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Inequalities in education (11th Feb, Irish Times)

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Inequalities in education (11th Feb, Irish Times)

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Inequalities beget inequalities as poorer households are unable to afford devices for online learning.

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One of the things I least like about Ireland is that it is hard to do a simple thing like giving some money to charity without having very complicated feelings. Voluntary efforts are a wonderful part of Irish society. But, far too often, they are not a supplement to a properly functioning system of social decency, but a substitute for it.

Last week, I made a small donation to the Trinity Access Programme's nationwide effort to get laptops to second-level students whose families can't afford to buy them. Rather than making me feel good as a person, it made me feel a bit sick as a citizen.

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Fintan O'Toole: Why no laptops for schoolchildren?

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One of the things I least like about Ireland is that it is hard to do a simple thing like giving some money to charity without having very complicated feelings. Voluntary efforts are a wonderful part of Irish society. But, far too often, they are not a supplement to a properly functioning system of social decency, but a substitute for it.

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A right to a place to call home (11th Feb, Irish Times)

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A right to a place to call home (11th Feb, Irish Times)

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On the back of the discussion with Focus Ireland, I thought this piece about how Ireland has its housing policies all wrong was interesting.

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Planning for housing based on national population dynamics is one of the most basic functions of economic policy in any country. More people means more homes delivered at stable prices, built by a healthy, innovative construction industry, using the most up-to-date techniques to meet whatever communal and societal standards are expected without requiring long commutes.

This is what proper countries do. On this score, Ireland is the dunce of Europe. We build in the wrong places, at the wrong price, at the wrong time, driven by the interests of landowners and banks, leading to booms and slumps, bankruptcies, ghost estates and now hundreds of thousands of citizens priced out of a pathetically dysfunctional market. This has to stop.

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David McWilliams: Ireland builds houses at the wrong time, in the wrong place, at the wrong price

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Planning for housing based on national population dynamics is one of the most basic functions of economic policy in any country. More people means more homes delivered at stable prices, built by a healthy, innovative construction industry, using the most up-to-date techniques to meet whatever communal and societal standards are expected without requiring long commutes.

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Social capital, poverty and drugs (13th Feb, Irish Times)

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Social capital, poverty and drugs (13th Feb, Irish Times)

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An eye opening article on how the lack of social capital and economic and social poverty leads to a cycle of drug and knife crime, worsened by Covid-19.

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Residents, community activists and youth workers all agree that a sense of increased drug-related violence, threat and intimidation in recent months has brought heightened fear to the area

Dublin's north inner city is a place of extremes. On Wednesday night, travelling from East Wall Road on to North Wall Quay, one passes gleaming office blocks, the National Convention Centre, the Central Bank. The streets are deserted apart from several people jogging, a few cars, and, a couple of food-delivery cyclists.

A right turn down North Wapping Street towards Mayor Street finds several construction sites. Five cranes over one site indicate ongoing ambition for the area. Emblazoned across a hoarding around one is a statement: "Only the exceptional endures".

Towards Sheriff Street and Seville Place, the streetscape changes. Housing stock is older, poorer; most of the Georgian houses are split into flats. Wheelie bins are overflowing

Turning right again, now towards Sheriff Street and Seville Place, the streetscape changes. Housing stock is older, poorer; most of the Georgian houses are split into flats. Wheelie bins are overflowing. A good-humoured group of teenage girls, dressed in leggings and puffer-jackets, walk together towards Amiens Street while the occasional young man is visible, some carrying groceries or a few cans of beer.

Off another nearby street, at about 8.30pm, a commotion starts. A young man runs from a house carrying a long metal bar and hurls it back towards the side street shouting: "I'll get every one of yous." As people in two neighbouring houses look out from their doors, a woman in another leaves her doorstep, picks up a dog and runs back to her home.

People in the house the man has run from scream after him: "Get off. Get off," to which he replies: "I'll blow the f**king legs off you. You watch" before running towards Summerhill.

Watching, a man who does not want to be named tells The Irish Times: "This is f**king terrible. This goes on all the time, every day."

Asked what has just happened, he says: "They are doing drug deals, it's a scoring row." The immediate area has been a "drugs supermarket" for several years, he says. Two houses are involved "and everyone knows it - the guards know it, the council knows it".

Describing constant traffic to the street, he says a van from a well-known company arrives "every day to buy drugs, [and] taxis are pulling in non-stop.

"There's women turning up here at three and four in the morning with buggies. There was one there this morning with a baby with no socks on, freezing cold. And then when she bought the drugs someone came back down after her and took them back, mugged her. She was bawling and screaming."

Graffiti on Foley Street in central Dublin. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell

As we speak three individuals turn into the street, two on electric scooters and one on a bike, and go towards the house in question. Asked if he is frightened living here the man says: "No, not really. They wouldn't come near us but it's horrible for anyone here who has kids."

Nearby, students Thanos Vasilaiou (28) from Greece and Branav Urohit (24) from India are leaving their student accommodation. In Dublin since September, they "see drug deals every day" in the area "sometimes four or five times a day".

"No, we did not expect this in Dublin at all. It is meant to be the second best country in the world according to the UN. It doesn't feel like it," says Vasilaiou. "We see some violence, random fights, not with knives but with fists."

THE ENCOUNTER WE WITNESS comes less than a week after more than 140 local residents attended a crisis meeting about an upsurge in violent crime. Held online, it came following two fatal knife attacks in the area in recent weeks and in response to growing "fear, anxiety and deep sadness at what is happening", says Noel Wardick, chief executive of the Dublin City Community Co-operative.

What is happening? Residents, community activists and youth workers all agree that a sense of increased drug-related violence, threat and intimidation in recent months has brought heightened fear to the area.

A report published last month, Debts, Threats, Distress and Hope: Towards Understanding Drug-Related Intimidation in Dublin's North East Inner City, said almost a quarter of people here had experienced drug-related intimidation. More than 80 per cent saw it as an issue but less than one in five would report it.

The report said open dealing and low-level intimidation were normal, making the area feel unsafe and causing people to change their routines, avoid areas, stop letting children play outdoors, and to withdraw and cut off contacts with others in their community.

Of the 23 per cent who said they had experienced drug-related intimidation, 67 per cent had been threatened with physical harm; 53 per cent had been followed or tracked; 45 per cent had been threatened with vandalism of their property - including with pipe bombs - and 12 per cent threatened with sexual violence.

The fieldwork for the report, published by the Drug-Related Intimidation Initiative operated by the Ana Liffey Drug Project, was conducted in July and August last year.

The closure of schools and youth services has meant young people are hanging around, bored and 'easy prey' to older actors in the drug trade

Since then, says Sarah Kelleher, chief executive of Lourdes Community Youth Services, "things are absolutely worse . . . The drugs, the intimidation, are not new. That's just been allowed to fester, but the stealing bikes, scooters, the knives - and with them the intensity of the intimidation - have definitely increased."

Paddy Murdiff (70) a community activist and convener on the North Inner City Community Coalition, has lived in Summerhill Parade for 16 years.

"Until recently I would walk anywhere. Now, it's just trepidation when you go out. I wouldn't go out now at night. Older people are feeling isolated and lonely. Last year there was a better community feel and it has changed so quick."

Like others, he believes the pandemic has played a part, exacerbating the sense of isolation and vulnerability people feel, while the closure of schools and youth services has meant young people are hanging around, bored and "easy prey" to older actors in the drug trade.

"And I think new kids, from other areas, are coming into the north inner city to hang around. I don't know half the young fellas I see outside my door these days. I used to know them all."

Echoing him, youth worker Jonathan Dowling (35) says the area has become a "one-stop shop or hub" for anything you need ("drugs, guns, tablets, alcohol"), and is attracting people from across the city.

Garda figures confirm residents' concerns, showing increases in aggravated burglaries involving violence or threats of violence, knife seizures and robberies in the area last year.

Figures published last month show while aggravated burglaries rose 26 per cent across the Dublin Metropolitan Region (DMR) last year, from a total of 107 incidents in 2019 to 135, the increase in central Dublin was 100 per cent, and in north central almost 260 per cent, from just 17 incidents in 2019 to 44 last year.

Related

Youth worker Jonathan Dowling. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

Assistant Garda Commissioner Anne Marie Cagney told a Dublin City Council policing committee "drugs-related intimidation" was a significant factor in a substantial number of the burglaries in this area.

Knife seizures were also up last year. Nationally, the highest numbers of seizures were in Dublin south central followed by Dublin north central. One in six knives was seized from children aged 12 to 17 years.

At the same time DMR north central experienced a decline in community policing last year, with personnel down 11 per cent - from 301 in 2019 to 274 - while other areas like DMR south central and DMR west saw their community policing personnel increase by 17 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.

DOWLING, WHO IS speaking to The Irish Times in a personal capacity, grew up on Summerhill and lives still in the area. He describes himself as "very lucky", having been "one of the young people hanging around corners and getting involved in anti-social behaviour".

"I had a mam and dad at home. My mam was working in cleaning and my dad in construction, and so I had that stability, which a lot of my friends didn't.

"I grew up with 10 close friends. Apart from myself, two of them only are still alive now. One of them is studying law. The other is in prison." Of the other seven, he says, "there were suicides, one died in police custody, there were overdoses and one lad sadly drowned.

"When you grow up with that amount of tragedy you can become desensitised to that, think it's the norm. It's only when you go off and get an education you realise there's something very wrong in that."

Dowling enjoyed "hanging around corners", he says, from about aged 10. "It was the norm, and there was a great sense of community. Parents would stop and chat with you, but when I started getting to 13, 14 there were two roads - drugs and prison, or get a trade. The lure of the drugs trade was very hard to resist for a lot of people my age."

It appeared to be "easy cash" in a context where most people had "none" and, he says, most had no fear they would ever be caught or face repercussions.

It was like a social system, and I was part of it. I could have easily ended up like one of the other seven if I'd experimented with drugs, ended up in prison

Though Dowling did not sell drugs or steal, he says he was vulnerable "by association" given his peer group. "It was like a social system, and I was part of it. I could have easily ended up like one of the other seven if I'd experimented with drugs, ended up in prison. Even just a couple of convictions would have prevented me from travelling, hampered me going to university, getting into youth work."

He left school at 16 and was probably at this point hugely vulnerable. It was when one of his friends did come to the attention of gardaí that a juvenile liaison officer visited his mother to discuss his "association" with him.

"She thought it would be a good idea for me to go to the Nickol (North Inner City Keeps On Learning) project as a kind of preventative measure." The project, which runs out of the Belvedere Youth Club in Buckingham Street, works with the Garda youth diversion programme.

"I loved it there, was there until I was 18. I did a post-Leaving Certificate course in youth work, volunteered at Nickol, then I went to NUI Maynooth." Dowling travelled, working in Australia in homeless services and is now a youth team leader in the same club that marked "a key turning point" in his life.

He refers repeatedly to how "lucky" he was to have "stability" at home, adding he was "probably a very positive influence" on some of his peers. "Some would have come from homes where there was addiction and other traumas."

There were two, albeit modest, incomes coming into the home while many of his friends experienced what he describes as "economic and social poverty". This lack of economic resources, compounded by a lack of social capital, has only got worse for some children and young people, Dowling believes.

Rutland Street Lower. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell

By social capital he means the social networks, educational experiences and self-esteem that support, and imbue resilience in, children and young people.

"Drugs, knife crime - they are symptoms of much deeper issues. Yes, there is some really, really good positive work going on. There's the community policing dialogue exploring the relationships between gardaí and young people. There's youth clubs, work placements.

"There are opportunities but we need deeper measures than just opportunities. We need to build the capacity of the young people and the community to take those opportunities. You won't get changes overnight."

To veteran activists and jaded observers of the north inner city, recent heightened concern about drugs, anti-social behaviour and crime feel depressingly familiar.

"IT DOES FEEL a bit like Groundhog Day," says Anna Quigley, co-ordinator of CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign. "It will be 25 years ago this year since Veronica Guerin was murdered. Then, we got a huge focus on the heroin crisis, we got the Criminal Assets Bureau and a ministerial task force on drugs."

In his November 1996 report, then chair of that task force Pat Rabbitte wrote: "There is a high correlation between the areas where the problem [of drug abuse] is most acute and the areas which have been designated on the basis of objective criteria as economically and socially disadvantaged."

Rabbitte noted: "The statutory and voluntary agencies in their submissions were unanimously of the view that drug misuse is closely associated with social and economic disadvantage, characterised by unemployment, poor living conditions, educational attainment, high levels of family breakdown and a lack of recreational facilities and other supports."

"It was supposed to be a whole new beginning," recalls Quigley.

The first drugs task forces were established, their aim to bring local stakeholders, including gardaí, community workers, the HSE and schools together to devise focused strategies tackling the drugs crisis.

Communities engaged fully and for several years they worked well but gradually, says Quigley, over many years, the partnership approach broke down as agencies and departments went "back to their preferred way of working, which is not to have flexibility, not to listen to people on the ground".

In the meantime, the social and economic disadvantage persisted.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin and senior Ministers have met community conveners, who said there was a real danger the State could lose control of this part of the capital unless the drug crime was stopped

The most recent poverty data, mapped by the independent agency Pobal using 2016 census data, classify the areas bordered by Sean McDermott Street and Summerhill Parade as "very disadvantaged". In one small area the male unemployment rate is 43 per cent, 37 per cent of the adult population has a primary education only, and just 2.6 per cent has a third-level education.

Last month's Drug-Related Intimidation Initiative report says the drugs trade has become "entrenched in the economic survival of the community". It provides "jobs", said one focus group participant, and incomes to young people who see few opportunities elsewhere.

In response to a series of gangland murders five years ago came another task force chaired by Kieran Mulvey. His 2017 report, titled the Social and Economic Regeneration of Dublin's North East Inner City, notes: "Over a third of the small areas can be described as disadvantaged or very disadvantaged."

Of its 50 recommended "actions", six relate to maximising education and employment opportunities, with others around policing, social services and physical infrastructure.

IN RESPONSE TO the latest surge in violent crime, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and senior Ministers have met community conveners, who said there was a real danger the State could lose control of this part of the capital unless the drug crime was stopped.

Kelleher believes Martin was genuinely alarmed and concerned by what he heard, though she senses a "weariness" too. "I think sometimes when we engage with the State we meet tired eyes."

And this is felt in the community too, says Quigley. "Back 25 years ago when the task forces were set up, people really believed they could get rid of this drug problem, that they could get involved and beat this. Nobody believes that anymore I don't think. Nobody."

Kelleher is holding on to some hope. "I just wonder if there's enough dreaming going on, to dream something better for the people. We need someone who is going to say, 'For once and for all we are going to fix this'."

First and foremost people must feel safe, she says. "Drug dealers are effectively running whole parts of the north east inner city. If they do not get the dealers off the streets and if people do not feel safe, well, nothing else they do will matter," says Kelleher.

"Imagine no dealing on the streets of the north inner city. It's as simple as that. Make that happen."

Buckingham Street. Photograph: Crispin Rodwell

Quigley says people are living "in real fear". "In the immediate term we need highly visible, community policing so people can feel safe."

Following the February 5th meeting, the Taoiseach said the safety of the community in Dublin's north inner city "is a priority for us all. People must not be afraid to leave their homes because of a small minority who are determined to cause harm to others".

"An Garda Síochána has a comprehensive policing plan in place in Dublin's north inner city, which will see high-visibility patrols carried out on a daily basis, with a particular focus on the areas where public order and related offending has taken place in recent weeks," he added.

"There will be outreach and information programmes, run in a number of different languages, for all communities, as well as youth justice and other interventions."

In the longer term, says Quigley, any strategy serious about addressing the drugs trade must provide an economic alternative to it, she says. Dating the area's economic collapse back to the decline of the docks industries in the 1960s and 1970s, she says: "The area has just been left, without any strategy to replace that industry that gave people the dignity of an income.

Amazing work in youth services, drug programmes and other fantastic initiatives is critical. But it's not fair to the people doing that work that the broader picture is not being looked at seriously, to ensure things really change

"How is wealth generated and how is it shared? That discussion never, ever happens."

She would like to see the establishment of a statutory agency for the area, along the lines of Údarás na Gaeltachta, which plans economic development in Gaeltacht areas.

"If you look at the docklands, billions are being invested in there - apartments, office blocks and just across the wall here you have a collapsed economy run on the drugs trade."

She stresses the importance of the "amazing work, in youth services, drug services and programmes, and fantastic initiatives" across the area. "That work is critical. But it's not fair to the people doing that work that the broader picture is not being looked at seriously, to ensure things really change."

In a statement the Garda said: "Gardaí at Store Street are currently engaged in a number of ongoing operations combating criminal activity and anti-social behaviour in the northeast inner city.

"An Garda Síochána are fully engaged with the northeast inner city community, community representatives, agencies and stakeholders, who are working closely to address these and other issues.

"As part of these operations both overt and covert pro-active patrols are carried out by local Garda units on an ongoing basis.

"Local gardaí are committed to 'keeping people safe' and would urge people come forward with information and report all incidents."

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'I'll blow your f**king legs off': Crime and neglect in Dublin city centre

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Residents, community activists and youth workers all agree that a sense of increased drug-related violence, threat and intimidation in recent months has brought heightened fear to the area Dublin's north inner city is a place of extremes. On Wednesday night, travelling from East Wall Road on to North Wall Quay, one passes gleaming office blocks, the National Convention Centre, the Central Bank.

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Covid-19 regulations not understood or followed in difficult circumstances (11th March, Irish Times)

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Covid-19 regulations not understood or followed in difficult circumstances (11th March, Irish Times)

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Traditions trump regulations as Travellers mourn a young man in large numbers.

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Nearly 300 mourners attended St Mary's Cemetery in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim on Thursday, to lay to rest a 22-year-old man who recently died in Britain.

Members of the Travelling community in Carrick-on-Shannon and Longford town were joined by relatives living in Britain for the funeral of Davey Reilly which drew a large Garda presence to the town for the past two days.

Throughout Wednesday, mourners arrived at the Shannonside View estate in the Attirory area of the town to pay respects. Dozens of UK-registered vehicles were observed throughout the town on both days.

Gardaí set up checkpoints on the N4 approach into the town and also at various points in the Attirory townland.

Residents of the estate erected a large marquee on site which was full on Wednesday night. Portaloos were also erected and a UK-registered jeep was parked across the entrance to the estate to block any vehicular access.

Following the funeral, a large number of mourners who had initially been turned away gathered on foot in a nearby car park and ran through a Garda checkpoint and made their way to the marquee nearby.

The funeral Mass was celebrated on Thursday by Fr Frank Garvey PP with reduced numbers attending in St Mary's Church. After the Mass, Mr Reilly's remains were brought to St Mary's Cemetery in a horse-drawn glass hearse led by two white horses.

Three hundred metres from the cemetery, the hearse was met by about 100 mourners and the coffin was removed and carried the remainder of the way.

Mourners held aloft floral tributes and music was played aloud as the cortege made its way to the cemetery with about 300 people present, none of whom were seen to be wearing protective face masks.

Following the burial, Gardaí again set up checkpoints in Attirory and tried to prevent vehicles or pedestrians from accessing the Shannonside View estate where the marquee was still erected.

Checkpoints continued in the town throughout the evening.

From Wednesday evening, gardaí had informed people in the area that the Health Act 1947 (Section 31A-Temporary Restrictions) (Covid-19) (No.10) Regulations 2020 were currently in force.

This places restrictions on individuals organising events outdoors and on travel outside the home except with a reasonable excuse, while funerals are to be attended by no more than 10 people.

In a statement, the Garda called on people to follow the guidelines and show "personal and social responsibility", saying Covid-19 pandemic "remains a public health crisis".

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Nearly 300 mourners gather for funeral at Leitrim cemetery

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Nearly 300 mourners attended St Mary's Cemetery in Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim on Thursday, to lay to rest a 22-year-old man who recently died in Britain. Members of the Travelling community in Carrick-on-Shannon and Longford town were joined by relatives living in Britain for the funeral of Davey Reilly which drew a large Garda presence to the town for the past two days.

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Impacts of cancer diagnosis beyond health (RTE News 16th Feb)

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Impacts of cancer diagnosis beyond health (RTE News 16th Feb)

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Almost half of cancer patients returning to work feel their diagnosis has had a negative impact on their career, according to a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute.

The research found that women, younger workers, the self-employed and those working in the public sector were more likely to report a negative impact.

The study, funded by the Irish Cancer Society, included a survey of 377 people affected by cancer between 2010 and 2020.

It found that while seven in ten people felt supported by both their employers and manager in returning to their job, nearly half of respondents felt that their cancer diagnosis negatively impacted career prospects.

One third of the respondents reported negative experiences such as reduction in salary or bonus (11%) on their return or being overlooked for promotion (7%)

Factors that helped people return to work included a phased return (44%), help and support from colleagues (43%), help and support from employer/manager (41%), and time off for medical appointments (40%).

Anne Marie Davy returned to work in 2018 following major cancer surgery.

She said she can relate to many of the study's findings through her own experiences since then.

"I wanted to get on with things and get back to normal, which was important to me, but there is a stigma. It frustrates me when people make presumptions about what I can and can't do, and I find that someone in my position ends up often having to fight their own battles," she said.

Almost four in ten referenced financial need as their main reason for returning to work, an area that must be addressed, according to Irish Cancer Society Director of Advocacy Rachel Morrogh.

She said returning to work after a cancer diagnosis is often very important in a patient's recovery as it restores a sense of purpose for many.

"It is concerning, however, that so many people felt they had to return to work sooner than they might have wished because of financial challenges.

"We know from previous research the crippling financial impact a diagnosis can have on people and their families. The Irish Cancer Society wants all patients to feel supported after a diagnosis, and their quality of life, finances and career prospects should not be affected by their illness."

The Irish Cancer Society has published a series of recommendations for Government, employers and trade unions, along with establishing a new online benefits and entitlements hub with information on State supports for those taking time off work or returning to work.

Lead ESRI researcher on the study Dr Sheelah Connolly said: "The research suggests that many people diagnosed with cancer have a relatively positive experience when returning to employment.

"However, returning to employment can be challenging for several reasons, including ongoing physical and mental health issues.

"Employers can facilitate the return through open communication with the employee and supporting a flexible return based on the individual's needs."

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Half of cancer patients report negative impact on job

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Almost half of cancer patients returning to work feel their diagnosis has had a negative impact on their career, according to a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute. The research found that women, younger workers, the self-employed and those working in the public sector were more likely to report a negative impact.

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Ireland's mental health pandemic: From crisis to emergency

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Will we ever be able to truly comprehend the long-term effects this pandemic will have on our children? Will there even be long-term effects? Children are resilient, but this resilient? Only time will tell. Except that maybe it won't.

If, many years down the line, our teenage kids go off the rails, could we say, "It's not their fault; they lived through 2020."

If they start selling acid out the back of a van at 16 could we say, "If only the lockdown restrictions all those years ago were a little less severe."

If they tattoo their faces and become obsessed with pocket knives, would we be in our rights to say, "It's our fault, really. When they were young we barely left the house for a year."

We recently went for a walk in a nearby park (what else is there to do?) and as we passed by the playground both of our children naturally wanted to go in. Just a casual look at the playground would tell you there were too many people in there.

Zoolander

What I saw in that particular playground, on that particular day, reminded me of the scene in Zoolander where Derek's friends gleefully splash each other with petrol before dying in a horrible, inevitable fiery explosion. It's funny because nobody is that stupid. It would never happen!

And yet here I was, trying to explain to a four-year-old that we can't go into a playground because there are too many people in there. There were as many people as you'd expect on a sweltering August afternoon. It was heaving. It beggared belief. Not to over-egg the point, but do you remember that simulation clip that was doing the rounds during the first lockdown? It showed about 200 dots bouncing randomly around a box as a visual representation of how quickly and exponentially a virus can spread throughout a community. This playground looked like some well-funded university programme decided to recreate the simulation in real life. Look how they cluster and congregate, just like the simulation! Look how the children ping around the enclosure from one group to the next, maximising the spread of the virus - just like the simulation!

(Christ, 2021 was supposed to be my year of positivity).

So anyway, my son did what any four-year-old might do when presented with the double-whammy of not getting what they want, and their dad lamely explaining why - he got angry. But he said something he's never said before; something that made me instantly think, oh no . . . this is the effect lockdown is having on his malleable little brain.

He said, "I hate people!"

Now, that's not an entirely unreasonable thing to think in any number of circumstances. Against my better judgment I think the same thing every time I open Twitter. But my son doesn't hate people; in that moment he hated an abstract thing that was preventing him from playing with his sister in a playground. Two minutes later we had moved on, back to exploring the park and jumping in puddles.

The thought lingers, though.

Monumental change

We talk about children being resilient, but maybe resilient is the wrong word. They don't know anything other than the world we show them. This, what we are all going through, is now normal for them. Is there anything unhealthy about a wariness of strangers? No, but to not hug your grandparents for a year?

Most people are cautious of change because it brings with it uncertainty. Moving house, changing jobs, having a baby, breaking up, getting a haircut; every decision that will bring about change, big or small, is tricky. Here the decision is taken out of our hands, but the change is monumental.

Our children are growing up in a world vastly different from the one we grew up in. The change is the worry. Will they be okay? Was the world we grew up in perfect? Did our parents worry about us? Did they fret about the ozone layer, Sellafield, recession, violent video games, mad cow disease, the threat of nuclear war? Did they wonder if all that anxiety would damage us in the long term?

Perhaps what we need is a change in perspective. How about this - our children will be absolutely fine. They will thrive, not in spite of this pandemic but because of it. All this extra time spent in close proximity with parents and siblings will foster more intimate, loving relationships in the long term. All these precautions like mask-wearing and the 2m rule will encourage a more empathetic treatment of others and a respectful appreciation of personal space.

On top of all that, we are raising a generation of children who will truly value the benefits of proper hand-washing.

Maybe 2021 will be the year of positivity, after all.

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How will the pandemic affect our children in the long term?

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Will we ever be able to truly comprehend the long-term effects this pandemic will have on our children? Will there even be long-term effects? Children are resilient, but this resilient? Only time will tell. Except that maybe it won't.

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Direct Provision to be replaced with international protection system - White Paper.

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Direct Provision to be replaced with international protection system - White Paper.

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26th Feb, RTE

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The Government is to replace the Direct Provision system with an international protection system over the next four years.
A new two-phased approach was set out in a White Paper published today.
Under the plans, it is anticipated that all existing Direct Provision centres will close by the end of 2024.

The Direct Provision system was established to house asylum seekers entering the Irish State in search of international protection.

But what began as an interim measure, over 20 years ago, still exists. It has been criticised by human rights organisations, NGOs, and those in the system.

The Government's White Paper will propose a new two-phase approach.

Phase one is expected to take four months. In this phase, accommodation will be provided in reception and integration centres.

Six reception and integration centres will be established, which will be in State ownership and operated by not-for-profit organisations.

According to the plan, under this new system, people who are applying for protection will be helped to integrate into Ireland from day one, with health, housing, education, and employment supports at the core of the system.

Vulnerability assessments will be carried out to determine accommodation and service needs and help define suitable supported pathways for the most vulnerable.

People who are trafficked, fleeing violence, sexual violence, who are LGBTQI, disabled, or who are older will be directed to an appropriate setting.

It is proposed that necessary supports will be in place depending on the relevant needs.

A health assessment will be provided for all new international protection applicants in this phase and there will be a particular focus on the needs of children who come to Ireland with their families.

Comprehensive information about the international protection process that applicants are undertaking will be made available to all applicants. It will be linguistically accessible in the most common language.

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Watch: Asylum and Direct Provision Explained
Applicants will be entitled to seek paid work after six months. According to the white paper, they will be encouraged and supported to do so.

They will be able to apply to open a bank account and will be provided with information on how to do this. They will also be able to apply for Irish drivers' licences at this stage.

This is something for which the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has been calling for some time.

Following phase one, applicants will be offered accommodation through a number of strands in phase two.

The plan says after their first four months in Ireland, people whose protection claims are still being processed will move to accommodation in the community.

It says this will be own-door or own-room accommodation, for which they will pay a means-tested rent.

All accommodation will be own-door, self-contained houses or apartments for families to provide privacy, agency and independence.

Single people will be housed in either own-door or own-room accommodation.

Homes will be situated within the community, with supports to encourage interconnections.

According to the plan, these will be built or acquired through approved housing bodies or such organisations.
Step towards more compassionate Ireland - O'Gorman
Minister for Children Roderic O'Gorman said the Government is taking a step towards a fairer, more compassionate Ireland.

Asked how targets would be met for the plan if it was not on a statutory footing, Mr Gorman said his sense was that he was aware of how long legislation takes from drafting to passing.

He said it was important to get the paper out now and begin this process because so much, particularly on the accommodation side, was going to take a number of years to implement.

But he said he was open to look at the issue of potentially putting elements on a statutory basis. He said the key focus for him was to get the implementation team in his own department up and running.

Asked what they would do to counteract any attacks on new accommodation, he said there would be information campaigns on a national and local level.

As to how much it is going to cost, he said they estimate the current cost per year will be €175m across all departments.

He said the capital the cost is going to be significant. They had set out a range of capital costings over the lifetime of the new system of between €440m and €670m.

Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Mr O'Gorman said he is "confident" that the six reception centres in the new system, can be built within the timeframe.

He said engagement will take place with city and county managers and local authorities to allocate the centres.

He said measures will be put in place to avoid local dissatisfaction with the location of Reception and Integration Centres or community accommodation.

The Minister added that this engagement has worked well recently in Letterkenny and Galway.

"When we decide to locate either a reception and Integration Centre, or community accommodation in a particular area will engage it with the local community with the local authorities, with other state agencies and NGOs in that particular area to explain what we're doing."

He said additional resources have been put in place by the Department of Justice to speed up the processing of applications.

The Social Democrats have said that ending Direct Provision will be challenging but that the system must be changed.

Co-leader Catherine Murphy has said there were many positives in the Government's plan to end the controversial system, but she said there were a few things missing, including the speed at which people are processed.

She said that had been a source of serious concern for a long time.

Ombudsman Peter Tyndall welcomed the Government's White Paper, however, he said that implementation of its commitments will be key and he will monitor progress and feature updates in his regular reports.
'Very important moment'
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council said the White Paper is "a very important moment".

Nick Henderson said it comes after a long campaign as the IRC first called for an end to Direct Provision in October 2001.

"There is a wealth of reports about what is wrong with the system. And I think this White Paper does give us a roadmap to ending it and replacing it. And we look forward to implementation," he said.

However, Mr Henderson also noted some potential weakness within it, including the processing of applications for asylum.

"What it doesn't do is take forward a recommendation made by the Catherine Day Advisory Group that was published in October, a recommendation that people who had been in the system for more than two years would be offered permission to remain.

"That we believe is a crucial device in reducing backlogs in the asylum process."

He said the current system is dysfunctional with approximately 7,000 people in direct provision and people waiting up to two years for a decision on their first application.

Speaking on the same programme, a retired High Court judge who published a report on Direct Provision over six years ago, said he hopes the White Paper signals a commitment by all three parties in Government that they will fulfil their promise in the programme for government to abolish direct provision as we know it.

Dr Bryan McMahon said that while he welcomes the report and the proposed reforms, he has some criticisms.

He said a two-and-a-half-year period for implementation was recommended, but this has gone up to four years.

"That's a big drift," he said. "I hope it doesn't indicate a slippage in ambition."

Dr McMahon also said the Government is going forward to a new model with a backlog of 3,000 cases of people who have been in the system for more than two years.

He said a new model needs to be able to get up and running "without baggage from a previous system that was bad".

Dr McMahon said the people who come here seeking protection "deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion".

Also speaking on Morning Ireland, Diana, who has been living in Direct Provision with her four children for the past six months, said it has been a "very suffocating" experience.

Her dignity, independence and freedom have been taken from her, she said, and her children have lost their self-confidence.

"It is very hard for us as parents to make sure that these kids escape from this system with their confidence intact."

Lucky Khambule, co-founder of the Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) said 2024 is "a long time" away.

He said that "having seen the history of this Government" he will "not get too excited" about the changes recommended until they are implemented.

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Govt to replace Direct Provision with protection system

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The Government is to replace the Direct Provision system with an international protection system over the next four years. A new two-phased approach was set out in a White Paper published today. Under the plans, it is anticipated that all existing Direct Provision centres will close by the end of 2024.

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Mental health of children overlooked (12th Feb)

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Mental health of children overlooked (12th Feb)

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This is a personal one for me as I can see first hand how school closures have affected my children and the impacts for me as I juggle homeschooling two different ages and my own full time degree.

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'Hanging on by a thread' . . . Home-schoolers limp towards half-term

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Five weeks into homeschooling, round two, and the novelty, if it ever existed, appears to have well and truly worn off. The mid-term beckons, offering a welcome respite, but the last few weeks have left many parents and teachers overwhelmed, stressed and worried about the impact of the situation on their children and students.

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Bill Gates and Climate Change (Feb 16th, Irish Times)

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Bill Gates and Climate Change (Feb 16th, Irish Times)

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A discussion on how rich countries produce the most emissions and the poorer countries suffer the most.

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After putting $100m into Covid research, the billionaire is taking on the climate crisis. And first he has some bones to pick with his fellow campaigners

Bill Gates appears via video conference - Microsoft Teams, not Zoom, obviously - from his office in Seattle, a large space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Washington. It's a gloomy day outside, and Gates is, somewhat eccentrically, positioned a long way from the camera, behind a large, kidney-shaped desk; his communications manager sits off to one side.

If one had to stage, for the purposes of symbolism, a tableau of a man for whom a distance of 5,000km between callers still constitutes too intimate a setting, it might be this. "As a way to start," says Gates's aide, "would it be helpful for Bill to make a couple of comments about why he wrote his new book?" It is helpful, and I'm not ungrateful, but this is not how interviews typically commence.

The 65-year-old cofounder of Microsoft has the lofty, mildly long-suffering air of a man accustomed to being the smartest guy in the room, leavened by wry amusement and interrupted by the occasional peevish outburst

There is an urge towards deference, when speaking to Gates, that attends few other people of commensurate fame. Celebrity is one thing, but wealth - true, former-richest-man-in-the-world wealth - is something else entirely; one has a sense of being granted an audience with the Great Man, a fact made more surreal by his famously muted persona.

The 65-year-old cofounder of Microsoft has the lofty, mildly long-suffering air of a man accustomed to being the smartest guy in the room, leavened by wry amusement and interrupted, on the evidence of past interviews, by the occasional peevish outburst - most memorably in 2014, when Jeremy Paxman, as host of Newsnight, on BBC Two, questioned him about Microsoft's alleged tax avoidance. ("I think that's about as incorrect a characterisation of anything I've ever heard," he said, practically squirming in his seat with annoyance.)

Unlike the Elon Musks or Larry Ellisons of this world, however, Gates is perceived to be sensible, uxorious, modest, vowing not to ruin his children with boundless inheritance or to waste energy trying to send things to Mars. In the late 1990s, the US government brought an antitrust suit against Microsoft, accusing it of maintaining a monopoly in the PC market; a final settlement in 2001 overturned an earlier order for the company to be broken up. Since then, Gates has enjoyed a reputation as the Good Billionaire, dispensing a fortune through his foundation and overshadowing what his detractors would say is his biggest shortcoming: his unquestioning belief in progress as a function of capitalist growth.

All of these aspects come together in Gates' new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, which, as he tells me, grew out of two things: his interest in the sciences and what struck him as an irresistible challenge - the fiendishly difficult problem of how to further global development while reducing emissions. For the past few decades, much of Gates's focus has been on expanding access to electricity in the remotest parts of the world. "And yet," he says, "the idea of adding new electricity capacity - you can't just go build coal plants. And understanding how expensive it needs to be, and how this is going to work, had me doing a lot of reading."

There's another, greater obstacle to reaching zero emissions, which is the political challenge - part of which involves climate activists limiting their exposure to accusations of hypocrisy. Gates loves private jets; he calls them his "guilty pleasure". He loves hamburgers and eating grapes year-round.

Gates's book is compulsively readable. His ambition was to 'cut through the noise' and give consumers better tools for understanding what works, an ambition he meets admirably

A few weeks after we speak, it is reported that he is involved in a bid to buy Signature Aviation, which handles ground services for 1.6 million private jet flights a year. Today he says, "I get sustainable aviation fuel that I use when I fly," and mentions another, vaguely futuristic-sounding service: "I've paid to offset my carbon footprint - there's this group Climeworks that does direct air capture up in Iceland."

On the subject of imported food, he says: "Well, growing food locally is often worse, because you're putting things in greenhouses that have an insane climate imprint. I'm not the only one who eats out-of-season food, as far as I know. But if that's people's main objection and they'll adopt my plan, then" - Gates smiles, in a rather glittering way - "I'll cede my grape-eating."

Bill Gates

For Gates, this focus on grapes and private jet travel is, relatively speaking, like rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. "What months of the year do I have to stop eating hamburgers?" he says sardonically. "I don't need the tomato. Or the lettuce. Just the bun and the meat will do." There is no suggestion that using "direct air capture" to offset one's flights, were such a service even affordable for regular people, would make the slightest dent in the problem. But by using a private jet, Gates makes it easier for others to undermine him. It's not, one imagines, the strongest tool in his skill set, to play dumb in order to win lesser mortals over.

Instead, what he does is bombard us with data and expertise. His book encompasses wisdom from sources that range from less well-known climate scientists, such as Vaclav Smil and Ken Caldeira, to John D Cox, author of Weather for Dummies, which, says Gates, remains one of the greatest books about weather ever written.

Yet Gates's book is compulsively readable. His ambition was to "cut through the noise" and give consumers better tools for understanding what works, an ambition he meets admirably. It's more than that, however. Gates can get an audience with anyone, can marshal almost limitless resources, and is dogged in the detail. The result - particularly in the wake of the Trump presidency - is thrilling.

As Gates points out, the future of car travel lies in electric vehicles; but if the electricity comes from coal-fired power plants, the switch is of limited value

It is also, occasionally, comic. "I can't deny being a rich guy with an opinion," he writes, with a nod to the flipside of his visionary status, that of the despised billionaire flogging a hobby horse. And there is a nerdy bathos to some of his passions. In one episode, Gates takes his 15-year-old son, Rory, around a power plant on a family holiday, something he bills as a jolly day out. "I'm in awe of physical infrastructure," he explains.

The depressing part of the book is its account of the challenge ahead, which Gates presents as extremely urgent - and, in order to avoid defeatism, also just about doable. He points to a headline figure: 51 billion. This is the amount of greenhouses gas, in tons, emitted globally each year, which we have to get down to net zero by 2050. The first step towards this is understanding what we're dealing with. "Let's have more literate climate articles, so people can understand if it's a breakthrough that's a big deal or a small deal."

For example, the transport industry, on which so much attention is focused, accounts for only 16 per cent of global emissions - which is why, as air travel has ground to a halt, greenhouse gases have gone down by only 5 per cent or so. As Gates points out, the future of car travel lies in electric vehicles; but if the electricity comes from coal-fired power plants, the switch is of limited value. Cars are a minor part of the problem compared with the juggernaut of emissions generated by the global cement and steel industries.

"Most people don't understand what cement is," says Gates, igniting with interest. "And I spent literally weeks understanding why it's so miraculous, and could we use less of it?" The same goes for meat production. "To understand, okay, what is the ratio of the input of the calories of the cow to the output? What are cow genetics?" Cow burps and farts account for around 4 per cent of global emissions; without striking beef from our diets, how can those emissions be offset or eliminated?

Like a lot of people, I've indulged in somewhat magical thinking around this, dutifully recycling my plastic every week while assuming that, when push comes to shove, the US government will devote the entire annual defence budget to climate control and invent a shield or something. And Gates covers some cool, sci-fi type innovations, most of them to do with those direct air capture technologies, which suck (not the scientific term) greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. There is a solar-powered dehumidifier to get drinking water out of air, and a technology for storing heat in "molten salt".

The thing that makes climate so hard is that it's not about a 20 per cent reduction - it's about getting it to zero

There is geoengineering, which may one day be capable of reducing the amount of sunlight hitting the world's surface by "distributing extremely fine particles" into the upper atmosphere or using a salt spray to "brighten clouds". But these innovations are cripplingly expensive and imprecise. If you meddle with clouds over the US, there is no guarantee the temperature in China won't go down.

The biggest gesture most powerful authorities are willing to make involves divesting from polluting industries. Last year, New York state pledged to divest its €186 billion pension fund from fossil-fuel companies. This strikes Gates as wholly inadequate; it diverts the focus from more urgent concerns, such as finding a carbon-neutral energy source to power the electricity grid. "It'd be tragic to have this whole generation behind the cause, and then you just do the easy stuff like divesting securities. You can say, 'Okay, I don't want any more of those evil oil company stocks. Yay!' Well, how many tons [of carbon] did you avoid by doing that?"

The same goes for everybody vowing to eat less meat. "I mean, these are good things - in fact, buying Beyond Burgers [a plant-based "meat" company that Gates invests in] actually drives demand, which will get the quality up and the rate premium down, so consumer behaviour is important. But unless you replace steel, it's a joke. Just forcing companies to report their CO2 is a good thing; but when you open that steel company report, you're going to go, 'Oh, this is shocking, they have emissions!' And what? Are we not going to build buildings in India to provide people with basic shelter?

Gates's regard for Charles Koch seems vested entirely in his success as a businessman; no matter how philanthropic, at some level the billionaire class is loyal primarily to itself

"If this was all about a 20 per cent reduction, it should be pretty easy. Rich countries could reduce our cars and big houses, and the ridiculous amounts of meat we eat by 20 per cent. The thing that makes climate so hard is that it's not about a 20 per cent reduction - it's about getting it to zero. So things like [changing] mass transit so you have 20 per cent less miles driven in the city, that doesn't go anywhere."

The only thing that would neutralise the climate impact of public transport is if every vehicle were powered by a zero-emission fuel. One solution Gates cites is clean hydrogen. It doesn't yet exist in a widespread usable form, but were the technology to advance to create "super, super cheap and totally clean hydrogen, that helps a lot of industrial processes. You could use that to make fertiliser in a clean way, to help make steel in a clean way. That alone would help with about 30 per cent of emissions, which is pretty amazing - to have one thing that can do 30 per cent."

Microsoft: Bill Gates in 1983. Photograph: Doug Wilson/Corbis via Getty

If there is a credibility gap in listening to Gates on this subject, it comes from the suspicion that he lives in a world so far removed from the rest of us as to raise large blind spots. It's a small thing, but in a 2014 Rolling Stone interview, Gates mentioned a lunch with Charles Koch, the libertarian billionaire who made huge sums from the oil business and for decades lobbied to reduce US environmental regulations. "He's a very nice person," Gates said in that interview, "and he has this incredible business track record." Koch, along with his late brother David, spent decades funding climate deniers. Gates's regard for him seems vested entirely in his success as a businessman; no matter how philanthropic, at some level the billionaire class is loyal primarily to itself.

But there is no denying that Gates is alert to inequity. "It's the rich countries that did all the emissions," he says, "but it's these poor countries [that will suffer] . The injustice of this on a global basis is pretty mind-blowing." Still, he is often at odds with other climate campaigners, particularly those on the left. Of the Green New Deal, the proposal backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that raises the goal of carbon neutrality in a decade, he is flatly dismissive.

The goal of carbon neutrality in a decade is a fairytale. It's like saying vaccines don't work - that's a form of science denialism. Why peddle fantasies to people?

"Well, it's a fairytale. It's like saying vaccines don't work - that's a form of science denialism. Why peddle fantasies to people?" This seems a little harsh, and one suspects that Gates's vehemence is powered by a broader disapproval of Ocasio-Cortez's politics. But his point is that there isn't the time, money or political will to reconfigure the energy industry in a decade; by encouraging an impossible goal, you doom yourself to short-termist measures that prove insufficient.

How helpful does he consider protest movements like Extinction Rebellion, with their habit of shutting down busy thoroughfares at rush hour? "Well, what we need is innovation. So if they're really strategic about what street they cut off, and some poor guy is blocked in traffic and he sits there and says: 'God, I've got to figure out a way to make steel [carbon neutral]. I was being lazy, but now that I'm sitting here in traffic, I'm going to go home tonight and figure how to do this.' Then it's a very direct connection between blocking the traffic and solving climate change."

He smiles sarcastically. "I don't mean to make fun of it - in a way their passion is valuable. But it's going to manifest in some ways that aren't that constructive. So we need to channel that energy in a way that takes 51 billion and moves it towards zero."

And Greta Thunberg? "To some degree the resonance of the issue - if climate change wasn't important, she wouldn't be on the front page." I quite like Gates for this. One can imagine him having a pop at Malala Yousafzai, too; popular sentimentality is not something that interests him. "I'm not trying to take anything away from her. And every movement needs iconic leaders who speak, and that's a pretty good thing. But there's probably some teenager who believes that the Rohingya should be treated better, and another who thinks we're not investing enough in good education. So the world has sought her out to speak in this clear, almost innocent way about a cause that we're trying to orchestrate our energy around, and say, hey, can we maintain this and convince people to make sacrifices? And how big do these sacrifices need to be? So I'm glad: you can't have a movement without high-visibility figures. I hope she's not messing up her education. She seems very clever."

Well, hang on, I say: you're a college drop-out yourself.

"That's true. Teaching yourself stuff works very well for some people, and probably for her."

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard in 1975, to form Microsoft with Paul Allen. For the next 20 years, he focused solely on building the company; by 1996, it had a market cap of $100 billion. Gates, meanwhile, became the world's richest man in 1995, a spot he held intermittently until he was bumped by Jeff Bezos in 2018.

The idea that the success of Microsoft is so much money for one individual - that giving that back to society in some constructive way might be something I might end up doing - slowly but surely dawned on me

It's tempting to read the Gates aesthetic - plain, functional, allergic to anything not in service to his goals - as the key to his success, and at least as important as his coding genius. These days, according to Forbes, his personal fortune is around €98 billion. But it wasn't until he turned 40, he says, that he started to think about philanthropy, even though it was always there in his upbringing.

His father, Bill Gates snr, was a lawyer who became instrumental in the setting up of the Gates Foundation. His mother, Mary, who worked on various charitable boards, gave a toast at Gates's wedding to Melinda, saying, "From those to whom much is given, much is expected." So yes, says Gates, "The idea that the success of Microsoft is so much money for one individual - that giving that back to society in some constructive way might be something I might end up doing - slowly but surely dawned on me."

He was mentored in this by his friend Warren Buffett. Gates is still annoyed by something CNN founder Ted Turner said of both men, years ago, "claiming that we wanted to be higher on some wealth list. And honestly we weren't hyper-focused on it."

The subject of pandemics is one that has obsessed him for two decades, going back to the foundation's initial €618 million ($750 million) donation to the Gavi Vaccine Alliance in 1999 and culminating in 2014 when he gave a Ted talk on the international community's failure to prepare for the next big outbreak. Gates has donated more than €80 million to Covid research, and on CNN before Christmas he predicted that "the next four to six months could be the worst of the epidemic". Will he wait his turn for the vaccine, like everyone else? "That's right. I'm a healthy 65-year-old, and I'll delegate it to the states. So probably in March or April, they will film me taking the vaccine."(Since we spoke, Gates has tweeted that he has now been vaccinated, earlier than he expected.)

For the pandemic, the government let us down. And so with climate change we want government to look ahead and do the right things

That he is filmed is important. Gates has become the focus for online conspiracy theories about how he "created" the virus, and is now using the vaccine to implant microchips. For months, he has been batting away these theories; in an interview with Reuters in January, he repeated with weary finality how "crazy" and "evil" it all was.

Does he think the vaccine roll-out in the United States, which has been fairly chaotic, could have been better handled? "It's incredibly complex, especially when trying to do so at the scale and speed required. For context, India's campaign to give 400 million children the measles rubella vaccine took over two years with a full year of planning. National leadership is crucial: I am hopeful the incoming administration can help give that."

President Obama presents Bill and Melinda Gates with Presidential Medals of Freedom in 2016. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty

Meanwhile, Gates points out that the experience of the pandemic bears "strong connections" to what will happen if we don't address the climate emergency. "We rely on government to look out for the future, so that even if something unlikely shows up, people aren't dying and the economy isn't wrecked. And so for the pandemic, despite many people, including myself, saying that we ought to get prepared - literally the title of my Ted talk was 'We're not ready' - the government let us down. And so with climate change we want government to look ahead and do the right things."

It is a much more complicated landscape, in which the single most useful thing individuals can do, in Gates's view, is to educate themselves, the better to judge the impact of various solutions. "There's no simple thing like get a vaccine and the nightmare ends. You're talking about replacing every steel and cement factory, everything you do with electricity and transportation, even food. It's way broader, and the time to do these large-scale things is way longer."

One of the more mind-blowing facts Gates shares in his book is that during the ice age the global temperature was a mere six degrees cooler than it is today; and when the dinosaurs were around, only four degrees hotter. So, as climate deniers love to say, what's the big deal if things warm up a bit?

Rich countries are worried about shrinking. So no, I wouldn't say to somebody, please don't have kids. We will make the world a reasonable place to live in and so kids will be fine

"That was confusing me a little bit," Gates says. "We have these huge ranges of temperature, there have been forests at the south pole, so hey, how bad can this be? But understand that it's the rate of change; that the speed with which the CO2 is going up is so fast, that evolution can't help. If this was happening over tens of millions of years, instead of 100 years, then the Earth could adjust." He pauses to consider another terrifying detail. "The fact there is so much water in the Antarctic ice, and that it can raise the sea level by over 100ft - that is mind-blowing, too."

If he were 30 years younger, would he consider not having kids? "Rich countries are worried about shrinking. So no, I wouldn't say to somebody, please don't have kids. We will make the world a reasonable place to live in and so kids will be fine." He thinks for a moment. "It is weird that in 2050, I'll be 95 years old. Will I live to see this play out, in terms of what works and what doesn't work? This is why you have to engage the young."

Gates's method of engaging his children is in line with his own interests, which his son, Rory, now 21, passionately shares. (His daughters, Phoebe and Jennifer, aged 18 and 24, seem to have been spared the holiday day trips.) "The history of steel goes back some 4,000 years," says Gates dreamily, and mentions again how much he loves concrete. Did Rory never complain about being dragged off to look at a factory? "He has a deep amount of curiosity," says Gates. "There were a few - like going to the sewage plant - that were fairly smelly. Going to where they process garbage, and the factory where they make toilet paper and paper towels, that also had a bad smell. Although for both of us that was pretty interesting."

The scale of the threat is so all-encompassing, so demanding of radical changes to transport, buildings, industry, land use and political will

Gates considers himself "naive about the physical world", and is fascinated by how things work. "We're both a bit like that. So it was like: how are things really made? This guy Smil [the energy academic Vaclav Smil] writes all these books about this, such fascinating books, but they never sell. People just take the fact that you flip the switch and the light goes on for granted, and behind that are such unbelievable innovations. Likewise the creation of steel and how cheap all that stuff is. Seeing it directly, I highly recommend that. I want to see tours of steel plants go up dramatically."

There is an assumption, I suggest, that anyone in Gates's wealth category has a personal contingency plan: a secret rocket ship, say, or a fortified island, or at the very least an extremely well-stocked bunker. "No, I don't. In my lifetime, the weather will be worse, but it's mostly at the equator. I'm not a survivalist."

Instead his version of survivalism is to fund innovation. "I'm putting money into carbon capture and nuclear fission. The [Gates] foundation does what we call adaptation work, which is improving seeds." (This is so crops can survive drought and floods in the zones most affected by the climate crisis.) He is also investing in the development of batteries that could, for example, power Tokyo for three days if a cyclone knocked out the power. (It would cost about €330 billion.)

Is there any single area of innovation that, if we got it right, might save us? "The basic answer is no," says Gates. The scale of the threat is so all-encompassing, so demanding of radical changes to transport, buildings, industry, land use and political will, that "there is no single breakthrough that can solve all those things".

There are, he says, "a couple that are very high on the list". If there is something talismanic about Gates, and the faith we have in our billionaires and geniuses to magic us out of this hole, he isn't here to encourage it. "But if you only get the top ones on the list," he says, with a kind of terrifying calmness, "you're in deep, deep, deep trouble." - Guardian

Bill Gates's How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need is published by Allen Lane

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Bill Gates: 'I'm not trying to take anything away from Greta Thunberg, but...'

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After putting $100m into Covid research, the billionaire is taking on the climate crisis. And first he has some bones to pick with his fellow campaigners Bill Gates appears via video conference - Microsoft Teams, not Zoom, obviously - from his office in Seattle, a large space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Lake Washington.

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Inadequate funding for mental health and extended waiting list post Covid-19.

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Inadequate funding for mental health and extended waiting list post Covid-19.

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2nd March, Irish Times

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Almost a million people could be on waiting lists for hospital care by the end of this year unless the Health Service Executive (HSE) addresses the lack of beds and need for greater recruitment, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned.

The consultants' group warned on Tuesday that public hospitals are on track to suspend more than 900,000 patient appointments by the end of this year when 2020 and 2021 figures are combined and when compared with pre-Covid times.

The group expressed concern about public hospitals' capacity to address these waiting lists and meet this built-up demand created by the Covid-19 pandemic, despite assertions by the HSE last week that unprecedented funding by Government would provide a once-in-a-generation opportunity to change how healthcare is delivered in Ireland.

Based on the plan's projections, there will be more than 200,000 fewer patient hospital appointments - 153,000 outpatient and 50,000 inpatient - this year in public hospitals, according to the consultants' body.

HSE data shows there were 248,000 fewer inpatient/day cases and 475,000 fewer outpatient appointments in 2020 when compared with the previous year, said the group.

Combining these figures reveals more than 900,000 appointments will have been cancelled in 2020 and 2021 by the end of this year, the group concluded.

The consultants group also warned of the "continued lack of targets to hire hospital consultants" to fill the the 728 permanent hospital posts which are currently lying empty.

This warning follows repeated calls from non-EEA doctors working in Irish hospitals to be allowed enter training programmes for these consultancy positions. Most are unable to secure a training spot for consultancy roles because of a preference system that places Irish and EU doctors before those trained outside Europe.

"With a record 860,000 people on waiting lists and hospital bed occupancy rate due to be reduced for information control measures, the IHCA continues to be concerned about bed capacity deficits," it said on Tuesday. It also underlined shortfalls in the HSE's approach to mental health, the eHealth technology project, recruitment, ICU capacity and equipment.

IHCA president Prof Alan Irvine paid tribute to frontline healthcare staff during the pandemic and acknowledged the Government had "stepped up in terms of additional investment". However, how the HSE channels this investment will be key, he added.

'Striking a balance'

"We are in effect attempting to service a moving vehicle," said Prof Irvine. "Striking a balance between short and medium-term objectives is key and central to this is collaborative planning."

While reducing levels of Covid-19 community infection is important, the knock-on suspension and cancellation of patient care means a backlog of cases building up, he said. Unless the lack of beds and recruitment are addressed, the "structural mismatch between capacity and demand will continue to increase rather than decrease waiting times," he said.

"We are heading for a waiting list of almost one million people. We continue to tinker around the edges on recruitment despite knowing that over 700 permanent consultant posts remain unfilled. Unless and until we tackle root causes, no amount of good intentions will be enough."

Prof Irvine said 1 per cent of the €1.7 billion extra funding made available because of the pandemic had been earmarked for mental health, describing this support as "grossly inadequate".

"Healthcare professionals are seeing more and more mental health presentations. People themselves are seeing and experiencing the unfolding effects of Covid on mental health. This is a problem set to dominate all of us in healthcare for some time."

The HSE said last week its new service plan for 2021 would see 1,146 additional acute hospital beds provided by the end of the year as well as 66 more critical care beds, bringing the total for adults to 321.

It also said an additional €3.5 billion would be set aide for the health service in 2021, a 21 per cent increase on the amount provided originally to the HSE last year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, the organisation is to receive €20.6 billion this year.

The HSE said the new plan provided for additional spending to improve many services including those in the areas of cancer, maternity and mental health.

It said it would allow for an addition of 16,000 staff above the number employed at the end of 2019 including more than 1,100 medical and dental staff, in excess of 3,500 nurses and midwives, and 4,000 health and social care professionals.

Within the additional allocation of €3.5 billion, some €1.68 billion is being earmarked for spending on Covid-19 requirements, while €1.8 billion will go on non-Covid areas, according to the HSE.

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Almost one million could be on hospital waiting lists by year-end, consultants warn

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Almost a million people could be on waiting lists for hospital care by the end of this year unless the Health Service Executive (HSE) addresses the lack of beds and need for greater recruitment, the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has warned.

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The need for productive conversations around the "triple burden" of productive, reproductive and caring work by women (WHO)

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The need for productive conversations around the "triple burden" of productive, reproductive and caring work by women (WHO)

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9th March Irish Times

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If you've ever fumed "do I have to do everything around here?", while simultaneously cooking dinner, helping with homework, folding laundry and fretting about when you're going to be able to book your daughter's dental check-up because that will require you taking time off work . . . you're probably a mother cracking under the weight of "the invisible job".

If you're ever wondered why, when your partner becomes ratty, she doesn't just say what she needs help with, instead of banging pots around the kitchen and expecting you to be a mind-reader, you're probably a father who has no idea of what "the invisible job" entails.

It's not often you read a book and think it could only have been written by a woman, but the The Invisible Job by Paula Fyans , to be published by Orpen Press on March 16th, is one of those. She's bracing herself for the flak at a time when gender distinctions and generalisations are made at one's peril.

But knowing what she knows now, as a woman with a demanding pharma career who walked naively into combining that with motherhood, Fyans (46) feels compelled to alert younger women to how they might get around the pot hole in the road, instead of falling straight into it as she did. And for those already in the hole, she believes there is a rope ladder out, or at least a way to feel better about yourself for being stuck there.

"I can't not say this stuff," she says simply in an interview from her south Dublin home, about how mammoth and undervalued a job it is to raise children and maintain a comfortable family home in today's aspirational manner. She has prepared a template, taking up 26 pages at the back of the book, or available on theinvisiblejob.com to download, listing the myriad tasks involved.

Paula Fyans.

Each one is waiting to be assessed on the basis of: what is involved; how frequently it needs to be done, eg, multiple times daily for feeding children, annually for assessing best utility provider deals; how much freedom you have around when to do it, eg looking after a sick child, none, defrosting the freezer, plenty; is it a "heavy lifter", does it need to be done with high frequency with little flexibility; can it be outsourced; finally, who is going to take full responsibility for the task?

It's a relief to hear that Fyans doesn't actually expect couples to work diligently through this list, filling in all the categories. "God no," she says, "it's the principle."

Exhaustive list

This is no housekeeping book. The exhaustive list is to illustrate the sheer scale of what we think we should be doing as parents, including many non-essentials, and the impossibility of squeezing it all in alongside two jobs outside the home.

You only need your partner to look at the form for the penny to drop, she suggests. Then between you, you can scrub off those jobs that you agree are not needed and get down to the nitty gritty of a "fair" sharing of what's left.

I am not talking to the dinosaurs. I can do nothing for them. I think most decent men will say 'I had no idea' . . .

That doesn't mean it has to be 50:50 because it depends on a couple's circumstances. But long-term happiness in a relationship is likely to hinge on whether or not each perceive the sharing of family responsibilities to be equitable and truly appreciate the other's contribution.

Fyans, whose children are now aged 12 and 13, is at pains to say at the outset in the book that "no single element of the invisible job is in itself overly onerous or even unpleasant". Rather, "the issue is the cumulative burden of having too many jobs to do and the 'mental load' associated with managing them all - the constant thinking ahead, scheduling/rescheduling and prioritising".

This is what so many men still don't get. She likens it to a zero hours contractor (dad) working for a project manager (mum).

Enthusiastic "new dads" will probably bristle at the inference that they are not doing their fair share of parenting and housework.

Changing nappies? Tick.
Supermarket shopping? Tick.
Cooking meals? Tick.
Driving the children to sport on a Saturday morning? Tick.
Ironing their own shirts? Tick.

In fact, unlike their own fathers, there is nothing they are not prepared to help out with, when they have the time.

But there is a sea of difference, Fyans says, between partial responsibility and full responsibility. "It can feel as if men get to choose what they do, to opt in whenever they feel they have capacity to do so, whereas women have no choice," she writes. "In a home where both parents work, a wife can feel hard done by if her husband regularly stays late at the office if he has work to finish while she always has to be home at 6.30 pm, on the dot, and immediately shift gears to become cook, cleaner, listener, referee, homework checker, counsellor and general fixer for as long as it takes.

"She may have had an urgent work deadline, too, but it will be at least 9pm before she can open her laptop and finish whatever she was working on when she left the office."

The first draft of this book was finished well before the start of the pandemic. Fyans says she has since spoken to lots of couples who have enjoyed positives of lockdown, such as not rushing out the door every day, spending more time together as family and no more fomo (fear of missing out), as nobody else is going anywhere either.

It has allowed some people to re-evaluate their lives. Most fathers, if home more, are doing more and maybe seeing the effort involved in aspects of home life they previously took for granted.

Provided, of course, they are not one of those fathers staying all day in the good room with the best wifi signal, doing his "more important" job while his partner juggles homeschooling with her paid employment. In which case, for women already spinning too many plates, this has magnified the problem, she says. "It has been very easy for men to go 'this is nice, I don't have to commute - and what's for lunch'?"

Obviously where one person spends significantly more hours per week in a paid job (forming part of your joint household income), it makes sense for the other person to spend more time on the invisible job, she acknowledges.

However, "both paid and unpaid work that contribute to your joint welfare should be recognised equally. If you are each doing your fair share, you should end up with a similar amount of free time each week to spend on non-work activities (whether paid or unpaid) and similar flexibility to manage this time".

There is no hard and fast recipe for structuring family responsibilities. "It just needs to be an open conversation between couples. I am not dictating that anyone stay home at all, or ever, or full-time, or part-time."

If a couple decide that one of their careers is going to have to be "crashed", and more often than not it is the woman's, then the long-term implications for her needs to be recognised by both.

The message that "women can have it all" was a Trojan horse, she maintains, as it meant they could, if they did it all. Although it can be argued that some "gatekeeping" women contribute to their load by believing theirs is the "right" way in most domestic matters or, as Fyans has observed, get some sort of self-serving "buzz" out of being the only one able to soothe a child.

Usually, dual income couples are on a fairly equal footing until the children start to arrive, then they have to face the reality that three full-time jobs into two don't go.

"The maths has been conveniently glossed over," she agrees. Even with some outsourcing, juggling one and a half jobs is challenging but when one partner is carrying more than half of the domestic one, it is likely to be crippling. For all the talk of workplace equality, the "glass ceiling" some women find between them and the top jobs is one constructed in their own home.

In Ireland, it is still predominantly women who take on the responsibility of looking after the household, with 81 per cent of females recording daily involvement in housework, compared to 44 per cent of men, according to a 2019 ESRI study, "Caring and Unpaid Work in Ireland". Women also take on the majority of caring for their children, partner, parents, and other relatives. "Women today are led to believe that gender imbalance is largely a thing of the past; that we live in an era where women are free to achieve their potential on an equal footing with men," says Fyans.

"Yet, the reality is that we are still miles away from gender equality. This is true both in low-income and high-income countries and the main reason for this is the time women are obliged to spend daily on the invisible job, such as unpaid caring and household responsibilities.

"Between 1997 and 2012, the time spent per day has only decreased by 15 minutes, or one minute per year. At this rate, the International Labour Organisation estimates that the gender gap for unpaid caring responsibilities will not disappear until the year 2228, so 207 years from now."

Triple burden

The World Health Organisation has flagged the pressure on women due to the "triple burden of productive, reproductive and caring work". Yet, as Fyans comments: "Women often carry on for years, not fully realising the impossible burden they are carrying. They just keep going stoically, telling themselves to try harder: 'This should all be doable; it must just be me.'

"You may not realise how close you are to the edge until some big boulders are thrown into the mix to test what you can cope with." For her these included an increased workload after losing a key team member in the office; two close relatives dying unexpectedly and two medical emergencies with her son.

However, the proverbial "straw" was their au pair announcing that she was leaving - tomorrow. "While we muddled through for a while with no childminder, this was just one boulder too many. It was time for one of us to stay home and dedicate time to looking after our family and restoring some calm. With only one applicant for the post of stay-at-home parent, 'we' decided this someone would be me."

Much of what she writes about won't come as news to the women who have been there, done that and got the T-shirt. But those going through it now will undoubtedly identify with plenty of her observations.

In spelling out just what her eyes have been opened to, presenting copious data from scientific research to back up her view, she is urging personal and political action to stop this continuing "oppression" of women. She doesn't use the word lightly and also points out that men have much to benefit in liberation from their own internalised oppression.

Men will "get it", she says confidently, believing that the partners of women she is writing this for are "good men".

"I am not talking to the dinosaurs," she says. "I can do nothing for them. I think most decent men will say 'I had no idea' . . . "

Paula Fyans.

You can't build a good society without nurturing the upcoming generation and it is parents who are best placed to do that. But how can they do it if their time and energy is consumed by the process of providing a roof over their heads? "The problem is the guilt for that is placed at the door of the mother, not the father. But it should be guilt that is placed at the door of a finance minister."

There needs to be more recognition and support of the worker-carers that most of us are for significant periods of our lives, she says, be it for children or older relatives.

Covid-19 has shown how societal change can happen very quickly. The only thing stopping progress on family-friendly measures is inertia and fear, she suggests, yet Nordic countries have paved the way.

It is only for the past six years that new fathers in Ireland have been entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave

A crucial phase for gender equality, from both the personal and public policy perspective, is the weeks and months after the birth of the first child. It is then that couples tend to start a pattern of parenting that will persist.

It is only for the past six years that new fathers in Ireland have been entitled to two weeks paid paternity leave. But no matter how attentive a new father is to mother and baby over that fortnight, it is very different from being left in charge to care for that baby.

Finland, for example, has long insisted that only some of its much more generous paternity leave can be used at the same time as the mother is on maternity leave. A "tag" approach to caring has been encouraged (with now equal parental leave of 6.6 months each for mothers and fathers promised from this year), which is not only good for parents and child but also helps to reduce workplace prejudice against men stepping up to caring responsibilities and in regarding women of child-bearing age as a liability. "You make certain steps towards things being more equal, more inclusive and look at all the fringe benefits that come with it," says Fyans.

Whereas here, caring work is slave work. "No one pays for it on paper but they are paying for it in all of the ways their lives are being damaged, their health is being damaged, their economic security in old age is being compromised. That might be uncomfortable for some people but it needs to be acknowledged."

There will be a "crunch" in coming to terms with this within individual relationships, she warns, but if you do have the talk, it works. "It's win win." That's why the sub-title of the book is, How Sharing Home and Parental Responsibilities Leads to Happier Lives.

"I genuinely think we have all been living in a way that is not good for society." Men are constrained by expectations too.

Although change is needed at a political and societal level, she believes it is possible to avoid being bulldozed by the "invisible job", if you are forewarned. "People who need to know most about this are people who are not yet in it - young women."

She talked to plenty of younger women for her research "and they are looking at me blankly, age 22 and 23. If they are 30 and don't yet have kids, they say they are beginning to talk about this, which is brilliant, but they really don't know what is coming. Not that you ever want to listen to somebody who is 10 years older telling you what to do."

Fyans didn't really want to put herself in the book but felt she had to, to explain things. "I want to prevent 20-year-old women going through what every 30-something and 40-something woman I know has been through. Every one of them.

"Men and women can have more fulfilling, inter-dependent, happier lives in every sense as parents, as workers, as partners, just by realising that this thing is coming, and vowing to do it together in the most sensible and fair way possible."

And the icing on the cake? With reduced exhaustion and resentment, couples will enjoy more sex.

"I have the data to prove that!"

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'Do I have to do everything around here?' Irish women and the 'invisible job'

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If you've ever fumed "do I have to do everything around here?", while simultaneously cooking dinner, helping with homework, folding laundry and fretting about when you're going to be able to book your daughter's dental check-up because that will require you taking time off work . . .

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How does society address the root causes of toxic masculinity?

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How does society address the root causes of toxic masculinity?

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(11th March, Irish Times)

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It was news no one wanted to hear: police searching for the missing British woman Sarah Everard had found human remains in a Kent woodland, as a suspect - a serving police officer - was questioned about her apparent murder.

The aftermath of this grim discovery has been depressingly familiar, although it seems to have taken on a fresh fury. The suspect's mother-in-law has been quoted by one newspaper as insisting that he is a wonderful father. Women took to Twitter to share their stories of street harassment, assault and violence.

In sharing their myriad experiences, it has become clear that personal safety is a "normal" part of being a woman, and being unsafe is something women feel exhausted by. As the British writer Rebecca Reid noted: "Every single woman I know is overwhelmed by the Sarah Everard story. It's the thing they teach us to be afraid of from childhood. It's proof that we're not afraid for no reason."

Women are not afraid of the dark or a lonely space. They are afraid of a violent male perpetrator in the dark

At the same time the #notallmen hashtag was trending on Twitter, with 37,000 tweets and counting. Several men appeared to be objecting to being tarred with the same brush as men who abuse women.

"Not all men are violent, and I don't think anyone is claiming that. However, the majority of violence against women is perpetrated by men, and that's something as a whole society, including men, we need to be aware of," says Sarah Benson, chief executive of Women's Aid. "Women are not afraid of the dark or a lonely space. They are afraid of a violent male perpetrator in the dark."

"If your response to the Sarah Everard case is to say #notallmen then you're part of the problem," the Labour TD Aodhán O'Ríordáin tweeted this morning. "This is a man problem. We need to own it, challenge it and change it."

Later he says: "I don't think enough men have been challenged to look at the world from a woman's point of view. For Irish men, middle-class men, straight men and able-bodied men, this country has been set up for us. We've never had to see the world from anyone's perspective.

"Whenever I'm involved in a conversation like this, I get a level of kick-back from men who don't want to be challenged this way and don't like being told they're part of the problem," O'Ríordain continues. "They might think this is political correctness gone mad, or traditional values turned on their heads."

Noeline Blackwell, head of Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, recalls meeting a young man who was surprised when, at the end of a date, a woman pulled out a set of keys to hold in her hand for the walk home. "He thought she was clearly paranoid and said it to his sister, who then told him that all women know how to do that and know when to do that," Blackwell says. "Fortunately, it was a conversation he was curious enough to have.

I think everyone should take reasonable precautions regardless of gender, but my advice is, 'Don't go out and assault,' and that's mainly directed at males

"I often get asked at times like this what I would advise women to do. I think everyone should take reasonable precautions regardless of gender, but my advice is, 'Don't go out and assault,' and that's mainly directed at males."

Clíona Saidléar, executive director of Rape Crisis Network Ireland, believes more needs to be done to address the root causes of male aggression and toxic masculinity. "Where women pick up safety tips by osmosis, the opposite happens to men via osmosis - the sexual objectification of women, the shaping of men's masculinity, the affirmation of their masculinity in relation to how women respond to them," she says. "Their masculinity is defined in relation to women right from the start. I think where you start the conversation is, 'How can we think of masculinity differently? How do we teach boys to become men?'"

Discovery: a TV crew near where human remains were found in Kent. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty

Sarah Benson says: "We have a deeply stigmatising and victim-blaming culture, and that is something we can all take stock of. Why do we interrogate women's behaviours when society does less to absolve [perpetrators] of responsibility?

"Physical violence is often preceded by other behaviours - disrespectful, misogynistic behaviour, and use of reductive language. Do you call someone out if you see them treat someone in that way? We don't see peers calling them out, and if those interventions are made, peer to peer, at an early stage, it can be preventative. Why focus on what the victims do? Our energy should be on the preventative stuff."

Noeline Blackwell adds: "Women should not be limited to certain public places. I always wonder if someone has walked past a woman who has been assaulted and thought, I'll leave it be - it's not my place to interfere."

When a woman mentions something that happened to her at 18, I don't think men realise how long that experience stays with you. A lot of men believe women simply shrug them off

The outpouring of women's stories on social media, O'Ríordáin notes, should at least move the debate about street harassment and violence forward. "This flood of experiences was a real eye-opener for me," he says. "When a woman mentions something that happened to her at 18, I don't think men realise how long that [experience] stays with you. I think a lot of men believe that women simply shrug them off.

"Men have to own this," he says. "We need to find the words which bring men along with us. We have to work harder to get into the heads of young men and challenge the pressures on young men where they sexualise and dehumanise people to an alarming degree."

Benson agrees that men need to become more integral to the conversation about violence against women. "Equality, respect and nonviolent communication are things we should all aspire to and collaborate on."

Could the huge online conversation surrounding Sarah Everard's disappearance result in a sea change? "I'd love to say yes," Saidléar comments. "We've had this conversation so many times. When this type of [crime] happens, it changes things a little every time. I wouldn't be in this job if I didn't believe change is possible."

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Sarah Everard's disappearance: 'This is a man problem. We need to own it, challenge it, change it'

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It was news no one wanted to hear: police searching for the missing British woman Sarah Everard had found human remains in a Kent woodland, as a suspect - a serving police officer - was questioned about her apparent murder. The aftermath of this grim discovery has been depressingly familiar, although it seems to have taken on a fresh fury.

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Are we finally ready to address the dynamics of male violence, power and abuse?

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Are we finally ready to address the dynamics of male violence, power and abuse?

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10th March Irish Times

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There was a time when certain types from leafy suburbs would have mocked Liveline as a haven for all the moany auld wans and idle layabouts droning on from places no one could find on a map.

Chances are though, that they never listened to it. Until now.

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Kathy Sheridan: More damaged men out there than we realise

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There was a time when certain types from leafy suburbs would have mocked Liveline as a haven for all the moany auld wans and idle layabouts droning on from places no one could find on a map. Chances are though, that they never listened to it. Until now.

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No maternity provision in Irish Government - in 2021.

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No maternity provision in Irish Government - in 2021.

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11th March, Irish Times

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Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will remain a member of the Government as a Minister without a portfolio when she takes six months' maternity leave, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has told the Dáil.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys who is also Minister for Rural and Community Development, will take on a third portfolio as minister for justice from April 30th when Ms McEntee goes on maternity leave, until October 31st.

Ms McEntee will resume her role as Minister for Justice on November 1st.

She is expecting a baby in May, making her the first Cabinet Minister in the history of the State to be pregnant in office. There are no legal provisions to allow TDs to take maternity leave.

Under a mechanism agreed by Cabinet and in keeping with the current constitutional position, Ms McEntee "will be provided with the necessary administrative support to carry on any duties that may arise", the Taoiseach said.

Mr Martin said the current legal framework was "based on completely outdated assumptions and attitudes in this area".

It "illustrates once more the absolute requirement for permanent reform in this area to ensure full equality for all public representatives and the need to introduce paternity and maternity leave for councillors, Senators, TDs and Ministers", he said.

The Government wants to make sure that having a family in no way conflicts with pursuing a career in public office and will deliver "ambitious reform" in the area in line with the programme for government.

But he said that would require legislative change as well as constitutional change. "These matters are under active consideration by the relevant Government departments and also by the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality."

The assembly meets this weekend to discuss gender equality and also dealt with the maternity leave issue at its October meeting last year, with a recommendation expected next month.

The Government will bring forward proposals "in the coming months" after the assembly produces its report.

As part of the new arrangements, Minister of State for Transport Hildegarde Naughton will take on extra responsibility as a second minister of state for justice along with current Minister of State James Browne.

"There will be significant delegation of functions to the two Ministers of State to ensure a more balanced workload for this period," the Taoiseach added.

'Special time'

Congratulating Ms McEntee and her husband, Paul Hickey, he said this was a very special time in their lives.

"Ms McEntee and I agree that she should, of course, be entitled to access the same full period of six months of maternity leave, as any other public servant, like any other woman.

"She should be afforded every opportunity, continuing her role, and to pursue her career in accordance with her own wishes."

In a statement afterwards, Ms McEntee said there were still "many barriers to women entering politics" including the lack of maternity and paternity leave.

"Women and men should know that having a family is not an impediment to a career in public life," she said.

"I and my colleagues in Government are determined to change the current system for the next generation."

She added that "just as many young girls as young boys want to succeed in politics" and help communities and society as public representatives and leaders but "they do not see the equality of their dreams and ambitions matched in equality of representation".

Opposition parties welcomed the move and plans for reform in this area.

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McEntee will be without a portfolio during maternity leave

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Minister for Justice Helen McEntee will remain a member of the Government as a Minister without a portfolio when she takes six months' maternity leave, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has told the Dáil.

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Half of all dementia cases globally could be prevented by lifestyle changes 

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Half of all dementia cases globally could be prevented by lifestyle changes 

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(16th March, Irish Times)

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Up to half of all dementia cases worldwide could be prevented by addressing lifestyle risk factors through the course of people's lives, says Prof Sean Kennelly of Tallaght University Hospital, in Dublin.

Just what you can do for your brain health will be outlined in a series of free online webinars, starting on Monday, March 15th, the first day of Brain Awareness Week. Hosted by Dementia Research Network Ireland (DRNI), which is a collaboration of clinicians and academics, the weekly webinars will run until May, covering topics such as the impact of nutrition and exercise on the brain, healthy habits for healthy minds and rejuvenating your brain.

Research has shown that, in early life, education and other social factors help to mitigate risk but that, in midlife, issues such as alcohol consumption, obesity, high blood pressure and hearing loss significantly increase a person's likelihood of developing dementia. In later life, physical inactivity, social isolation, depression and smoking are among the biggest risk factors.

Kennelly, a consultant geriatrician and DRNI chairman, will talk at the first webinar about the evidence for prevention of dementia. He will also outline the work of Ireland's first hospital-based brain-health clinic, which opened a year ago at Tallaght. Here they see people with, say, mild memory impairment or signs of early-onset Alzheimer's, to establish their risk-factor profile, asking about sleep patterns, stress and anxiety levels, exercise and diet.

"We develop what is called a PPP - personal prevention plan - and that benchmarks you relative to your peers, showing what you're doing well and what you need to do better."

Even as the director of clinical trials at the memory clinic in Tallaght, Kennelly believes they will probably never find a drug as impactful as appropriate lifestyle interventions. It is key, he adds, that such advice is given not only to patients presenting with mild memory symptoms but also generally promoted, just as is done for, say, cardiovascular health.

More information and registration for the webinars on dementianetwork.ie

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Lifestyle risk factors can significantly increase likelihood of dementia, research shows

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Up to half of all dementia cases worldwide could be prevented by addressing lifestyle risk factors through the course of people's lives, says Prof Sean Kennelly of Tallaght University Hospital, in Dublin. Just what you can do for your brain health will be outlined in a series of free online webinars, starting on Monday, March 15th, the first day of Brain Awareness Week.

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The Guardian 17th March 2021 "If men would realise that the same system that produces men who murder and assault women also produces men who murder and assault men, maybe they would think about working together."

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n the wake of the killing of Sarah Everard, and the wider concerns about gender-based violence, women have shared their stories of abuse, harassment and assault. And the myriad ways they have tried to protect themselves from this. Men have, for the most part, listened. Now - given that violence against women and girls is primarily a male-perpetrated crime - is it time more men actively joined the fight against it? The Guardian convened a round table of experts to ask what men can do to help effect change among their friends and family, and in their workplaces.

Luke Hart of CoCo Awareness. In 2017, Hart's father murdered his wife, Claire, and their daughter, Charlotte. Days earlier, Claire and Charlotte had left the family home after a lifetime of coercive control and abuse. Luke and his brother Ryan are now anti-abuse activists: This week, and Everard's death, really took me back to what happened to my family. I feel deeply sorry for Everard's family; it's hard when things take on a life of their own and you just want to grieve. Events become something that other people feel they have ownership of. I remember, after my mother and sister died, some of the media reporting made me and my brother angry, to the point where we had to shut ourselves away. I remember one report saying that what my dad did was "understandable". We started to despair. So I think this has to be a moment to remember Everard's family because it's so difficult when something you're going through becomes public property.

Dr Jackson Katz, educator and author of The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help: Despite this tragic situation, there is some reason for optimism because young women in particular are using their voices to speak out about their own experiences of being survivors of violence. But, for decades, there has been a lack of male voices speaking up about violence against women.

Christopher Muwanguzi, former CEO of Future Men, a charity for men and boys: What really got me was Jess Phillips on International Women's Day last week reading out the names of all the women killed in Britain by men in the past year. So many names. And what's happening now? What's going to be happening tomorrow?

Jackson Katz, Luke Hart, Christopher Muwanguzi and Nazir Afzal. Composite: None

Nazir Afzal, solicitor and former chief crown prosecutor for north-west England. Afzal helped bring the Rotherham grooming gang to justice: Five years ago, I tried to organise a "million man march" on the subject of violence against women and girls. I got 52 signups.

Jackson Katz: Oh, man. Listening to some of the male voices on social media this week, I keep hearing people saying: "Not all men!" To which I would say: if you have the impulse to say "not all men", don't. It's silly, and it's not a good look. Because, yes, although men are more likely to die violently than women, and, yes, not all men are violent, there's no doubt that the overwhelming majority of violence that happens between the genders happens by men against women. And the vast majority of violence that men suffer is at the hands of other men. So men and women have a common enemy, which is male violence.

If men would realise that the same system that produces men who murder and assault women also produces men who murder and assault men, maybe they would think about working together, rather than being defensive and assuming that women are bashing them or that they're "anti-men" when they are really speaking up for their own dignity and basic right to walk free from the fear of sexual violence.

One man told me that he installed tracking apps on his wife's and daughter's phones. I reported him to the authorities

- Nazir Afzal

Luke Hart: I guess I'm the perfect example of that male ignorance. I grew up pretty ignorant about my father's behaviour. He wasn't beating us regularly, so I thought: he's not dangerous. But that wasn't the case. It was extreme coercive control. Ryan and I have spent a long time trying to answer why my father did what he did. I mean, people always ask us that question. And I think there are two reasons. First: incredible entitlement. He saw himself as the patriarchal peak of the home, and my mother was basically his slave. So there's that framing women as lesser. But the bit that makes men do the horrible things, I think, is just sheer resentment. The resentment fuels the action. Everything wrong in my father's life was down to my mother and sister. He wrote it in his murder note. So you have to understand that entitlement and resentment because it underpins everything: the harassment of women, the catcalling, everything you see in the streets. It's endemic.

Nazir Afzal: I've prosecuted hundreds of rapes, hundreds of femicides. And in all the rapes I've prosecuted - from looking at the evidence - not one of the men was motivated by sex. They were motivated by being able to control the woman.

People think we need to identify those men who are sex maniacs if we want to catch rapists. But rapists were motivated by that need to control and coerce. Sometimes it leads to rape, sometimes it leads to voyeurism, sexual assault, femicide or just controlling a women's choices so she can't go where she wants and see who she chooses. And you know what? Men can spot when it's happening.

I can't tell you the amount of friendships I've lost - deliberately. They make jokes and it's abundantly clear. You ask them what their wife is up to that evening, and they say: "She's not allowed to go out." One man I knew told me that he installed tracking apps on his wife's and daughter's phones. I sussed him out, and he knew. I've not seen him since. And I reported him to the authorities.

Christopher Muwanguzi: You know, we're all going to lose friends. Because sometimes you have to say: I'm sorry, but that's not acceptable. There is a teachable moment in every opportunity with a young person.

Nazir Afzal: Right! In order to change the culture, we need to hold everyone to account. Don't we? We can't say: "Oh, he's just like that." Because we don't educate people about this stuff. Hate is a learned behaviour; you don't learn things until people teach you. Misogyny is the earliest prejudice - it started in the Garden of Eden. We need to be teaching children from the age of five about gender equality, about good and bad relationships.

Christopher Muwanguzi: Let me jump on that train. You're right: this behaviour doesn't happen in a vacuum. These toxic behaviours are learned. There's this idea that manliness is about violence, aggression, power and holding people down, rather than supporting and being part of a community.

Jackson Katz: Yes! But the thing is, learned behaviour is passive. These attitudes and beliefs about manhood, they're actively taught. It's media culture, sports culture, peer culture and porn culture. All these influences teach men certain lessons about manhood and social norms that are produced and reproduced at every level. The reason it's so hard to deal with these issues is because we can't just isolate individual perpetrators as pathological monsters. Because it is our society that's producing these abusive men on a regular basis, generation after generation, across class, race and ethnicity.

There's always this tendency when a tragic killing happens to think about the individual as crazy, sick, diabolical - as opposed to thinking: he's a product of society that has a group of norms along a spectrum. And when you start thinking of those norms on a spectrum, it implicates all of us. That makes a lot of guys get really defensive because they know they're part of the problem in a larger sense. And that means they have to be introspective and self-critical. They have to move past this idea that because they don't go out and murder women or beat their girlfriends, they're not part of the problem. Because they may still be perpetrating the norms of masculinity that contribute to this situation.

Christopher Muwanguzi: I think role modelling is the best solution. It can be as simple as not talking over women - recognising that's not acceptable and picking up on it when it happens. I was talking to a friend recently who works at a school. She was physically intimidated by a large group of boys. A male teacher said: "You know boys!" But that's him agreeing that intimidating behaviour is acceptable, and refusing to challenge it. He is all the men who turn a blind eye, who think things are OK, who say: "This is normal. It happens every day." We need to show young people better role models.

It's not about being a superhero. It's about making it clear you don't tolerate sexism or misogyny

- Jackson Katz

Nazir Afzal: We also need to look at our institutions. As men, we want to excuse male behaviour. That comes across in the media. How many times have you seen the headline along the lines of "Man with drink problem kills wife", or "Man kills wife because she had an affair"? It is a problem in our legal institutions, too. You know, the prosecution rate for rape in this country is about 1%. There's a feeling, quite rightly, that rape has been decriminalised. There's also a big systemic issue about how we treat sexual violence victims full stop.

There are many women who'll never again report a crime because of the way they were treated. The Norwegian model, where each victim gets their own paid-for lawyer, would be a good option, I think. It costs money. But we've got to start giving the victim more power than she has; that's the only way we're going to change things.

Jackson Katz: Earlier Christopher talked about teachable moments. Right now, in the UK, there's this huge explosion of outrage. Talk about a teachable moment! The time for men to step up is right now. How are we going to start holding men accountable in a positive way? The rehabilitation of individual men - everyone needs to be involved in it. It's not about pointing to individual men and saying: "He needs to go to therapy, the wiring in his brain needs to be fixed." If everyone is part of the change, it makes it easier for each individual. I believe in redemption. I believe you don't just toss people away. People can learn and be taught new ways of being. But it's not easy.

Christopher Muwanguzi: I also believe in redemption. But there needs to be consequences for actions, too, whether intended or unintended. And we have to think about how we tell the survivors' stories to men so that they can understand the impact.

I also want to talk about emotional literacy, mental wellbeing and health. It cannot be separated from this discussion. Because it is what's creating a system that allows individuals to go out and do harm. We need to create environments for men and women to tell their stories. Like Luke's story - my God, that's powerful. I listen to it and think about what sort of father I am to my son.

We need to be thinking: a woman has been killed. Am I checking my unconscious bias? Am I asking my sister, my mother, my wife, my friend, how they have felt? Am I listening?

Flowers from the vigil at Clapham Common bandstand. Photograph: Guy Smallman/Getty Images

Jackson Katz: I'm one of the architects of the "bystander approach" [which emphasises the roles witnesses can play in challenging behaviour]. This can be something as simple as intervening when someone tells a rape joke to stopping a rape in progress in front of you. It's not about being a superhero or rescuing the damsel in distress. It's about as a man, making it clear you don't tolerate sexism or misogyny - and if you hear that from your friend, you're going to make it clear that you're not cool with it, and he's violating the norms and values of you and the group he is a part of. That's peer culture policing - rather than looking for an external authority to police your peer's behaviour. If we can build that into schools, at the youngest age possible, you'll see a significant change.

Luke Hart: Part of being a bloke is putting up a facade sometimes. But men need to talk about how they're feeling and figure that out with other people. My brother and I were very stoical. We used to put a lot of our aggression into sport. One of the real challenges we faced in dealing with our dad was: what do we do with all our anger? Because you don't want to be like your father, right? Anger is bad. Aggression is bad. And that sort of tore us apart, internally.

Then we realised that you can use aggression to give you confidence and courage to tackle bad behaviour around you, and challenge the darkness in ourselves. For those who are in a dark place it can be useful to try to accept those parts of ourselves, and put them in their rightful place. Confront all of that difficulty. Only when you take responsibility for it can you do something about it.

That's something that was totally lacking in my father. He had no responsibility or control over himself. My father was not a happy man. You don't blow your head off if you've reached the pinnacle of achievement. So you have to realise: abusers are miserable too. They're making everyone around them miserable. So I would say: have the conversation. If there was ever a time to start talking about being a bloke, and doing it better, it's now.
The conversation in this panel has been edited for length.

This article was amended on 17 March 2021. Nazir Afzal originally said the conviction rate for rape in England and Wales was about 1%; he meant the prosecution rate. The conviction rate is about 2.5%.

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'The time for men to step up is right now!': what all men can do to help end violence against women

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Over the past week, women have shared their stories of abuse, harassment and assault. Is it time for men to join the fight to dismantle the culture that allows this violence to flourish?

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Lack of funding leaves vulnerable exposed

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Lack of funding leaves vulnerable exposed

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23rd March, Irish Times

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Gardaí in three-hour standoff with staff at gates of Central Mental Hospital

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Gardaí engaged in a three-hour standoff at the gates of the Central Mental Hospital (CMH) last week when staff refused to admit a severely mentally ill man following a court order that he be taken there for treatment.

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Let's put men back in the discussion about sexual violence

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Let's put men back in the discussion about sexual violence

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23rd March 2021

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Rapists are not a talkative lot. They don't discuss the deed much, after they have been caught. And you might think this is because they feel remorseful, but often they don't seem to know that they have done something wrong.

Or they know that they have done something illegal, but the act itself is fine by them. They admit to nonconsensual sex "but not rape". They admit to rape but not to blame: "I felt I was repaying her for sexually arousing me," a man in one of the few studies says.

On a Reddit forum where, at the onset of the #MeToo revolution, my soul went to die, men wrote "from the other side" of sexual assault. Their accounts implied covert participation - "She just had this unusually sexual way of carrying herself" - or active reciprocation: "In my mind, at the time, she wanted it." This man looked at the woman's face and realised he had been mistaken.

Men do not just disappear in court, they disappear from the discussion, they disappear from the language we use

A few things are striking about the comments: one is that desire - and I think this is true for women also - turns the sexual object into a fragmented object. When people are having sex, they can get a bit lost in it. We do not always look into our lover's eyes, not all the time, so yes it is a good idea to check back with the entire person to see if your needs are still aligned. The sense of entitlement is, with the vengeful or narcissistic types, always breathtaking.

This is something society does not encourage or allow in women, for which you might almost be grateful. Who wants to be like that? There is also the mechanism of blame, that magical projection machine. These men speak as though arousal comes from somewhere outside the self, and that it, even more strangely, continues to happen outside the self. There is no reality check. She started this. She wants this. It comes from her.

The courts don't laugh at these projections, they magnify them. We have all seen women destroyed by a justice system that puts them on trial for being attacked. The courtroom discussion becomes all about the victim, her clothes, her "mistakes", while the perpetrator remains a blank.

This gap in the argument is an odd absence that requires a lot of energy to maintain. This is why strange things happen in court: why a woman's thong is waved by the defence, as in a case in Cork last year; or a woman's silence during a gang rape is taken as a sign of her enthusiasm, as happened in a 2019 trial in Pamplona, in Spain. A good part of female outrage, the years of #MeToo, has been taken up by raw disbelief. These courtroom arguments are a bit mad. They are also a distraction from the man in the dock. There is a kind of trick happening here.

'Our whole cognitive structure is set up to blame victims'

Men do not just disappear in court, they disappear from the discussion, they disappear from the language we use. Rape is described as "a women's issue". We speak of "women's safety concerns", not "concerns about men's violence".

We call it "an abusive relationship" as though the relationship were doing the abusing, or an "abusive home" as though the walls were insulting the occupants for fun. The notorious line "she was asking for it" is not so different from "a woman was raped"; both take the rapist out of the sentence.

Male agency is routinely removed from descriptions of male violence, and this helps men get away with it. I still can't figure out the contradiction, though, that the violent assertion of male potency also involves a kind of vanishing act. It seems very self-defeating.

The American theorist and activist Jackson Katz is one of the few men who states the obvious fact that men's sexual violence is first of all an issue for men. He also says male silence about this so-called women's issue is a form of consent. His remarks about the use of the passive voice hit Twitter in a week of renewed social unrest about sexual crime. "When you look at that term, 'violence against women', nobody is doing it to them. It just happens. Men aren't even a part of it!"

In his popular TED talk Katz describes men's ability to go unexamined as "one of the key characteristics of power and privilege". We do not talk about men, because that is the way they like it. For Katz, a tendency to blame the victim is not about sex or even gender, it is just what humans do. "Our whole cognitive structure is set up to blame victims," he says.

Katz teaches a bystander programme, in which he urges men to interrupt other men who talk abusively about women. He wants us to know that this is not a call for greater sensitivity, however - he seems to realise how sensitive men can get when you ask them to be "sensitive" - no, this is a leadership thing, "because the typical perpetrator is not sick and twisted. He's a normal guy in every other way, right?"

In the US, the figures show that one in six men has been the victim of sexual violence of some kind, as opposed to one in three women

Well, how would I know? I can't say if a perpetrator is a "normal guy" because I am not a guy, and the men who do know are saying nothing. I do think misogynists are "twisted" because of the way they twist the truth of their own psychology and I think some men are aware of this and some men are not.

Is that why society maintains a silence about rapists, because we secretly think that they are just "normal" guys, they are just "male"? It is possible that men worry this is the case and Katz wants to reassure them that their fantasies, their swagger do not automatically turn them into monsters.

He is, very cannily, working with and not against male bonding, which has a big role in the formation of male sexuality. But he is also accurate to the fact that most rapists do not commit other crimes. In social terms, they can be anybody.

Most rapists do not end up in jail. The rapists who do end up in jail, according to one American study, are also more likely to have committed nonsexual crimes. Work within this cohort shows that convicted rapists tend to start young, have female-hostile peer groups, like rape pornography (which is more than 80 per cent of pornography), often report feeling rejected in some way and suffer from a lack of empathy.

The vengeful sentence "I felt I was repaying her for arousing me" feels very familiar to women, who are long tired of the weirdness it contains. But the man who said it also seems to consider arousal to be a kind of punishment. It is not pleasant. It is unfair. The man who says "This is her fault, she did this" feels as though he has been acted upon. He is passive, perhaps unbearably so. This man is taking himself out of his own desiring; you might say he is obliterating himself.

If I were a man, I might want to put my self back into the discussion, I might want to do a reality check. But if I were a man, I wouldn't be writing this because writing about rape, talking about rape, protesting against rape and being raped are all women's work.

This despite the fact that the weekend of protests in London, after the killing of Sarah Everard, was also a weekend during which footage was circulated online of an RAF recruit being sexually threatened by a group of his peers brandishing a piece of military hardware.

In the US, the figures show that one in six men has been the victim of sexual violence of some kind, as opposed to one in three women, and that 99 per cent of the perpetrators are male. The difference between the victims, sadly, is that society has long been happy to blame the women. - Guardian

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Anne Enright: We always speak of women's safety. Let's talk about male violence instead

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Rapists are not a talkative lot. They don't discuss the deed much, after they have been caught. And you might think this is because they feel remorseful, but often they don't seem to know that they have done something wrong. Or they know that they have done something illegal, but the act itself is fine by them.

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Dedicated maternal health in one space - when in Ireland?

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Dedicated maternal health in one space - when in Ireland?

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Mental health "hubs" for new, expectant or bereaved mothers are to be set up around England.

The 26 sites, due to be opened by next April, will offer physical health checks and psychological therapy in one building.

NHS England said these centres would provide treatment for about 6,000 new parents in the first year.

Five years ago, 40% of areas in England had no dedicated maternal mental health services.

Things have improved since then with some specialist services available in each of the 44 local NHS areas in England.

But in the NHS's Long Term Plan, published in 2019, the health service pledged to offer more "evidence-based" support, including to partners and families through these hubs or "outreach clinics".

The NHS hopes to offer services to people with moderate-to-severe difficulties, whereas earlier investment focused on the most acutely unwell mothers.

These clinics will "integrate maternity, reproductive health and psychological therapy for women experiencing mental health difficulties directly arising from, or related to, the maternity experience," NHS England said.

One of the new sites, in Devon, opened in January this year.

'Recovered'

Lizzie, who experienced low mood and nightmares during her pregnancy having previously suffered a miscarriage, was referred to the service for some support.

She was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and offered a therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which is designed to help people cope with distressing memories.

After the treatment and having had her baby girl Enfys, Lizzie said: "I feel unbelievably better after this pregnancy and birth compared to how I felt after my experience with my first child, when there wasn't any support available to me; even with the added distress of having a miscarriage, the pressures of Covid-19 restrictions and not being able to see my family.

"I feel happier, more confident and much better in my mental health. I feel fully recovered."

In 2019-20, more than 30,000 women were seen by specialist perinatal mental health community services.

NHS England has made a commitment to offer specialist care to at least 66,000 people with mental health difficulties related to pregnancy, birth or parenthood by 2023-24.

Emily Slater, CEO of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance, said: "For the more than one in 10 expectant and new mothers experiencing mental health problems, and the increased numbers as a result of the pandemic, there needs to be a system of care available to support them.

"These new services will enable more women than ever to access vital perinatal mental health care."

'1,001 days'

Help will be available from before conception - for those with pre-existing mental health conditions who want to get pregnant - until the baby's second birthday, whereas currently these services are available for the first year of a child's life.

NHS England said care would be provided for a "wide range of mental health issues from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after giving birth to others with a severe fear of childbirth," for 1,001 days from conception.

Claire Murdoch, NHS England's national mental health director, said: "Every woman has a unique experience with pregnancy and motherhood and some will need extra support to cope with mental health issues that can range from anxiety to severe depression.

"I would encourage any mum who needs this support to come forward safe in the knowledge that her mental health and wellbeing are of paramount importance and she should not feel ashamed of accessing the help she needs."

The clinics will also train maternity staff and midwives as well as providing psychological therapies to people during pregnancy and after giving birth.

The first 10 sites will open around England "within months", in:

Birmingham & Solihull

Leicestershire

Northamptonshire

Shropshire Telford & Wrekin

South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw

Lancashire and South Cumbria

Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Kent and Medway

Cornwall

Devon

The rest are expected to be up and running by April 2022, with plans for all 44 local NHS areas to have one of these hubs by April 2024.

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Mental health: More help for new and expectant mothers in England

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Mental health "hubs" for new, expectant or bereaved mothers are to be set up around England. The 26 sites, due to be opened by next April, will offer physical health checks and psychological therapy in one building. NHS England said these centres would provide treatment for about 6,000 new parents in the first year.

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Vaccine Scandals show up social inequality

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Vaccine Scandals show up social inequality

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Sunday Times April 4th

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There used to be a programme on RTE Radio 1 called Queuing for a Living in which the reporter, Paddy O'Gorman, recorded the life stories of people he found waiting in queues. Every week he would take his microphone to dole offices and courthouses and pawn shops, amassing a trove of tales that wove a colourful batik of Irish life, but with one glaring exception. The voices of the rich and the powerful, who otherwise dominate the national airwaves, were never heard. Queues, you see, are not for them. Rather like taxes, waiting in line is for the little people.

Their sort does not queue for buses or prison visits or a bed in a homeless hostel or at methadone clinics or for an operation

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Justine McCarthy: Vaccine queue-jumping scandals must spring us into action

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There used to be a programme on RTE Radio 1 called Queuing for a Living in which the reporter, Paddy O'Gorman, recorded the life stories of people he found waiting in queues. Every week he would take his microphone to dole offices and courthouses and pawn shops, amassing a trove of tales that wove a colourful batik of Irish life, but with one glaring exception.

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Who is the city for? (12th April, Irish Times)

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Who is the city for? (12th April, Irish Times)

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Do city council want to appeal more to corporate gentrification or do they ask what the locals want? Instead of white water rafting, maybe an outdoor pool and diving area for young people would be more beneficial?

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As Dublin City Council scrambles for plans to do something, anything, in the city so that people can safely enjoy their lives this summer - while cities such as Cork press on with pedestrianisation and outdoor plans - we need to look to the future so that public space, recreation space and facilities that bring people joy are embedded in the capital, not just temporary measures.

Last week, I participated in a community consultation process with many others on a new "local community safety partnership" between Dublin City Council and the Department of Justice, which is asking the question, "How can we make the north inner city a safer place?" That the pilot project is led by the Department of Justice speaks to how "safety" is framed around policing, crime and street violence. The key to "safety" in a community is addressing poverty, inequality and the opportunities access to education provides. There's a reason the Department of Justice isn't rolling out a pilot project of this nature in Dublin 4.

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Una Mullally: How to make Dublin's north inner city better for the locals

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As Dublin City Council scrambles for plans to do something, anything, in the city so that people can safely enjoy their lives this summer - while cities such as Cork press on with pedestrianisation and outdoor plans - we need to look to the future so that public space, recreation space and facilities that bring people joy are embedded in the capital, not just temporary measures.

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2nd March

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"Undesirable guests" was the headline on a memo listing Irish surnames and published on the intranet of the British holiday parks company, Pontins. The memo was circulated among staff at the company, which has six holiday parks around Britain, and has been operating since 1946.

Staff were required to block potential customers with those names from booking. Staff monitored calls and refused or cancelled bookings made by people with an Irish accent or surname.

By declining to provide its services to guests of a certain race or ethnic group, Pontins was "directly discriminating on the basis of race" and breached the UK's 2010 Equality Act, said Britain's Equality and Human Rights Commission, which has investigated the matter and reached an agreement with the travel park operator.

The Pontins memo said: "Please be aware that several guests are unwelcome at Pontins. However, some of these will still try and book - especially during school holidays. We have been informed by our Operations Director that we do not want these guests on our parks. Please watch out for the following names for any future bookings."

There followed a list of some 40 surnames: Boylan, Boyle, Carney, Carr, Cash, Connors, Corcoran, Delaney, Doherty, Dorran, Gallagher, Horan, Keefe, Kell, Leahy, Lee, MacLaughlin, McAlwick, McCully, McDonagh, McGinley, McGinn, McGuiness, McHarg, McLaughan, McMahon, Millighan, Mongans, Murphy, Nolan, O'Brien, O'Connell, O'Donnell, O'Donoghue, O'Mahoney, O'Reilly, Sheriadan, Stokes, Walch, Ward.

The memo entitled 'Undesirable guests' listing Irish surnames and published on the intranet of British holiday parks company Pontins.

The memo alerted people taking phone or email bookings at Pontins to blacklist these names. Some names seemed to be phonetically misspelt: for instance, McGuiness, Sheriadan and Walch.

The undated memo, published in a story in the UK "i" newspaper, is illustrated by a drawing of a wizard in a cloak, holding wands in both hands, with the caption: "You shall not pass!"

The EHRC found that Pontins had been monitoring calls to its call centre, and subsequently refusing to process bookings, and cancelling bookings, from people with these surnames.

Some of the surnames are common within the Travelling community.

Martin Collins, co-director of Pavee Point Traveller and Roma Centre in Dublin, told The Irish Times: "This shows not only how discrimination against Travellers is an ongoing issue - but also discrimination against Irish people in general in the UK. People with an Irish accent were targeted by Pontins for negative treatment as well as Irish Travellers.

"Banning a particular ethnic group is a despicable practice. It precludes people from participating equally in society and this case shows how important it is that legislation in this area exists.

"We know from recent reports that there is huge under-reporting of incidents of discrimination among Irish Travellers and we urge the Government to raise awareness on equality legislation as part of its forthcoming National Action Plan Against Racism."

The British Prime Minister's office condemned the blacklist as "completely unacceptable". A spokesman said: "No-one in the UK should be discriminated against because of their race or ethnicity."

Pontins is owned by the Britannia Hotel Group which has signed a legal agreement with the EHRC to address the discrimination. Alastair Pringle, executive director of the EHRC, said: "It is hard not to draw comparisons with an 'undesirable guest list' and the signs displayed in hotel windows 50 years ago, explicitly barring Irish people and black people."

The Britannia Group has agreed to run annual equality and diversity staff training courses.

Mr Pringle has called on Pontins to "take a fundamental look" at their policies and practices following the discovery of a list of "undesirable" guests.

Mr Pringle told RTÉ radio's News at One that the commission had been first contacted by a whistleblower in February 2020 who raised concerns about some of the policies and practices that were being undertaken by Pontins, which they thought were particularly discriminatory.

"So we've had a look into this and in fact some of the practices that were involved were refusing any bookings that were made by people with an Irish accent or surname.

"The list is quite long, there must be about 30 names on the list that they passed out to the call centre that took the bookings. There was a list of names and they were titled 'undesirable guests'. There's also a policy that banned holidaymakers from arriving in commercial vehicles and that was potentially or specifically to exclude gypsy/traveller communities to arrive at holiday parks."

Mr Pringle said the commission was concerned, as gypsy/Traveller communities are a protected racial group under the Equality Act. "That was specifically where our interest arose from and this was to us direct discrimination."

Pontins had accepted that they were not acting lawfully, he said and the commission had engaged them in a formal agreement, under the Equality Act.

"They're going to conduct an investigation into this list of undesirable guests and see where it came from and make sure appropriate action is taken. They're going to be providing enhanced training on the equality law for their staff.

"It was clearly a set of policies and practices, this wasn't about one or two individuals deciding that they thought this was a bad thing, this is clearly policy and practice and that's why we're interested in looking at it as an issue.

"They need to take a pretty fundamental look at how these policies and practices arose, why anyone thought they were acceptable in the first place."

The commission will be monitoring the situation for 12 months, he said.

The Irish Times has contacted Pontins for comment.
Additional reporting: Vivienne Clarke and PA

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British holiday park identified 'people with Irish accents' as 'undesirable guests'

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"Undesirable guests" was the headline on a memo listing Irish surnames and published on the intranet of the British holiday parks company, Pontins. The memo was circulated among staff at the company, which has six holiday parks around Britain, and has been operating since 1946.

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Vaccine hesitancy after Astra Zeneca concerns

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Vaccine hesitancy after Astra Zeneca concerns

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13th April, Irish Times

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It would be "naive" to say there will not be some vaccine hesitancy due to the many discussions about rare blood clotting connected to the AstraZeneca jab, according to Dr Denis McCauley of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) .

Chairman of the GP Committee of the IMO, Dr McCauley said there will "of course" be a small number of people who are reluctant to receive the coronavirus vaccine following the decision taken by the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (Niac) on Monday evening to restrict the use of AstraZeneca to people aged over 60.

"The more talk there is about the risks of any vaccine the more people will say: 'Well, I'm not having that one.' That is just standard," he said, adding that it would be "naive" to say otherwise.

However, he said people should "never underestimate" the fear felt by people in their 50s and 60s about catching the coronavirus. "I think there is probably a discussion in their minds... They need to speak to somebody so they can hear the positives and the negatives and make a reasoned decision," he said.

Dr McCauley said he suspects the "vast majority" of people over the age of 60 will proceed with the vaccine.

"But there will be people who won't and I think this present discussion will have contributed to that. That is without a doubt," he said.

Effective vaccine

Roscommon-based general practitioner Dr Brendan Crosbie said the "overwhelming majority" of patients getting in touch in relation to the vaccine are keen to receive their jab, regardless of brand.

"The vast majority of people want a vaccine as soon as possible, and they want whatever one comes first... They want restrictions to ease and also to move on to some sort of normality," he said.

Dr Crosbie said the clinic has fielded much fewer enquiries from people hesitant about vaccination. Most of these people want to discuss the risks of the vaccine, while there have been "one or two instances where people are very anti-AstraZeneca", he said.

A small number of patients with a previous history of clotting have been in contact to talk through their concerns, he said. There was just one vaccine-related query by 10 am on Tuesday morning.

While he has already been vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine as a frontline GP, Dr Crosbie said he would have "no hesitancy" taking the AstraZeneca vaccine himself or giving it to a family member. He said he believes it is a "very effective and very good vaccine".

"Provided people are in the right cohort age-wise I would not have any hesitation recommending it to patients," he said.

Cohorts

Niac made a "really safe decision" Dr McCauley went on, adding that he anticipates GPs will be able to adapt to it. There will now be an overlay of demographics, as there are now two different vaccines being given to people in Cohort 4, who are aged under 70 and who are high risk.

People who are high risk and between 60 and 70 will receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, while those under the age of 60 will be given an alternative brand.

Thought must be given to whether the vaccination priority list of Cohort 4 can be maintained as it currently stands, Dr McCauley said.

"That has to be planned out... When are the vaccinations going to be given and by whom?" Dr McCauley asked.

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IMO expects vaccine hesitancy after AstraZeneca restriction

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It would be "naive" to say there will not be some vaccine hesitancy due to the many discussions about rare blood clotting connected to the AstraZeneca jab, according to Dr Denis McCauley of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) .

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Food shop layouts need massive overhaul to tackle obesity crisis

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Food shop layouts need massive overhaul to tackle obesity crisis

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13th April, Irish Times

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Do you ever look up at those signs hanging over the aisles in supermarkets to see how you might possibly get the last three last things you need without going back to the start of the dreaded racetrack?

If you're anything like most people, you probably begin shopping in quite an orderly fashion. With grim determination you make it through the "decompression zone" - that no-man's land of candles and wicker baskets and lilies that retail experts have carefully designed to slow you down from street speed to shopper speed, into the "marketplace" which delivers the motherlode of freshness.

You are chicaned around the "perimeter" of the store: the edges that house the deli, bakery and butcher, and where most profit is made. Then it becomes a little more random. Halfway up one aisle, you abandon your trolley, U-turn around those "end cap" displays that are meant to entice you to impulse-buy the stuff you may not have had on your list. (What's a breakfast bar doing beside a kettle promotion?)

With vague panic rising, you start looking up at the categories for some guidance and sanity - please, please tell me where the baking aisle is. Retail designers estimate (and they have done a lot of investigation into the micro-behaviours of customers) that after about 25 minutes in the supermarket we switch from rational to emotional decision-making. This makes us more susceptible to grabbing a packet of chocolate raisins located right next to the eggs.

Food categories - the way we see the basic groups of foods - fruits, vegetables, grains, oils, dairy and so on, are incredibly powerful. They orientate the way we tick off the shopping list, mentally accounting for the members of the family and the stages of the day. Breakfast, tick. Lunchboxes, tick. Dinners, tick. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has done really interesting studies on the nutritional content of foods in Irish supermarkets. It found that the majority of yoghurts are not healthy choices, nor are breakfast cereals. The majority of "baby crisps" were higher in saturated fat than adult "reduced fat" crisps, while most baby biscuits were higher in sugar than plain digestive biscuits. Categories can be deceptive, even dangerous.

In the face of an obesity crisis that has caused hidden but systemic suffering and loss of life, arguably the single most powerful countermeasure we could undertake is not to ban junk food advertising to children, nor tax sugary drinks, nor place fast-food shops 100m from the school gates, but to recategorise food products so that it is easier for consumers to see how healthy they are. If that step was taken, most breakfast cereals would appear in the snack aisle, most baked goods would appear in the dessert aisle, most yoghurts would appear in the soft drinks aisle, and those rusks would appear at the confectionary check-out. It may seem trivial, but the accurate and transparent categorisation of food products is a key battle in the war on obesity.

This is because "perceptual categorisation" is a powerful phenomenon. Every object, every experience we have, is assigned to a category we have built up in our minds over time. We respond to the world by putting things into categories, not by thinking of things as individual cases. That is why we don't run up to every person on Grafton Street we've never seen and greet them in astonishment of their sheer uniqueness. We scan the environment: "person", "person", "person", "shop", "person", "litter bin", and so on. These "heuristics" form the basis of consumer behaviour and the backbone of marketing theory.

As we work hard to build up sophisticated categories in our minds, we also outsource and entrust much of it to food firms. Do you remember the orange juice Sunny Delight? It was launched in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s, with a multi-million pound marketing campaign, and soon became one of the biggest selling drinks in the world. It was positioned as a healthy alternative to fizzy drinks. In its advertisements, Mom would stock the fridge with Sunny D so that when the kids and their friends came to visit, they'd see what a cool family they were. The central message was that the drink should be stored in the fridge. Things that are categorised as fridge-worthy are at the high-table of healthfulness.

But Sunny D wasn't technically a juice, it was a "citrus-enriched beverage" - a mere 2 per cent orange juice, added to high-fructose corn syrup and water. It could exist for years on a supermarket shelf. But the connotations of freshness that the fridge lent ensconced it firmly and unconsciously in our perceptual category of "healthy". More recently, the Irish Supreme Court ruled that the sugar content of Subway sandwich bread was so high it should be recategorised as confectionary. The court case was considering whether Subway bread should be VAT-exempt rather than concern for consumers being confused or misled in their food choices. Pringles crisps had a similar court case about a decade ago on whether its slurry of potato, wheat starch, rice flour, sunflower and maize oil dusted with monosodium glutamates, disodium inosinates, yellow colourings, and more than a dozen other ingredients constituted a "potato chip", again for tax categorisation purposes.

Most of the processed food we eat is not from mother nature but assembled in factories with laboratory agents added. The role of marketing, in a deep sense, it is to re-enchant an object. Marketing re-enchants food by shifting it to emotionally powerful images (the pastoral countryside, the jungle, the forest, the country kitchen or the bakery). It is at the level of categorisation where most of the money and effort is spent by the producers of ultra-processed food.

Take for example the case of the European Parliament recently, which rejected the meat lobby's attempts to ban plant-based products using categories such as "burger" or "sausage" in their description of their vegetarian substitutes. Its argument was essentially that it was confusing for the customer. In reality, this illustrates how the key battles for the control of food and its consumption are not in its advertising, branding, celebrity endorsements or pricing, but in the much more subtle yet profound ways that our perceptual categories are massaged. Food brands, supermarket retailers and industry lobby groups know this.

Meanwhile, the rest of us continue to trudge down the "cereal" aisle, wondering where it is all going wrong.

Dr Norah Campbell is associate professor of marketing at Trinity College Dublin, Sarah Browne is Assistant Professor in Marketing at TCD, and Prof Francis Finucane is a consultant endocrinologist at Galway University Hospitals and NUI Galway

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How supermarkets trick us into buying unhealthy food, and what we can do about it

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Do you ever look up at those signs hanging over the aisles in supermarkets to see how you might possibly get the last three last things you need without going back to the start of the dreaded racetrack? If you're anything like most people, you probably begin shopping in quite an orderly fashion.

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Family and community engagement around public health measures is the only way out of the pandemic

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Family and community engagement around public health measures is the only way out of the pandemic

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2nd March, www.journal.ie

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Professor Ruairí Brugha: We must engage all of society in the battle against Covid

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The professor of Public Health and Epidemiology says the engagement of communities and families could be the key to getting a handle on Covid.