SAOIRSE32

Sinn Féin

Published: 14 December, 2005

Sinn Féin MP for Newry & Armagh Conor Murphy said that the revelation today by the PSNI that they intend to use the British Army to accompany them on patrols over the Christmas period sends out a very clear message to nationalists and republicans of the distance still to be travelled before we reach the threshold of an accountable civic policing service.

Mr Murphy said:

” The British Army have no role to play in the future of policing in the six counties. No policing service accompanied by heavily armed British soldiers will be acceptable to nationalist communities in the north. That is the reality.

” Today’s announcement by the PSNI that they intend to patrol alongside the British Army over the Christmas period shows just how far the PSNI still have to travel before reaching the threshold demanded by an acceptable and accountable civic policing service. A civic policing service does not behave in this fashion.

” The decision to use the British Army to accompany the PSNI over Christmas shows once again just how out of touch with nationalist and republican opinion both the senior leadership in the PSNI and indeed those on the Policing Board actually are.” ENDS

Sinn Féin

Published: 14 December, 2005

Commenting on a meeting taking place today between the SDLP and the Attorney General to discuss the acquittal by the courts of three republicans who had been accused by the PSNI Special Branch of spying in Stormont and the comments of the SDLP in Westminster this morning, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Policing issues Gerry Kelly said:

” Since the remaining three people charged in relation to this matter were found not guilty last week there has been an attempt to try and shift responsibility for this debacle from a group of political detectives within the PSNI onto the Public Prosecution Service. The SDLP as part of a new policing establishment and eager to defend flawed policing in a bid to justify their position of jumping too soon on the issue have regrettably become part of this effort.

” The reality is that this entire operation from the political theatre at Stormont with the initial raid to the selected briefing of journalists has been planned, controlled and directed by political detectives within the PSNI. The clear intention of those behind this operation was to cause maximum political effect. They achieved this result. They subverted the political and democratic process and caused the collapse of the political institutions.

” The SDLP need to face up to the reality of political policing. They must face up to the reality that an element of the old RUC is still active and still exercising a malign influence over policing from within the PSNI. This element needs to be dealt with. Ignoring it or trying to place the responsibility for what was clearly a political policing operation onto the PPS or anyone else does a disservice to the aim of creating an accountable and acceptable civic policing service.

” The fact remains that this operation which resulted in the bringing down of a government happened during the SDLPs time on the Policing Board. They for whatever reason proved unable or unwilling to deal with it. They should not now try and cover up this inaction with an effort to shift the blame for this away from the political detectives operating within the PSNI.” ENDS

RTE

14 December 2005 16:59

The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has said that Frank Connolly could sue if he feels wronged by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell.

Mr Ahern was responding to questions in the Dáil this morning.

He said that if somebody felt maligned by what had been said inside or outside the Dáil they could use the courts to vindicate their good name.

Yesterday Mr McDowell defended his comments in the Dáil last Tuesday in which he alleged that Mr Connolly, executive director of the Centre for Public Inquiry, had travelled to Colombia on a false passport when he was a journalist in 2001.

Mr Connolly has denied the claims. The Opposition has accused Mr McDowell of abusing his position and have called on him to resign.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties this afternoon called on the Taoiseach to instigate a thorough and independent inquiry into the actions of Minister McDowell.

BreakingNews.ie

14/12/2005 - 11:53:01

A minor earthquake measuring 2.6 on the Richter Scale has been detected just off the east coast of Ireland.

The tremor was felt by householders from Arklow to Bray at around 3.20am this morning.

It was centred around 30 miles from Bray Head and caused some minor structural damage, but no injuries have been reported.

BreakingNews.ie

14/12/2005 - 12:08:52

British soldiers are to support increased police patrols across the North in the lead up to Christmas, it was revealed today.

Amid heightened threat of dissident republican terrorist bomb attacks, the British army will be used to strengthen security.

Assistant Chief Constable Peter Sheridan said: “We have already urged the public to be more vigilant.

“There is a minority in our society which does not want to move on.

“All they can offer is destruction and devastation. We are determined to do everything we can to thwart their efforts.”

In previous years paramilitaries opposed to the peace process have launched a series of attacks, such as firebombing shops, during the holiday period.

And after the discovery of a number of real and hoax devices, Mr Sheridan confirmed more police would be on the streets between now and Christmas.

“Where appropriate we will be assisted by our military colleagues,” he added.

“The operation will involve vehicle checkpoints and possibly searches of vehicles and people. We ask the public to co-operate with us.

“The only people we want to disrupt are the criminals who are determined to disrupt life for everyone else.

“We would remind business owners and managers of the dangers of incendiary devices. Please be vigilant. Review your security measures. Check your premises regularly.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland refused to say when soldiers were last deployed during a Christmas campaign.

A spokeswoman said: “We use the Army as and when appropriate.”

But Sinn Féin claimed the decision to bring in the military would compound nationalist and republican alienation from the police service.

Conor Murphy, the party’s Newry and Armagh MP, said: “The British Army have no role to play in the future of policing in the six counties.

“No policing service accompanied by heavily armed British soldiers will be acceptable to nationalist communities in the north.

“Today’s announcement by the PSNI that they intend to patrol alongside the British army over the Christmas period shows just how far the PSNI still have to travel before reaching the threshold demanded by an acceptable and accountable civic policing service.

“A civic policing service does not behave in this fashion.”

BreakingNews.ie

14/12/2005 - 17:48:56

Wayne O’ Donoghue has been found guilty of the manslaughter of 11-year-old Robert Holohan.

O’Donoghue, aged 21, an engineering student in CIT, had admitted killing his neighbour but denied the charge of murder.

Belfast Telegraph

By Ashleigh Wallace
14 December 2005

Confidence in the PSNI’s ability to deal with public order offences has taken a nose-dive since the Whiterock Parade and the riots which followed, it emerged today.

The Policing Board today published the results from the September 2005 Omnibus Survey which questions members of the public about, amongst other issues, on their perceptions of the service delivered by the PSNI.

A total of 1,062 people across Ulster were surveyed at random by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency. Respondents were asked about a range of issues, including policing.

And when asked about how much confidence they had in the PSNI’s ability to deal with public order situations, 67% said they had some, a lot or total confidence - which is down from 79% compared to findings from the same survey conducted in April.

In addition, 78% had some, a lot or total confidence in the PSNI’s ability to provide a day-to-day policing service for everyone, which was down from 83% in April.

Acknowledging a fall in the public’s confidence, Policing Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea said: “For many reasons, some of the results from this latest survey are not particularly surprising given that the survey was scheduled for September and was carried out within days of the serious disturbances following the Whiterock parade.

“The level and intensity of the violence directed at the police, the wanton damage caused to property and the resulting disruption to the public’s ability to go about their normal everyday business has affected views on policing and is likely to have had an impact on the findings.”

Other findings revealed that six out of ten people surveyed thought the PSNI did a very/fairly good job across Northern Ireland - a 3% decrease on April’s survey - while 55% thought the police did a very/fairly good job in their area, marking a 2% decrease.

In addition, 71% of respondents thought the Policing Board was working at adequately, while 70% thought the Board was independent of the PSNI, which is a 4% increase from April.

Sir Desmond said: “In the months ahead, the Policing Board will continue to oversee the work of the PSNI and identify any areas which will assist in improving the perceptions and views of the wider community on the work of the PSNI, the Board and the District Policing Partnerships.”

Belfast Telegraph

By Noel McAdam
14 December 2005

The new Victims Commissioner has refused to comment on her personal connection with the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson after the Lagan Valley MP confirmed he has personally known Bertha McDougall for some time.

But he refused to confirm or deny he went to her home to persuade her to take the interim position.

“I have known Bertha for a long time. That is all I am prepared to say,” he said.

Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance have all charged the Government with attempting to appease the DUP, which has admitted it “supported” Mrs McDougall - whose police reservist husband, Lindsay, was shot and fatally wounded by the INLA as he checked a car in Great Victoria Street in Belfast in 1981 - for the role.

She was instrumental in setting up the Forgotten Families group and worked with the RUC George Cross fund and has been given a year to prepare a report on victims’ needs.

Mrs McDougall said: “Yes, I have worked with Jeffrey Donaldson in the past but I am not making comments on personal issues.

“My focus is on engaging with victims, survivors and their representative organisations, explaining my remit and taking the opportunity to hear about the issues affecting victims and survivors.”

Mr Donaldson said he had championed the appointment of a Victims Commissioner as part of a raft of confidence-building measures.

Mr Donaldson also said he suggested the name of former Presbyterian Moderator the Rev David McCaughey as an independent witness for the recent IRA decommissioning event.

In an interview marking two years since his defection to the DUP, Mr Donaldson also said he spoke regularly to former Ulster Unionist colleagues.

“There are still some very good people in the party and some of them remain friends,” he said.

Irish Independent

**They should have been doing this YEARS ago

Eilish O’Regan
Health Correspondent

LIFESAVING treatment for heart attacks has been dramatically speeded up since the opening of a hospital’s new emergency department.

The HSE Southern Area said the opening of the unit at Cork University Hospital has made a “dramatic difference”.

Death rates and complications following a heart attack can be greatly reduced by giving injections of “clot-busting” drugs to suitable patients, a spokesman claimed.

However, in order to be fully effective, the drugs need to be administered as soon as possible.

Dr Gemma Kelleher, consultant in emergency medicine, said when a patient arrives in the accident and emergency department with a suspected heart attack, an electro-cardiograph is carried out.

If this confirms a heart attack, and certain medical criteria are met, then a thrombolytic or “clot busting” drug is given and the patient is admitted for further treatment.

The time from when a patient arrives at the department to when the drug is given is known as “door to needle” time.

An audit looked at average “door to needle” times for heart attack patients arriving at the the hospital year. She found that, since the new emergency department opened in April 2005, it has more than halved.

She pointed out this improvement reflects faster diagnosis and treatment as a result of better resources in the new department, and team work in association with cardiology.

“The figures for door to needle time at the emergency department of the hospital are being monitored continuously as part of the quality improvement process.

“The aim is not just to maintain this improvement, but also to look at ways of reducing times even further.

“We are very grateful to CHAIR (Coronary Heart Attack Ireland Register) for providing us with statistics,” she added.

She also stressed the role of aspirin in the treatment of heart attacks.

“In research studies, aspirin has been shown to reduce deaths following heart attack by up to a quarter, when used in conjunction with other drugs,” added Dr Kelleher.

She advised anyone who feels they may be having a heart attack to take an aspirin and ring 999 to get to hospital as quickly as possible.

Indymedia Ireland

by Des Dalton - Republican Sinn Fein Wednesday, Dec 14 2005, 11:15am
desdalton@rsf.ie address: 223 Parnell St Dublin 1 phone: 086 3291809

Rsf oppose Orange march

A statement from the Vice President of Republican Sinn Fein Des Dalton in which he describes the proposed Orange march in Dublin to held in January as an insult to the victims of Brititish backed Loyalist death squads

26-County Administration shows contempt for nationalist people

At a time when Nationalist people have been driven from their homes in the teeth of a Loyalist campaign of sectarian hate, the decision to allow such a march in Dublin displays the contempt that the 26-County state has for the nationalist people of the Six Counties. The relatives of those murdered at the hands of British state directed death squads on the streets of Dublin must surely question the motives of a 26-County administration, which allows such a spectacle to go ahead, on the same streets where innocent men, women and children died at the hands of British-backed Loyalist death squads in the early 1970s. Successive 26-County Administrations have failed to investigate these deaths, and files relating to them have disappeared in suspicious circumstances. In allowing such a march on the streets of Dublin the 26 County administration is effectively turning its back on all of those, north and south who have suffered at the hands Loyalist death squads and their British masters.
Ends.

http://RSF.ie

BreakingNews.ie

14/12/2005 - 07:00:45

The bitter dispute over Irish Ferries’ controversial outsourcing plan has ended following a breakthrough in talks at the Labour Relations Commission overnight.

After a full night of negotiations, the company agreed to pay the Irish minimum wage to all workers regardless of which flag it sails under.

It has also agreed to protect the existing terms and conditions of any current workers who wish to remain with the firm rather than accepting a redundancy offer.

Irish Ferries’ employees are due to begin voting on the new agreement today, with ferry services expected to resume sometime in the afternoon.

The company’s seafaring staff have effectively been on strike for three weeks in protest at the plan to replace them with cheaper labour from eastern Europe.

Irish Ferries had been planning to pay these new workers less than half the minimum wage in an effort to cut costs.

BBC

The Isle of Inishmore remains in Pembroke Dock

The industrial dispute which brought tens of thousands of protestors onto the streets of the Republic of Ireland has taken another turn for the worse.

The dispute centres on plans to replace about 540 Irish Ferries crew members with cheaper foreign workers.

Irish Ferries has told the unions involved that its three ships must resume sailings by Tuesday night.

It has threatened to cut a redundancy offer and take one of the vessels out of service if sailings do not restart.

On Friday, thousands demonstrated in Dublin and eight other towns and cities in the Republic of Ireland.

On Saturday, trade union members staged a demonstration in west Wales in support of the Irish Ferries’ workers.

“The union SIPTU is not interested in engaging to negotiate a settlement.”
Eamonn Rothwell
Irish Ferries chief executive

Talks resumed on Tuesday to resolve the dispute following the company’s ultimatum.

The negotiations have been taking place at the Labour Relations Commission in Dublin.

None of the company’s three ships between Ireland and Britain have sailed since 24 November.

The dispute has also paralysed an Ireland-France service involving a fourth Irish Ferries ship.

National minimum wage

The company is seeking to “reflag” the three Irish Sea ferries to Cyprus.

Irish labour laws do not apply on ships under foreign flags.

Irish Ferries chief executive Eamonn Rothwell said the main union SIPTU was not “interested in engaging to negotiate a settlement”.

This was despite the company “being prepared to consider conceding, among other things, the national minimum wage for future contract crews”, he said.

Thousands demonstrated in Dublin and eight other towns

The dispute began in September when Irish Ferries offered redundancy to a third of its workforce in order to replace them with lower-paid workers from central and eastern Europe.

It escalated more than two weeks ago when Irish Ferries crew members on the vessels Isle of Inishmore and the Ulysses barricaded themselves on board.

The ships have remained moored in Pembroke Dock and Holyhead respectively while the dispute remains unresolved.

Irish Ferries has said it needs to bring in foreign staff to remain competitive.

The company added it had been completely open about its plans to bring in new crews as part of a cost-cutting exercise.

BreakingNews.ie

13/12/2005 - 18:11:21

British government plans for neighbourhood justice schemes in Northern Ireland are riddled with shortcomings, it was claimed tonight.

During a meeting with Criminal Justice Inspector Kit Chivers about the British government’s community restorative justice protocol, SDLP policing spokesperson Alex Attwood MLA warned him he could be compromised by the government’s plans.

“The protocol is full of holes,” the West Belfast Assembly member argued.

“It proposes giving a role to the Criminal Justice Inspector, a role that is full of holes.

“The SDLP has urged the inspector, Kit Chivers, to pull back and refuse to allow his office to be compromised by participation in schemes governed by the protocol.”

Northern Ireland Office minister David Hanson’s plans for restorative justice schemes, which bring the perpetrators of low-level crime face-to-face with their victims to agree an appropriate penalty, have received a barrage of criticism from unionists and moderate nationalists.

Supporters of the schemes say they could provide a viable alternative to paramilitary punishment attacks.

However, critics of the plans fear republicans would like restorative justice programmes in their communities to act as an alternative police force.

Under the British government’s proposals, the PSNI will have to be informed if community restorative justice groups want to handle a specific case.

The protocols envisage most schemes referring a case they think they should handle to an advisory panel featuring the PSNI and representatives of the scheme, Probation Board or Youth Justice Agency.

However in republican areas where people refuse to work with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), there would be no obligation on those running schemes to deal directly with the police.

Instead they can alert the PSNI that they would like to handle a case by contacting the Probation Board or Youth Justice Agency who will pass the proposal on to the police.

The PSNI will then consider if there needs to be any action – such as fingerprinting – before referring the case to the Public Prosecution Service, which will ultimately decide if it should be dealt with by a community restorative justice scheme.

Mr Attwood identified a number of shortcomings in the plan.

He noted: “There is still no independent complaints system.

“The protocol does not cover what restorative justice claims is 95% of their work – what they define as ‘non-criminal’ and ‘anti-social’ work.

“Screening of volunteers, training and human rights requirements are inadequate.

“The proposed relationship with the PSNI is arms-length, ambiguous and evasive.”

SDLP justice spokesperson Alban Maginness MLA said restorative justice had a role to play in the justice system but the British government’s protocol was too flawed.

“Kit Chivers should be a voice for getting things right, not participating in what is wrong,” the North Belfast MLA said.

“The SDLP is urging the Criminal Justice Inspector to think again.

“His office is being presented as the guarantor of right practice. In reality, it runs the risk of rubber-stamping bad practice and low standards.”

BreakingNews.ie

13/12/2005 - 20:27:04

The North’s recently appointed Victims Commissioner today had talks with the relatives of those killed and injured in the Omagh bomb.

Bertha McDougall, who was appointed by the Government in October, travelled to the County Tyrone and spent more than an hour-and-a-half in discussion with members of the Omagh Support and Self Help Group.

Michael Gallagher, whose son was one of the 29 people killed in the Real IRA car bombing said it had been a very good and constructive meeting.

“She was very compassionate and said the meeting was one of a number she was having with victims’ groups to familiarise herself with the issue affecting victims,” he said.

Ms McDougall is no stranger to tragedy herself – she is the widow of an RUC police reservist who was murdered by the Irish National Liberation Army in 1981.

Mr Gallagher said that was a plus in her new post.

“She is a lady that has at first-hand experienced the difficulties of people who have been bereaved.”

He said they had discussed the Omagh families’ demands for a full cross-border public inquiry into the bombing, the worst single atrocity in more than 30 years of terrorist violence.

It was agreed the Commissioner would visit the Omagh group for further discussions in the New Year.