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IT’S A TABOO in Irish society to talk about money or wages, but I guess when you have neither, it’s easy enough to break taboos. So here goes.
As the election looms, the Fine Gael line is that work should always pay more than welfare. Which is fair enough; of course work should always pay more than welfare, but it seems pretty clear to me that the blueshirts intend to ensure work always pays more than welfare by cutting welfare so much that no matter how rubbish your wages are, you’ll still be worse off on the dole.
I work a zero-hour contract.
I’m angry, depressed and very, very broke. I’m also someone who – financially at least –would be literally better off on the dole.
Not knowing if I have work today or not
A zero-hour contract works like this: I wake every morning and phone my employers’ number. The recorded message tells me if I have work today. Sometimes they don’t record the message till the last minute, so I lie in bed, drifting in and out of sleep, calling back until I know whether or not my day is work or a grey, shapeless depression.
Days I don’t work, I sign on.
I get the dole for the days I don’t work. (About €30 a day.) I’ve always paid my taxes and I’ve always worked. I certainly never wanted to be a burden on society, but I lost my job when the recession hit and – rather than sign on – I was grateful to take this as a stop-gap, despite its obvious drawbacks.
But here’s the thing. Despite Joan Burton braying at every opportunity that Labour “preserved core welfare rates”, I don’t qualify for rent allowance anymore. That’s because – though I’m very lucky in a good winter week to earn €100 and often I earn nothing at all – in the summer I sometimes earn perhaps €350 per week after tax and the welfare officer looks at my bank statements over the course of the year. (Under this Government, welfare thresholds have, if not lowered, then at least tightened.)
Normally, I wouldn’t care. I’m not about money and I never have been. As long as my rent is paid and I can afford my dinner and a few books and the odd (or even) pint, I’ve never cared that I don’t dress so well or take holidays or that my car is – frankly – a joke.
Things are bad at the moment
But when things get bad, as they have of late, then they get really bad.
The dole is – if you’re lucky enough to be over 26 – €188 per week. (Actually, as my hair gets ever-greyer, I’d dearly love to be under 26 again. Maybe I could lose weight by eating grass.)
Because I do a bit of extra work, my dole is means-tested. Long story short, and to be honest I’m very uncomfortable telling you this, but when I’m out of work for a week, I don’t get €188. I get €100. Because I don’t get rent allowance, I’m often left, once my rent is paid, with literally nothing on which to live.
Employers will do what they have to do, and what they can get away with. I don’t mean to whine and I’m very aware of how extraordinarily lucky I am.
The Cork Penny Dinners is a wonderful institution. In essence a soup kitchen dating back to Victorian times. In 2011, they supplied perhaps 100 meals per week.
Nowadays, that’s closer to 1,800 meals a week and they have –these past five years – seen a remarkable shift in the socio-economic profile of the people they look after.
Once upon a time, the people calling to Cork Penny Dinners were – almost exclusively - homeless. Now more and more of those calling in have homes and work. These are people who earn a weekly wage but who – once they’ve paid their rent or mortgage – simply cannot afford to put food on the table.
Not just for the homeless
I used to make small donations to the Cork Penny Dinners. I’ve never been well-off, so it’s always been a fiver or a tenner. I’d like to think I was just being a decent human being, but maybe sub-consciously I was making a deposit for the “There but for” days.
As someone starting to feel the strain, I know why people are falling between the cracks. It’s because we don’t have in this country, a living wage. It’s because we don’t have in this country, the idea of work certainty. It’s because we don’t have in this country, a desire to ensure that there is a safety net – a proper safety net – for all of our citizens.
It’s election-time and all I have to my name is my vote. I’ll be asking my local candidates where they stand on a living wage, on zero-hour contracts and on the idea that every citizen should be treated fairly when they fall on hard times.
The “There but for” days are closing in on me now and I’m feeling pretty lonely. Still, though, so long as we allow employers to get away with zero-hour contracts, I guess I’ll never really be alone.
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Duplicitous,vain,a venal man Charles J Haughey,all the requirements needed for Taoiseach and Supreme Leader of the Fianna Fáil
Parliamentary Party ,Bertie was just a corner boy and Cowen all bluster ,the damage they inflicted on the citizens of this country has not been fully realised yet.
@Brian O Reilly: nor Noonans unfortunately
@lavbeer: exactly what did Noonan do?
………3 Irish citizens domiciled in a British colony murdered by British terrorists in another British colony, such was the way of British rule worldwide! Ironically when the community in Belfast responded in like on British undercover terrorists the following week their Government used hyperbole and hypocrisy to demonise a whole community, crying to the heavens about the terrible deed done to their armed undercover agents while it was ok for SAS to murder unarmed Irish citizens, you can’t have it both ways??!
@Patrick Mc Menamin: the undercover policemen were dragged from their car by an angry mob, stripped and beaten and then shot. Hard to justify.
@Patrick Mc Menamin: off duty security personnel where consider legitimate targets . So was German wife’s and kids of soldiers in Germany . Stop winging they got what they deserved .
@Diaspora’d: the sas and British justice system killed Irish people day in and day out like this
@Tommy Whelan:
I’m aware that one of the perpetrators of the crimes you’re referring to – Dessie Grew – had been subject to a German arrest warrant but the SAS killed him (and rightly so) before the RUC could get around to having the warrant translated into English.
@Philip foster: “day in day out”? You are going to have to back that statement up with a very credible citation.
@Philip foster: . There are no good guys in any conflict and the first casualty is always the truth !
@Diaspora’d: You can’t justify it but you can understand it, the funeral was of a person murdered by Stone at a cemetary and then at his funeral two armed plain clothes yokes drive at speed into a funeral cortege and the surprise and horror is they get killed!!! – no can’t condone it but fully understand it.
@David Conroy: incorrect EOD321 bomb disposal unit has being deploy on to the ground over 22000 times to protect life and property . Over 300000 soldiers risk their life s on the streets of NI to suppress terrorism and deny the terrorist the freedom to kill and murder .
@David Conroy: that’s correct, the real injustice was the lack of Civil Rights and the inequality suffered by the minority Catholic population in Northern Ireland.
The struggle for a United Ireland latched onto that civil rights movement and channeled the sense of injustice. But the truth is there was no guarantee that a United Ireland was going to solve inequality, ask any Northern Protestant that saw how the Republic of Ireland was ‘de facto’ run by the Catholic Church. One can only ask if the present devolved power-sharing arrangement would have come about sooner if there hadn’t been an armed struggle that polarized the two communities there.
@Tommy Whelan: The british army knew they were unarmed and they attempted to surrender themselves and they “got what they deserved”? This coming from you who only two days ago posted that there “was no such thing as shoot to kill”? F**k but you really are one absolute bollocks tommy.
@Patrick Mc Menamin: mmm bit over the top, they were on active duty, and terrorists….
Really til you have seen the carnage of terrorism first hand, and cleared the body part’s of innocents I suppose you could still have sympathy for them.
For me No!! live by the sword as they say.!
@Tír Eoghain Gael: your ongoing obscenities and inability to justify your statements makes your comments a joke.
@Powerabbey: Aren’t you the fella who asked me where I got the evodemce to back up claims made about collusion,and then when told my spurce was the PSNI Historical Enquiries Unit, claimed the the source lacked substance?
@Barry morcom: You folk in the 26 counties would still be living under British occupation were it not for what you term “terrorists”.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: yep terrorists is the term I’ll use, when you see what’s left after one the bombs, there terrorists!!
@Tír Eoghain Gael:
You’re neglecting to mention that the three had just prepared and placed a huge car bomb in a busy street – if your job was to protect innocent civilians would you take a chance that any one of the three could have just detonated the bomb with a simple button-push??
@Avina Laaf: 1. The car they parked in a small carpark (not a busy street) had no explosives in it.It was inspected beforehand by the brits who stated that it should be treated as a car bomb but an ex-British Army bomb disposal expert stated at the inquest that it would have been obvious there was no bomb as there was no weight on the springs. 2. How could they have used a button to detonate anything? Several experts at the inquest noted that the car was far out of range of any remote detonator & that the car did not have the necessary outdoor arial needed for remote detonations. 3. The SAS opened fire without shouting any warning. They were unarmed and could have each been arrested at walking pace. Instead, they were executed with shots to the head as they lay incapacitated on the ground.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: it’s irrelevant if they where arm or not . If the soldier BELIEVES they pose a threat to his life or anyone else’s life they he has the power to eliminate that threat . It’s what we call A ACT OF SELF DEFENCE .
@Tír Eoghain Gael: the bomb was in a car in Marbella, which they were traveling too.
This was viable and ready to be detonated…
They were not innocent, they were on active service.
I get your pro Ira, that’s your call,
But they were not innocent.
@Barry morcom: I know the actual car was in Marbella. That has nothing to do with the discussion. The British knew they were unarmed and posed no threat as whatsoever whatsoever as they walked down the street, but instead of simply walking up to them and slapping handcuffs on them, they shot them to incapacitate them and then executed them with shots to the face as they lay on the ground. They then moved in to remove their shells to disguise their shooting positions so it wouldn’t look like a pre-planned ambush. If Britain claims they were not at war then by their own standards, this pre-empted was murder.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: they may not have been armed, but the bomb could have been in the car….
Lot of what ifs..
But as they were on active service, had had a bomb ready they were a threat…
They were going to set a bomb off eventually… So innocent women and children may be dead now because of it…
Had to clean up after one such attack, bits of an 18 year old girl innocent…
No sympathy they were at war…
@Austin Rock: thats not true. The soldiers didn’t drive at speed anywhere, for that mater they could have shot some of the mob
that attacked them, but didnt.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: how did they know they were unarmed?
Why should they come through Dublin..UK citizens killed by UK army.
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: unarmed but on active service. Bit silly to be on active service in a war and not be armed. Silly soldiers..i see the other side brought their weapons…professionals b amateurs.
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: Active service – in our name?!
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: plonker
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: ……Irish citizens from one British colony murdered by British terrorists in another British colony, such has always been the way of British rule worldwide??!
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: clown,obviously know fcuk all reference Gibraltar,do a little research honey,instead of your silly knee jerk,comment,little Brit lover
@billy Dorney: Brit lover – aren’t we all? Millions of us get/got employment there; we holiday there (more than anywhere else), watch/play their games, follow their TV – and eat their food.
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: Irish citizens murdered by British in Spain.
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: I suppose a big bomb doesn’t count.
@MaryLoonyMcDonald: they were on what they called “active service” with the intention of detonating a bomb in a small
square that would be full of people, tourists and locals. They were not innocent characters, their intention was to kill as
many people as possible.
That was a bad time. Enniskillen bombing a few weeks previous. Michael Stone shooting and bombing at Milltown cemetery a few weeks later. The Gibraltar 3 got a dose of their own medicine. I doubt they’d have given any warning or chance to avoid the bomb.
@Honeybadger197: people tend to forget the intensity of bombings etc….
Warnings were rearly given..
Haughey had some neck, you could never deny him that. He was worried about “the notion that someone somewhere in the British government machine had been orchestrating this scenario”, and this was after he had to leave government charged with gun running.
@David Knight: asking the RAF to bring home the bodies after the SAS murdering them would have went down well with the families alright.
Yet they still arrived home via Dublin where thousand people met the coffins. The journey was made as difficult as possible by British/Gibraltarian authorities.
Maggie wasn’t interested in bodies, only starving to death ones
@decky smith: fair play to her, she didn’t starve enough of them
@decky smith:
The only people she was interested in seeing die were terrorists – Bobby Sands and his comrades starved themselves to death!
@Charles Murr: Watch out. Karma always, always, always, finds a way, whether through the grief of a single fallen soldier or something as grandiose as Brexit. Either way and from time memorial, there’s no stopping it, Ireland’s Martyrs will be fully avenged.
@Paul Culligan: That’s a fair warped lense you look at life through, with that romantic oul’ twaddle there. “Ireland’s martyrs” you mean criminals.
@Charles Murr:yeah you see this is why ISIS don’t target the Republic of Ireland.We have never starved tortured/terrorised locals on their own land, the British have been colonising anywhere they can over the years,hence 22 people killed in Manchester,and so it goes on.The British will never learn.things won’t change, will only get worse, people fight their enemies on their own soil.Old isn’t it? But sometimes it’s all colonised people have to fight with.FF Charlie H? They don’t surprise me, they haven’t changed abit, cut from the same cloth as FG blueshirts,in fact I reckon that the Black and Tans bred/raped some of our people.it’s the only reason I can come up with the shitty generation coming up next that would sell their souls to the devil for political/financial gain, sad really
@Lucille Ball: what history are you talking about . Did you miss the 400 hundred years of Ireland s service in the British army . Why don’t you drop the republican fairytale and look at the real history of your country . You might be surprise at what you find .
@Tommy Whelan: Irish Catholics could only join the British Army after the passing of the Papists Act, 1778. What 400 years are you talking about?
@Tommy Whelan: Tommy youre not one to try to lecture on “real history”. Remember back in June when you claimed “support for SF has been in decline since the end of the troubles”, even though their vote has shot up by 63,000 votes in the past 16 years? And then you claimed in the same post that support for nationalist parties is decreasing”, even though support for nationalist parties grew at for the past two elections. Then to cap it all you said SFs vote in 2017 was half what it was in 2001. Even though it was actually up by 62,082 votes! Comedy gold from Tommy, the journal.ie s resident ex-British Soldier
@Charles Murr: it won’t be long until the umbilical cord is cut. Up Brexit and any other rusted implement that can hack it clean away.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: you mean you don’t have a reply to my comment so you attempt to change the subject . It’s your usual ranting tactic and insults that you throw in people’s faces on here daily . http://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/ruth-dudley-edwards/hysterical-and-abusive-how-shinnerbots-display-their-utter-contempt-for-free-speech-35764837.html
@Charles Murr: feck off you tan
@decky smith: good lad Decky, keep gobbling the ass-gas like the brave “bhoy” you are
@Paul Culligan: who are they?
@Lucille Ball: Islamic terrorists will consider Ireland as a legitimate target as any other Western country.
……some verbal diarrhoea on here!
But they did come through Dublin in the end did they not?
It was a ruthless and brutal conflict/war fought with the same brutal intensity on both sides
The British justice system again (or as I call it the anti Irish system shoot on sight ) Haughey had some neck not letting republicans through Southern Ireland no brown envelope for him and Margret thatcher was nothing but a low life vermin of this world may she rot in hell . 3 republicans shot at point blank range murdered in cold blood BRITISH JUSTICE IS A JOKE like its leaders and royal family tyranny is how they rule
@Philip foster: and the ‘disappeared’ never existed!?
@Philip foster:
Haughey wasn’t stopping those three IRA members from going through “Southern Ireland” – because they were already dead!
@Philip foster: the 3 republicans were there to kill as man innocent victims as possible, you forgot that bit.
I wouldn’t believe any politician,everyone are liars.only interested in their pension and how many they can get.
A great Republican…
@Fank Pulman: and a real TNUC he’ll be remembered for
@Tommy Whelan: an “eye for an eye” will leave you blind.
@Diaspora’d: you mean like the six month old baby girl put into the back of a car by her father . By the time the IRA had finish filling the car full of lead half her skull was missing . Good republicans that we are all meant to feel sorry for .
@Tommy Whelan: and here we go the magic round about, remember this and remember that and only remember the bits you want to remember and recycle it enough recycle it enough times with enough outrage and conviction and eventually you will believe – a one sided story.
@Austin Rock: they where there to kill people and they got wasted . Unlucky .
@Tommy Whelan: You’re some can of wee wee.
@Tommy Whelan: Does that same logic apply to your fellow ex british army colleagues who died in Afghanistan/Iraq where yis slaughtered countless civilians?
Special Air Service or Special Assassination Squad Have you ever heard of them working in the air?!!!!
@Michael: little history lesson. The SAS were named as the special air service to lead the Germans to believe there was a new airborne large unit operating in North Africa in 1941.
@Paul Murphy: incorrect
@Paul Murphy: Your believe anything .
@Paul Murphy: You’d believe anything they told you So the Germans believed they were airborne when they saw them driving around the desert in jeeps. A little bit of history for you. The only time they tried an airborne operation it was a disaster.
@Michael: the airborne role takes up different forms . Paras , heli and Hercules TALO assaults . It’s a misconception that airborne troops are paras .
@Tommy Whelan: I’m confused when did I say paratroopers were the only airborne troops?!!! But can I point out to you? If soldiers are transported to their destination by sea it doesn’t make them sailors. So if there transported by air they’re not an air service. When the SAS got their name the only way soldiers could attack by air was parachute One last question for you. In this incident in Gibraltar did the SAS attack by air or were they in civilian clothes and did they walk up to three unarmed people and shoot them down in cold blood LIKE ASSASSINS DO?
Charles J Haughty, forerunner of the gangesterism in the so called Republican party. While this country was going through a recession this paracite was living the life of a Lord. As for the bodies of the three murdered republicans passing through Dublin , Haughty, s stance was typical of the free state washing their hands of the conflict in the six counties. Reading a report of this sorry saga on R.T.E. website… It states the three were shot dead by British security forces, Yet in a later paragraph it stated that two members of British security were murdered after driving their can into a funeral of a man murdered by Michel Stone. In a later verdict by the European court Britan was found guilty of unlawful killing of the three republicans.
There was no Bomb!
These three Irish people were like many others murdered by the British state.
@Joe Byrne: it was a dry run before the real bomb was yo be put there. You live by the sword, then be prepared to die by the sword
True freedom fighters. R.I.P. Murdered byBritish terrorists.
@Rex Facer:
*killed before they could murder innumerable civilians.
There, fixed that for you.
@Avina Laaf: Despite parking up a car that contained no explosives?
@Rex Facer: freedom fighters that were planning to murder innocent people, most of which were tourists? Those the ones you mean?
Not in my name.
@Tír Eoghain Gael: dummy run before the actual bomb. Try and keep up
Fascinating article. More of this please!
Shows Haughey up as conniving rat
@decky smith: good lad Decky, keep gobbling the ass-gas like the brave “bhoy” you are
have your say