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THE GOVERNMENT has urged anyone who may have been abused by a well-known Irish language advocate, who founded one of the country’s most popular summer Gaeltacht courses, to come forward.
Health minister James Reilly made the call in the Seanad this evening during a debate on allegations of abuse made against Domhnall Ó Lubhlaí, the founder of Coláiste na bhFíann, who died earlier this year.
Reilly, speaking on behalf of justice minister Alan Shatter in the adjournment debate, said the HSE and voluntary groups could offer counselling for anyone who may have been abused.
Reilly said a preliminary report received by Shatter from the Garda authorities revealed that a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse was initiated in 1997, leading to Ó Lubhlaí being charged with a significant number of sexual offences including the rape of several boys.
The prosecution collapsed, however, when Ó Lubhlaí sought a judicial review into the bringing of the proceedings against him – successfully arguing that too much time had passed since the offences, one of which was alleged to have begun in 1955.
There were also concerns that a secretly-recorded tape, in which Ó Lubhlaí was said to discuss some of his actions, had gone missing – along with a transcript of his remarks.
More recently, Reilly said, Gardaí and another alleged victim had made arrangements to make a statement, but this had not been possible prior to Ó Lubhlaí’s death in March at the age of 84.
Those concerns were related to school visits being made by Ó Lubhlaí to promote an Irish language book he had written.
Shortly after his death, Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan ordered a review of the investigations into the original allegations made against the former schoolteacher, who later founded Cumann na bhFíann and worked with Gael-Linn.
That review, aimed at identifying any shortcomings so that they are not repeated in future cases, is being undertaken by the Garda Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Unit.
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The fact they need advisers highlights their complete incompetence at fulfilling their roles as ministers
Exactly Donal, they were elected to do a job, not to pay vast sums of tax payers money for ADVICE.
Both our Taoiseach and Minister For Finance are school teachers. The Tainiste studied psychology. None of these people are qualified for the jobs they have. Look at the state of our minister for health. It’d be laughable if it wasn’t so infuriating.
Peter- the people of Ireland elected these Ministers. That is all the qualification required. If you want respected economists, vote them in. Were you to do so, of course there’d be people on here moaning about an intellectual elite running the country, removed from the common man.
Donal- every Board of Directors on the ISEQ is supported by advisers. Ministers are there to hear the arguments from as broad a range of experts as they can, weigh up the pros and cons and ultimately make the call. I’m sure you could run a Government Dept all on your own. Us mere mortals, not so much.
Come on Kevin. Ministers were not elected. TDs were. But its an idea warranting more investigation.
Agreed on the private sector using consultancy companies. However who is ensuring value for money here? And how transparent was the hiring process?
Wrong Kevin.. The electorate voted them as members of the Dail, not as ministers…. So where does the fault lie?
Yes, Dave- but Ministers come from the body of TD’s. The only economist in FG is a Minister. And the people of Ireland did elect our Taoiseach. Anyone who put an X beside FG or Labour at the last election knew they were making a teacher our Leader.
Kevin – “Every board of directors on the ISEQ have advisors” – can you back that statement up with factual detail. I have worked at and with many very large listed companies and I have yet to meet one board member with four individual special advisors.
Donal
Your comment simply highlights your complete ignorance about Management practice. When you have studied it you will quickly realise that that advisors and consultants are a routine and normal way of Managing a brief. Obviously you have little knowledge of the matter but that all right as there are few enough at the top and an awful lot where you are!
Why am I no longer surprised by anything like this???
Why am I not surprised by your comment? Ireland plc needs the best & the brightest from the Private Sector advising the Govt. We’ve paid a high enough price already for the ineptitude of in-house Civil Servants. If the best are willing to bring their talents to the State for a much reduced wage they should be commended, not maligned. And a little flexibility in their upper rates is fair enough if they’re taking pay cuts from their existing jobs.
I think to fully understand.
Are these “special advisers” employed on a contract basis or becoming full time expensive and pensionable CS? I assume the former?
What’s the true cost? What skills are they actually bringing?
Are they party members?
And why leave a private sector job with a loss in salary? I doubt we have the full picture.
What I fail to understand is why we have politicians representing us who need 4 advisors… Am I missing something here??? How hard is it to do your job that you were elected to do… If the advisors are that essential to running portfolio’s let hem run the country.
Ger- Fair questions / Points- You have to assume that if the private sector valued them at much higher levels, their skills must be genuine. I suppose the grey area is their area of expertise. If it’s PR, are they serving the country or the party? Though I’m always being told that Endas lack of PR skills is an embarrassment to the country!!! Yes, they’re typically on contracts. And while there’s always the worry about “jobs for the boys”, 1 in 5 people in Ireland have been members of political parties. Are we really to exclude them all? The very people who would be willing to take a pay cut to serve a Government are the most likely to have been in a political party.
The justification used by most of them is that the advisors were previously on far higher salaries in the private sector. So what? They didn’t have to accept the jobs as advisors.
Red- So we don’t want the best the Private Sector has to offer? We want to settle for the B-Team advising our Govt? Total up the money above. What is it, €150k in total per annum above the ceiling? You want to skimp on talent in Government. Myopic.
Kevin, banks were paying their top level staff hundreds of thousands every year across the globe and look at the mess they managed to create. How much the private sector will pay is hardly a valid scale at which to judge a candidates skills.
Ger- There are people with a sense of civic duty out there. There’s a reason people sit in cold meeting rooms across the country attending boring party meetings. Despite what a lot of people would have you believe, there are many people who want to serve their country and are willing to make a sacrifice as part of that. If you do want to be cynical, though it doesn’t look bad on your CV afterwards either.
1 in 5 people Kevin, surely not. 40k in FG as one of the bigger parties. 1 in 20 maybe. And no it shouldn’t preclude them from any job but neither should it get them into a created role by any government minister without open competition. If its because the minister trusts them well that’s what bertie did.
If advisers are employed for strategy type works there is some merit as they bring external and real world skills that CS doesn’t have. Like any company with a low staff turnover, an injection of invention is required. You would expect the minister to supply this but generally they don’t have the skillset. Which leads to having a leader who spent so little of his career leading (thought I think he is doing a decent job) but he is a product of a failed system of governance as was bertie and biffo.
Press adviser or anything that is a commodity thought not an easy job should be provided by the department or at the ministers expense.
We had and have some of the best paid politicians in the world. They are hardly an advert for ”you get what you pay for”. On the contrary. The idea that you have to pay big money to attract the best people into public life is an utter nonsense and I see no evidence of it being the case, I see the opposite being the case.
Kevin. We both know it’s about garnering th best money for their own mates. And you can be certain those very same advisers more often than not also have affiliations with the Government party in question. Therefore, it’s not about attracting the best candidate – it’s about attracting the best loyal party apparatchik and giving him as money money as possible.
Kevin’s head is so far up Enda’s hole these days he doesn’t know what he’s saying anymore,1 in 5,what boll*x
Kevin,
If your argument had validity, then we would also be paying top notch for other ‘people with a sense of civic duty’ who could be employed as public servants, for example nurses and educators, who have been co-opted in from the private sector. Is this the case? No. I work in third-level education where we have a ban on recruitment of full-time lecturers. Highly-qualified people are working for peanuts with no contracts, no pensions, no holiday pay. These people must have a sense of civic duty to put up with the appalling conditions they are working under and they do not get paid anything like the figures discussed here. You are trying to justify the unjustifiable. A much reduced a wage? Give me a break. Try lecturing the ‘best and brightest’ of the future,’ working part-time with no contracted hours and absolutely zero security for a minimum a 12th of what these people are being paid. Nonsense, it is the usual jobs for the boys stuff. The Haddington Road Agreement is simply a two-tier system if the guidelines are not being observed.
Civic duty Kevin by going to party meetings? Parties based on a civil war that should be long forgotten. One of the roots of our problems. Party and Me Fein first then country I suspect.
@ Kevin Dobson. I am not a special adviser to any Minister but I am happy to offer the following advice for free to them all. Start planning for life outside of politics after the next election. I would however be happy to take one of these positions at the normal rate until this term is up. I mean how hard can it be to advise someone to lie through their teeth at every opportunity or to fill their pockets while they can?
And who’d be surprised, state corruption is as common as bail for murderers.
All these special advisors just shows the government are clueless in the jobs they were elected to do.
Begrudgy
The very best of CEOs across the world employ and use a myriad of advisors with specific and generalised skills and this practice has been supported by the greatest thinkers among Management academics for very many years.
The number or quality of advisors used bears no reflection on the qualities or abilities of the particulat CEO.
It is clear that you have no knowledge of these matters and have little reflective understanding or social filters . In other words , you don’t mind other realising how little you know!
What were they elected to do?
A minister is a temporary head of a permanent work force.
Its the permanent leadership who are also failing and are not accountable. So upsetting the applecart and imposing real change is part of the minister’s brief.
This is common knowledge
The media and government make a huge deal of salaries paid to managers of hospital yet conveniently forget salaries paid to special advisors
We have been let down by the media in this country for years
Philip
I do believe that you’ve overlooked a fundamental difference between Hospital Managers and Government Advisors who exceed the pay cap. In the case of the latter a formal approval system was in place in the case of the Hospitals the payments were hidden or disguised or denied or simply not approved which goes to the heart of governance.
If you cannot see that difference then you shouldn’t enter the debate!
Well now there’s a surprise.
It really is “smoke and mirrors” with this shower.
They are busy trying to show up others in order to distract.
Mike
Happy Christmas to you! Why would our political Leaders want to distract from a small number of advisors relative to the total having the necessary Government approvals in place for salaries to be paid in excess of the cap. The Regulations are not absolute and provide a mechanism for payment over the limits.
Go away rodgers.
Enda Kenny also employes a translator.
Because he talks through his Hole and Irish people just dont understand the amount of shite he is talking…..
Most popular leader in the country :)
Enda was quick out of the block when it came to breaking this election promise ,regards Richard Bruton’s adviser! But in saying that,it was only 37% above the cap or €47,000 ,peanuts really!
This is Enda Kenny who has taken a 44% cut in wages himself, yeah? Have you, Tom?
And yet he’s still being paid too much for running a bankrupt country which is still heavily reliant on FDI and the exports they generate despite his 44% cut. It doesn’t really say anything about Enda, it just shows the sheer greed of his predecessors.
Enda Kenny is still paid more than when he was in opposition including his top up from Leaders allowance.
enda kenny when he retires will receive a 100k lump sum and a 30k a year teachers pension for working 4 years as a teacher…..this is on top of his gold plated pension same as berties and cowans..he was in opposition during the celtic tiger years and took all took all the increases going…he is as shameless as the rest
Not like with like,Kevin,and you know that,only too well!
Enda’s salary has gone up and the wages into my family has gone down since 2008!
Also,I was commenting on salary caps and Enda’s election promise!
Shoot them
One person named as one of the many advisors of Eamon Gilmore is also on the E.M. Council is he paid extra for this and if so how much? How many advisors on this Council and how much are they paid Why are we not told at election time how many advisors and the cost will be required by An Taoiseach and each minister?
Ah bless, isn’t it nice to see the trolls all charged up and ready to defend their divine gods .
These salaries were NOT reduced under the Haddington Road Agreement.
They were reduced under FEMPI.
The Haddington Road Agreement was setup so as not to include politicians.
It’s so nice to be able to put names to all the pro-grovelment aliases who post on TheJournal.ie.
. . . . .Those who wish to join the gravy train know what’s required of them.
What’s good for the goose??
Pay peanuts you get??
Think is Philip, were not paying peanuts but still getting monkeys.
Speaking of goose ,is Gilmore cooked yet?!
So were AIB, RBS, Fannie May and all the other banks which needed a bailout paying peanuts for their top management? No, it was the complete opposite. Paying a high salary for top roles is one thing, but pay too much and you attract people who only care about their back pocket and not the job at hand.
Indeed they loose their own true value and replace it with their own opinionated self worth. That’s when the problems start. And Irish banks haven’t changed a jot.
” i hear a train a comin, its rolling round the bend , and we the general public wonder where its gonna end, and we cant see it stopping, it just keeps moving along, its the gravy train special , the t.d.’s favourate song “
Politicians are only poster boys and spokes people..how can they have the expertise to run a department. Are elected politicians are ex teachers, auctioneers, etc. This is why the need for over paid advisors as the simplest decision needs to be signed off by these also over paid experts.. It’s the politicians salaries that need to be axed axed axed. our taxes pay for a very expensive debating society with chauffeurs. We are no different than a tin pot African country being riffled by a thieving lot of corrupt officials..
This government are corrupt, if it’s not advisers pay it’s the selling off of our gas companies and water services. I think I’d rather ff than fg. Seriously fg are far to right wing to be in government.
Well the way the economy is bouncing back they must be doing fantastic work and I would give them a bonus for a terrific job
The Government should accept and obey its own guidelines!
Lead by example!
Sad reflection on FG.
For knowyourplace read FG lacky. How can anyone be so downright pro this government to want to give them a bonus. I would like to know where the economy is “bouncing back” . I hear them crowing about creating 7,000 jobs a week. These are lies. they might be taking people off the dole and letting them pack shelves in Tesco etc under Jobsbridge or working in the community under TÚS or the like. I think Jobsbridge is a con and TÚS might have its good points but to say they are creating 7,000 “jobs” a week is a downright lie and we deserve more.
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