<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version="2.0" 
    xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
    xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
    xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
    xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
    xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd">
	<channel>
<title>Bruce Arnold Political Articles</title><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/index.html</link><description>Bruce Arnold Political Articles</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2009 Bruce Arnold</dc:rights><dc:date>2010-03-27T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
<admin:errorReportsTo rdf:resource="mailto:website@brucearnold.ie" /><sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
<sy:updateBase>2000-01-01T12:00+00:00</sy:updateBase>
<lastBuildDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:02:32 +0100</lastBuildDate><item><title>Church must respect State law ahead of its own rules</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-03-27T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/church-must-respect.html#unique-entry-id-54</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/church-must-respect.html#unique-entry-id-54</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In Ireland the extent is infinitely greater than in other countries because the lawmakers and those who implement the law have accepted the church's rule in the State and have largely failed to use civil and criminal law as it was made to be used, against grievous and sustained criminal behaviour by generation after generation of priests and others.


...They affect the law in detail and in substance, yet no cabinet minister from the Taoiseach down contributed to the recent Dail debate on the proposed constitutional change, and this included Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, who was a member of the Children's Rights Committee, and has been vocal about not allowing the clerical collar to be a defence of abusers.


What we need is a commission of inquiry, with this brief: To look into the broken and ignored relationship between the pre-eminence of state law and the confusion in state law created by the widespread respect for canon law. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>FF is long past its sell-by date and needs removing</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-02-27T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/ff-long-past.html#unique-entry-id-53</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/ff-long-past.html#unique-entry-id-53</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This is the key issue, and at the head of any list of reasons for the foolishness of a fundamental reshuffle must be this: that to move senior ministers in the interests of a supposed reform programme is the height of folly and in defiance of the present need for stability and continuity in the public interest.


...To remove the political instruments of change, and shuffle them about at this time, is simply to set any programme back by months, as new incumbents plead that they need time to assess what their predecessors had theoretically, if reluctantly, absorbed over the past year or so. 

...No one knows this better, surprisingly, than the present leader of the Green Party, who, like others of his predecessors in coalitions with the Men of Destiny, has suffered almost total humiliation at their hands and has viewed, like a mesmerised rabbit facing a fox, the inner workings of the party.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Politicians share blame for turning blind eye to abuse</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-03-20T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/political-blame.html#unique-entry-id-52</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/political-blame.html#unique-entry-id-52</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Not even the extraordinary oppression of an oath imposed by Cardinal Brady on the two children abused by Fr Brendan Smyth has brought forth any reasoned and logical response raising questions about the legality, the constitutional propriety, and respect for the family in what he did.


...He did not make public this process and few applied for it -- a fact that will no doubt be used to contradict those who express concern about this element of guilt and distress with which elderly victims of the industrial school system have had to contend throughout their lives.


Anyone who, without the presence of their parents or guardians or legal witnesses of what they are doing, makes children sign a document saying: "I will never directly or indirectly, by means of a nod, or of a word, by writing, or in any other way, and under whatever type of pretext, for the most urgent and most serious cause, even for the purpose of a greater good, commit anything against this fidelity to the secret, unless a dispensation has been expressly given to me by the Supreme Pontiff" commits a grave abuse of their constitutional rights, the legal proprieties under which a 'document of threat' is enacted, and over their juvenile, unformed understandings. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Our laws still allow for the protection of child abusers</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-03-13T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/laws-still-allow-abusers.html#unique-entry-id-51</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/laws-still-allow-abusers.html#unique-entry-id-51</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The grossly unequal deal of settlement that exonerated the religious orders, placing legal culpability and financial responsibility on the State at the beginning of investigations by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, has been a major point of criticism. 

...Irish SOCA (Survivors of Child Abuse) met in mid-February to debate what should be done with these additional contributions, as though it had already been decided that the money was for those who had been abused.


...Moving outside the present legislation is dubious, since it throws into doubt what has so far been done under the law, as well as any expectation whatever of further money being made available to the victims of abuse in the industrial schools. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Church and State colluded in this abuse-ridden society</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-03-06T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/tracey-fay.html#unique-entry-id-50</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/tracey-fay.html#unique-entry-id-50</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It is an irony that the period during which this new abuse occurred has been a period of intense self-examination over how abuse happened from 1920 to the 1980s, carried out principally by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, and focused on the industrial schools. 

...Wild and perverse acts of cruelty, sexual perversion and abuse, deprivation of every kind -- education, training, clothing, food, healthcare -- took place and were then concealed by the Department of Education, by ministers and senior officials, as a statutory act, though without the benefit of statute.


...In the end, and with total and urbane dishonesty, the State put the blame on the church and pleaded that it did not know what happened during a horrific 90-year period of abuse eventually laid bare by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Greens must get off knees and stand up for principles</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-02-20T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/green-principles.html#unique-entry-id-49</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/green-principles.html#unique-entry-id-49</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[And in the case of O'Dea himself, we were witnessing a high officer of state being protected and kept in office at a time when a garda investigation had been initiated into whether he was guilty of the criminal offence of perjury, together with slander and lying. 

...As for Charles Haughey, he would have recognised the outrageous use of a majority to sustain such a minister in office, and would at least have had the sense not to pull the stroke of a motion of confidence a week ahead of the opposition motion. 

...In a sense this is the nub of the problem the O'Dea issue has delivered to the Irish people: a Green Party slave mentality that has fatally and totally undermined the shreds of credibility they had up until this week. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Lee made an ass of himself by opting for wrong party</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-02-13T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/lee-opting.html#unique-entry-id-48</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/lee-opting.html#unique-entry-id-48</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Early in the programme a member of the audience raised a question all of us wanted answered: what were the George Lee policies he had brought with him from broadcast comment and analysis to the harsh realities of the Dail?


...But he was involved -- and in the teasing out of how and why and for what he might have been employed, in the difficult grind of opposing those who hold the power, his own account has more petulance in it than balance and assurance. 

...Kevin Rafter's new book, 'Fine Gael: Party at the Crossroads', has a cover photograph of Kenny holding up Lee's hand after the Dublin South by-election -- a cover that will now have to be changed. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Lacklustre Kenny is Fianna Fail&#x27;s biggest election asset</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-02-06T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/kenny-ff-biggest-asset.html#unique-entry-id-47</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/kenny-ff-biggest-asset.html#unique-entry-id-47</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In party terms Kenny may be credited with having revitalised Fine Gael, giving it consistently exceptional opinion poll ratings and putting the wind up the largest party whose leader, Brian Cowen, is perpetually accident-prone in his judgement, inspiring less than confidence on all main issues. 

...Few politicians on the opposition benches are enthusiastic about giving this role to Enda Kenny, and, despite his opinion poll status, the idea of Eamon Gilmore transforming a robust and aggressive performance from the Labour benches in the Dail into overall leadership of a united opposition fighting for power in an election is not a convincing concept.


...The trouble with Enda Kenny is that such doubts as I have about his political potential in a general election are now increasingly being voiced by members of his own party, and with increasing impatience that the change of leadership is the elephant in the drawing room that the party hierarchy ignores. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>EU hasn&#x27;t wasted any time getting its claws into foreign policy</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-02-01T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/eu-time-claws.html#unique-entry-id-46</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/eu-time-claws.html#unique-entry-id-46</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It was "within a month, ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in our galled eyes", that the European Commission imposed the first sanction on national sovereignty, when Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt declared that, under Lisbon, foreign ministers of EU countries would no longer attend EU summits.


...'The Irish Times', which worked hard for the 'Yes' vote, recently made clear that the creation, structuring and financing of the EU's new diplomatic corps would be brought to a conclusion in April, leading inevitably to duplication between the EU and member states and closures of various national missions because of funding problems.


...British concerns about the European Union, as expressed by 'The Times' of London, centre on three criticisms -- that it "represents an assault on British sovereignty", "wastes taxpayers' money on high-living and procedural incompetence" and because "its opacity is a deliberate ploy obscuring a surreptitious goal of building a powerful, single European state".
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Last 12 years has corrupted this country&#x27;s coming of age</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-01-16T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/last-12-years.html#unique-entry-id-45</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/last-12-years.html#unique-entry-id-45</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He said, truthfully, in 1998: "We have come of age now because we are able to maintain an increased population at a reasonably high standard; there is no longer any net emigration; we are an open society economically -- quite competitive -- and therefore we have an independence that will serve us very well for the future."


...Now the loan is no longer national, except that it consists of taxpayers' money being loaned, not to the State for its development, but to the banks who squandered their resources in property loans that have ruined homeowners, stifled the so-called 'competitive' industries, and placed the State in debt for the foreseeable future. 

...Whitaker, whose public service underlay a lifetime of dedication to this country, refers to precisely that work when he says: "My generation did feel we were privileged to be the first well- educated generation in the Irish public service and we felt an obligation to serve the State because of that."
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Lenihan motivated by one thing only: the next election</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-12-12T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/lenihan-one-thing.html#unique-entry-id-44</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/lenihan-one-thing.html#unique-entry-id-44</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Lenihan went on to face the verbal music on radio and in TV appearances, where he was castigated by the common man, and managed that with tact, understanding and a kind of blind self-confidence that was all the more astonishing because of the emptiness of what he had to say.


...I think and hope the Irish people are too angry, too disappointed and too embarrassed about the shambles of being governed by such a dismal crew to take this; and that their revenge will be the critical factor, despite the lack of sufficient public support for the alternative. 

...Our foolish dedication to ever-closer union with a Post-Lisbon Treaty Europe and our disadvantageous status within the eurozone have deprived us of the logical solution, which is currency devaluation, and confronted us with the much harder road to the competitiveness essential to our survival. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Impotent bank inquiry is product of a castrated Dail</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-01-23T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/impotent-bank-inquiry.html#unique-entry-id-43</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/impotent-bank-inquiry.html#unique-entry-id-43</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA["Our present political rulers, who recently scrambled their way to power by buying off the fools running the Green Party into accepting complicity in what they do, are simply doing everything that such failing, corrupt and fearful political groups do.


...In no case is such an impediment more glaringly obvious -- in the present context of a public right for an open inquiry into the banking crisis -- than the Supreme Court judgment limiting Oireachtas inquiries where they might affect the reputation of individual citizens.


...One approach put to me by a civil servant is that all people working on tribunals -- including the administrative staff and all lawyers -- should be deemed to be civil servants for the duration of the hearings and paid at assistant secretary level or less, perhaps much less.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The sooner Brian resigns&#x2c; the better for the economy</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-01-09T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/lenihan-resign.html#unique-entry-id-42</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/lenihan-resign.html#unique-entry-id-42</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He claims to have been on a learning curve about absolute basics at a time when all basic theories and philosophies about running national economies are themselves bewildering great international economists who have spent their lives in the business.


...He is in fact governed by the opposite: an abject, misplaced respect for the European Central Bank and a totally illusory belief that the euro and the EU are a "saving grace" for this country, the way we used to believe that the Holy Ghost favoured us above all other nations in the world.


...I hope not, but either way this is the product of Lenihan's over-optimism and his limited grasp of the briefs so ill-prepared for him by what seem to be a poor back-up team of economic advisers who go along with his facile policies.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Murphy Report failed to address our absurd laws</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2010-01-04T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/murphy-report-failed-to-address.html#unique-entry-id-41</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/murphy-report-failed-to-address.html#unique-entry-id-41</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The report by Judge Yvonne Murphy and her legal colleagues, Ita Mangan and Hugh O'Neill, failed to address the question of how the State and its people, notably its children, were subjected to legal structures that were either inappropriate (Canon Law) or demonstrably inadequate (Statute and Common Law).


...Is it not a nonsense that this act, in a far-reaching provision extending beyond the general scope of the legislation, makes it an offence not to disclose to a guard information believed to be of material assistance in preventing or securing the conviction of any other person for serious offences; and then to exclude any offence of a sexual nature?


...In its place was a daft provision, as far as clerical sexual abuse of minors was concerned, making it an offence 'to accept any consideration other than making good any loss or injury suffered for not revealing information that might be of assistance in securing the conviction of a person who has committed an arrestable offence' (Section 8 of the act. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Why it&#x27;s a good thing those crazy pay talks broke down</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-12-05T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/pay-talks-public.html#unique-entry-id-40</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/pay-talks-public.html#unique-entry-id-40</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[My opposition is founded on a number of principles, the first of them being on grounds that the approach is not democratic but exclusive; the second that it is by definition inflationary; the third that it is an irreversible process; the fourth that it downgrades the government of the country and places it in a form of round-table discussion over who has power, a discussion confined to a privileged group of influential people who do not represent the majority.


The last principle of these, though not the most important of them, is currently the least favoured by the wider public, made up of private-sector businesses, non-union labour, small farmers, unemployed, elderly retired, homeless -- a class suddenly augmented by the dreadful floods that have laid bare a great deal of greedy bad planning over the location of inundated housing estates -- and the growing array of people being made to feel marginalised.


...This group of people -- who have been outside the talks going on in Government Buildings -- looked in upon a nexus of greed and fear: greed by the powerful unions, whose concern for the country is a long way behind concern for members, and the Government, fearful that the old standby of 'partnership agreement' dressed up to be a solution to the country's ills, will neither address nor solve those ills.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Government has been inept in its handling of Bruton bid</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-10-31T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/bruton-eu.html#unique-entry-id-39</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/bruton-eu.html#unique-entry-id-39</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Already a high official within the European Union, he addressed himself to the ambassadors of all 27 member states, asking for their assistance "in conveying a message to your government", that if no serving member of the council of ministers were available, he would like to be chosen as president of the European Council.


It is not clear what protocol was applied to this message when received at the Department of Foreign Affairs, but it was certainly less than impeccable, with the minister making a confused public response, almost certainly before the Government had considered the message sent to it, and Brian Cowen following up with an equally confused response.


...Fianna Fail is in trouble making sense of its new and largely ridiculous alliance with the European Liberal Party, its MEPs not knowing how to behave or vote, infuriating Guy Verhofstadt by abstaining on press freedom in Italy, a decision that came from Dublin.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Cowen&#x27;s Dithering on Reform Does Rest of Us No Favours</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-11-14T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/cowen-dithers.html#unique-entry-id-38</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/cowen-dithers.html#unique-entry-id-38</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Despite the fact that almost anything Brian Cowen is likely to do will adversely affect his future electoral prospects, there was one area where this was not the case, that of reforms in the public sector. 

...By so doing, he would have established his programme, gained the support of the Opposition -- who have been urgently requiring this approach and have put forward the necessary ingredients until their voices were hoarse -- and earned public approval.


...It seemed almost ludicrous by the second half of this week to read of a Cowen 'strategy' of 'smoking out' the opposition parties on the details of their alternative Budget cuts in a special 'no holds barred' debate next week when so much is missing from his own definition of Budget strategy and when his Programme for Government has been so weak.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Read Beyond Spats to True Value of McWilliams&#x27; Book</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-11-07T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/mcwilliams-review.html#unique-entry-id-37</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/mcwilliams-review.html#unique-entry-id-37</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It would be a pity if the spats between David McWilliams and the various people who have taken mild offence at his remarks about them in 'Follow the Money' should distract us from the underlying value of what is really the only comprehensive road map through the economic crisis of the past year.


...Turned as it is in 'Follow the Money' from the written equivalent of sound bites -- the 800-word articles that encapsulate our day-to-day lives -- into a full-scale narrative of how the Irish people have been robbed blind and betrayed by those who govern them -- the politicians -- and those who should look after their money -- the banks -- it is a different story. 

...What is not dealt with in any detail in the book is the inevitable spat with Lenihan that came about when the author realised the whole scheme for rescuing the banks was turning into a nightmare, where the rescue and resuscitation of the blighted land that had been abused by developers was part of the scheme behind the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), the story of which dominates the latter pages of the book.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>We Are Drowning in a Sea of Figures That Don&#x27;t Add Up</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-10-13T17:59:10+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/drowning-sea-figures.html#unique-entry-id-36</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/drowning-sea-figures.html#unique-entry-id-36</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He has done nothing to abandon and dismantle the huge array of costly agencies for carrying out trivial tasks, such as regulating taxis, which a higher executive officer in the civil service could have done with time left over to regulate other things as well.


...Contrary to a misrepresentation of what I wrote some weeks ago, it was said on RTE that I had advocated a 'No' vote on the Lisbon Treaty as revenge or punishment for Fianna Fail. 

...And if the EU was turned on its head, and was used to designate what happens "democratically" in member states, then we would have Fianna Fail in power forever. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Individual voices of abused not being heard in debate</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-07-27T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/voices-not-heard.html#unique-entry-id-35</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/voices-not-heard.html#unique-entry-id-35</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This impetus and focus fell apart as a result of a letter written by Kelly to Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore on July 8, a week before the tabling of its Institutional Child Abuse Bill.   In that letter Kelly wrote: "The Labour Party has Irish Soca's permission to inform the Dail or other parties of interest that Irish Soca has requested the Labour Party to defer this bill until the outcome of the audit is known and government is better placed to make judgment on the way forward". 

...Kelly called for cross-party consensus: "support of Government is absolutely vital" and he referred to "government initiatives" and to the Government being "better placed to make judgment on the way forward".
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>First sensible move to help abuse victims</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-06-20T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/first-sensible-move-for-victims.html#unique-entry-id-34</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/first-sensible-move-for-victims.html#unique-entry-id-34</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The fourth important issue covered in the bill is the protection of documents, both those collected and filed over 10 years by the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and the personal documents submitted to the Redress Board. 

...Despite the enthusiastic agreement of all the politicians in the Dail to endorse and support those recommendations, which was done unanimously, they are seriously defective and do not address any of the issues now covered by Labour's proposed Institutional Child Abuse Bill 2009.


...The commission had two obligations when it came to making its summary of recommendations: the first was to alleviate distress among those who had suffered abuse; the second to prevent or reduce abuse from now on. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Government needs to get a grip and help abuse victims</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-06-13T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/government-needs-to-help-victims.html#unique-entry-id-32</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/government-needs-to-help-victims.html#unique-entry-id-32</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He said that the report "devotes a whole volume to the role of the Department of Education, examining the extent to which the department ensured, or failed to ensure, that its rules and regulations were upheld by the institutions and that the basic standards set for the children taken into the care of the State were being met."


...I can only interpret this, and with it the general lack of grip among government politicians, as evidence of a lack of seriousness that has already been clearly noted by the abused people who are now following events keenly. 

..."The provision allowed any person to bring a child before the district court to have that child committed to an industrial school on the basis the child was found begging, was homeless, had parents who did not exercise proper care, was destitute or was associating with criminals or prostitutes. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Inspired Ganley stands out a mile from mediocre rivals</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-06-04T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/inspired-ganley.html#unique-entry-id-31</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/inspired-ganley.html#unique-entry-id-31</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He made several points, the first being that "the European Parliament jointly decides on a majority of EU legislation and on most of the EU's annual budget, and has the absolute right to amend or even reject both". 

...For the third time running, in its TNS MRBI opinion poll designed to find out what the public might do about Lisbon, it used the same quite dishonest question: "In light of the commitment to allow Ireland to retain an EU commissioner under the Lisbon Treaty, along with legal guarantees to deal with Irish concerns on neutrality, abortion and taxation will you vote 'Yes' or 'No' in the second referendum on the treaty later in the year?" 

...He is the only European Parliamentary candidate with realistic and welcome proposals, among them that EU Commissioners should be elected, that all European laws should have 75pc of member states behind them, as well as a majority of votes in the European Parliament.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Taxpayers don&#x27;t deserve any money from religious orders</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-06-06T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/taxpayers-money.html#unique-entry-id-30</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/taxpayers-money.html#unique-entry-id-30</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The careful shifting of the onus of responsibility onto the religious, by telling them they have a "moral responsibility" and to use this as the basis for a government "view" that "further substantial contributions are required by way of reparation" is a very weak basis for the State in dealing with the religious orders who ran the industrial schools.


...Since that has already been either paid to the abused or scorned by the abused, it is difficult to see how the process can be opened up again, other than by equalising with the State on the original deal that was made so alarmingly unbalanced by Michael Woods.


...The word trust, whether as noun or verb, has been so completely dishonoured and devalued, in respect of the victims of clerical abuse, that it is difficult to see how Brian Cowen or any of his ministers, on the one hand, or the religious orders on the other, could possibly create such a trust.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Now politicians are taking advantage of abuse victims</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-05-30T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/politicians-taking-advantage.html#unique-entry-id-29</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/politicians-taking-advantage.html#unique-entry-id-29</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Politicians, over the past six days, have foundered over the real issues in Ryan but majored in the impossibly complex indemnity deal, the forcing of new money from the orders and the infinitely difficult prosecutions of abusers in the distant past. 

...If the former course is followed, will the victims, who settled this and signed away their right to declare themselves and what they were awarded, take legal action against the State? 

...Yet those who followed the story during the past 10 years, and wrote about it, revealing a historic abuse of children's rights, are now appalled at how ignorant those governing us pretend to be.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Listen well&#x2c; Mr Cowen&#x2c; to the wise words of Richard Bruton</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-07-05T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/listen-well-mr-cowen.html#unique-entry-id-28</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/listen-well-mr-cowen.html#unique-entry-id-28</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In her interview on the economy yesterday morning she attempted to bury a hatchet in the back of Richard Bruton's head in order to demolish his arguments during Thursday's Fine Gael press conference releasing the party's economic proposals.


...He has monitored the economic life of Ireland with care and objectivity since well before that other storm-trooper, Brian Cowen, took over from Charlie McCreevy, and presided over the old age of the Celtic Tiger.


...He proposes abandoning ministerial and higher public service pay rises, a reduction in the excessive number of junior ministries, the rationalising of State agencies and the abandonment of Fianna Fail's daft decentralisation plans, which have certainly not worked and never will.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>We must take a stand against US over new Cold War games</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-08-23T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/us-war-games.html#unique-entry-id-27</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/us-war-games.html#unique-entry-id-27</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Martin's view should respect our supposed national fervour for neutrality but should also question the strange position adopted by the member states of NATO -- if indeed that position can be defined -- and the further encroachment, within Europe, of the belligerent United States' desire to further encircle Russia with surveillance systems, missile bases and the paraphernalia of the Cold War.


...What should have been both puzzling and a source of dismay for 'little Ireland' in all of this was that we, unlike Britain and other European countries, are not gung-ho for American sabre-rattling, particularly if it costs lives and causes unnecessary tension. 

...It is not in Europe's long-term interest to side with the United States in what has all the appearances of a global pact against a powerful adversary whose military might and economic sustainability makes a nonsense of the troubles in both Europe and the United States.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Power won over principles and led to the PDs&#x27; demise</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-09-27T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/power-over-principles-pds.html#unique-entry-id-26</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/power-over-principles-pds.html#unique-entry-id-26</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The benign face of Bertie Ahern, and the misplaced trust placed in him by O'Malley's successors within the Progressive Democrats, diminished the party's hold on power -- though the need for it was sufficient to keep them as appropriate partners for Fianna Fail after the Fianna Fail-Labour coalition came apart under Albert Reynolds.


...It did this over the Sheedy affair; but much more seriously, it did it under Michael McDowell in September 2006 when the long agony of Bertie's departure from power began with his deceptions over money when he declared, in a long, emotional and wide-ranging statement: "I have broken no law. 

...But if there is to be such a party, the O'Malley principles for it remain as they were in 1985 when he enunciated them in caustic and confrontational circumstances -- out of which a significant party, making a significant contribution, was originally born.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>This bankers&#x27; solution to a bankers&#x27; problem is flawed</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-10-04T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/bankers-solution-to-a.html#unique-entry-id-25</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/bankers-solution-to-a.html#unique-entry-id-25</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It would seem that the heads of the Irish banks went to Cowen and Lenihan on Monday night and told them that several Irish banks were going to go bust within a few days; then proposing the deal which was adopted as the only way out. 

...And even if other things turn out to be defective, with too many burdens on the State and too few on the banks, which is the growing fear, at least the nonsense of depending on Europe has been exposed yet again.


...That it should happen unilaterally is hardly surprising in view of the ponderous response of EU President Barroso, who was described by economic commentator Christina Speight in London this week as leading "an illiterate bunch of bureaucrats dabbling in vital subjects which they don't understand. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>This new&#x2c; shining America makes Europe look woeful</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-11-08T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/new-shining-america.html#unique-entry-id-24</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/new-shining-america.html#unique-entry-id-24</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Again and again, one was directed to look into the faces of American men and women who had either seen their resolve and dedication turned into victory, or were dismayed at the anticipated disintegration, into defeat, of the Republican Party's counter-challenge to the extraordinary achievement of Barack Obama.


...While 137 million Americans, well over half those of voting age, expressed their democratic right to decide on change of a massive kind -- not just in direction but in choosing, for a first time, an Afro-American leader -- Europe has no such right.


...Five hundred million European people -- all from democracies which operate with universal suffrage (otherwise they would not be in the EU) -- and which make up a federal structure of 27 countries, cannot do what America has just done. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>&#x27;Brians&#x27; just tinker with fire extinguishers while we burn</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-11-22T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/brians-tinker.html#unique-entry-id-23</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/brians-tinker.html#unique-entry-id-23</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The Government's highest priority should have been to abandon the social partnership and take direct charge of public service pay, freezing it, with a view to scaling down the size of this monstrous and expensive burden on the taxpayer.


...But it cannot even be started while we continue to pretend that there is some kind of merit in pursuing an expensive and inflationary agreement while unemployment rises steadily, sales of goods fall, the private sector adjusts to this and the Dail is powerless to intervene.


...Since the summer, as we watched the whole flimsy structure of economic strength and vitality fall apart, any social partnership deal, other than one in line with retrenchment and reduction, has not only been rendered redundant, it has become an obscene mockery of the real requirements of the economy. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>It&#x27;s undeniable: Cowen is a big failure as Taoiseach</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-11-29T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/cowen-failure.html#unique-entry-id-22</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/cowen-failure.html#unique-entry-id-22</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I differed from this, lamenting the fact that there had not been a leadership contest -- always of value in defining a political party's future -- and questioning the poisoned chalice offered by his predecessor.


...He brought forward the Budget in a quite dramatic way and then fell on his face, making a massive mess of the things that had been decided -- one wonders how involved the Government really were in this, and who in fact called the shots, Lenihan or Cowen, or no one? 

...Thirdly and separately there was the outrageous fact that we have created up to 800 hived-off State enterprises, costing massively more money than their work would have cost if contained within the conventional civil and public service framework, and we need to re-absorb them and save hundreds of millions by so doing.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>So why does RTE keep the Angelus but silence the critic?</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-02-14T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/rte-angelus.html#unique-entry-id-21</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/rte-angelus.html#unique-entry-id-21</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[He wrote in his end-of-year column: "I can't think of a 12-month period in which RTE made fewer programmes of substance or quality, but, hey, who needs programmes at all when you can marvel at Montrose's mission to turn every nonentity on its payroll into a celebrity?" 

...It could be argued, I had my say, which I did; more enjoyable, perhaps, than the turgid, hectoring, ill-tempered and ill-informed interviewing by RTE on current affairs, which seems all too often motivated by prejudice and lack of balance.


Out of this examination, necessarily personal, there came a conclusion that would force on RTE the need to reform itself, strip away the surplus fat and untalented dross -- I am back on diet again -- and refocus its energies on what is left that is good, leading to a creative rebirth.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Time is right for debate on a return to Commonwealth</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-03-21T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/return-to-commonwealth.html#unique-entry-id-20</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/return-to-commonwealth.html#unique-entry-id-20</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I have often thought of that encounter, not regretting it -- I am quite proud of my accent -- but I understood Sean Cantwell's view, that in the deeper backwoods of Irish political and religious culture, it was at times a trifle burdensome.


...Despite these introductory words, this article tries to come to terms with a couple of recent events: firstly, the recent terrorist killings in Northern Ireland which struck a new chord in North-South relations, in Anglo-Irish relations, perhaps also in the relationships between two communities in the North and between the ragged remnants of those two points of view in the south.


...He will be giving an analysis, no doubt drawing certain sympathies and understandings derived from his father, Nicholas Mansergh, a distinguished historian with a lifelong interest in the British Commonwealth -- his first book, published in 1934, 'The Irish Free State: Its Government and Politics'. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Blind eye that saw just one side of Gaza story</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-04-04T09:50:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/blind-eye-that-saw-just-one-side.html#unique-entry-id-19</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/blind-eye-that-saw-just-one-side.html#unique-entry-id-19</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[That is the precise point about being a commentator, in defence of industrial school victims, in favour of the 'No' vote on the Lisbon Treaty, in favour of a fair deal for Israel in its state of siege, surrounded by Palestinian enemies.


...But I am sure that in my own writing during this period I enraged pro-Palestinian opinion in Ireland, much of which seemed to come out of prejudice and ignorance about the issues.


...I have been horrified at the consistent bias in favour of the Lisbon Treaty adopted by the 'Irish Times' for a full year now, since the campaign on the referendum began in April 2008.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Still missing full story behind the children &#x27;shovelled into schools&#x27;</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-05-21T09:20:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/still-missing-full-story.html#unique-entry-id-18</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/still-missing-full-story.html#unique-entry-id-18</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It attempts to cover six of the ten 10 years since Bertie Ahern made his public apology to those who had suffered abuse in the industrial schools and, together with Judge Mary Laffoy's Third Interim Report, published in December 2003, it completes the record of the commission's work.


...The Irish industrial school system flourished because the religious orders wanted it to flourish and the State ignored the alternative approaches which had been steadily developed in the UK, but were notably ignored by Thomas Derrig, the Fianna Fail education minister who presided over many of the most terrible events in the system. 

...Setting aside everything done to the children during their incarceration, nothing was as terrible or alarming as the events which led so many of them to lose their liberty by being placed in the hands of the gardai and taken away to what were child prisons, there to serve terms of up to 14 years.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>State let off the hook over its central role in abuse</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-05-23T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/state-let-off-hook.html#unique-entry-id-17</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/state-let-off-hook.html#unique-entry-id-17</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[In the august atmosphere of a courtroom, with guards, priests, supposed social workers and guardians of good Catholic family life looking on, the child, alone or with siblings but without proper legal defence, was removed from the limited life they had led up to that point and sent for years into a prison system, inadequate and cruel in almost every aspect. 

...On every other issue covered by the vast final report there exists a scale of balances between the Roman Catholic Church and the State, with the two hugely powerful institutions flipping and flopping this way and that in terms of who was most to blame. 

...This delayed the workings of the commission for three years, changing direction with amending legislation and without the approval of the victims, and now, in the past 48 hours, demonstrating that no one in the Government knows which set of responses they should be using. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Green&#x27;s Wipeout Achieved in Two Years</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-05-16T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/greens-wipeout-in%20two-years.html#unique-entry-id-15</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/greens-wipeout-in%20two-years.html#unique-entry-id-15</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[I disagree profoundly with what he says in the article and I sincerely hope that George Lee -- whom Kevin invokes as some kind of answer to the dilemma -- will not get himself involved since he does not have time to research properly the issues involved.


...Lo and behold, not a single question was asked based on my argument that the toxic effect of Fianna Fail had destroyed all semblance of the Green Party electoral approach by undermining their policies or causing them to reverse such policies.


...This would suggest that RTE has an agenda and it is less connected with confronting politicians over their shortcomings than it is with a wider set of circumstances that don't make sense as far as the interests of the electorate are concerned.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Fianna Fail and the Green Party</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-05-09T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/fianna-fail-and-green-party.html#unique-entry-id-14</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/fianna-fail-and-green-party.html#unique-entry-id-14</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[What Patricia McKenna has delivered, in her interview in 'Hot Press' with Jason O'Toole, is a valedictory on the Green Party in which she convincingly shows that virtually every significant shred of policy, in principle and in practice, has been stripped from the Greens. 

...As to the key Green Party issues of renewable energy and climate change, well, that has been largely taken out of the domestic arena by the EU and this process, reinforced by new thinking in other parties, strips the Greens of their last shreds of decency.


...He held valiantly to one principle -- that of not leading the Greens into Government with Fianna fail -- but then urged entry into coalition with Fianna Fail on the basis of a deal that no one could assess properly at the time. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>10 Reasons for Distrusting Lenihan and Backing McWilliams</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-04-25T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/10-reasons-distrusting-lenihan.html#unique-entry-id-13</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/10-reasons-distrusting-lenihan.html#unique-entry-id-13</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The immediate response, as always to such declarations of government "bravery", is simple: are they that bold and radical, or are these actions, as McWilliams says, a betrayal of the people in favour of the banks? 

...NAMA, Brian Lenihan claims, as point number four, will force banks "to face up to the reality of their bad loans and to write down the value of these loans up-front".   This meaningless verbal garbage is undermined by his fellow Cabinet minister, Eamon Ryan, who yesterday speculated on possible further, but not determined shareholdings in the banks by the State without being able to say how NAMA would operate.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>We need from Cowen a declaration in favour of higher taxes and a new respect for consensus</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-02-28T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/we-need-from-cowen.html#unique-entry-id-11</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/we-need-from-cowen.html#unique-entry-id-11</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Unlike the four or so candidates for Brian Cowen's job in Fianna Fail, who are scrubbing around with hints and innuendoes, ready to take over if the opportunity arises, Bruton is loyal to the party leader and concentrates instead on presenting his case and his well-researched opinions, mainly in the Dail, but of course through the media as well.

...On the eve of the Fianna Fail Ard Fheis, when one might be assessing where Brian Cowen stands, it seems better to set him against this context of rigorous and penetrating analysis -- which, it must be said, is well-supported by other members of the Opposition, including the Labour leader and the Labour spokesperson on Finance, Joan Burton -- for the simple reason that his and his party's troubles stem largely from the fact that they have seriously damaged the only worthwhile way of running this country, which is democratically.


...I do not believe that Fianna Fail will concede this, and, even if Cowen is tempted to try to use it as a political dig-out, he is weak within his own party; those who would seek to succeed him would be suspicious of the hostages to fortune envisaged in such a way forward.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Taoiseach must lead way if he wants us to pull together</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-02-07T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/taoiseach-must-lead-way.html#unique-entry-id-10</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/taoiseach-must-lead-way.html#unique-entry-id-10</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[And while his remarks about the cohesive nature of our society, and the need for everyone to pull together, represented a valid proposal, it was so different from the way he has performed since coming to office as to be totally breath-taking.


...These were lacking in thought and due process, as we saw, and resulted in part from the fact that experienced ministers were left out of the loop while an inexperienced leader and an inexperienced Finance Minister, and an even more inexperienced Tanaiste, made mistakes that were fairly catastrophic.


...He has undermined self-belief by lack of example and by the unfair and misconceived remedies produced so far to cope with crisis issues, like the banks, as well as by failures to come forward with clear answers on other matters such as taxation and an alternative set of wage-cutting proposals.]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Ireland remains one of the two least stable European countries in its relations with Israel</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-01-24T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/ireland-remain-least.html#unique-entry-id-9</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/ireland-remain-least.html#unique-entry-id-9</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The body language was firm and impressive and, in terms of sheer immediacy, based on actions and appointments as much as words, it was an extraordinary piece of timing, setting in train processes that he can believe in -- since he is clearly their architect -- and trust, because he trusts the appointees.


...The vigour with which Micheal Martin has sustained what I would regard as a wooden and unsubtle reliance on emotional outrage about the loss of life in Gaza, without looking more at the causes, was evident immediately after his meeting last Tuesday with Ms Tamir, when he went on to speak to the Dail Joint Committee on European Affairs.


...The minister in fact made a foolish and misleading mistake before the Dail committee, telling the members: "Prior to any conflict, the Government and I have consistently condemned the Hamas rocket attacks in southern Israel and we believe Hamas must recognise the state of Israel before it can become an actor in the peace process."
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Martin has woven a web of deceit on Gaza and Lisbon</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-01-17T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/martin-web-of-deceit.html#unique-entry-id-8</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/martin-web-of-deceit.html#unique-entry-id-8</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[At no time -- with just one exception -- in the past 40 years, during which I have been directly involved in commenting on Irish policy, have I witnessed the Department of Foreign Affairs behaving in so superficial and ignorant a way as it has done during the past year, over the Lisbon Treaty, and in recent weeks, over the Gaza invasion by Israel. 

...On January 6, the minister was "appalled by these indiscriminate attacks by Israeli forces which has resulted in so many civilian fatalities, including of children, who were simply sheltering from the conflict taking place around them" and he added lengthy condolences to the victims on one side. 

...All of this is popular stuff; Micheal Martin knows it, so do the faceless architects of his so-called 'policy', which is neither connected with European policy nor with Ireland's own long-standing struggle against terrorism, together with our support for democracy.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>I don&#x27;t want to be governed by unions or this Taoiseach</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-01-31T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/governed-by-union.html#unique-entry-id-7</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/governed-by-union.html#unique-entry-id-7</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Other trade unionists, masquerading as 'social partners' and pretending to have the broad public interest as their first priority, when clearly it is not, are in the same position.


...His political career in the eight months since he became Taoiseach has been a long catalogue of blundering errors of judgment about the level of crisis we face.


...His political career since he became Taoiseach has been a long catalogue of blundering errors of judgment about the level of crisis we face cussed the situation with them. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Cabinet and Opposition must unite to salvage the economy</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-01-10T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/cabinet-and-opposition.html#unique-entry-id-6</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/cabinet-and-opposition.html#unique-entry-id-6</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[The overriding characteristic of the administrations of the past decade, led by Bertie Ahern and now Brian Cowen, has been the drift away from parliamentary democracy to government by elites, by partnerships between the State and vested interests -- not just the social partners, but builders and developers, bankers, the Church -- at the expense of a democratic system fashioned, at times with scrupulous care, by their predecessors.


...The desirability of working within the Dail is reinforced by the considerable contribution that has emerged from the parties in opposition, their clear willingness to be involved in the solution of the crisis, and the absurdity of half the elected representatives, who should be part of what governs us, pursuing a role as critics on the sidelines.


...The strategy, it must be said, did not benefit Fine Gael at the time, nor did it do so later, in 1989, when Haughey, in a stupid decision to dissolve and go to the country, lost seats, having been previously helped by the main opposition party whom he then betrayed. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Fianna Fail Do Not Know How to Govern</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-01-03T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Fianna%20Fail-Do-Not-Know-How-to-Govern.html#unique-entry-id-5</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Fianna%20Fail-Do-Not-Know-How-to-Govern.html#unique-entry-id-5</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Those who think they might be in the running to succeed him -- Micheal Martin, Noel Dempsey, Mary Hannafin, Dermot Ahern, and probably several others -- are concerned more with that possibility than with the country's problems, which seem to have paralysed them all.


...The euro has done us serious damage, yet we are so wedded to it, in the misty atmosphere of our emotional relationship with Europe, that we fail to see how it has hampered our responses to economic change.


...The party has never really understood competitiveness and wage control; ever since Lemass it has been relying on slogan-politics such as the paradigm about a rising tide . . . and Cowen's view of his economic recovery plan is dependent on a magical transformation from somewhere, but not from ourselves.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Lenihan&#x27;s crisis Budget was political and cowardly</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2009-04-11T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Will-the-Real-Ireland-Stand-Up-and-Assert-Itself.html#unique-entry-id-4</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Will-the-Real-Ireland-Stand-Up-and-Assert-Itself.html#unique-entry-id-4</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[Then there is the fumbling, hand-in-the-till Ireland that has been distorted and wrecked by those in power being too long there, having done too much to implicate themselves in political distortion and unfairness, and who have no easy way out.


...Government fear of the trade unions, the main organised opposition to innovative change, was diverted in the Budget to an unfair level of tax increases directed against middle income earners, who bore much of the pain last Tuesday, and should have been balanced out by public sector pay and welfare cuts. 

...Sutherland made quite an issue out of Ireland having less budget deficit than, for example, the United Kingdom and his belief that by 2015 or so our budget deficit would be lower as a percentage of GDP. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Book Review: Brian Cowen: The Path to Power</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-11-01T09:00:00+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Book-Review-Brian-Cowen.html#unique-entry-id-3</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Book-Review-Brian-Cowen.html#unique-entry-id-3</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This is made even worse by the fact that Cowen, a tough, gritty, intelligent political animal who, from all the evidence put forward by O'Toole, is straight and honest into the bargain, succeeded three leaders of Fianna Fail who were disgraced and pushed out of office.


...It was a difficult time for him, and a difficult time for the administration, which broke up over the Harry Whelehan affair, letting in the Bruton-led coalition in which Labour shifted from their ill-conceived alliance with Fianna Fail back to their traditional and workable partnership with Fine Gael.


...He brought toughness to his next appointment in Foreign Affairs, where he presided over critical issues such as 9/11, and also ran the Nice Referendum twice, in quick succession, getting a resounding 'Yes' the second time round -- something that will prove more difficult if he attempts a Lisbon rerun.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Brian didn&#x27;t knife Bertie but he needs to be a lot sharper</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><category>None</category><dc:date>2008-10-25T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/brian-knife-bertie.html#unique-entry-id-2</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/brian-knife-bertie.html#unique-entry-id-2</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[But before Cowen went to Malaysia for St Patrick's Day last March then for a brief holiday during Easter Week in Vietnam, members of Fianna Fail had approached him with valid questions about removing Ahern, whom they thought was an increasing embarrassment as a result of Mahon Tribunal revelations.

...They are the people who are sitting up there, theatre critics, looking in on the goings-on in Government; and when they see the same people at the head of things, you know, from a newspaper man or woman's point of view, I'm sure they are saying, 'Sure it would be great if we had someone else to kick around!'" 

...What his performance offers for the future is hard to define: no tough measures of reform; no slimming down of the public service; no tightening up of ethical legislation; no clear identification of himself with the Irish people as a whole, since he has divided them up; and lastly, no inspiration, since he has left himself with no room for it.
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Opposition Need for Caution</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><dc:subject>Political Articles</dc:subject><dc:date>2007-04-13T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Opposition-Need-Caution.html#unique-entry-id-1</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Opposition-Need-Caution.html#unique-entry-id-1</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[One could add that there is also a sub-contract, less formal, more like an offer, embracing the Green Party, many of whose policies are desirable in terms of that sought-after "quality of life" so flagrantly absent from so many people's hard-pressed existence at this time.


...In two full terms in power, Fianna Fail has attempted to strip the opposition of its legitimate parliamentary voice and has managed to transfer away from the Dail, and therefore political accountability, much of the country's vital work. 

...The very concept of "a better Ireland" has become too complicated for the simplistic interpretation by Fianna Fail of what they might mean - if indeed they mean anything at all - in respect of the passing of laws and the solving of growing waves of problems. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Government Hemmed in by Opinion Polls</title><dc:creator>website@brucearnold.ie</dc:creator><dc:subject>Political Articles</dc:subject><dc:date>2007-04-24T09:00:00+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Government-Hemmed-in-by-Opinion-Polls.html#unique-entry-id-0</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.brucearnold.ie/test/files/Government-Hemmed-in-by-Opinion-Polls.html#unique-entry-id-0</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[This is based on the vague and uncertain grounds that some kind of connection has been lost between almost gross levels of national wealth on the one hand, and the inability to relate them to the needs of ordinary people who want effective health care, more and better schools for the education of their children, a credible competence on crime, and such shamefully simple needs as pure water in a country where its absence verges on the ridiculous.


...Either these arguments are not being made all that well, or he has browbeaten other Cabinet ministers into a passive state from which they now emerge to face a lot of legitimate criticism. 

...This applies in services such as schools, and the quality and capacity of existing schools to accommodate the children whose parents are paying high taxes for their education and high prices for houses in areas that are barren of good, well-equipped schools. ]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
</rss>
