Maman Poulet | Clucking away crookedly through media, politics and life

Seanad motion to increase interaction with public and organisations

June 13th, 2011 · Irish Politics, Seanad Eireann, Social Policy

This week the Seanad will debate a motion in private members time proposed by members of the nominated senators group – the so called Endapendents. Given the reduction in the numbers of committees announced by the government last week the opportunities for experts, organisations and communities to present issues to parliamentarians will be noticeably less.

 

The nominated senators have formed a technical group and they are proposing a positive use of Seanad time which does more than talking about reform and concentrates on the issues and concerns of people.

In light of the commitment in the Programme for Government to overhaul the way politics and government works, Seanad Éireann recognises the need for change in how it conducts its business and agrees to:

–    put in place arrangements so that this House can engage directly with well informed citizens and residents from all walks of life whose experience and expertise can contribute to debates on issues of public importance thereby adding considerable value to our work as legislators;

–    invite to the floor of Seanad Éireann, on a case by case and ongoing basis, appropriate leaders and representatives of civic life who have a significant contribution to make to the deliberations of this House;   and

–    include in these arrangements the hosting of respectful North/South dialogue that consolidates the peace process in Northern Ireland, develops a peace dividend for all communities affected by the conflict, deepens cross-border relationships and promotes a shared approach to the significant centenaries that will arise in the next decade.

Jillian Van Turnhout, Eamonn Coghlan, Fiach MacConghail, Martin McAleese, Mary-Ann O’Brien, Marie-Louise O’Donnell, Katherine Zappone

As someone who wishes to see the Seanad reformed rather than scrapped it’s a very interesting idea and one way of making sure that the Oireachtas reaches out and that people take notice of the Seanad despite Enda’s and Eamon’s intentions.

The huge majority held by the Government and introverted move to remove and compact the Oireachtas committees means that parliamentarians may become isolated and uninformed.  (I’m being generous here!)  Also another concern is that the lobbying of parliamentarians will completely go behind closed doors if there are limited or no avenues within parliament for investigations and hearings on issues to take place.

On the matter of lobbying I wonder if we could get all TD’s and Senators to publish the visitors records for groups, delegations and meetings that they receive in Leinster House and their constituency?  Yes I know that pig is out there flying by my window again but maybe we could see some action on that as well as the reform of the Freedom of Information legislation.  Chop to it!

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Guest Cluck:Taking a positive step to advance equality and protect human rights

June 11th, 2011 · Equality, Irish Politics, Social Policy

A Guest post from the Equality and Rights Alliance

Prevention is better than cure. A stitch in time save nine.  Tūs maith leath na hoibre.  How many sayings are there about taking precautionary steps in order to ensure a better outcome?   But how many times do we actually take their salutary lessons into account in planning for our lives?  And it is unfortunately the case that when it comes to the exercise of equality and human rights, attention to preventative strategies is the exception rather than the rule.

Equality & Rights Alliance (ERA) is working to address this issue in regard to the way in which the public sector operates. ERA is a coalition of 171 civil society groups, campaigning to protect and strengthen the equality and human rights infrastructure. In February we launched our ‘Roadmap to a Strengthened Equality & Human Rights Infrastructure in Ireland’, which outlines the steps required to strengthen our equality, human rights and anti-poverty infrastructure. A key recommendation put forward in the roadmap is the introduction of positive duties for both the public and private sectors as an important step in proactively addressing inequality and human rights to prevent discrimination occurring in the first instance rather than responding after discrimination has occurred.

Opening in Programme for Government

The programme for Government 2011 contains a commitment to ‘require all public bodies to take due note of equality and human rights in carrying out their functions’. Such a commitment could be most effectively realized by the introduction of a positive duty for the public sector, including Government Departments, State funded bodies and all public services.

The provision of quality, inclusive, accessible and accountable public services reduces inequalities and advances the fulfillment of human rights across society. This is particularly the case in essential services like health and social care, housing and accommodation, and education. The decisions made by public authorities on budgets and service planning, design, delivery and review can be critical in ensuring that public policies have a positive impact on people’s life chances, particularly the more vulnerable and marginalised.

A positive duty would require public sector organisations to not only take steps to avoid discriminating against employees and service users (in line with current equality legislation), but to actively promote equality and human rights for both service users and employees. The promotion of equality and human rights would become core to how public sector bodies operate as employers, service providers and contractors of goods and services.

Prevent and Promote

The current legislative model is reactive and individualistic in that it requires the occurrence of discrimination before a case can be taken and relies on the willingness and capacity of individuals to take cases. A public sector duty would reinforce the current legislative model through a proactive approach requiring action to prevent the occurrence of discrimination and to promote equality and human rights.

Value for money

Public sector positive duties would ensure value for money.  Attention to equality and human rights outcomes for employees, for example, has been shown to be better for staff productivity and organisational commitment, which in turn has a positive impact on the delivery of services. Reviews of the implementation of public sector duties in Scotland and Northern Ireland indicate that duties enhance the competence of public sector organisations to deliver on their internal and external functions.

The participation of people from the target population who experience inequality or who have human rights concerns is an important element in the implementation of a positive duty. This process enables greater understanding, on the part of the policy-makers and service providers, of the barriers service users experience in accessing and participating in public services and the action required to remove those barriers.

Equality and human rights competence needs to be established across the public sector. There are many examples of good practice by a number of public authorities, however, the lack of statutory basis for this work means that it is piecemeal and reliant on a few committed individuals.  ERA is lobbying to ensure that political commitment to a positive duty is a built-in feature of public service, not just something that is an optional extra.
Read the ERA briefing paper on the case for a positive duty

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Statement from IPSOS/MRBI re We the Citizens polling

June 9th, 2011 · Irish Politics

A response has been received from IPSOS/MRBI via We the Citizens regarding my post yesterday.

 

In order to conduct a nationally representative survey among 18+ individuals Ipsos MRBI uses a Random Digit Dialling (RDD) approach. This means that a large sample file of randomly generated mobile and landline numbers is loaded on to our computer system. Our computer system then randomly generates leads from this database that interviewers use to make calls to potential respondents.

In relation to today’s query which related to the validity and protocol of our random digit dialling; we can verify that the respondent in question was contacted through an RDD sample. This respondent’s number was contained in our original sample file, of 100,000 contact telephone numbers. The respondent completed the survey on 04/06/2011. The interview was conducted by an interviewer in Ipsos MRBI’s call centre in Blackrock and was unknown to the respondent. At the end of this survey, the respondent was asked if he would be interested in participating in the Citizens Assembly which is due to take place at the end of June. All respondents of the survey are asked this as a standard question; some state that they are not interested in participating.

Following on from this original phonecall, a recruitment process then commenced on 8th June 2011, which focused on re-contacting participants of the original survey who had expressed an interested in taking part in the Citizens Assembly. This particular respondent’s name was contained on this list. On this date, an interviewer within the call centre, was assigned the responsibility of contacting respondents and confirming their willingness to and availability for taking part within the Citizens’ Assembly. As coincidences have it, this interviewer knew the respondent in question.

While thinking about this incident in isolation, it may seem highly coincidental that a respondent would be known to an interviewer within our call centre. However, if we consider it in the context of the many thousands of calls that our call centre makes in a given year, then it is highly feasible that some respondents may in fact be known to interviewers. Indeed, we have had scenarios where some of our clients may in fact have been contacted in relation to research that we have conducted through our call centre unit. The nature of our call centre, as well as the volume of work we do, is such that we have processed a huge amount of research calls over the years. Because of these numbers, chances are that those who have participated in our surveys, may be connected in someway, through some degree of separation, to someone who works in here, be that research executives or interviewers themselves. For those in the general public who have not yet been contacted to participate in one our surveys, chances are their number will be contained somewhere on our RDD sample file and so may be contacted in the near future.

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Finance Bill published to pave way for full Civil Partnership rights

June 9th, 2011 · Irish Politics, Same Sex Partnerships

The Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan today published the Finance No. 3 Bill 2011.  This bill will change tax legislation affected by the passage of Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010.   These matters were omitted from the Finance Bill published at the beginning of the year before the collapse of the previous government and the opposition at the time committed to introducing the required legislation as soon as they could upon election.

The Bill will allow registered civil partners to receive the same tax treatment as married couples in respect of income tax, stamp duty, capital acquisitions tax, capital gains tax and VAT.
In addition, the Bill allows for the taxation consequences of the redress scheme for opposite-sex and same-sex cohabiting couples provided for in the 2010 Act.
On publication of the Bill, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan T.D., said:
“The previous Government committed to introducing the changes to tax legislation to implement the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010. This was not possible during their term of office due to the early general election but I am now publishing the Finance (No. 3) Bill 2011.
This Bill was published separately from the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2011 as it implements changes that go right through the tax system and will require detailed consideration.”
GLEN have welcomed the publication of the bill.

“GLEN strongly welcomes the publication by the Government of the Finance Bill. This is a critically important development for civil partners. It provides important certainty and security for the many same-sex couples who have registered or are planning to register their civil partnerships” said Kieran Rose, Chair of GLEN.

The Bill also provides that a child whose parent is in a civil partnership will be treated the same, for tax purposes, as a child of a married couple. This means, for example, that children of civil partners will be treated the same for inheritance tax as children of a married couple.

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Random Citizenship

June 8th, 2011 · Irish Politics

We the Citizens is a Atlantic Philanthropies funded initiative which has been holding meetings throughout the country to discuss how those who attend (self selecting and far too many of them use social media) feel about how the country is run.

There has been lots of publicity, numerous political scientists have been analysing the data, the self selection has meant that many attending are middle class, educated and white, there have a lot of tweets from the organisers reporting the ‘ideas’.  (A sometimes shocking ignorance on how the country should be run including neglecting or forgetting existence of the Constitution, that council meetings are held in public and other areas of civics, for which the €635k might have been spent showing people how to demand their rights but I digress)

The final stage in this process is a national assembly of ‘citizens’ to take place at the end of this month over a weekend- pollsters are supposed to be RANDOMLY selecting people to take part.

Arrving in to me at the mobile henhouse this evening – Derwin Brennan is one of the ‘lucky’ 150 to be selected – he is so lucky to have a call from one of his friends who works for the polling company.  Random yup!  Small country or something obviously.

 

Statement from IPSO/MRBI can be seen here.

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