That's the only word I can use to respond to the hurt and difficulty suffered by so many older people and their families over the last week.
The changes announced this morning (Tuesday 21 October 2008) have involved raising the income limits to €700 per week (€36,500 pa) or €1,400 per week (€73,000 pa) for a couple. Older people on this income or under will receive a full medical card. In addition, those with incomes above the threshold experiencing difficulty in meeting their medical needs will be eligible to apply for a medical card under the discretionary medical card scheme.
A huge amount of the debate in my head has been about means testing. Just what should the State provide to everyone, regardless of their income or assets? Whether we like it or not, that answer has to change, depending on the state of the economy.
One thing is certain; this is only the beginning of a huge challenge to tackle the economic difficulties of Ireland Inc. There may be a ten billion hole in the finances, and the hundred million euro mentioned in the context of medical cards is perhaps only 1% of the gap in the nation's finances that will need to be filled in the near future. It begs the question as to whether we should continue to provide tax relief at source on mortgages and also on private medical insurance. The sooner we have a full reality check on the state of the nation’s finances, the quicker we’ll recover. People have remarked on Brian Cowen’s ability to hold the line in the past, but this issue was different. This was unscripted, un-choreographed and straight from the heart. Many of the phone calls and emails have been from people who had difficulty sleeping since Budget day; people who have a State Pension, and sometimes only €2500 or even under €500 a year on top of that. Ironically, many women have small pensions because they had to leave their jobs due the marriage ban and only returned to work when that was reversed. That means they only contributed to a private pension for the last ten or fifteen years of their working life. Their pensions are small, and their fears are real. I hope that today’s changes go some way towards meeting their concerns.
From Bentley Villas to the Irish Lights, a shot of architecture is coming to DúnLaoghaire.
Open House is an initiative of the Irish Architecture Foundation, and it consists of a weekend festival where all sorts of buildings throw open their doors and allow people to walk through buildings that aren't always open to the public.
This is the first year that DúnLaoghaire has been included, and there's a mix of projects on view. The Commissioners of Irish Lights Building (pictured here) will be flying the green flag with its heat pump and solar panels, but you'll be able to visit the snazzy new community centre at St. Paul's Church on Adelaide Road, just a short walk from Glenageary DART Station, as well as the restored Harbour Lodge on Crofton Road next to the County Hall on the Marine Road. There's full details on the Architecture Foundation's site, a nice use of flash on the site.
There's also some interesting material on the Culturestructionwebsite, such as the colouring book for children by Eilis McDonald. Click by, it's worth a look. The screening of Luastubein Temple Bar also sounds intriguing
On Thursday night (16th October 2008) at 6.30pm there's a debate chaired by John Bowman in the Liberty Hall Theatre with the topic "Has Dublin Changed for the Better?". I'll be speaking, along with Senator IvanaBacik, Entrepreneur Jay Bourke, Dublin City Architect Ali Grehan, Artist Jesse Jones, Architect GrainneHassett, and others. There's no admission charge, and no booking required, so you've no excuse not to come along. Between the Budget and the state of the banks I may have switched sides of the debate several times between now and Thursday.
Fr. Mangan had the best line in St. Michael's Church this afternoon.
"We'll have a collection now, for the banks."
It brought the house down. It was a touch of levity at a poignant occasion, the 90th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Leinster, the old mail boat. 501 was the official death toll, but it was probably higher than that. It was the greatest ever loss of life on the Irish Sea and it occurred just a month before the First World War ended.
There were familiar faces at the commemoration, and many had lost a grandparent or some other family member in the tragedy. Saddest of all was the mention of the postal sorters. They hadn't a chance - sorting the post below deck, many of them would have died instantly when the torpedo hit. They were four miles east of Kish lighthouse at the time, and although Captain Birch ordered a 180 degree turn in the rough seas a second torpedo led to the ship quickly sinking. He was injured in the attack and drowned when his lifeboat foundered.
The U-boat UB123 that fired the torpedoes never made it back to Germany. Commander Ramm and his crew perished in a North Sea minefield a week after the Leinster sank and thirty six more lives were lost. They too were remembered today.
After the inter-faith ceremony we marched down to the anchor monument on the Queen's Road and wreaths were laid by schoolchildren.
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Meanwhile the world's stock markets have had one of their worst weeks on record. It makes matters all the more challenging for Brian Lenihan and the rest of the cabinet as they prepare for a tough budget on Tuesday.
"Bheidh an cáin fhasinéis ro-dheachair" was the view of our Oireachtas Irish class this week. The budget will be tough, and that was before this weeks downward slide of the world's markets.
The news from the exchequer isn't good, and my pal in Finance says there's more to come. He reckons it'll be 10% cuts all round by the end of the year in order to fill a six billion hole in the coffers. Stamp duty has flat-lined, corporation tax is down, construction receipts are a fraction of their former levels, and retail's looking shaky. Sure, there's still companies moving to Ireland, but you've got too distinguish between the brass plate operations and the operations that bring long term jobs and income to Ireland. Some of the new jobs will come from unusual places. Facebook is contemplating setting up operations here, and the new Irish Mind Series on CNBC is making a pitch to the United States on the added value of Irish education and upbringing on how we work. The massive expansion in access to third level in recent years is breathtaking, but there's concerns out there that quality could suffer as quantity of output increases. I heard rumours recently that they've brought in attendance rolls in some courses in UCD to keep tabs on whether people are making along to lectures that they're taking exams in.
Meanwhile the squeeze is on for various State agencies. Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar (not someone I'm always in agreement with!) brought out a report 'Streamlining Government' in April that has some reasonable suggestions for rationalising the plethora of semi-state bodies. Over the weekend Minister of State for Trade John McGuinness has been making waves with his thoughts on the public service. Some time ago I threw my hat into the ring with an article that you can find here. David Connolly from the Dublin Inner City Partnership didn't agree with some of what I said, and penned his response here.
Five years on I feel more strongly than ever that we need to give real power to local authorities, rather than spinning it off to external agencies, and I worry that we've reduced local government to an exercise in oversight, regulation and enforcement in so many areas. In other countries I suspect that enterprise, development and support to the unemployed are closer to the core competencies of local government than in Ireland.
Since the early nineties we have created a plethora of new bodies: County and City Enterprise boards that support the start-up & development of local business in Ireland;County and City Development Boards that are charged with bringing an integrated approach to the delivery of both State and local development services at local level; and Local Partnerships that respond to long-term unemployment and socioeconomic disadvantage.
Meanwhile within local authorities we've put in place Strategic Policy Committees that are supposed to assist the Council in the formulation, development and review of policy, yet so many of what should be core functions have been spun off. It is no wonder that so many councillors have resigned in recent years. I suspect many have become disenchanted with the rising tide of representations, a salary that fails to reflect the workload, and perhaps most of all a frustration at becoming increasingly distanced from key decision-making functions. I wouldn't abolish City and County Development Boards, Enterprise Boards and Partnerships, they all do good work but I would like to see their work more strongly tied into the heart of local government.
RAPID and CLÁR complicate matters even further. Again they provide a variety of useful funding in targetting graffiti, providing childcare and accessible transport, but perhaps these issues should be core competencies of local government rather than dispensed from on high? RAPID funds everything from estate management, traffic safety and measures that improve equality for women. The lead Department is Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs there and to be honest while I'm grateful for the emails that announce every details of Éamon Ó Cuív's latest disbursement of €1,050 to the North Mon Taekwan-do club in Cork, I'd be happier if the money came directly from the local Council. It has got to stage where you'd almost need a Masters in Community Development to start looking for a grant for traffic calming and that's not the way it ought to be. As a side-bar issue I'm also nervous about the designation of 'most disadvantaged' to particular communities, as it immediately begs the question 'are you in or are you out?'. A sliding scale might be more appropriate.
Proper financing for local government is a crucial issue. The current system whereby local authorities must go cap in hand to central government for any significant capital project is demeaning and over-centralised. The 2006 Indecon Review of Local Government Financing suggested that more financial autonomy could be beneficial, and the more recent Green Paper from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government "Stronger Local Government - Options for Change" referred to the this challenge. Apparently now though, we'll have to await the deliberations of the Commission on Taxation.
It is amazing how many people feel that the abolition of domestic rates back in 1977 was the nail in the coffin of independent local government. Its the only tax I know that people feel nostalgic about at the doosteps. As a fellah in the Liberties said to me many years ago, "If you didn't like what they were doing with your money you could go down to City Hall and give the councillors a piece of your mind".
Given that stamp duty on property exaggerates the cyclical nature of the property market, we might be better off abolishing it altogether and replacing it with an annual charge on residential property that reflects its floor area and the number of residents. This could allow people to move more easily to the type of property that best reflects their needs without penalising them for their decision to move. If your job was fifty miles away you could move there, and if children came along you could move again without attracting stamp duty that can hit between six and nine per cent each time you move property. It could cut down on commuting and allow people to live in homes that best reflects their needs at each stage of their lives. Certainly some alternative to the complexities of the current system would be welcome.
Meanwhile Philip Boucher-Hayes's Future Shock programme on the issue of water gave stark insight into how bad planning and a lack of capital funding has led to a run-down water supply system. I missed the original screening, and my Real Player jammed at the thirty minute mark, but I think I got the main thrust of it by the half-way mark. Again financing featured as an important issue. John Gormley has ruled out blanket water charges but I'd certainly feel if people are watering their half acre of lawn or wahing the car every week then they should pay some sort of charge for excessive useage. I'd hate to see a pipeline to the Shannon or Boyne just to ensure someone's 08D is sparkling, but perhaps we should be putting more attention into protecting and increasing the watersheds that we have in the vicinity of Dublin. Curiously enough, perhaps New York could be looked at as a city that has a decent tradition of managing their water resource.
It's not a great time to be talking about local government reform and financing when the purse-strings are tightening, but perhaps at a time of fiscal restraint we should be discussing what we really want our local councils and councillors to be engaged in doing on our behalf.
