Dear Ms Clarke

Thank you for your comments below which I have sent to the relevant Department for noting.

With Regards,

Helen Barnes

Department of Clinical Governance

From: Michelle Clarke [mailto:michelleclarke@upcmail.ie]
Sent: 26 March 2013 17:14
To: Alan Shatter
Subject: Social Injustice via Economic mayhem Excerpt: source on request ‘Give Vision to the Visionless’ Jonathan Swift

‘Give vision to the visionless’ urgently needed

  by Comyn nee O’Malley- Social Justice Tue Mar 26, 2013 16:01

I feel the pain but I do not know what to say or even do. Hopelessness pervades for some in times of economic crises and the dictates of this recession in Ireland are particularly definitive and harsh at present. The news is scare mongering but when people are entrenched in fear nothing other than these scare tactics are capable of penetrating that overcoat of denial that they must wear to survive. What we must do is be aware and realise that it is at the end of the day about people and the need for the equality that renders a society more favourable than those of say Iran, North Korea, Syria to name but a few. If we can focus on their plight, it enables us to adjust our own scales of Justice towards more equity and maybe this is what the real battle for survival is all about.

The Saturday night show: Shocked I sat and listened to a woman from Pieta House talk about suicide. Others from the acting profession and sports spoke of their experiences and the loss of one of their friends and the trauma. The woman detailed Pieta research findings and said that by ‘this time next week 10 people will have committed suicide’ and what we need to grasp is ‘that eight of these will be men’. Warning signs and alert ought to be the action plan of each and every day and people need to connect with Pieta House, their programme MOM (MIND OUR MEN) and seriously address the social, economic, political, demographic factors that is crippling our little Island. We all have a responsibility for other people and being watchful, being empathetic, being concerned and showing compassion is what is important now.

What can we do? Unemployment in countries like Spain Greece and Portugal is far in excess of Ireland but then we are a small open economy with exposure to the US, UK and EU with the English language as a strong common denominator.

We need to create employment. We have done it before so if we feel enough economic pain as happened in the 1930’s, the 1950’s, the 1980’s and now for the near six strangling years of bailout catastrophe, we can do it again. 4 people sat with Vincent Browne last night (TV programme) discussing the impact of Cyprus and the forfeiture of deposits as the Troika (German creditor mentality) over-stepped the mark yet again. Money is one issue but what was really grounding was a father who joined the panel towards the end. He spoke passionately about the circumstances of his 32 year old daughter with cerebral palsy who needs 24 hour care which has been provided by the man and his wife. He spoke of his total disillusionment with Labour politics and their ineptitude to the needs of the most vulnerable in our society. It is easy to take from these people their mobility grant. They have no voice. This is a great wrong perpetrated and let us not lose sight of it. There are many afflictions in life, there are the silent epidemics ie mental illness, acquired brain injury and then there are those so badly affected physically yet mentally so alert. The message surely is ‘stop and think and let’s all do what we can for each other’.

To those in negative equity, to those of you who paid so much in stamp duty on over inflated prices, to those who are in arrears, the drip feed from Government about the personal insolvency option must be painful. The scare tactics about creches costing more than mother’s earn, meaning mother must give up work, the message to forego the car if there is public transport, one car per family, I would say – tread carefully and read the small print. It is not as drastic as it seems. Its aim is what it calls itself ie
‘guidelines’. When you consider that its origins is the Department of Justice and Minister Alan Shatter, it may be of interest to you that an adversarial divorce covers similar adherence to guidelines. If you have nothing to hide, you salvage what you can from what the ‘disaster’ is and you continue to engage with life, with the experience and the option to start again.

Let us not lose hope.

There are some good things going on still.

We have been awarded UK Civic Trust’s reference two housing schemes in Dublin.

McKee Court – a sheltered scheme for elderly people near McKee Barracks
& Sean Treacey House, again a social housing scheme near Buckingham Street.

Dublin City Council Architect’s designed the McKee Court scheme and it was hailed as a “positive development in this part of Dublin, that is easy to use and allows the residents to live and function independently, in a communal setting’.

We need to create employment. FAS is no longer, it is supposedly Solus but where is the Light!

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