Referendum 2011

The People's Association Watchdog have added a page to their website to give everyone a basic understanding of the upcoming referendums and their implications.

It struck me as a little unusual for the government to cut back un the pay of Judges in this country considering, they are doing their jobs and they haven't robbed the people blind over and over, they just follow orders, well the good ones follow the law and they great ones follow justice, but anyway, they are not the thieves and blood suckers that we have come to know and loathe in the financial institutions.

So this move by the government had a stink about it and I couldn't realy put my finger on it, this was followed by the decision to allow us to vote in a referendum on judicial pay, well the smell of something sitting not quite right was getting stronger now. Then on September 15th 2011 a bill was first introduced to the Dáil and went through the first and second stage, it was titled "Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries) Bill 2011", by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Brendan Howlin), well constitutional changes is a matter that we should all be made fully aware of in my opinion, but this was a little on the hush hush side so now my nose was itching with the stink of something rotten.

The contents of the bill is too lengthy to type here so I offer this link: (No Need to read them if they are too long)
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2011/09/15/00008.asp

Then on September 20th it went further again, it was at committee level for amendments:
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2011/09/20/00025.asp

So off to the seanad (2nd stage):
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/seanad/2011/09/22/00008.asp

Then the remaining stages at the Seanad:
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/seanad/2011/09/22/00009.asp

Ok So here is the Bill that has been passed by both houses, The Seanad and the Oireachtas, I recommend reading this one, it is very short and easy to understand:

http://www.oireachtas.ie/documents/bills28/bills/2011/4...p.pdf

In Summary what has been passed is this, The Government have given themselves the power to conduct or not conduct any criminal inquiries against any person inside or outside the government!!!

And now the government are introducing a "new legal profession oversight body"!!!!!

For the news report and reactions to this little gem : http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1004/legal.html

I think we can all see what is happening here, The Government are being insulated from any responsibility regardless of the legality of their actions while empowering themselves above the law!! In Fact what they are effectively doing is handing all legal rights of the country and everyone in it to strangers in the E.U., Brussels Businessmen!!!

So now it makes sense to me why they are hitting Judges, they can afford to now because they are removing the judiciary's independence by installing "overseers" and the minister for justice has the final say in who is guilty and who is innocent.

Do We Really Trust that???