electricity lines overground. The debate on this is sure to be heated, but will anyone articulate a position that under grounding may not possible in all cases?
11. Youth quotas
Motion 155 calls for a “youth quota” for elections to public office which it says can counter the “current age imbalance [that] is so severe that a youth quota is necessary”. The idea would work similar to a gender quota, though the motion acknowledges that it is not a “cure-all”. It’s an interesting idea nonetheless.
All pics: Photocall Ireland
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As much as I’m against the abolition of the Seanad, the senators themselves are making me doubt myself over the last while.
Me too, they come across as a crowd of amateurs.
either that or the media seems to be paying more attention to their cockups which wouldnt be entirely impossible
@Alan “cockups”, great pun
Spot on, I’d say. Cock-up a day in there, I reckon.
This is a genuine question, I’m not trying to troll: What is the advantage of having the Seanad in it’s current form? What powers does it have and how have they used them?
Looks like I’ll be voting on this in a couple of months and I dont know much about it!
Always look on the bright side…this proves at least that she can read…
I rest my case the senator is guilty as charged! Guilty of making headlines and using somebody elses comments! Absolute fool
An independent thinker? Methinks not!
I bet you plagiarised that ;)
Jeez some parents really p1ss me off.
Don’t buy your child a smartphone or tablet and leave them to view what ever they want .
.
Plus porn is the least of their worries when there are sites like ‘bestgore’ etc available .
And Facebook for all sorts to groom your kids .
Wake up and police your own kids.
whats this bestgore website you speak of ?
I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume its along the lines of rotten.com
Exactly
Quite a bit of uncensored Middle-Eastern head-chopping sort of stuff
NOT FOR THE FEINT-HEARTED OR THE PC BRIGADE !!
Remember that time enda robbed Obamas speech right in from him in dublin
Was it plagiarism, though? I mean, most took it as a respectful homage, since even Obama smiled when he got to the part that quoted Obama.
This was more like a person spoofing, since the columnist was not there to acknowledge her work, or defend the parts that were quoted.
Still, I wonder if she will be branded the new ‘spoofer’ or maybe ‘spooferess’? There was a TD from a while back who stole an entire speech that a colleague of his made a few years ago.
Yes Obama was laughing at him not with him
There is proof, if proof was needed that senators, or at least this one don’t even bother to do there own background work.
Abolish them I say.
Bit harsh. Abolish The seanad maybe.
WONT SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN….
Yeah.
Be a parent!
Why should we be surprised by plagiarism? Surely it is the least of their faults?
No this is getting completely blown out of proportion, if this was to come into force it would give the government more leeway to start thinking of monitoring us full time on our activities on the internet! if parents are worried about children coming across porn on the internet do what i did and block these websites from the family computer! there going to come across it in magazines and newspapers anyway but blocking out the porn websites at home is at least a start !! anyway why anytime england enforces a law, ireland hop up and think they have to follow suit Jeez talk about mother republic
Simple solution, set up Net Nanny or similar software on your PC, and block all the offending websites.
Installing something that monitors our web usage is far too similar to Prism, and that is causing the US way too much hassle right now.
Simpler still. Buy a netgenie router and block dodgy sites at the point if entry to the household. Any and all devices coming in with you or your children’s friends are then blocked at source…… simples! Netnanny and other parental control softwares need to be policed on individual devices. Not so with a net genie.
An unheard of senator plagiarising from a journalist as a contribution to the senate. Meanwhile being paid whopping salaries and expenses by the state. Anyone who will miss this ladies contribution when the senate goes (hopefully) need only buy the Sunday times each week.
* lady’s
A senator who commented that fluoride causes downs syndrome should not be known for her ability to think critically on her own…its a damning disgrace that we have such people in positions of power, the Seanad is broke I’ll be glad to see it gone, though really it should be an elected position, staffed with minds not loose tongues in need of a licking ground.
‘ “It was my intention to attribute her work during my contribution something which I sadly failed to do,” O’Brien, the co-founder of the Jack and Jill Foundation and Lily O’Brien’s Chocolates, admitted in a statement to TheJournal.ie today.’
Well, we all know which road is paved with good intentions.
This sums up how much thought and research so many people in power put into their proposals in this country.
“Oh, I read a an article once. It convinced me. I won’t do any further research because I’m uncomfortable with having my opinions challenged. Let me read it to you.”
This proposed filtering system is dangerous. It’s difficult to argue against it because it’s being cleverly worded to suggest that it will make child porn and videos of rape illegal when, obviously, they are already illegal. It’s far too easy to descend into a swarm of jokey innuendo and ignore the crux of this.
This will have no impact on stopping paedophiles discovering or producing child porn. These people do not operate on pornhub. They operate beyond the reach of search engines, on the deep web or otherwise.
As for children, it is staggeringly easy to set up effective filters on your computer if you feel your child may stumble upon questionable content. This proposed system would give parents a false sense of complacency about internet security and they may become even more hands off if this were to come into effect.
Im actually surprised FG dont just tax it. Sure why not? They’ve taxed everything else.
Is that not what they’re doing with the new broadcasting charge?
Hope she’ll be prosecuted under “No Sh*t Sherlock’s” new copyright law.
Of course, I’m assuming that what’s sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose too.
Wow that is pathetic. Was she paid by FG to do this in order to help their populist anti senate campaign?
Sure she copied the chocolate too. That is what she does. Getting paid for her ego boosting is immoral.
More talking through one’s F it would appear
People should start parenting their children properly and leave the fupping Internet alone!
If they blocked porn and torrents all that would be left is one website called bringbackthepornandtorrents.com
They abdicate responsibility. Putting tech in kiddies hands is like asking them to go play in traffic.
The Net is a grown-up, real world place. Who would want their child to read TheJournal.ie?
… and yes I said yes I will Yes. Oh that’s Joyce. No, no, never, oh, that’s Paisley. There’s nothing worse than people copying you, than people not copying you, oh that’s Wilde……….. I give up.
Sure its normal ,Enda robbed his policies from The “Dummies guide to Economics”
Wow…. Another genius kissing her own arsehole…. Try using your own brain for a change…
It was the fluoride in the water that gave her memory loss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amx5gcbRCLk
Shameful plagiarism. I actually watched her give that speech on dail tv. Cringe.
I’m guessing she’ll get quite the shock if she ever gets around to comparing Playboy with Hustler. The whole porn debate is similarly being skewed from child porn to now all erotic imagery of any kind. Daft. And of course there are already filters in google, browsers and parenting software that can be bought.
And who is to say what is erotic, and what is art? And sometimes there can be a mere line delineating between the two.
Going back in time not forward typical of this government
What worries me about the possibility of blocking porn sites is another situation where the government are wading in with censorship. I personally believe we as adults can view what we want and choose and that it be up to the adults to police there own pc rather than the government policing our Internet. Next thing we’ll know is tv3 will be block coz of controversial program’s. I can see Ireland turning into a nanny state where everything is monitored and restricted we’ll all be programmed robots shuffling around
Is this the women who set up the Jack and Jill foundation??
If so then she has done good work, she’s not a stupid women.
Add to that, she was appointed to the Seanad by Enda, seems to me Enda’s cronies may be doing this type of thing on purpose to prime the public before the referendum.
What a feckin egiot!! She didn’t have time to write her own speech because Home and Away was on!
In the other hand is a risk for the freedom of expression…some web pages are blocked in ireland like thepiratebay.com and in other countries some others…
I bet Enda kennys cronies will cost a lot more than the Seanad
Let’s take another example of a fire-bucket as a reason to burn the building.
Never mind if other told it before…well told
Intended as repositors of the wisdom of the more experienced members of society ; self-serving and dishonest senators of average intellect and dubious honesty will ensure that there will be no counterbalance to the populist idiots of Dail Eireann.
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