Labour Blog

Time for Labour to look to our next targets for Ireland - Eamon Gilmore

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:55:00 GMT

Last night I spoke at the Tom Johnson Summer School in Cork.

I said that Labour’s goal was full employment in Ireland by the end of the the decade.
Looking at future budgets, I said we needed to give young working families some breathing room. There is no silver bullet but we must do what we can to make it easier.
I pointed to Labour’s achievement so far in Government such as:

- Removing the burden of taxation on low earners by lifting 330,000 people out of the USC net;

- Providing a better standard of living by restoring the minimum wage;

- Restoring the JLC system after the High Court had struck it down.

- Helping those in tough times by protecting key social security rates

- Rolling out a new child poverty strategy;

You can see the full speech from the video.

Kind regards,

Eamon

[You can also read the full speech in our media centre.]

Sunday morning - Tom Johnson Summer School

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:40:00 GMT

Sunday morning - Tom Johnson Summer School

In this post Rory Geraghty writes about the Sunday morning session at Tom Johnson - 'Legal Protections or Lip Service - What Protections are our Children offered under the Legal System'.

From the appointment of a Minister for Children & Youth Affairs as a full Cabinet post, to the Children's Rights Referendum, to the decision to establish a Children's First Agency, it is clear that we are living in a time of huge reform in the area of children's rights in Ireland, making our first panel on Sunday very apt.

Posing the question "Legal Protections or Lip Service - What Protections Are Our Children Offered Under the Legal System?" we were given 4 different perspectives on the issue of child protection.

Presenting on their own experiences, participants heard from Maria Corbett of the Children's Rights Alliance, Senator Aideen Hayden - National Chairperson of Threshold, Family Law Barrister Barry Fitzgerald and Dr. Ursula Kilkelly, Director of the Child Law Clinic UCC.

Interesting points were raised, by all speakers, in relation to what we don't think about in the area of children's rights. Things like housing provision and teacher training to things as unlikely as building regulation were all discussed. The core message from all speakers was that ultimately what we need is not just legal protections but to create a culture of care.

Suggestions on how to achieve this included awareness raising, investing libraries and after school supports as well as allowing children to have a voice within legal proceedings. All speakers agreed that the law is a framework which can be used to shape the debate around developing such a culture but crucially it is not the only thing we need to consider when we think about how to protect our children.

Probably the most universal theme from all speakers was their lambasting of the Direct Provision Centres used to house refugees. Each mentioned the negative affects this had on children over those crucial formative years and comparisons were drawn between them and Magdalene Laundries of the past.

I suppose putting the most interesting panel on first thing on Sunday morning was a deliberate attempt by the organisers to ensure we all got up out of bed on time. But certainly it was worth the effort as it left us all with much food for thought.

Saturday evening at the Tom Johnson Summer School

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 11:04:00 GMT

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Saturday evening - Tom Johnson Summer School

In this latest post Ciara Galvin, Labour Youth, writes about the early evening session Challenging Social Divides : Classism in the Centenary of the Lock-Out' in the Tom Johnson Summer School.

We started one speaker short in the third section of today, a panel on challenging societal divides and classism in the centenary of the lock-out. Trade union organiser Ethel Buckley of SIPTU and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton spoke at the session chaired by LY Secretary Siobhan de Paor.

Ms. Buckley started with a description of class in the US in the last 40 years. In the 70s, the top 10% of earners there owned 9% of the wealth. Now, after savage anti-union activity, the top 10% own 40%. The average worker there has to work for a month to earn what their CEO receives in an hour. She raised the point because we are seeing a similar phenomenon on this side of the Atlantic as well, especially since the recession.

Minister Burton spoke about her work to date in the Department of Social Protection, and what they are looking at for the next 2 1/2 years and beyond. She expressed concern about contracts now offered, with zero working hours guaranteed, and a possible solution in an income guarantee scheme for low earners. She also spoke about youth unemployment, and the Youth Guarantee scheme which she brokered agreement on with other European ministers in February. Minister Burton commended the work by Labour Youth and the Young European Socialist (of which LY is part) for all their work over the past 2 years pushing for the guarantee, which she sees as being promising, though acknowledged that 6bn euro is a relatively small budget.

Historian and author Pádraig Yeates, who had been delayed in Dublin, arrived just as the minister had to leave unfortunately. He gave an interesting analysis of the depth and breadth of the 1913 lock-out, speaking about the various measures workers and their supporters took when the employers led by William Martin Murphy tried to break their strike. Interestingly unemployment benefit was first introduced through unions under Lloyd George. Then during the first world war (to ensure industrial peace), labour disputes in war industries were resolved by collective bargaining.

It was a very interesting panel discussion with plenty of time allocated to questions from the floor, which stimulated lively debate from the floor, augmented by the debate on twitter feed for the weekend #tj13.

@ciaraleena

Saturday afternoon - Tom Johnson Summer School 2013

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:58:00 GMT

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This afternoon's panel about 'The Illegitimate Debt' is also featured in this blog post written by party member Desmond O'Toole.

It is quite a task to plot a path through a wide-ranging discussion which encompassed cancelling the illegitimate debt demanded of the Global South, the burden of bank debt that has hollowed out the finances of the Irish state and the impact of debt on Irish families in local neighbourhoods.

Ably chaired by Declan Meenagh of Irish Labour Youth, Jean Summers (UCD), Emer Costello MEP and Rita Fagan (St Michael's Estate) helped us to trace this path and illuminate the impoverishing reality of unsustainable debt for both citizens and countries. Debt can be both legitimate and illegitimate and how to respond to the demands to repay debt that has arisen from colonialist exploitation or capitalist excess drove a large part of our discussions. In addition, we explored the toxic link between unsustainable debt and corporate tax theft and how this combination profoundly undermines the funding of public services and the development of a sustainable and balanced economy.

Contributors noted the hypocrisy displayed by wealthy Irish rock stars who campaign for debt forgiveness for the Global South while using aggressive tax planning to reduce their own contribution to the public finances that they argue should fund such debt alleviation. Illegitimate debt and tax theft by corporations and wealthy individuals are two sides of the same coin; a coin minted in exploitation and greed.

Saturday afternoon - Tom Johnson Summer School

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:51:00 GMT

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In this post Labour Youth's Sean Glennon blogs about 'The Illegitimate Debt' panel, featuring Jean Sommers, from UCD, Emer Costello MEP and Rita Fagan, Community Development Coordinator for St Michael's Estate.

Our third panel of the Tom Johnson Summer School was on Debt; the Illegitimate Burden. First up was Jean Somers, lecture in the UCD School of Social Justice and former coordinator of the Debt and Development Coalition. Jean began by outlining how debt has maintained the unequal relationship between the Global North and South. Examples of how a country acquires illegitimate debt included undemocratic governments borrowing money used to oppress their own people and if servicing the debt would cause a country to fail to uphold its social responsibility to its citizens. Though it wasn’t all bleak as examples were shown of how Norway became the first ever country to accept creditor responsibility in relation to debts owed to it by Southern countries who’s development was being impaired by servicing of debt. Also how small countries have challenged the global consensus, such as when Ecuador refused to pay unjust debt.

Brining the impact of debt to a more local level, Rita Fagan, of St Michael’s Estate Community Development, was the next speaker. Rita told the summer school of how communities have been burdened by Ireland’s banking debt and how women, families and young people were being disproportionately affected by the policies being pursued by the prevailing neo-liberal economic model. A moving talk detailed the importance of preserving community infrastructure that is now under threat. Rita finished by calling on people to rally against the strength of capital and challenge the oppression being imposed on them.

Finally, Leader of the Labour Group in the European Parliament, Emer Costello MEP brought the conversation to the need to create a social Europe. Acknowledging the burden of Ireland’s banking debt and the toll its taking on Irish people, Emer credited the Government for helping to relieve that burden through meeting our obligations and negotiating with our European partners. Calling on Europeans to be Citizens rather than consumers, Emer outlined how we need to reform our institutions and forge a European Banking Union to strengthen solidarity amongst member states.

With illegitimate debt stifling development of the global south and the continuing impact Irelands banking debt will have this proved to be one of the most relevant and interesting panels this weekend.

Saturday morning - Tom Johnson Summer School

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:44:00 GMT

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In our latest blog post from the Tom Johnson Summer School, Labour Youth member Shane Folan writes about this morning's panel 'Preparing our Young People for the future - Rethinking education'. We'll have more shortly.

The first panel on the Saturday morning was on the topic of Preparing our Young People for the Future – Rethinking Education. John Lyons TD opened up the discussion. He outlined what he felt should be the next steps for the education system here in Ireland; in particular the third level system. He felt university courses should be more skill based in conjunction with the class time that students would normally face. This system is used quite heavily in DCU, and has proved successful in numerous cases.

Prof. Noirin Hayes was the next speaker, focusing mainly (but not exclusively) on the Early education of a child. What struck me in particular was that how much the state still has to do in terms of helping to care for our newest citizens. What was also quite interesting about her contribution was her criticism of the government striving for the “Scandinavian Model” as the minister for Education had mentioned before, but rather the model in New Zealand, stating that our relative size and population would make it much easier to implement, and would yield more positive effects.

Dr Peter Archer was the next speaker, and his contribution again had quite a thought provoking contribution, but the part that stood out was his criticism of the Leaving Cert, stating that the way we treat the students in their exams has a negative effect on creativity, and hampers further critical thinking. This point is of course particularly relevant, considering thousands of students are surrently sitting state exams.

Dr Geraldine Mooney Simmie was our last speaker of the panel, had many fantastic points about what type of education we should strive for our children, and really drove home the point that an education that’s based solely on getting one specific job is not a full education at all, but rather we should equip our young people to have the skills to choose their future. This is something that I personally think we should follow through.

All in all it was an incredibly fascinating panel to start off our Saturday morning here in Cork, and left us with many new ideas, and started a fierce discussion afterwards amongst the attendants. It certainly whetted our appetites for the discussions that will go on throughout the weekend.

Friday night at Tom Johnson Summer School

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:50:00 GMT

Friday panel at Tom Johnson Summer School
Our first panel of Tom Johnson 2013 (from L-R); Michael Barron, Director of BeLonG To; Frances Byrne, CEO of Open; Minister Kathleen Lynch; Rosaleen McDonagh, Traveller and Disability Rights Activist; Julianne Cox, Labour Youth and Jack Eustace, Labour Youth.

Over the weekend we'll be posting updates from party members who are attending our Tom Johnson Summer School. If you're not able to attend, do pop back here for updates or you could follow the conversation on Twitter using #TJ13. Our first update is from Ciara Galvin.

After a long day's travelling for many, the 19th annual Tom Johnston summer school kicked off in Cork yesterday with a strong start. The theme was challenging privilege and Michael Barron of BeLonGTo started proceedings with a thought-provoking speech about challenges and inequalities which face young LGBT people in Ireland today.
Minister of State for disability, equality, and mental health, Kathleen Lynch TD, offered interesting observations based on her own work about how people suffering from inequality often have their suffering compounded by isolation.

Roseleen McDonagh gave the "most nuanced discussion of intersectionality at any Tom Johnston ever", one Labour Youth member observed afterwards, while Frances Byrne of Only gently reminded us why we do what we do, while being strongly critical of the austerity agenda.

As final speaker of the evening, Rebecca Blaike gave a keynote address as the youngest leader ever of the Canadian social democrats. In her commitment to left-wing politics, she provides a blueprint for any young social democrat considering running for election. In terms of passion and invigoration, her speech almost rivalled Michael D Higgins in previous years. All in all a great start with many more interesting speakers to go.

Minister Kathleen Lynch speaking before this weekend's Tom Johnson Summer School

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:56:00 GMT

This weekend see's the 19th Tom Johnson Summer School taking place in Cork. We spoke earlier to Minister of State Kathleen Lynch about the Summer School and you can see what she said in the accompanying video.

[Click here to book tickets and see full schedule.]

The theme of the weekend is 'Lock-Out to Left-Out' with a wide range of speakers including Frances Byrne from OPEN, Rosaleen McDonagh, Traveller and Disability Rights activist, Padraig Yeates, Historian and author of 'Lockout:Dublin 1913'.

[Click here to book tickets and see full schedule.]

Friday's keynote speaker will be the president of Labour’s sister party in Canada, Rebecca Blaikie, and other key speakers include Emer Costello MEP, Minister Joan Burton and the Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore.

[Click here to book tickets and see full schedule.]

We'll be updating the website over the weekend with posts about the various panels, interviews with speakers and photographs from the weekend and we'll also be tweeting the event which you can follow using #TJ13. Looking forward to seeing you all in Cork.