Ireland is in a mess.
We have a huge budget deficit. We have a crisis in our healthcare system with more cuts being announced almost daily. Education is in turmoil. The political system is in dire need of reform. Unemployment is shockingly high. Emigration is once again on the increase. Gombeenism is still alive and flourishing under its Green/FF protagonists.
So what does Green Senator Niall O'Bhrolchain think we most need at this time? What is his big idea for fixing the economy and the country? What brilliant ideas does he think we most need to get people out of despair, debt and hopelessness? What does he think will get people back to work?
A debate on cycling.
Yes. You read that correctly. A debate on cycling!
John Drennan from the Irish Independent gives his opinion on the good Senator O'Bhrolchain's brilliant idea ... "... in a country being devoured by a sinister class of robber banks, when the Senators finally turned up for work on Tuesday afternoon only one issue was troubling the Green Senator Niall O Bhrolchain, who possesses a mind so fine it is sometimes a struggle to find it. That was certainly the case on Tuesday as Niall decided the most urgent issue the country needed to deal with was "a debate on cycling"."
It is becoming increasingly obvious that Senator O'Bhrolchain is as detached as the rest of the Greens in Govt. His party have just given support to a €4m cut to the budget of the Ard Cuan centre (a respite centre for people with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities) who have been told the services face massive reductions. I wonder will the parents of the children with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities who are directly effected by these cuts appreciate your debate on cycling Senator O'Bhrolchain?
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In the last few weeks Senators (from all parties) have called for debates on
ReplyDeleteGaza,
Women,
Cycling,
Autism,
Soccer,
Electricity,
Head Shops,
Possilbe visit by the Queen of England,
The role of the Army,
The "democratic deficit",
etc.
BTW Jim Higgins of FG has been speaking lately about why Galway City Council should not be wasting €2m of the EU's money on a cycle lane nobody wants. Is Higgins wrong to raise this issue?
ReplyDeleteI wonder will the parents of the children with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities who are directly effected by these €4m cut to the budget of the Ard Cuan centre appreciate Senator O'Bhrolchain's call for a debate on cycling Eoin?
ReplyDeleteSome will be, yes.
ReplyDeleteA debate on cycling during Bike Week. What is so wrong with this?
As I'm sure you know, Niall has a child with an intellectual disability and Niall has spoken on the topic in the Seanad a numerous times. It was, I think, the first topic he spoke on in the Seanad. And yet, he also finds cycling important. And job creation. And clean water. etc, etc.
Do you think that kids with disabilities don't cycle? Do you think that their parents don't cycle?
ReplyDeleteBTW O'Brolocain spoke about education and Down's Syndrome in the first week of June.
So please explain, what is wrong about talking about cycling during Bike Week?
I think kids with Down Syndrome and intellectual disabilities who are directly effected by these €4m cut to the budget of the Ard Cuan centre would prefer to have their services maintained rather than have debate on cycling.
ReplyDeleteI suggest that Senator O'Bhrolchain would be better off focusing his energies attempting to implement cuts on the wealthy and the better off in our society before hitting the poorest and most disadvantaged first. But then I suppose a debate on cycling would help the poor get on their bikes as Norman Tebbit suggested all those years ago. Come to think about it, the politics of Senator O'Bhrolchain and Norman Tebbit are not that different these days, right Eoin?