The University Times Issue 4 Volume 2

THE IRISH ECONOMIC CRISIS FOR DUMMIES

The faces of Dublin’s homeless Gavin McDermott and photographer Ana Lezcano meet our city’s unluckiest residents Features page 6

FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT

Kevin O’Rourke | Colm Kearney | Brian Lucey | Tommy Gavin | Aidan Bond-James

To hell and back Rónán Burtenshaw talks to Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg

The University Times Irish Student Newspaper of the Year TUESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2010

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FF “spin doctor” appointed to College Board Rónán Burtenshaw Deputy News Editor Jackie Gallagher, senior adviser to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for almost a decade and director of Q4 Public Relations firm, has been appointed to the Board of Trinity College by the Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, following consultation with Provost John Hegarty.

The appointment itself occurred at the beginning of the academic year along with the appointment to the Board of another former Fianna Fáil figure, Dr. Olive Braiden, who ran unsuccessfully for the party in the 1994 European Parliament elections in Dublin.

Mr. Gallagher, whose Q4 Public Relations’ website also lists him as a member of the Board of Governors and Guardians at the National Gallery of Ireland and a former Director of the Museum of Modern Art, was appointed to the Board for a fiveyear term.

Prior to becoming a senior adviser to Bertie Ahern TD at the end of 1994, Mr. Gallagher had worked as a news reporter, sub-editor, business journalist and Industry and Employment Correspondent with The Irish Times. His work with Bertie Ahern began when he became party leader and focused on policy development and media management.

Mr. Gallagher remained as a special adviser to the Department of Taoiseach until just after the 2002 election, when he left to set up Q4 Relations. Described by current Irish Times Political

Editor Stephen Collins as the “Taoiseach’s troubleshooter” and as a “PR Guru” and “spin doctor” by The Sunday Times, Mr. Gallagher was also mentioned in the famous “Bertie’s West Wing” article in the Sunday Tribune as an key figure in the Taoiseach’s office.

However, his career since then has courted controversy on a number of occasions. His PR firm, dubbed “friends of Fianna Fáil” in an Irish Examiner article was put in chosen to market the government’s infamous e-voting system. The contract, described as “lucrative” by fellow Fianna Fáil sympathiser Eoghan Harris in a critical article, came to €4million.

The awarding of this contract to the Q4 firm, which is also run by former Fianna Fáil general secretary Martin Mackin, came in for staunch criticism from the opposition and the media at the time. This criticism heightened when it transpired that the media consultant of the Department responsible, Monica Leech, had a role in the evaluation of tenders for the project.

Ms. Leech, herself the subject of controversy for her €800-a-day salary at the Department of the Environment and her relationship with then Minister Martin Cullen, disputed any influence, saying that the committee choosing between the tenders worked on a consensus basis.

Q4 Public Relations was also hired by national price watchdog, The National Consumer Agency Continued on page 3

Star-studded week at the GMB sees Fry and Brown address Phil and Hist - Photos: Dargan Crowley-Long When actor, writer, comedian and modern day Wildean incarnation Stephen Fry addressed a crowded and rapturous GMB chamber last Wednesday, he spoke of the beauty of being able to “play gracefully with words”. This is undoubtedly a skill that the eloquent and verbose fry possesses in abundance. After being presented with the honorary Patronage of the Philosophical Society, Fry addressed the crowd, his “shimmering darlings” as he named them, with a short speech centred on the university life of his beloved Oscar Wilde, a Trinity Graduate.

With the mixture of the witty anecdotes and strikingly pertinent observations that have allowed Fry to carve out his status as a celebrated intellectual and wit, he took students through Wilde’s college years, praising the man who he called the “prince of bohemia”, a title that could just as easily be applied to Fry as to his nineteenth century idol.

After concluding his address, Fry took questions from the floor, illuminating the audience as to the qualities that he most admires in a person (“cheerfulness and kindness”), the one advice that he would give his younger self (“to be less worried”), his favourite ever book (“Ullyses”), and his opinion of modern social networking sites (approving).

Concluding his session at almost 10pm, Fry praised the hospitality and enthusiasm of the crowd and the Phil, sentiments echoed when he tweeted the next day that he had had “the most wonderful time imaginable” in Trinity, and that The Phil had been “unexampled in their warmth and charm”. Emma Dunne

Barra Roantree College Affairs Correspondent The University has decided that 15% of places in all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes will be reserved for non-EU students from next year. NonEU students currently make up just over 9% of students.

The move will come as a blow to this year’s cohort of leaving certificate students, as it will lead to increased points for popular courses such as BESS, engineering and medicine.

Responding to a request from The University Times for confirmation of the decision, the Communications Office stated that

“increasing the diversity of the student population is a key strategic goal of the University’s current Strategic Plan”. The move will also raise a valuable source of funding for the University, as non-EU students pay much higher fees than their EU and Irish counterparts. For example, while tuition fees for a typical degree course in the faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences stand at €4,181 per year for an EU student (paid by the Irish government), non-EU students will pay nearly €16,000.

Speaking to the Times, Student’s Union President Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem warned that any plans to

Accompanied by a strong contingent of Garda detectives and their sterner looking English counterparts, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressed the College Historical Society on Friday 10th December in the GMB, packed by a enthusiastic crowd of political anoraks.

The Auditor of the Hist, Huw Duffy presented Brown with the society’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse, citing Brown’s leadership of the UK “through crisis during the economic meltdown of 2008” and his role as “an architect of New Labour’s transformative politics”.

Brown signed copies of his new book ‘Beyond the Crash’, chatting to students at length before delivering a lecture on the topic of global cooperation. The former PM warned that Europe and America could only continue to maintain their standards of living by focusing on “hi-tech, custom built, innovative goods the rest of the world wants to buy”, portraying the emergence of the Asian economies and “millions of new middle class” as an opportunity to be seized.

Responding to a question about the current problems facing Ireland, Mr. Brown emphasised the need for a coordinated European solution to assist troubled members of the single currency.

Mr. Brown was the second former British PM to visit the Hist in the last four years, and the first of a series of high profile guests this year. Guests due to address the society in Hilary term include long serving US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, former New Labour spin-doctor Alastair Campbell and distinguished American philosopher Daniel Dennett. Barra Roantree

University pension schemes to be transferred to NPRF Emma Dunne Staff Writer The government have recently announced that the pension funds of 14 bodies, including Trinity College and four other universities, are to be transferred to the National Pension Reserve Fund, joining a pool of assets that are to be used as part of Ireland’s €17.5 billion contribution to its EU – IMF led bailout.

Until now, Irish universities - including Trinity College - have largely run their own, often very generous pensions schemes

for employees. The terms of these schemes can frequently be extremely favourable for retiring lecturers and staff, with the administrators of the plans having the power to ‘top up’ retiring lecturers pensions in order to reflect valuable time that they may have spent, for example, engaging in research.

However it seems that all this is soon to come to an abrupt end. The government have announced recently that they are to transfer the pension funds of 14 bodies, including Trinity College and four other universities,

College sets 15% quota for Non-EU students »» Number of non-EU students to jump by half »» Lucrative demographic targeted in funding drive »» SU President calls for value for money or face loss to international reputation

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increase the numbers of international students would require investment in academic and student services.

“Time and time again, we hear from international students that the services provided in Trinity are below their expectations. The library, the accommodation services and the level of support students receive are rated by international students as insufficient. If Trinity expects to increase international student numbers, then there should be serious investment in the services we provide otherwise we face losing reputation internationally.”

While the College will face a challenge in achieving its ambitious targets, the future is looking even more challenging for those Irish students aspiring to study in Trinity. Faced with the prospect of increasing fees and greater competition for scarce places, some secondary school students are looking to the UK and Europe for

third level options.

Colm O’Donoghue is preparing to take the Leaving Certificate this summer. He’s applied to do law in the UK as “the way things are here, looking abroad gives you more options, and would let me get myself setup to work abroad in a few years”. For those looking further afield, many prestigious European institutions, such as Tilburg University, teach programmes completely through English and charge fees lower than the student contribution, while the costs of living are much lower than in Dublin.

At a time when Government policy is aimed at increasing the numbers of Irish youth continuing to third level but without providing adequate resources for Universities to cope with the increased numbers, the trend towards prioritising non-EU students looks set to continue.

to the National Pension Reserve Fund.

Established in 2001, the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) is a mechanism designed to help future Irish governments meet the cost of public sector pensions from 2025 – 2055, years when it is predicted that due to a steadily ageing population, the cost of such pensions to the state will increase dramatically.

Under the legislation that established the NPRF, the government of the day is legally obliged to pay 1% of the Gross National Product a year into the fund until

2025. It was provided that no funds could be drawn down from the NPRF until this time, in theory ensuring that as the pensions liabilities of the state increase steadily after this date, the government will have adequate resources to meet the rapidly escalating demand.

However since the establishment of the fund, its depths, far from being left untouched until 2025, have been plundered more than once by the government. In 2009, it was announced that the NPRF was to be used in a controversial bailout of two of the state’s largest banks,

Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank, a move that provoked the ire and condemnation of many. The fund was raided yet again in 2010, when it was announced that it would be used as part of Ireland’s agreed €17.5 billion contribution to its EU – IMF led bailout.

Against this backdrop, the transfer of university pension schemes to the NPRF has provoked consternation in many quarters, with over 50 senior academics retiring from UCD alone last year in order to avail of the arguably more secure pension scheme run by the

universities itself before the transfer was effected.

Whilst academics who gripe about an end to pension top ups will probably not elicit much sympathy from the majority of the public in these cash strapped times, few could argue that the transfer of more pensions schemes to a fund that has become seemingly just another crutch for a government limping through the worst national financial crisis in recent history is not something that would put anyone’s mind at ease about their financial security in their golden years.

USI calls for Croke Park renegotiation Barra Roantree College Affairs Correspondent Union of Students in Ireland (USI) President Gary Redmond has called for the renegotiation of the Croke Park agreement following being granted discretion to do so at the organisation’s National Council last week.

The Croke Park deal guarantees the pay of public servants, including that of higher paid University administrators, in exchange for agreement on as yet unspecified reforms to work practices. The agreement has been controversial due to a failure in implementing any major reforms in the nine months since talks between the Government and unions concluded.

The motion put forward

by UCD Students’ Union

President Paul Lynam read “National Council authorises the President and Officer Board (at the discretion of the President) to publicly call for the renegotiation of the Croke Park agreement if it is beneficial to members.”

The national council of USI, composed of the university and IT student’s union Presidents, passed the motion with UCC abstaining and two others, NUI Maynooth and Dun Laoghaire IADT, voting against.

Speaking to The University Times, USI President Gary Redmond said that the decision to call for the renegotiation was taken following the discussions on the motion at National Council, where many speakers spoke in favour of this call.” Redmond insisted that “it was never suggested that staff on the

Editor: Tom Lowe Deputy Editor: Tommy Gavin Volume 2, Issue 4

lowest salaries should take the brunt of any renegotiation”, rather “grades such as president, vice-president, professor etc. who are paid many multiples more than their equivalents in the UK.” However, he admitted that USI would have to “look at the maths” to see if reductions for higher paid public servants could contribute sufficient savings to prevent further cuts to services.

The call will cause further tensions between the student movement and national trade unions, with whom relations have been frosty since USI’s 2007 decision to disaffiliate from SIPTU, Ireland’s largest trade union. Keith O’Brien, UCCSU President and Labour Party activist, said that he was surprised at the speed with which the call had been made, remarking “I

The University Times

don’t know how to react.” He said that USI’s press release was “factually incorrect” as it claimed that unions had voted in favour of a policy of calling for urgent renegotiations. He called the move “a poorly thought-out political strategy given that the public sector unions are some of our strongest allies.” He argued that there was no resource war between students and university staff and that the “most prudent political message” would have been to call for the lowering of the highest academic salaries.

The motion was put forward after a Red C poll commissioned by UCD Students Union found that 65% of the public, and 75% of students were in favour of the renegotiation of the Croke Park agreement.

This newspaper is produced with the financial support of Trinity College Students’ Union. It is editorially independent and claims no special rights or privileges.

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

2

TimesNews What’s inside?

SU and GSU oppose maths bonus points

TimesFeatures

Tomás Sullivan Staff Writer

Barra Roantree, College Affairs Correspondent, takes an in-depth look at Trinity’s funding crisis

Gavin McDermott and Ana Lezcano take to the streets to meet the homeless people living on the streets during a very cold winter Caelainn Hogan and Ian Curran talk to Socialist Party MEP Joe Higgins at the launch of the new left-wing party, the United Left Alliance

TimesOPINION

Deputy News Editor Rónán Burtenshaw chats to former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg Anonymous Trinity blogger “Edmund Burke” asks what exactly is so terrifying about snow Gavin O’Connell rails against chancers and blaggers everywhere

Timessports

Deputy Sports Editor Jack Leahy’s A-Z of 2010 in sports and his predictions for 2011 DUAFC beat UL to take the College Irish American Football Championship DUSSC take advantage of the weather but UCD take the spoils in Colours clash

Reality TV often seems stranger than fiction - that’s our theme for the “Life through the lens” issue.

Colin McGrane disses Fade Street fashion Rachel Shearer calls out Ireland’s young generation of try-hards Guest comic from Wheel Spinning Hamster Dead creator Alan Moloney Katie Abrahams on new Irish music

The presidents of both the Students’ Union and Graduate Students’ Union, Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem, and Dearbháil Lawless, have announced the opposition of both unions to Trinity’s acceptance of proposed maths bonus points.

Lawless, who is taking a sabbatical from a Masters in education, told The University Times, that “I stand firm on the belief that giving additional ‘bonus points’ to those who study higher level Mathematics in secondary school is a detriment to the Irish education system.”

She argues that the real problem with maths teaching at second level is a lack of qualified maths teachers, which could be addressed by either incentivising those who study mathematics at third level to teach or

encouraging unqualified maths teachers to obtain a maths teaching qualification. She also stated that there is “absolutely no reason” why a student with a pass in HL maths should gain an advantage when applying for a degree in Arts and Humanities.

Trigoub-Rotnem and Jen Fox, SU Education Officer, raised objections to Trinity’s decision to offer the bonus points at three separate committee meetings.

The Union highlighted an Irish University Association (IUA) survey from 2008 which showed 61% of HL maths students do not go on to study maths-related subjects. Trigoub-Rotnem said, “This is a third-level solution to a second-level problem and attacks the symptom, not the disease.” Jen Fox said the real problem was maths teaching, and that it should have been in

Trinity’s “progressive nature” to “highlight the issue of second-level mathematics teaching as a major flaw in the Irish education system.”

The IUA recently announced that NUI, UL, DCU, TCD, DIT and RCSI will each give an additional 25 leav-

four year ‘pilot period’. Mary Coughlan, the Minister for Education, said the scheme is aimed at increasing the participation of students in Higher Level maths.

Trinity recently held a symposium on mathematics in third level education.

Elizabeth Oldham, of the

GSU President Dearbháil Lawless said the bonus points scheme was to the “detriment to the Irish education system”

ing cert points to any Higher Level maths student with a grade above a D3. No bonus points are given to Ordinary Level students.

Equivalent bonus points will be available for students coming from abroad.

The proposed scheme would be introduced in 2012 for a

Irish Mathematics Teachers Association, argued that maths is crucial subject, where students learn logical, procedural and problemsolving skills. But she also highlights that maths teachers are under resourced and seldom have enough time to cover the syllabus and teach

James Hagan Staff Writer Small college societies and publications are coming under increased influence from The Hist and The Phil, according to GMB insiders. The phenomenon of members of GMB debating societies running for positions as part of voting blocks on different committees around college, especially those of smaller journals and magazines, is starting to gain considerable notice.

While this can legitimately be put down to students with a natural propensity to becoming involved in extra-curricular activities pursuing multiple interests, the fear of “takeover” from members of a larger society is a real one, evidenced by most societies having protection of some sort written into their constitutions.

For example, in many societies it is not possible for an individual to run for a committee position unless they have attended a certain number of previous events.

Despite these protective measures, some smaller societies and publications currently contain a very large GMB presence and seem to hardly exist outside of being an arm of the larger society. The Histories and

Humanities Journal (HHJ), which is now in its second year of existence, was described to The University Times by a GMB insider as both a “Phil/Hist love in” and a “possible future battleground between the two societies” due to the results of the recent election for the committee of the second year of the publication. John Engle, treasurer of The Phil, was elected General Manager and Kate Oliver, registrar of The Hist, was elected editor. Engle and Oliver are widely assumed to be inevitable victors in the elections for President and Auditor next year in their respective GMB societies. Other positions on The HHJ committee include Secretary Hannah Cogan, Treasurer David Barrett and section editor Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin, all current or former committee members of The Phil or The Hist.

When asked about the journal’s committee now being made up largely of prominent members of GMB societies, founder of The HHJ and last year’s General Manager and Treasurer Grainne Clear said, “I was very surprised because last year everyone on the committee was in History or Classics and none of them were involved in other

societies or journals to nearly the same extent.” However, she went on to say that “it’s a happy kind of surprise because I know that all of these people are very capable and hard-working.”

John Engle also edits the satirical magazine The Piranha, funded by Trinity Publications. The position of is chosen by three judges, last year by Editor Jonathan Wyse, a former Phil Debates Convenor, Dave McGuire, who debated for The Phil, and Conor McKinney, thenEditor of Miscellany and a former schoolmate of Wyse.

Engle’s application was judged to have bettered that of Huw Duffy and Barra Roantree, both Hist stalwarts, with Duffy leading the society this year. This selection would hint at a Phil bias in the selection process.

Engle is also general manager of The Student Political Review, a section editor for Trinity News, class rep for Philosophy and Political Science, Vice Chair of Trinity Ógra Fianna Fáil and a committee member of the Student Economic Review, along with his Piranha coeditor Howard Helen. Engle has been described as “extremely hard-working” As HHJ founder Gráinne Clear indicated, his shoring up of positions around

college, or even the wider practice of GMB committee members working together to consolidate positions, may not matter much if the work of all of these smaller organisations gets done properly.

Though the requirements of these smaller positions are usually met, there are legitimate concerns regarding the possibility of future growth for smaller organisations when the attention of the people running them is distracted by presidential ambitions within the societies that are already some of the biggest in college. Part of the reason the GMB societies are so big is that they have the precedent, funding and physical space on campus. If start-ups like the HHJ become suddenly made up of people whose main priority lies with debating societies their growth will surely be stunted.

This concern has already shown itself to be justified.

With an editorial team so thinly spread, The Piranha produces only two issues a year and has no ads. Trinity Publications gives a grant of €900 per issue to both Trinity News and Piranha. The pre-occupation of the editorial team results in less satirical material being made available to Trinity students.

Trinity student convicted of assault causing harm

Ronan Costello News Editor

Ronan Costello News Editor

Tempers flared at College Board last week when Jack McGinley, Chair of SIPTU’s National Education Council, accused the Provost of mistreating workers in Trinity College and drafting an action plan for the Croke Park agreement without negotiating the terms of the plan with SIPTU and IFUT. An anonymous source told The University Times that the irate Mr McGinley first took issue with the Board’s fast-tracking of a draft action plan which would see the college implement the Croke Park agreement without agreeing the college-specific terms with SIPTU and IFUT, a non-signatory union which represents some workers in college.

hugely important matriculation requirement for entry into third level in Ireland.

Other requirements are passes in English and Irish, but students can receive spelling and grammar waivers, language exemptions and other supports for those subjects, while there are few such supports for dyscalculia. In any case, the rate of students who fail maths is much higher than the rate of students who fail English and Irish. Trinity, only as of this year, is the only college in Ireland that offers a maths waiver to students with dyscalculia. Ms Doyle told The University Times that, while her paper wasn’t aimed at fully answering what is the effect of dyscalculia on entry into third level in Ireland, she was, “the only one currently asking the question.”

Small societies and publications Education gets off lightly in cutface GMB power grabs

Union rage at Board over Croke Park agreement The IFUT representative, Hugh Gibbons, pointed out the draft action plan was outside of the terms of the Croke Park agreement but it was SIPTU’s McGinley who became particularly animated. After admonishing the Provost for the lack of consultation with SIPTU on the draft action plan McGinley then referred to 16 Trinity employees involved in a dispute with College at the Labour Court. McGinley said, “the way this University treats its staff is shameful and would not have happened under previous Provosts”. McGinley went onto say that the Provost should be ashamed of himself. The Times has learned that attendants of the meeting felt that McGinley was very close to using unparliamentary language and that he had gone too far with his

understanding of mathematical concepts, the result being the problem of maths teachers having to teach ‘rules without reasons’.

Patricia Callaghan, TCD Academic Secretary, in her presentation, noted that the skills maths teachers need, educational resources and the time required for effective teaching are in uneven supply across Ireland, and that the quality of maths teaching available to all students must be improved alongside any system of incentivising students to study the subject.

Alison Doyle, officer for students with Specific Learning Difficulties, recently published a research paper on the mathematics learning difficulty called Dyscalulia and entry into 3rd level. She highlighted the fact a large number of students fail mathematics and hence fail what is a

complaints.

Speaking on IFUT’s position in relation to the Croke Park agreement, General Secretary Mike Jennings said, “IFUT are not included in the terms of the Croke Park Agreement.

“We have met with the Department of Education over this issue, most recently on December 3rd. We have been told by the Department that each individual university will have to negotiate its own terms with IFUT. We are expecting the invitation from Trinity to come in the New Year. If their proposals are reasonable, we will accept them. If they are unreasonable, we will seek to amend them. If they are totally unacceptable, we will reject them.

We are confident, however, of reaching an agreement in the upcoming negotiations.”

A Trinity student was ordered to carry out community service in order to avoid jail time after he was charged with breaking his ex-girlfriend’s nose with a headbutt after biting her on the face.

Twenty two year old Evan Kane carried out the attack on the mother of his young son, then made an effort to claim she had sustained her injuries falling face-first on ice.

Kane, a trainee gym instructor, was given short shrift by the court and was found guilty of assault causing harm to his ex-partner, Ciara Murray, arising out of the incident early on St Stephen’s Day last year.

Ms Murray suffered serious facial injuries, including

a break to the bridge of her nose.

Judge Catherine Staines convicted Kane and gave him the maximum possible community service order of 240 hours. She also ordered him to pay €1,000 in compensation to Ms Murray.

Kane, a father-of-two, from Wolfe Tone Close, Dublin 1, had denied charges of assault and a separate charge of breach of the peace at Clonard Road, Crumlin.

The Dublin District Court had heard Kane bit her chin and then “loafed” her in the face after she called him a rapist during the incident.

Not content with this, he then followed her home and swore to her father “on their child’s life” that he was not responsible for her injuries.

The incident began as Ms Murray was returning from

a house party with a male friend when Kane pulled up in a jeep and jumped out to confront the couple. He began threatening to “smash both their faces in” and there was a confrontation with several people. Gardai told them all to move on.

Still enraged, Kane followed Ms Murray, calling her a “fat slut and a tramp”, then pulled her to the ground and bit her on the chin. Later, he caught up with her and said: “You are not going anywhere.” Ms Murray claimed that Kane then pulled her by the arm and she responded by saying: “You are nothing but a rapist”.

“He looked at me and smacked me straight in the face with his head,” Ms Murray said. “Blood was coming out of my nose. He said, ‘I’m not a fucking rapist’.”

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filled budget Barra Roantree College Affairs Correspondent Last Tuesday 6th December, the Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan delivered what has been described as the toughest budget in a generation. While some individual measures will have severe consequences for particular students, education as a whole seems to have been spared from the worst cuts. Current spending for the Department of Education will fall by 2.9%, compared to a 5.6% cut for the Department of Health

recession to meet the costs of going to college. These grant cuts will force many students to abandon their college courses and will also spell the end of third level education for many potential students in across Ireland”.

The non-pay grant to Universities has been cut by 5%, less than was expected in some quarters. Speaking to the Times, TCDSU President Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem pointed to a briefing

by Provost John Hegarty to the “University Board on the 13th of October, that the col-

USI President Gary Redmond called the budget “the Pearl Harbour of Irish education”

and a challenging 40% for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation.

Among the measures that will effect Trinity students are an increased student contribution of €2000, formerly known as the student service charge or registration fee. This will effect only the first child in a family, with any subsequent children continuing to pay at the older rate of €1500. The surprise move came about as a result of demands from Kerry South TD Jackie HealyRae, who sought support for local projects and spending on electorally sensitive programmes. His son, Kerry County Councillor Michael Healy-Rae will be seeking to retain the Kerry South seat, and was understood to be heavily involved in negotiations with the coalition government.

There has been an across the board 4% cut in all rates of the student grant, while students with family incomes between €51,381 and €55,920 will now qualify for support worth 50% of the student contribution. More significantly, in order to qualify for the higher “nonadjacent” level of grant, a student’s place of residence must now be 45km away from their institution of study instead of 24km. Mature students will no longer automatically qualify for the higher level of grants and must meet the same distance criteria as other students.

USI President Gary Redmond condemned the Budget as the “Pearl Harbour of Irish education”, and warned that “students are already struggling financially in the current

lege had budgeted for at the very least a 6-7% cut, with figures right up to 20% quoted. They College’s non-pay budget was cut by 5%, which will be mostly covered by the increase in the registration fee.” Trigoub-Rotnem also warned that “there is absolutely no excuse for the college to use these cuts as an excuse to reduce student services.”

Against the background of austerity, the announcement of a graduate internship programme in the public sector, which will provide up to 5,000 places is one measure that will bring some relief to unemployed graduates. The scheme will operate through the Work Placement Programme run

by FÁS, the state’s beleaguered jobs agency. Applicants must be unemployed, and may continue to receive social welfare payments while participating if they have been in receipt of such payments for more than 3 months.

While many in the education sector will breathe a sigh of relief in the aftermath of Budget 2011, it remains to be seen if with three years of austerity ahead, a sector which now compromises 16% of Government current spending will continue to avoid sharp cuts.

3

The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

TimesNews A week in the life of Trinity’s Twitterati Conor Leahy

Alex Towers

Aoife Crowley

Martin McKenna

@leahycoo

@Alxtowrs

@aoifemcrowley

@martinjmckenna

TCD Shakespeare: spoof exam with 1.5 plays covered. Berkeley Shakespeare: 12 plays, all 12 need to be covered for exam. Exhausting.

Lining up outside the GMB reminds me of Disneyland. Except instead of Splash Mountain we get a sobering economic lecture

by Gordon Brown.

Midget knacker man trying to chat up tall friend: “Sure we’re all the same height lying down luv.

I’ll make you feel sixteen again.”

Is it obligatory that, on TV and in films, you must run to and from helicopters, and never walk?

Darragh Genockey @genockey

Trinity Ents

Karl McDonald

@MarkWalsh

@TrinityEnts

Acts happy & fun but really just a commercial entity?! RT @martinjmckenna @ ElaineMcDaid I can’t think of a better Santa than Genockey!

Mark Walsh

@karlusss

I feel free now X Factor is over. Saturday and Sunday night exist again.

All going swimmingly on the Mystery Tour. Think a couple of people had a pint at the first stop, but majority pacing themselves...

Yo Wikileaks, evidence that the US government does or doesn’t administer AIDS, please.

Fears over political influence on College Board Continued from page 1 in 2005. The latest figures indicate that they have received €562,000 in fees from the body and the award of the contract was criticised by The Sunday Times and opposition parties.

The relationship between Q4 Relations and the NCA has come in for questioning in the media also for the role of Bertie Ahern’s former partner, Celia Larkin, on the NCA board. It emerged that she herself had proposed to the board of the NCA in 2008 that Q4 be hired for a two-year period, after which the board granted it a contract worth €200,000.

In 2009 The Irish Times revealed that Q4 was working for both the National Consumer Agency and supermarket giant Tesco. This sparked further concern and media coverage, with Fine Gael Enterprise spokesman at the time questioning a potential “conflict of interest”.

In 2008, Q4 Public Relation was listed in an Irish Independent article entitled “Firms and former officials cash in on connections with Government” and they were have also been hired to do public relations for the British-Irish parliamentary assembly, a talking shop involving TDs and MPs. Dr Olive Braiden was appointed to the Board of Trinity College to fill the seat designated for a “representative of such business or professional interest as the Board considers appropriate”. She was selected from a group by the Board after they

had solicited nominations from relevant organisations.

Dr Braiden was nominated by the Arts Council, where she has been chairperson since August 2003. She was establishing Chair of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. She is also a Human Rights Commissioner, a board member of the Courts Services and a member of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board.

She was Director of the Rape Crisis Centre for 10 years.

Her bio on the Arts Council website lists her as having “served on many Government Working Parties and Steering Committees”. She has also served the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, the Board of the Courts Service and the Public Service Benchmarking Body.

The Irish Independent ran a story critical of her in 2003 entitled “The Uncrowned Queen of the Quangos”, which alleged that she had received “nearly 50 grand from political patronage”. However, for the purposes of this article it is worth noting that she was selected by the Trinity Board, rather than being appointed by the Minister with a veto going to the Provost.

The presence on the Board of two members with Fianna Fáil connections will be of concern to those who remember the fight the College underwent in the late 1990s to avoid an overreaching political influence on the body.

The Universities Bill proposed by the Education Department of Minister Niamh Breathnach in

1996 had originally proposed that three seats be made available on the College Board for Minister’s appointees. Trinity College had previously had a more independent Board structure than UCD or other NUI Colleges, which had seen a large number of political appointees, including sitting Councillors.

There was a backlash at that time from the College, whose Senators fought against the Bill and had it amended. By the time it became an Act in May of 1997, the first Irish Universities Act since 1908, Trinity had secured a reduction in the number of Minister’s appointees from three to one.

Questions are also likely to be asked about the appointment of Jackie Gallagher to a paid position on a five-year term by the Minister for Education and Skills. With Fianna Fáil struggling to reach double digits in the polls and an election pencilled in for February, the legitimacy of this is open to question, even if history would suggest that it’s not an uncommon move.

College said of Mr Gallagher’s appointment “Mr. Gallagher was appointed to the Board of the College by the Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, and as is normal for such appointments the term of office is for a period of 5 years.

The Board looks forward to the benefit of Mr Gallagher’s experience and skills in its deliberations during his term of office.”

Current Membership:

Background:

Rónán Burtenshaw and Ciarán Nolan

Ex officio (Meaning by right of holding

another office)

John Hegarty, Provost, Chair Michael Marsh, Interim Vice-Provost* Aileen Douglas, Senior Lecturer Jürgen Barkhoff, Registrar Francis M. Boland, Bursar

Elected members Shane P. A. Allwright (2008-2012) Sean D. C. Barrett (2009-2010) Mélanie Bouroche (2010-2014) Mary A. Coffey (2009-2012) Frederick Cowzer (2010-2012) William J.Dowling (2008-2012) Stephanie Fleming (2010-2011) Jennifer Fox (2010-2011) Hugh Gibbons (2010-2014) Robert H. Gilligan (2010-2014) Dearbháil Lawless (2010-2011) John F. McGilp (2008-2012) Kieran J. McGinley (2008-2012) Nicola Marples (2010-2014) Noreen Murray (2010-2014) Eunan J. O’Halpin (2008-2012) Desmond O’Neill (2008-2012) Henry J. Rice (2010-2014) David M. Singleton (2008-2012) Nikolai Trigoub-Rotnem (20102011)

Appointed members Olive Braiden (2010-2014) - appointed from The Arts Council Jackie Gallagher (2010-2015) - appointed by Minister for Education and Skills The Secretary - Anne FitzGerald The Treasurer - Ian Mathews The Chief Operating Officer - Darina Kneafsey *Professor Marsh replaced Prof. Patrick Prendergast after his resignation to run for the office of Provost

The Trinity College Board dates from 1637, and is charged with the “general governance” of the College. It is, in practice, the chief decision-making body of the College and it holds monthly meetings of its members.

The Trinity College Board makes the vast majority of significant decisions in the College. All degrees awarded by the College have to have its approval, and it has to rubber-stamp every appointment. It is responsible for the financing of the College, the grant is argued for by a Board member, the budget is drawn up by Board members and the final document is approved by the Board. The responsibilities of members of the Board are significant too, they have direct responsibility for the running and welfare of the College. The three top ex-officio members, holding the offices of Provost, vice-provost and senior lecturer are the real bigwigs of the body. Provostial elections will be held in 2011 to decide on the successor to current Provost John Hegarty.

The Trinity Board did not have external members up until the turn of the Millennium. This changed during negotiations for the Universities Bill that became an Act in 1997. The original intention of the Department of Education at the time was to pass a bill through the Oireachtas radically changing the composition of the Board of TCD. The Minister was to have a number of appointees and the Board was to

take on a structure more like those of the NUI universities. A campaign was launched then by Trinity’s Senators to change this bill and help the College retain a larger degree of autonomy. The fruits of this were seen in the adjusted Universities Act of 1997 and the Trinity College Dublin (Charters and Letters Patent Amendment) Act of 2000, where the number of Ministerial appointees was limited to one.

The fellows, non-fellow academic staff and non-academic staff of the Board are elected to serve for a fixed term; elections took place in 2008 for two and four year terms and a large number of members were also appointed in 2010. The four student members are the President, Education Officer and Welfare Officer of the Students’ Union and the president of the Graduate Students’ Union and are elected annually for one-year terms. Oneyear renewable terms are given by the Provost to the ‘annual officers’, the vice-provost/chief academic officer, senior lecturer, registrar and bursar. The Board also has an oversight structure in the form of official ‘Visitors’, which dates back to the days of British Royal involvement. Today, the two visitors are the University Chancellor, former President Mary Robinson, who may be substituted for by one of the pro-Chancellors, and a member appointed by the Irish government following nominations by the University’s Senate.

Surprise Conference organisers plan to spread to other colleges Tommy Gavin Deputy Editor Approximately 50 students attended a ‘Surprise Conference’ on the grounds of the Dept. of Education on December 1st to protest raising student costs and start “an open minded conversation about the future of Irish education.”

The students, predominantly from NCAD, rushed in past the gates which were subsequently locked by

Gardaí and set up a marquee in which the conference was held. They were there from 9:30am until 18:30pm, listening to different speakers talk about the cuts, costs, and models of education.

According to their manifesto which was stuck on the gate outside the department grounds, ”We feel that the current education system is expensive and inefficient and rather than simply making financial cuts we should make long term

Staff Listing Editor Tom Lowe Deputy Editor Tommy Gavin News Editor Ronan Costello Deputy News EDITOR Rónán Burtenshaw Features Editor Caelainn Hogan DEPUTY Features Editor Ian Curran Opinion Editor Marykate Collins Deputy Opinion EDITOR Eugene Reavey Sports Editor Manus Cronin Deputy sports Editor Jack Leahy PHOTO EDITOR Dargan Crowley-Long RESEARCH Editor Ciarán Nolan Design AND INFOGRAPHICS Richard Conway Assistant to THE DEPUTY EDITOR

Jamie Wright

structural changes.”

The conference was planned several weeks in advance, with a group of 30 core organisers, though without any hierarchical leadership or organisational affiliation. A strict policy of no alcohol or drug use was made clear to participants, and attendance to the planning meetings was by invitation. Drills were held to practice putting up the marquee as fast as possible and information about the

conference was kept secret until the night before and was then spread by word of mouth.

Upon starting, the conference adhered to an agenda with time allocated for different speakers. These included representatives from the Provisional University who discussed their model for free education, Andreas Von Knoblach who talked about Steiner schools and alternative education models, and Ev Ní Cionnaith

who talked about learning through Irish. The conference was then split up into different groups who discussed different educational issues. Time was put aside for department officials to speak, however they declined to appear. One participant said that while she was disappointed that the officials did not take the opportunity presented by the conference, “it may have reduced it to an issue of fees which is most definitely not

our sole concern.”

The conference had a designated Garda Liaison Officer who mediated with the Gardaí and explained that they were a peaceful group, and there were no altercations between police and students. The Gardaí did however lock the gates and wouldn’t let any latecomers in.

The conference was considered a success by its participants considering the enthusiasm of those who

attended, the media attention the conference received, and that the agenda was followed according to plan. The core organisers of the conference hope to replicate its success in the future and to include students from other colleges beside NCAD, and spread beyond Dublin to other counties with large student populations such as Galway, Limerick and Cork.

Junior Freshman plans to launch “Trinity Intellectual Times” Ronan Costello News Editor A new student newspaper is set to launch in Trinity. The Trinity Intellectual Times is poised to fill the gap between serious academic journals and mainstream student newspapers like The University Times and Trinity News.

The editor, Peter Kiernan, says that the new publication will be ambitious in its scope but old fashioned in layout. He envisions it as a tabloid sized paper that will deal with issues and concepts of immense depth but without the jargon and inaccessibility of an academic journal. For example, Kiernan says that he and his writers have been discussing the concept of love for the first issue. Exploring such a concept through poetry, essays and articles, Kiernan hopes that the newspaper will challenge the notion of what a newspaper can be.

Explaining the perceived

need for such a newspaper the first year Philosophy student says “though the publications are very respectable here, they don’t have this level of seriousness and they’re not terribly ambitious.” The newspaper

aims to revive the questioning and idealistic spirit of the traditional university student.

In differentiating it from Miscellany, Kiernan says that his writing team will not take an issue or concept and stretch

it in various ways but rather tackle it with a unified vision but using various forms of literary expression, as mentioned above. Hoping that the newspaper would be suitable for reading in any part of the

Kiernan hopes to join the ranks of Trinity Publications as Editor of a Provisionally Recognised publication. Photo: Tom Lowe

world, Kiernan says that he does not intend to tackle issues peculiar to Trinity College but rather concentrate on issues without paying heed to events happening around the world, in the traditional philosophical manner.

Kiernan is currently shepherding the project through the application process for funding from the Publications Committee. Before funding is granted he has to show the committee that there is a coherent business plan and that his publication is different enough from the other college publications to merit monetary support. With no experience in layout design, Kiernan is hoping that any interested designers will join the team to help construct a coherent look for the newspaper.

Anyone interested in contributing to the Trinity Intellectual Times should contact Peter Kiernan, Editor, email: pkierna@tcd.ie

Lecture intruder escorted from Arts Block Ruth Keating Wide-eyed Law Junior and Senior Freshmen were amazed to find their Thursday lecture become the centre of a security breach. A new addition to the lectures came in the form of a man of large build and, as one student put it, a “distinctive smell”.

The man had regularly been attending lectures before his attendance culminated in a dramatic exit. It is presumed that he was sitting in on lectures in an attempt to be able to sit the Bar exams-with students saying he was using a Dictaphone. When Dr Oran Doyle noticed the presence of the man the lecture was put on hiatus as security were summoned. When the security guards entered the lecture theatre they sought out the intruder and proceeded to question him.

Unable to present a TCD ID card the man was asked to leave immediately. However, security were unable to resolve the situation until fifty minutes into the lecture. The man refused to leave the lecture theatre, offering highly suspect excuses for his presence. Amongst these excuses was that previous Trinity Law School lecturer Mr Justice Hogan had given him permission to attend the lecture.

Amid anxious conversation between students, the trespasser swigging milk and security frantically trying to resolve the issue, more serious questions brewed.

The hundred or so students were angered by the lack of swiftness in resolving the issue but were also baffled by the absence of information that was afforded to them during the fifty minute period. After the man was taken away and the drama dying with it, questions were asked as to what, if any, procedural methods are in place to prevent and deal with such intruders.

Correction “The Left Bloc Rises” in the last issue of The University Times (November 16th) incorrectly stated that the organisation “Free Education for Everyone” started in NUI Maynooth. The organisation was in fact first set up in UCD.

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TimesNews

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

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The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

TimesNews

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Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

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TimesFeatures

The faces of Dublin’s homeless Gavin McDermott Staff Writer It is said that ignorance breeds contempt in this world. If this statement is true there must be a flipside: that awareness creates respect.

The homeless on the streets of Dublin are a passive fixture to most; like the Jim Larkin statue on O’Connell Street or Phil Lynott off Grafton Street. We pass these often familiar faces, cocooned in layers of sleeping bags and clutching coffee cups outside Spar, on the Hal’ penny Bridge or around Temple Bar. After living in rural Co.Wexford most of my life I was shocked at the level of homelessness on Dublin’s Streets. Above all, I was intrigued by them.

I wanted to find out where they came from, what led them to the streets in the first place, were they previously employed, were they angry and to know if they had hope for the future.

What are their stories?

Uris “No money, no vodka, no girl!” Uris, 47, tells me quite cheerfully on a cold afternoon on Dame Street when I ask how he’s doing. Originally from Latvia, he had a fall recently and broke his leg but he appreciates the help he is getting from St. James’ Hospital. Despite the awkwardness of his current state on crutches he still has the good humour to joke about the morphine tablets he receives from the hospital! He also attends the Homeless Persons Unit on Gardiner Street, showing some papers he had stamped detailing his record there. His family are home in Latvia but he does not see them much.

Uris was delighted to have his photo taken and to give his account of what surely is a lonely life for him.

David David, from England, has been homeless for four years. When asked what lead him to take up life on the streets he laughs. “Drinking and fighting. I was in trouble with the police ages ago and I got chucked out of everywhere! But I’ve been good so far.” Tales of the hardy bucks’ antics spring to mind, but David also threw in his tuppence worth about the government services for the homeless in Ireland. Like many, he does not go near the shelters because “you get your phone taken off you. If you take your shoes and socks off they will go too!” He acknowledged that it was hard at the moment. David said that it would cost him €50 for two nights’ accommodation but today he’s only made €20. He

had an interesting anecdote regarding the hostels. “One of the lads, he got chucked out last night, so a woman got in his room instead.

Men are not allowed to go in the women’s room and the women are not allowed go into the men’s room. But, the person that was on [duty] put her in with us, so we all went downstairs and complained!” David explained and laughed that “then we all got chucked out ourselves!” David is adamant he will not be on the streets much longer. He will have a job sorted with a friend’s daughter and it will pay his hostel for the week. David is a father himself and laughs about his daughters ringing him up everyday looking for money which he never has!

However he is grateful for having family, something many of the homeless have lost touch with, and states that he’ll try to make it home to them for Christmas.

the day. According to Allen the only place he cannot sit is at the ATM machines.

He says you’ll be ‘nicked’ straight away by the Gardaí for that. He says you can get to know some of the shop security lads; when they come out for a smoke you can chat with them. This is often his only form of social interaction. Allen stays away from the homeless hostels. He is not comfortable with the ‘other people’ there.

Michael, Martin and John are three homeless characters around Temple Bar. John came to Ireland from Leeds with some travellers who were kind to him and gave him work. However, John is an alcoholic and this has diminished his chances of employment. He says, contrary to the beliefs of other homeless, the facilities here in Ireland are far superior to those in England.

John believes that it’s much easier to get a proper meal

Austin

People think it’s easy to sit down and put your hand out, but it’s so degrading

“People think it’s easy to sit down and put your hand out, but it’s so degrading.

Five or ten years ago I would never have dreamt for one minute that I would be sitting on the street.” Austin was born in Ireland, lived in England and is back again now. He has been homeless for six months now. A former drug dealer, he had to leave England after being shot in the back with a sawn off shotgun. He cannot return or he will be killed he says.

Together, Austin and his ‘street brother’ Carl look out for each other and do their best to avoid being robbed.

Austin says he sleeps with his money in his socks and the best way to get through these cold nights is to find as many sleeping bags as you can. What Austin really wants is a chance to work again and support himself. He is a trained chef, but needs to get off the streets in order to secure employment. Austin is also tired having to put up with people’s sniping comments.

“Sit down and talk to me and I guarantee you, you’ll have a different view,” stated Austin. His friend Carl claims “we’re just figures on the street, just a percentage.

This is the most embarrassing thing you can ever do.”

Allen Allen has been homeless for five years. He is an emotional character. “Life is more down than up,” he says, “but you just get on with it.” Allen was employed before, and would gladly work again, but with no fixed abode he cannot get a job. The housing situation is a contentious issue for many homeless. Allen moves around throughout

on Gardiner Street. This is a transitional residential home for alcoholics and drug addicts who were once homeless. There are several more of these dotted around the country; they house up to 600 collectively. They have been very successful in helping addicts reform and get back some quality of living. Louisa Miller, Activities Officer for the Trinity VDP, recounted the stories of a few of the people involved with Teach Mhuire that have turned their lives around. Kenny, 22, had his past marred by death in his family. As a solution he subsequently turned to alcohol and ended up homeless. With the aid of Teach Mhuire, he is now a changed man, involved with drama productions in Teach Mhuire and getting his life back on track. Dave is another young man who has reformed and is now studying social care in college.

Clockwise from top: Austin, David, a lone homeless woman sits on the Millennium Bridge, Uris. Photos by Ana Lezcano

here and a roof of over your head. He also finds the people in Ireland much more giving and kind. Leaving for Leeds soon, John says he will be sad to leave his friends behind but that he will never forget them. John, Martin and Michael mind each other and help make it through each day together. They are a fine example of the solidarity that can be found on the streets and which is critical for their survival.

Trinity Vincent de Paul has been working with the homeless for years. Recently I took part in their soup run. Other students said they find the work very rewarding and that it is great to meet and talk with the homeless as they are usually very friendly. One homeless lady I met on Westmoreland Street was very grateful of the soup and sandwiches from the VDP. She appreciated her situation saying that she was much better off than a lot of homeless who were “too old to be out” and that knowledge gets her through each cold night.

The soup run sets off every Tuesday and Friday night from Teach Mhuire

One of the great characters involved with the VDP and the soup run is Pat. Pat was on and off the streets for twenty years and also battled with alcoholism but now claims he is happier than he has ever been in his life. He is beacon of hope for many on the streets. He talks to the homeless on the soup runs and assures them that they can turn their lives around, that life does not always have to be a torment and struggle sleeping in a doorway or fighting addiction.

The homeless have revealed that it is strikingly easy to fall by the wayside in society and brutally difficult to fight your way back.

However, it is always possible to include everyone in a community, no matter their circumstances. We can become more aware of the homeless if we engage with them, perhaps get involved with a charity or even just have a casual conversation with them. Ultimately, it is reasonable of them to ask for this respect and it is enlightening to hear their voices.

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Technology: Music Piracy

Piracy’s long history is at last bringing money back to the artists Paul Kelly investigates how music piracy has changed since Napster first set the world, and the music industry, alight in 1999

T

oday having 10,000 songs on your iPod and owning 10,000 songs are two very different things. Downloading music and pirating music has become synonymous with 40 billion songs illegally downloaded in 2008 and a claimed €60 million lost to music piracy in Ireland

annually. The statistics speak for themselves: music piracy is here to stay despite repeated suits against such high profile websites as Limewire and the Pirate Bay, not to mention legal action forcing Eircom to strip illegal file sharers of their internet accounts for repeat offences.

But how did file sharing and music piracy become so ubiquitous? The original version of music piracy was ripping off old vinyls, but this was expensive and impossible to do at home.

Things sped up with the advent of the floppy disk and later the compact disk, but when it really took off was when online peer to peer file sharing began with a small website called Audiogalaxy.

Audiogalaxy, for the first time, allowed the world of the internet to steal literally thousands of tracks from the comfort of our own homes.

This was followed quickly by the infamous Napster, but both were promptly shut

down in 2002 and 2001 respectively. However this didn’t stop the steady onslaught of music piracy which continues to steal billions from major record labels every year. Today, Limewire is king, followed closely by BitTorrent, but the hundreds of available variations on peer to peer software in existence mean that suits against such websites creators have become redundant.

In the face of such an overwhelming adversary, music studios have switched to scare tactics. Rather than going after entire websites, which may result in fraught legal cases, major record

What better way to publicize your next concert than automatically generated Facebook emails to everyone who ‘likes’ you?

labels have switched their attention towards individuals. By targeting seemingly random people there are high hopes to scare us all into not pirating music.

The case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset speaks volumes in this instance. After originally being arrested for copyright infringement in 2010 her third civil jury trial finally closed last month with a fine of $1.92 million for downloading and redistributing online just 24 music tracks - that’s $80,000 per track. Multiply that by what you have on your iPod and you can see why many music studios are hoping these ‘shock and awe’ tactics will

work. In contrast, many artists have learned to live with the problem - and indeed gain from it - with many artists such as Radiohead offering their albums for free online, and gaining so much publicity from it that they more than make up for any profits lost.

Of course, record sales were never where artists made any of the big money - the real money for artists has been, and always will be, in gigs, concerts and tours. Today we are seeing in the music industry a shift in power. The online music environment is helping emerging artists build their fanbases through sites such

as Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. Even already signed artists are finding huge advantages to using such websites - what better way to publicize your next concert than automatically generated Facebook emails to everyone who ‘likes’ you?

These measures are supporting artists more than ever but the cold reality of the advent of free music is stripping music studios of everything. Profits are moving away from major record labels and into the hands of artists- and it is piracy that is facilitating this power struggle. The fight continues.

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The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

TimesFeatures Q&A: Joe Higgins, Socialist Party MEP Features Editor Caelainn Hogan and Deputy Features Editor Ian Curran spoke to Joe Higgins at the launch of the United Left Alliance about burning bondholders, taxes and motivating students politically

Do you not think that there is too much emphasis on the ‘blame game’ and not enough progressive thinking?

What would you actually do to get us out of the crisis?

I would not call pinning responsibility for the disaster we have now in our society a blame game. I think it’s very important we place responsibility where it belongs, and it’s crucial to do so because that assists coming up with an alternative and a solution. So what has brought the society to this situation is the unbridled speculation and profiteering that was allowed to go on in property, in the financial markets and facilitated and legislated by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. So we have to be very honest in laying out the blame where it belongs and then the importance of that is, if that’s what brought us here, how do we expect the same system to get us out of it? We have the incredible spectacle of daily, now, the same markets that allow this gambling to a massive degree to develop and to take place for the profits of

those involved, elevated over society as a dictatorship. The markets dictate everything, and the media doesn’t question it, the political establishment doesn’t question it, but we question it.

Question it, yes, but what would you actually do to get us out of the debt?

First of all, not a cent to the bondholders and to pay off the gambling debts, progressive taxation on wealth and society, on profits and so on. Our national resources to be taken back into public ownership and developed for the wellbeing of society and then a financial system that is in public ownership but that does not nationalise a bailout strategy, but as a dynamic force to invest in society, on the one hand to small business, self employed people who have projects etc. but on the other hand for major infrastructural projects to put thousands of people here and across Europe, and we have to have a European perspective, millions of people to work. That’s the alternative.

It’s breaking with the

present system and within the present system we say, the current four year plan, the IMF deal, is going to lead to disaster, it will default anyway, there is no way this country can pay that amount of money, and then at interest rates of 5%. It beggars belief.

Do you think small to medium sized business owners and enterprises can sign up to this in terms of, if you are going to tax wealth to that degree, can you get that section of society Joe Higgins speaks at the launch of the ULA. Photo: Caelainn Hogan to agree to what you’re credit to small business, to students and why should so young people who want to stay and fight for a betsaying? people like that, and there- they get the student vote?

That strata of society is being wiped out by the crisis. When you cut the wages of millions of workers, which is what they’re going to do, even worse than they’ve done already, then you cut the demand in shops, you cut the demand in restaurants, so that small business type people are going to get hit very hard with the crisis, plus they cannot get loans. In the type of publically owned financial system we’re talking about you can give cheap

fore facilitate growth. We do not mean you nationalise every bread and breakfast. We talk about public ownership of the major wealth producers. As the crisis gets worse which is inevitable more and more people will draw conclusions. There are two million workers in this country, their families etc., and that is the crushing majority to be honest.

The ULA’s proposal names students as a key group in its campaign. What does the ULA have to offer

I think number one because the ULA will stand actively with student organisations in opposing the disastrous increase in fees.

The question of resources for universities and for higher, lower and middle education is critical, those resources will be massively attacked if the IMF programme is carried out, therefore, as Dennis Brossman said, “get out of the country”. So we say, no, we won’t and we shouldn’t, and we fight and we oppose and we give an alternative,

ter country can liaise with us and become actively involved themselves, which I think more and more young people will do over the next period of time.

What would your opinion be in regards to the bureaucracy in the public sector?

What happened in the top echelons of the public service in fact is that they aped, and the government and the establishment itself, aped what was going on in the private sector.

With the huge gulf in wages

between ordinary workers and big bankers, big industrialists etc. the worst features of capitalism were aped in the public service at a certain stage, having people on 3, 4 and 500, 000 euro. We would say no way, cut them down, no way whatsoever.

But, the way to have a better public service is not to sack 30, 000 workers, it’s in my view to bring the workers who are in the public sector on a different basis into the heart of a democratic ownership and management structure, so that they’re valued, and they’re involved in an entirely different project.

You won’t have bosses over them on half a million while they’re on 24, 000, which a lot of them are.

As a coming together of the radical left, would you not be worried about splitting the general left vote?

Sure, this is a coming together of the Left. We don’t regard the Labour party as a left party. Like I said, all the social democratic parties have embraced the market, in Spain, in France, in Portugal, they are the ones carrying out the equivalence of Labour, carrying out these savage attacks, they’re not on the left. Therefore, this is a new left. It’s to fill a vacuum that is left by the move to the right of the old social democratic parties.

I can tell you what will

happen most likely, the Labour party will be in power, they’ll get a big increase in their vote because of the verbal opposition they have put up, people voting for them is actually quite progressive in a sense because they see it as a change to something more on the left or at least an opposition, but they will be bitterly disappointed. So we in advance will warn, in the right way, about this, explain to people that it’s critical that we do have a strong left alternative within the Dáil to put up a real opposition, and I think we will get a response on that basis.

There’s a growing trend of right wing sentiment within the EU at the moment, what would the ULA’s stance in regards to this be?

Well, the European Parliament has a big neo-liberal right wing majority of capitalist parties if you like, just like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, so we’re trying to build an alternative to that. There is a very worrying development of a more hard or far right, or fascist right, and that’s significant, that’s a danger. But the reason that happens is precisely a because of the betrayal of the organisations of the working class, that were supposed to give leadership.

Dyslexic students face uphill battle Dublin’s ATMs rated Tomás Sullivan Staff Writer The College has come a long way in regard to students with dyslexia, Daniel Ferrick, SU Officer for Students with Disabilities, told The University Times. He mentions that the English department was one of the most difficult from which to get help for dyslexic students. At one point they were told, ‘Well, if they have dyslexia then they shouldn’t be studying English.’ Daniel, who is dyslexic himself, is amused at this kind of attitude more than anything else. ‘It’s ridiculous, there are obviously many accomplished people in all fields with dyslexia.’

But he stresses that the college Disability Service is only ten years old, and has made good progress in that time. He explains that, once students with a Specific Learning Difficulty (SLD), like dyslexia, are registered with the disability service, they can avail of certain supports, such as workshops on writing essays, IT skills and note-taking, or exam support, for example being allowed to use a word processor, though sometimes lecturers are simply informed that a student has some form of learning difficulty, so that they are aware of the fact.

But there is still no real understanding of the reasons why such learning aids are given in the first place.

Too often, all people can see

of dyslexia are the supports dyslexics receive, not why such supports are given in the first place.

Alison Doyle, the Disability Service’s Officer for Specific Learning Difficulties, says she comes across confusion concerning dyslexia quite often – in her meetings with dyslexic people themselves. In Ireland, she explains, the standard means of identifying dyslexia is a psychological assessment by a qualified educational psychologist. But few ‘ever really know what is in their assessment’ and most insist that they are ‘dyslexic’, and believe that the term itself conveys all anyone needs to know about their learning difficulty.

To understand just how ambiguous the concept of dyslexia is, one only has to look at the fact that it is far more common for an individual to be diagnosed with more than one Specific Learning Difficulty than to have dyslexia on its own.

For example, 40% of dyslexics also have Attention Deficit Disorder. This means that those who happen to have a combination of difficulties, like dyslexia and dyspraxia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia or ADD, are not the exception, but the rule. The fact is that everyone’s dyslexia is unique, and the word dyslexia merely indicates a person that belongs to the 1025% of the population that learn differently from the rest of the population.

Ms Doyle also said that

53% of students registered with the DS score a I or II.1, and that dyslexic students ‘are not underperforming to any extent.’

The previous Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, did not inspire confidence in relation to this issue. In 2006, two students, who were granted spelling waivers in their Leaving Certificate, each brought action against the Department of Education for adding a lengthy footnote at the end on their certificate, which they felt undermined their results. The Equality Tribunal ruled in their favour and requested that the system should be reviewed, but the Department of Education then launched an appeal to the high court, to “protect the integrity” of the exam.

Faolan Kelly-Smith, a student with dyslexia who took the leaving cert last year, is discouraged by the minister’s attitude. ‘She doesn’t get dyslexia’, he told the paper, ‘supports aren’t about giving an advantage but establishing a level playing field.’

Another controversial issue is the language waiver, which colleges sometimes grant to students with dyslexia. Alison Doyle notes that, in Ireland, the requirement to take and pass English, maths, and either Irish and another language or two languages, makes the exemption very important. She states that the issue is not whether a student is able to learn a language,

but whether their getting into any college in Ireland should rely on how they perform in a subject that can be ‘enormously difficult’ for them.

That said, the process of Irish students being granted an exemption from these university requirements is rather convoluted. A student can be granted an exemption from studying both Irish and a third language from the first year of secondary school. There is no process to actually request a waiver from the university language requirements until much later on, because all colleges require a recent psychological assessment that is two-three years old at most. One difficulty is actually getting a second psychological report. Daniel and Faolan both went the private route, as they felt schools did not provide a credible alternative. One cost around €500 and the other €300.

A more efficient system would be for Irish students to be able to apply for a language waiver from Irish universities, rather than an exemption from studying the language at the beginning of their secondary, or even during their primary education. In this way, the pressure would be taken off students to get a certain Leaving Cert grade in a language that is more difficult for them to study than their peers. Then, the student in question could choose either to not sit classes in that

subject (which would have been the case anyway), or choose to learn languages like Irish and French without any pressure hanging over them.

But progress can and is being made. Students all around the country are shouting that cuts in funding will weaken Ireland’s capacity to deliver first-rate education, but some of the best ways to help students with learning difficulties like dyslexia would cost nothing. When the NUI grant a language waiver, every university in Ireland accepts this waiver except Trinity.

Ms Doyle told the University Times that they are currently looking into merging Trinity’s waiver with the NUI’s. On the other hand, Trinity, as of this year, is the only college in Ireland to have a maths waiver, which allows those with a learning difficulty in relation to maths to be exempt from the maths requirement as long as their course doesn’t have a maths component.

At the end of the day, while some who have dyslexia can require more assistance than others, sometimes the greatest good that any educational institution can do is not to place additional obstacles in the way of people whose path through education is already more difficult than that of most, and who still manage to perform at the same level as everyone else.

Dyslexia is not set in severity, the severity of dyslexia can vary from person to person.

Dyslexics often have more severe difficulty with spelling rather than with reading.

Many famous people and world leaders have had severe forms of dyslexia including Agatha Christie, Walt Disney, and John F. Kennedy, to name but a few.

Dyslexia - The facts Compiled by Ciarán Nolan

A Yale university study has shown that 1 out of every 5 people in the world have dyslexia.

Dyslexics are generally of average or above average intelligence.

I never read in school. I got really bad grades--D’s and F’s and C’s in some classes, and A’s and B’s in other classes. In the second week of the 11th grade, I just quit. When I was in school, it was really difficult. Almost everything I learned, I had to learn by listening. My report cards always said that I was not living up to my potential. --Cher

“I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read.” --Tom Cruise

“When [ATMs] will fall completely out of use / what shall we turn them into, if we shall keep / a few [ATMs] chronically on show [...] Shall we avoid them as unlucky places? / Or, after dark, will dubious women come / to make their children touch a particular stone?” - Philip Larkin, ‘Church Going’ Amid all this guff about EU and IMF and ESRI, it is all too easy to forget about the most important financial initialism of our time: the humble ATM. That mysterious and ubiquitous – but never ubiquitous enough – supercomputer that forms the cornerstone of our society.

It was with this in mind that I undertook to review the best and worst ATMs of our generation in Dublin city. No mean feat, you might say, if you spoke like that. It would no doubt be an expensive operation. Would there even be room for social comment and maybe some sort of tenuous connection to all this talk of banks and bailouts? Probably not, but maybe that was the point. My critiques are presented below, supported by a meaningless rating system.

AIB, Grafton St: Traditionally the most renowned pass-machines in the city, the dynamic duo on Grafton St was found to be lacking in a number of ways.

The queues are an inevitability owing to its location and there are three more little snugs located inside the building for anyone looking to take out their cash on a “rainy-day”. Last year, AIB spent tens of millions on redesigning and improving their ATMs with flashing green lights and glorious interfaces. This, it has been suggested, was a major factor in the recent banking crisis and the chairman of AIB resigned over the issue. I enjoyed the softness of the buttons and the inviting card-sucker, but ultimately was left wanting more. The homeless man at my feet told me he used to work there.

Rating: 1 x €20 note.

Permanent TSB, Grafton St, beside the flower

vendors: A controversial and unruly nugget, this pair of holes in the wall can polarise public opinion. With a technicolour interface whose kind hasn’t been seen since MS-DOS, this is one ATM that I suspect will enjoy a deserved comeback following the recent demise of the Celtic Tiger, although it proves unpopular with those under 5’8”. Boasting the option to withdraw €10 notes (while stocks last!), this crafty beast makes frugality cool once again, as many Brown Thomas bargain-hunters choose it over the formerly fashionable AIB. Rating: 6 x €10.

Bank of Ireland, Westmoreland St: Considering its dream location, this little gem is forgotten more than one might expect, yet its sheltered alcoves and gorgeous vista of Trinity College make this a favourite of the culturally clued-in. Carefully dodging the Concern pricks can be more difficult than its worth, but the long-held rumour that the Provost of Trinity College once used this ATM between 2006-07 never fails to draw the eager masses.

Rating: 2 x €20 Bank of Ireland, found in

Centra, Londis, etc: A veritable masterclass in how not to make an ATM, these lethargic relics are often accused of being the forlorn e-voting machines in disguise, shrewdly recycled by Noel Dempsey in a bid to prevent the massive queues that were building up around al fresco ATMs. The load times are arguably the worst to be found in the EU, exacerbated by the patience-testing “Please wait” withdrawal symptom. This is ATM bureacracy at its very worst.

Rating: Insufficient funds.

Presumably at least €1bn of the recent EU/IMF “loan” will be put towards remedying the city’s “black spots” for instance, Dawson St has been without a functioning ATM since Garret Fitzgerald’s time as Minister for Finance - and perhaps this new scheme will go in some way towards pulling the country out of this terrible mess. If less time and money had been spent on translating “Request receipt” into Irish, and more on improving the load times in the most sluggish pass machines, one wonders whether this crisis would have happened at all.

- Luke O’Connell

The ATM in Griffin’s Londis: abysmal

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

8

TimesFeatures

Political reform a question of “when”, not “if” Ciara Begley and Julianne Cox There is widespread disillusionment with our current political system. The case for change and the popular pressure to achieve it has rarely been stronger.

Many believe that, given the depth of the current crisis, the country faces a disastrous future should the political reform movement lose momentum. Churchill once wrote “The biggest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter”. Today, it seems that the biggest argument against voting is a five minute discussion with an elected representative.

This is not to say that all politicians are bad. The reform movement argues that antiintellectualism and localism must be separated from national level politics to allow those with the interest and ability to govern effectively.

The reform movement considers it of paramount importance that it provides opportunities for young people, the future leaders, to become passionate about their politics. The movement aims to see the debate on reform widened to address the question of why young people should care about reform of the political system and why they should participate in the political arena.

Representative democracy based on competitive elections marginalizes the role of the citizen by reducing their participation to simply casting a ballot every five years. The distance between voting and decision making power creates a sense of disconnect between citizens and their political representatives. The reform movement aims to re-engage the disillusioned.

As trust in political institutions wanes, the reform movement is suggesting deliberative democratic innovations which are gaining popularity. Different methods of deliberative democracy have been tried in different countries. In Brazil local level participatory budgets have been used with success. In Canada citizens’ assemblies have been attempted while in Switzerland direct referenda are used to decide on many policy areas. Reform initiatives aim to constrain the ability of the administrative and political elite to control policy making. Deliberative democratic innovations aim to return power to the people of Ireland.

In ancient Athens, which invented the concept of democracy, they used a machine called a kleroterion to randomly select 500 people to make policy from the 50,000-odd polity. The 21st century equivalent is the citizens’ assembly, a randomly selected mini population where people are given the power to make decisions.

The countries mentioned have shown that citizens are capable of listening to both sides of the argument on a given topic, processing and deciding on the optimal solution. More importantly citizens’ assemblies are the best way to make those feeling despondent about the ability of individuals to generate change a part of

the process. They present a clear and measurable opportunity for every citizen to get involved in the discussion. Citizens’ assemblies have been successfully used three times and are on the cutting edge of innovation.

Reform initiatives aim to overcome problems associated with various political systems. Academics have argued that the Irish system has been hampered by problems of localism and brokerage; the causes of this are deemed to be both systemic and connected to social, cultural and political origins. The Irish political system is highly centralised.

The Committee on Constitutional reform informed us that TDs spend an average of 53% of their time on constituency work and dedicate 38% to national issues. The facts speak for themselves, the PR-STV system has encouraged a political culture which incentivises local narrow constituency based interests. The reform movement hopes to use democratic innovations to deliver more cohesive policy at a national level. The national interest must be at the core of politics, governance and policy making. Citizens’ assemblies are a fundamental break away from the Irish local tradition. They present an opportunity to move away from the politics that have led to economic demise that the reform movement aims to capitalise upon. Citizens’ assemblies, it is argued, would work best in Ireland, allowing for an examination of issues such as political reform that politicians have a vested interest in. They work alongside representative democracy, complementing the work of the Oireachtas, allowing for open discussion and deliberation on decision making.

What Ireland is facing at the moment is unique; it is the opportunity of a turning point. The next government will have a new five year mandate and will be in a position to ignore all the cries for change, and renege on all the promises made in their election campaign.

The reform movement advocates telling every politician on their campaign trails that change is coming to politics in Ireland, because the people demand it. The movement argues that change is not to be feared, as we have already witnessed all that can be feared for a country’s economy come to pass. The movement seeks to remind politicians that in five years time the anniversary of the turning point of Irish independence will be upon us, and ask what legacy they will leave in their wake.

In each forthcoming edition of The University Times a different aspect of political reform will be examined, talking to the movers and the shakers and always looking at both sides of the debate. Topics including gender quotas, Seanad reform, and executive legislative power, will be considered. The objective of these articles is to encourage debate and we encourage students’ contributions, so please send your views to Ciara Begley (begleyci@tcd. ie) or Julianne Cox (coxju@ tcd.ie).

Financing the future of Barra Roantree College Affairs Correspondent With a Provostial election looming in early 2011, securing the finances of the University is the issue set to dominate the campaign trail.

Though the University avoided some of the more severe cuts predicted for Budget 2011, the 5% cut in the non-pay grant comes on top of large cuts in direct state funding in last year’s budget. That resulted in a real cut to funding of about 7%, as most of the cut to the recurrent grant received from the HEA was offset by the increase in the student service charge from €900 to €1,500. The college avoiding running a deficit for the academic year ending September 2010 by utilising part of an uncommitted €5.5m strategic fund.

This year’s cut will be mostly offset by the increased and rebranded “student contribution” of €2,000 for the first student in a family and €1,500 for those subsequent. The College had been anticipating much more severe cuts in the core grant, but lobbying by the Green Party and Independent TDs seems to have minimised the cuts demanded from the higher education sector. Much of the postbudget discussion amongst USI has focused on the likelihood the this years cuts will have a greater impact on the Institute of Technology sector than universities.

With the Croke Park agreement removing the possibility of further pay cuts, and staff pay constituting around 70% of expenditure, the University has been forced to concentrate on reducing non-pay expenditure and staff numbers, targeting a 6% reduction in staff numbers by the end of 2010. In addition, there has been a focus on diversifying income away from state sources, such as the quota for non-EU students reported in this issue of the University Times.

It is in this context that the reintroduction of third level

fees is raised. Critics of the free fees regime say that it has done nothing to increase representation amongst the most disadvantaged, and leaves universities overly reliant on the Government for funding. On the first point, critics are right.

Research by Dr. Kevin Denny of UCD shows that there has not been an increase in participation in third level education amongst the least well off, and attributes this to gaps in primary and secondary education. This however does not necessarily mean the reintroduction of fees would do anything to advance their cause - the key to that is increasing the resources dedicated to access programmes, such as the Trinity Access Programme. To ensure funding is available for such programmes and secure from capricious swings in Government spending, fees are thus needed, or so the argument goes.

However, shifting the University towards an independent source of revenue remains a distant pipedream. Firstly, it is hard to see the sudden emergence of a philanthropic culture amongst graduates, particularly given the increased level of taxes in recent years.

Secondly research funding is hugely reliant on state funding - for example, over 75% of Trinity’s research budget comes from the state in one form or another. Lastly, the single greatest funding line in universities’ budgets is the recurrent grant received from the state, even at its reduced level.

For the academic year ending September 2009, tuition fees paid by the Government to Trinity on behalf of EU students came to €45m. The beneficial effect of the introduction of a student loan system on the University’s finances is limited to the extent exchequer revenues saved are reinvested into higher education through either research funding or the core grant.

While there is little reason to believe this will be the case while the Government

continues to incur such a large fiscal deficit, it is worth discussing the implications.

The recurrent grant received from the HEA is weighted heavily towards research and PhD students.

For example, whereas undergraduate social science students receive a weighting of 1 in the HEA’s allocation formula, postgraduate labbased research is weighted at 4.8. This is replicated in universities’ internal allocation mechanisms, meaning that research postgraduate students would be the beneficiaries of increased undergraduate contributions.

Another alternative is for a large increase in tuition fees, though paid for by the student through a loan scheme. To achieve even a 20% increase in such a revenue stream, fees for arts, humanities and social science degrees would have to increase to €7000, a level comparable to much more prestigious institutions such as Oxford and LSE, even after the Browne review. At such fee levels there is little doubt that the brightest Irish secondary school students would start to look abroad.

The real problem facing higher education, and the University sector in particular is that it failed to convince the public, and exchequer of its importance over the boom years. Tertiary education spending as a share of total spending declined over the Tiger years, reflecting its decreased priority, despite the policy of successive Governments to increase student numbers.

The challenge facing Provostorial candidates is to convince the new Government that higher education should be adequately financed, to increase income from voluntary graduate contributions and to provide clarity on the issue of a student contribution. While the introduction of tuition fees through a loan system is no panacea for either government or universities, the continuing uncertainty merely causes anguish amongst aspiring students.

College funding by the num

New parties pop up on both sides of the aisle

“State should be the servant, not the master, of the Irish people” National Forum Ciarán Nolan Research Editor

T

he National Forum is a relatively new right wing political group that has been formed, to replace the former National Alliance. The forum is spearheaded by Marc Coleman, economics editor of Newstalk and former student in Trinity College.

The group claim that their main aim is to revive hope about Ireland’s future through right decisions being made politically and economically and the renewal of cultural sovereignty. The forum has developed a plan that they believe will, before 2020 bring the country back to prosperity and restore of full employment.

Their aims are similar to many of the other left wing and right wing political groups. The Forum believe that public servants are a valuable asset to the country, and must not be blamed for the current economic crisis, but the sheer waste of money and

the excessive pay of public servants should be totally eliminated and the Croke Park agreement should be scrapped.

The group also feel strongly about the discrimination against the “nuclear family” and the rights of children both born and unborn. The forum would aim to eliminate multiple seat constituencies and instead replace these with single seat constituencies to dispose of the prevalent infighting and clientism of the current Irish political system; they would also urge political parties to run more women candidates, by putting more women forward in both local and national elections.

The forum’s aims for education, mainly third level education, is the means testing of the “free fees” scheme, which they believe would save the state in the region of €950million along with the means testing of child benefit and the state pension. The National Forum would also implement a reform of the third

level education system. Although they support the means testing of university fees, they believe that there should be no cuts made to the social welfare, no cuts to the Department of Community, Equality and Rural Affairs, no cuts to the Garda wage or allowances, and there are a number of other sectors where the forum believe the axe should not fall.

They would also not support any rises in taxes and believe that the homeless and youth at risk should be placed in the many vacant properties under the control of NAMA. It seems that the main aim of the National Forum is to look after the less well off and the vulnerable in Ireland, whether they will succeed with their aims or not will be seen in the future.

“Tax the greedy not the needy” say newly formed United Left Alliance Caelainn Hogan Features Editor

“

It couldn’t be more timely and more urgent that we have this meeting tonight and that this Alliance is established, to make a real challenge to the political establishment in this country.” This was Former Tipperary TD Seamus Healy’s introductory statement at the official launch of the United Left Alliance in November. Formed by the Socialist Party, People Before Profit and the Workers and Unemployed Action Group, the Alliance plans to run candidates in 14 constituencies in the coming election, including Healy and MEP Joe Higgins. The packed conference room of the Gresham Hotel, despite the heavy snow, was testament to the fact that the Alliance has struck a chord with people disillusioned and angry with the current political establishment, in providing what they claim to be a complete alternative.

Although Joan Collins (People Before Profit)

claimed it was “the coming together of the radical left of this country”, Joe Higgins and others emphasised that the Alliance was a “new left”, a left opposed to what they see as “the betrayal of the representatives of the working class”, by Irish trade unions and Labour. They believe a Labour/Fine Gael coalition would be fundamentally no different from the current government.

The United Left Alliance has vowed never to form a coalition with any right wing party, including Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, providing a “real political alternative” and voice of opposition within the Dáil.

The Alliance vehemently opposes the bailout, described by Healy as the “mortgaging of the future of this country in the interest of the vampires of the international financial system, of the bankers, and the political elites” and plans to scrap NAMA. They encourage a one day general strike to oppose government austerity measures.

Their proposal is to “tax

the greedy not the needy” and take banks, financial houses, major construction companies and development land into democratic public ownership, including the controversial Corrib Gas Field, and using the profits for the benefit of the people.

They also suggest raising Irish corporation tax, one of the lowest in Europe, to provide greater revenue.

Instead of selling off state companies, they plan to use them as a vehicle for job creation, and to use the numerous vacant properties to provide facilities and affordable homes for all. They have called for a reverse of the cuts, but do propose a cap of €100, 000 on public service salaries. Higgins was passionate in his opposition to the reduction of the minimum wage, to what he described as a “slave rate”.

At a time of radical change, with polls predicting Fianna Fáil at only 13% and any future government faced with the ‘straight jacket’ dictates of the IMF , a radical alternative might prove popular.

9

The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

TimesFeatures

f Higher Education

mbers - infographic by Richard Conway

Real T

Real Talk with Rory O’Donovan

Rory O’Donovan hit the streets to find out exactly what the world outside thinks of Trinity students - it turns out we’re not very well-liked.

‘They take advantage...I’ve asked quite a few to leave in the last month or so.’

City centre restaurant owner, regarding a “buffet deal” ‘They can completely change the atmosphere of the place.

If they’re in a fun, sociable mood I love having them here, they brighten the place up. But large groups are generally trouble; they often end up ruining other people’s nights’ City centre pub manager ‘I don’t have much time for them. My staff say a lot of them come across as disrespectful ... and they never tip.’

City centre restaurant manager ‘The lads are good-looking but the girls are stuck-up ... Actually, the lads are stuck up too ... But they dress well.’

Female DIT student ‘Most of them seem friendly. They smile a lot more than most of our other customers’ City centre coffee-shop waitress ‘Smart, but generally over-confident and usually stubborn’ Trinity lecturer ‘Loud, arrogant, superficial ... So many of them seem to talk over each other ... about such pointless shite ... I’m yet to see a big group come in here who actually seem like what I would call friends’ Barman, city centre pub ‘To be honest, as a consumer group, they’re not attractive.

We get enough tourists through the doors who have money to burn to see no need to make concessions to them.’

Locatedstonfloor the firse 6 of hou

Your SU bookshop is there to get you the best quality books at bargain prices.

Run as a co-op, its sole purpose is to serve you - and it's a great place to get a few quid for your course books at the end of the year!

Dublin businessman (owner of shops and restaurants in the city centre) ‘Posh idiots ... sure most of them are English’ IADT student ‘I find a lot of them quite over-the-top. I can never really tell if it’s because they’re so smart or because they’re so stupid.’

Dublin based doctor ‘Detached from the real world ... I can’t work out if it’s because they don’t have jobs or responsibilities or whatever. I find it hard to take some of them seriously.’

City centre hairdresser ‘They’re all like out of that video ‘being a dickhead’s cool’’ Dublin school kid ‘I’m jealous of every single one of them. They’re certainly a lot more materialistic than when I was there and the whole technological communication thing has, in my opinion at least, badly affected the social scene. But, essentially, they’re the same irresponsible and excitable bunch that we were twenty years back.’ {from the look of him it was definitely more like thirty years back} Former TCD student and parent of two current students ‘I think they take a lot for granted. I’m sure a lot of them work hard, but it shocks me to hear of how little work some of them do.’

Parent of current TCD student

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

10

TimesOPINION

Letters

Snowbody’s fault but our own

to the Editor

Letters should be posted to “The Editor, The University Times, House 6, Trinity College” or sent by email to letters@universitytimes.ie We cannot guarantee that all letters will be published. Letters may be edited for length and/or style.

College’s flaky response to cold snap It is hard to believe in this day and age that as prestigious a University as Trinity College Dublin would be forced to close for the best part of a week by a few inches of snow. Not only that, but the conditions facing students upon the bold decision of the College to reopen her gates to students were, dare I say, far more “treacherous” than when the college was shielded from those troublesome visitors. On my walks around the college I saw countless hapless fools skidding on the near-lethal ice, far more dangerous than the crisp, pure snow.

Perhaps the Provost might direct some of the plentiful resources with which our fine new Innovation Alliance has been bestowed to figuring out a way to prevent the health and safety police from preventing students avail of their right to education. - Yours etc, Barry Pike JF Science

SU silence since budget Dear Sir, Following weeks of incessant campaigning before the Union of Students in Ireland protest march on November 3rd, the Students’ Union have stayed notably silent on Tuesday’s Budget announcement.

Is this because they regard the raising of the first-child registration fee to ¤2000 as a defeat? Students across campus have noted that the intensity of campaigning fell dramatically following the protest march, and one would have to question whether or not this was due to misguided complacency.

Silence is often touted as golden, but in this case it compromises credibility. The Union should make their opinions on the Budget verdict clear before any further damage is done to its image as a vociferous representative of all students’ best interests and the memories of their well-fought campaign are tainted. - Yours, etc, Finn Buckley, SS Economics.

Overcrowding in library Sir, - I know this argument has been made a number of times, however I would like to remind the administration in Trinity that study space at the weekends is extremely limited.

Students have been going home when they cannot make use of the 24 hour study room due to overcrowding. A number of students have been seen studying on the floor without seats.

During exam periods and when end of term assignments are due there should be some sort of arrangement to meet the demand for study space. This demand could easily be met through lengthening the library opening hours or introducing an alternative study space. I think students do not see the library as being a reliable facility in the college at this stage. – Yours etc, Colin Taylor JF BESS

Without the joy of X-Factor and the misery of the budget, where to now for entertainment?

Sir, What will people now do on a Saturday and a Sunday night? What will people talk about in the office and school classroom in the morning?

Yes, it’s finally over. No more checking to see what colour eye-liner Cheryl is wearing or if Louis is wearing a dickie bow. Will people now have to go out and spend their hard earned cash on the weekend?

What will the nation’s excuse be for not going out on the session?

Edmund Burke

A

llow me to introduce myself. My name is irrelevant. My age and gender are unimportant. Where I’m from doesn’t make any difference. All you need to know is that I am a student at Trinity and a while ago I started to write a blog, Trinners4Winners.tumblr.com, because I’ve had enough. I have had enough with apathy and complacency, with false rhetoric and terrible inefficiency and with so, so many other things. Trust me, I could go on. And after weeks of Internet agitation I’ve been given a chance to write a piece in The University Times.

So what to do with this opportunity?

Should I express my disgust with the endless line of impotent SU officials? How about an in-depth analysis of the administration’s failure to be at all efficient or professional?

Maybe I can tell everyone how frustrated I am that I have seen the French Rugby team around Trinity more often than the Provost? Can I talk about how cliquey and self-serving Ents is? Perhaps we could get into the multitude of Library policies that actively discourage

the pursuit of an education?

Oh and there’s always IS Services, who manage to make technology incomprehensible for a generation that grew up in front of the computer.

No. Given this chance, I only want to talk about one thing: snow.

I have to imagine that when Trinity was chartered all those many years ago, the founding members of this institution thought to themselves: “This University will attract students from around the world. They will come here to learn and in the process they will become mature and accomplished men and women. Trinity College will be synonymous with unparalleled scholarship…except when it snows. Then we should just freak out and close down.”

Salt it and shovel it. It is just snow. It enchants toddlers and confuses house pets.

The snow issue bothers me so much because the school’s response was so predictably incompetent and thoughtless.

Never, during all of the sudden library closings and hysterical

emails about college closure, did I feel that Trinity was actually being proactive or making academic excellence a priority.

I never detected the slightest hint of any institutional backbone or pride - no one to demand that the college handle itself in a manner befitting that of a supposedly respected educational institution.

Sadly, the blame for all of this is easily placed at the collective feet of the Trinity student body. The apathy amongst most students here is so overwhelming that I’m surprised people even get out of bed in the morning. If the student body asserted itself, for once, then these little failures wouldn’t happen with such depressing frequency.

I say all of this because I really do care about Trinity. There are committed people who work here and driven students who attend. If you are willing to actually demand some respect and try to improve this school then that’s awesome and I know a great website where you can go discuss that (hey-o!). On the other hand if you are content being apathetic and happy to let mediocrity reign then that’s your choice and I wish you the best of luck as you continue to try and go

You can read more from Ed on his (her?) blog at http://Trinners4Winners.tumblr.com

Our Ed’s a cranky fella. Good lad all the same though.

Wikileaks cables lack a certain something Eye on America

Jack Toner

W

ikileaks has been earning a name for itself as an activist group, new media pioneers, and tattle tale of governments around the world.

Led by the enemy of the state and friend of the internet, very white knight of free media, Julian Assange (seriously, he must be the palest Australian i’ve ever seen), the site has once again turned our eye on Americafor some top notch political gossip.Having been referred to by hyperbolic new organizations as “a diplomatic nine-eleven” thisdump is shaping up to be quite embarrassing for the American Government. For almost two weeks now, small time

ambassadors and “high integrity” senators have had to stand infront of the world media, proud and defiant, and act confused/inconvenienced. Assange has faced an onslaught of hate from those affected, being branded a terrorist among other such undesirable things and it seems all very petty to me.

Instead of standing by the assertion that Ahmadinejad is basically the new Hitler (a title he may not be upset about) and saying what the world thinks, they have opted to smear. Not fighting the leak, just discrediting the source. This might be a logical tactic though considering that less than 1% of the documents have been

leaked so far, perhaps it is in fact smarter to try and make sure than none of the leak is taken seriously than suffer the storm of the first wave in silence. It is wise though to limit the potential damage.

While we may see the watercooler nature of these communications, will leaders in other nations be insulted

by America’s casual slurs?

Why take that chance? By immediately condemning the leak, America have assured a platform of plausible deniability for when the Chinese or the Russians come knocking. Because the only thing worse than being laughed at on the internet, is awkward trade talks the morning after.But in light of all this, the question i keep asking myself is, who gives a toss? While readingwhat some racist office clerk wrote to another small government department

I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore opinion@universitytimes.ie

With the budget (Sorry to use that word - I know it’s like saying Voldemort to a first year Ravenclaw), the country clung to those XFactor nights that had little expense other than the electricity bill and the TV licence (which we all know they paid).

The two phenomena which dominated Irish life in the recent past found a beautiful harmony there for a bit. What do we do now?

Sincerely, Cillian Quinn SF Sociology & Geography

fuck yourself.

TimesOPINION

is somewhat interesting, sometimes enlightening and almost always hilarious, I wonder what the ultimate objective really is. What’s the motivation behind it?

How much damage can really be done? While I’m a fan of Assange’s freedom of information mindset and the balls-out nature of how he runs Wikileaks, this particular outing has somewhat fallen short. I’m trying to figure out if what he hopes will come of it. Lurking in a server-filled ice-bunker in Sweden what did he dream would happen? When the Baghdad video was leaked it was clear that they wanted accountability for all acts during war, this serves more as a schoolyard taunt towards the jocks that sit arrogantly in Government.

His increasing influence might be, as yet, misguided.

That is not to say that it has

had no effect, anything that casts attention to the workings of government can only go to put pressure onthem for honesty and transparency. And the greater internet question arises again.

Moves have been made to limit freedom on the internet in the US. Once again, our eye is on America. I will support anything which draws public attention to American government, but this whistle-blowing does lack a certain punch. Personally, I wanted at least one explosion. Or a shame suicide. Shame-acide?

Self-loathacide? Yeah selfloathacide. Honestly, worse things could be said about the States, but if two simultaneous wars and a history of dodgy weapons dealings can’t sort out their politics maybe nothing can.

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The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

TimesOPINION

Apathy, connivance and collusion Rónán Burtenshaw Deputy News Editor

The apathy of the Irish public contributed greatly to the mess we’re in - it’s time we had a revolution of consciousness.

Income levels have taken a hit. Taxes have increased. Crucial investment in infrastructure has been put on hold.

Unemployment and emigration rates are high and rising.

Students are paying more and getting less in their education. Cuts have been made to pensions, the minimum wage and social welfare. The rate of absolute and relative poverty is on the rise. Homelessness, which it was once hoped could be nearly eradicated in Ireland, is on the steep increase again. NGOs and charities are struggling; either desperate for funding, putting in place plans for amalgamation or facing closure. The deflationary effects of ripping the financial

heart from the economy will be matched only by the crippling legacy of another generation of under-investment, brain-drain and diminished self-confidence. But, this time, will it be enough to change us?

Despite Freud’s statement about the Irish being impervious to “psychoanalysis”, the reality is that professionals have long had a good picture of our character. The sunnyside-up public image is the fun-loving comic, whose lighthearted attitude to life and sharp wit swim in a culture of craic agus ceol. But the full picture is something much more complex, heavily laced with the influence of our colonial past. Generations of suffering,

violence and neglect produced humour, mournful music and alcohol as crutches. It bred a contempt for authority that has lived with us today in a postcolonial Ireland, not as a desire to subvert the state but as a disrespect for its institutions. It made cute-hoorism an accepted occupation and the slibhín a cult hero.

It was this last part that most greatly affected our fall from grace. The Celtic Tiger was not so much murdered by dark forces or hate-figures we want to point our finger at, as killed

by Setanta’s sliotar. The disrespect for the institutions we need to function as a society and the lack of responsibility shown by our leaders was mixed with the greed, recklessness and dishonesty of a nation drunk on its first taste of wealth and affluence.

We have a deep and significant cultural deficiency in this country. If our apathy about responsibility coloured the Celtic Tiger years, then our seemingly endless capacity for denial has been the theme of our latest era. The Fianna Fáil party were not planted in Ireland from afar. They did not make corruption, fraud and tax evasion our most popular

national sports. The Irish people knew that this was happening, had happened and would continue to happen in our country. And we let it go. We made it acceptable practice for large numbers of our elected officials, business leaders and public figures. The brown envelopes, the private islands, the offshore bank accounts, the dodgy planning deals, the tribunals; the book of Irish corruption would run into many volumes. And in the Celtic Tiger years we simply adapted this to a new set of institutions, making ourselves the Wild West of European finance and bringing the slibhín into the 21st Century with a three-piece suit, a briefcase and a tie clip.

But the apathy, connivance and collusion that framed our political ideology particularly in the good times – when lone voices of dissent were cast off as begrudgers – is now playing a very different role. If the pronouncements of mortgage defaults, currency collapse and bankruptcy are giving us economic nightmares then the most frightening political consequence of the collapse is the unveiling of naked ignorance. Very few can claim a comprehensive knowledge

but the lack of even a basic understanding of the factors and events that directly contributed to our failure is tangible.

The hatred directed towards the fraudulent bankers, the fears about our bonds, vague discussions about regulation and the criticism of politicians have swirled around the lessthan-vigorous national debate without anyone believing that the nation as a whole has a good grasp of what is happening.

In the good times our apathy allowed us to accept a media that fed us the tranquilising drugs of superficiality and reassurance. Now society finds itself unable to articulate how we came to financial ruin at the end of a period where we were more qualified, more experienced and worked longer and harder than any period before in our history.

This lack of understanding is mixed with palpable anger. People feel that they did not deserve this, that there is no justice or fairness in these measures. The mix of fear and anger with a lack of understanding is of great concern. It creates fertile ground for the peddlers of hate and division.

What has happened in Ireland

is deeply unfair to those who engaged in hard, honest work during the last ten years while keeping their heads down.

But it must serve as a lesson to us about our politics and culture, we cannot keep our heads down. There is a desperate need for a radical movement to reform our social and political institutions. We need a period of civic action and national debate of the kind we haven’t seen in generations. But it can’t begin until we acknowledge a harsh truth; we didn’t directly defraud the country through recklessness, greed and dishonesty but our apathy was an indirect action which allowed that to happen.

“Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand.” (Bodie Thoene) The collapse of the Irish economy, and to a degree the Irish state, was facilitated by our apathy. This came to the surface not just as a lack of caring about outcomes but as an apathy about civic duty, public service and the institutions of the state. All of this placed the Irish public firmly in the role of collaborators with the culture of corruption. There have been and will be many victims of this disaster. Let’s hope that apathy is one of them.

Trinity’s 12ft snow guardian - he doesn’t really mind if your guest’s signed in

The Audacity of Harmon

We need to Vengeance is not snip, baby Justice snip to survive

Amidst the coverage of the bailout and the various political and economic fires engulfing our country, the annual report of the Irish Prison Chaplains got scant media attention. It ought to have led the headlines, as it is truly shocking.

The report documents how counterproductive the ongoing ‘warehousing’ of prisoners within our prison system is. Our prison regime is not turning out rehabilitated and reformed members of society. Instead, many prisoners are coming out of jail with a drug addiction they did not go in with, along with connections to criminal gangs that lead to further, more serious crimes. In addition, many inmates are held in awful conditions, which are, to quote the report, ‘degrading, humiliating and completely unacceptable’.

The section of the report dealing with St. Patrick’s Institution for Young Offenders is particularly damning. The institution is in direct contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child by detaining young people under 18 with adults. Seven of the State’s own regulations and guidelines relating to the care of children in residential institutions do not apply in St. Pat’s. So much for the State’s commitment to child protection following the abuses and failures of the past (and, indeed, present).

The chaplains are clear in identifying who it is they hold responsible for the chaos – the Irish Prison Service, the Department of Justice and its political master, Minister Dermot Ahern. The fact that the minister declined to meet with the chaplains following the publication of their last annual report reflects poorly on the retiring minister and suggests a terrible indifference within the administration of our justice system to the severe problems in our prisons.

Regular readers of this column will be aware that your correspondent is no bleeding heart dogooder. Prison is an important and necessary tool in the justice system. However, incarceration should not be the only means available to deter and punish crime. It should be reserved for only those who present a clear danger to society. It should also attempt to be the beginning of a new journey for the prisoner, rather than the end of the line.

The conditions in our prisons shame our republic. In addition, the fact that 70% of prisoners fail to benefit from prison because of the lack of educational, training and rehabilitation services available, makes our prisons a missed opportunity, both for the prisoners and for society. The former Inspector of Prisons, Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen described the prison system as a ‘terrible waste of money’.

Reports going back since before yours truly was born outline how we can get better results from our prisons for the money we are pumping into them.

However, political will to bring about change has been lacking, partly due to the demands of a public and a media baying for an approach to law and order that places a higher value on vengeance than on justice.

While Trinity was closed to the outside world two weeks ago, campus residents had the joy of having their own personal Christmas wonderland in the city centre. Creative outlets included Inca pyramids, multiple igloos with standing room for four, massive snow phalluses, and this enormous twelve-foot snowman assembled by a team of ten frost-bitten residents. Photo: Tom Lowe

Down with this sort of thing - careful now Anita Finucane On November 21st, the lights in Leinster House were all aglow for a Sunday night while the somewhat anonymous body of the IMF touched down. Resonating in our corridors were lines of Yeatsian martyrdom while whispers were heard of “the longest ransom note in history”. Something was being undone. Our identity was at stake. We needed somewhere to look – nobody knew what lay ahead, so our national newspapers glanced backwards in history.

The IMF Bailout took many forms in the headlines of our daily newspapers in the past three weeks. The newly formed United Left Alliance call it “the austerity plan”, the ex-patriots call it “the 80s” and those with

no axe to grind or who were emigrating soon referred to it as the four year plan, while the man on the street might fairly call it a “crippling loan”.

Whatever guise it took, it struck with thundering force, leaving the nation feeling directionless and in the hands of a government without a mandate.

The pride of the country was damaged by having to look to its bigger brothers and sisters for financial aid. Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s paltry attempt at signaling Terminal 2 as a sign or our success seemed more like a relic of our downfall.

As the IMF arrived in Dublin to begin talks on a multibillion-euro rescue plan, some of the headlines touted on our national

Our “wild geese” were likewise dependent on the help of their European contingent, thus making any link between now and then erroneous at best.

newspapers erred on the side of jingoism. The Irish Times “Was it for this?” editorial (November 18th) was indeed the most poignant, shifting us back in time to civil war politics and poetics. Joseph O’Connor’s more literary article in the Guardian squeezed every inch of analysis of the Irish psyche during the “strange and ferocious trauma we are undergoing, an identity crisis so viral and all-engulfing that we don’t know who we are anymore”.

Further abroad, journalist Siobhán Dowling in Der Spiegel quoted an EU Observer report which quoted a Brussels official referring to the bailout as the “Oliver Cromwell Package”. John Banville, in the New York Times (under the headline “The Debtor of the Western World”), wrote that there was “little left to celebrate, with nothing to be seen in the skies save, in the murky

distance but approaching ever nearer, the Four Horsemen of our particular Apocalypse: the IMF, the European Commission, Brussels and the Iron Chancellor Angela Merkel”.

While it is outside my intention to address the circumstances of the crisis – whether we look as far back as the failure of NAMA or point to our current government – it is necessary to address the rabble-rousing tactics of those such as David Begg. The general secretary of The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, Begg recently referred to the 1916 proclamation as he led protesters in front of the GPO on O’Connell St. during the ICTU-organised Dublin protest following the week’s proceedings.

According to Mr. Begg, “our gallant allies in Europe have arrived 95 years too late and uninvited and instead of guns to help the revolution,

they have brought economic weapons of mass destruction”.

Amidst our left wing authorities who claim we should “burn the bondholders”, the remote acknowledgement of the reality of our crisis fell on deaf ears; a deal is our only option. We must accept the consequences of our politicians’ lack of foresight during the Celtic Tiger, but we must also accept that we are reliant on an economic market, and being outside the euro zone would mean economic failure. Even in 1916 (if we must fall into the clutches of our history), our “wild geese” were likewise dependent on the help of their European contingent, thus making any link between now and then erroneous at best. If the focus of our anger could be channeled more objectively, perhaps this could make for more successful politics.

I am not setting aside the

anger felt by our nation – our budget cuts of up to €6 billion will fall hard on many of our shoulders. I do feel, however, that the serious traction of the loan points to a new chapter of better politics that leaves behind our eulogizing and nostalgia.

Perhaps we can look back to the favourite slogan from Father Ted before we fill our papers with self-flagellation.

We must indeed be “careful now”. Now that we are on the brink of reawakening and acknowledging our mistakes, let our objectivity guide us, rather than the romantic headlines in our newspapers. With the coming of a new election there will be a new departure in Irish politics and economic policy.

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

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TimesOPINION Money talks: successful World Cup bids don’t come cheap Eugene Reavey Deputy Opinion Editor

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onspiracy theories abound, allegations of corruption bombard the world media, claims of improper political coercion are casually bandied around, calls for a rethink and complete overhaul of the current system are loudly proclaimed - and who says England are bad losers?

As the dust settles on England’s failed world cup bid, it’s easy to sympathise with their plight: A strong and

hopeful campaign to attract football’s biggest competition, scuppered by the Russians, in circumstances that are less than clear. England was the only country that could presently offer a whole host of top class stadia, an eager fan base, and perhaps a significant chance of joining, once again, the list of illustrious nations which have won the top prize on their own soil. One must ask the question: How did a bid that at first appeared

so promising only manage to garner two votes out of a possible 22 on FIFAs’s executive council?

One has to admit that there was something slightly off about England’s presentation. When the distinctly uncharismatic Prince William said in his sombre monotone, “I love football,” the cringe factor was building fast. David Beckham then gave what was, I’m sure, a very moving speech about his grandparents, which may or may not have moved those at the top table of FIFA. Next up was David Cameron, whose presentation was so eager and

enthusiastic that one felt it belonged in a Cillit Bang advert, and not at a conference of luminaries before whom he had to try and sell the Great British dream. It is hard to escape the conclusion that once the Sunday Times leaked the story, which forced the resignation of two top FIFA officials, that England’s World Cup Bid had breathed its last.

Spain essentially pulled out of the running some months ago after declaring that they felt it was a done deal. A lot was made of the fact that Vladimir Putin did not attend the ceremony; a few misguided souls felt that

Irish affection for loveable rogues breeds corruption Gavin O’Connell

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he expression ‘to chance your arm’ is one of the most common staples of Irish colloquialisms. For those of you not familiar with the phrase, it basically means to take a risk. Further analysis of the phrase reveals that in reality, it flirts along the line of what is socially acceptable behaviour. Arguably, ‘chancing your arm’ is the legitimate face of ‘skulduggery’ and ‘roguish behaviour’, incorporating lesser degrees of behaviour that epitomises the aforementioned. It is a colloquialism that is deeply engrained not only in the culture of our country, but in the psyche of the vast majority of Irish people; whether in the name of the all-encompassing ‘having the craic’ or for more calculated goals, Irish people everywhere chance their arm.

It is only until you live outside of the country that you realise how ingrained this expression is in our general way of life and culture. Nowhere in the world is such an attitude (of trying to obtain more than the status quo) actively encouraged or as prevalent as it is in Ireland. The media presents several examples of ‘chancing your arm’, such as the iconic moment when Father Ted attempts to win the All Priests Over-75s Five-a-Side Football Challenge by remotely controlling Father Jack, comatose from drinking ‘Dreamy Sleepy Nighty Snoozy Snooze’.

In England, such an approach to life is not one accepted by the majority of the population: there exists a mentality that you will be happy with what you have been given and to try and obtain more falls into the

realm of ‘cheek’. From a young age, individuals are informed that what they have received is all they are getting. It seems that this approach has originated from the Victorian mentality that everyone has a place or standing in life and to attempt to better your socialeconomic standing (by any amount) is not acceptable

– we all know what happened to Oliver Twist when he tried to ask for more….

While I do not doubt that there are households in Ireland where such a mentality exists, there seems to be an intrinsic desire in Irish people to ‘try for more’, particularly when there is no significant downside to trying (‘sure, it costs nothing to ask’).

Perhaps such an approach to life was born out of times before most of us were born – before the now-deceased

Ajai Chopra of the IMF: emphatically not a chancer

Celtic Tiger –, a time of Angela’s Ashes type poverty, which, although dramatized to some extent in the aforementioned film, did exist in areas of Ireland to a very similar degree. At no time is the no risk/high reward nature of ‘chancing it’ more evident than when times are hard and a surplus of money or consumer commodities is not readily at hand. Perhaps with Ireland having just passed through what RTE called, somewhat dramatically, called the ‘blackest week in Irish history since the civil war’, we will see a resurgence in chancing again, particularly in areas of the country where such behaviour would have been seen as ‘working class’.

Such a national characteristic seems to bode well for Irish people outside of the country, where such an attitude is far less prevalent and, therefore, more likely to work. Arguably the greatest export of Ireland is its people, and historically Irish people have done incredibly well upon emigration; Willie Walsh (CEO of British Airways), Aidan Heavey, Alan Joyce (CEO of Quantas) are but a few current examples. On an international level, one only needs to look at Michael O’Leary, who runs Ryanair.

Widely regarded as one of the most effective businessmen in Europe (and arguably the world), he is one of the only non-American CEOs to regularly appear on Bloomberg. Recently he even attempted to charge people of ‘large’ stature the price of two seats, despite such a measure clearly being contrary to EU regulations (and furthermore, likely to be condemned by the international community)?

But nothing is lost in taking such a chance. Of course, the publicity this proposed scheme caused further increased Ryanair’s notoriety,

this was a sign that Russia’s bid had failed. The cynic would now have to jump to the conclusion that this was Putin’s final show of arrogance and victory.

Russia may have been in with a good chance of tipping England to the 2018 World Cup, but one struggles to see how Qatar were awarded the 2022 World Cup. The country regularly gets temperatures of over 50 degrees Celsius in the summertime, alcohol is banned in all public places and visa requirements are notoriously stringent. So what does Qatar have in its favour?

Unlike England, Qatar (like

Russia) has an obedient media and, more importantly, they have shed loads of cash. England’s entire bid, including Beckham’s tear jerker, cost £15 million. Qatar paid Zinedine Zidane a similar figure simply to make a speech to promote their bid. England’s sentimental approach might have worked some years back, but in tough economic times, Russia and Qatar were providing the only sentiment worth anything cash, and plenty of it.

However, even with Qatar’s undoubted fiscal ability to put on a show worth seeing, the practical difficulties that

will face the hosting of this World Cup are endless. Such are the worries over the high temperatures that German football legend Franz Beckenbauer has even suggested that the world’s premier competition should be moved to winter. Even with the game of football in need of desperate regeneration in the Middle East, there were surely more practical ways of going about it, rather than turning the game’s biggest feast of football into an endurance test in one of the world’s harshest climates.

England may rightly feel aggrieved that as one of the most important football

nations on Earth, it will have been over 60 years since they last had the opportunity to host the World Cup by the time they are next eligible to apply in 2030.

Such a situation must have been inconceivable at the time. The great Liverpool Boss Bill Shankly famously said, “Football isn’t a matter of life and death, it’s much more important than that.”

The sad conclusion is that in these times, there is only one thing more important than life and death - and the money talked.

Student’s View: Darragh Haugh

Ways of feeling taller We live in an age where we are more accountable than ever for what we say in public. Every word said is potentially recorded and broadcast across the world for dissection by our peers.

This has made freedom of speech more dangerous than ever. One ill-judged joke on Facebook and we are forever branded as a racist, a sexist, or just an ignorant fool. However, by doing this we are being publicly condemned for something that every single one of us does in private.

I can’t be alone in thinking that this is ridiculously hypocritical. There is no “time and place” for dirty jokes because they’re what most of us think of around the clock. If our first reaction isn’t to make a joke, it damn well is our second.

The honest truth is that jokes and comments made in bad taste are what make the world go around.

As cheesy as it may sound, humour is a universal language. It’s something everyone enjoys, from a drunken student to the terrorist hiding in his cave.

When’s the last time you genuinely laughed at a and had it worked out, a great deal would have been gained.

Another example of an Irish businessman chancing his arm is Eddie Jordan, the then-owner of the Jordan Formula 1 racing team, who attempted to hold Vodaphone to a £105 million sponsorship deal that he had ‘made’ over a 10 minute phone call with them. In the words of a Senior Law Lecturer and respected barrister – ‘he’s a bit of a chancer’.

It’s all well when this chancer mentality exists in a minority, surrounded by other more straight laced personalities to subdue the chancer personalities. Problems

clean joke? To be funny, the sentence has to be inappropriate at some level, whether it’s a sly comment on someone’s weight or a pun about the recently deceased. 90% of YouTube videos involve either people falling over or fat people dancing to “my Humps”, or sometimes both. Bad taste humour, which isn’t just the mocking of others, is what often provides that first creative spark; if not, then at least it was funny. We acknowledge the brilliance of bad taste humour every day. The most critically acclaimed comedies of all time relied on bad taste as their foundation. ‘Some like it Hot’ found its core in cross dressing and sexism, ‘The Life of Brian’ happily insulted the very idea of organised religion while ‘Blazing Sandals’ contained more racial slurs than I can think of. These movies used their dirty little side to point out ludicrous aspects of everyday life and that is what bad taste jokes at their best can do.

While these movies may have used their bad taste as a form of satire, the simple truth of comedy is

that everything is funny or nothing is. I regularly make more jokes about the overweight, the skinny, the stupid, the smart and everything in between than I care to mention. To be honest, I probably said a lot worse today over lunch.

Yet I’ve never once felt ashamed. Making jokes about touchy subjects isn’t something we should ever be afraid to do. Nothing is sacred, which is why either everything is funny or nothing is. Blind devotion to anything can only lead to trouble. Jokes are usually the first way we complain about things we don’t like.

Our jokes are often the first way we express our opinion and that’s something you’ll always be entitled to, no matter how vulgar it may be.

The honest truth is that bad taste humour is simply our way of temporally feeling better about ourselves.

And who says we aren’t justified in doing that? We make these jokes to remind us that our lives are better than others. There’s no real malice, they simply put things in perspective. That little boost of confidence

arise, however, when the position is inverted. Some positions in society require individuals with the utmost integrity to hold office (such as, dare I say it? – politicians). The casual tradition of TDs accepting little brown envelopes, most recently made evident in the appearance before court of former FG politician Liam Cosgrave, three former Fianna Fáil Dublin city councillors and one current member of Dún LaoghaireRathdown County Council (Sean Gilbride, Colm McGrath, Don Lydon and Tony Fox) is evident of a chronic problem that is, arguably, a result of this chancer

mentality. Furthermore, it is not too much of a stretch of the imagination to link this chancer mentality, particularly with regards to the creation of ‘ghost developments’, with the economic crisis that we are facing now.

I can assure you there isn’t a chancer among them in the IMF. It is time that we, as a nation, begin to crack down on ‘chancerism’ at the highest level, upon individuals whose actions, by virtue of their office, have vast ramifications for ordinary people.

In the US, those involved in the Enron scandal served up to 10 years in jail; some of the individuals whose assets

is something that is fully justified. I can appreciate that often people can be offended, but is that such a bad thing? Sometimes it may come across as being mean or patronizing or, in my case, inhumane, but that doesn’t mean that’s really the way people think.

If that were the case, there would be thousands of Josef Fritzls and the vast majority of my friends would be serving prison sentences for sexual indecency.

Nothing is perfect and the only way we can get better is if someone honestly points out our failings and, ironically, often the easiest and nicest way to do that is to make fun of them. I am not saying that insulting jokes can save the world, but they sure as hell make it a funnier place to live in.

To be honest, if I had more balls I would end this by commenting on your how fat ‘yo mama’ is and how that haircut makes you look like a reject from a 90s Boyband, but I don’t. So I’ll just ask you to make the world a more fun place and make a joke in front of a friend at their expense. What’s the worst that could happen? were taken in by NAMA still have holiday homes in sunnier climates. It is about time that the people of Ireland, through the legislature, demand harsher punitive measures for those who act recklessly within their office. Such individuals must be held to a far higher standard than the rest of us.

Either that, or Brian Cowen is going to have to be the biggest chancer of all time to shake the IMF.

Child protection proposals a welcome step Alison Hynes FLAC It is trite to note that, at present, the Irish Constitution is extraordinarily lacking in the protection it offers the child. In February 2010 the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on the Child published its third report proposing a constitutional amendment to strengthen the position of the child under Irish law.

It is important to note that the Constitution is not devoid of protection for children per se. Children enjoy those rights which all individuals are entitled to under the Constitution. As an adjunct to these general constitutional rights, Article 42.5 provides a more

specific protection. It allows the State, in exceptional cases, where a parent has failed in their duty towards their children to take action to protect that child. What is lacking is an express constitutional protection for the child.

A number of cases in recent years, particularly with regard to the rights of the child in adoption proceedings and parental autonomy in the context of health and education have starkly illustrated the illusory nature of the child’s rights under the Irish Constitution. It is against such a backdrop that the Joint Oireachtas Committee’s proposals are to be welcomed.

The Committee suggested an entirely new Article 42 be inserted into the Constitution. The proposals represent a distinct attempt to restructure child protection at constitutional level. Three of the Committee’s proposals in particular warrant note.

First, the Committee suggest that the State recognise the right of the child to have his welfare regarded as a primary consideration.

While the remit of this proposal was slightly reneged upon by the indication that the State should as far as practicable, protect and vindicate those rights, as opposed to a trenchant pledge to vindicate these rights, it remains innovative. Its potential impact is illustrated when the proposal is contrasted with the present absence of any express protection for the child under the

Constitution. The Committee’s proposal attempts to place the child at the forefront of all decisions concerning him/her.

Second, the Committee proposes a significant alteration in the threshold for state intervention in parental autonomy. At present, the State may only interfere with a parent’s autonomy over his/her child in exceptional circumstances. Case law has interpreted these exceptional circumstances as amounting to a virtual abdication of parental responsibilities. This onerous threshold arguably prevents the State from intervening and protecting a child until after considerable damage has already occurred.

Thus, the 2010 proposal which declares that the State ought to be entitled to intervene by proportionate

Article 42.5 as it stands provides unsatisfactory protection for some of the most vulnerable members of our society, children.

means when a parent fails in their responsibility to their child, is a potentially radical suggestion. The removal of the need for exceptional circumstance is to be welcomed. The proposed Article promotes a higher degree of State involvement.

Further, proportionality envisages a nuanced role for the State. The State will intervene to varying degrees depending on the circumstances, this suggests a retreat from the somewhat all or nothing approach which currently exists.

Finally, the Committee’s proposals in respect of adoption are also noteworthy. The Committee suggest that a child may be placed for adoption where his/her parents have failed him/her for a period of time as prescribed by law. Currently, under Irish law, a

married couple cannot voluntarily place their child up for adoption, regardless of whether adoption would be in the child’s best interests. The Committee’s proposal has the potential to significantly better the lives of many marital children in foster care.

Article 42.5 as it stands provides unsatisfactory protection for some of the most vulnerable members of our society, children. The recent proposals of the Joint Oireachtas Committee will by no means address all of the failings of this Article of the Constitution. Nonetheless, the proposals ought to be welcomed as a real and tangible step in the right direction towards increased protection for children in Irish society.

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The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

TimesEDITORIAL

The University Times Ireland Despairs, britain rebels

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he Irish financial crisis began in 2008. Since then we’ve had three hard budgets, all in the name of rectifying the public finances. These budgets have seen taxes rise to levels not seen in over a decade and spending on services drop to pre-2000 levels. All this has happened and you still get the feeling that the average Irishman is sitting at home watching it all on television, just scratching his head in frustration.

Citizens in countries that have not felt the bite of receession to nearly the same extent have taken to the streets in virulent fury. In Iceland, Greece, the UK and France, city streets have been thronged with screaming, enraged citizens protesting against the incompetent stewards of their country. Sometimes these protests have turned violent; but there’s no doubt that their respective governments got the message.

Last week saw tens of thousands of students protest all over the UK at a Torydriven rise in fees from £3,000 to £6,000, with students in more costly courses such as dentistry and medicine expected to pay up to £9,000. This move was seen by many as an attack on students, a bloc which sees itself as a soft target.

From an Irish perspective, the most striking thing about the protests in the UK and those elsewhere is the palpable sense of rage, manifested in acts of civil disobedience. What is it about us that produces such a lacklustre reaction when we’re being subject to equally, if not more harsh cuts?

It’s not apathy. Irish people are avid newspaper readers and Morning Ireland is the most listened to radio show in the country and has been for years now. We’re interested in what’s happening to our country.

However, unlike our fellow Europeans, we don’t seem all that surprised at what has happened. There’s a despairing resignation to our fate. In the back of our minds we knew that a government that took over from Charlie Haughey, led by the charismatic but morally dubious chancer Ahern, was bound to land us in trouble.

Irish people are despairing. When they watch the news and see the camera pan around the Dáil chamber, the shallow pool of talent invites nothing but a deep sigh of depression. Is Enda the man to put fire in our belly? Will Gilmore’s deeds match his rhetoric? Ireland doubts it. Why topple a government when there’s nothing worth installing in its place?

Time to address the cost of wages in college

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hile addressing SU council last week, Provost John Hegarty said that the college finances were healthy and that there was no deficit to speak of. That isn’t technically true.

Based on the figures released, college ran a deficit of €5million in 2009. While €5million may seem like a paltry sum in relation to the overall income and expenditure (around €350million on both counts), College is facing a further 5% reduction in its non-pay core grant and the Croke Park agreement prohibits any contemplation of reducing the college wage bill, by far the largest part of overall expenditure.

In his speech the Provost outlined an extremely vague plan for ensuring the college remains financially buoyant. Dazzling students with outrageous use of management jargon, the Provost was keen to show that his job requires him to speak a lot without actually saying anything of consequence. His is a job so deferential to committees and administrators that any semblance of a plan he has is invariably diluted to nothing but a hopeful statement of whimsy.

What he really wanted to say was that he wished the student contribution was increased by a lot more than €500 and that

there was no exemption for the second, third, fourth or fifth child. He wanted to say that if we want an education to match those provided in Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard then we damn well better pay for it.

But we know he wanted to say that. He knows we know he thinks like that. What he really doesn’t want anyone to know, what he only whispers to himself in the middle of the night, is that he’d love to slash the wage bill. But there again his hands are tied. The Croke Park agreement stifles any efforts he could make to decrease this disproportionately massive section of expenditure, which came in at €244.93million out of the aforementioned €350million. Knowing that even if the Croke Park agreement weren’t in place he would face massive opposition from college staff, due in no small part to the unpopularity of any well-known academics supporting wage cuts in the year of a Provostial election, he would need a major ally if he dared to call for a re-negotiation of the Croke Park agreement for Trinity staff.

In this fight he may have found an unlikely ally. As we have reported, USI have now called for a re-negotiation of the Croke Park agreement. Mindful of the decreased

inclination to target students in the event of a cut in pay expenditure, USI has said that highly paid administrators and academics should not be immune to the cuts that their counterparts in the private sector have to bear.

However, even if the Provost were to join forces with USI and face off against his natural constituents, he has a further, even larger problem: he is a lame duck Provost.

Already well into his final year, Professor Hegarty has served Trinity for nearly ten years and Trinity is already looking to potential candidates to offer ideas for how they will cope with the coming crisis in college finances. As has been said, not one of the serious contenders will come out in favour of wage cuts for high paid staff.

Such a call would be tantamount to electoral suicide under the current electoral system for Provost. One wonders whether, if all of the College Community were represented fairly (including its 17,000 students), we might see some leadership on this issue. Until that time comes, we can’t expect the expensive academic and bureaucratic élite to act in Trinity’s best interests.

Interview: Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg Rónán Burtenshaw Deputy News Editor

O

n January 31st, 2002, armed men came into British citizen’s Moazzam Begg’s Islamabad home, put a gun to his head and took him away. Thus began a three-year detention without trial in the Bagram Theatre Internment Facility in Kandahar and Guantánamo Bay detainment camp, Cuba.

After what he describes as his “kidnapping”, he was detained in Afghanistan for a year.

His treatment was brutal: “It was torture, it was cruel and inhumane treatment, it was all of those things”. In Kandahar, he was “partial witness” to the deaths, as a result of abuse, of two fellow inmates. He features in Oscar-winning 2007 documentary Taxi to the Dark Side speaking about their deaths.

“Becoming a prisoner of the US military,” he recalls, “meant being stripped, punched, kicked, beaten, spat at and sworn at.”

Despite its international renown, Guantánamo was for him “the end-game”, a side-show. He spent his days there in solitary confinement, reading the Koran or writing poetry or doing pushups. “There were a couple of times when I lost control. [I] literally punched, screamed, shouted and cried. I’m not like that as a person, but the situation did drive me to that a couple of times”.

Begg’s small stature and quiet demeanour belies the forcefulness of his words. He tells his story with conviction.

Given the nature of his imprisonment - without charge, trial or conviction - his calm and reasonable descriptions are striking. There was to be no tirade, no finger-pointing, no raised voice during our interview, just determined, controlled passion.

Probably the most emotional moment came when he described the role of British Intelligence in his detention. His sense of betrayal, as a British citizen, was palpable. “I asked myself ‘Am I really that Paki who grew up in Britain?’ I felt abandoned. I wondered ‘would they really be doing this to me if I’d been “real British”?”

Moazzam was born in 1968 in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham. He recounts being subjected to racism and seeing his brother beaten up by neo-Nazi skinheads. These experiences pushed him to join a group called the Lynx Gang, a collection of Asian, Black and Irish immigrant kids who fought back through what he described

as “pitched battles” against the National Front on the city’s streets.

Rejected in the place that he grew up, where he was often told to “go home” to a Pakistan he had never seen, Moazzam went through a crisis of identity. “I was trying to reassert what my identity was; was I British, Asian, Pakistani, Muslim...What was I?” Like many of the disenfranchised youth of Britain’s immigrants, Moazzam was to find his identity in the Ummah of Islam. After marrying, Begg moved in 1998 with his family to Peshawar, Pakistan, on the Afghan border.

Shortly afterwards, he set up a school in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. This school, he emphasised, was for both boys and girls, an important point

The lesson of Northern Ireland is that you have to negotiate with people you don’t like. given the Taliban’s often reported opposition to female education.

His decision to move to the region was based on a desire to “live in a Muslim country”.

When I asked him why this was such an important factor to him, he returned to the memories of his childhood. “It was as a father that I wanted to live there. I knew what my own experiences had been growing up in Britain, what I’d done and experienced… [and] I didn’t want that for my children”. Afghanistan was chosen in particular, he said, because it was the place where his work could be of most “social benefit”.

Much of the controversy surrounding Moazzam Begg’s work with human rights groups such as Amnesty International in recent years has stemmed from his time in Afghanistan and alleged support for the Taliban. He doesn’t profess blind support for the Taliban: “I think that the Taliban were the best thing to happen to [Afghanistan] in the last twenty-five years. But I’ve also spoken about the violence, injustices and atrocities that I saw them commit.”

Moazzam’s support for concepts like nationalistic “defensive jihad” and his involvement with Amnesty led to a public spat which saw their head of Gender Unit, Gita Sahgal, lose her job.

She described Amnesty’s work

with Moazzam Begg as a “grave error”, and warned against the conflation of anti-imperialism and support for fundamentalists.

Begg, for his part, saw this as an “unintelligent but manipulative way of trying to undermine [his] work”.

Seeing himself as a “human rights activist”, he believes in a universal conception of human rights, based around the practice of “doing unto others as you would have them do to you”. However, this set of human rights contains some notable absences. Gay rights and other social issues are “Western concepts” and he resists their imposition on Muslim societies.

“Homosexuality was illegal in the UK up until the 70s… [Now] we want to make this a law and if you don’t accept it in your society then you’re wrong… It’s so arrogant, so typically Western.”

He is clearly troubled by the conflict he sees. This conflict appears internalised to a degree; he uses the word “we” for both ‘the West’ and the ‘Muslim World’ at various points of the interview. Moazzam Begg preaches negotiation with the Muhajideen with which he himself had some involvement, both in Bosnia and in Afghanistan. He sees parallels close to home for dealing with the Taliban: “If you want to reach a solution in Afghanistan, you’ll have to do what we did in Northern Ireland; have negotiations with the enemies, the “barbarians”, the “monsters”, the “terrorists”… The lesson of Northern Ireland is that you have to negotiate with people you don’t like.”

Moazzam Begg is a microcosm of the complicated issues that exist beneath the ‘West vs. the Muslim World’ narrative. Rejected, abandoned and ultimately imprisoned without charge by ‘The West’, he found acceptance from his brother and sister Muslims. His case and his opinions highlight the differences that exist between the liberal tradition of human rights in ‘The West’ and their conception in most Muslim communities. But, as he reminds us, “the people of ‘The West’ are a minority on this planet” and the days of European or American ability to dictate values are coming to an end. In many ways, Moazzam Begg occupies the no-man’s land between Muslim communities and those living in ‘The West’ that few from either side are willing to enter, but is, nonetheless, the key to a future of co-existence.

Moazzam Begg’s book “Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantánamo and Back” is available from Amazon at www.amazon.co.uk for £15 (€18). He is Director of the human rights organisation CagePrisoners, who can be found at www.cageprisoners.com.

Moazzam Begg before his interview with Rónán Burtenshaw. Photo: Ana Lezcano

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

14

Timessports

QATARSTROPHE! Matthew Rye Staff Writer The Russian footballing authority saw its bid for World Cup 2018 accepted during the FIFA summit in Zurich on Wednesday two weeks ago. The coveted hosting rights were contested rigorously over the last 18 months, with bids from Russia, England and the combined efforts of Spain-Portugal and Holland- Belgium.

This will be the first time an Eastern European country has hosted the competition.

The English FA has made its disapproval of the decision clear since the announcement, claiming that England had the superior facilities and footballing legacy, perhaps with a just cause.

England ticked all the relevant boxes for the bid, with ultra-modern stadia and transport as well as one of the most widespread fan bases in the world.

Doubts have already been raised by a number of authorities over Russia’s ability to prepare adequately for the world’s most watched sporting event, as 13 of the proposed 16 stadia have yet to be completed. Recent statistics also show that 1 in 3 Russian league matches are subject to match-fixing, primarily due to the large amount of organised crime in the country.

England’s unsuccessful bid to attain the hosting rights for the competition could be an amalgamation of many different factors,

but the omnipotent British media and FIFA’s attempt to bring The Beautiful Game to less familiar soil seem to be the main reasons for the FA’s failure. The BBC’s “Panorama” programme accused certain FIFA executives of corruption and bribery, a mere two nights before the voting took place. Poor timing doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Considering FIFA’s legacy of bringing The Beautiful Game to new frontiers, it is

England, on the other hand, is among the most footballsaturated states, where the Premier League dominates the back pages every weekend

unsurprising to see the decision not go in England’s favour. Russia’s top-flight league attracts fewer stadium-goers than the average European country, despite its 140 million inhabitants, which suggests that there is room for improvement. England, on the other hand, is among the most football-saturated states, where the Premier League dominates the back pages every weekend.

To the FA, this is an achievement. To FIFA, this shows no future revenue streams.

This cynical financial theory became significantly more believable when the oil-rich Qatar secured the rights to hold the 2022 World Cup during the Zurich summit. Qatar has a lack of real footballing history and a small number of underused stadia. It also, not insignificantly, has the highest GDP per capita in the world. Bidding rivals Australia and the United States were undoubtedly displeased with the outcome, considering Qatar achieved the worst technical report score.

Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, claimed that the results of the voting highlighted the desire of FIFA to bring football to new soil. Although probably true, this will do little to ease the suffering of the star- studded English panel, which included David Beckham, Prince William and British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Keep the chins up lads. 2026 will be here before you know it.

NFL: Promise, controversy and fading stars Melanie Gieldlin Staff Writer Heading into week 14 of the regular season, and with less than 4 weeks till the playoffs start, it’s gutcheck for teams who want a piece of post-season glory.

Clear leaders have already emerged in both the American and National Football Conferences and analysts and fans alike are casting their predictions on which teams will advance, which teams will secure a valuable wildcard spot, and which will be left in the dust.

In the background, injuries to quarterback Brett Favre (Minnesota Vikings) and new rules for assessing helmet to helmet hits to limit concussions have some players checking their aggressiveness and questioning whether their game has changed for good. In the NFC, the Atlanta Falcons (10-2) seem to own not only the South Division, but also their conference, trailed closely by the defending SuperBowl Champions New Orleans Saints (9-3). The Falcons, still holding the top spot in the ESPN.com Power Rankings, have surged ahead in their conference with victories in a string of close games, including their most recent on December 5th against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Down 24-14 in the fourth quarter, quarterback Matt Ryan surged ahead to deliver a 9-yard

touchdown pass to Michael Jenkins, eventually squeezing their way to a 28-24 victory. That kind of down-tothe-wire game play is what has put the Falcons currently at the top, but still vulnerable to the Saints (Next match up 27 December @ ATL).

As for the rest of the NFC, the Chicago Bears are so far slated to be the winners of NFC North, whereas NFC East and West will likely come down to tiebreakers in head-to-head percentage between the Philadelphia Eagles and the NY Giants in the East, and the St. Louis Rams and the Seattle Seahawks in the ‘Weak’ West.

The irony of the NFC West is that a sub-.500 team could win the division and go to the playoffs, while teams with winning records in the other divisions will not.

In the AFC, the New England Patriots hold the same position that the Falcons do in the NFC with their 10-2 standings, closely followed by the New York Jets with 9-3. However, their bid for the Superbowl will depend on whether their offence, led by quarterback Tom Brady, can hold out and not run out of steam, and on whether their under-developed defence stops the slew of passing yards the opposition gains on them (currently averaging 276.8 yards per game according to ESPN. com). Those questions were

Write for the Sports section! email jack@universitytimes.ie

put to rest on December 6th in Foxboro when the Patriots throttled the Jets 45-3.

In the other divisions, the always dangerous Pittsburgh Steelers are currently leading the North by virtue of a tough win 13-10 against Baltimore Ravens, the Kansas City Chiefs in the West, and the Jacksonville Jaguars the currently leading the weak South.

As for wildcards, if the season ended today we would see the AFC New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens for the NFC, with no threat from the uneven Oakland Raiders for either spot.

In the NFC, the New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants will be the wildcards, though the Green Bay Packers’ win percentage in conference games is just behind the Giants. After reviewing standings and statistics, two questions remain: who is going to be in this years Superbowl, and do the New Orleans Saints have another shot at repeatng last year’s feat? A win during Wildcard Weekend would put the New Orleans Saints in the running once again, and with an offence led by Drew Brees (finally back to form after shaky start to the season) an appearance in the big game isn’t far off. If this is the case, the playoffs will see a heady match-up between rivals the Falcons and the Saints (next facing each other on Dec. 27) for NFC South. However, many slate the Patriots as this year’s Superbowl favourites. With the seemingly unshakable Bill Belichik- Tom Brady axis and the Patriots’ signature military-like precision, it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if the Patriots were the team left holding the trophy.

Trinity Ladies show off prizes at College Park

Front Row, L-R: Drinda Jones, DUCAC Administrator, Therese McCarrfety, Rachel Ruddy, Michelle Tanner, Director Dept. of Sport Back Row: Cyril Smyth, Chairman DUCAC, Gearoid Devitt, DU GAA Development Officer.

Trinity’s leading GAA girls Therese Gearoid Devitt.

Vodafone All-Star as corner-back, won Football captain and a Senior Sophister McCafferty and Rachel Ruddy show Rachel, the 2009/10 Trinity Camothe 2010 Senior All-Ireland with DubPharmacy student, collected the Interoff their numerous accolades on Colgie Captain who graduated earlier lin and the 2010 Dublin Senior Club mediate All-Ireland with Donegal and lege Green in a photo-shoot organised this year and is now working in SinChampionship with Ballyboden. the Donegal and Ulster Championby new GAA development manager gapore, was recently awarded a 2010 Therese, the incumbent Trinity Gaelic ships with her hometown side Termon.

Your SU shops are there for you, whether you need a ticket for an Ents event, that crucial calculator before an exam, or just fancy an ice cream.

Located on the ground 6 floor of housoen & the hamilt building

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The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

Timessports

dan bergin tries...

This week I tried Judo.

Much to my disappointment, it turns out there is not such thing as a ‘Judo Chop.’

In fact, there is no chopping, punching, or hitting of any kind in Judo. Even though it’s a old as the GAA, Judo isn’t quite as violent. It’s all grapples and throws. The idea being to use your opponent’s weight, balance, and momentum against them.

In theory this means that the sport can be played successfully by anyone, no matter what his or her weight and strength. In practice, this leads to a lot of hugging, and nowhere near enough kissing.

In preparation for the rigorous exercise I knew this would entail, I’ve spent the past month drinking, smoking, and falling over. Additionally, I tried new tracksuit trousers! Can you imagine the decadence dear readers? A hall of people in white judo pyjamas (judogi) and me, thundercats t-shirt and oversized pair of penny’s finest baggy black knackerpants. Still though, despite everyone seeming to have their own uniform, the skill level in the class was quite mixed, from people who had

only been in the club a few weeks, to fully fledged badass black belts. That’s something I’ve always like about the marshal arts, the belt system. A clear sign that let you know if you can expect to get fucked up by a pro, or just mildly hassled by someone who still isn’t sure what foot to start with.

The class started much the same as any other sport.

Some light foot shuffling as a warm up, followed by some arm waving and serious posing (or stretching as some people call it.) Occasionally the coach would say something in Japanese to get us to stop or change what we were doing. The only thing I really caught was ‘Yoshi,’ which apparently means ‘carry on, or continue.’ Makes you wonder why they gave that name to the Mario character doesn’t it? And now that

I’ve made a video game reference, the nerds reading this section to feel sporty can relax.

Warm ups then moved into being more specific, a lot of work was done with the arms. I particularly felt it in my triceps brachii and deltoids. (Take that, you game playing geeks!) This is mostly because grip is very import in judo, and a lot of arm and hand work happens while in competition.

Not that grip isn’t important in other “hand work.” (yeah.

I went there. Deal with it. ) After that we did some basic technique. The first thing you learn in Judo is how to fall better. Its called a ‘breakfall’ and it involves slapping the ground just as you hit the floor. Fall, slap, fall, slap. I’m not sure if I was doing it right, but the pain in my arms certainly took away from the pain in

my shoulders.

Judo was an odd experience over all. One second I’m holding onto some guys sleeve, next I’m on the floor looking up at him. How did this happen? I asked myself time and again as I stood up, only to find myself on the soft padded floor again. Occasionally I was able to catch some insight as I found myself paused half way towards the ground on someone’s back, generally this insight took the form of ‘Oh no.’

However, fear not dear readers! I eventually managed to hold my own, and even took someone to the ground. It was great! Much as I would have loved to chop someone in the neck, there’s such a great buzz to throwing an entire person to the floor. When you get it right, it requires very little actual effort, and this makes laying the royal smackdown all the more satisfying. Hup! Slap! Yeah. Till next time dear readers!

If you (or anyone you know) has a sport you’d like me to try, e-mail my editor and gay rights activist Manus ‘don’t drop the soap’ Cronin @ sports@universitytimes.ie

Jack Leahy’s A-Z of Sports in 2010

It’s been some year for sports – Spurs finally overcame their perpetual lack of bottle to reach the latter stages of the Champions League, Tiger Woods failed to take a single win on the US PGA Tour, and Nelson Madela watched Spain danced their way through defenses to claim the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We take an A-Z look back at a great year for all disciplines.

A is for the AVIVA, Ireland’s new national stadium

after taking three of the year’s four Grand Slams.

B

BLATTER

is for , something with which Portsmouth failed to find long-term success in 2010, changing hands 4 times within the year.

CHELSEA

is for , whose 18 points with the boot gave Scotland a 20-23 victory over Ireland at Croke Park in March.

which opened in August.

is for , FIFA’s controversial chief who brought his opposition to goal-line technology with him into 2010.

C

is for , crowned Premier League Champions in May with an extraordinary goal tally of 103

OWNERSHIP

P

PARKS

Q

QATAR

R

ROONEY

S

SPAIN

T

TWITTER

U

URUGUAY

V

VETTEL

W

WEBB

X

XAVIER DOHERTY

Y

YAYA TOURÉ

Z

ZAMORA

D is for DAVID HAYE – love him or hate him,

is for , afforded the hosting rights to the 2022 FIFA World Cup through the governing body’s controversial voting process.

E is for EOIN MORGAN, who bagged a test

is for , who made headlines for economic, romantic, and performance-based reasons alike this year.

F is for FALL FROM GRACE, Tiger Woods’ re-

is for , FIFA World Cup Champions in South Africa for the first time after surviving an assassination attempt from Nigel de Jong and Mark van Bommel

G is for GRAINNE MURPHY, the 17-year old

is for , Kevin Pietersen’s ill-advisedly chosen outlet for his fury at being dropped from the England ODI squad.

H is for HARRY REDKNAPP, in the frame for

is for , surprise fourth-placed finishers at the World Cup, primarily due to Diego Forlan’s Golden Ball-winning efforts.

I is for INTERNAZIONALE, Serie A, Coppa

is for Formula One World Champion despite never once leading the championship until the last day of the championship.

J is for JURY, still out after Ireland’s indifferent cam-

is for , the Premier League referee whose officiating of the World Cup final bore the ire of both sides as he dished out 14 yellow cards.

Audley Harrison will be suffering from nightmares of that night in November for years to come. century for England against Bangladesh in May before being left in the pavilion for the Ashes series. ality as Lee Westwood usurped him as the world’s number one golfer after over five years leading the rankings.

Irish swimmer who made a big splash at the World Championships before sitting her Leaving Certificate. the England job in 2010 after leading Spurs to the Champions League knock-out rounds Italia, and Champions League winners in 2010 under Modest Mourinho. paign in the 2010 Autumn rugby internationals.

K

‘KILLED HIM’

L

LAVALLA

is for , Rafael van der Vaart’s summary of Gareth’s Bale’s crimes against Brazilian defender Maicon after Spurs’ 3-1 victory over Inter Milan in October. is for , DUFC captain who made his debut for the US Eagles in July.

M

McDOWELL

is for , the Northern Irish golfer with the US Open Championship, the Ryder Cup, BBC NI Sports Personality of the Year and a share of the European Golfer of the Year award aftera very successful 2010.

N is for NADAL, tennis’ number 1 ranked player

Photo: Dargan Crowley-Long

O

is for , Australia’s latest attempt at replacing Shane Warne who was smashed to all corners of the Gabba and the Adelaide Oval in the first two Ashes tests for gut-wrenching figures of 3/306. is for , the epitome of Manchester City’s willingness to spend big, earning £220,000 per week after a transfer fee of £24million from Barcelona in July. is for , the England striker who fired Fulham into the Europa League final in May, only to lose 2-1 to Athletico Madrid in the Hamburg finale.

Hurlers’ brave performance not enough in league final TRINITY 1-5 Carlow IT 2-10 NUI Maynooth Jack Leahy Deputy Sports Editor A brave effort from Trinity’s senior hurlers could not prevent Carlow IT from bulldozing their way to the Senior College Hurling League title at NUI Maynooth, going down 2-10 to 1-5 to a powerful Carlow performance.

Carlow took early control of proceedings, sending in a barrage of longrange efforts in the opening minutes before eventually finding the target with a huge long-range effort.

Colm Coughlan’s point from straight in front drew Trinity level soon after, but scores were never level for too long as Carlow grew in confidence, making surging runs which drew foul after foul from the Trinity midfield.

Oisín Daly attempted to fashion a resurgence and was superlative all night in the red and black, but he was powerless to prevent CIT’s opening score as goalkeeper Naos Connaughton failed to control a high, straight shot on goal which just dipped under the bar to give Carlow a 1-2 to 0-3 lead.

The goal stunned Trinity and allowed Carlow to reassert their control, playing simple passes and scoring two points in quick

succession from in front of the upright. Trinity forward Daniel Sutcliffe was insatiable in his efforts to draw his side level but found the Carlow rearguard in unforgiving form, snuffing out his efforts with some robust tackling.

Sutcliffe did manage to earn a penalty, however, as his foray into the danger zone ended when he was hauled down by the Carlow keeper. Trinity’s luckless evening was epitomised by the penalty attempt as Coughlan’s effort was hacked off the line by a defensive line in fine form.

Carlow grabbed another goal immediately before the half-way mark, storming their way through the

Trinity defense on the counter-attack and finishing emphatically to leave the halftime score at an ominous 2-5 to 0-3.

The situation could have been even worse after the break, however, as a bizarre decision from Carlow corner-forward Mark Bradley denied his side what would have been a well-fashioned goal. A slip from Martin Phelan allowed the Carlow front line in on the Trinity goal, before the man in possession superbly chipped Trinity keeper Connaughton to find Bradley unmarked at the far post with inches separating him from the goal. The attacker inexplicably decided to chest the sliotar when it looked easier

question must be asked why wasn’t the former Republic Of Ireland defender’s contract renewed? Having earned the Magpies promotion, achieved a respectable mid-table position and produced a starin-the-making in Carroll, Hughton has had an extremely successful year. Surely we can’t argue with a well-fought 3-1 win over Liverpool. Well, I can and certainly will, and don’t call me Shirley.

Thanks to that defeat, Roy Hodgson has now won just a single game in his last 27 away fixtures. I can’t bring myself to comment further.

Meanwhile, Wayne “£280,000 a week” Rooney continues to struggle upon his return to Old Trafford.

Although Dimitar Berbatov has provided adequate cover (not least with his five goals

against Blackburn), questions must still be asked of the strength of the United strikeforce, should Rooney’s goal drought continue. It will be no walk in the park for Sir Alex this season.

At the other end of the table, surely Avram Grant’s days at West Ham are surely numbered. Despite impressive progress in the Carling Cup, the harsh reality of only having one away win in the last two seasons spells trouble for the Hammers.

The January transfer window should provide more drama with the likes of Benzema and Schweinsteiger being linked with a move to England. Only time will tell...

Jack Hogan’s Premier League Miscellany Jack Hogan Armchair footballer At that time of year when assignments and exams loom large, the Premier League has once again proved to be the source of all solace and joy (and at times a convenient excuse not to do essays). With a fully-fledged title race and a vicious fight for survival now on our hands, who could be blamed for choosing Match Of The Day over a late night in the library?

Arsenal, it would appear, have finally livened up somewhat with impressive wins at Villa and at home to Fulham thanks to the magnificent Samir Nasri. The return of Fabregas from injury, along with some January transfer action from Wenger should see the Gunners in tip-top shape in the

New Year.

Across town at Stamford Bridge, the sacking of assistant coach and Blue stalwart Ray Wilkins has caused chaos all the way from the boardroom to pitch. With Wilkins taking legal action against the club and some shocking onfield displays (most notably the 3-0 thumping at home to Sunderland), it’s not a happy camp at Chelsea. The return of John Terry from injury has had little or no impact on an already tormented central defense. Ancelotti be warned.

Speaking of sackings, Chris Hughton’s sudden demise at Newcastle, described by midfielder Kevin Nolan as “a complete shock”, has caused consternation in the Northeast. With striker Andy Carroll already speaking out against the decision, the

to put the hurley to it, wasting the most glorious of opportunities for his side.

Bradely made amends for his error soon after, adding two points in quick succession with increasing ease to lead his side 2-7 – 0-3 ahead with over twenty minutes remaining. Trinity were down but – in their eyes at least – not out, Mark O’ Sullivan storming forward alone on the counter-attack with his well-worked cross failing to find a Trinity man in the danger zone.

Points from Coughlan and Leo Sexton late on almost went unnoticed amongst the Carlow dominance of the later stages of the game, but they did manage to finally stamp their

mark on the game as Colm Murphy found himself in acres of space before taking his time to hammer home and leave the scores at 2-10 following another three simple points for Carlow to 1-5. A heroic block from Ian Kavanagh with less than five minutes on the clock epitomised his sides’ resilience in the face of a sizable deficit.

While the senior hurlers will no doubt be disappointed at the defeat, they will surely take heart from the magnitude of the strides made in such a short time under new development officer Gearoid Devitt, with the GAA setup in general looking genuinely competitive all-round. While Trinity had admirable heart,

this Carlow IT side’s performance was dominant from first to last and they ensured that their Dublin opponents never had a sniff in earnest. late solo effort which left the Queen’s defenders trailing in his wake.

Overall, performances from both Trinity sides were impressive, a declaration which is epitomised by the selection of ten Trinity hockey players in the Irish Universities Trial Squads.

Both sides will nonetheless be disappointed not to have pushed on further in their respective competitions.

The Team 1. Naos Connaughton 2. John O’ Malley 3. Martin Phelan 4. Oisín Daly 5. Colm Gleeson 6. Aidan Quillegan 17. Damien Kennedy 8. Ian Kavanagh 9. Eamon O’ Gorman 10. Daniel Sutcliffe 16. Colm Murphy 12. Leo Sexton 13. Mark O’ Sullivan 14. Pauric Ryan 15. Colm Coughlan

Jack Leahy makes some foolish predictions Jack Leahy stares into UT’s crystal ball and charges e3.75 a minute to cluelessly predict your future. Then, he uses it to make some bold predictions about 2011....

Premier League: It has to be Manchester United, if they can strengthen a tad in January and get Wayne firing. Will be interesting to see how they replace Neville, Scholes, Giggs, Van der Saar and Giggs. West Ham, Wigan, and Wolves to go in the case of the Hammers, hopefully they just do us all a favour and do it quickly and painlessly.

Surprise of the year: Blackpool to keep taking the odd

win and stay up. 6 more should do it...

Champions League: I’m going to be alternative and say Barcelona.

Alan Pardew to last: Presuming he makes it to 2011, I’ll give him six months. Mike Ashley to follow soon after.

First sacking of the year: It’s a toss-up between Mancini and Ancelotti, even though it really shouldn’t be. Avram Grant and Roy Hodgson can’t be feeling too confident either.

Tennis Grand Slams: Nadal for all four. If anyone can do it in this day and age, it’s him.

Fed to fall to fifth and consider retirement.

Ricky Ponting: Should keep

the Australian captaincy win, lose or draw. He’s the last remaining relic of a great side and there are no obvious replacements, not even Michael Clarke.

Rugby World Cup: Australia, if the younger members can harden a bit in the Super 15.

Ireland at RWC: Lukewarm group stages and quarter-final defeat to group winners, Sexton starting ahead of ROG with the latter and Drico bowing out thereafter.

Shane Warne: No comeback.

While playing, he looked like he enjoyed a few too many shrimps on the barbie; fitness couldn’t be tip-top after three years without fitness tests.

Miscellaneous: Michael Owen out of United in January... Roy Keane run out of Ipswich by Christmas... Balotelli to strop back to Italy...

Tevez to quit City in similar manner but citing family reasons... Andy Murray to make a Grand Slam final... Leeds and Leicester to mount late promotion charge... England to win RBS 6 Nations... Biarritz for the Heino... England and Wales Cricket Board to ban Twitter... Tiger Woods to win one major, cry, allude to father and mistakes, hail the dawn of a new era, and win nothing else all year.. and STILL no goal-line technology.

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

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Timessports

utsports

Inside

Dan Bergin tries Judo

DUAFC end four-year dry spell with IV victory DUAFC 12 UL Vikings 6 University of Limerick David Corcoran Staff Writer Though the daylight was only beginning to fade by the end of a monumental struggle between Trinity Football and the UL Vikings for the CUSAI College American Football Championship, it had appeared for much of the contest as if the sun had long set on Trinity’s hopes of achieving their first piece of silverware in their four year history. Although was running-back Rob Mc Dowell who ultimately clinched a gritty triumph for the club, it was without a doubt a lightsout performance from the defensive unit of the team which claimed the title for Trinity.

While the fixture ultimately ended shrouded in confusion and controversy, there was certainly no doubt as to which side had the brighter start. On the opening Limerick offensive drive, an early fumble forced by the Trinity defense was almost returned for a score by rookie defensive end Zaid Foty. With the offense set up with good field position, Rob Mc Dowell provided the

finishing touch with ease, cantering into the endzone to give Trinity an early 6-0 lead.

This early score was to provide the only real highlight of offensive play in a first half dominated by the defensive play of both sides.

Marsh-like pitch conditions made moving the football difficult, and the Vikings soon found this task impossible as they met an inspired Trinity defense led by second year linebacker Stephen Carton. As Trinity took their lead and defensive dominance into halftime, it appeared any spark from a spluttering offense would clinch the club’s first title with ease.

As the third quarter began however, reality dawned. The Vikings, showing their pedigree as both current defending college champions and Shamrock Bowl winners, began to move the ball with quick passes. One such pass from quarter-back Paul Keane found a chink in the Trinity defense’s armour and the scores were level at 6-6. Suddenly the momentum had shifted, deflating the Trinity offense in the process. An early injury to starting center and captain Stephen Fallon combined with intense pressure from a freshly renewed defensive effort from the home side ensured that

the unit found any progress problematic.

As the fourth quarter drew to a close, the seasoned Limerick side sensed victory; in the face of an offensive performance mired by the difficult conditions, it was Carton and the defense that again picked up the slack. Backed up with excellent defensive play calling from new defensive coaching recruits Stephen Collins and Danny O Callaghan, flawless tackling by line-backers Carton, Barker and Coughlan combined with an outstanding debut from defensive line Conor Bates frustrated Limerick’s attempt to snatch victory.

Forced into a stalemate, sudden death overtime began. While the previous four quarters had seen sublime defense from both sides, the extra period was marred by questionable officiating. An astonishing 80 yard fumble recovery return for a touchdown by wide-receiver Lorcan Smullen was ruled out due to an inadvertent whistle from an official, while a Limerick field goal which appeared to have clearly hit the mark was ruled no good, after much deliberation amongst the officials.

The drama continued into a second quarter, when a well-struck Trinity field goal by kicker James Marron came heartbreakingly close

DUAFC Running Back Rob McDowell on his way for a touch down, his path cleared by Finley Dargan (left, number 69) Photo: Martin Connolly for Trinity, dropping just short. As the game entered an exhausting and unprecedented third quarter of overtime, the stage was set for an individual to shape the outcome. Fittingly, it was man

of the match Carton who provided the decisive play for Trinity. An interception return, combined with the blocking of the outstanding new safety Hunter Inman provided the Trinity

offence with a chance to finally end both the proceedings and the overtime controversies. With the sky darkening, Rob Mc Dowell showed his credentials as Trinity’s biggest star once

again finding the endzone for a famous Trinity win with over 150 rushing yards on the day. As night fell in Limerick, a new era dawned for American Football in Trinity as the side clinched

their first silverware in their four years.

Snowsports club come off second best in Colours clash Danieal Cafferky Staff Writer The Annual Colours competition in snowsports was held on the 27th of November in Kilternan. There was a chilly north-easterly wind which felt like it blew all the way from Siberia, twisting through the bodies that stood stationary on top of the largest artificial skislope in Ireland. Along the

course were viewing points, with a record turn-out of over 100 people, shouting and chanting their respective teams on with visible camaraderie. The air turned bitter, and the moisture in the air froze. Then, it happened: it started to snow.

With that, the races began. First was the Skiing competition, with DUSSC firm favourites as always having emerged victorious

each of the last three years.

Their UCD rivals were visibly frightened, and their fear was realised was Rory Farrell came whistling down at a breathtaking 73km/h.

Farrell’s ride set the tone for a straightforward victory as DUSSC won comfortably with the B-team taking third, leaving DUSSC with a firm grasp of the competition lead.

Trinity were missing key

boarder Frederick Honohan, who was released from hospital only two weeks ago after suffering a severe head trauma. Their competitiveness was thus compromised from the off, but a valiant effort was rewarded with second place. Victory had begun to slip away at this stage, however, as first place was required to retain the lead.

Next came the Freestyle

Competition - Trinity have always struggled with this competition due to lack of experience in the format, but nonetheless Simon O’Reilly hit the ramps, pipes and boxes hard trying to gather points. But, with the wind howling, snow falling, and the competition ending, the sorry fact was that yet again, DUSSC came up second best.

However, even though

Fencers reign supreme at the RDS Jack Leahy Deputy Sports editor Anna Smith and Hannah Lowry-O’ Reilly won the Women’s Foil and Women’s Epee respectively at the Irish Open to become national champions. Their victories capped a hugely successful weekend for the fencing club, who claimed a second place and two third places in addition to the big victories early in the weekend.

The Women’s Foil saw Viviane Brefort pitted against her fellow Trinity fencers in all of her clashes. She overcame Louise Nicholls in the last 16 and Jenny Jennings in the quarter finals before meeting defending Irish Champion and eventual winner Smith in the semifinal. Smith went on to face Joana Ramalho in the final, an opponent over whom she had been overwhelmingly victorious in the final of the West of Ireland Open earlier this year. This contest was a much closer affair, however, with Anna claiming a 15-14 victory after Ramalho had taken the lead late on.

Lowry-O’Reilly, taking part in her first Irish Open and suffering from an ankle

injury, faced a difficult path to the final despite a strong ranking after the pool stages. She managed to overcome an early 2-point deficit to Miriam Cashman in their round of sixteen clash, but managed to claw her way back with a combination of offence and defence and take victory. Her semi-final encounter with Fiona Haldane was a more straightforward affair, taking an early lead and holding onto it until the end. She showed the same control in the final against Maynooth’s Lorraine McGill, coming from two points down to level in the second period before establishing and maintaining a lead to leave Trinity with two Irish Champions at the RDS. Elsewhere in the competition, Helen Naddy took second place in the Women’s Sabre event, losing out to Niamh Spence in the final.

In the Men’s Sabre, two Trinity fencers – Jean-Baptiste Muller and Ali Mahdavirad – met in a close last sixteen clash, in which Muller held a slender lead by the first break which he managed to hold despite his team-mate’s late dash for victory.

DUSSC lost overall in the colours, the squad were recently involved in the BUDS competition held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Here DUSSC represented Ireland against the British Universities and did not lapse on their national duty, with Shane McShera coming 10th and Stephen Dent-Neville finishing in 14th place out of at least 300 competitors.

Also there is a note to be

made about the dual team, who reached the quarter-finals, knocking out UCD along the way. Dan Finnegan had the distinction of being the first DUSSC member ever to make it to the last 32 of the boarder cross competition. Tiernan Kennedy had a less successful weekend, however, finishing 237th out of 237 competitors in the boarding competition.

The Inter-varsity competition will take place in March and Trinity will no doubt have their eyes on the main prize, especially given that they will be bringing 350 keen skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts away to the French Alps in January for some much needed practice.

Fixtures frozen during cold snap - Jack Leahy

Photo: Tiernan Kennedy

DUFC’s Helen Naddy and Jack McHugh who achieved second and third in Women’s and Men’s Sabre respectively at the Irish Open 2010. Photo: DUFC

College Green wore an unfamilair shade of College White from as far back as November 26th to the middle of last week as a combination of heavy snowfall and sub-zero temperatures left pitches unplayable and affecting three weekends of fixtures.

Fixture lists were wiped clean on the first weekend of tundra conditions, meaning that there was little chance of any sporting life emerging during the

following weeks of thick snow and frozen ground respectively. The DUFC vs. Corinthians AIL fixture was postponed, with a rather ambitious attempt to rearrange it for last weekend never really getting off the frozen ground.

No date has been set for the second attempt at rearangement, nor for the following weekend’s away fixture against Terenure College. The All-Ireland League faces a potential scheduling crisis, with

some sides losing three games to the elements and the schedules for January and February already full to the brim.

Elsewhere, six GAA fixtures involving College teams were unplayable, as well as hockey and J3 rugby encounters. Jack Hogan arrived for DU AFC v Skerries to find only snowmen present as the weather conspired to give Trinity’s outdooor sportsmen and women an early Christmas break.

The University Times TUESDAY, 14 DECEMBER 2010

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THE IRISH ECONOMIC CRISIS FOR DUMMIES INSIDE

Full implications of the Budget for you Your questions answered: Why not just default?

Where does this leave us in Europe?

What is the bond market?

Who runs Ireland now?

Articles by Ireland’s top economists

Anxious citizens watch Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan’s budget speech through the window of Foley’s Pub beside Government Buildings. Photo: Dargan Crowley-Long

Will this never end?

Tom Lowe Editor

Everyone knows that Ireland has been through an unprecedented crisis over the last few years. Everyone in Ireland feels strongly about it, but the complexity of the economics surrounding the issue means that few, if any, truly understand what’s happened, why it happened, and where we go from here.

The reportage in the national media often presumes a level of economic understanding and background knowledge that the majority of people can’t be expected to have - but fear not, The University Times is here to help.

We’ve prepared this short four-page primer on the budget, the bailout and the bloody misery of it all to help you figure out where you stand on the crisis that brought Ireland to its knees.

In these pages you’ll find out exactly what a bailout is, why it raises questions of Irish independence and sovereignty, and what happens in the much-maligned bond market.

It’s all fundamentally about government borrowing - the money that investors loan to Ireland so that it can pay for the services it provides.

Changes within Ireland and the world around us particularly the Irish government’s decision to pay any losses incurred by those who have loaned money to Irish banks, and Ireland’s hollowed-out tax base - have caused these investors to worry that the Irish government may not be able to give all the money back, so they want to charge a higher interest rate on these loans to balance that risk. Whereas before, investors were willing to offer money to Ireland at around 4%, since then rates have hit 9%.

There’s only so much

money that the government can devote to paying back debt - the more it has to pay back, the more citizens have to pay in tax: but at the same time, the higher the rate of tax the government charges, the more economic activity is stifled as people have less incentive to work or start a business, resulting in unemployment.

At the high interest rates caused by worries over Ireland’s solvency, Ireland can’t conceivably continue to function and still repay its debts - hence it was necessary for external bodies (the EU and IMF) to step in to loan us money at a lower rate, or else Ireland would face bankruptcy.

The EU and IMF have quite different reasons to bail out Ireland. The IMF was set up for this explicit purpose - as a “lender of last resort” for broke economies.

The EU, meanwhile, has much invested in Ireland’s continued ability to borrow money and repay its debts.

European banks, particularly in the UK and Germany, have a lot to lose if Irish banks default on their debt.

The Germans stand to lose out big time if Irish banks fail to pay back their borrowings. An Irish default, and the consequent default of Irish banks, would deepen the European banking crisis, pushing up the costs of government borrowing throughout the Eurozone and threatening the Euro itself.

It’s impossible to give a full account of the causes of the crisis - a lot of our problems are due to vicious cycles - as economic activity falls, taxes must rise to avoid increasing our deficit - but taxes cause our economic activity to fall. As the cost of borrowing increases, it looks less and less likely that we will be able to repay our debts, making investors nervous and raising the costs of borrowing.

As the value of the property assets backing much of Irish banks’ loan portfolios decreases, so too does their ability to create credit, depressing the value of these same assets further as people can’t get the credit required to buy them.

Thus, it’s difficult indeed to pick out where exactly in these negative feedback loops this crisis started.

An important distinction exists between the two main internal causes of the crisis.

Firstly, Irish tax revenue became far too reliant on “cyclically sensitive” taxes - which return proportionally less to the Exchequer in times of recession and vice-versa during economic booms.

The three cyclically sensitive taxes - corporation tax on companies’ profits, stamp duty on the sale of property, and capital gains tax on profits made through financial investments - represented just 8% of the Irish tax take in 1987, but increased steadily to 27% in 2007. This meant that over a quarter of tax revenue was predicated on continued economic growth.

When the global crash came in 2008, the revenue raised by these three taxes collapsed by 36%. Former Trinity lecturer and current Governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, calculated that at the 1987 level of reliance on these taxes, the 2008 fall in the overall tax take would have been just 8% compared to the real and catastrophic 14% dive.

The consequence of this was a widening of the gap between the tax take and government spending, from just under 1% of all wealth generated in 2007, to nearly 15% in 2009.

This year, with the losses faced by investors who loaned money to Irish banks added to the government balance sheet, the deficit will come to a whopping

32% of all the money earned in Ireland this year.

This is the second cause.

Rather than simply guarantee the money ordinary punters put in the banks to avoid a bank run, the government decided to back up all the money loaned to the huge banking sector. Economists have called this measure “suicidal”.

This means that when a bank finds itself unable to pay back the money it itself borrowed on money markets, the government must step in and stump up the difference.

Much of the “loan book” - the money lent by Irish banks - is backed by property. With property prices collapsing, speculators who had bought land on credit, expecting its value to increase and sell at a profit, saw their hopes and ability to repay dashed. These losses have now been forced on the Exchequer.

The important question now is whether or not the bailout will work.

The EU imposed a very harsh rate of interest on its bailout loan - they say 6.05%, but in reality the cost will be higher, according to economist Karl Whelan.

The bailout did not calm market fears about the possibility of Irish default. Commentators from around the world denounced the bailout as probably too small to cover unrealised losses in the banks, and the bailout as imposing an unmanageable debt burden.

Economist Barry Eichengreen wrote that the bailout “simply kicks the can down the road” and will postpone, rather than avoiding default.

There will be a General Election soon, and a new government will more than likely demand to return to the negotiating table with the EU and IMF. The uncertainty is most definitely not over yet.

Much of the discussion surrounding the bailout and budget has focused on Irish history and its hard-fought battle for sovereignty. Photo: Dargan Crowley-Long

Tuesday, December 14th 2010 | The University Times

18

A bailout alternative? You’re asking about so Tommy Gavin Deputy Editor Calls for Ireland to leave the Euro have resurged this month; in an opinion piece in the Financial Times by the Ireland analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, pop-economist David McWilliams and several other commentators across the media spectrum. What is neglected to be mentioned is that leaving the euro would be an option reserved exclusively for the worst case scenario fraught with unparalleled technical, political, legal and economic difficulties.

The technical difficulties alone are enough to give one pause for thought. People grumbled at the slight inconvenience of the changeover to the euro in 2002, but as a switch is was very smooth. It was very smooth because it was meticulously planned for years in

great detail and co-operation among countries. The changeover back to punt from the euro into what is already a unstable situation would be a disaster in itself.

Politically, leaving the euro would be a nightmare.

Claims of Irish hostility towards Europe are largely overblown, it’s the government of Ireland that people are angry at for the most part. It’s hard to predict exactly how divisive the issue of leaving the euro would be among voters, but when even the euroskeptic Libertas demographic aren’t calling for it, then it is hard to imagine centrist voters calling for a national currency.

Then, after the discordant matter of achieving a consensus to leave the euro, Ireland would find itself having to deal with extremely hostile neighbours, who would see this action as akin to South Carolina seceding from the Union in 1860.

Namely, as James Louis Petigru put it: “South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.”

Legally, things would be no easier. All financial dealings would have to change to accommodate the new currency and all the bank deposits would have to change at the same time at the same rate. Assuming this went perfectly, a change in currency to a devalued punt would wreak havoc on business and depositors, and forced conversion rates could cripple life savings. Pension funds and foreign banks holding government bonds would suffer and possibly sue, burdening the state further with legal battles.

Economically, the bad news arrives. At the mere suggestion that Ireland was seriously considering leaving the euro would cause massive bank runs and a

huge flight of capital from Ireland, and our corporate tax rate would not save us.

The unavoidable result of a new national weak currency would be high interest rates and inflation, preventing any chance of recovery.

From there, there could admittedly be preliminary boost to exports from competitive devaluation, but Irish bond yields would then skyrocket and we’d be facing another banking crisis.

From there then, it’s back to good old 1930’s De Valera style economic nationalism, and maybe even another ‘economic war’.

As a sovereign nation, leaving the euro is an option that Ireland has on the table. However, it is not one to be considered lightly, and to haughtily claim that it is the obvious answer for all of Ireland’s difficulties is at best ignorant, and at worst, irresponsible.

Tommy Gavin Deputy Editor Sovereignty has always been a sensitive issue in Ireland, whether it was achieving it or asserting it. The word carries national emotional baggage, and can easily be linked with the blood of patriots and thus exploited by those who would wish evoke a romantic image of Ireland to make some grandstanding point, or further their own, often ideological purposes. If you infer that Irish sovereignty is under threat, the implication is enough to insert doubt into the reasoning of someone making up their mind. This was seen explicitly during both referenda for the Lisbon treaty, where

images of 1916 were displayed on posters that read “People died for your freedom, don’t throw it away.”

Regardless of the merits or demerits of the Lisbon treaty, the opposition generally ran a stronger campaign, partially because Cóir had blatantly misleading posters, but mainly because it made the issue an emotional one by appealing to impulsive sentiments, like that of national sovereignty. It is a resonant argument because we feel that Ireland earned its sovereignty, and recently at that. In the wake of recent economic difficulties, several commentators in the national media have announced that Ireland has lost its sovereignty. Economically, this is correct, but

it was Ireland’s to lose.

It wasn’t that Ireland was robbed of economic sovereignty; it was gambled away by the Fianna Fáil and Green Party coalition. The decision was made in In September 2008, to guarantee the deposits of six Irish financial institutions, Anglo Irish Bank being seen the most in need of intervention. The guarantee was announced without any meaningful public discourse. Nor was it discussed with our European partners who had an interest in discussing the corrective measures, as we share a currency, and they became annoyed as there was a flight of deposits from other European banks into Irish ones which were guaranteed.

The writing was on the wall in 2007 when the International Securities Trading Corporation (ISTC) went insolvent.

The ISTC was founded by Tiarnan O Mahoney after he was passed over as chief executive of Anglo Irish bank, and it operated on exactly the same model as Anglo Irish, so when it failed in November 2007 it should have raised alarms in government, who had just been elected that June. I was at this point that the government should have consulted our European partners and started making hard choices, but these would not come until the problem became far more apparent.

The alternatives to not guaranteeing the banks were few and unpleasant. Letting

Budget Day in pictures: photos by Dar

Letter from Dublin Kevin O’Rourke Professor, Economics School It is one thing to know that someone you love is terminally ill; their death still comes as a shock.

I certainly don’t want to compare the arrival of the EU-IMF team in Dublin last week to a bereavement.

But I was surprised at how upsetting I found it, given that it came as no surprise. It had been clear for a long time that the blanket guarantee given to the liabilities of Ireland’s rotten banks, in September 2008, had saddled the State with a debt that was too big for it to handle. Ten successive quarters of declining real GNP, and one attempt too many to draw a line under the losses of our banks, made our exclusion from international capital markets inevitable. But to know something is one thing; to see it actually happen is something entirely different.

I am not alone in feeling this way, it seems. The economics editor of the Irish Times, Dan O’Brien, wrote that “nothing quite symbolised this State’s loss of sovereignty than the press conference at which the ECB man spoke along with two IMF men and a European Commission official.

It was held in the Government press centre beneath the Taoiseach’s office. I am a xenophile and cosmopolitan by nature, but to see foreign technocrats take over the very heart of the apparatus of this State to tell the media how the State will be run into the foreseeable future caused a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

This is not to say that we would be happy to have our country’s affairs managed by the current, disgraced, government. I yield to noone in my loathing of the men and women who have done this to my country.

What has been the intellectual low-point of the last couple of years? Was it the cash-for-clunkers stimulus package (Ireland does not produce any cars)? Or the statement by our Finance Minister that Ireland need not fear a bank run, since Ireland is an island? Or the biggest Irish joke of them all, which underpinned the bank guarantee in the first place: that if we wanted investors to retain confidence in the creditworthiness of the Irish State, we needed to make sure that nobody who invested in our (private sector) banks ever lost a penny?”

The latter decision is the one that sank the country. It was the last great act of hubris of the Celtic Bubble, and was immediately denounced by one of

the heroes of the crisis, my old UCD colleague Morgan Kelly. On the night the guarantee was announced, Kelly pointed out that while it was the right policy if the Irish banks were facing a liquidity crisis, it was a terrible policy if they were insolvent, which was in fact the case. As they always do when confronted with someone smarter than them, the Dublin establishment circled the wagons, and Kelly was dismissed as an irresponsible young troublemaker of no consequence. He has been proved right, of course, but the establishment is still at it, making the same fundamental mistake of thinking that a solvency crisis is just a liquidity crisis. Now, however, the establishment is European as well as Irish, and it is the State rather than the banking sector which is insolvent.

The week started on an optimistic note. The general reaction was one of relief – at last, the Indians had come to sort out the cowboys. (The Indian in question was Ajai Chopra, head of the IMF mission to Dublin; there are no prizes for guessing who were the cowboys.) But the atmosphere soon changed, as it became clear that a substantial portion of the bailout funds would be earmarked, not for vital public services, but for the black hole that is the Irish banking system. At one stage there seemed to be the prospect of some relief for Irish families: the Irish Times was reporting that the EU-IMF team would deliver the loss-sharing with bondholders that our own government had been too craven to insist on. This would have been a goodnews story that could have transformed the mood of ordinary people, and proved that the European Union was on their side.

That hope was dashed over the weekend.

The finger of blame was clearly pointed by the Minister of Finance, Brian Lenihan, and several of his colleagues: it was the European Central Bank and the Commission who had vetoed the proposal to force some of the bank losses back onto the bondholders.

This interpretation is generally accepted in Dublin, although many observers also blame the Irish negotiating team for caving much too easily into pressure from Brussels and Frankfurt. The implication is that the IMF were the good guys: an unusual position for them to find themselves in, perhaps, and one with political implications in a country whose relationship with the European Union has been uneasy

in recent years, and which has conserved close ties with the United States. On Monday night, an opposition spokesman made it clear that he would be much happier negotiating with the IMF, who are reasonable people, than with our European partners.

The fallout from this will be toxic.

The reaction to the news that Irish taxpayers are to be squeezed while foreign bondholders escape scotfree has been one of outraged disbelief and anger.

At the start of last week, it was possible to make the argument that ‘burning the bondholders’ was irresponsible, since it would inevitably lead to contagion, and the spread of the crisis to Iberia. That argument has at this stage lost all validity, since contagion has happened anyway. Besides, the correct response to the possibility of contagion was never to engage in make-believe, but to extend taxpayer protection to other Eurozone members as required. Swapping debt for equity in a coordinated fashion across Europe would show ordinary people that Europe is on their side; but like the PLO of old, the European Union never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It could have provided a means of kick-starting a new post-crisis growth strategy based on investment in the infrastructures we will need in the future; instead it has transformed itself into a mechanism for forcing pro-cyclical adjustment onto countries that are already sinking. It could have led the way in reining in an out-of-control financial sector; instead it now embodies the discredited principle that banks must never, ever, default on their creditors, no matter how insolvent they may be.

To make matters worse, it is simultaneously preparing a new scheme which will be able to handle sovereign defaults within the Eurozone from 2013 onwards. Presumably Ireland will be one of the first clients of this new facility, assuming of course that default can be avoided before then. To shrug one’s shoulders and accept that sovereign default down the road is preferable to private sector defaults now seems astonishing, but such are the depths of irresponsibility to which responsible opinion is now sinking.

Who knows what the political consequences of all of this will be? The southern Irish are a conservative lot, and dislike direct confrontation (we leave that to our Northern brethren). This means that political change in normal

times is slow; but when it does come, it may come in a rush. If we had a national list system, a LabourSinn Fein coalition would be a possibility at this stage. However, our multiseat constituency system makes it difficult for rising parties to translate support in opinion polls into seats in parliament. Even so, we are about to have a general election, and if Brussels thinks that this deal is not going to be the big issue in that election, then they are even more out of touch than we already think they are. It is no longer even certain that the budget will be passed in December. Brussels may not have a Plan B, but they had better prepare one nonetheless.

Irish citizens may bring down the bailout of foreign bank creditors by voting at the ballot box, but if they do not, they will bring about a default of some kind by voting with their feet. We now face a negative spiral in which austerity causes emigration, which increases the burden of the debt, which ultimately leads to more austerity. We need a game-changer to break the cycle, but what might it be? Since the fundamental problem is that Ireland is insolvent, the smart thing to do is to tackle our debt burden head-on, but the Europeans have vetoed this.

Changing our politics might help, by creating a shared sense of national purpose that people can buy into. Unfortunately, it is hard to see the prospect of a Fine Gael-Labour government encouraging young people to tighten their belts and stay home for the good of the country: at this stage, the country needs radical change that can give people a sense of hope. There is a huge desire for such change, but no coherent vehicle to translate that desire into action. One immediate focus should be constitutional reform that everyone can buy into, since people inevitably differ about the policies needed to bring about a recovery.

Iceland is an obvious model for us. In a referendum, her voters have already rejected a proposal to pay back their banks’ creditors, who will take major losses. Now they have elected a constitutional assembly charged with drafting a new constitution. Ireland probably needs this more than does Iceland; I wish I were more confident that we will follow the latter’s example.

This article originally appeared on www.eurointelligence.com. We republish it with the permission of the copyright holders.

Who is the bond market?

Aidan Bond-James Staff Writer The international Bond market has never been so topical. With the malevolent global economic crisis dominating headlines across the world, the demand for financial knowledge has exploded off the charts. A quick glance over some of the most economically domineering countries’ Government Bond statistics will confirm this theory. But what is a government bond? In the most basic of contexts, it’s a loan, which citizens give to the government with the promise rich yield. The yield in this instance simply refers to the percentage return that the investor will receive for loaning the government the original sum. Government bonds date back as far as 1693 when the English Government issued the first government bonds as an attempt to raise funds to fuel the war against France. Today the global bond market is a lot more in depth, and can be used and abused by hungry investors to turn profits of astronomical proportions. The untold beauty of the Government bond markets is that they are generally recognised as “risk

free”, as if the Bond is not gaining well, the government can increase tax levels in order to account for the under-performing bonds.

That being said, there are always some risks involved, for example if the investor must purchase the bonds in a foreign currency, exchange rates will be thrown into the mix. Bonds that are issued in foreign currencies are referred to as “Sovereign Bonds”. You may have recognised the word “Sovereignty” as it has been frequently mentioned amongst numerous news reports aired on Irish television over the past coupe of weeks. But what do the underlying concepts of Sovereignty entail?

Sovereignty applies when a government holds the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, for instance, a country. For the most part, Irish citizen’s main fear is that our government is forfeiting it’s own sovereignty by letting the International Monetary Fund and European Union step in and impose their own rules and regulations, in return for a substantial loan of €85 billion which will be repaid with interest of 5.8%. How does this affect Irelands Government Bonds on the international

Bond Markets? Think of it this way, a bond is an investment, would you invest in an under-performing company that has to headhunt executives to salvage it from bankruptcy? The answer is no, so what incentive is there for keen investors who inject large amounts of money into this country via the acquisition of Government Bonds?

So why is it that Irish government bonds continued to soar to such astronomical yields amidst all the doom and gloom of our failing economy?

It all trickles down to the handy work of a unique pack of greedy investors who have been granted the nickname “Bond Vigilantes”. The essence of what they do is quite simple, they purchase Government bonds of under-performing economies then demand a very high interest rate as the risk of their initial investment can grow to become very high.

Of course Ireland’s weakening economy became the perfect spawning ground for these high-risk investors. They drove the yields of the Irish Government’s 10year bonds to an astonishing 7.3%, this record high, sparked critical interest in other investor’s minds, as to why this was happening. The

markets conspired against our economy here, in the worst possibly way. Generally, Bond Vigilantes cannot function well in sovereign economies like the USA, as if they demand a higher yield the domestic Government can plainly print off more money from the mint to account for the new surge for demanded funds. Unlike Ireland, where we cannot simply print more money to accommodate the demand, the funds must come from the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. This pressure to contain the demand for higher interest rates from foreign bond vigilantes has damaged the Euros’ prestigious podium position on the world’s currency exchange front.

This failure of the Irish government to contain their banking crises, which led to the Bond Vigilantes taking advantage of our deteriorating economy has ultimately led to the general unhappiness of the major EU member states with the Irish Government. This is why any educated economist would struggle with the heavy reluctance to return to the intense trading that occurs on the worlds fixed income bond markets.

19

The University Times | Tuesday, December 14th 2010

overeignty? What sovereignty? How did we let this happen? the banks fail could have started a run on the euro itself, as a European bank would have been shown to have failed and could also have prohibited future growth and caused a Japanese style ‘lost decades’ recession. Another alternative would be to only guarantee the banks that are systemically important, possibly three or four banks, not Anglo-Irish, and refund the depositors but not issue a guarantee. That would have involved going to court and putting Anglo-Irish into examinership, but there would have been a strong political reaction against that and the financial regulator didn’t have enough independence from politicians or independent credibility take that

action. In any case, the results would have depended more on the handling of the decision than the decision itself.

What matters is that the decision made was a sovereign one. The government made what could debatably be called a calculated choice and it proved to be a catastrophic failure, the consequences of which demand outside support.

The terms of the EU/IMF bailout are laid out in a memorandum of understanding called “EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland” and it “specifies the detailed criteria that will be assessed for the successive reviews up to the end of 2013.” It can be read on the

Department of Finance website (http://www.finance.gov. ie) and will be signed by Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, and Governor for the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan. It was waiting for the passing of the budget before it can be laid before the Oireachtas. The memorandum is not a legal agreement, so it would seem that since it is not enforceable, it does not impact Irish sovereignty. But the money from the financial assistance doesn’t all come at once but in instalments.

Each quarter, certain criteria will be assessed to determine if Ireland meets the requirements of the memorandum, and be eligible for the next instalment of the bailout.

If Ireland fails to meet the

requirements of “specific economic policy conditionality,” then money from the bailout can be withheld. This could realistically result in a further loss of sovereignty, as an EU overseer could be appointed in the interim to make sure the necessary steps are taken to return to the conditions set out in the memorandum, however that is mere speculation. The Government can enter into a loan without needing approval from the Oireachtas, but in this case, perhaps it should because it has long term consequences that future governments will have to contend with.

But that said, this democratically elected government made the decision to

bail out the banks. While Irish economic sovereignty is diminished, it was not through conspiratorial European machinations or necessarily through total Fianna Fáil incompetence. Things have turned out the way they have and now we are in the situation we are in. The only way to recapture lost economic sovereignty would be to leave the EU, which technically is still an option as Ireland has that choice as a sovereign nation. However that would be an extreme step in a baffling direction. The bailout is not a measure intended to punish Ireland, these people are adults. It is not in the interest of the EU to hurt Ireland. We need the EU far more than the EU needs us,

and by leaving we’d be getting on the wrong side of our neighbours, who would have the capacity to act unilaterally. And it wouldn’t be in our interests in the long term for the EU to collapse of its own accord in the next 5 years either. This crisis can help the EU define itself and the parties of the next government will benefit from EU supervision. They will receive a harsh lesson in statecraft, something we do not demand enough of our politicians. We have a lot to gain from the success of the European project. While the bailout may be painful, it and any accompanying loss of sovereignty are the way forward, for better or for worse.

rgan Crowley-Long

Brian Lucey Professor, Business School So how did we get here, needing the harshest (if perhaps not as harsh as feared) budget in the history of the state? The budget, let’s recall, is the first element of a four year plan (which always has a vaguely stalinistic ring to it) to restore fiscal discipline and to ensure that we, as a state, can pay our debts.

The plan is not of our choosing as a democratic polity, rather, it has been imposed in large part by the IMF/EU, as a result of our seeking aid and assistance.

The bailout, in the form of

in our economic cycle. JF economics students would say that in that instance the government, facing lax monetary conditions, must have a tight fiscal (spending) stance. The opposite was the case; the philosophy of the government was well, if chillingly, articulated by then finance minister Charlie McCreevy, saying “when I have it I spend it”. This added fiscal fuel to the monetary fire. A wave of cheap money poured into the Irish banks, from abroad and from home, this was leveraged up with more cheap foreign money and lent out to the favourite asset of Irish

The roots of these twin crises are the same, the creditfuelled property boom of the noughties. Often mislabeled “the Celtic Tiger years”, these were more the Celtic Garfield years, when as a state we sat back fat and happy.

Eurozone problems not confined to periphery Colm Kearney Professor, Business School Ireland’s monasteries were considered to be the saviors of civilization as they preserved the cultural heritage of ancient Greece and Rome and then disseminated it across Europe. Now Ireland may to be impetus to a new attempt at saving Europe from an economic dark age as the IMF-EU-ECB triumvirate struggle to contain the existential threat to the Euro and the whole European Project.

Why has the IMF-EUECB remedy for Ireland not succeeded in containing the threat to the euro? You have to look at Ireland’s bailout negotiations, which at its most simple level involved three sets of players.

First, the world’s largest economy represented by the European Union and the European Central Bank (the EU-ECB). Its objective is to protect the eurozone system from falling apart due to poor fiscal management and banking regulation across several countries.

Second, the global financial system’s most powerful institution (the IMF). Its Articles of Agreement stipulate that it should promote exchange rate stability (in this

case protect the euro) and help countries in need by offering loans with conditions designed to ensure repayment.

Third, the government of a small economy on the periphery of Europe with serious fiscal problems and a collapsed banking system (Ireland). It seeks the best bailout deal with the least stringent loan conditions and the lowest interest rates.

It is particularly touchy that its 12½ % corporate tax rate should not be relinquished as a condition of the bailout.

Ireland’s bargaining position is extremely weak as it continues to be on life support administered by the EU-ECB. The government has signed up to a loan of €85 billion at an average of 5.7% (Ireland contributes €17.5 billion at 0% from its pension reserves) on the condition that it runs a deflationary austerity fiscal programme for 4 or 5 years in the depths of a withering recession. This is indeed Draconian. In return, the government retains its low corporate taxes.

A Pyrrhic Victory?

Why defend low corporate taxes at all costs?

My research with Professor Frank Barry (http:// w w w.pa lg rave-jou r na ls.

com/jibs/journal/v37/n3/ full/8400193a.html) illustrates how foreign direct investment (FDI) has transformed Ireland’s economy to make it more competitive, industrially diverse, and capable of faster growth with less volatility. This has cushioned our recession and will hasten our recovery.

The EU/ECB’s negotiating position thus far has been that the peripheral countries of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain - the PIGS – are being attacked in their bond markets because of their fiscal profligacy, and that severe fiscal austerity in each country is urgently required to prevent contagion throughout the entire eurozone.

The IMF focuses on the bigger picture. The last thing the world needs now is a collapse of the euro which is a vital part of international financial system. In a multipolar world, the euro provides geopolitical balance in light of the growing might of China. Governments and private interests throughout Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Gulf want the euro to continue as a safe alternative to the US dollar for their foreign reserves and wealth.

The correct analysis is

that the eurozone system itself is under attack, and small countries like Ireland are caught in the eye of the storm. To save the euro, the EU/ECB must come clean and address the issue as a systemic euro stability issue rather than a PIGS fiscal austerity issue.

They then have two options. First, establish a euro bond backed by the whole Eurozone rather than the existing sovereign bonds that are ostensibly backed only by the issuing country.

This will provide cheaper finance for peripheral fiscal adjustment – at the cost of slightly higher interest rates in Germany. Second, monetize some debt by quantitative easing like the Federal Reserve has done in the United States – that is, the ECB buys the bonds by expanding the quantity of euro in circulation which will lead to higher inflation, making it more difficult for the ECB to keep inflation close to its 2 percent target.

The public narrative from the German government is that it opposes both of these options and wants all the adjustment to be borne by the peripheral PIGS. The tradeoff is about how much fiscal austerity will be forced on the periphery, and how

much higher inflation and higher interest rates must be borne by the centre in order to preserve the eurozone. Those at the centre of the eurozone hold most of the cards.

The Existential Question Time is valuable in negotiations. The question is how long can the periphery countries and those at the centre, like Germany, hold out without the eurozone system falling apart. The hope seems to be that the European economy will improve in time so that the fiscal deficits improve organically. The markets realize the risk, and are playing on it. The entire euro project is now in play.

The EU/ECB must more equitably share the burden of saving the euro between peripheral fiscal austerity and the cost of slightly higher European inflation and nominal interest rates.

As former IMF Chief Economist Simon Johnson has made clear throughout this crisis, it is about addressing the thorny matter of socializing losses and privatizing profits.

This is not new. Throughout the Asia crisis in 199798, the US Treasury and the IMF insisted that the problem was weak governance

in each country rather than systemic information asymmetry and moral hazard in the overall financial system. The parallel with the present euro crisis is complete. The default position is to blame each individual country rather than solve the systemic euro problem.

The latter is the information asymmetry caused by the failure to properly monitor each country’s fiscal position, and the moral hazard arising from governments and bankers taking excessive risks.

Irish scribes saved Plato’s treatises on government from oblivion for the whole of Europe. Ireland’s bailout plan should give pause to Europe to return the favour and in so doing save the euro.

some €85,000,000,0000 at a blended rate of 5.8% interest, was required as the state and the banks were unable to raise funds at a reasonable rate of interest from the markets.

The cause of this lockout is simple, yet profound; in September 2008 the government, for what I am sure was what they thought was the best of reasons, guaranteed the debts of the banks.

As the banks are bust, and have to date swallowed tens of billions of euro without any sign of this being enough, the markets have determined that this guarantee is likely to sink not just them, but the ultimate guarantor, the state. At the same time the state has allowed a massive hole to emerge in its finances; of the €50b which it spends on all state services only some €31b comes in in tax. This is unsustainable in the medium term, never mind the short term. So how did we get here?

The roots of these twin crises are the same, the credit-fuelled property boom of the noughties. Often mislabeled “the Celtic Tiger years”, these were more the Celtic Garfield years, when as a state we sat back fat and happy.

After the 90’s, when through competitiveness and catchup we grew rapidly, the noughties saw a decision to try to continue the fruits of this period without the hard work. After 9/11 and the collapse of the tech bubble a wave of liquidity was injected into world markets by governments trying to avert a recession. More money equals lower interest rates.

In Ireland we had interest rates from our membership of the euro which were lower than they “should have been” given where we were

people, property. The foreign money mainly came in the form of loans to the banks, the now infamous bondholders. Thus was born the property boom, which led to three things. First, an increasingly large percentage of Irish banks assets (loans) begun to be made up of residential/commercial/ speculative property; second the government finances began to be distorted and artificially buoyed up buy stamp duties, VAT and other taxes on the inflating prices of the property assets; third this allowed the government to fling money at problems and to buy off successive waves of the population, and thus stay in power.

In 2007-08 the world began to change, and it became clear, for a variety of reasons, that the era of easy money was coming to an end. The Irish banks were now hooked on this, and when the money dried up so too did the banks’prospects.

Faced with a seemingly imminent collapse of the banking system in September 2008, the government guaranteed the bonds of the banks, in the mistaken belief that it was a liquidity problem and that this would buy time. However, it was also clear, at least outside government, that the bubble in Irish and international property had burst and that the banks’ losses, extrapolating from similar bubbles collapses worldwide, would bankrupt them. It was also clear that the bursting of the bubble would result in the rapid emergence of a massive hole in the government budget and significant economic contraction. This analysis, evidence based and a-political, was ignored.

And here we are.

THE BUDGET BY THE NUMBERS COMPILED BY TOMMY GAVIN

€2,000

The new Student Contribution to third level education will replace the Registration Fee. It’s a jump of €500 on an already high charge which is likely to irritate student leaders. A lower rate of €1,500 will apply to second and subsequent children in a family.

1%

The flat rate on all residential property transactions up to a value of €1 million, with 2 per cent applying to amounts above €1 million. 2% stamp duty will apply to transactions exceeding €1 million. All existing reliefs and exemptions for stamp duty on residential property will be abolished. This means that 1 per cent will be paid on all residential property sales, new or old.

€250,000

The cap on public service pay which includes the Taoiseach and the President. It will also be applied to the semi-state sector.

The Taoiseach’s annual salary is to be reduced by €14,000 with ministers taking a €10,000 cut. The state car fleet is also to be reduced by a third by 2013, and one of the two government jets will not be replaced after reaching the end of their lifespan.

0%

There is no duty rise on cigarettes or alcohol, so as not to encourage cross border shopping. Irish people going to Northern Ireland to purchase goods cost the exchequer an estimated €810 million in 2009.

€3

The air travel tax on passengers leaving Irish airports, it is to be reduced from €10 and it will come into effect in March 2011.

This measure is intended to encourage tourism into the country, but the tax will increase if there is no evidence of an increase in the sector.

€11,000,000,000

The amount lost per year to the exchequer through tax reliefs and shelters. The 2011 budget aims abolish or restrict many tax reliefs that higher earners use to protect income from taxation.

27%

The new DIRT tax on ordinary accounts. Deposit income retention (DIRT) tax which taxes interest is to be increased by 2% on ordinary accounts, and 30% on longer term deposit accounts.

€10

The amount that child benefit is down, with an additional €10 reduction for a third child only. €2.5 billion is spent on childrens allowance annually.

€700,000,000

The health budget cut, to €14.1 billion. The income and health levy is also set to be replaced with a universal social charge with 2% on incomes of €4,004-€10,036, 4% on €10,037 to €16,016, 7% on incomes above €16,016.

10%

The lowering of Income tax bands and credits, which will bring an estimated 139,500 people into the tax net and move 91,000 people from the standard rate of 20% to the higher rate of 41%.

65+

The age of people who will now have to pay a passport fee.

€14,000,000

The amount allocated to the fuel allowance scheme to enable a payment of €40 to households that receive the fuel allowance payment, in view of “the harsh weather conditions experienced in recent weeks.”