Does anyone still take them seriously?

April 3, 2016

By Gene Kerrigan

**'Frankly, I'm getting tired of being lied to.'**

Let's try what they call a "thought experiment". That's something that used to be called "blue sky thinking". Before that the cool people called it "thinking outside the box". Back in my day, we called it "thinking"

Let's see if the two largest right-wing parties have any credibility left; if the media is being played like an accordion; and if we really need a government at all.

For this thought experiment, let's imagine we had a general election and Richard Boyd Barrett ended up at the head of a party with 50 TDs.

And, as he's still sorting out who sits where, in comes Ruth Coppinger, and behind her there are 40 more TDs from her party.

So, in this thought experiment, about 90 TDs are elected for two left-wing parties, thereby giving them a solid majority in the Dail.

What would happen next?

Anyone with more than two ounces of brain tissue would expect the immediate formation of the first left wing government in the history of the State.

But, suppose Richard said, "Ah, no".

And Ruth said, "Nah, that's not on".

And suppose that with no further explanation they began weeks of "round table discussions" with Independents and odds and sods galore, even as the numbers of homeless steadily increased and the doubts about the economy multiplied.

And suppose everyone in the country knew that this refusal to form a stable government had its basis in an unnecessary civil war fought 93 years earlier.

And that it was complicated by a struggle for party advantage, not to mention ego.

And suppose we all knew that policy differences are minimal.

This is what has been going on for the past 37 days, and will continue for maybe another 37, as the people who fought the election on the issue of "stability" try to find a way of besting one another.

And they must find a way in which they control the government, and simultaneously prevent the development of any other opposition.

But what if it wasn't two right wing parties? What would happen that would be different if it was Boyd Barrett and Coppinger playing juvenile games?

You know well what would happen.

Every time either of them, or anyone connected with them, came within range of a camera or a microphone, or sat down or stood up or walked through a doorway, a bellow of journalists would descend on them.

We can be certain that Richard and Ruth and all the other lefties would be hounded day and night by professionally indignant journalists.

The papers would be full of analysis that explained that the electorate had made a dreadful mistake. The voters had elected irresponsible left-wing chancers who didn't give a damn about the people.

So, from this thought experiment we can conclude that our media are pretty tolerant of right-wing playacting. Only in the past few days have some outlets become slightly irked at being played for suckers.

Even now, journalists who have to keep on good terms with their political sources insist that this is just the nitty-gritty of putting a government together.

It's not.

Experienced journalists have found themselves being told that Enda's people having a chat with Mattie McGrath is "very constructive".

And that a sit-down between Leo Varadkar and Michael Healy-Flatcap amounts to "government formation".

Enda ran out of people to talk to and had to have the two Green TDs in for a second time, during which even they found the farce too much to take, and walked out.

And the Taoiseach, in this day and age, with the vast apparatus available to him, from army couriers to highly paid advisors, tried but was unable to contact the leader of Fianna Fail.

And vice versa.

Enda rang Mee-hawl, who didn't hear the phone ringing, didn't notice the texts. Ah, sure, you know how it is - lunchtime, a few scoops with the lads, a bit of banter, and you don't notice the phone buzzing away in your pocket. We've all been there.

Imagine Boyd Barrett or Coppinger trying to get away with that bullshit.

While the clowns have been cavorting, serious doubts have been forced on us as to whether we need a government. And whether there is any point to having elections - and this in a period in which Enda and Mee-hawl and the rest of them have been commemorating the people who gave us an independent(-ish) state.

We're told the children's hospital is being delayed again. There can't be a more serious health project, but the Government has stood idly by as one delay followed another, at a leisurely pace.

Education has been eased away from academics, to become part of the supply chain for business, so the Minister for Education has little to do except occasionally worsen the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level.

The Minister for Transport has no role in the current Luas dispute, because it's a private company. Why exactly do we have a Minister for Transport, if such a central part of the transport system is off limits to him?

Oh, yes, I forgot - he's there to gradually crop State involvement in bus and rail and anything else that moves.

Alan Kelly, Power Ranger, tells us now that in his experience as minister for housing, the Government can't do anything about the homeless, because of the property clause in the Constitution.

Hospitals, education, transport, housing - it's out of the Government's hands because of the Constitution or the EU or "the market".

Do we need a government, at all, then? Or an election?

Now they selectively leak an alleged "legal opinion" that allegedly says we can't get rid of Irish Water because of an alleged "EU rule".

I wonder why this alleged EU rule didn't apply to Paris, when they took the privatised water supply back into municipal control? And why it won't apply to Rouen, Saint Malo, Brest, Nice, Bordeaux, Rennes and Montpellier as they do the same?

Or to Berlin when they took back control of the water supply in 2013?

Frankly, I'm getting tired of being lied to.

Meanwhile, to add farce to farce, with great pomp the media tells us that Michael Noonan has been brought in to knock some sense into the "negotiations" for "government formation".

Really? Is that the Michael Noonan who made a balls of the Fine Gael campaign, with his 12 billion fiscal space that turned out to be eight billion?

There's no "money to play with", says the man who spent the past few months telling us how he'd fixed the economy. Does anyone anywhere take seriously anything that person says anymore?

Which brings us back to our thought experiment.

It would be a big jump, blowing off the right-wing parties and giving the left a majority. But, consider this.

The farce on Thursday - about missed calls and who called who - that's not an aberration. That kind of childish stuff has been going on since the election. And during the election. And before the election - same clowns, same politics of bluff and pander.

On top of the deregulation that caused the crash; the market worship and the cowardice when the ECB made faces at them. Next time this happens - and it will - do we want Enda and Mee-hawl and Michael of the miscounted billions dealing with the bankers and the EU hard nuts who instruct them to pay bankers' debts?

The playacting that's been going on suggests we need to do a lot more "thought experiments" about the nature of Irish politics.

Original article: Sunday Independent Published 3/4/2016

Cllr Brendan Young criticises Irish Water's threats and calls for boycott intensification

April 1, 2016

Brendan Young, councillor for Kildare North, calls for the boycott campaign against Irish Water to be stepped up. His statement is in response to Irish Water's recent legal threat that water charges can not be abolished. He sees this as a last ditch effort to keep Irish Water alive by 'undemocratic legalistic means'.

Brendan Young's Statement Mar 30, 2016

"Recent reports are saying that neither water charges nor Irish Water can be abolished because the EU says so – according to the opinion of two barristers who were undoubtedly paid a lot of money by Ervia (IW parent company) to give their opinion. My opinion is that IW management know that there is a very real prospect of their jobs going down the plug hole. This is a last-ditch attempt to keep IW alive – undoubtedly with the support of FG – by undemocratic legalistic means: 70% of the recently-elected TD's said they oppose this water charge.

Whatever the opinion of barristers, the political reality is that prior to the election nearly 50% were not paying – and that number has increased, perhaps close to 60%. People who did not pay are standing firm; and those who did pay are stopping: why throw more money away if the charge is being scrapped?

It is non-payment that has made water charges a political issue. If a FG government tries to retain the charge and gives IW the green light next Spring to try to take up to 700,000 non-payers to court, individually, to get attachment to earnings, there will be uproar and the government could fall over it. FG and FF know this. FF also know that if they go back on their promise to postpone the charge, or support court cases to enforce it, they would be hammered at a time when they are jockeying with FG to be the the dominant party of the rich while simultaneously trying to compete for working class support against SF and the Left.

So FF want to diffuse the non-payment movement and are calling for people to pay while the charge remains in place. They are also saying they are not legally bound to impose the charge and will postpone it. They may be hoping that the movement will dissipate and the charge can be revived in a few years' time.

We cannot rely on FF to abolish water charges. Nor should we entrust the decision on how to manage our water system to an 'independent commission' as proposed by SF's Eoin O'Broin. Who would establish such a commission? What does 'independent' mean in this instance?

Once the charge has been dropped and there is a commitment to fund water from direct taxation we can start discussing how to co-ordinate the upgrade and management of the service. My response to comments on the EU's Water Directive is this: there is no 'established', accepted procedure for charging for water in Ireland; and I reject the EU's regressive proposal of individually charging for essential services such as water – the trajectory of which is privatisation of profitable parts (which TTIP would make much worse).

IW was set up to charge domestic users for water – one of the bank-bailout charges. It has to go. The FF plan to postpone this charge and re-introduce something similar in a few years is unacceptable. The only way to ensure that it's abolished is to make it unworkable by not paying. In the short term, we need to begin planning the organisation of a big demonstration in support of non-payment and abolition before the discussions on the formation of a government are concluded."

Bruncrana Together
We asked Brendan to elaborate on what he meant by 'green light next Spring to try to take up to 700,000 non-payers to court' and about levies this year. He replied

"A penalty of €60 for a multi person household and €30 for a single person household applies after a year of non payment. IW will presumably add this to outstanding bills. No court case is needed to levy the penalty. Anyone who is confident about not paying, or those who think it will be abolished, are likely to ignore the penalty. But you are correct about the timing and if the charge still exists in three months time a big demo needs to be organised against the penalties.

The crunch really comes when people owe €500 - at the end of 2016 - and IW have to decide whether or not to attempt to get attachment orders through the courts. That will determine whether IW can survive, assuming it survives til then. If non payment remains around 50% IW can't survive, and everybody knows this. So sustaining non payment is vital to keeping pressure on FF and FG. Both are susceptible to pressure because of the instability of whatever administration takes office. But if people pay, that pressure will be much reduced."

Controversy over Irish Water's boil water notices due to presence of Trihalomethanes

March 31, 2016

Paul Melia's article in the Irish Independent Mar 31, 2016 '250,000 homes face boil-water notices, Irish Water warns', is really what it is, a warning from Irish Water. What you have to do with this article isread between the lines. It is actually saying "don't abolish Irish Water otherwise you are all going to die, well maybe those in the 250,000 homes which are serviced from 470 crap plants throughout the country, spewing out cryptosporidiums .

Don't you get the feeling from the article that the timing of Irish Water's revelations is a bit opportunistic? Looking over their shoulder are Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein, AAA/PBP, SD, Independents and Independent Alliance TDs (incidentally not the Greens) and they are going to abolish this overpriced quango.

Mr Melia's facts and figures are mesmerising, well baffling really. One would need a calculator, an Irish Water one, to work it all out. Whatever number of Irish Water plants are not fit for purpose, would 6 water test's per year be adequate? Every day would be more like it.

Irish Water are worried about getting the heave-ho so they are making sure they are going to scare the living daylights out of the Irish people. They are warning you that if you don't want to get sick or worse then they are the only act in town. From what they are saying you would think that the Irish would have become an extinct species by this stage, foiled by the minute cryptosporidium bug. Anyway Irish Water' s experts have found all this out in the nick of time and by the way they have a €3.5 billion investment plan to put everything right. In the meantime Irish Water have issued boil water notices throughout the country. The steam will be rising in every house in the country.

Failure to disclose

What the Irish Water experts and Mr Melia investigation failed to disclose is that Irish Water are using the cheapest filtration system in all their plants. This system incorporates the dumping of thousands of tonnes of chlorine into to the water. It this chemical additive that causes 'trihalomethanes', a group of chemicals including chloroform a deadly carcinogen.

This article 'Boiling what? Controversy over boil water notices due to presence of Trihalomethanes' from greennews.ie is a short synopsis of the issues. But then again Irish Water knows all this.

Greennews.ie
‘Boil water’ notices that were issued to Irish water consumers are being met with fresh scrutiny, with fears that boiling water could increase the potency of certain harmful chemicals. The chemicals at the centre of the controversy are Trihalomethanes (THM’s), which are toxic compounds that occur in water due to the reaction of organic chemicals, when chlorine is added as a disinfectant. Environmental NGO ‘Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) previously called on Irish water to inform consumers of the health risks associated with exposure to THM’s, which include the development of certain cancers, harm to the central nervous system, and miscarriage among pregnant women.

While the European Ombudsman ruled that Irish water could not be forced to provide information on THM’s to consumers, there is concern that consumers may be boiling THM infested water. This is due to a large number of ‘boil water’ notices that were issued to consumers across the country, due to the presence of cryptosporidium in the water. One example is in Galway, where ‘boil water’ notices remain in place in the area’s of Williamstown, Loughrea, Carraroe, and Tiernee/Lettermore.

A paradoxical situation has emerged, whereby consumers may be avoiding risk of exposure to cryptosporidium by boiling their water, but may be increasing their risk of exposure to THM’s. As FIE director Tony Lowes states: ”Boiling water that contains high level of THM’s creates an imminent danger to public health because the volatile chemicals are released and absorbed by the skin and through inhalation at a rate 5-15 times faster than drinking the water”.