Remembering Toyosi Shitta-Bey

I headed into town today to the march in memory of Toyosi Shitta-bey. Thousands of people walked from the Garden of Remembrance to the Dail. On behalf of the Minister for Integration I addressed the March and here's what I said:

Friends,

We are one.

There is no black Ireland or white Ireland there is one Ireland. There is no old Ireland and new ireland, there is one Ireland.

Today is day of sadness, a day to remember and a time of sorrow.

It is a day to remember the all-to-short life of young, talented member of his community and a gifted footballer

It is a day to remember and to celebrate the life of Toyosi Shitta-bey. My heart goes out to his family. My two young boys are privilaged to go to school with children of different colours, from different nations. It makes their lives richer and it makes Ireland richer. I can not imagine what it would be like for a parent to lose a child in this way.

Today is a day of peace and a day of solidarity.

My colleague the Minister for Integration and Equality Mary White TD stood in solidarity with Toyosi's friends and family at his funeral and is working hard to tackle this act of madness.

She will meet in the coming days with the Nigerian Ambassador. She will work with the Minister for Justice to make sure those who committed this crime face the penalties that they deserve under the laws of this land. She will review the work of the Equality Authority, and if laws need to be changed she will not be found wanting.

Today is also a day to stand together. It is a day to pay tribute to the work of Hartsown Community School, to Shelbourne Football Club, to Sports Against Racism in Ireland (SARI) and the people of Tyrallstown. It is a day to stand up to bullying, to stand up to racism, a day to stand up for integration, for tolerance and a day to stand up for Ireland.

I spoke with friend from SARI in Ireland earlier and they tell me that on the 8th May a memorial game will be played between a team from Charter in Northern Ireland and a team from SARI. Toyosi missed the last game in Belfast. This game will be in his memory.

Assistant Commissioner Mich Phelan from the Garda Forum on New Communities rang SARI last night and asked "How can we help?". On their behalf I appeal to leaders from Ireland's new communities to go to their Garda stations and offer their help to combat racism.

In the words of the late Dr. King it is a time for "dignity and for discipline". We are created equal and we shall work together to "hew a stone of hope out of this mountain of despair".

Let us go in peace to seek justice.

We stand in solidarity with Toyosi and his family

And they just got busier

Tired, emotional, and over the moon.

That's myself and Mary White at the front of Leinster House earlier this evening. We've both just become Ministers for State. Mary will have responsibilities in the new Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs, and I'll be continuing the work that Trevor Sargent has been doing in the Department of Agriculture relating to food policy and horticulture, as well as taking on the Smarter Travel Plan and responsibilities in Environment, Heritage and Local Government in planning, architecture and climate change. No pressure, as they say!

It is a huge honour, and one heck of a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it. Our annual Convention kicks off in Waterford on Friday night, and on Monday I'm hoping to be on the first

scheduled train on the restored Western Rail Line between Galway and Limerick.

The job description consists of joining the dots in sustainability in the way we plan, the way we farm and the way we travel. As we cope with the the huge financial and employment challenges in Ireland it is easy to forget about the need to tackle climate change, peak oil and energy security. Hopefully my new role will allow me address these issues in some small way in each Department. I'm sad to be leaving behind the work I was doing, particularly in Justice, Equality and Law Reform, but I'm pleased to hand over the work to Mary White who is more than capable. She will be kept busy with the Civil Partnership Bill in Committee later this month, and lots more besides.

Everyone I met after the announcement has been full of helpful advice, from Enda Kenny to Donie Cassidy. I guess I'll sleep on it all, and see if I can find myself a new office in the morning.

Deireadh seachtaine maith

"Deireadh seachtaine maith?" asked the teacher as I dropped the kids into school this morning. "Go h-an mhaith!" I replied.

Looking back, there were five intense challenges over the last ten days, and we got through them all. The Lisbon vote was followed by the hiatus over the Ceann Comhairle, then came the final hours of the Programme for Government negotiation on Thursday evening and approval from the Reference Group, followed by the two crucial votes of Green Party members on Saturday - one on the Programme itself, and then one on NAMA. We got through them all.

I took this pic just after 8.30pm on Friday evening. At that stage the Green Party Reference Group and our negotiators were holed up on the third floor of Agriculture House. Mary White is in the foreground and to her left are John Gormley, Colm O Caomhanaigh, Cllr. Mark Deary, Paul Gogarty, Elizabeth Davidson, Cllr. Vincent P Martin, Roderick O'Gorman, Dan Boyle, Trevor Sargent, Andrew Murphy, Trish Forde-Brennan, Stiofain Nutty and Damian Connon. John Downing's reflection is in the window and Eamon Ryan is just out of shot. It was a crucial moment, did we have a deal or not? John Downing was counting down the minutes to the news, yet we knew that crucial parts of the small print had not been signed off on. Like any agreement there has to be trust, and we went with the line that the deal was done in time for the 9 o'clock news.

The line by line work went on until ten. At that stage the Oireachtas staff were locking us out of the third floor and we had to go up to the fifth floor to continue till near midnight in a Department of Agriculture Conference Room that Trevor allowed us to use. Stiofain then took our edits back to Government Buildings where Noel Dempsey and Eamon Ryan worked with their teams till after 7.30 am. By the end of the night Fianna Fáil and the Green Party were eventually working off a single PC on the master copy. That was followed by a logistical nightmare of trying to print 20,000 pages by 10am. Copiers in Government Buildings and Leinster House were cranked up, and someone from John Gormley's office headed down to Reads and took over four copiers. There was even someone sent out to Stillorgan to a copy shop. That's why the documentation was delayed in getting to the Convention in the RDS until after 11am. Never again! The Programme was given first directly to the members so that they could see it first-hand, rather than through the media lens. The Sunday Tribune carried criticism from eco-socialists saying we had sold out, while the Irish edition of the Sunday Times led with the line that new taxes were on the way. I guess if you're getting equal and opposite criticism when you're in Government you're probably doing OK.

Look, let's have no illusions about it all. There is an avalanche coming down the hill in the December Budget. We have committed to cut €4 billion off current spending next year, the year after and the year after that. The next few years will be tough, and as the man with the green mohawk put it: "I said to those who have joined this government: I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

Interesting to think that facing across the table from each other at the negotiations were a business women, a former businessman and former Community Youth Worker from the Greens; and two former teachers and a lawyer from Fianna Fáil. They were well matched.

The Programme is transformational and here's a few highlights:

-we're establishing a €100m Enterprise Stabilization Fund and €200m Green Fund in AIB and BOI as well as a deposit account that will be ring-fenced for lending to Green projects. Recommendations from the Farmleigh Global Irish Forum will be implemented, as well as continuing the work laid out in the 'Building Ireland's Smart Economy' Framework;

-promotions within the Public Service will be on the basis of merit, eliminating seniority as a determining factor in public appointments. Senior appointments from Principal Officer upwards will be open to applicants from the the private and other sectors, and someone from outside the Civil Service will chair the Top Level Appointments Committee;

-limiting restrict direct political donations to political parties or candidates to individual Irish citizens and residents only and facilitate a system where donations from private bodies, including businesses and corporations, can be made to a political fund which will be distributed to political parties in accordance with their electoral performance in the previous Dáil election;

-reforming the system of expenses for members of the Oireachtas to ensure the system is transparent, vouched and open to scrutiny, including the regular publication of such expenses. This system will be verified and verifiable;

-reforming local government in Ireland to strengthen the strategic role and function of regional authorities in planning, transport, water and waste management;

-moving from taxes on labour to taxes on resources. That will include site value taxation, a carbon levy and charging for treated water, with a free basic allowance;

-spending twice as much in future on public transport projects as on roads;

-an end to stag hunting and fur farming, and the adoption of the principles and 5 freedoms set out in the Scottish Animal Health and Welfare Act;

-a Climate Change bill that will give a statutory basis to the annual carbon budget to reduce emissions by 3%;

-honouring the commitments to our children given in our 2007 Manifesto with good news on class sizes; Capitation Grants, no third level fees and a referendum on children's rights.

Sure, I'd like to see firmer time-lines and detailed costings, but often political documents are more poetry than prose. The budget will make the costings clearer. Changes in demarcation and work practices can save billions. I think it is a decent Programme, and given that we've implemented half of the original Programme for Government from when the Government was formed over two years ago, I think we should do fine.

October's been a pretty crazy month so far. Let's see how things fare between now and Christmas. As the introduction to the new Programme states:
"Teastaíonn spiorad an Mheitheal anois níos mó ná riamh. Spiorad an chomharsanacht, spiorad an chomhoibriú."