Jerry Buttimer - just an Irish politician "who happens to be gay"

A well respected Irish politician, Jerry Buttimer (FG), has this weekend come out as gay.

The Deputy joins the a small but growing club of openly gay Irish politicians, and has said that he has received 'lots of support' for the announcement since it was made over the weekend.

Buttimer, who serves the Cork South Central electoral district for Fine Gael, is one of the most active Irish politicians on Twitter, and was first elected to his local city council of Cork City in 2004.

Like many Irish politicians Buttimer served as a secondary school teacher before entering the political fray - still one of the most common vocations among budding Irish public representatives - where his last job was as the Director of Adult Education at a local suburban school.

IrishCentral's Molly Muldoon reported last year how Dominic Hannigan and John Lyons (Lab) became (then) the first openly gay candidates to partake in the Dáil, Ireland's upper legislative chamber; Buttimer could perhaps be described as among the first politicians of national prominence and stature to do so.

Whether Buttimer will be among a new group of trailblazing gay politicians or another relatively isolated example remains to be seen, but he does provide a vital boost in prominence for openly gay politicians in Ireland.

The number of full-time public representatives in Ireland remains comparatively small, but the fact that the Houses are already beginning to offer an honest reflection of the ethnic diversity extant within Modern Ireland is an encouraging reflection of the times.

Rotimi Abedari, the Nigerian-born mayor of Portlaoise, the Jewish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, and Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, the son of an Indian immigrant to Ireland, are just some of the minorities now rightfully represented within Irish politics, who together offer an encouraging insight into the type of pluralism that forms part of a new Irish tradition.

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Buttimer decided to announce his homosexuality in as unstartling a light as possible, although the very idea of a gay mainstream politician will continue to raise eyebrows among some parts of the Irish population.

“I am a TD who just happens to be gay – it is just one little composition of the story that is me and I will continue to be the politician I was yesterday,” he told the Irish Examiner yesterday, and Newstalk FM this morning.

While the story has not garnered the kind of publicity some might have expected it would, Buttimer's open gayness does set down a major milestone for gay rights and social progression in Ireland.

Just six years ago the Irish Independent reported how, with the notable exception of Senator David Norris, both halves of Ireland's bicameral political arrangement were bereft of openly gay members, while the then editor of Gay Community News, Brian Finnegan, described it as the "last big hurdle" for gays to face.

In 2009, a former Mayor of Limerick, Councillor Diarmuid Scully (FG), called on politicians to 'stop living double lives' and come out as gay, adding that Irish politics was one of the 'last bastions of homophobia' in Ireland.

Back in 2003, Suzy Byrne, a lesbian and former president of the International Lesbian and Gay Youth Organisation, was able to tell the Irish Independent that Ireland had not yet had any 'gay politicians, judges, lawyers or journalists coming out,' Hannigan and Lyons having not yet come on the scene.

And while Norris worked almost single-handedly to push the homosexual rights agenda forward during the late 80s and early 90s, he, at least in the political realm, remained a largely isolated and exceptional figure.

So perhaps the former Mayor of Limerick had a good point, and change, at least for gay politicians, will be slow coming, but Buttimer can certainly take credit for having played no small role in changing the evolving face of Irish politics.

Irish fleeced on water meters - Government plan to charge $400 for water meters that are on Amazon for $40

As Irish public ire switches focus from the household tax to the equally unpopular water charges, public awareness is growing that the Government is wasting millions of Euro fleecing homeowners on the installation of them.

The Irish Independent  points out that a colossal €350m ($462m) was thrown down the toilet (well, the drain) by not opting for a private sector service provider, while Mayo TD Dara Calleary (FF) has called for Irish householders to be given the right to install their own meters rather than fork out the exorbitant €300 ($500) the Government is demanding for them, pointing out that a DIY job would save the taxpayer vasts sums of money, while still providing reliable and tamper-proof recordings of domestic water use.

A Limerick politician has made a similar call on the government, while pointing out that the actual charge to Irish householders of having the necessary water meters in their homes will be closer to €800 ($1000), because the €40 service charge recurs annually.

Most comical of all, though, was the revelation broadcast on Cork's 96FM this morning that install-ready water meters could be acquired for the un-princely sum of approximately $40, through the ever trustworthy do-it-all retailer, Amazon.co.uk.

The 15mm 1/2 inch BSP Cold Water Meter is manufactured by Bosch's AHS, and even sports three glowing user reviews, vouching for its reliability, sturdiness, and ease of installation.

One satisfied customer had no problem recommending the product, after having been delighted with the effectiveness with which it calculated his garden.

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The meter is also compliant with the UK's WRAS -- Water Regulations Advisory Scheme -- an obviously more enlightened regulatory regime than what's being proposed here.

Well-known economist Richard Tol offered a slightly higher estimation in the weekend's Sunday Business Post, but even by his figures a "basic water meter costs €50, a fancy one €150".

The point is this: were the government to merely charge for a basic Government-vetted installation service, while allowing customers the freedom to acquire their own metering units, the result would be a multi-million Euro saving.

A 'major national water supplier' has already said that the installation job could be done for less than €100 ($130), which would make sense when factoring in a meter approximating the cost of the basic Amazon meter, as well as a €70 ($90) allowance for an hour's manual labor installing the device.

Citizens have also expressed incredulity that water charges, and the installation of meters to price them at, didn't come under the rubric of one of the 'essential local services' which the household tax was meant to cover. "The whole thing stinks to high heaven," a commenter on popular political forum Politics.ie offered.

Things could never be so simple, of course, but the result is a staggeringly large waste of money, and the necessitating of a Government loan from the National Pension Reserve Fund's ever dwindling coffers.

But the bigger picture is one of continued government wastage, a reluctance to use meaningful tendering and procurement, and an ever more hollow sounding pledge from the government to cut back on public spending in order to make the nation's books balance.

If the government is serious on increasing spending efficiencies and saving the bottom line then it has an easy place to start: by letting people install their own water meters.

Update:


Offer to the Irish people to supply water meters for domestic use by Michael Hardman, Technical Director at Precision Meters, South Africa.

"Dear Danny,

I very much liked your article in Irish Central. €400 per meter -- which I take is 1/2" brass meter -- is absolutely crazy. Even €40 is far too much. I could supply water meters SABS approved at €25 delivered to Ireland.

Kind regards,

Michael Hardman
www.precisionmeters.co.za

Irish senator Rónán Mullen embroiled in abortion spate after -- victims claim he was "smirking", "nasty", at meeting

Irish Independent Senator Rónán Mullen has found himself at the center of an abortion spat after allegedly coming across as "nasty" and "smirking" at a meeting between politicians and abortion mothers at Ireland's parliament, Leinster House.

The Senator has been struck by a whiplash reaction to his allegedly snide demeanor at the meeting attended by over 20 public representatives , including the hacking of his website on Saturday evening and a spate of further online abuse from other mothers similarly aggrieved by how the Senator 'came across' at the round-table discussions.

One mother has claimed that Mullen asked her - twice - what her 'agenda' was in coming to the meeting, a claim the Senator has strenuously denied, while the 'smirking' allegation was leveled at the Senator by a number of those in attendance.

The mothers - all of whom had traveled out of the State to have abortions because they had been told that their babies would, according to medical opinion, be born in conditions 'incompatible with life' - sought the meeting to raise awareness of the 'X case', a 20 year old Supreme Court ruling that has yet been legislated upon by successive governments.

Pro-choice supporters had hoped the famous ruling would spur legislation providing for legal abortion within the Irish state in exceptional circumstances - such as where the mother's life were at risk, or where medical consensus were that the child would be born incapable of surviving life outside the womb, severely incapacitated, or both.
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No such legislation has been forthcoming, however, and pressure groups such as the one that visited Mullen and the other public representatives have kept up a dogged fight to maintain the issue in the public consciousness for as long as the X case ruling remains ignored.

Senator Mullen, however, is a longtime stalwart of the pro-life camp, and outlined his views in a series of media comments over the past few days.

He hit back at the visiting mothers in comment to the Irish Independent, however, accusing of hijacking their own sad circumstances to pursue a much wider 'abortion agenda' than they were presenting to the representatives with whom they met.

"I strongly support the establishment of facilities to support women and families in this tragic situation.

"[But] I do regret any attempt by various lobbying groups to use such sad cases to pursue a much wider abortion agenda," the Senator told the Republic's largest circulating daily.

Barring the personal abuse meted out to Senator Mullen, however, the lobbyists reported a 'positive encounter' at the Dáil and felt that their views had been listened to.

A statement from the group read that they found the politicians' reception 'very positive', adding that their stories were 'listened to by all present'.

One in five Irish children hear voices -- startling findings show "auditory hallucinations" common among Irish children

Almost one in five Irish children between the ages of 11 and 13 have reported 'hearing voices' -- a symptom experts claim could be an early warning sign for a wide variety of mental health illnesses -- according to the findings of a leading Irish research group.

Researchers at the Royal College of Surgeons found that the incidence of auditory hallucinations was highest among the 11-13 age category,  the majority of whom, worryingly, were found to be also suffering from a diagnosable mental health condition besides the hallucinations.

While often a transient phenomenon of late childhood and adolescence, a sizable proportion of those who hear voices, and do so most often, also go on to suffer from one of a wide panoply of mental health illnesses in later life.

Schizophrenia, manic conditions such as bipolar disease, and multiple personality disorder are just three of the serious mental health conditions for which auditory hallucination can be an early warning sign. These conditions  all commonly include the hearing of voices in their diagnoses, which can range from relatively benign alter egos in multiple personality disorder to full-blown nightmare personalities in uncontrolled schizophrenia.

The Royal College of Surgeon's figures, if corroborated, will read as a worrying indication of the extent of mental health problems among Ireland's youth, a traditionally neglected part of Ireland's underfunded public healthcare system.

Ireland's suicide rate was last year found to be running at its highest level since the foundation of the State, with the rise mostly attributable to a strong increase in suicides among middle aged men. Depressive and anxiety disorders are both thought to be highly prevalent, although the exact incidence is hard to detect given that many sufferers either avoid treatment or self-medicate.

Yet despite the figures a 'deafening silence' often surrounds discussion of such problems. Rugby player and 'tough guy' Alan Quinlan recently broke one of the last major taboos in Irish society by giving a website an emotional interview about his battle with depression, but more public figures will be needed to really send a clear message to those suffering from such problems that sharing the burden is preferable to wallowing in silence.

While not directly related to either depression or suicide, the auditory hallucination figures should give Irish policymakers pause for thought when assessing how the mental health picture reads among Ireland's youth, a question that has received scant attention in population surveys conducted to date.

The upper end of the survey's estimations of the hallucinations -- 23% -- is not far off a frightening one-in-four figure, which is certainly a lot higher than many laypersons would have imagined it to be.

The auditory hallucinations commonly extend until 16 years old, and can go on for life without effective treatment, part of which involves getting the patient to acknowledge the hard reality that the 'alien voices' inside his head are not his or her own.

As to what the 'voices' exactly consist of,  Dr Ian Kelleher of the Department of Psychiatry at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RSCI), offered the following explanation:

"Auditory hallucinations can vary from hearing an isolated sentence now and then, to hearing 'conversations' between two or more people lasting for a several minutes.

"It may present itself like screaming or shouting, and other times it could sound like whispers or murmurs. It varies greatly from child to child, and frequency can be once a month to once every day.

Irish Education Ministry to clamp down on cyber-bullying -- four students suspended over teacher Facebook remarks

The Irish Department of Education announced it is to step up its clamp-down on cyber-bullying after four Dublin high-school students are expected to be expelled from school after posting defamatory comments about their teachers on Facebook.

40 other students were similarly disciplined at Oatlands College, Dublin, this time for merely 'liking' the offensive status updated, while other sources say that the teachers were also subject to "vile" allegations on other social networking media such as Twitter.

The comments were posted after the school put on a production of the musical Hairspray at the St Patrick's weekend.

The comments were described by the Irish Times as being of a "sexual nature", were leveled against both a male and female teacher, and were posted onto a special Facebook page shortly after the production.

The three young teachers subject to the abuse were said to have been "upset" and "distraught" by the incident.
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Oatlands College is one of the top public, non-fee paying schools in the capital.

This is one of the first cases in which Irish high schools have met cyber-bullying with a punishment as severe as expulsion.

The news comes closely on the heels of Education Minister Ruairí Quinn's announcement of a major counter cyber bullying forum to take place this May.

The Anti Bullying Forum, to take place May 17th, will consider changes to existing national anti-bullying policies that could help curb the growing problem in Irish schools.

A Working Group will also be established with a remit to help address bullying against all ethnic minorities in Ireland.

"Bullying in school can ruin a young person’s enjoyment of some of the most important years of their life. In extreme situations, it can also, tragically, lead to a young person taking their own life," the Education Minister said.

The Forum has been welcomed by anti-bullying campaigners in Ireland; Michael Barron, executive director of BelongTo, said that the Forum was a "unique opportunity to ensure previous initiatives and other national and international innovative approaches are actually implemented in all schools."

Irish father makes impassioned plea for end to binge drinking culture -- the times are changing

Eugene Mulrooney, the grieving father of Caolan Mulrooney, a Cork engineering student found dead at the base of a 30 foot cliff last December, has made an "impassioned plea" for an "open debate" about Ireland's drinking culture.

Mulrooney's comments were made after today's inquest at Cork Coroners' Court which returned a verdict of accidental death in the tragic affair.

The body search, last December, brought about an almost unprecedented level of cooperation and volunteership from both students at the local university and other locals in the city, who searched for days to find the missing student, who was last seen outside a popular city center night club in the early hours of the morning.

The body was eventually found at the base of a thirty foot cliff, the fall from which is obscured from the front side.

Although Mulrooney expressed satisfaction that civic authorities had heeded his calls for increased signage at similar public safety danger spots, he said that it was time that Ireland addresses the question of how its young people could enjoy a "reasonable" level of alcohol without falling into the pitfalls of alcohol abuse and binge drinking, and all that goes with that.

And while it was never suggested that Mulrooney's death was brought about solely by excess alcohol intake, the family and Court acknowledged today that the drinking probably had something to do with the avid sportsman's decision to take an unusual and dangerous route home -- a route which unfortunately transversed a number of potential danger spots, including the wall which the young student fell to his death from.

The grieving father's concern for  the safety of young people and alcohol is one which has been repeated by several other bodies over the past few weeks.

Ministers and health officials have periodically toyed with the idea of introducing minimum liquor prices, such as are often seen in other countries, such  as Canada, but the proposal has ultimately never borne legislative fruit.

However even those staunchly against introducing minimum prices for spirits and beers will admit that the massive price difference between liquor store selections and alcohol purchased on trade creates a strong incentive for students to opt solely, or predominantly, for the former.

The ever-active alcohol charity DrinkAware has also gone on something of a PR assault in recent weeks, finding creative ways to get students thinking about the value of moderating their alcohol consumption, and educating them on the many potential health consequences of indulging on too much of it.

A students' competition has asked university undergrads to come up with a student outlining the dangers of too much alcohol, while a widely circulated press release sought to "call reality shows to account" for their glorification of binge drinking and alcoholic irresponsibility.

But the campaign I'm most fond of is their latest one advocating for a more 'moderate' drinking style among Irish youth.

The campaign asserts that Irish people need to 'slow down' -- rather than cut out -- their consumption of alcohol.

As a one-time hobbyist home-brewer and long-time beer fan this ticks a lot of boxes in my mind, and might do something to highlight the fact that young people are often simply being priced out of the pleasure of enjoying alcohol and coerced, by societal pressure and the prompting of friends, to abuse it instead.

The ubiquitous €4 ($5) 200ml vodka measures do nothing to change this situation, but a fact the Drinkaware campaign neglects to mention is that the equally prevalent €5 ($6.50) on-trade pints of beer don't either.

For students, and those on lower incomes,  this often creates an only somewhat false belief that the only way to enjoy a few drinks is to do so at home, and besides the negative effect this has on the once booming Irish pub scene, often also encourages those who go down that route to consume the majority of their alcohol in a home setting, where there's no or little stigma to indulging in too much, and no friendly barman to gently tell you when you've had enough.

There's more to Ireland's drinking epidemic than can be summarized in that, of course, but it does irk me slightly when otherwise commendable campaigns such as Drinkaware's seem to gloss over the fact that the sort of leisurely pub drinking being promoted - and for which Ireland was once famous - is now a rather more expensive pursuit for those struggling to get by in straitened times such as these.

Nevertheless it's good to see that kind of message coming out from the drink charity, and a definite sign in the right direction from Ireland's often precarious relationship with 'drink'.

Kerry politician calls for less road signs using compelling logic -- locals "know where they're going anyway"

Kerry politician Michael Healy Rae, scion of the famous Healy Rae political dynasty, has called for a reduction in the number of road signs on Irish roads on the basis that they're a "waste" of taxpayers' money.

The Independent politician's latest publicity stunt comes after a high profile appearance on the charity television show Celebrities Gone Wild resulted in a phone use debacle in which the TD stood accused of making over 3,500 unauthorized calls from official Leinster House phones to curry favor with voters.

The controversial politician's statements have taken a turn for the bizarre recently, though, prompting questions about his fitness for office.

Another suggestion raised just this February saw the younger Healy-Rae "urging" the government to amend its vehicle registration system so that next year's batch of newly registered motor-cars do not bear the unlucky '13' at the start of their number-plates.

The idea, unfortunately, did not find favor with Irish garage-owners, who unsurprisingly dismissed the  ideas as superstitious garbage.

Healy-Rae, whose unusual political practices reportedly include a propensity for canvassing on donkeys,  is one of two political sons of the infamous Jackie Healy-Rae, a rural independent politician who retired his Dáil seat last year, at 81 years of age, and the brother of Councillor Danny Healy Rae, a Kerry County Councillor last notably involved in a "dispute" over a field.

The altercation left the Councillor hospitalized after a longstanding confrontation about right-of-ways adjoining to a farm road turned violent.

The Healy-Raes have, for decades, been a staple source of amusement and satire in Irish politics, but Michael Healy-Rae's latest proposal could well be his strangest yet, although it's not hard to imagine the cost-saving that a programme of uprooting Irish road signs would results in.

His idea that: "Persons living on local roads, pulling out on to national primary routes, are now seeing signs directing them to their nearest town or village, which they are perfectly capable of finding without having the NRA putting up signs to direct them as to where they are to go," was met by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar's obvious answer that road signs "exist to serve visitors to an area, who would not have such knowledge [of where to go]", while the National Road Authority - the government authority responsible for maintaining and installing Ireland's road signage - added, in a similar vein, that signage is for "people traveling to and through a region".

The idea may be crazy but at a time dominated by debates about the householder tax and other such big issues of the day the amusement and laughter that the Healy Raes' outlandish proposals reliably generate is very welcome.