“…We need a Constitution that will protect our children and guide the courts to make decisions that keep families together and that are in the child’s best interests. I know the people of West Cork would welcome the opportunity to say ‘yes, we value childhood’ and ‘yes, Ireland values all children and their rights’.” Labour Deputy Micheal McCarthy, Cork Nov 2011
In one sense, it would be hard for anyone to disagree with the sentiment expressed by Labour Deputy Michael McCarthy back in November 2011, prior to the referendum. However a lone parent, who is the mother of an autistic boy, last week attempted to highlight her dissatisfaction with the proposed cuts to the Carer’s allowance, certainly didn’t feel the love when she went to Deputy McCarthy’s constituency office in Dunmanway last week.
Ms Gaia Charis, having been unable to travel to Dublin to join in the protest outside of the Dail, decided that she would do what she could to make her voice heard. Ms.Charis had planned to visit each of the elected TDs offices in the constituency and photograph herself and a home-made poster depicting the plight of Carer’s and highlighting just how unfair the proposed cuts would be.
However, when she arrived at Deputy McCarthy’s office an employee of the TD challanged her as to what she was doing. Ms Charis explained and at this point Deputy McCarthy’s employee told her that she “was on private property and the Gardai had already been called”. How a single mother of an autistic child who is a full time Carer presents a criminal threat by taking a photograph outside of an office is beyond me. I then got to wondering whether or not Deputy McCarthy’s employee was acting on her own initiative or had she in fact sought advice from the TD prior to calling the Gardai? Is this standard operating procedure?
Even more intriguing is exactly why the Gardai deemed it so urgent to attend to this matter, that they arrived in such a short space of time and just as Ms. Charis was leaving? The Gardai are very busy people and their resources are spread very thin in all parts of the country, as a direct result of government cutbacks. So, just how much of a threat did they think that this single mother holding up a placard was to the safety of the employees within the office or to the structure itself? Maybe Deputy McCarthy might be willing to shed some light on these matters?
Has it actually got to the point in our country where a single dissenting voice is threatened by the employees and representatives of the state? It may seem trivial but it certainly was not trivial to a lone Carer simply standing up for the rights of her children. Section 45.4.1 of the Constitution states “The State pledges itself to safeguard with especial care the economic interests of the weaker sections of the community, and, where necessary, to contribute to the support of the infirm, the widow, the orphan, and the aged.”
Maybe Deputy McCarthy and his ilk could address this particular item with the same vigour as he has shown to protect his own reputation. Especially considering that Deputy McCarthy claimed the fourth highest Dail expenses in 2011, at over €50,000 tax-free, on top of his salary of approximately €120,000? That type of money would go a long way towards improving the lives of countless Carer’s and the people that they look after, because the State refuses to. But then, he is serving his constituents (by keeping them safe from lone Mothers, no doubt).
Notwithstanding the above, rows about Carer’s allowance, children’s allowance or increases in taxation and unemployment are all effectively smokescreens which prevent the electorate from seeing the true picture of what is happening to our Nation. The true picture encompasses far more than these obvious inequalities because within it the government and their predecessors, have been so completely devoid of any original thinking that they are left with no alternative but to implement policies which have and will continue to bankrupt our country.
The fact is, that the so-called financial institutions or banking industry is an absolute sham. It is predicated on the creation of money through debt onto which compound interest is added. These privately owned companies have been given a special licence from our governments to control the supply of money in our society. In exchange for this special license to create money out of nothing they have no obligation whatsoever to do so in a manner other than that which provides increased profits for their private owners.
I have not heard one word from any member of a political party in this country advocating an alternative to the irreparably damaged Euro-zone project or indeed Fractional Reserve banking which is itself at the absolute core of what is wrong with our economy. The Euro-zone project if seen through to its mathematical conclusion, will see all the children of this country sentenced to a life of economic slavery.
Enda Kenny had the audacity to suggest that everybody went a little bit mad during the Celtic Tiger years Well, he is wrong. The ones who went mad where those in finance and banking. Those driven solely by a personal and corporate desire to increase their wealth without any recourse whatsoever to the welfare of society in which they operate.
While this is a completely different topic and one which I will come back to again in a further article, it is why Ms Charis felt compelled to make a stand outside the offices of elected TD. All the financial and most societal ills of this and practically all other developed countries, is a result of money created through the issuance of debt, as the single irrefutable cause.
Maybe Deputy McCarthy has no idea whatsoever about alternatives to the present corrupt system. Maybe getting into and staying in power are more important to him? Maybe he doesn’t know what it is like to have to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year caring for another human being, primarily because the state has failed to live up to its own constitution?
To have to do this year in year out without respite or without any recognition and against a constant backdrop of economic insecurity is a damning indictment on the likes of Michael McCarthy and the rest of those in government who have completely lost touch with the majority of the people whom they are supposed to represent.
Although Deputy McGrath has since apologised privately to Ms. Charis he has not to my knowledge done so publicly. Let’s face it, there was very little private about the disgraceful treatment of Ms Charis.
Ms. Charis who is a freelance writer and former lecturer has her own website HERE
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