If religion was taken out, Irish a fun class at primary level and a European language introduced in primary I think that’d be ideal. Kids could choose to continue Irish and at least one foreign language.

Irish has a bad rep because we can’t speak it and most people don’t have fond memories of Irish class. Make it an oral, game, drama based class for primary (no reading or writing) and the students will

A) have a better attitude towards it, which research shows is a big factor in language acquisition

B) have a greater capacity for learning foreign languages with 2 language structures already established in their heads

And then we won’t lose our native language, but have it as something to be proud of and a part of our unique national identity.

The teachers unions will never allow Irish to be dropped. It would mean more than 5,000 of their members would be redundant, most of them completely unskilled or qualified to teach anything else.

@’Kate Murphy .
I would go along with that – and yes the Irish” Christain ” brothere had a unique way of teaching — they would have been at home in Auscwitz — preferably in the gas chambers .
Also there is far too much empahsis on grammer in teaching Irish and other languges . Michel Thomas courses concentrate on getting to know Verbs – the rest is vocabulary as he said .
Some toning down of the amount of time on correct grammer – much of which is not used proper .!!- could be done – if there is still that overemphasis on grammer .
— and languges such as Mandarin and Indian languge s should be on curriculum as well as EU ones – so there is a good choice .
Yes – there must be massive regilanl dialects in all these languages – but if one has the Basica language – one will be undestood .

Irish is our native language

Little Willy- are you saying that in response to my comment? I did mean Irish when I said our native language…

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz drone drone !!

100 jobs Tom. Really? 60 people emigrate a day.

@Simon ….We must be positive rather than realistic, being positive makes Enda and his lads look good. Anyone who mentions the real statisics is unpatriotic and hates his country.

When are this government going to do something to help the small business man/woman who employ most of the people in this state, instead of allowing the googles of this world put there hands in our pockets day in day out.

Like, shall we say an animator, Martin? That sort of small businessman? Thank God you’re here, though. No one would know the country is in trouble if it wasn’t for your heroic heralding of the news. Oblivious we’d all be. I personally had no idea. Same old, same old, same old, same old, same old, same old, same old, same old, same old…..

Yes I’m an Animator. An have animation business. Had you a point or is it something you think I should be ashamed of.

Simply pointing out that you’re a small business person. Calling the Government to look after small businesses. And fitting yourself for a halo in the process. Because re country needs more me-feiners. You’re right. The Government should shaft Google and its thousands of employees to sort you out. What was that you were saying about FG being “self-serving”?

@Vincent …Well done you have succeed in part from diverting from my point about the IFSC lobby group.

Why don’t you troll trough all my posts for the last two years and come back and tell me how many times I posted about the small business man, you went to the trouble to look up my background so this should be no bother to you. if you find more than one other post I’ll never post on here again.

I know you guys think everybody thinks like you and only ever comes on to something like the journal to promote themselves and their interests but thats FG not me.

Now the IFSC lobby group, how can you defend the tax break given to them by FG. You have had stacks of time now to look up the issue …so whats your reply.

“But that’s FG not me”….all evidence to the contrary, Martin. You exude arrogance and self interest. And no, as I said, I’ll not be dancing to your tune. And by the way, you have been on here extolling the virtues of your own kind. I got a full night of rubbish from you about how you used to employ more people, some you told me were non nationals and the Government was hurting your business. You may recall Eileen “I’m not paying the Property tax” was also in on the conversation. So it’s pretty evident to me that all your bitterness is derived from your own personal circumstance which, one has to imagine ,given that you’re self employed , is pretty much down to you. Truth hurt? So I’ll not be seeing you, then? I trust you’re a man of your word? Take care now.

“Shaft google and there thousands of employees” typical FG non sense of a comment. Sme’s employee way more people than the google’s, over 70% of people work for sme’s. Its just like a FG person to look after the massive company that pays no where near the 12.5% that attracted them here, and shaft the rest of the people that keep this country ticking over.

Back to the self interest there, I see Martin. Never too far away, is it? Such a sense of self importance….

There you go again thinking everybody thinks with FG me fein frame of mind. My business is not suffering at all in fact if you knew anything about this country you would know that animation is booming in Ireland. But you clearly no very very little.

My concern is for retaliers and the like who swallowed FG’s lies about sorting out the upward only rents. Not to mention the tens of thousands of people who waited and waited on the personal insolvency bill just to find out that the banks were given a complete veto on them. But your a Fine Gael man with no concern for anyone that isn’t in your club or can’t donate thousands for political campaigns.

I’m ashamed people like you can call yourself Irish.

Now, now Marty boy. You spend your whole time talking down this country so you’re hardly in a position to cast aspersions on others patriotism. Look. You’re limited. You don’t understand what’s going on around you. It’s serious times and they call for serious people and you’ve been left behind. That’s ok. It’s understandable that you’re grasping at whatever rhetoric you read in the Daily Mail and regurgitating it. It’s just if you’re going to come from a place of self interest, it will become obvious like it did tonight. And if you can’t really comprehend the bigger bigger, that will become blatant as it does every night with you. That you don’t recognise the crucial importance of the necessary evil that is MNC’s is a case in point. Now, I know you live in the land of cartoons but this is the real world and well, you’re embarrassing yourself. And it can be hard to watch.

bigger picture

Martin and Vincent…..get a room!

He’s a small minded lightweight who will back FG no matter what harm they do. …and by the looks of things a Daily Mail reader to booth..says a lot.

He is plainly out of his depth trying to talk about things he doesn’t understand and when he doesn’t understand he gets all confused and angry and lashes out.

I’m sorry I got stuck arguing with him as you can see its a waste of time, he is not interested in debating points regarding the party he so loyaly follows mainly because he doesn’t know a whole lot about them and thats plainly obvious from his posts.

I think in the future I will follow the advice of all of the other people on the journal that just say ignore him. I reckon it must be pity made me entertain him this evening……I apologise to anyone who read these posts for the boring nature of them.

Wow. Regurgitation is just your thing, isn’t it? Pretty much reworded my post there & sent it back to me. For an animator you’re pretty devoid of creativity, aren’t you? Sound a bit like a schoolboy protesting to teacher, there. As for boring us, it’s ok. We’ve come to expect it from you.

Take this offline lads. It’s boring.

@Vincent …You get into slagging matches like this all the time on the journal I’ve seen it time and time again when you refuse to discuss the points, and its all because you are just not well informed on the subjects you ingage in. And to try and save face to start slinging insults and next thing the other person understandably gets sucked into that angle and it becomes boring and childish.

To prove me wrong explain why FG allowed the IFSC clearing group to get tax breaks to bankers with kids in private schools. Or why the party you support were involved in 9 years of tax evaision and now accuse other politicians of the same crime with zero guilt on their part.

You call these questions boring, truth is they are topical and you have never ever even attempted to answer them. As soon as they arise its time for Vincent to start attacking the persons character.
But if it were a opposition party that was guilty of doing them you would not let it drop until you got a satisfactory answer and the last thing you would call them would be boring.

Face it you can’t defend them neither can you party and you know it.

What part of “I don’t dance to your tune”, do you not understand? Should I use sick puppets or something to explain it in simpler terms? You’re absolutely consumed by a hatred of FG, that’s your prerogative. It’s just beyond boring that you pollute every thread with it, irrespective of the subject and I’ll not be indulging it. It doesn’t suggest a sparkling intellect that you can’t engage other topics on their own merit, but that’s a concern for you rather than I. Personally, I’d prefer not to come across like a Ken doll, dutifully reciting the same old line every time someone pulls the chord, but that’s me. As I say. Limited.

brilliant,.this is highly amusing :))

Handy having a brother, as president of the IFSC and the other a Minister!

No wonder the IFSC clearing group got their tax break for bankers kids going to private schools. It passed even though the revenue opposed it because Fine Gael pushed it home for their pals.

This banking lobby group have unlimited access to the government while other more deserving groups never see the inside of Lenister house bar they are on a tour.

Limited.

Poor Vincent never manages any kind of a defence of the actions of his Fine Gael tax dodgers government, just continues to lower the tone with his 4 year old brain.

Sad little man.

Martin, you’re just such a bore. Doesn’t matter the news, good or bad…it doesn’t matter the subject, it could be about baby seals and you’d find a way to spin it so that you can regurgitate your tired, anti-Government rhetoric. Or more importantly so that you could hear yourself speak again. If you were an ice cream you’d lick yourself.

@Vincent ….Still no defence of your tax dodging hero’s . I think its clear the reason you are not capable of defending them is: either you secretly agree with me or more likely you haven’t a clue what’s going on in this country and were unaware that they were even meeting the IFSC clearing group on a regular basis. Or do you even know who they are????? Probably googling away now like a mad little blueshirt.

Maybe you should ask some questions next time your at one of your Fine Gael mail boys meetings.

Not at all Obi Wan. It’s just I don’t dance to your tune. Mostly because its monotonous, repetitive and lacks any originality. The musings of a bog standard, run of the mill malcontent with delusions of grandeur just doesn’t enthuse, y’know? Now. Would you like a flake with that?

@Vincent …Always diverting from the question, you just don’t know how to begin to defend them do you? You can admit it!! I wouldn’t blame you. But seeing as you can’t come up with a defence maybe you should ask yourself why you support such a self serving crowd.

You’re the one on a job announcement thread talking about tax, Obi-Wan. Who’s the one diverting? Maybe try a Jedi mind trick?

And theres no link between corporate tax rates and new companies opening up here…. Ok Vincent !

But Obi-Wan, you weren’t talking about corporate tax rates used to attract business, were you? You were trotting out your usual boring rubbish instead. Blah, blah, blah….

Ignore him, he’s just a troll and does nothing all day!

Ignore moanin Dolan, nothing intelligent comes out!

We’d all want jobs, but enjoy making up the shortfall of taxes not being fully paid by these companies and declaring big profits!

Start your own business and don’t use interns

Are you saying the jobs are for people from other countries because they’re multilingual? I can see how your comment could be interpreted in other ways.

But you think that we should discriminate in favour of Irish people for these jobs instead of them going to the most suitable candidates?

There’s nothing stopping Irish people from getting these jobs if they’re suitably qualified.

Otherwise we’ll be back to the protectionist policies that held the country back in the past and a dumbed down workforce that’s of no benefit to anyone.

Michael. .. I’m a free market person however my issue is the government needs to attract jobs that match the skills of the Population who are from here not from countries abroad. ..im not a racist. .a protectionist or an inexperienced person rather I am an irish citizen who would like to see some of the jobs that we are attracting to this country be for our own citizens

For a free market person you’re expecting a lot out of the government..