Griffith Book of Investigative 2012 Vol III

Griffith College Dublin Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications

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The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2012 Volume III

Written by students of the Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications, Griffith College Dublin Edited by Barry Finnegan

Written by students of the Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications, Griffith College Dublin.

Edited by Barry Finnegan Š 2012 Griffith College Dublin and students of the Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications.

Published by Griffith College Dublin, South Circular Road, Dublin 8, Ireland Tel: 01 4150400 Web: http://digital.gcd.ie/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Layout and design by Alan Gill.

Cover photography by Karen Tierney, www.karentierney.org.

CONT ENTS

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T V3’s Bogus ‘Investigative Journalism’

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TV3’s ‘investigative journalism’ programme, ‘Ireland’s Bogus Beggars’, claimed that professional criminal Roma beggars were making €25,000 a week. Deirdre O’Brien investigated these claims.

Pharmacy’s Medicine Reimbursement Scam Continues

14

Documentary evidence shows that pharmacies can claim for the most expensive version of a medicine, while dispensing the cheapest possible priced drug. Mary O’Rourke investigates.

Pharmacy Owners Cash in on Medical Card Holders Two pharmacies in the south and north of Dublin city are making claims to the government’s Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) for items prescribed on medical card prescriptions that patients do not receive. Mary O’Rourke investigates.

Wikipedia: A Journalist’s Friend?

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“I wanted to prove that mainstream newspapers are using Wikipedia in their articles, so I made up a list of false statements on the site, hoping that some newspaper or media outlet would pick them up.” Ian Begley investigates.

The Mobile Phone Scam Do you know how much you pay for your mobile phone? Frankie Lally investigates.

Workplace Exploitation: What Can Be Done?

This is the dark side of the Irish hospitality industry, where the Ireland of ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’ is far from the real story. Zoldy Kate Moloney investigates exploitation and workers’ legal remedies.

Surveillance by Social Media

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With the connivance of the Irish government, Facebook is contravening EU data protection law by withholding the information they have about us. Marius Dalseg Saetre investigates.

Hill Walkers Versus Landowners Outdated legislation is the cause of disputes between hill walkers and landowners. James Keating investigates.

Rural Norway - A Prostitute’s Playground The police in North-Trøndelag do nothing; in the South they do it wrong. The prostitutes end up with a free and dangerous game. Monica Irén Solberg Susegg investigates.

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CONT ENTS European Union - Guardian of Capitalism

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Viviane Stroede investigates the exploitation of developing countries by the European Union in order to support its own economy.

College Fees and the Working Class

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Will the reintroduction of college fees encourage more or less working class participation in third level college? Laura Lynn investigates.

Vaccine Hysteria

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Measles is still a common infection, large outbreaks were reported in Europe in 2011; so why are some Irish parents still not vaccinating their children? Aoife O’Doherty investigates.

Medicating Madness Mental health patients fight against psychologists, forced medication and the mighty US pharmaceutical industry. Leonhard Steinmann investigates.

The Change in Irish Charity How the change in our economy has led us to be more generous with the change in our pockets. Claire Murrihy investigates.

The Bank Compensation Tax What the Household Charge is really being used for. Martin Reulecke investigates.

From One Child’s Hand to Another

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59 63

Do you know where your chocolate comes from? Well most of it comes West Africa where child labour and slavery is endemic. Wayne Doyle investigates.

Exposing the Deep Web

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The internet which you and I use everyday is a very different place from the horrors of the Deep Web. Wayne Doyle investigates.

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T V3’s Bogus ‘Investigative Journalism’ T V3’s ‘investigative journalism’ programme, ‘Ireland’s Bogus Beggars’, claimed that professional criminal Roma beggars were making €25,000 a week. Deirdre O’Brien investigated these claims.

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nvestigative journalism should be a core feature of not only media, but of society.

Its purpose is to inform its audience of important, life-altering aspects of society that they may not have been aware of or have the resources to research themselves.

But unfortunately, not all investigative pieces are in the public interest. This was the argument I had heard from several different sources who were shocked at the tone and conclusions of TV3’s programme, ‘Ireland’s Bogus Beggars’. This lead me to look closer at this programme, its sources, reasoning for investigating, as well as how it had been perceived by the public.

The concept behind this programme was simply: to try and uncover a “secret crime gang” among the Roma community in Dublin, which were supposedly making €25,000 a week by begging on the street. This money, which they were meant to be sending back to Romania to relatives, was claimed to be acquired from “extremely aggressive female beggars” who were harassing people on Dublin’s streets. The programme, investigated and presented by TV3’s Paul Connolly, focused on these claims for approximately 40 minutes, with the final five minutes being given to letting the Roma beggars defend themselves, as well as ultimately coming to the conclusion that these claims were indeed false, and that these people were in fact just extremely poor.

The first thing that stuck people about this programme was the way it was advertised and promoted, as well as its name. Upon viewing this piece, it is safe to assume that the conclusion Paul Connolly came to was that these people were not bogus beggars. So why still call it that? Mr Connolly also appeared on the Morning Show, broadcast on TV3, to promote his work. On the show, he discussed all of the claims mentioned above, but referred to his finding that they were untrue, by simply saying “[There is] A twist in the end of the investigation that viewers need to tune in to find out”. Clearly not journalism in the public interest.

How exactly was this perceived by the general public? Stuart, who volunteers once a week to help with a homeless charity, had seen the adverts for the show as well as the finished piece. “My opinion on this topic from when I seen the advert to when I had seen the actual programme was polar opposites. I work with homeless people, I have

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seen first-hand the poverty, but I have to admit when I saw the ad for ‘Irelands Bogus Beggars’, it annoyed me. Everything from its name to its convincing ads seemed so sure of this; it made me believe that this crime ring existed”.

He continued, saying that while he watched the show, he kept waiting for the conformation that never really came: “I felt bad in the end, because it became clear in the last few minutes that these were just a family of poor people trying to survive. The name and the way it was portrayed in the adverts totally swayed my opinion. It was advertised to[The Roma] are portrayed very tally wrong”. negatively in newspapers, and this is Stuart went on to discuss its confusing content, which because they are very unlikely to sue included quotes from a busker you named Moira, who claimed they made €25,000 a week, as well as rants from extremely conservative, opinionated individuals.

“The whole time I was watching it, I kept wondering why focus on just the Roma community? Where are these figures coming from?” said Stuart.

Anna, who had seen the advert, but not the finished piece, said “It’s shocking that people can just come over here, and cheat the Irish people like that. We are in the midst of a recession, and the fact that they are living in luxury at our expense is hard to take”.

This reaction is interesting as it shows that the way in which this show was marketed, not the conclusion Mr Connolly came to, had a huge role to play in how the Irish public formed their opinions on the subject of the Roma community.

When pressed on why he chose to focus on just the Roma community, Mr Connolly said that he thought that some Irish people had a prejudice towards the Roma people, and that he wanted to explore this further. “We got this scaldingly negative, to a degree as well, a very racist attitude towards them, more than any other race or nationality, so this lead me to investigate them further”.

When asked if he had thoroughly looked into his sources’ claims before broadcasting them, for example the claim made that these beggars made €25,000 a week (this figure became a focal point of the show), he responded, “To be honest … no. Because I knew this wasn’t true. They are portrayed very negatively in newspapers, and this is because they are very unlikely to sue you. So they can make these kinds of figures up, and believe me those figures were made up”.

T V3’s Bogus ‘Investigative Journalism’, O’Brien

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So why still included them? “I see what you mean; I should have substantiated her [Moira’s] claims? Yeah … but there is a fine line between allowing your audience to make up their mind, and downright patronising them. I assumed everyone would have known that Moira [source] wasn’t the authority on all things begging, she saw it first-hand every day that was my reason for including her. Whether or not I should have researched all of her claims … there’s an argument for it, but I did not think it was essential”.

“I had done all the research a human being can do, I looked into money transfers into Western Unions, I had private detectives looking into things that I can’t quite discuss with you, I did the most thorough investigation that I was capable of doing. The conclusion was that these people were professional beggars, which technically is illegal, but they were in no means rich”.

When questioned on the misleading title of this show, Mr Connolly said, “Yeah well to be honest, we considered putting a question mark at the end of it and it was a tactic which may or may not have payed off. It was a play on people’s prejudices. We knew that when a lot of people started watching the show that they would have been like ‘I told you so’. So yeah the title was a play on people’s prejudices, and I wanted to build it up to that surprise at the end. But the title did come under a lot of criticism, and I think those opinions are valid”.

When told about people’s misconception of the show, Mr Connolly responded simply by The final five minutes coming to the saying, “Look, my intention conclusion that these claims were was to get out a good, honest piece of journalism. If you read indeed false, and that these people the reviews in any of the papers, were in fact just extremely poor the Times, it will focus on the fact that TV3 has turned out more tabloid rubbish. There is an awful lot of snobbery when it comes to this kind of thing. So yes, I do think some people probably formed snap shot opinions from just the ad, but it’s very rare that you will get a fair crack of the whip from anyone who hasn’t watched the whole programme”.

When asked if he felt that this was real, honest investigative work, or just a ploy to get ratings, he continued: “We are aiming to have the same political impact that Primetime has. Ratings are absolutely a priority, if I don’t have ratings, I don’t have a job, and I have to put food on the table. So yes ratings are important”.

“I do believe that we gave both sides a fair voice. When we showed the scenes of aggressive begging, that was all real; it’s not my job to be a social commentator. To give it

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balance, I met members of the Roma community, and gave them a chance to have their say at the end”.

It became clear when speaking to Mr Connolly that he was 100 per cent behind the work that he had done, and believed wholeheartedly that it was good, honest investigative journalism. While it may be true that he set out with the very best intentions, it is undeniable the effect this programme’s advertising, and its name, had on the Irish public’s opinion on the Roma community.

Promoting the realisation that these beggars were not crime lords as a “twist at the end” and still continuing to name the show ‘Ireland’s Bogus Beggars’ was not in the best interest of the public. This decision, which Mr Connolly defended, undoubtedly lead to many people making up their minds about the already discriminated-against Roma So yeah the title was a play on community, before they knew all of the facts. people’s prejudices, and I wanted to Mr Connolly’s reasoning build it up to that surprise at the end for an investigation would also lead one to question the integrity of this piece. Instead of basing his choice to focus in on the supposedly violent Roma community, on crime or homelessness in Ireland, he based it solely on the fact that some Irish people had such strong prejudice against the Romas, and he wondered why. This basis for investigation meant that the show lacked substance and any real reason for investigation.

The €25,000 euro a week figure, which was mentioned a lot during the show and its promotion, was not investigated further. It was simply hearsay, and therefore should not have become a focal point of the programme, it should not have even been included at all.

It is difficult to say the effect this inaccurately publicised show had on the treatment of Roma beggars.

Speaking at a debate entitled ‘The Ethics of Journalism’ in Griffith College Dublin, CEO of TV3, David McRedmond, gave his opinions on the recent RTÉ/ Fr. Kevin Reynolds scandal, in which RTÉ made claims against the priest that were completely untrue. He said that a scandal like that, “couldn’t have happened at TV3” because “we couldn’t afford a settlement like that”.

Interestingly, the CEO said that TV3 “don’t do investigative journalism”, and that TV3’s purpose is to “entertain” the public. He stated that TV3 would like to do investigative journalism, but the current economic situation is hindering this idea. “What is

T V3’s Bogus ‘Investigative Journalism’, O’Brien

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getting journalism in this country is economics. Economics tend to define pretty much everything,” he said.

I challenged him on the statement he made about investigative work not being done at TV3, asking “if TV3 don’t do investigative journalism, does that mean that the programmes broadcast posing as investigative, are nothing more that fictional entertainment shows?”, he quickly retracted this statement, and said that they have a resident investigative journalist, Paul Connolly.

After informing Mr McRedmond that I had spoken to Mr Connolly, and telling him some of the information disclosed in that interview, he claimed that he personally didn’t like the term “bogus beggars” but that he did believe the topic had grounds for investigation.

The ethics of investigative journalism in Ireland is a topic that has dominated the media hugely over the last few months. It is clear that poorly researched information is tarnishing the reputation of investigative journalism that is meant to be in the public’s very best interest. These kinds of ‘investigative’ programmes are ruining the reputation of a genre of journalism that is essential to maintaining a fair, democratic society.

Pharmacy’s Medicine Reimbursement Scam Continues Documentary evidence shows that pharmacies can claim for the most expensive version of a medicine, while dispensing the cheapest possible priced drug. Mary O’Rourke investigates.

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ack in 2009 pharmacies all over Ireland were furious with government payment cuts, but new evidence proves they cried wolf over profit takings.

A pharmacist source revealed to me that the 2009 pharmacy cuts1 seemed very harsh but the reality is that up to 2009 pharmacies were reimbursed the full unit price for each pack of medicine they handed over to medical card holders as if they only bought one packet of medicine at a time and got no discounts from wholesalers. They were also paid a fee of approximately €3.50 for each item dispensed.

The source said that the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) must have been aware that pharmacies were in fact getting big discounts from generic drug companies, and in 2009 decided to cut the profit margin to pharmacies, of medical card drugs they dispense, by 8%. So instead of getting the unit price for one individual packet of medicine, they are receiving 8% less per item, but the flat rate fee of €3.50 was raised to €5.

However, my source claims that in one south Dublin pharmacy it’s not unusual for the proprietor to receive a 65% discount from generic drug companies, while simultaneously claiming for that medicine, from the government, at the highest allowable price, fraudulently claiming that they dispensed the patented, branded, most expensive version of the drug, instead of the cheaper generic version of the drug, less a 65% discount.

The PCRS supply drug item codes for every drug allowed to be claimed on the medical card scheme, for example, a non-generic wholesale company code corresponds to the more expensive, branded, medicines, while the generic codes correspond to the cheaper drug supplied by various generic companies.

My source revealed that in this pharmacy, while buying at up to a 65% discount from generic drug companies, they then dispense that cheaper, generic drug, while claiming off the government as if they actually dispensed the higher priced, patented, branded version of the drug.

The rules of the PCRS states that when a specific generic drug company is used by the pharmacy, that specific drug code is supposed to be used when the pharmacy is seeking reimbursement, and invoices should be kept for inspection by the PCRS. In effect, my source tells me that no inspector has ever come to this pharmacy to discover that the

Pharmacy’s Reimbursement Scam Continues, O’Rourke

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higher drug price was claimed for while the cheaper drug was actually dispensed to the pharmacy’s patients.

According to an official Irish Pharmaceutical Union (IPU) statement back in October 2011, the IPU stated that they operate on a “wafer thin margin”2 when in fact evidence I obtained challenges this statement.

“Wholesale companies like United Drug, themselves buy from patent drug companies like Pfizer. When the pharmacy buys from such a wholesaler as United Drug, the price of the drug is inevitably more expensive than if the pharmacy were to buy from a generic drug company like PCO [for example],” said the pharmacist.

These generic drug companies are also known as “parallel imports” (PI) and include No inspector has ever come to this companies such as Pharmapharmacy to discover that the higher ceutical, Cosmetics and Over drug price was claimed for while the the Counter Products (PCO), cheaper drug was actually dispensed Imed Healthcare, Promed and to the pharmacy’s patients Eurodrug.

An example, from the evidence obtained, of one drug being used for this kind of fraud is Cardura XL, a treatment for high blood pressure3.

This is still under patent at Pfizer but PI companies can sell it under license from patent companies, which is then known as an “authorised generic”4. However, the pharmacist said that the dearer United Drug price is claimed for off the government, while the cheaper PI drug is actually dispensed.

In this specific example, the United Drug price claimed for was €44.16, while the invoice I obtained states that the price paid by the pharmacy for the Cardura XL 8mg was actually €14.99. With the pharmacist’s permission, I took screenshots of the pharmacy computer with my phone that shows evidence of what is a green tick next to the highest drug price, which is placed there in order to choose it for electronic claiming and that higher price is the price the PCRS will pay the pharmacy.

My source explained to me that pharmacy employees must choose the highest price and never the PI company option, even though it was from the PI company they received the drugs. The proprietor will not allow the employee pharmacist to choose the correct generic drug price, for example from Imed Healthcare or from PCO for the lower priced drug that is in fact on the pharmacy shelf.

“A couple of years ago a young pharmacist got hauled into the office for choosing the [cheaper] PCO price for the claim over the dearer option, but PCO is where the drug

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came from, she was too new to this fraud and made the mistake of being honest. My job would be on the line if I protested and continuously defied my boss and claimed honestly from the PCRS. The only way for my employers to get caught out is if the PCRS request for a UD invoice with Cardura XL on it, and of course there isn’t one.”

The evidence states that one box of Cardura XL made this pharmacy a profit of €34.17 [€44.16 minus €14.99], a far distance from the minus 8% of the 2009 cuts.

Part of the evidence obtained shows an itemised claims listing sent from the PCRS to the pharmacy showing payments made to the proprietor for each item, some of these mirrored the fraudulent claims of the Cardura XL. “The government know pharmacy proprietors have deals with the PI’s but they don’t have to disclose that information unless the PCRS request an invoice for a query or for inspection, which since ’09, they haven’t, not in this pharmacy,” said the pharmacist source.

The pharmacist expanded on the fraud element in this particular pharmacy by giving me several examples, which the table below illustrates.

Drug Name

United Drug Cost Price

PI Cost Price

Fraudulent Profit

Lipotor 10mg 1x 28 pack

€18.00 1x 28 pack

€7.15 1x 28 pack

€10.85 on each pack

Lipotor 20mg 1x 28 pack

€34.28 1x 28 pack

€25.93 1x 28 pack

€8.35 on each pack

Lipotor 80mg 1x 28 pack

€40.51 1x 28 pack

€30.63 1x 28 pack

€9.88 on each pack

Cardura XL 8mg 1x 28 pack

€44.16 1x 28 pack

€14.99 1x 28 pack

€29.17 on each pack

Zoton 30mg 1x 28 pack

€24.85 1x 28 pack

€12.43 1x 28 pack

€12.42 on each pack

Nexium 20mg

€20.88 1x 28 pack

€12.53 1x 28 pack

€8.35 on each pack

Arcoxia 60mg 1x 28 pack

€45.95 1x 28 pack

€32.36 1x pack

€13.59 on each pack

Taking Lipotor 10mg in the first line above as an example: the pharmacist has fraudulently claimed from the PCRS that they have paid United Drug €18 for one pack, when in fact they have actually paid a “PI” company the much lower price of €7.15 for the packet of medicine. In this example the illegal scam has fraudulently enriched the pharmacist by €10.85 for each packet of Lipotor 10mg claimed for.

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The other six drug examples given also show the details of how the scam operates in that particular pharmacy.

It would seem therefore that besides the evidence here of fraudulent claims, the discounts alone should serve as a cushion for the government’s 8% cut and that the protests pharmacies staged back in 2009 were a little extreme or maybe they’re just greedy?

The price claimed for was €44.16, Maybe the PCRS will finally request those non-existent inwhile the invoice I obtained states voices. that the price paid by the pharmacy “Is it any wonder that was actually €14.99 I am so agitated and annoyed when I can see clearly the legitimate profit being made by my pharmacy and cannot understand why they have to be so greedy and set out to defraud the state and tax payers with added fraudulent claims,” the source added.

However, not all wholesale drug orders from every PI company will result in a 65% discount on each type of drug ordered, but the fact remains that this pharmacy is still claiming the highest market price.

“Most pharmacies do not admit to the private arrangement with the PI companies for various profit margins and certainly do not admit to claiming a proprietary equivalent whilst dispensing a cheaper PI import,” the source explained.

When will the government be prepared to employ enough medically-qualified, wellresourced, PCRS staff so as to implement daily, no-warning, invoice-demanding, raids on pharmacies all over the country so as to ensure that this outrageous, illegal scam can never be repeated?

Endnotes 1. 900 Pharmacies Quit Drugs Schemes’ in the Irish Examiner, July 2, 2009, Available at: http:// www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/snojeycwsn/rss2/ [06 April 2012]

2. Irish Pharmaceutical Union. ‘News Page.’ Available at: http://www.ipu.ie/more-news/998-statement-from-the-irish-pharmacy-union.html [06 April 2012]

3. Medicines Ireland. ‘Summary of Product Characteristics: Cardura XL’. Available at: http://www. medicines.ie/medicine/5497/SPC/CARDURA+XL+4MG,+8MG/#ORIGINAL [06 April 2012]

4. News Medical. ‘Drug Patents and Generics.’ Available at: http://www.news-medical.net/health/ Drug-Patents-and-Generics.aspx [06 April 2012]

Pharmacy Owners Cash in on Medical Card Holders Two pharmacies in the south and north of Dublin are making claims to the government’s Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS) for items prescribed on medical card prescriptions that patients do not receive. Mary O’Rourke investigates.

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ocuments in my possession known as the ‘items owed report’, which is a file on a pharmacy computer showing all medications owed to patients, show that these items have not been collected by the patients but have been claimed for by the proprietors, leading to the PCRS assuming that these items are in the possession of the patients.

“The only way the PCRS could have access to the ‘owing’s report’ is if they came out and viewed it as is their right, without prior notice to the pharmacy,” said one pharmacist.

The south Dublin pharmacist states that the pharmacy was fraudulently paid €28,463.80 by the PCRS for the two months to January 30th 2012.

“This amount of fraud, €28,463.80, is in addition to the genuine standard claims,” said the pharmacist. Some patients call in to collect their prescription and often decide at the counter that they don’t want to take some of the medicines in the bag that have already been claimed by the proprietor.

“The fraud in this instance relates to the fact that the pharmacy staff are not allowed to inform the PCRS of the returned medicines, therefore the pharmacy is benefitting from this. In effect, the items are recycled, as the unwanted items [for which the pharmacy owner is paid in full by the PCRS] are returned to the shelves for which the proprietor benefits the full cost price of the item plus a €5 dispensing fee, as if it was honestly dispensed to the patient; the second time this same medicine is handed out to someone else, the pharmacy benefits from the PCRS allowable fee, which is €5 plus the cost price of that medicine.”

So the pharmacy owner gets paid twice for the same pack of medicine: once by the PCRS when it is taken out of the patient’s bag and put back on the shelf, plus the PCRS €5 dispensing fee, when it wasn’t actually taken by the patient at all, and then he gets paid in full again when another customer buys if off the shelf.

Items not wanted by the patient should be adjusted on the computer system as “not dispensed” however this particular pharmacy proprietor does not allow the employee pharmacists to insert this. “This is because the proprietor wishes to receive the

Pharmacy Owners Cash in on Medical Card Holders, O’Rourke

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full amount which, on average, can be calculated as approximately up to €10,000 per two month period,” the source added.

According to the pharmacist, the average usual monthly fraud associated with unwanted items by the patient wishing to save their 50c per item government levy, which was introduced October 2010, is normally in the region of €5,000. When asked why the source allowed such fraud to take place, the source explained that they had queried as to why the unclaimed medications had “owing” next to it on the computer rather than “not dispensed”, which is normal procedure, to which the proprietor replied, “under no circumstances should we type ‘not dispensed’ next to the drug item on the patients’ charts as we have to make up losses incurred from pilferage in the front of the shop and out of date stock.”

The source also revealed that she is quite aware that a pharmacy proprietor is The pharmacy was fraudulently well reimbursed for both pilferage and out of date paid €28,463.80 by the PCRS for stock by claiming insurance the two months to January 30th for pilferage at the end 2012 of each year and the drug companies also give credit for out of date stock for the most part. By typing “not dispensed”, a fee of €5 is still granted to the pharmacy by the PCRS but as my source says, “that’s not enough for them, they’re too greedy.”

“I know of fellow colleagues who’ve had their working probationary period extended due to placing ‘not dispensed’ next to the item the patient didn’t want for that particular month. The vulnerable may save 50c, a euro or more, depending on the amount of items but the pharmacy is claiming astronomical amounts from the publics’ unwanted medications.”

In a north side Dublin pharmacy, a pharmacy-technician spoke of similar fraudulent activity.

“The area around here is home to a lot of poverty and foreign nationals who are forgoing some of their prescribed items that they may not need and so save themselves the medical card charge of 50c per item,” said this technician. The pharmacy technician also stated that for those unwanted items, she too was told to leave them on the computer as “owings” as the proprietor wanted to claim more than just the menial €5 ‘not dispensed’ fee.

“The owner makes all the excess profit, I just have a living to make,” the technician source revealed. Both the pharmacist and the technician mentioned common prescrip-

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tion items that were most refused by the patient but that were also quite expensive medications that the PCRS had to pay the pharmacies for.

Such items mentioned were diabetic treatments such as insulin, lancets which are used to prick the skin and draw blood from a diabetic1 and test strips which check blood sugar levels2, calcium supplements, drug treatments for acid reflux and asthmatic inhalers. “These items are expensive and are usually the items patients say they have a lot of at home already, as these type of prescription items build up because they are I know of fellow colleagues who’ve not always used regularly, it had their working probationary depends on the patient and period extended due to placing ‘not so they decide, for one or dispensed’ next to the item two months, not to take the item so it is removed from the bag but still claimed for,” said the pharmacist source.

With the evidence obtained, it appears the PCRS are blind to the fraud while the medical card holding public are also in effect tricked as they simply wish to refuse an item or two and save a couple of euro.

Endnotes 1. Diabetes UK: The Global Diabetes Community. Available at: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin/ Diabetes-lancets-and-lancing.html [27 March 2012]

2. Diabetes UK: The Global Diabetes Community. Available at: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/diabetes-test-strips.html [27 March 2012]

Wikipedia: A Journalist’s Friend?

“I wanted to prove that mainstream newspapers are using Wikipedia in their articles, so I made up a list of false statements on the site, hoping that some newspaper or media outlet would pick them up.” Ian Begley investigates.

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veryone is aware that Wikipedia is a no-go area when doing college assignments or looking for journalistic facts. I’m sure you all have (myself included) over estimated its potential at one stage or another, and copied and pasted the odd paragraph into an essay to reach your word count.

Wikipedia is the world’s biggest online encyclopaedia with thousands of articles being uploaded every day, but since the site can be edited by anyone it is deemed an undesirable tool for those who are in search of facts.

National newspapers in Ireland, such as the Evening Herald, find many of their stories on trustworthy websites like Reuters or The Huffington Post, but few would ever admit using Wikipedia as a consistent aide.

The widespread popularity of Wikipedia reaches an estimated 365 million people Within just five days, this across the globe, and its artiunverified statement was picked cles are translated into over up by the Sunday Independent and 283 different languages. For this reason alone, I found it IrishCentral.com very difficult to believe that most news outlets don’t use the content on the site when writing their articles.

To test my theory, I took the liberty of editing several articles on Wikipedia to see if any news agency would use my statements in their newspaper or website. I needed to choose articles that would soon be in the mainstream media, so I decided to focus on recently deceased people who were in the public eye.

On February 22nd when comedian Frank Carson died, I made up a statement on Wikipedia from his nephew, Trevor Carson: “Upon hearing the news, Trevor Carson, a nephew, and a football goalkeeper with Premier League side Sunderland, stated, ‘After a lengthy and wearisome illness, my uncle, friend, and hero has passed on to join the great comedy legends of our generation’.”

Within ten days, my quote was used by two respected news agencies, The International Business Times and The Catholic Herald. It was also picked up by several popular

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Internet blogs.

When Irish comedian, Hal Roach, died on February 28th I made up yet another believable statement: “Upon hearing the news, fellow comedian and good friend Brendan Grace stated: ‘Roach was a prime influence throughout my career and has inspired me and many others to walk in the shadow of his greatness’.”

Within just five days, this unverified statement was picked up by the Sunday Independent and IrishCentral.com.

Willie Kealy, deputy editor of The Sunday Independent, accepted that the statement used in their article about Hal Roach was not properly verified or sourced, and took to my overall experiment with a mild degree of humour and impatience: “So what you’re saying is that you put that quote on Wikipedia to see if we’d use it and we did? Good man yourself. Goodbye!”

John Horgan, the current Press Ombudsman of Ireland and former journalist of the Within ten days my quote was used Catholic Herald, accepts that the content on Wikipedia is by two respected news agencies, The not entirely trustworthy.

International Business Times and “I would be instinctively The Catholic Herald distrustful - to the extent that I would look for confirmation from another source before using - of anything that I found on Wikipedia that was highly controversial, recently posted, unexpected, or uncheckable elsewhere.”

Mr Horgan also stated that the media frequently publish unverifiable material and should, when they do so, clearly indicate the source of their facts so that the reader is given some additional information.

“Particularly when material cannot be verified independently it is important that the media concerned do not make themselves the guarantor of verifiability, and make it clear that they are reporting a statement by someone else but without guaranteeing its truth or accuracy.”

It is understandable that mainstream news agencies are under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines and keep up with the latest news, but using Wikipedia as a ‘reliable’ source is simply down to shoddy journalists taking their readers for gullible dopes. In the space of just four weeks, two out of the five articles I edited on Wikipedia were picked up by respectable news outlets, which makes me assume that this is happening all the time. This is not acceptable.

The Mobile Phone Scam Do you know how much you pay for your mobile phone? Frankie Lally investigates.

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ust over 14 months ago I took out an 18-month contract with Irish phone company, Meteor. I agreed to give them €50 a month for their service and as part of my contract I was told I would have free Meteor to Meteor calls and texts – or so I thought.

When I opened my phone bill on February 6th 2012 I got a nasty surprise. My bill stood at an incredible €539.45. I panicked and thought something must be wrong. The next morning I contacted Meteor customer care, the first of many calls I would be making to them over the next two months.

A customer care agent by the name of Nick told me there had been “a mistake” and I was being charged for my Meteor to Meteor calls. I asked him why this was and he told me it was because the offer expired after 12 months. I pointed out this was not what I signed up for and asked to speak to a supervisor.

I was called by a supervisor by the name of Janice some 48 hours later. I asked her to find me in Meteor’s terms and conditions where it said this ‘offer’ lasted only 12 months – she could not find it. I then asked her to send me a copy of my contract. Janice told me: “It will be sent out in two days.” The contract has still not arrived.

A quick scan through Meteor’s forums reveals that this is an ongoing problem and a clear attempt by Meteor to con their customers. As soon as the issue is brought up by the customer, the calls and texts promotion is immediately restored and money reimbursed. So, what it seems is that Meteor are hoping some customers will not notice that they are being blatantly overcharged.

As part of this investigation this journalist decided to ring Meteor’s sales team posing as someone who was in the market for a new phone. After a 20 minute wait I eventually got connected.

“Hello and welcome to Meteor, my name is John. How can I help you?” I explained to John that I was in the market for a phone bill in the region of €50 a month. He told me some of the offers available and then I finally asked him very clearly: “I see you have a free calls and texts promotion with Meteor to Meteor. Will this last for the full 18-months of my contract John?” John responded: “I think so, but let me double check... yes they last for the entire 18-months of your contract.” “You’re sure?” I said. After a few minutes John came back and assured me yet again that they would last the whole contract.

I then proceeded to tell John that I was in fact already a Meteor bill pay customer and that it seems I was being lied to by someone. Obviously taken aback by this John seemed to panic and when I asked him why I had been lied to about my contract he said: “Can I put you on

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hold for a second and I will investigate this further?” Fifteen minutes of annoying music later John never picked back up the phone.

This may seem like an attack on one particular company but I don’t see it that way. Meteor are This investigation proves that clearly overcharging their customothers may not be so lucky or may ers and brushing it off when they not even know that they are being are confronted about it. overcharged by their mobile phone I gave Meteor every chance to come clean and fix the problem, network they did not do so until the communication regulator eventually stepped in and they had to contact me. When they did, the man on the phone, Brian, apologised and said “this should have been sorted out a lot quicker. What can I do to fix it?” I was happily released from my contract and any outstanding money I owed the company was cut in half, which proves they were in the wrong, not that they would admit it.

In the end I got what I was overcharged by and got released from my contract. But this investigation proves that others may not be so lucky or may not even know that they are being overcharged by their mobile phone network. When other leading phone operators such as 02 and Vodafone were asked do their similar offers last the entirety of a contact their answer was a simple yes. I still insist on seeing my Meteor contract, but it seems I could be waiting some time yet.

Workplace Exploitation: What Can Be Done?

This is the dark side of the Irish hospitality industry, where the Ireland of ‘a hundred thousand welcomes’ is far from the real story. Zoldy Kate Moloney investigates exploitation and workers’ legal remedies.

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well-known and busy establishment in the midlands is enveloped by a beautiful scenic area, complete with a clear, clean waterway where ducks and swans gently float along the gleaming, glistening, sparkling surface. Miles of lush green grass spring up by a walkway that goes on further than anyone can see. This restaurant/ bar has won awards, and the food is renowned as being the richest, most ambrosial, delectable food one will find. But behind this happy façade, there is a dark operation underway, one which fuels the financial success of its owner and manager.

Kate (whose real name will remain withheld for fear of further intimidation), worked recently in this particular bar for nearly five months. After the first two weeks of her employment, she felt trapped. To customers, she and her fellow waiting staff were all a part of a happy team, devoted to exceptional service and enjoyable hard work. To Kate and the staff, they were a part of a crooked and shameful regime. She was not even allowed to be called by her real name for reasons known only to her employer, and was given a pseudonym, ‘Shauna’. When she asked could she pleased be called Kate, she was barked at and told to get out of the boss’s sight.

Kate has plunged back into the murky depths of the methods of her employer to reveal the truth for the purpose of this investigation. She has interviewed staff and consulted law and legislation literature to expose the truth of worker exploitation.

The five months she spent working at this establishment saw Kate both witness and experience gritty, lewd and audacious treatment from the owner, to his staff. Underpayment, no breaks, cursing, shouting, sleazy passes at waitresses in the back room, getting your arm painfully squeezed and gripped when in front of customers, so one could not protest but instead had to keep smiling- one merciless case of a waitress being fired by him after he called her a bitch and she started to cry, - these are some examples taken from an abundance of unjust and malicious behaviour carried out by the man who insists on perfection, and who fools his customers into thinking that his restaurant is a place of placid pleasantries and courteous, breezy exchanges.

The end of Kate’s employment came about when she took two weeks off to go on holidays after working there for three months. She came back, and the boss refused to

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answer her calls, reply to her texts or even see her when she called into the restaurant twice to find out why she wasn’t being given hours. Her employer never gave an explanation as to why she couldn’t work there anymore. He literally just stopped talking to her. There are two interesting peculiarities that accompany this situation that Kate found herself in.

First of all, it turns out, that under the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Act 1973, employers are not Employers are not allowed allowed to stop communicatto stop communicating with ing with their employees as a means of terminating employtheir employees as a means of ment. Furthermore, employers terminating employment are also required (no matter what the fault of the employee) to give at least one week’s notice to part time employees when termination of employment is in question, regardless of how little hours they have served. There must be a precision of the date and time of termination, and the notice must be certain. The employer is under a legal obligation to do this.

Perhaps you are thinking the two week holiday had something to do with this termination of employment. Well, Kate thought so, until she did some research, and found that under the Unfair Dismissals Act 2001, any employee, whether part-time or fulltime, within two months of commencement of employment, is entitled to four weeks holidays.

The second interesting story surrounding Kate’s ‘dismissal’ is that she was not the first to leave this establishment this way. Kate conducted an interview with an ex-employee (who will be called John to protect his identity) who exited the establishment in much the same way as Kate did. John worked for the owner way back in 2004 and was ‘let go’ in a similar manner to Kate.

“I asked for a few hours off to go to a match… He was really nice about it and told me to take the whole day off. I called him after looking for my hours but he didn’t answer the phone. I kept calling and texting. I called in to speak to him and he refused to see me.

I didn’t get any more work off him after that.”

Further conversation with John about his experience of working in this restaurant/ bar led him to tell Kate: “One time I dropped a glass and the owner’s wife called me slow and a fool. I left the room and when I went back in she was talking about me to the rest of the staff, pure bad-mouthing me. I often felt bullied by her. If I remember correctly she

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made a lot of people feel like that, [staff ] were always complaining about her. Another time the boss lost it at me. I was being cursed at and shouted at. He did it in front of all the other staff. That was the day I decided I was going to leave. I was too afraid to even ask for my P45 [tax form].”

Let us highlight one of the words John has used, ‘bullied’. Some people feel the term is thrown loosely around by some people who dislike their boss, but the law states that (under the Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act 2005): “Employers are obliged under health and safety legislation to prevent employees from [experiencing] something that would cause them stress [stress counts as mental injury].” Furthermore: “It is for the victim alone to decide what unwanted conduct is, and whether or not the conduct violates their dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”

Kate was intrigued by what John had to say of his experiences and the relationship that these experiences had with the law. She sought after a young woman (whom we will refer to as Mary) who is a current employee of the place in question. When asked had she ever felt nervous, upset, or abused in the workplace, Mary had this to say: “Yes, I’ve been nervous … caused only by the boss. My boss is the only one to blame.

I’ve felt very uncomfortable on a number of occasions when he makes inappropriate comments and puts his arms around me which is uncomfortable. I’m not the only one he does this to either, one of the other girls also gets a lot of unwanted attention from him.”

When asked if she felt exploited: “I work from 11am to 6pm without a break… I would be too afraid to ask for a break because my boss is so unapproachable and not very understanding. I’ve been sworn at and shouted at several times. It’s demoralising because he does it in front of other staff and it’s needless. I’ve been shouted at for doing exactly what I was told to do, and I’ve been shouted at for a mistake my employer has made and never received an apology for it. He makes everyone on edge”.

Kate was also interested in seeing if Mary faced the same problems that Kate had faced with getting paid. That is, being on a flat rate of pay and sometimes doing up to four hours overtime and not receiving pay for it.

“We all get just under €60 a night, so depending on the hours we work we often get paid below minimum wage. Over Christmas we would be kept in until 2am or later so we would be getting a good bit less than the minimum wage then.”

When asked to comment on the underpayment of his staff, the claims of harassment from one member of staff and the victimisation and bullying of his employees by he and his wife, the owner refused to comment.

If you feel that you are being exploited or bullied in the restaurant trade, it is recommended you contact a relevant trade union. If you are a member of a relevant union, they will be able to assist you and deal with your employer on your behalf.

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If you are not a member of such a union, SIPTU (Services Industrial and Professional Union) advises that there are a number of different things you can do to help yourself. Your action will depend on what the problem is that you are having, for example are you being verbally abused, sexually harassed, underpaid etc.

Initially, you will need to raise the issue with the manager. If they are not prepared to address the issue you must go to the position above them and inform the owner. If the owner and manager is the same person, and they are refusing to address your complaint, you have the right to review your contract. If you do not have a contract of employment, the owner is obliged to possess documentation detailing the internal process within their organisation and the treatment of their employees (payment, hours etc.), and you may review that instead.

The employer has the opportunity to address the fairness of your complaint so it is very important you have reviewed your contract and are certain that you are being treated unjustly and wrongly, and that the owner is not just being ‘mean’ or ‘unfair’ without realising it.

You must understand the difference between difficult work and exploitation. If you are in the right and are being exploited or harassed in the workplace, you are fully entitled to go to a Third Party Rights It is for the victim alone to Commissioner. Likewise you are decide what unwanted conduct also entitled to access to a Quality Tribunal. These organisations is, and whether or not the will aid you in bringing justice conduct violates their dignity or to your particular situation. (See creates an intimidating, hostile, trade union contact details at end degrading, humiliating or offensive of this article.) environment Additionally, here is some advice and information as to what one should do in terms of reporting exploitation and bullying to a governmental authority.

You may either request an inspector from the National Employment Rights Authority to investigate a claim that the national minimum wage is not being paid.

You may also refer a dispute to a Rights Commissioner using the new single complaint form. However this may only be done where you have requested from the employer a statement outlining the calculation of the average hourly pay. You must refer the dispute within six months of the supplying of the statement.

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It is important to understand that you may not refer a complaint to both a Rights Commissioner and a labour inspector in relation to the same dispute under the Minimum Wage Act. If you are alleging victimization, you should request that the employer restore your employment conditions to their position before the victimisation. Where the employer fails to do this within two weeks of the request, you may refer the matter to the Rights Commissioner. This referral must take place within six months (which may be extended to a maximum of 12 months) of the alleged victimisation.

If you feel you have been effected by any the issues in this article, then find our more about your rights, ask for advice and help. Contact the National Employment Rights Authority (www.employmentrights. ie); and/or contact a trade union (SIPTU: Phone: 1890 747 881 / Mandate: Phone: 01-8746321).

Surveillance by Social Media With the connivance of the Irish government, Facebook is contravening EU data protection law by withholding the information they have about us. Marius Dalseg Saetre investigates.

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e are under intrusive surveillance. Your phone company tracks your steps, your e-mail provider stores your private conversations and Facebook’s stores and maps your behaviour online. Private companies know your habits, your friends and your whereabouts. Facebook and other social media companies have made your life transparent and a quick search on Google can give you the address, phone number, mail address and social status on complete strangers.

The companies themselves are less willing to expose their way of business, making it difficult and sometimes impossible to access your private data. My data requests to several big companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and O2 Ireland gave few results.

Only Tv2 Norway gave me access to all the data they have stored about me. Among the information they were holding were my location for almost every day of the last three months. Facebook answered by giving me about 25 % of my information, including logs of private chats, deleted messages and every status update I’ve ever posted. After four months they are still withholding the remaining 75%.

Leader of the organization “Europe versus Facebook”, Max Schrems informs me that I’m accompanied by several thousand users who have waited more than a hundred days for their information. “Both Irish and European law clearly states that private companies are required to reveal all personal data within 40 days if requested by the user; Facebook is not complying within those laws,” says Schrems.

Established in 2004, Facebook has made social networking services a part of our daily lives. Today Facebook has grown to be the number one website worldwide, with people between 18 and 34 years old the most active on it. Most of us have entrusted Facebook with a huge amount of information and opened our lives up to both close and distant friends. In 2010 it became clear to many that Facebook is storing all of it.

Documentary film maker, David Bond, requested his data from networking sites and online stores when he engaged in the project “Erasing David - He has nothing to hide, but has he got anything to fear?” He received more than 1,000 pages of documentation on him and his daughter.

With the film, Bond wanted to create awareness around the excessive amount of information stored on people online and in government databases. He is shocked about how easily people often give away sensitive information online. “A lot of people aren’t wise users of Facebook and what they don’t realize is that when you enter Facebook you

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enter a contract where you will be giving out huge amounts of personal information which they in turn can use for advertisement purposes.” He strongly advices everyone to have awareness around their online lives: “I think that Facebook can be a fantastic tool but it has also created a world without privacy. We are sitting in glass houses and people need to think about what they are leaving for the world to see,” he says.

Back in 2010, Austrian student, Max Schrems, made an access request to Facebook demanding to see all the information the company was storing about him. The answer was a PDF-file with a baffling 1,222 pages. Among the information stored were all his chat history, facial tokens and IP-logs. Meaning that Facebook has the technology to recognize more than 800 million people around the globe and to read their private text messages, effectively leaving their users under heavier surveillance than any government ever applied to citizens. According to Schrems, governments and police are also using Facebook as an important source during investigations.

After receiving his information, Schrems filed a complaint addressing 22 concerns It is important to recognize that where he felt Facebook was Facebook Ireland was given breaching the laws of privacy. responsibility for all users outside Schrems made headlines all of USA and Canada as recently as over the world with his complaints and both the German September 2010 and the Norwegian Consumer Council quickly contacted the company.

In September 2011 the Irish Data Protection Commissioner made a sweeping report where Facebook was recommended to implement numerous changes to their data policy. Davis later stated that “It is important to recognize that Facebook Ireland was given responsibility for all users outside of USA and Canada as recently as September 2010. It perhaps should not come as a surprise therefore that there should be room for improvement in how Facebook Ireland handles the personal information about users.”

Facebook agreed to make 45 privacy-related changes, most dealing with simplifying their privacy policies and for how long they will retain data about their users; but they have also committed to give users an explanation on what information Facebook is storing through the facial recognition tool. All of the changes are to be made before the end of July 2012 when the Data Protection Commissioner will make a formal evaluation in form of a follow-up audit. “We found that Facebook Ireland has a positive approach to implement, or to positively consider, improvements recommended by the audit team,” the report states.

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The report left the Nordic, German and Irish data protection authorities satisfied and all of them are saying that they won’t put further pressure on Facebook before the new report in July. However, Max Schrems and “Europe versus Facebook” was not impressed by the first report made by the Irish data authorities. “The report was 150 pages of nonsense. They have not clearly addressed whether or not Facebook is operating under a legal basis, and they also state that Facebook is storing information about their users under 36 categories. I know for a fact that Facebook stores at least 57, possibly over 80 categories about individual users.”

The European Data Protection laws are meant to help people understand what information is being held, and used on them. According to the EU directive 95/46 EC everyone is entitled to their information within 40 days of making a data request. It was this directive that made Facebook hand over the information they were holding on Max Schrems and David Bond. Over the last year Facebook has however decided to give up less of your personal information.

I have gone through every official channel but I am still left with just a fraction of the information given to Schrems and Bond. Facebook claims this is due to the amount of access requests they have been receiving lately. On November 4th 2011, Facebook chose to remove its online application form, saying that the company was overwhelmed with all the access requests submitted by users. Facebook are now redirecting users to a download tool which holds only a fourth of the information the company is storing about you.

“Due to the volume of requests, and to Facebook’s positive response, we have come to an agreement where Facebook Ireland has been given time to implement necessary changes to comply within Irish and European laws and regulations,” explains Stewart Fennel, public adviser at the Irish Protection Commissioner. He can confirm that this in fact means that Facebook Ireland has been given permission to operate outside of the law until July 2012: “Yes, by only giving the user parts of his information through the download tool Facebook is circumcising the Irish privacy laws, but more information will be added before July and we are satisfied with the work done by Facebook Ireland. They will not have to respond to an access request beyond the download tool,” he says.

When giving this information to the Irish Minister for Justice Alan Shatter, he says that he is not in a position to comment on the fact that Facebook is operating outside of the laws. In Austria, Max Schrems is not impressed by the work done by Irish authorities. “Facebook has been allowed to work under their own laws. It is outrageous that this company gets special treatment compared to all the other citizens that have to stick to the law.”

Hill Walkers Versus Landowners Outdated legislation is the cause of disputes between hill walkers and landowners. James Keating investigates.

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n February this year, Niall Lenoach and Noel Barry of the Enniskerry Walking Association (EWA) lost an access case in the High Court. They had claimed a right of way existed along an old coach road in Glencree, Co. Wicklow.

The road in question crossed the land of Joseph Walker, who obtained a high court injunction preventing walkers using his land in 2008. Costs in the case are yet to be decided, but they have the potential to be extremely high. A similar case in Lissadell, County Sligo, cost over €6m.

Albert Smith of Keep Ireland Open (KIO), who campaign for rights of access, says that locals in the Glencree area “face ruinous costs”. Two previous court cases over access to the area, which is in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains, had costs of over €1m.

Smith went on to say that, “A man who claimed there was a right of way along an old road used for centuries was brought before the high court for simply claiming there was a right of way”. Proving there is a right of way is very difficult, leading to tremendously expensive court cases.

Niall Lenoach, in his case, found that, “the test for provThe cost to tourism is enormous ing a public right of way is set so high that it would be because of legal uncertainty virtually impossible to meet.”

This complicated legal process, combined with the area being poorly legislated, means that “if the case were upheld or not appealed it would close off all public rights of way in Ireland that are not specifically dedicated in writing by a landowner.”

In North Wicklow disputes over rights of way are common. Lenoach says that they go back as far as the 1840s. The law on rights of way is even older: According to barrister and law lecturer Siobhan Gaffney; “the law is very outdated, going back to the feudal system.”

A landowner has the right to close to the public what walkers consider a traditional right of way, unless it has been designated in writing. When this happens, as in the Glencree case, it is up to the individuals who use the right of way to prove it exists in court.

This leads to lengthy and expensive legal battles.

Mr Lenoach has been very critical of the role of local government in cases such as his. According to Mr Lenoach, “the county councils have the power to designate a

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place as a public right of way, but most of them don’t want to know. Dun LaoghaireRathdown is the only council in the country that has come out with a list of protected rights of way in their area.”

Councillor for the Bray area, Christopher Fox, disagrees. He said that in their 2004 development plan, the council attempted to free up rights of way across Wicklow.

Through consultation with landowners the council achieved some success in opening up access for hill walkers.

Problems are encountered when landowners do not believe that a right of way exists, as occurred with Mr Walker. In these cases the council are reluctant to get involved because by designating a right of way it can be used as evidence in court.

In Lissadell, Co. Sligo, it was such a designated right of way which led to a legal battle costing over €6m. As Albert Smith of KIO puts it, “Do you wonder why local authorities won’t protect rights of way when they could be confronted with dozens of cases costing that kind of money?”

Mr Smith raises another issue, tourism. “The cost to tourism is enormous because of [legal] uncertainty. Scotland has had a tourism boom since they introduced the 2003 land reform act. Ireland could do the same.” The act opened the countryside to recreational users, provided they follow a strict set of rules regarding their use of private land.

Cllr Fox is not in favour of a change as radical as what Keep Ireland Open are looking for, but is in favour of changing the legislation to avoid court cases. It would also help the council with their outdoor recreation strategy, which seeks to encourage walks and imThe law [on rights of way] is very prove the infrastructure for hill outdated, going back to the feudal walkers, which would, in turn, system promote tourism in the area.

In consultation with landowners, the council suggested that walkers are unregulated and that by opening up routes landowners could funnel them across a specific part of their land. This would cause as little disruption as possible.

85 landowners agreed access, but when some did not, the council had no remit to decide what was a right of way.

Keep Ireland Open see access as a civil liberty enjoyed in many other countries, while farmers and landowners are concerned about damage to their property and insurance or legal costs. It is a dispute which is difficult to reconcile with just mediation, according to Cllr Fox. While they disagree on what the legislation should be, Cllr Fox and Albert Smith do agree that a change to the law is necessary. Even the judge in the Old Coach Road

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case called for the government to look again at the law, saying that mediation should be compulsory.

Barrister Siobhan Gaffney says that, “There are rights and wrongs on both sides and County Councils have the power to unfortunately the law is so up designate a place as a public right of in the air. There needs to be way, but most of them don’t want to some basis for what is a right of way. Ultimately it drags on know for years, and will end up in the courts.”

The legislation covering these disputes is “totally unsuited to a modern age” according to Albert Smith. “We’re stuck with 18th and 19th century laws, and that’s why ordinary decent citizens trying to protect the rights of the public to go for a walk face financial ruin.”

Rural Norway - A Prostitute’s Playground The police in North-Trøndelag do nothing; in the South they do it wrong. The prostitutes end up with a free and dangerous game.

Monica Irén Solberg Susegg investigates. “

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have decided to go on tour again! So book in advance if you want a sensual meeting with one of Norway’s best girls,” ‘Camilla’ writes in her online-ad. Hundreds of girls every day tour the country in search of sex, new clients and money, while the police quietly watch, and do nothing.

“We just don’t have the time or the money to do anything about it,” says Inge Jørstad, Police Superintendent in North-Trøndelag. Last year there where only 130 reports of so-called sex-crimes (including rape, incest, sexual abuse, etc.) in the county, representing 1.5 % of the police reports. In contrast, theft stood for about 36%. These numbers also correspond to the Police County’s budget: While crime for profit, drugs and traffic misdemeanours get prioritised with the majority of the budget, sex crimes and prostitution does not and get nothing.

The quiet county of Nord-Trøndelag with its 133,000 citizens has no great cities.

The biggest, Steinkjer, only holds 24,000 inhabitants, making North-Trøndelag one of the most sparsely populated counties of the country, with a low amount of criminality, violence and misdemeanour in general. But behind this calm and evidently low-crime curtain lies a-not-so-hidden world of sex, pimps, trafficking and prostitution. It took this journalist about three minutes to find an online advert that ‘suited’ our geographical point, then call and order an appointment with a prostitute for the following night. “I perform deep-throat, dildo shows, spanking, stripteases and just pure delicious sex,” the prostitute tells us when we call. She is a 28-year-old woman that in her advert on ‘www. realescort.eu’ describes her life as the high-life, with expensive jewellery, clothes and loads of travelling; what she offers at what price, follows her exclusive lifestyle.

She has the things and lives the life that many Norwegian women would only dream about – except from her choice of profession as a full-time prostitute. ‘Camilla’ is just one of the many prostitutes that over the next week tour the rural areas of Norway, and that are coming to North- and South-Trøndelag.

When we talk to ‘Camilla’ she is in the south of Norway in the middle of her mini tour, before the big one this summer. “I go to the countryside to find new markets really. It’s fun and I earn a lot of money when I travel around; also, it’s safer to travel around as regards to the police and possible prosecutions against my clients, rather than staying in Oslo all the time.”

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As of 2009 it has been illegal to buy sex in Norway. In addition to the so-called ‘pimp-paragraph’ that states a person or company familiar with the fact they are helping prostitutes selling sex, can and will be reported as traffickers. “I can’t understand why anyone cares about what two adults do together in a hotel-room,” ‘Camilla’ states, even though she has never had a problem with the police during the many years she has worked as a prostitute. “Fortunately for me and the rest of the girls, we tend to be left alone when we’re travelling to the countryside.”

“We know what’s going on, but we don’t have the time to do anything about it,” says Superintendent Jørstad .

“Even though it only took me a couple of minutes to find out when and where the prostitutes are?” we asked.

“We can’t catch everyone that does something illegal,” Jørstad answers.

“I love the freedom of not having the police harassing my customers,” ‘Camilla’ happily states.

In Norway’s third biggest city, Trondheim in South-Trøndelag, the Police actively work to get rid of the prostitution-tours; but neither the prostitutes nor their clients get interrupted by the Police, it’s the hotels that get the blame and prosecutions. “When we have suspicions of prostitution, we call up the hotel and tell them to kick out the suspected girls. If they don’t listen they will be prosecuted due to the ‘pimp-paragraph’,” Bjørn Stokkan, Superintendent in South-Trøndelag Police District tells us.

In Rica Hotel Hell at Stjørdal in North-Trøndelag they have had episodes involvFortunately for me and the rest ing prostitutes. Still, the hotel of the girls, we tend to be left director Bjørgvin Thorsteinsson, is not worried by involalone when we’re travelling to the untary involvement in a proscountryside titution-investigation. “We are in total control over who our guests are,” he says. “We reveal who they are, and have a good working relationship with the police in these kinds of cases. If we suspect that prostitution is going on in our hotel, the persons implicated in this are no longer welcomed as guests.”

“This is so wrong, unfair and dangerous!,” ‘Camilla’ responses when we tell her what the police in Trondheim and the hotels are doing. “It is discriminating to make these kind of accusations against us, and I don’t understand why. What is the problem with a girl having one to three men over in a hotel room that is paid for? We always are discrete and never do we interact or torment the other guests.”

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Still, what ‘Camilla’ thinks is worst about the hotels and police forcing the girls to the streets, is that it is dangerous. “When they [the police and the hotels] do this, they force the women to do outcalls [to meet clients outside of their premises] and it’s a reason why we don’t like that, it is too dangerous to not have control over where you are and where you’re going”.

Inger Lise Svengård, daily leader at the women’s CrisisBut behind this calm and evidently Centre in North-Trøndelag, low-crime curtain lies a-notagrees with ‘Camilla’. “The outcalls are often the reason girls so-hidden world of sex, pimps, get into trouble”. It is not only trafficking and prostitution the police that do not give these women the help they need, there are no organisations or companies working for the prostitutes in all of North-Trøndelag.

The excuse? There is no problem – officially. “We do not have a special instance or person working towards and with prostitutes, we don’t have the numbers to show that there is any reason to have it,” Svengård says, even though they don’t keep a record of how many of the girls coming in to the Crisis-Centre are prostitutes. “Of course some of the women that come to us are prostitutes, but we don’t ask them about it if they won’t say it themselves. It is a shame that the county has no instances, public or private, that can specialize in helping these girls,” she says further.

Per Krisitian Heitmann, leader of the ‘Police Federal Joint’ in North-Trøndelag, explains the reason for the lack of law-enforcement use against these crimes. “It is as simple as this: To have a functional and good enough police force in North-Trøndelag, we lack 20 million Norwegian kroners,” Heitmann informs us. Several parts of the budget of the department has been up for discussion several times after the local newspaper, TrønderAvisa, revealed that it amongst other problems, would take over 24 hours to get the ‘Anti-Terror Group’ out on a call in the county.

“It is all about resources, we have neither the time nor the money to investigate any so-called ‘non reported crimes’ that would need investigation to be revealed,” Heitmann states. We also inform him that it took only two minutes to get an appointment with a prostitute in the county. “If we hear about these kind of crimes going on, we do something about it, but it is not a prioritised task,” he answers.

This weekend 27-year-old, ‘Cathi’ is in the small village Verdal, just “ … waiting for your call to make your dreams comes true”. In the next city ‘Nathalia’ is waiting for someone to perform a “girlfriend experience, role-play, striptease or baby treatment” with; while ‘Scarlett’ performs a “full body massage and striptease”. Until the government and the police make prostitution a priority, rural Norway will remain a prostitutes playground.

European Union - Guardian of Capitalism Viviane Stroede investigates the exploitation of developing countries by the European Union in order to support its own economy.

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he European Union, consisting of 27 member states, is one of the major political and economic forces in the world. From the very beginning, the Union aimed to create a unified economy. The single European market was a key driving force for EU integration and therefore was mainly concerned about economics from the outset.

This itself is not the problem, though we need to question the way it is being implemented. The purpose of the EU is clearly to maintain internally open markets and the free flow of capital, as well as pressing externally for the advantage of European businesses around the world.

In the Treaty of Lisbon, 2007, Chapter 1, Article 10 A (2d) it states that “the Union shall define and pursue common policies and actions, and shall work for a high degree of cooperation in all fields of international relations, in order to: [d)] foster the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of developing countries, with the primary aim of eradicating poverty.” Unfortunately, there are no legal provisions in the treaties to legally enforce this.

Additionally the Lisbon Treaty in Article 208 implies that all EU policies must be in support of developing country’s development needs, and not contradict the aim of poverty eradication: “The Union shall take account of the objectives of development cooperation in the policies that it implements which are likely to affect developing countries.” Again however, this is merely fine talk with no measurement criteria nor legal enforceability.

As the richest economy in the world, the EU is a major force in development aid.

Last year the Union provided €53.8bn, more than half of all global aid. As stated in the Treaty of Lisbon it is the Union’s target to eradicate poverty and support the development of poorer countries. These ‘rules’ are not legally binding to the EU and with the following cases it becomes clearer that the Union fails to follow its own treaty guidelines.

Currently there are negotiations between leaders of India and the EU about new trade rules regarding the production of generic pharmaceuticals in India. The EU Council of Ministers authorized the Commission in 2007 to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India and decide whether the two economies will agree on a trade pact

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and forge a new commercial relationship. The impact of these regulations on the people in India would be severe.

The EU is backed by multinational pharmaceutical companies that try to impose new intellectual property rules on India. This means generic pharmaceutical companies in India will not be able to produce cheap drugs and therefore medicine is not affordable for the poor anymore. The new trade rules could deny hundreds of millions of people access to affordable medicines in order to treat AIDS and HIV. “In 2001 one of the key victories of civil society was to get a waiver in the WTO [World Trade Organization] TRIPS agreement on intellectual property rights which ensured that it will still be possible for countries like India to produce generic drugs, particularly in the fight against AIDS. The European Union seems to want to get around this precisely so that it can continue to champion the interests of big pharmaceutical industries in Europe against the needs of people who would be able to otherwise have access to Indian generic drugs,” states John Hilary from War on Want.

India plays a critical role in the global medicine market by producing over two thirds of all generic medicines which are affordable versions of drugs licensed by multinational companies. Currently over 80% of AIDS and HIV drugs are manufactured by generic companies and if new trade rules are implemented the prices of life-saving treatments will drastically increase.

“The negotiations between India and the European Union are yet another example of the EU taking sides with pharmaceutical industries,” stated Kenneth Haar from Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO). According to Haar the intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies have been very dear to the European Commission and there are a number of cases where the interest of the companies has been put above that of the people.

Haar says that the EU has such a tremendous influence on countries outside its own member states because they are, like for example in India, bargaining with access to the European market. “Indian companies are very interested in the EU market and if they do not get that access it is a major problem for them”, he adds.

When asking John Clancy, EU trade spokesperson for Commissioner for Trade, Karel de Gucht, he states the “European Parliament is probably one of the most important defenders of human rights and development in the world and so it is hard to imagine a Free Trade Agreement that would be so damaging to the rights of access to medicine in the developing world ever winning their approval.”

Unlike other democracies such as the USA however, once the EU Council of Ministers gives approval to the Commission to open a set of trade talks, the Commission is legally entitled to finalise that trade deal, commit the EU to the terms of the agreement, and only then are they legally required to release the full details of the document to the

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public. The EU Parliament has no legal role in blocking a trade agreement, nor does it have rights to see the document prior to the unelected Commission signing it.

925 million people throughout the globe suffer from hunger. It is a universal human right, which all states are mutually obliged to respect, protect and fulfil, to secure access to food. The European Union has a special responsibility in this being the world’s largest actor in agricultural trade.

In the case of the marine fishery in Cape Verde in This means generic pharmaceutical West Africa it fails to pursue companies in India will not be these securities and rather plays the actor causing the able to produce cheap drugs and problem. According to John therefore medicine is not affordable Hilary the fishing grounds for the poor anymore around Europe are exhausted and therefore the Union has sought more and more rights for its trawling fleets to go wider out into the oceans and particularly to the very rich stocks of Western Africa, undermining some of the poorest communities in the world, who rely on them for work and food. “Instead of people in West Africa being able to use their own seas and continue their small scale fishing, suddenly what you see are European trawlers getting rights to fish all the way down the western African coast. That includes the occupied waters of the Western Sahara, through the European’s deal with Morocco, which extends to waters Morocco has absolutely no sovereignty over at all”, states John Hilary.

This case clearly shows the, “economic but also political damage the European Union’s expansion is causing,” Hilary adds.

According to Kenneth Haar of the CEO the development in Africa is very concerning as the “European Union is demanding quite strongly that weak African economies open up their markets entirely to European companies. That can have, even in the medium term, disastrous consequences because they [local businesses] will be out-competed.”

Haar adds that, “the trade policy of the European Union makes it quite clear. The EU puts its power at the disposal of the biggest companies in Europe to promote interests globally. Many times there is indeed a contradiction between popular interest in Africa and the trade policy of EU.” The key of the human security concept is the fundamental right to life, physical safety and freedom from premature and preventable death. The Union’s security and development agenda recognizes there cannot be “sustainable development without peace and security, and that without development and poverty eradication there will be no sustainable peace,” Haar states.

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Security policies in many EU member states show clashes between economic and security interests. The EU exports arms to notorious human rights abusers and conflict hotspots around the world. The Union is the biggest arm exporter after Russia and the US, and granted over €800 million worth of arms exports to Libya under Gaddafi’s rule.

Additionally Saudi Arabia received 20% of the UK’s exports of arms in 2010, according to Daniel Puglisi, from CONCORD. This is another example showing that the capitalist interest is put above the security and lives of people in developing countries.

When looking at those cases one might ask how this is posInstead of people in West Africa sible? According to John Hilary being able to use their own seas and the EU remains an important continue their small scale fishing, source for trade and investment for many countries. This means suddenly what you see are European that countries like India find trawlers getting rights to fish all the themselves drawn into deals way down the western African coast which are actually not in the best interest of their own people.

The corporations and their lobby organizations in Brussels have a tremendous influence. According to Harr whenever a piece of legislation is coming up that touches the economic interests of the business sector they would normally be able to both influence the legislation before it is released to the public and during the political process, both in the European Council, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.

The overarching problem with this is that capitalist interests are being put before social interests. According to Harr the problem lies in the fact that the Union is based on treaties that are not very democratic.

The cases above show clearly that for the purpose of economic growth, the European Union is acting morally incorrectly. Although setting itself an agenda which is aimed to support developing countries it is not able to fulfil this.

When looking at the statistics made by CONCORD (European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development) between 2009 and 2011, only seven out of 164 impact assessments of proposed new policies by the European Commission have looked at their impact on developing countries, even though 77 were potentially relevant to them.

Reality differs a lot from what is written in the Lisbon Treaty. The problem itself starts with the fact that the developmental aspirations of the treaty are not legally binding for the EU. It is only through people-pressure that this can come about.

For more info see: CEO: http://www.corporateeurope.org/blog/eesc-slams-commission-eu-in-

dia-fta and War On Want: http://www.waronwant.org/attachments/Trading%20Away%20Our%20 Jobs.pdf.

College Fees and the Working Class Will the reintroduction of college fees encourage more or less working class participation in third level college?

Laura Lynn investigates.

M

inister for Education Ruairí Quinn hinted in February 2012 that the registration fee currently in place for third level education could reach €3,000 by 2015. While this is not a direct reintroduction of third level fees, it is an indirect way of collecting the much needed funds to support our currently struggling third level universities and colleges around the country. Back in May 2011, the USI (Union of Students in Ireland) urged the minister not to reintroduce third level fees. They have organised numerous marches to protest against the possible reintroduction of fees over the past several years, most recently in November 2011.

However, the re-introduction of third level fees in Ireland would not have as adverse an effect on the poorer sections of society as we have been led to believe. Dr Kevin Denny, a lecturer in the school of economics in University College Dublin (UCD), published a paper in 2010 entitled “What did abolishing university fees in Ireland do?”, arguing that the abolishment of third level fees led to nothing more than an increased cash flow for the middle to upper classes. While the basic statistics about classes and third-level entitlement are from over a decade ago; the point is clear. We are quick to blame the reintroduction of fees as the reason why the less well off would be unable to attain entry into third level education. Surprisingly, this point of view is, and always has been, a statistical fallacy.

According to statistics in Dr Denny’s paper, in 1992, 16% more of students leaving secondary education went on to study at third level, compared to the statistics for 1980.

Third level fees were not abolished until 1995. By 2003, that figure had risen another 18%. Realistically, the reasoning for the rise in third level education was due to many other factors, including an increase in the average quality of life, an economic boom leading to higher wages, and a significant boost in numbers to the middle class in Ireland.

In comparison, the boundaries that prevented the working classes from attending third level education did not change.

Previous family education, performance in second level education and social expectations affected their chances of attendance far more significantly than any financial burden ever had. This is not only seen in Ireland, but internationally, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States.

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This reporter contacted Dr Denny for his opinion on the current situation that third level education in Ireland is at, and his opinion on whether third level fees should be re-introduced. “I think it’s a good idea [the reintroduction of fees] in the sense that on equity grounds, because going to college is an incredibly rewarding investment. It is worth a lot of money. As it stands, some people from a relatively privileged background, they’re getting this for free. It’s like any investment. The fair thing is the people who benefit are the ones who pay.” He then went on to comment about the current system, and how it is actually affecting the poor. “Our system is, effectively, a redistribution from the poor to the rich.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 26, states that “higher education Previous family education, shall be equally accessible to performance in second level all on the basis of merit.” The education and social expectations form of merit is not defined in affected their chances of attendance the article, but the presumption far more significantly than any that the Irish population should receive third level education for financial burden ever had free could be argued as a method of facilitating this meritocracy. However, those who require financial assistance and have managed to prove their academic merit can currently apply for a college maintenance grant provided through their county council.

There is a strong argument that the re-introduction of third level fees would be an asset to the poorer in society. No longer would there be such a large financial gain for the middle and upper classes, as they would have to pay for the right to attend third level education. The poorer would still quality for free college and perhaps receive a liveable maintenance grant funded by the richer in society. The gap between lower and middle classes would become smaller, leading to a greater chance of future prospects and opportunities. The working class would still be capable of receiving financial assistance, ensuring that those who have earned the academic merit of attending third level education still could.

Of course, there is also an argument why the reintroduction of third level fees will cause more problems than it will solve. The USI are still arguing that the maintenance grant currently available is not enough to survive on for those who need it. They argue that unemployment will rise once again if fees are introduced, but failed to show statistics on their website. The threshold for qualification for the grant has risen, and the USI also argues that it costs less annually to send a student to third level education (€3,629

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on average) than it does to provide a person with unemployment benefits (€5,200). This reporter contacted the USI on several occasions to receive their argument on their subject in contrast to the statistics provided by Dr Denny, but they were unresponsive on every occasion.

A spokesperson for the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, provided information on how third level education costs will be deliberated over the next few years. “This Government has to take hard decisions about what the country needs most in the next few years and reduce spending or defer projects until resources become available. The day when an Irish Government can again make decisions to Our system is, effectively, a improve education funding can come about only if we take redistribution from the poor the difficult and painful decito the rich sions needed over the next few years.”

On a more detailed level, they explained how the system shall be analysed in the near future. “Minister Quinn received a report from the Higher Education Authority on the sustainability of the existing funding framework for higher education. The purpose of the study is to examine the inter-relationships between funding levels, the scale of growth and the maintenance of quality in the system so that realistic and sustainable levels of growth in numbers can be supported and that better informed choices can be made on policy options for future funding.”

The re-introduction of third level fees is imminent. How it will be implemented is yet to be determined, but it needs to happen. That much is clear. We cannot sustain a respectable level of qualified graduates without it. Universities, colleges and schools around the country are struggling, and will continue to struggle unless something in our system changes. With the proof existing that lower income families will not take such a financial hit if fees are reintroduced, maybe it is time that our government consider the possibility of reintroducing fees on a significant level for the middle and upper-middle classes who can afford it.

Vaccine Hysteria Measles is still a common infection, large outbreaks were reported in Europe in 2011; so why are some Irish parents still not vaccinating their children? Aoife O’Doherty investigates.

F

igures from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that in 1980, before widespread vaccination, measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year.

Since sustained global efforts to vaccinate against the disease have been implemented, this figure was down to a WHO estimated 139,300 deaths from measles in 2010, mostly children under the age of five, and 95% of these occurring in low-income countries.

Without the MMR three-in-one vaccine against mumps, measles and rubella, it would mean children having to receive six injections over a long period of time. The three-in-one is much faster and safer according to reports. Single vaccines in place of MMR put children and their families at increased and unnecessary risk. The combined vaccine is safer as it reduces the risk of the children being infected with the disease whilst waiting for full immunization cover. The purpose of the vaccine is to make your immune system respond to and ‘remember’ the viruses so that should one be infected, death can be avoided. This means if the person is infected with the real viruses, their immune system will quickly recognize them and act to stop the infection.

Measles is an acute viral infectious disease. The disease is transmitted via airborne respiratory droplets, or by direct contact with nasal and throat secretions of infected individuals. The main features are fever, rash and respiratory illness. It is highly infectious but can be prevented with a measles vaccination. Before a vaccine was developed infection with measles virus was nearly universal in childhood and more than 90% of persons were immune by age 15 years. Over 500 million doses of MMR have been used in over 90 countries around the world since the early 1970s. The WHO recognises MMR as a highly effective vaccine with an outstanding safety record.

Given the sudden outbreak of measles in Schull Community College Cork with mostly secondary students and a few younger children infected with the dangerous disease, it is important the question is asked why so many children and young adults have never received a dose of the MMR vaccine? (Measles and mumps and rubella). This is the only protection against the disease and they would be effectively guaranteed free of it if they had the basic MMR vaccine from the young age advised. The immunization not only protects one from a life-threatening illness but also this immunization provides population protection.

The recent measles outbreak in the West Cork region emphasises yet again our inability to achieve the required 95% MMR vaccine uptake to eradicate this infection from

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Ireland. This follows a large outbreak of 200 cases last year in Dublin following a summer camp exposure. In the current outbreak 55 cases have been reported as of 8/6/2012 and three cases have had to be hospitalised with more than 90% from the West Cork area in cases who had never been vaccinated. In the area, the parental acceptance and childhood uptake of the vaccine is low at 86% compared to the HSE south regional rate of 93% and the national rate of 92%. Special control measures have had to be put in place with a public health information process to highlight the Serious allergic reaction to the risk to children, segregation of sick children from school MMR vaccine occurs in fewer than and an accelerated vaccine one in a million people; however programme offered in the area these risks must be balanced with from six months instead of the the risk of infection usual national recommendations of first dose at 12 months and second dose at 4-5 years.

The resulting low coverage has resulted in a large population of children in the area who are susceptible to measles. Measles is very infectious and over the summer many children travel around the country, so the risk of transmission is high unless children are vaccinated.

As it became increasingly difficult to understand how and why we have not fully eliminated measles in Ireland although we have all the right resources, it was time to put questions to somebody with expertise in the area. I interviewed microbiologist, Professor Philip Murphy, who has given multiple lectures on measles in Trinity College amongst other places and has researched the topic in great detail.

The vaccine to eliminate measles, has it become a case of out of sight out of mind? I had many questions: Why do so many people still believe there is a dangerous connection with the MMR injection and autism? If the department of health and the medicine industry know that less people will take the MMR and /or the five-in-one because they are afraid of it, why are they then continuing to promote it?

Professor Murphy informs me: “Because, the one bad story is better than 100 good ones. It’s down to the public a lot also to help eliminate measles. We eliminated small pox before; the decision is down to the parents essentially. In most countries doctors are paid on keeping the level above the protected 95 percentage for the sake of the country.

In regard to vaccine safety: Hundreds of millions of doses have been given over decades and it is considered by professional organisations and all governments around the world to have an excellent safety record and it clearly does not cause autism.”

He went on to say: “However no vaccine is either entirely risk free or 100% effective. The most common side effects of the MMR vaccine are usually mild and include

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the following: Fever, in one out of six people; mild rash in one out of 20 people; swollen glands in the cheeks or neck in very few people; fever high enough to cause a seizure, jerking or staring, occurs in one out of 3,000 people. These seizures do not cause any long-term harm. Temporary joint pain and stiffness (mostly in teens and adults). Serious allergic reaction to the MMR vaccine occurs in fewer than one in a million people.

However these risks must be balanced with the risk of infection. For example, although the risk of encephalopathy related to the measles vaccine is one in one million, the risk of encephalopathy from the measles illness is 1,000 times greater. This means dealing with an extreme case of swelling to the brain, a rare chronic degenerative disease that occurs several years after a measles infection”.

Professor Murphy elaborated further: “The vaccine controIt is simply untrue the Department versy began in 1998. A medical of Health would be willing to see a researcher, Andrew Wakefield, in London, published a paper in the preventable disease return just so Lancet with evidence supposedly they could save money by having a linking measles with inflammathree-in-one; in the case of MMR it’s tory bowel disease and speculatfree; they don’t want these diseases ed that this led to bowel leakage of proteins into the blood and back could cause brain damage and linked this to autism. When other researchers could not replicate this work an investigation found he had not disclosed that his research had been funded by lawyers who were trying to sue the vaccine manufacturers by trying to link the vaccine with autism. A journalist, Brian Deer investigated and Wakefield was investigated by the GMC and was removed from the medical register.”

“10 of the 13 authors of the paper withdrew their support of the study and the Lancet retracted the publication. Wakefield left the UK and now works in Texas. Since then several very large high quality studies across the world have demonstrated no link between autism and the vaccine. In the US some states insist on immunization prior to starting public school. Exemptions are typically for people who have compromised immune systems, allergies to the components used in vaccinations, or strongly held objections. All states but West Virginia and Mississippi allow religious exemptions, and twenty states allow parents to cite personal or philosophical objections.”

Murphy went on to say: “A widespread and growing number of parents falsely claim religious and philosophical beliefs to get vaccination exemptions, and an increasing number of disease outbreaks have come from communities where herd immunity was

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lost due to insufficient vaccination. Immunizations are often compulsory for military enlistment in the US and for green card applicants. The American Academy of Paediatrics [AAP], advises physicians to respect the refusal of parents to vaccinate their child after adequate discussion, unless the child is put at significant risk of harm (e.g., during an epidemic, or after a deep and contaminated puncture wound); under such circumstances, the AAP states that parental refusal of immunization constitutes a form of medical neglect and should be reported to state child protective services agencies although this refers to wound management vaccines such as tetanus rather than measles or the MMR”.

“It is simply untrue the Department of Health would be willing to see a preventable disease return just so they could save money by having a three-in-one; in the case of MMR its free; they don’t want these diseases back,” declared Professor Murphy. “At the end of the day a bad outbreak with deaths would cost them more money and expense. It works just as effectively this way. We’re so close to having got rid of it now in America it is basically non existent. If there was a case of measles [in America] I can assure you a whole group of med students would be brought to see it”.

So if we have a very safe and effective vaccine, provided free to all, that has been proven to protect the individual and the society and which we know we can use to entirely eliminate the virus from the country, what is the problem?

“The damage done by the now discredited Wakefield paper was waning until the recent narcolepsy cases occurred following the Pandemrix flu vaccine which may well have increased the perceptions of fear of all vaccines in the mind of the public,” says Professor Philip Murphy. This would be unfortunate because the two vaccines couldn’t be more unrelated. The MMR is a vaccine well tested over decades and the Pandemrix flu vaccine was an untested, not fully evaluated and rushed to market product needed in The UK journalist Brian Deer used the a hurry to protect against power of the print media to achieve a newly evolved flu virus a lot in exposing the disconnection of unknown virulence to which man had never between MMR and autism, and restore been exposed to before. confidence in the vaccine’s safety The vast majority of our society [92%] are willing to accept the MMR vaccine, we just need to get that few extra percent vaccinated [i.e. 95%] to provide the population with herd immunity and particularly to make sure there are no pockets of very low vaccine uptake where the virus could take hold, such as West Cork this year or the travelling community in South West Dublin last year.”

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“The unvaccinated are made up of those with no GP, the moral or religious refusniks, immigrants, the over-anxious, those with inertia and a small percentage who have genuine medical contra-indications. The refusniks would cry “nanny state” but is there an ethical obligation for the state to mandate vaccination of this small group to provide the greater protection of the people, such as in many US states? Perhaps a softer line would be for public schools or crèches to publish the vaccine uptake of those attending so that prospective users could make an informed decision whether to send their children there or not. This might incentivise higher compliance, more carrot than stick. This is being used in the US through the Centres for Disease Control immunisation surveillance programme,” Professor Murphy explained.

So why was it that 90% of people who have measles in Cork could not have received the vaccine when it is so easily accessible and advised? “The reason I put down to the outbreak in Schull is lack of knowledge. Parents should be taking more notice of these things. Letters are sent out, they are cautioned, they know it exists but they still allow themselves to remain ignorant; it’s unfortunate and maybe we need the media to be a voice. The UK journalist Brian Deer used the power of the print media to achieve a lot in exposing the disconnection between MMR and autism and restore confidence in the vaccine’s safety. Irish media have shown how exposing ‘States of Fear’ can impact and bring change to society. Measles is the fifth commonest cause of death in children under five worldwide and even in Ireland in the North East Dublin outbreak of 2,000 there was one definite and possibly two other children who died from the measles outbreak.

Maybe it is time for the Irish media to engage positively and promote the WHO European region measles eradication programme and help eradicate this virus by 2015”.

Medicating Madness Mental health patients fight against psychologists, forced medication and the mighty US pharmaceutical industry. Leonhard Steinmann investigates.

A

re you feeling sad, stressed, maybe nervous or scared? Go to your trusted psychiatrist and ask for help. Depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, anxiety disorder, the list of known mental illnesses is long and packed with complicated terms.

The question of the right treatment is more complicated. However there is an answer, a universal solution some might argue: Medication, hospital treatment and … medication.

The Irish Mental Health Act was formally enacted by the Irish Parliament on July 8th, 2001 and fully implemented on November 1st, 2006. Since that day, people affected by mental disorders who have been sent to mental hospitals had to learn the meaning of the terms “assisted admission” (involuntary admission), “enhanced nutrition” (forced feeding) or “peaceful room” (solitary confinement).

People with mental health issues may find themselves stuck in an “approved centre” sooner than they think. An application for involuntary admission can be made by a spouse, relative, “authorised officer” or a member of the Gardaí.

A consultant psychiatrist from the approved centre must examine the person within 24 hours and can complete an admission order if “he or she is satisfied that the person is suffering from a mental disorder”. This admission order authorises “the reception, detention and treatment of the patient concerned and shall remain in force for a period of 21 days”. This period can be extended by a “renewal order” to up to three, six and eventually 12 months.

Within the first 21 days of involuntary admission, the Mental Health Commission Psychiatry has already been sold. The refers the patient to a buyer was Big Pharma tribunal consisting of a consultant psychiatrist, a lawyer and a layperson.

This tribunal reviews the detention and affirms the order by majority voting “if satisfied that the patient is suffering from a mental disorder”. There is no test in today’s psychiatry that can definitely confirm a mental health disease. Doctors carry out blood tests or CT brain scans to make sure it is not a tumour, which is causing the problem. As a result the diagnosis is basically the psychiatrist’s opinion on the matter.

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After the tribunal merely two psychiatrists decide over the patient’s treatment. Medication and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be forced on the patient if he is “unable or unwilling” to agree. The treating consultant psychiatrist and one other psychiatrist must approve the procedure. All decisions made under the Act are justified by the intention to deal “in the best interest of the patient”.

The patients are already under medication while attending their A Norwegian survey confirms the tribunal. They are not alincreasing mortality rate by suicide lowed to bring their relaand accidents since the launch of tives or friends for supneuroleptic drugs port. “In over 90% of the cases, the tribunal decides against the patient. They essentially become non-citizens,” says David McCarthy, head of the organisation Mad Pride Ireland.

The purpose of Mad Pride Ireland is to deal with “madness” in a fun, open and fearless environment. The organisation arranges events like the “Family Fun Days”, which are suitable for children, teenagers and adults. “No protests, no leaflets, no information stands, simply fun for all the family,” says a statement on their website www.madprideireland.ie.

Mad Pride Ireland lobbies for their interests in Ireland’s politics in order to change the Mental Healthcare Act and enhance protection of the patient’s legal capacity. “It’s perfectly fine when people decide to receive medication. However people shouldn’t be forced to receive treatment if they don’t want it. We are not anti-medication. We are for the right of decision,” argues David McCarthy.

The question of how to treat mental health diseases has always been a controversial one. However in the last 30 years Ireland’s psychiatry system has been pushed into a definite, ideological direction by a mighty force: The US pharmaceutical industry.

Dr Pat Bracken, consulting psychiatrist and Clinical Director of Mental Health Services in West Cork argues, “The pharma industry greatly invested in research, shaping the discourse of psychiatry and pushing it down the bio road. Huge resources were spent on genetic research. I don’t see that we gain anything from that at all. There are biological aspects of mental illnesses, but this is not a major influence. Psychiatry has become very focused on a narrow range of ideas,” argues Bracken.

The research, development and selling of medication is a multi-billion dollar business. The pharmaceutical industry collects patents of important medication, keeping the right to sell them in private hands. As a result it can sell its medicine at record prices,

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compared to what the state would have demanded for them. Conservative estimates state that around $150 billion was spent on the research for neurological medicine alone. The US economist, Dean Baker, calculated in 2004 that the high prices for patent medication caused $25 billion of additional costs in the USA alone.

This biological approach to the problem is not only expensive, but also dangerous.

Scientists discovered that the use of neuroleptic drugs on patients with schizophrenia significantly increased their mortality rate. Studies in the US depict that the life expectancy of mental health patients in treatment declines by 30 years.

Pharmaceutical companies praise newly developed neuroleptics for their reduced side effects. In fact the side effects just differ from the old drugs. Neuroleptics can negatively influence the patient’s quality of life, causing discontent and indifference with his environment, inner restlessness, and depression. As a consequence the patient suffers from social exclusion, isolation and stigmatization. Suicide is a major cause of death among mental health patients in the first year of treatment.

A Norwegian survey confirms the increasing mortality rate by suicide and accidents since the launch of neuroleptic drugs.

Dr Peter Lehmann is a German psychiatrist opposed to the increased use of medication: “The effect of neuroleptics is not curing, but suppressive. This permanent suppression has devastating neurological effects. In my opinion the current treatment with neuroleptics is a fatal scandal and wouldn’t have happened in an economically and scientifically independent psychiatry.” In 2002 Edwin Fuller Torrey, an American psychiatrist with a sister suffering from schizophrenia, stated: “Psychiatry has already been sold. The buyer was Big Pharma.”

There is proof that pharmaceutical companies also conceal dangerous side effects of their products. In 2004 the US justice department took a case against Eli Lilly & Co., one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, charging it with illegal marketing of its anti-psychotic drug, Zyprexa. The company had concealed that Zyprexa could cause weight gain and diabetes. Additionally, Lilly marketed the drug for the treatment of dementia, including Alzheimer’s-related dementia, even though the product was not approved for that use. In 2009 Eli Lilly paid the record sum of $1.42 billion to settle civil suits and end the criminal investigation. The company always denied every accusation of wrongdoing.

The Irish Mental Health Act doesn’t accept a patient’s declaration, which states his wishes in case he loses his legal capacity. Germany in comparison is the first country to establish the possibility of a declaration to state the patient’s will. In case the legal capacity is withdrawn or the patient isn’t able to decide for himself, the treating psychiatrist has to follow the wishes for treatment stated in the declaration. Old people especially benefit from this legislation, as they are able to settle their affairs in a conscious state.

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Psychiatrists like Pat Bracken rally for new alternative treatments against mental diseases: “Medical framing of madness is wrong and destructive. The problem is the tendency to consider human problems as technical difficulties. We seek the problem in the machine, the brain, and thus rip it out of the context. Problems like stress, poverty, unemployment or difficulties in relationships are very important. It is proven that the number of people affected by mental health issues rises in recession times when there is a high level of unemployment. In better times the numbers fall again. The context is crucial. The patient and his problem are embedded in their social environment.”

Dr Lehmann argues in the same way: “No neuroleptic drug can solve mental problems of social origin. On the contrary – they make the solution more difficult.”

Maybe one day John McCarthy’s idea of how to deal with madness will be the first response to the problem: “It’s about love, it’s about laughter, it’s about the simplicity, it’s about holding each other as a community. It’s not rocket science.”

The Change in Irish Charity How the change in our economy has led us to be more generous with the change in our pockets. Claire Murrihy investigates.

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inston Churchill once said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” This statement is particularly relevant in the economic times we find ourselves in today. Charity has never played a more vital role in our communities but are we doing everything we can?

The Irish have long held a reputation as a giving and generous nation. However, in recent years conflicting reports have surfaced both questioning and lauding our charitable spirit. However, it seems the truth of the matter has become lost in a sea of contradicting statistics.

In May 2009, a survey on major gift-giving donations conducted by companies Prospect 23 and 2into3 showed that, historically, people become more generous in times of recession. As government and corporate financial donations begin to decline, many major donors become more aware of the need for their support and react by increasing their donations.

Historically people become more In 2010, the Irish Cancer generous in times of recession Society described as “humbling” the amount of money raised for the charity through fundraising measures despite the onset of the recession. In that year alone the society provided more than €900,000 in financial aid to 1,600 people who had experienced financial difficulties arising from a cancer diagnosis. This compares to €700,000 which the charity supplied under the fund in 2009 and €644,000 in 2008.

The value of assets arising from the children’s charity, Barnardo’s, obligations in respect of the defined benefit scheme for 2011 and the previous four periods were as follows: 2011 – €417.6m; 2010 – €381.9m; 2009 – €301.5m; 2008 – €349.8m; 2007 – €370.1m. So, in 2011, donations were up 13% from the height of the ‘Celtic’ Tiger period.

For Enable Ireland, the charity’s donation figures were also up with the total net assets at the end of 2010 standing at €46,179,881 in comparison to €44,060,109 for 2009.

In stark contrast to this vision of generosity was the report in June 2010 by consultants, McKinsey and Company in association with the Global Philanthropy Initiative.

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It stated that the rate of disposable income donated by Irish people was nowhere near as large as that of people in the UK or USA, saying that Irish donations tend to be unplanned and small in nature.

But things seemed to be improving in September 2011 when the Irish Times reported that Irish charities were managing to increase fundraising despite the recession.

The report was based on the Second Annual Report on Fundraising in Ireland, which was compiled from data in accounts filed by not-for-profit groups at the Companies Office, and stated that although the improvement was not evenly divided between smaller and larger charities, there was a 24% increase in the amount raised in 2010 compared to the previous year.

In December of the same year, a survey by the British based group Charities Aid Foundation found that Ireland was the second most generous country in the world. The findings were based on three main types of charitable behaviour including donating time, financial donations and helping strangers. The results showed that 72 per cent of Irish people gave money to charity while 35 per cent had given their time and 60 per cent had helped a stranger.

In research figures for that year gathered by Business in the Community Ireland, a national non-profit organisation, the impact that business was having on communities around Ireland was clear to see. In total over €11 million was given in cash donations, €3.1 million in in-kind donations, and over €2.4 million was raised through fundraising by employees. Employees also volunteered nearly 140,000 hours.

Counties which ranked the highest for employee fundraising outside of Dublin, were Kildare, Limerick, Cork, Antrim and Louth, raising €151,000, €119,000, €87,000 and €77,000, €73,000 respectively.

Dublin had the most employee volunteer hours at 75,369 and A survey found that Ireland was the Kildare was also strong with second most generous country in the over 26,000 hours. world But 2012 is telling a different story. Peter Harris, who founded children’s charity The Bubblegum Club in 1994, said recently, “it is those who are less well-off who continue to give the most”.

However, in a recent Irish Times article he said that the charity, which helps fulfil the dreams of children with life-threatening illnesses, has been hit with nearly an 80 % drop in donations as a result of the recession. At its height, the charity took in about €400,000 a year in financial donations. It also had the benefit of the generosity of those who could donate services and products.

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Things changed drastically with the recession and he calculated the fall in financial donations to be approximately 79%; its income is now in the region of €80,000.

Similarly, the executive of the Chernobyl Children International charity, Adi Roche, has said the Cork-based charity is anticipating a 40 to 50 per cent drop in income this year. The chief factor behind the drop in donation income is the absence of “exceptional gifts”. Funding from general donations also dropped by an estimated €200,000 last year, from €1.5 million to €1.3 million.

The Georges St. branch of Oxfam Ireland in Dublin is also feeling the pinch as people Cork Penny Dinners paid tribute to tighten their purse-strings and the generosity of people in helping curb their expenditure. Store manager, Solene Rapinel, says to cope with the increasing demand things are not what they should for food be.

“The amount of donations received in the last few years is much lower. People keep clothes and shoes longer and what we receive will be much worse quality than what we used to get. We have people in here who love fashion but can’t afford to go to Topshop anymore. So they will come here but they will be really looking for the bargain or ask for a discount. Whenever it is something interesting like vintage or wedding dresses it is going well but if it’s mainstream, Penney’s is much better value than us, so we need to find new markets where we can really develop ourselves.”

But there is hope emerging for the future of Irish charities. The past week has seen a lot of attention on Cork Penny Dinners, a charity which provides a midday meal (as well as a sandwich and fruit for an evening meal) to anyone who needs it in exchange for a penny – or today’s equivalent. Interviews with the charity’s volunteers on 2fm and Newstalk have highlighted the growing number of people now seeking its services but they have also paid tribute to the generosity and commitment of the people of Cork in helping to cope with the increasing demand for food.

In Donegal, Rosa Glacken, Regional Vice-President of the North-West Region of the St. Vincent de Paul Society tells a similar story.

“Over the years the Society depended on church gate collections. However this is no longer enough to sustain our work because we have diversified into many activities. We hold many fund raising activities - bag-packing, table quizzes, concerts etc.”

She said that the charity’s shops are doing very well. They are the main source of income because it’s now seen as an acceptable way to get a bargain. And although cash donations are down by approximately 5%, online donations are rising at a slow but significant rate.

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“We have diversified and provide many services in the community for the homeless and those in need of support in their homes. I think it is this ability to change which will carry us into the future.”

Chris Maher, founder of the Musical Youth Foundation and station manager at the charity radio organisation Christmas FM, said that, although getting these projects off the ground can be extremely difficult, the figures for Christmas FM have risen each year despite the economic crash.

In February of the this year The Community Foundation for Ireland, a not for profit organisation that seeks to help people and businesses in Ireland manage their charitable giving, published a report on their website about the challenges facing Irish charities and what is being done to improve the current situation they find themselves in.

In it, they discussed the involvement of the Irish Charities Tax Reform (ICTR) group with the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Finance to ensure that policies were adopted by the Government to incentivise independent fundraising. As a result of these negotiations, on February 8th, 2012, the Minister for Finance, Mr Michael Noonan, T.D., announced his plan to simplify the tax relief available for donations to approved organisations. While the changes are subject to the inevitable consultation process they are expected to take effect from the January 1st, 2013.

So while the pattern of charitable donations in Ireland remains on an uneven keel, it is hoped that with this new tax policy, the plight of our charities will be reduced over the next ten years. We have proven to be a nation of givers, yet the circumstances many of us are now in are exceptional. But while we may not be able to give as much financially as we used to, it’s important to acknowledge the huge levels of hardship in our country and across the world. So even if it’s only your time, continue to give what you can.

The Bank Compensation Tax What the Household Charge is really being used for. Martin Reulecke investigates.

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he nationwide protests against the introduction of a household charge are the symbol of a deep mistrust by Irish citizens of their government. There is a public suspicion that the income from this charge will not be used to provide funding to local services as the government says. In fact, it is used to compensate for making local services worse as a result of paying off private banks’ debts.

“No way, we don’t pay”, this is the claim of the protest movement against the household charge. Thousands of people from all over the country gathered in Dublin over recent weeks to debate the charge and to march against it. Dublin South Central TD Joan Collins is one of them. She is a representative of People Before Profit, a civil society movement, and she also helps to organise the Campaign Against The Household Charge.

Ms Collins calls the charge “an unfair and uneven tax” because all owners of residential property in Ireland have to pay the same amount regardless of their income. In her opinion, family homes should be excluded from most property taxes. She emphasises that the Irish property tax system should not be compared to systems in other European countries where “most people that have the homes are very wealthy people”.

Ms Collins believes that the income from the household charge is only used to fill gaps in public funding which were caused by taking out money for other purposes. “The money has been taken out of the economy already. €170 million was taken out of the economy by the government to pay the bondholders and the bankers. That’s what that €170 million was taken out of the money has gone to”, she says.

The figure of €170 mileconomy by the government to pay lion refers to recent cuts in the bondholders and the bankers. the budget for local governThat’s what that money has gone to ment services. Ms Collins points out what this means for Dublin citizens: “In 2008 Dublin City Council received €105 million from the Local Government Fund. It’s now been reduced to €57 million this year. Our streets haven’t been cleaned properly, the parks are getting closed early, our bin services have been privatised, they want to privatise our water services”.

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The government expected to generate €160 million from the household charge, a figure quite close to the amount of budget cuts that the opposition is pointing at. By the deadline on March 31st, only 50% of the 1.6 million households in Ireland had registered to pay the fee. Because there are exemptions from the liability to pay the charge, e.g. residential property owned by certain charities or by a housing authority, the charge raised €62 million so far. This could be interpreted as a defeat for the government.

A Fine Gael spokesperson was kindly willing to answer questions regarding the houseProof for the opposition’s claim that hold charge via email. When money was taken out of the Local asked if Fine Gael sees the low Government Fund over recent years registration figures as a setback for the government, they said: to pay off private bank debt and “No. This figure will rise prothat the household charge has been gressively. We expect a large introduced to compensate for this sum of money to come in later this week through the post so the Minister will address the situation when he has all the data”.

Moreover, Fine Gael disagrees with Ms Joan Collins TD who calls the household charge unfair: “It is fair because €100 is not an excessive sum. Yes, it is difficult to find for many, but payment can be made in instalments. Similar charges in other EU countries are much higher.” (sic) It seems that a huge part of the population has a different view on this issue as some 800,000 people have not registered by the deadline. The question is, whether this attitude improves the current situation of local services. The funding provided to local authorities comes from the national government’s Local Government Fund, and the money raised by the household charge goes into this fund. In the Explanatory and Financial Memorandum of the Local Government (Household Charge) Bill 2011 it says: “The income from the household charge will be lodged to the Local Government Fund, out of which funding will be provided by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to local authorities in the form of General-Purpose Grants”.

It is not said that all the money raised in a certain constituency will be used to provide funding to that constituency. Fine Gael explained that this is, “Because some areas do not have the population to fund themselves. The Minister will look at what is the fairest system to allocate funds”. Therefore, it is in the Minister’s hands to ensure that he treats all constituencies equally and that he provides funding in relation to their needs.

It is stipulated by the legislation that the money raised by the household charge is in-

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deed destined to fund local services. But it is lodged to the Local Government Fund first and Mr Phil Hogan TD as the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is in control of it. He determines, with the approval from the Minister for Finance, how much money is paid into the Fund. In the Local Government Act, 1998, it says: “The Minister shall, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, pay into the Fund … such an amount as he or she determines, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, in relation to the year concerned (…)”.

Although a minimum level for the Fund is set by the legislation; the law allows the government to reduce the money that central government pays into it. Thus it seems to be possible to take money out of the Local Government Fund in advance and to use the household charge to com“The Exchequer contribution to the pensate for this. The question [Local Government] Fund will end to Fine Gael is: Is it possible in 2012 and be replaced by revenue that the government reduces from the new household charge” the amount of money for the Fund, regardless as to how (Dept. of Enviro) much is raised by the household charge? Their answer is: “Money from the household charge will be ringfenced for Local Government. Decisions on funding will be fair and equitable.” The clear statement that it is not possible for the government to cut the Fund’s budget apart from the money raised by the household charge was not made.

Fine Gael also had the opportunity to comment on Ms Joan Collins’ statements regarding the budget cuts for Dublin City Council. They were asked if they could confirm her figures and if they were correct, if this would be proof for the opposition’s claim that money was taken out of the Local Government Fund over recent years to pay off private bank debt and that the household charge has been introduced to compensate for this.

A spokesperson of the Department of the Environment said: “I don’t have those figures to hand, sorry. Local Government must be funded and this charge is contained in the EU/IMF/ECB agreement. No Government would want to apply such a charge, but there is no other option. The onus on Government is to ensure it is done fairly. Ms Joan Collins TD is not in the position of having to implement this agreement or returning Ireland to economic health.”

Although the department cannot confirm Ms Joan Collins’ figures regarding the funding to Dublin City Council, it is publicly known that the budget for local gov-

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ernments was cut over recent years. The Department of the Environment says on its website: “Budget 2012 contains significant measures to consolidate our public finances.

The Estimates provide €467m for current spending by the Department in 2012, down €185m on 2011. The main area affected is the Local Government Fund. The Exchequer contribution to the Fund (€164m in 2011) will end in 2012 and be replaced by revenue from the new household charge.”

The income from the household charge will be used to provide funding to local authorities, this is what the legislation constitutes and this is what Fine Gael confirms. But Fine Gael did not explicitly deny that this money is used as a compensation for previous budget cuts.

From One Child’s Hand to Another Do you know where your chocolate comes from? Well most of it comes West Africa where child labour and slavery is endemic.

Wayne Doyle investigates.

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hen you’re peeling back the wrapper of that piece of chocolate or being overwhelmed with comfort whilst sipping that cup of cocoa, would you embrace the oncoming delight and comfort if you knew that the production of that chocolate involved over 800,000 children in the Ivory Coast working under some of the most horrific forms of child labour, while thousands of these children are victims of trafficking and enslavement?

The Ivory Coast provides 40 percent of the world’s cocoa, and the list of companies accused by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) of currently using child labourtainted chocolate consists of Mars, Hershey’s, Cadbury Ltd and Kraft, to mention but a few.

“These companies do not have to publicise the country of origin of raw materials such The production of that chocolate as cocoa beans,” stated Vanessa involved over 800,000 children Cooling of the Food Safety Authority. working under some of the most “With meat products and horrific forms of child labour various other products, country of origin must be declared on labelling etc, but not in this instance. I’m sure if you contacted these companies directly, they would provide you with the information you need,” she added.

The lack of traceability in cocoa products is not only frightening as a concerned consumer, but dangerous for those within the production process of cocoa farming.

“We source our beans from Ghana stated Christine Baldwin, a customer representative of Cadbury Ltd. “I do not have any more information for you.”

Similar enquiries were made to Butlers Ltd, a leading luxury chocolate company within the Irish market and unfortunately requests for information were met with the following, “We do not give that information to the public”, stated Kathy Keeney of Butlers Chocolate.

Michelle Doyle of Nestle stated, “All our information is available on our website,” when questions in relation to produce and transparency were made. Upon further re-

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search the information requested, in actual fact, was not on the website.Further efforts made by this journalist to obtain basic information such as production traceability and transparency had been circumvented once more. Evidence from civil society organisations such as Change.org and Raise The Bar campaign, which clearly outline serious malpractices within the cocoa industry, ask one thing and one thing only, yet these companies refuse to provide consumers with this small moral comfort of traceability.

The Dark Side of Chocolate documentary, filmed in the Ivory Coast and directed Yet these [chocolate] companies

by Miki Mistrati, depicts siturefuse to provide consumers ations where children as young as seven are kidnapped, sold for with this small moral comfort of as little as €230 and forced to traceability work up to 100 hours a week in grotesque conditions.Cocoa pods are currently being farmed and processed by child slave labour. These cocoa farmers or child labour enforcers, are being paid for their product by these companies who purchase cocoa in raw form from bigger sellers in the Ivory Coast.

Enquires made to the Hershey chocolate company were also met with a continuous ream of public relations orientated waffle. One question was asked and this question was blatantly avoided over and over again. The public refusal by Hershey’s to release information about its supply chain and production process means Hershey cannot guarantee child labour-free chocolate.

Nestlé’s cocoa plan revealed in 2009 that the company would be working towards displaying a fair-trade logo on all of its cocoa products. Nestlé has since added fairtrade Kit Kat thankfully.

“Fairtrade Kit Kat involves just 1% of Nestlé cocoa purchase and Nestlé is criticised for failing to deliver on its promise to end child slavery in its cocoa supply chain by 2006,” states babymilkaction.org.

Nestle has explained that the “cocoa supply chain is long and complex” making it “difficult for food companies to establish exactly where their cocoa comes from and under what conditions it was harvested”.

A spot check conducted by this journalist in locations in Dublin, Wicklow and Carlow supermarkets and grocery shops has found that the vast majority of confectionary products do not display the fairtrade logo, and in Nestlé’s case the fairtrade logo accounted for ten percent of their products in any given store. A tedious investigation into the transparency and accuracy of the sourcing of these cocoa beans has led me to believe that

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there are serious efforts being made to distort, limit and control the flow of incriminating information needed for clarity and to enhance consumer confidence in these key areas.

The confectionary industry in Ireland is worth a staggering €625 million per annum. To put this into context, this is the same weight as 3,385 double decker busses - in chocolate. Ireland has the highest consumption of chocolate per capita in the world, with an average of 11.2 kg consumed by each individual every year. Over 60 per cent of chocolate consumption in Ireland is a product owned by Cadbury, giving them a major influence in the Irish market. Their Dairy Milk bar is now certified fairtrade so there is some hope on the horizon for these enslaved children.

If your favourite chocolate bar doesn’t have the fairtrade logo, it means the company can’t guarantee it wasn’t made with child forced-labour … why not send them an email and let them know how that makes you feel?!

For more information see: •

End Child Labour: http://endchildlabor.org/;

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International Labour Rights Forum, Cocoa Campaign: http://www.laborrights.org/stop-child-labor/cocoa-campaign;

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Global Exchange, Time To Raise The Bar: http://www.globalexchange.org/sites/default/files/HersheyReport2011.pdf;

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Danish award winning journalist, Miki Mistrati’s documentary: http://www.thedarksideofchocolate.org/ .

Exposing the Deep Web The internet which you and I use everyday is a very different place from the horrors of theDeep Web. Wayne Doyle investigates. “

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cannot say that we are familiar with the deep web. What I can tell you is that any server or website that interacts or promotes crime will be subject to an investigation, once a complaint has been made,” stated John who declined to give his second name, from the Garda Press office. An investigation made by this journalist into the illegal activity within the “Deep Web” has revealed a world of corruption, guns, sex trafficking and information about high profile individuals and their personal lives.

The Deep Web (also called Deepnet, the invisible Web, DarkNet, Undernet or the Hidden Web) refers to World Wide Web (i.e. the internet) content that is not part of the Surface Web, which is indexed by standard search engines such as Google, Bing and Dogpile.

Revealed a world of corruption, When pushed further on the Gardai’s knowledge around the guns, sex trafficking and area of the deep web, the Garda information about high profile source concluded, “You can find individuals all our information in relation to internet safety on our website under the frequently asked questions section”.

William, a computer programme who is extremely efficient in areas such as Java script, HTML and general software encryption stated, “It’s not a case of just typing into Google and logging in, the deep web is complex and dangerous for those who can’t operate down there anonymously.”

Further investigation proved William’s point as statistical information within the deep web revealed only 800,000 individuals worldwide have made it inside the deep web to date. To find out more about what the deep web contained there was six hours of programming and downloading plug ins, adjusting our privacy setting manually and removing any tangible trace of our location led us to the deep and murky underworld of the Deep Web. Within the inner sanctum of the deep web, individuals can avail of a multitude of illegal services such as rent-a-hacker, false documentation such as passports, a wide range of guns and also view sensitive documents and user manuals for heavy weaponry and bombs.

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“These doxboxes or documents as we would call them, are constantly being monitored by the FBI and CIA, if you stumble on the wrong images or wrong page, you could find yourself in serious trouble,” states William. Contact was made with the New York headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) internet crime department in order to understand where and how exactly law enforcement is dealing with this current global problem. My investigation was directed to the FBI cyber crime section where It’s not a case of just typing into they’ve had up to 70 successful prosecutions to date in relaGoogle and logging in tion to cyber-crime, ranging from illegal music and movies, to child pornography.

The FBI is responsible for developing and supporting the joint task force, which includes 18 intelligence agencies and law enforcement, working side by side to identify key players and schemes. Its goal is to predict and prevent what’s on the horizon and to pursue the enterprises behind cyber attacks. Unfortunately, I did not uncover any evidence which would suggest that the Irish police force, in terms of cyber-crime, is aware of the severity of what is going on inside the deep web through the use of Irish servers.

Access to the deep web was gained through the Tor network, which essentially allows the user to browse the deep net unidentified. For example, when you request information from Google, the information travels from the site/server you requested it from, thus it can be easily tracked to your computer with your unique user identity.

However, the Tor network uses multiple servers and multiple computers from all around the world, all connected to the Tor network to relay the information back and forth. In this situation it is almost impossible to identify the requester or server of that particular information. These are layers and layers of security to provide maximum anonymity.

All lines of enquiry has led this investigation to believe that government forces are unable to shut these sites down, which offer terrorist guidance, a wide range of guns and drugs and even assassinations because they do not know the identity of the server’s/ owners. Regular websites will end with .com or .org meaning each individual site can be traced to servers, meaning user transparency.

These websites in the deep web do not use traceable URLs (web addresses), but rather complex, below the surface drop boxes, which is probably the best way of describing this complicated process. It would only be fair to highlight the positive contributions such sites as Tor have provided in the past such as Egyptians using Tor during the Arab Spring to prevent and minimise interference from government agencies. Whistleblowers

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also use Tor to speak openly without reprisal. Information has been provided to Wikileaks over the Tor network.

The currency used in the deep web is called Bitcoins; these allow users to transfer funds without the individuals being exposed. Using Bitcoins allows individual’s maximum anonymity as this currency is encrypted; users are free to buy and sell whatever they want.

It wasn’t long before I had found myself looking through documents about human exI found myself looking through perimentation similar to those conducted by the Nazis in the documents about human concentration camps on the experimentation similar to those Jewish people, socialists, homoconducted by the Nazis sexuals, the mentally ill and disabled people. Some documents were extremely elaborate in detail. Height, race, eye colour and ages were used as grouping mechanisms to distinguish between these “people” who had no names.

“What is a foetus’s tolerance to bleach?” boasted one site; what’s the length of time a 46 year old Caucasian male could survive without food in a room with a temperature of 40 degrees, claimed another; horrific details about men, women, and children who are being experimented on without consent. Further investigation led me to believe that these individuals are mainly homeless individuals who had little or no family.

Online gambling tables open to all users; all you need to do is register and provide bitcoins to play. Sounds straight forward enough, however, these were no ordinary gambling tables. Markets were being provided for the life expectancy of particular individuals, with some players even hiring assassins from the same site to carry out killings in order to claim their prizes.

All winnings are paid in bitcoins. This service is provided by “The Washing Machine”, a service which offers the transfer of bitcoins to a chosen currency without any trace of evidence to who or where the money is going.

I closed the browser after reading a page description and URL that advertised the sale of human flesh by the kilo. The most frightening aspect of this investigation is the fact that the Irish Gardaí appeared to be seriously lacking in knowledge in this area of internet crime. This investigation highlights the need for individuals to become more information sensitive in relation to the internet.