Senior Citizens' Parliament Rally on Medical Cards

by Malachy Steenson - The Workers Party Tue Oct 21, 2008 14:28

Workers Party fully supports tomorrows march and encourages as many people as possible to attend.

Central Dublin: Protest against removal of Medical Cards for over 70s. Venue: Dáil Éireann, Kildare Street, Dublin 1. Date: Wednesday, 22nd October at 12.30pm. Organised by the Senior Citizens Parliament. The Workers Party offers its full support to this protest.

by Michael Baker - None Tue Oct 21, 2008 19:19

Congratulations to the over 70s you have proved your worth to the nation.
Too often are you taken for granted and too often because your patience and tolerance show through. Congratulations to all young and old who voiced their opposition to the Government’s stupidity and complacency in trying to take advantage of the generation that struggled through the hard times and suffered under successive Government’s oppression to make life better for us their offspring.
• Can someone tell me how many sitting ministers are taking government pensions while also taking Ministers salaries?
• How many ex ministers and ex-Taoiseach’s are being paid multiple pensions and how much does it amount to? Bertie, Albert, Gareth are three that spring to mind.
• Why do we have to wait until we are 65 to receive a paltry pension while a minister will be paid his generous pensions even when he is still a sitting minister?
• Can someone find the figures and tell us how much this is costing the state?
• Is it true that a minister gets a pension for each ministerial post he has held?
• Do other government members who do not have a ministerial post have entitlement to a pension?
• I guess if we had these figures we would have an alternative source for the government to save money on.

by Oracle Wed Oct 22, 2008 18:56

• Can someone tell me how many sitting ministers are taking government pensions while also taking Ministers salaries?
- None.

• How many ex ministers and ex-Taoiseach’s are being paid multiple pensions and how much does it amount to? Bertie, Albert, Gareth are three that spring to mind.
- All ex minister's get a ministerial pension. Ex TD's get a TD's pension. Pensions are paid when they reach 55. There's a two year minimum service requirement. The detailed figures for each recipient are released regularly and widely reported. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/mcdowell-bagged....html
Go Google.....

• Why do we have to wait until we are 65 to receive a paltry pension while a minister will be paid his generous pensions even when he is still a sitting minister?
- S/he doesn't. And you wait till 65 cos that's the retirement age. What do you think it should be? 64? 60? 50? 40?

• Can someone find the figures and tell us how much this is costing the state?
- Try Google. It's yer only man. It says about €10 million.

• Is it true that a minister gets a pension for each ministerial post he has held?
- Not really, depends on what you mean. S/he gets a pension based on years of service as a minister. Ten years in one position or one year in each of ten positions - it's all the same.

• Do other government members who do not have a ministerial post have entitlement to a pension?
- Huh? All Government members are ministers. Maybe you mean the Attorney General who is legal advisor to the Goverment and attends Cabinet but is not a member of the Government. S/he doesn't get a pension - s/he does it for free. Actually s/he doesn't - s/he gets the same pay as a minister and gets a pension on the same basis.

• I guess if we had these figures we would have an alternative source for the government to save money on.
- We have and it could help a little. Not a lot. Unless you're Paul Daniels.

by Sharon . - Individual . Wed Oct 22, 2008 21:48

Hi !

Two very lively and fully-justified protests were held today in Dublin (medical card protest and Student protest) , bringing an approximate 40,000 supporters out on to the streets .

A wee write-up and a few pics can be seen at the 'Related Link' below (post dated Wednesday 22nd October 2008) and/or at the following permanent link -
http://11sixtynine.blogsome.com/2008/10/22/medical-card...2008/

- Thanks!

Sharon.

Two of the RSF protesters at the 'Medical Card' protest in Dublin .

by Michelle Clarke - Social Justice and Ethics Thu Oct 23, 2008 16:23

Sharon

I enjoyed your piece about the support groups for the March outside the Dail. The photos give heart to the people. We may become vulnerable with age, but the resonance of spirit for Ireland and its core value to health provision told every member of the Dail yesterday that they did not 'listen to salmon in the river'. Shame on them.

What happened? Have there been too many private clinics, too many options like going to Europe, and then of course Voluntary Health Insurance is no longer a monopoly but faces the competitive advantage of Bupa, Vivas and others. This is all about a change in the Market Place over the time of the Celtic Tiger. A view on this, would have been critical to our Government as they wrangled about the Budget and who to assign the global financial crisis to but what I feel is they failed to communicate with users of the health system.

But I believe our members of Govt became too smug with the Celtic Tiger, buildings, health, medicine, Public Private partnerships became all so visible and reassuring that the plain

What the Govt failed to do was to listen to the people? They were led by the Newspapers (Independent and Sir Tony O'Reilly connections) and other news but did they think laterally at all? Did they abide by their formal training without really comprehending lateral thought function and the ever expanding expertise of the Web, the internet? I don't think so.

I believe they ignored same and ignored what is called the People Press. This was about an inherent snobbery - that same snobbery that I received from bureaucrats in early 2,000. The delete button was more popular than functions and charities.

Sharon I really like the photos and I know that Indymedia is on the go since about 2,000 and provides a haven of information about how the people who really cared about Ireland were thinking? I have written my personal experiences about mental health, suicide, youth, experience with the Community health hospita, Acquired Brain Injury, neurological conditions. Now I feel relieved to tap into American Scientific, the Mayo Clinic and to get a view about what the computer, my adaptive technology route can do to assist me live my life as well as possible. I must make one exception (i.e. who I can remember) and it on the first day Back....to the Dail, an email arrived from Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Enda Kenny to inform me and show me a piece he had chosen from an article I had written about the new underclass in Dublin.

One more point. We are the Island of Ireland now? The health system North of the Border is the same as in England. How did we move so far wide of the Ideal of Medicine. We always had a dispensary system which we inherited in 1921. Much attention was given to the importance of a health system that was fair and equitable at that time, possibly because of the exceptional poverty that existed. (refer National Archives - Dr. Cameron Public Health Report).

The elderly mobilised but what made me really proud was their connectedness and in particular through the internet, something our public servants failed to get to grips with.

Where is social medicine in Ireland? It is easy, we have the mentors in the NHS and communication links could never be better.

It is my hope that as funds are withdrawn from the HSE, that someone with initiative will step in and maintain the system and service the needs of all. If you want to explore a site for elderly people I would recommend the Third Age in Summer Hill, Co. Meath.......what a breath of fresh air and a challenge to continue living.

We deserve dignity in death and dignity in life........Rethink health policy please ....... Value the lives of people.

by G Thu Oct 23, 2008 18:58

The fight against the Education Cuts is next. Protest at the Dail on Wednesday next. Full details here http://www.indymedia.ie/article/89597

by Sharon . - Individual . Thu Oct 23, 2008 22:46

Hi Michelle !

A great post - very well thought out and brilliantly expressed :
"What happened? Have there been too many private clinics, too many options like going to Europe, and then of course Voluntary Health Insurance is no longer a monopoly but faces the competitive advantage of Bupa, Vivas and others.
But I believe our members of Govt became too smug with the Celtic Tiger...we deserve dignity in death and dignity in life........rethink health policy please ....... value the lives of people...."

In a nutshell , Michelle , I have had for years now the distinct impression that , as I see it , the majority of those in the State Administration are so used to bending , fiddling and stroking the system that they find it impossible to believe that we're not all 'at it' as well - ' So they'll squeal and cry poverty when we reduce their entitlements in relation to health care/whatever , but sure *wink wink* aren't they still getting more than they should be getting from welfare/back to school allowance/rent subsidy/ etc...'
The thousands of elderly people that surrounded me last Wednesday outside of Leinster House are the salt of the earth - genuine , good people from all over the 26 Counties , but all afraid of one thing - that the then proposed medical card cutbacks were the thin edge of the wedge and , if accepted , would lead in next years budget (if not before then) to a further tightening of the criteria required before they would be accepted by the State as a qualifying case , and not only in relation to medical cards . And I think they're right .
Thanks again , Michelle - nice to talk to you again.

Hi G !
"The fight against the Education Cuts is next...."

I have three kids at school myself but , even if I hadn't , I would still be intending to fight this. The pensioners have shown us the way !

Thanks!

Sharon.

by Kevin T. Walsh - Social Justice and ethics Mon Oct 27, 2008 16:42

Cuts will be savage. It will affect over 1 million people including the children of Ireland.

Ruari Quinn on Radio 1 yesterday Sunday proufoundly said CHILDREN GO TO SCHOOL TO LEARN TO READ AND THEREBY LATER READ TO LEARN.

These cuts should be reviewed immediately - it is now known across the corridors of Dail Eireann and across the country that Fianna Fail back benchers are getting more nervous by the day. This government lacks leadership which means this country is very vulnerable right now.

By the way I almost forgot - where is the morality of the Green Party - I hope they realise people have long memories.

Kevin T. Walsh

by Michael Hogan Mon Oct 27, 2008 18:13

I am alarmed by the attitude of the present government and it's new leader Brian Cowen, who seemingly ackowledges that he lost some authority last week and sadly does realise exactly what he has lost.

He has lost far more than some authority.

For what he and his government have lost is the RESPECT of the people of Ireland.

He has lost the respect of the pensioners, who shouldered the wheel when things were really tough for years of years.

They who raised their families a working day & night into the late hours, scrimping &saving every penny to put their children through schools and colleges.

So that this country might proosper never again have to rely on emigration for the children.

What thanks have they been given? They have shat upon by a biffo from Clara, who is more suited to the sawdust of a butchers shop - than running the country.

A country can be likened to a business. Like any business it needs a well trained staff, to ensure that it is competitive.

A firm who makes cuts to education and training at any level, shows that it has an incompetent management and put's it's self on the slippery slope of bankruptcy.

The Pensioners, the Students, The teachers will never forget!

by Sharon . - Individual . Mon Oct 27, 2008 20:04

Hi Kevin !

You wrote - " By the way I almost forgot - where is the morality of the Green Party - I hope they realise people have long memories."

It was a 40-step 'Green morality' that myself and tens of thousands of other protesters witnessed on Wednesday October 22nd last outside Leinster House : Ciaran Cuffe , one of the Green Party representatives in that institution , stood on the speakers platform just metres from the gates of same and declared , re the medical card issue - " I am here to apologise . I am here to listen .The Green Party has learnt from this . We won't take you for granted...."
Mr Cuffe then went back into Leinster House and voted for the measure !
With that attitude , he has proved his 'worth' and his value to his fellow gombeens in that institution . He is 'a safe pair of hands' as far as they are concerned .
For shame.

Sharon.

by Castlenock Rooster Tue Oct 28, 2008 19:48

Hear! Hear! Kevin Walsh. The quote by Ruari Quinn is very apt and wouldn't it be nice if the powers that be actually took that heart. It is also very true that this Fianna Fail government is vulnerable and fragile. On the verge of collapse. It would in fact collapse if the Green Party was true to its founding principles. But it's an old story: a party is established, such as the Green Party, full of idealism and with a wish to make the country a better place for all; but when this new party is in power as the Greens now are in Ireland, all that idealism flies out the window in favour of the trappings and frills of power.

Castlenock Rooster