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LAST UPDATE | 24 Aug 2020
TAOISEACH MICHEÁL MARTIN has said that the messages being expressed at an anti-mask protest in Dublin at the weekend contained “dangerous nonsense”.
He also indicated that he didn’t think the attendance and speech from a barrister at that event was “compatible with membership” of an independent asylum appeals tribunal.
Last night, it emerged that Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has asked the chair of the International Protection Appeals Tribunal (IPAT) to “act urgently” and prepare a report after one of the barristers on the Tribunal spoke at the anti-mask rally on Saturday.
Una McGurk addressed attendees at the rally, which was organised by a group called Health Freedom Ireland. The group believes that wearing a face covering should not be mandatory and has also has called for “no mandatory Covid-19 testing” and “no mandatory Covid-19 vaccination”.
In her speech, she said that an “alleged” spike in cases has led to further “draconian” measures being introduced. She said that “masks should be a choice, not a mandate”.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1′s Today With Claire Byrne this morning, the Taoiseach said he was “very disturbed” by the protest.
Martin said: “People are entitled to protest in Ireland, we are a democracy. But there’s aspects of it that concern me. Why is the tricolour at all of these protests?
Some of the language is way out there. This idea that the whole thing is a conspiracy by the State to suppress people, it’s just inexplicable nonsense, but dangerous nonsense. Masks have come in because of public health advice. People are complying with that.
He added that the comments from McGurk at the protest weren’t compatible with membership of IPAT.
McGurk is one of 70 barristers listed as a member of IPAT. The Tribunal is an independent, statutory body set up to hear and determine appeals on decisions made on applications for protection status – for asylum – in the State.
Other attendees at the protest included members of the Irish Freedom Party, who also addressed the crowd that had gathered at the Custom House in Dublin city.
A small number of people were involved in clashes with counter protesters at the event, and four people were later arrested by gardaí.
Questions were immediately asked by the opposition and a government minister in the wake of McGurk’s address to the rally on Saturday.
Minister for Children, and Green Party TD, Roderic O’Gorman said: “It is vital that all members of the IPAT are objective in their work and that they are seen to be objective. I’ve raised my concerns over yesterday’s protest with Minister McEntee and I’ll be keeping in contact with her about this issue.”
Sinn Féin’s justice spokesperson Martin Kenny said that it was with “great concern” that he learned that a State appointee to IPAT spoke at a rally in Dublin which denied “that there is a pandemic and to encourage people not to wear masks”.
Social Democrat co-leader Catherine Murphy said: “At a time when we need to build solidarity and cohesion in society, the reported comments and appearance at the rally of a government-appointed member of the IPAT tribunal raises serious questions.
“The Minister for Justice needs to investigate this issue to ensure that confidence in the impartiality of members of this tribunal is maintained.”
Labour’s justice spokesperson Brendan Howlin also called on the Minister for Justice to act.
In a statement last night, the Department of Justice said the IPAT is run independently of the department.
“The part-time members are appointed following a recommendation by the Public Appointments Service,” it said.
“It is expected that the code of conduct that applies to part time members of the Tribunal will apply. The Minister has statutory powers to remove a part time member of the IPAT but obviously can only act in a considered fashion, following a report by the Tribunal itself.
The Minister has asked the Chair of the IPAT to act urgently on this matter. It would not be appropriate to comment further before any report has been prepared.
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Would people prefer the opposite or is complaining a default position?
They’re unhappy about the possibility that a return to better times could result in their favourite political party losing out. Mixture of Sinn Fein supporters, socialists and vague I-saw-V-for-Vendetta-and-it-was-a-pretty-cool-movie revolutionaries.
No, we won’t complain……but just point out this payment was due close to an election.
Or that the NTMA are working on reducing debt through better use of bonds…. Which is their job.
Crack open the champagne. Bonuses and pension top ups all round.
You’re a walking stereotype. Could have thrown in a rant about the bankers and the EU while you were at it.
Where I come from a train runs on tracks ! A walking train .. is that why your face is so full of pain , walking a train can’t be easy !
smile dude smile – let the sunshine bounce !
Just in time for election bullshit promises in 2016 what a bunch of corrupt cohorts we have running our country. BOC
We want these pushed out, let inflation deal with them, while we have a chance to do business at record low rates.
If Joe Higgins, Pearse Doherty etc were in charge then this is the exact same thing they would do.
Do business with whom Sean ; the foreigners have us cleaned out …. and we don’t tax home-based or foreign companies enough to the detriment of the workers pay …. there is no money left for seed capital and even if there was who is going to chance starting up again ….
Ireland is in famine survival mode …. spend nothing , do nothing and wait for it all to pass … and who would blame anyone after what happened …
I think B. Cowen and co. were sold a turkey B.T.W. but they should have fired it back ; with interest !
Short term gain, long term pain
Doesn’t extra interest over a longer term mean this is costing us money?
Basically using credit card to pay mortgage;
unless we got low enough rate on new loans comparative to preexisting loans to make this a gain but hard to imagine that big a difference
Yes, the new loan is cheaper than the one it replaces.
The 2016 repayment schedule was €10.1bn @ 4.6%
So its been reduced to just over €8 bn at the 4.6% now
The adjustment will save about €87 million over 2015/16.
1bn of the reduction was a buy-back at a lower rate.
The other billion was a 2 for one swap to be redeemed in 2023.
€8bn is still a large obligation for 2016 though, hopefully the NTMA aren’t finished.
Not at all.
The loan rates on new loans are record lows, what we want to see is the NTMA doing this repeatedly.
THIS IS GOOD NEWS no matter who is in Govt. or what they desire.
Is everyone insane? So the country’s problems can be solved by forever asking for extensions to loans? Um… what happens when we run out of creditors who will accept our requests to extend the loans?
I’ll tell you what – the country either goes bankrupt or else enormous austerity is forced on the country to repay the loans immediately. And this would be real horrendous Great Depression level austerity.
The whole argument that we can extend into the future and save money because of inflation is ridiculous. Inflation is pretty much zero percent, and we are paying almost 5%.
I despair. The country has no hope if the people who will pay off the debt (the younger generation of TheJournal readers) are all happy to go along with this madness of extend and pretend.
Seanie,
€8bn in 2016. Where do you think that’s coming from?
It would have grown to €8.6b by 2016 when interest payments are taken into account. But that doesn’t matter to the idiot young generation who think this is all a laugh, and that the problem will go away somehow.
Meanwhile this generation will wake up when it’s too late: when they find that there is zero money left over to pay them a state pension.
Ask yourself a question: if you knew you couldn’t rely on the government for a pension then wouldn’t you do everything you could to try to stop the older generations from spending your pension assets just so that they can keep their standard of living for another few years?
How bad do your own retirement prospects have to be before you wake up?
What is your solution John?
@Paul.
The debt is rolled over.
John.
This is good but I’m still in no doubt that the only thing that will save the Euro and the wider European economy is debt write offs.
Debt write offs for states, people, companies will have to happen if Europe is not to be left behind completely.
@ Sean
That’s fine – but what happens if the creditors don’t agree to a debt write-off? The answer can be seen in the disaster that is Argentina.
The solution is to stop the madness asap and agree a write-off, or else threaten to declare bankruptcy. At least this way we might have some assets left over. But the current crop of politicians are under orders from the electorate to keep borrowing more and more, until eventually every single asset and utility in the country is handed over.
The debt write off will happen in an agreed way or in a collapse.
Though I agree with your analysis above.
Countries will however always have to borrow, they is good business and it makes sense, obviously we need to be restrained and return to reasonable levels.
The problem with waiting is that we are effectively including the future productivity of the country in any debt write-off deal. If we do it now then we hand over the assets owned by the state. If we wait then we will also need to hand over all future wealth and productivity gains.
So your saying…. Refuse to repay any foreign debt…. As if that is consequence free?
Sure why tax at all when you can just borrow & refuse to pay it back.
No, I’m not saying to refuse to repay. If the creditors don’t agree a write-down then I’m saying to declare bankruptcy and hand over the assets owed. We’ve already lost ownership if those assets anyway, it’s just that we are pretending that we still own them.
By continuing to borrow more we are pledging any new assets the country creates and earns.
John.
This is good but I’m still in no doubt that the only thing that will save the Euro and the wider European economy is debt write offs.
Debt write offs for states, people, companies will have to happen if Europe is not to be left behind completely.
I agree seanie ; sorry I was in a terrible mood earlier ….
do you think if we slipped in a couple of zeroes onto the “2″ above anyone would notice …. sneaky little legal move ….write the lot off in one go !
At what rate did they buy them back at? Replacing them with bonds that fall due at a later date still means you have to pay them. And you may save due to inflation but I’d guess there guaranteed against that happening.so they’ll just be lumped in with the next load of bonds, and then what? Do the same thing again.
Thanks for the article Jack but is there any chance you could expand it a bit in language I can understand and I am being serious here.
have your say