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SINN FÉIN HAS been accused of “hypocrisy” by Taoiseach Simon Harris over the party’s opposition to a mobile phone pouch scheme for schools.
Simon Harris said he was “absolutely shocked” after receiving a letter from Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald in opposition to the scheme in the Irish Republic when he found out a similar scheme is in place in Northern Ireland where Sinn Fein is in government.
DUP Education Minister Paul Givan, who is in the joint government with Sinn Féin, Alliance and the UUP at Stormont, announced the move in Northern Ireland earlier this year.
The scheme in the North cost £250,000 for pouches for 10 schools.
In this year’s budget, the government allocated €9 million for a fund for schools to purchase pouches for mobile phones for pupils aimed at minimising disruption.
The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) has suggested the money for the scheme “could have been better directed” in schools.
Speaking to the media during a visit to Blessington, Co Wicklow, Harris emphasised there should be a “sense of perspective”.
No pouch is going to be forced on any school, but the Taoiseach said the government is prioritising the issue of mobile phone safety, social media, online media, and cyber bullying.
“This idea came from a number of schools who had already rolled out this project.
“We have over 700 secondary schools in Ireland. We have over 370,000 children in those schools and when you look at that… it is a very small investment of just over 20 quid. If a school wants it, they can have it, and if a school doesn’t want it, the school doesn’t have to have it.”
“There also needs to be no hypocrisy, because you can imagine my absolute shock after I received a letter from deputy Mary Lou McDonald.
“She was outraged about this. She was absolutely outraged. You could have knocked me down with the letter when I saw only a few hours after receiving it, that the Stormont Executive, which is led by Sinn Féin, have, funnily enough, purchased with taxpayers’ money, pouches for mobile phones in Northern Ireland.
“This is an effort by some to distract from a budget of over €105 million euro.
“So you can understand the opposition likes to pick this issue, but you can understand the absolute mortification when they’re actually doing it in Northern Ireland, when they’re in government. It’s hypocrisy.”
Speaking to reporters in Cork, Tánaiste Micheál Martin also accused Sinn Féin of “hypocrisy”, stating that Sinn Féin has attacked the measure all the while Sinn Féin, as part of the Executive, approved it in Northern Ireland.
Martin said it wasn’t good enough that Sinn Féin was trying to distance itself from the scheme in Northern Ireland by saying that it was a DUP minister that introduced the it, stating that Sinn Féin is part of the Executive that governs with the DUP.
“Ah come on… it’s the Executive that decided, everybody was aware of it,” he added.
He said phone pouch use is already policy in the North, stating that Michelle O’Neill is the First Minister.
“Is Sinn Féín seriously trying to suggest it wasn’t aware that this was happening in Northern Ireland before they attacked the initiative in the Republic. That is hypocrisy. Nothing but hypocrisy,” he said.
“That’s the type of superficial hypocrisy we could do without now, because this is a serious matter,” he said, adding that it is a “very serious public health threat to all of our children”.
“Let’s get serious about how we debate it. I accept people might be angry about it, but I’ve asked people to stand back from the noise,” said the Tánaiste.
“We’re either serious about the mental health of children or we are not. Preventative mental health is extremely important. We have lots of evidence now from public health doctors who are extremely concerned about the mental health impacts of social media, and also from a learning and behavioral approach within schools, It is distracting.
“It is impacting on study. It is impacting on focus, and then it leads to other unexpected behaviors around bullying and so on. So if children and young people can enjoy their school day without the mobile phone being ever present, that’s a good thing,” said Martin.
With reporting by Press Association
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This is not new news. Employees and people in cork knew that this was coming down the line for the past 18mths. I know plenty that are planning on taking redundancy and are happy to do so as they are earning decent salaries, and many have been in the job a long time and are looking forward to nice fat redundancy cheques. Good luck to them I say.
So, not necessarily hard times you say, it might well be the end of hard times.
So , if as you say ”Employees and people in cork knew that this was coming down the line for the past 18mths.”… Why did the government not ”do ” something to prevent it ,or why was it not announced before the vote last Thursday ?
I will tell you why and that is the same reason Irish Rails job losses were not announce because the government knew it would have effected the way people would have subsequently voted. The same way they announced all the new jobs , which in fairnes will probably not come to anything til 2015.
If those people, in pfizer, get a good redundancy package I would take it too and run…
Susie, please don’t ask sensible questions. The Ffg/Labour auto-bots cannot process sensible questions. Their supreme leader is infallible.
Susie read the article. The patent on one of their main drugs is running out. They can’t afford to keep producing it against rivals who will make it on the cheap. What do you want the government to do exactly ?
Susie, Lipitor came off patent here. It is no longer viable for pfizer to manufacture it, as all the generics can do it now.
This brings the cost of a medicine down, albeit at the cost of those jobs.
Pharma is a huge industry in cork, especially in little island and ringaskiddy. Experienced pharmacutical workers are in demand down here. Those workers will get reducdancy packs, and shouldn’t have much difficulty picking up a new job in one of the many other tabletting plants nearby.
What do you think the govt should “do” in this situation? To me it looks like the timeline of normal pharma business.
Hopefully a new drug will be produced at the plant between now and next year and the jobs could be saved.
Good points Susie yet again.
Vote Yes for Jobs
And a no vote would have preserved the patents on drugs produced in Ireland? This news has absolutely nothing to do with any government or EU change to the business environment in Ireland.
Oh I know that – you see before I made up my mind on which way I was going to vote. Every single job announcement on this website was followed with the Vote yes for jobs when they had nothing to do with “any government or EU change to the business environment in Ireland”, so using the same illogical logic I say “Vote Yes for Jobs” now.
Terrible news…
While I voted no this has nothing to do with treaties just as a previous poster said the patents hav run out and it’s now an open market.
It may mean that with patents expiring the price will go down thus demand may rise in areas where they previously it was not bought.
No sign of Enda Kenny or Richard Bruton! I mean Enda was first to get his face in when a whole 40 new jobs were being announce a couple of weeks ago!
What can he do that’s beyond his power
Peter, according to your logic, its OK for Enda to do photo ops when jobs are announced, and its doubly OK for Enda to scurry away into some hole when Job losses are announced. Damn the FFg/Labour auto-bots are simply sickening. Its solidarity that the people want to see, not some moron who only shows up to get his Photo in the papers and news when job announcements are made, He is a lieing, obnoxious traitor, who wouldnt debate the referendum, but is happy to be seen anywhere that makes him look ‘good’.
Cal, local TD Simon Coveney has been out today to express his regret at the job losses.
The only thing this has to do with the treaty is the timing of the announcement, like with Dublin bus. Openness and transparency alright!
Good luck to all effected.
Generic = cheaper,so every cloud eh
This was always on the cards as the life cycle of Lipitor was coming to an end and as others have said it was known 18 months ago. It is also the reason why the pharma companies are looking towards biopharma as a solution to the problem of patent expiration due to the complexities of producing generic or bio-similar drugs even if the patent has finished.
One thing the health boards can do, is to make sure that the cheaper generic medicines, which will be prescribed, are manufactured in Ireland.
A sad day
Expect more of this, alot more. To all those in the HSE wishing to push down drug prices to ridiculous levels there will be consequences to your actions. Generic substitution and more importantly reference pricing at the dispensing end in no way guarantee that the generics the government pays for are actually manufactured here, probably the contrary in fact. This doesn’t even begin to address drug “shortages” which in actuality are simply manufacturers diverting supply to more profitable larger markets than Ireland.
have your say