condemnations plus plus and such fruits of politics, NO.

a spirited speel in Dail Eireann today by Enda, our guy at the top!
It was good, and right for sure, no disputing that.  I hope it will bring the change that is so badly needed.
a few small things did niggle me as i wriggled through this speach.
we are, according to our man at the top, a 'modern nation,' 'a republic' with our own statute books and laws etc.
Yes, we are a state in our own right, modern is debateble, republic too is very debatable.
we are in the claws of others who are basically running our finances for us!
we are broke, down and out!
Modern, NO.  A very big, NO!
I wish to clarify why i feel this -
this is an immense area to clarify for it crosses all spectrums of society in our 'modern, republic of Ireland'
The agendas are immense.
we are very 'down' in our human rights status across the board.
We are continually being pulled up by Amnesty and other commentators for our Mental health services, abuse, no specialised place for young women and boys who have mental health difficulties.
We did not follow through on the superb work 'Vision for change'
Nothing has been implimented on the promises made there.
We have been pulled up for not having an appropiate housing place for young offenders who come from troubled backgrounds.
We also have a severe problem with State care of those young people who have been taken into the care of the state for safety reasons.
they leave care with no basic education and left to fend for themselves almost right away.
We also tend to lose our young children and teenagers in care, they are not assigned a specialist social worker within a timeframe that is reasonable and many end up dead with no accounting for their deaths or records of their time in care and specialised provisions, files too are lost in a melee of inefficiency.
We are letting down CHILDREN in care, in mental health services and in the young offenders centres, in education and in disability.

We have slashed the Special assistance needed for children in main stream education.
We have a struggle to provide for Autistic children.
No specialised unit for Cystic Fibrosis, yet we have the highest incidence in Europe.
Ditto Down Syndrome and Intellectually vulnerable are left in out of date accommodation with no adequate facilitities to integrate, educate and socialise, even sleep in!
Our drug addiction programme has also gone awol and detection and monitoring has bottomed out, with gun crime at a high never achieved before.
Metadone does not work!  Period!
We do not recognise Psychotherapy as a valid form of intervention for some of the categories above and we favour psychiatrist above all else.
psychiatrist are the runners of certain systems which incarcerate human beings.
we have a pharmacologoical regime of treatment and no other.
the 'care in the community' has not been achieved ANYWHERE and many are struggling in social housing units, in just about anywhere.  they are left, they have no skills and still remain with mental health issues and no intervention or follow up at all.  two so far, that i personally know of, have died within a short time frame in her own social housing unit.
she did not cope at all well.
Neither did her friend who died within months of her.
we do not have enough neurologists to deal with the amount of people presenting with neurological problems, see Prof. Orla Hardiman, beaumont speak elequently on this one.
We still have long waiting lists for colonoscopies which is outragious, even barium meals now have long lists of people waiting.  Privately this costs 265 a shot of chalk down gullet!
I know i have to go for that soon.
Effectively or 'ineffectively' we have no effective health service at all.
Modern Ireland isnt looking so good right now eh?

Recessionary cuts.
Pensions for those with Disability have been cut TWICE since this government got in.
these people, this sector need every penny they can just to survive, that is before they er, Live!
Fuel and electricity allowances have been stopped and i am unsure if 'living alone' allowance has too.
Has the tv licences and phone units allowed beein stopped too?

Housing:
No suitable specialised adapted units in my borough has ever hit the drawing board for people needing a home who happen to be on the social housing list.
Now all such intended works to make better provision for the unfortunates on housing lists, medical housing lists have now been informed that all will be considered as housed if they are in rented accommodation or have a roof over there head, irregardless of whether that is as a family or jamming up in an extended family, also if that means the housing is totally unsuitable too bad, tis a roof.
the housing stock will not be refurbished now.
and recently all the care of each housing stock has been put under the duty of the tenant to keep up to perfection, even privately rented accommodation the landlord was responsible for outside duties of the premises, and danger alerts too.  but in our boxes, not homes, just small spaces many in bad disrepair we are in charge of everything absolutely everything.
yet we pay the council for the priveledge of having substandard housing for need.
we pay bin charges.
parking outside our own social housing units.

We have not enough money to employ Personal Assistants to help citizens of this 'modern republic' engage in Independent Living which is our right in the charter for people with a disability.
we can be shunted into places against our wishes and before our time.
most of the auxilary specialists are now part time in the community.
such a work load left is impossible, is fractured and also unworkable.
communication between professions is poor or over good where juplication of records and notes are forever.
my file with the social worker right now is as fat as the Bible.
I have had him over a year i think.
a lot of paper and nothing to show for it.
case conferences too take money and nothing comes of them.

Hospitals now.  (This getting better?)
'I cannot respond to every complaint we have so many.'
said to me today.  She who picked up MRSA within the space of a short week in hospital.
neither can they guarentee that men will burst in when a patient is starkers and washing alone in her room.
nor have security men barge in either and the door porter, all can barge in without notice or warning and they cannot guarentee that this wont be able to be stopped in future.

Our elderly too are in a poor state with less services now.
Our modern society Ireland has taken on board the 'individualist' agenda of the rich kids growning up to 'further their lives' in the boom times, in other words we have a pack of 'me feiners' who no more know what disadvantage is than the spy eye of the man made of cheese on the moon!
we have no morality as seen by our crash,
no ethical standards.
promises are broken.
we have a culture of gombeemism where nothing really gets done.
we have a culture of under the pissing rain complain about all and sundry and do feck all, aka after the mass on the parish wall swinging the legs and smoking the cigarette, thats where our policies and proceedures are dreamed up.
Enda may have been there behind the billowing green garment of the priest as he stands sentinel outside do a bit of hand shaking too and working 'policy' with a smile/smirk.
I have said enough.
we are a modern nature with a third world country and a bog irish dynamic to sort difficulties which have yet to be sorted since the founding of the state and more following suit due to cut back.
oh, there is no recession in Avoca wicklow, the handweavers with the pricy coffees and potato salad at E8 a portion.
how do i know this, twin and i dropped in after a bit of jumbletown collecting freebies, and asked an attendent how the crisis was effecting business.
oh we have no recession at Avoca.
NOPE, wasnt reflected in the crowds, the attire, prices and eating habits!
we have to become Modern to be able to say we are a Modern state!