Recently, I commented on Twitter regarding my frustration with delays by NAMA in dealing with proposals which had the potential to create jobs locally.

Within 24 hours, I had a phone call from Mr. Martin Whelan, Relationship Manager with NAMA, looking to set up a meeting with Mr. Brendan McDonagh Chief Executive of NAMA.

Last week I had the opportunity to take up the meeting invitation. Present at the meeting were Brendan McDonagh, Martin Whelan and the Chairman of NAMA, Mr. Frank Daly.

Naturally the recent headline cases where it was alleged that NAMA inaction threatened the creation of jobs by major international companies was raised. I was assured that NAMA has a good working relationship with the IDA, that the problems associated with the various projects were not of NAMAs making but that the organisation did use its influence to resolve a number of blockages to job creation.

While not having the full detail of the cases and background it seemed to me that the buck did not stop with them.

However, my reasons for my Twitter comments related to specific projects that I was directly and indirectly involved. I outlined my specific concerns regarding inordinate delays that I had experienced with NAMA making decisions on projects that have the potential to create jobs locally.

Just in case the projects which I was dealing with were exceptions, and in advance of my meeting with NAMA, I took the opportunity to talk to colleagues in Leinster House, auctioneers and a couple of developers. They all had the same experience – long delays and very slow turnarounds in dealing with requests to dispose of property which could help stimulate the local economy.

NAMA responded by pointing out that they were directly involved with 190 developers holding €61bn of debt and that their objective was to turn around requests within seven days, unless there were additional complications.

The banks – AIB, Bank of Ireland, and Anglo – were dealing with a further 600 developers holding €13bn of debt on behalf of NAMA and while they could not commit to a seven day turnaround their goal was to turnaround requests within 10 days.

While I accepted NAMAs was bona fides, my personal experience was of months rather than weeks or days, and rather than playing “blame tennis” across the table I agreed to seek permission from the people that I have been dealing with to bring the details of their requests directly to the Chair and Chief Executive of NAMA to see where the bottleneck is and to have it addressed.

The three NAMA representatives readily agreed to this proposal and I’m now awaiting permission to take some of these cases directly to the heads of NAMA and to see if they are truly focused on job creation and not just on property margins.

Denis Naughten raises the issue of stock market food speculation with Finance Minister in the Dáil, highlighting its impact on farmers and those living in developing countries, while costing Irish families €300 pa

http://media.heanet.ie/oireachtas/asx.php?Channel=Dail&Date=20120201&StartTime=06:42:15.000&Duration=00:05:15.000

Later today the Dáil will vote on cuts to the pupil teacher ratio in small rural schools.

I have highlighted this issue over the last number of weeks here and here but I believe that this letter I received from a parent highlights the real problems that parents in rural communities are now facing.

Of course these cuts are a self-fulfilling prophecy in that if the pupil teacher ratio in multi-grade classrooms are increased parents will move children to other schools and rural school numbers will drop disproportionately further.

Have a read for yourself:

31 Jan, 2012

Dear Mr Naughten,

I am writing to you to ask your advice on what is possibly one of the most important decisions I will ever make regarding my four children’s future. I have four children aged ten, eight, five and four. Three of them are attending ******* National School and the youngest girl **** is due to start school in September. With the cuts that came in the last budget the school is facing loosing a teacher. This will leave ******* N.S. a 2 teacher school, being one teacher to teach four classes. I don’t know what to do. Should I start **** in Junior Infants class in ******* National School in September, which will mean that she will be in a classroom with four classes to one teacher, if she is a good and bright girl she will be fine, but if she needs help or struggles at a subject she will be left behind, or, should I start her in a different school leaving her in a classroom with less pupils and with a teacher who would have more time to spend with her should she need assistance? It is not an option that I would have my children split up and go to two different schools, or would you consider this if this was your child? Should I move the other three children and the four children start in a different school in September, remembering that ******* who is eight is a very shy girl and finds it hard to mix and is comfortable in the school she attends? Not forgetting ****** aged ten and ***** aged 5 have started off in ******** National School, are doing very well, and are happy there.

This is the situation my husband and I are left to face if the school looses a teacher due to the cutbacks in the educational system. Might I suggest, if the plan is to amalgamate the country schools and have one purpose built “super school”, which will have one teacher per class, please put the plan in place and amalgamate together, rather than have the country schools dwindle out and in the process OUR children suffer while this dwindling is going on .

I look forward to a reply with whatever suggestions and advice you can give me as to what I should do next September.

Yours sincerely,

**** ******

If the future of the hospital itself is to be protected then the people of Roscommon need to see HIQA approved services begin to move from Galway to Roscommon at the same speed the HSE moved to close our A & E.

We are waiting for the HSE to identify these services and the Consultants who will provide same and a specific timeframe in which all of this will happen. In order to bring this to fruition all medical equipment required must be secured, the required financial resources earmarked and the working environment to allow the Consultants operate in a safe sterile environment.

The plans for additional diagnostics and screening, including colorectal cancer screening, that is, colonoscopies, at Roscommon is positive, but without the necessary capital investment, this cannot happen.

Limerick Regional Hospital is now 26% over budget, at least some of which can be attributed to the fact that Ennis and Nenagh have been downgraded and more people pushed into Limerick. Instead of making savings it is now costing more to run the service because of the reconfiguration. Presently, HSE West is €94m over budget.

It is also important to point out that the proposed capital investment will be warmly welcomed and will be of direct benefit to the staff & the local economy , this is not a replacement for the removal of a 24/7 emergency service.

To achieve this, the HSE & Government should at a very minimum consider the plan for Bantry General Hospital which was put forward by HSE South and published on 18th November 2009 “Review of Emergency Departments and Pre-hospital Emergency Care in Cork and Kerry” which proposed the following:

B. Bantry General Hospital

B.1 Bantry Hospital serves a remote, rural population. It should therefore continue to provide a
24/7 medical admissions function supported by an Urgent Care Centre with existing radiology and
laboratory services.

B.2 Provision of an Urgent Care Centre open up to 12 hours per day (depending on patient
numbers and attendance patterns) seven days per week linked to a mobile rapid response doctor
and/or Advanced Paramedic. There should be bypass protocols to CUH and telemedicine links to
facilitate emergency surgical opinion.

B.3 The Southdoc base should ideally relocate to the hospital site to facilitate patients who may
need hospital services out-of-hours.

B.4 The BGH radiology service should continue as currently staffed to provide diagnostic services
(X-ray, ultrasound and CT) for the hospital catchment area and should maximise their support of
the new MAAU by extending the working day. PACS technology should link BGH/KGH/CUH.

B.5 The BGH laboratory services should continue as presently staffed to provide diagnostic
services to the hospital catchment area. The laboratory should maximise support of the MAAU
by extending the working day.

B.6 The full time cardiac technician should be retained.

B.7 The Medical Assessment Unit should be developed into a MAAU Medical Assessment and
Admissions Unit with opening hours best suited to the attendance patterns of the hospital but
accessible for medical emergencies 24/7 facilitated by appropriate hospital out-of-hours rosters. It
should be established and run according to commonly developed functions, protocols and
procedures, and supported by robust local diagnostic services open from 10am to 6pm but
accessible for medical emergencies 24/7 facilitated by appropriate hospital out-of-hours rosters.
Patients requiring advanced airway care, critical care and intensive care should be managed in
consultation with CUH ED and relevant acute services using appropriate scoring systems and
transfer protocols. Surgical and anaesthetic services should be provided on a day case basis
from regional teams of general surgeons and anaesthetists. Thrombolysis should be available for
early intervention for STEMI?, Non STEMI? and Stroke. A clinical lead should be appointed to
ensure smooth roll out, consistency of staffing, facilities and operating protocols in MAAUs
throughout the region.

B.8 A new telemedicine link with CUH, with agreed arrangements for surgical visiting, should be
put in place to provide reliable surgical opinion for medical in-patients and ED patients. This
service should be supported by in-house CT with defined protocols for 24 hour use.

Just as our country has come full circle in its relationship with Britain, one of the key architects of the peace process slipped away quietly.

Garret Fitzgerald, as Minister for Foreign Affairs in the 1970s, was one of the key figures directly involved in negotiating the Sunningdale Agreement, which set up the original power-sharing Executive in Northern Ireland. This was a formula which was used to establish the current assembly & governing system in Northern Ireland.

Despite the fall of the original power-sharing executive and the failure of the British Government to accept the recommendations of the New Ireland Forum, Garret was determined to progress the issue of Northern Ireland.

This lead in 1985 to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which gave the Irish government – for the first time – a direct role in Northern Ireland and was the springboard to the final resolution for conflict on the island of Ireland.

On a personal note, I first met Garret Fitzgerald during the 1982 East Galway bye-election in the village of Kiltormer. As someone who grew up during the 1980s he left an indelible mark on me, as a politician of honesty, integrity & respect and as such he was someone who I have looked up to as a politician.

I always listened to what he had to say, not always agreeing but neither could I disagree too much.

But I always respected what he had to say because there was no hidden agenda. Garret always said it as he saw it.

He wanted to do his very best for our country and its people.

Garret the good, may you rest in peace.

First 50 days under its belt but most of the focus of Government to date has been on the banks. One bank Report after another and none of it good news.

The next 50 days have to be different; they have to focus on jobs and implementing a targeted jobs plan. It won’t be easy, but delivering on this within the first 100 days will be a significant achievement for the Government.

So far the indications are positive, the export part of the economy is doing well and this is projected to continue. The challenge is to replicate this growth in the domestic economy. We need to help people to help themselves and support initiatives like the reaching out project in South Galway which can benefit tourism and the capital programme for small business in Longford, which can help start up business access badly needed funding.

As I say, this will not be easy but we’ve had a good hearing from the IMF, some novel plans are in the offing and job announcements are pending.

At least two of the job announcements in the pipeline will have a direct impact on local employment and are due to be made in the coming weeks.

This is positive news on the local front and is the first small step in getting our indigenous economy going.

We all have to keep our fingers crossed!

Today, Shane Doyle was my job shadow as part of the National Job Shadow Initiative. This is designed to give people with disabilities a unique opportunity to get a close up look at the world of work for one day in April each year, enabling them to discover and learn about the skills and education required to compete and succeed in the work place. God help Shane he got a baptism of fire today, attending 4 separate meetings with me! But he enjoyed it and I enjoyed his input and perspective on the issues raised. Well done Shane!

EU Commissioner for Development Mr Andris Piebalgs recently addressed the Irish section of AWEPA.

This was the first AWEPA meeting of the new Dáil and we had a very informative presentation and Q&A session with Commissioner Piebalgs on the allocation of his €10bn development aid budget. Just under 40% of this went to the African continent as a whole. During his contribution he made the point that what happens in Africa has a direct impact on the citizens of Europe, a point that is hard to ignore in the current climate of rising oil prices caused by instability in North Africa.

But it goes much deeper than that and he highlighted three specific examples:

1. War in Africa leads to the need to deploy our defence forces for peace enforcement missions.

2. Growth in African economies has a spin-off economic benefit with its closest neighbour, Europe.

3. Stability in the two previous examples leads to a significant reduction in illegal immigration to Europe.

The point that he was making is that the development aid budget is just as important to Europe as it is to Africa. It is a fund that we can all benefit from to a greater or lesser extent.

He stated that the EU objective is to support Africans to help themselves and the two key challenges to that are:
1. Food security
2. Energy security

While we are all familiar with the food security issues in Africa we tend to focus on energy security as a European rather than African challenge.

As a former EU Energy Commissioner Mr Piebalgs believes that world demand for oil and gas will increase as countries like Japan move away from the nuclear option and as a result the price of a barrel of oil will permanently move to a three figure value.

This brings with it a medium term challenge for energy security within the EU but a short term challenge in the continent of Africa.

The EU while addressing its own energy challenges also needs to support small scale energy projects in Africa which have economic returns for the local communities involved.

Finally the Commissioner commended the Irish Government for bringing the trade and development aid briefs under the one Minister, namely Jan O’Sullivan. He believes that this is a progressive move and one that will assist both the interests of Ireland and the developing countries.

The confirmation that €15m in Child Benefit is being paid out abroad by the Irish State once again highlights the fact that Irish taxpayers are funding welfare payments to nearly 8,000 children living outside of Ireland.

We were told by previous Ministers for Social Welfare that we have to make these payments under “EU rules” and that may very well be the case. But what if the payment was no longer a universal child benefit payment and the “EU rules” no longer applied?

Why not only pay child benefit up to pre-school going age, when the free Early Childhood Care and Education Scheme (ECCE) kicks in, and from that point on introduce a new universal school attendance payment that is paid up to a child’s 18th birthday? Not only would this immediately close off the window of opportunity to make a claim for a child who does not reside in Ireland, saving the taxpayer up to €15m/year, but it would also have a significant impact on child benefit fraud and over claims, saving the taxpayer up to €38m/year. (As reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General the percentage of expenditure resulting from fraud identified in surveys should a rate of 1.8% for Child Benefit for child benefit)

Child benefit is significantly higher in Ireland than in many other EU countries, but so too is the cost of bringing up children. Many of the childcare and pre-school services available in other countries are not available in Ireland. In fact you can get tax relief in Ireland for bin charges but not for the cost of childcare.

A school attendance payment, while not addressing the problem of childcare costs, would at least mean that parents who are struggling to raise children in this country would actually receive the payment.

There has also been anecdotal evidence that some Irish parents living abroad register the child in Ireland, set up child benefit payments into an Irish bank account and then go back to their country of residence. This could also be identified, and shut down.

But this is not just a fraud prevention measure; it would also help to address the issue of truancy within our school system. The school attendance payment would be an added incentive for some parents to ensure that their child has a full attendance at school. Such a payment would also be the most effective way to arrest the problem of school drop-outs, an issue that cannot be ignored any longer.

It also ties in with the new Programme for Government, which prioritises the issue of literacy. The plan states “this Government believes that no child should leave an Irish school unable to read and write”. And the reporting structure is already in place. Presently, a school is legally obliged to inform the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), if a child has missed 20 days or more in the school year or if it is concerned that a child is missing too much school. Under the Croke Park agreement, could the NEWB not send an e-mail to Social Welfare also?

There is an additional incentive from a bureaucratic perspective in that it will reduce administration within the Department of Social Welfare, schools and businesses, which have far better things to be doing than filling out forms for child benefit payments.

Presently in the case of non-Irish national recipients who are resident in Ireland, certification from the school or college that their child attends school is required every three months. With regard to EU nationals who are working in Ireland but who have qualified children living in another EU state certification by their employer of continuing employment is required on a three monthly basis.

Surely Social Welfare staff could be redeployed to deal with other aspects of fraud, if this labour intensive system was abolished? We need to start looking at problems from a different perspective, looking outside the box with a little creative thinking. That’s what joined up Government should be about and thereby giving the people of this country confidence with the system.

With 1000 people a week predicted to emigrate this year alone Ireland urgently needs to create jobs and growth.

We saw a total absence of any job creation plan from the previous Government which resulted in an entire generation of long-term unemployed. We urgently need a targeted solution.

Fine Gael’s NewERA plan will see an additional €7 billion invested over the next four years in ‘next generation’ infrastructures in energy, broadband, forestry and water. This investment will have a positive impact on business costs and external competitiveness.

It will give a long term future to our power stations in Shannonbridge and Lanesboro while also providing a cash crop for local farmers in relation to the growing of bio-mass. The plan will also address the ongoing issues regarding poor water supplies in South Roscommon and will ensure clean, drinkable tap water.

The plan will deliver high-speed broadband to one million homes across the country. We currently have a situation where we have a network of State owned fibre cable with no cohesive plan on how to deliver on the roll-out of broadband. We want to use the existing fibre network – which is owned by Board Gais, ESB and CIE – as the backbone to support the roll out of high-speed broadband directly to people’s home.

Local communities and football teams now have to face the grim prospect of being decimated by the scourge of emigration. We must provide hope and a Government with the ambition and vision to implement plans to address Ireland’s economic challenges.

The priority must be to ensure that no young person falls into the long-term unemployment trap and in the process loses their chance to participate fully in society. We must guarantee places in education, training, community employment and Government-sponsored internship for any young person who is on social welfare.

We have now gone from a situation during the time of the last Fine Gael led Government where we were creating 1,000 jobs/week to a situation where 1,000 people/week are leaving Ireland.

Read Broadband Programme Map
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The map highlights the existing fibre network across the country which could be used to deliver high speed broadband to homes.