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| Protesters yesterday outside Leinster House. (Photo: Mick Wallace.net) |
Dublin: The cost of Ireland’s austerity program on the poor and disadvantaged was made clear to me Tuesday as I made my way to the Irish parliamentary building for a meeting.
I was overtaken by a crowd of about 500 parents and children, most with special needs, on their way to protest outside the Dail.
The cutbacks in services mandated by Brussels and the IMF has deeply affected those most in need. Amid all the talk of green shoots of recovery in Ireland and discussion about debt repayment schedules the little people are feeling the pinch most acutely.
In the case of the protesting parents it was the withdrawal of Special Needs Assistants, or SNA’s to look after their kids in schools.
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Thus, autistic children, Down Syndrome children, and others with serious developmental problems are no longer offered the wide array of SNA’s that was there previously.
It is part of the savage cutbacks mandated by the European Union to bring Ireland’s budgets in line. Education has been among the hardest hot areas with daily headlines about a looming shortage of teachers and cut back curriculums.
The protestors were blaming the arrogant bankers and the government and it was hard not to be affected as smother after mother took the microphone and talked about the deep anguish the loss of the SNA teacher had made in their lives.
This is where the rubber meets the road in the Irish recession, where all the high-level talks about debt restructuring and funding finally trickles down and hurts the most needy.
‘Tip’ O’Neill the famous Speaker of the House once said the test of a country was how it handled its youngest, neediest and oldest.
By any standards Ireland has begun to fail that test like never before in modern times.
You won’t see that featuring among the high levels discussion in Europe this weekend, but the reality is that when elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.GeorgeDillon | Sep 20, 2011, 01:33 AM EDT
seanomelboune: I'd say they're Martians. Remember them from the time you were victim of an alien abduction?
seanomelbourne | Sep 17, 2011, 09:46 PM EDT
That's a racist statement hypocrite.THey could good Dubliners like myself,You seem to be motivated by skin colour.
GeorgeDillon | Sep 17, 2011, 02:44 PM EDT
Looks like there are some Indian children in the front row of that protest. Why aren't they protesting about lack of special education facilities in India?
GeorgeDillon | Sep 17, 2011, 02:43 PM EDT
haasny: You're a stupid racist bigot. This site would be better off without ignorant racist vermin like you. And you're a damn liar, too, though I guess most racists are liars. For the benefit of intelligent readers out there, and that doesn't include racists like hassny, people should be aware that in opposing Mass Immigration to Ireland, a country whose ruling capitalist class is forcing an exodus of young Irish men and women, even while they are replaced by foreigners, I am articulating the viewpoint of the great majority of Irish people. Surveys always show at least 70% of Irish people want Mass Immigration stopped. Racist liars like hasny won't tell you that. I just did.
Trealach | Sep 15, 2011, 08:46 PM EDT
What BraindeadDillon doesn't realise is that those whom he 'thinks' are doing those jobs ARE ACTUALLY WORKING - They're not the regular lazy-butt Yanks he's accustomed to, but then he would falsely claim to come from the greatest country in the world where people DIE if they can't afford Medical Treatment. A country which MURDERS INNOCENT Babies irrespective of nationality. A country where 1 in 6 are in abject poverty - but the Mexicans can afford to eat because they, unlike the Yanks AREN'T LAZY! "The ranks of America's poor swelled to almost 1 in 6 people last year, reaching a new high as long-term unemployment left millions of Americans struggling and out of work. The number of uninsured edged up to 49.9 million, the biggest in more than two decades. The share of Americans without health coverage rose from 16.1 percent to 16.3 percent — or 49.9 million people — after the Census Bureau made revisions to numbers of the uninsured." THAT BraindeadDillon is a 3rd world country. At least Ireland looks after the poor and is NOT OWNED by China .....IF you weren't such a knucklehead I'd suggest you'd start learning Chinese, because you're going to need it soon Bubba!!
seanomelbourne | Sep 15, 2011, 07:18 PM EDT
Maybe George should give a speech on the steps of the GPO and get his hate filled rantings out if his system.George has the temerity to denigrate the Irish health system. Coming from a trailer trash yank who's health system is one of the worst in the first world is mind boggling.maybe the Chinese will buy your health system and upgrade it after all they own everything else.
GeorgeDillon | Sep 15, 2011, 03:53 PM EDT
I've reported trealach's spiel for hate speech, but won't hold my breath to see him banned from here as he should be. I think he may need psychiatric intervention-- I know health services over there are not good, unfortunately. Proof that he's a crazy comes in his claim about settlers filling jobs with required skills in Ireland. I guess he means skills like the skill to hold an "Eat At Joe's" type wooden sign, like the Indian immigrants standing on Dublin's Grafton Street. Or skills to say "Will you need fries with that?" as do the Eastern Europeans in McDonalds and Burger King throughout Ireland. Or the skills to shine my shoes, like the Russian guy in Dublin Airport. Or the skill to hand out a free morning newspaper, like the Chinese guy on O'Connell Street. Or the skill to say "Welcome to Dublin ", like the African guy who meets the Continental plane at Dublin Airport. I guess they couldn't find any Irish person who could say "Welcome to Dublin" with the same pathos and expression as does that African guy. The fact is that there is no control on immigration to Ireland; the country has more and more foreign settlers, even while young Irish men and women have to abandon the ancient homeland of their ancestors. Trealach thinks such a situation is good and normal--that's the most convincing proof that he is indeed a crazy.
Trealach | Sep 15, 2011, 03:00 PM EDT
@BraindeadDillon - "The bottom line is this--every dollar the Irish spend on a foreign child is a dollar they won't spend on an Irish child." duhhhhh we don't have your Chinese owned $$ system here. Looks like you could do with a bit of Irish education in English too. A Sentence NEVER begins with a CONJUNCTION. The foreign settlers you refer to are filling jobs with the required skills - you numbskull. You know absolutely nothing ABOUT Ireland, it's people, Government or Welfare System!! You BRAINDEAD Yank!!
GeorgeDillon | Sep 15, 2011, 02:30 PM EDT
You can't understand all of this without realizing that the Irish government is giving vast quantities of Irish taxpayers money to foreigners. Billions of euros are being given to German and French banks, billions that are being taken from the Irish poor and middle class. And the Irish government gives many hundreds of millions to foreigners, in the shape of free education, housing, health care etc. It costs hundreds of millions just to teach English to foreign children in Ireland. Many millions go to paying child benefit to children of foreigners. This money is paid even when the children that supposedly exist have never been in Ireland. All the Pole or whatever does is claim that he has children in the old country, and the stupid Irish fork out the money. Welfare for one child (about $200) is equivalent to the average wage in Poland, and is ten times the rate that Polish children in Poland receive. Just this week a member of the Polish government warned the Irish not to even think of doing away with these payments to Poles. The bottom line is this--every dollar the Irish spend on a foreign child is a dollar they won't spend on an Irish child. And the result is as we see in above article. The Irish adults may deserve the calamities brought about by their own spinelessness, but the children don't. Statistics released today show up the lies of mass immigrationists who have posted here under names like sirpeter, macenri etc. The stats show that even while the Irish are streaming out of Ireland, foreign settlers are streaming in! I defy any of these liars such as sirpeter, macenri etc. to justify the repopulation of Ireland by foreign settlers.
wilhoef | Sep 15, 2011, 12:25 PM EDT
Most Down Syndrome and autistic kids I know do not have SNA's. They function well in their families. Why are Irish kids any different? Buck up, people!
Trealach | Sep 15, 2011, 12:09 PM EDT
Mr. O'Dowd, I presume as a former contender for the Aras who had "the good of the nation at heart", that you at least made it known to your friend án Taoiseach, Dame Enda Kenny that in denying these children with SPECIAL NEEDS the care they NEED and DESERVE is in fact CHILD ABUSE! and I also presume since you would be aware of that, that you scurried down the street to the Gárda Station to make such a report? ...... or is your "outrage" against such abhorrent abuse of children just preserved for the Catholic Church?
Towngate | Sep 15, 2011, 11:04 AM EDT
Niall.a chara: Wipe yer tears,man! - They are wasted on this group who can organize them selves onto a powerful lobby to extract every penny the State is almost afraid to deny them. Your " Wide array of SNA's" (and overgenerous benefits and facilities ) says it all. As with most State benefits in Ireland, they far exceed the need of the individual and I challenge you to publish a summary of benefits paid to Special Needs claimants under and over the age of 18 years. You and your readers will be shocked! As in other - often cited -benefit areas, there is a lot of fat that should be trimmed here, and as with the other groups the Irish taxpayers should not allow themselves to be emotionally blackmailed. To be quite clear: Of course they need support - but they already get more than they honestly need and are always in the front line to demand more! Their snouts should be pushed back out of the trough to the same extent as any other freeloaders!
antoman | Sep 15, 2011, 10:21 AM EDT
@loyalcitizen-Thanks for offering your OPINION. Joan Burton is introducing picture ID cards for social welfare recipients. This will make it difficult for TD's to draw the dole fraudulently. As for the article I'd like to know what was on Niall O'Dowds mind when he typed 'smother after mother'?
LoyalCitizen | Sep 15, 2011, 10:03 AM EDT
As successive so called Irish Governments have been using opinions to defraud Social Welfare Recipients for decades the problem is a lot worse than most people know. Opinions summarise any given situation and are the best way to commit crime and hide the evidence.