The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2013

Griffith College Dublin Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications

The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism

2013

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

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

Edited by Barry Finnegan Š 2013 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/ ISBN 978-1-90-687806-1 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Layout and design by Alan Gill.

Cover photography by Alice Rossley, www.alicerossley.com.

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The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2013, Vol IV

CONT ENTS The Daily Battle: Locals V Gardaí & Shell

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Erica Doyle Higgins investigates how a small rural Co. Mayo community struggles daily against the construction of a gas refinery on Special Area of Conservation peatland adjacent to their homes.

Research Needed Before Fracking Considered

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Campaign groups disagree with industry and say evidence shows fracking is not safe. Peter O’Neill investigates.

White Supremacy Groups in Ireland: a Growing Concern

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White nationalist organisations are trying to influence the general public through a web of lies. Ian Begley investigates.

Illegal Sports Supplement on Sale in Irish Retail Outlets

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Despite the efforts of the FSAI, sports supplements containing an illegal stimulant, DMAA, are still finding their way onto Irish shelves. Tara Cunningham investigates.

The Lack of Female Radio Presenters We are supposedly living in an ‘equal’ Ireland these days. This is most certainly not the case for women radio presenters. Women are out-numbered by a ratio of 4:1. Eimear Felle investigates.

Taxi Drivers With Criminal Records

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The proposed Taxi Regulation Bill 2012 will bring about lifetime bans for taxi drivers who have been previously convicted of criminal offences. After 11 years of deregulated chaos, why is this bill only now being introduced? Olivia Weaver investigates and finds authorities unwilling to talk.

Small Farmers Conned Out Of Livelihoods

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Adoption of EU environmental conservation rules, as implemented by the Irish government, means small farmers are neither allowed to farm their land nor to receive financial compensation. Elisha Bourke investigates.

‘Slave’ Internships Just how useful is JobBridge, the government’s “employment” internship scheme? Holly Lenny investigates.

Modern Day Slavery

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150 years ago slavery was illegalised in all countries, but still today millions of people around the world are forced into labour. Viviane Stroede investigates the roots and causes of modern-day slavery and the impact it has.

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CONT ENTS Gambling on Hunger

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Food speculation (i.e. gambling) by banks, hedge funds and pension funds leads to volatility and increases in global food prices, leaving nearly one billion people around the world facing hunger, malnutrition and greater poverty. Viviane Stroede investigates.

The Truth About the Pink Ribbon

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Some products sold to spread breast cancer awareness may cause cancer. Alyson Kerr investigates.

The Cookie Conspiracy

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How airlines use web cookies to track customers’ online activity and raise prices accordingly.

Antonia Luehmann investigates.

Supermarket Pressure Leading to Standards Drop

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Was the horsemeat scandal a one-off or are consumers still being deceived about what they are eating? Patrick Allen investigates.

Poor Criminal Sentencing in Ireland

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Judges lack proper sentencing guidance for punishment of crime. Michelle Manuel investigates.

Homophobic Bullying in Irish schools

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At least half of young LGBT people in Catholic schools are being bullied by their peers and teachers because of their sexual orientation. The consequences of the bullying are deadly.

Vanja Skotnes investigates.

Ireland Fails its Elderly Citizens Elder abuse is a problem in contemporary Irish society with many older people suffering and being hurt on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, there is a lack of legislation protecting those who find themselves to be victims of such abuse. Zoldy Kate Moloney investigates.

Contraception Saves Lives

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Education and commitment to condom use in sub-Saharan Africa is yielding positive results despite the efforts of ‘religious’ groups to promote a lethal misogyny. Rachel Bonvie investigates.

Oblivious Irish Eating

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Mary Mc Fadden investigates James Reilly’s unfulfilled promise of introducing legislation to make restaurants include calorie information on menus.

Male Eating Disorders: An Overlooked Problem

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There is a general misconception that eating disorders only effects women. The reality is that a significant number of males are also enduring abnormal eating habits today. Ian Begley investigates.

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The Daily Battle: Locals V Gardaí & Shell Erica Doyle Higgins investigates how a small rural Co. Mayo community struggles daily against the construction of a gas refinery on Special Area of Conservation peatland adjacent to their homes. “

T

he day the Solitaire [the ship laying the 83km gaspipe on the sea floor] came into the bay, for the first time in history, the Irish Navy deployed two gunboats to protect it. 300 Gardaí were brought into the area, the Garda Water Unit was brought out into the bay as well and the air force also had planes flying overheard, for purposes we can only assume were for intimidation. If that isn’t militarised, I’d like to see what is”, stated Caoimhe Kerins, a spokesperson from Dublin Shell to Sea. “If you didn’t have a sense of humour about it, albeit a very dark sense of humour, you’d never survive living here.” These are the words confidently said to me by Shell to Sea campaigner, and front woman, Maura Harrington. For years now, the locals and supporters from around the country have engaged in non-violent civil disobedience such as sitting down and blocking access roads, running on the refinery site and sitting on equipment such as diggers in an effort to halt site works.

At the insistence of Harrington, we’re standing outside one set of the gates of the Shell refinery in Bellanaboy, Co. Mayo, being watched very carefully by the IRMS security guards employed by Shell, and two separate Garda vans, both stationed one hundred yards either side of us.

This is not the most favourable situation in which to conduct an interview and I begin to wonder if I should pay heed to the rising fear in my chest. However, Harrington and fellow local Shell to Sea campaigner Gerry O’Malley’s confidence quickly makes me feel more at ease. They stare down the same two Garda cars that have passed us routinely every ten minutes, and I ask if I should introduce myself and explain who I am and why I am here.

“There’s no need for that, girl,” O’Malley tells me, “You were behind a lorry coming into the village and passed each of the Shell gates. There’s a camera at the back of each of those lorries, so minute you can’t see it unless you were looking for it, and that camera links up to a screen in the cab of the lorry. Your car registration was taken. The Gardaí in Belmullet know exactly who you are and where you’re from, amongst other things.

There’s no need for introductions.”

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The next time the Garda car passes us, I look the Ban Garda straight in the eye, ensuring that she and the two cameras attached to the registration plates see my face, showing no fear.

This is not a quiet coastal village anymore. This is a police state.

Bellanaboy, located between mountain and sea, is a half an hour drive from Belmullet.

However, round the final bend on the public road you will come face to face with the first in a series of entrances to the Shell refinery. At least 15 security men, employed

by Shell, stand guard at each Why would anyone shoot a local gate; each more stoic than the person’s dog in the head? one previous. Dressed in three quarter length high visibility coats, hard hats and a black scarf which covers their faces, but not their eyes. They look almost like an army, silent and of stocky build, eyeing up each passing vehicle. This is not a place for the easily intimidated.

When I asked Caoimhe Kerins, to explain IRMS’ background and how Shell uses them in the Corrib area, she had more than a few revelations. “IRMS was set up by Jim Farrell, a former Irish Ranger in the Irish Defence Forces. Now his company “provides security” for oil companies around the world. In the case of Shell, it has been found that some of the security men had been sourced from fascist networks in Eastern Europe.”

Caoimhe continues to say that some of the “security” tactics used by these men are questionable, “There’s a beach in the area; a very quiet, secluded spot used by families to bring their children paddling in the Summer months. While Shell have, in the past, admitted to surveying locals in their own homes from outside the premises, they neglect to mention that they have filmed children on the beach while they were paddling with friends and family, which calls into question the safety and protection of the children in the area.”

Richard O’Donnell, director of the Corrib gas pipeline documentary ‘The Pipe’, has also witnessed instances of surveillance, but he says that he was never surveyed in the five years he spent filming in the area. “I refused to give into the paranoia that I was being stalked or surveyed. However, I did see a lot of surveillance of the local people in the area, and witnessed more than a few dark instances of stalking and intimidation by Shell’s private security.”

Gerry O’Malley tells how he had to go to extremes to arouse the attention of the local Gardaí when he awoke one morning to find his Jack Russell terrier had been shot

T he Daily Battle: Locals vs Gardaí & Shell, Doyle Higgins

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in the head. He tried to report it to the local Garda station but they took no notice. “I got into my van, I drove down to the refinery gate and told the Gardaí there that I had their badge numbers and I was going to MidWest FM, and tell every media outlet that would listen because they wouldn’t take my statement about my dog. I drove away, and went to a friend’s farm to help him move cattle. I got a phone call 40 minutes later from my son, Piers, telling me to come home, immediately. When I got to the house, there was one Garda jeep, and two cars parked outside. A detective who wanted to know what happened then approached me and asked where the dog was, I said the dog didn’t put a bullet in his own head and he’s buried under the kitchen window. Believe it or not, he wanted to exhume the body to bring it to Galway for forensic examination. I told them to get off my property, and needless to say, the dog is still under the kitchen window.”

Why would anyone shoot a local person’s dog in the head?

Caoimhe Kerins reiterates how difficult dealing with local Gardaí in the area has become. “The Gardaí in the area are very heavy handed; they do what they want and are never held accountable for their actions. The Garda Ombudsman refuses to enforce sanctioning against Gardaí, and fails to follow procedures for dealing with protestors.

There are a significant amount of people in the area who have sustained injuries while being moved and manoeuvred

by Gardaí at daily protests and have ongoing health problems as a result. The state I did see a lot of surveillance of has essentially decided to put the local people in the area, and the interests of Shell above the witnessed more than a few dark welfare of the people they are instances of stalking and intimidation meant to be protecting.”

Richard O’Donnell points

by Shell’s private security out how well Shell can spin stories and how willingly the media will accept them. “I used to be a cameraman, and I’d work with journalists who would interview some of the PR team from Shell and they’d manage to make it sound like locals, for example, Pat ‘The Chief ’ O’Donnell, were criminals. Paul Williams, an investigative journalist from the Irish Independent, also wrote a story a few years ago claiming the IRA were involved in the protests, which is completely bogus. Somehow, local people defending their area and their land, by protesting against the incoming and outgoing lorries daily, are the evil here, as opposed to the multinational corporation running a gas line through a bog, and under a primary school.”

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Shell has donated money to the area to aid in the upkeep of the public spaces including putting footpaths on roads that no one walks on, and donating €15,000 to the local GAA club, which is basically pocket change to Shell, according to Caoimhe Kerins.

“The problem is, this is how it starts. Shell infiltrates a cultural game, like Gaelic football, by donating so much money to a club that needs it, but then are players who grew up in that club willing to wear a jersey that says “Sponsored by Shell” when Shell are the very reason why their relatives and friends were manhandled into a ditch by Gardaí last week while they were protesting? They also offered jobs to locals in the area, but neglected to mention they would have very short contracts of nine months or less. It’s dividing a community.”

The presence of Shell in the Corrib area has destroyed the fishing and farming Somehow, local people defending industry say some locals. The their area and their land are the evil pollution levels have dropped here, as opposed to the multinational significantly, but are still way corporation running a gas line above acceptable levels. They through a bog, and under a primary have divided communities and poised Gardaí against the school local people. However, Maura Harrington, Gerry O’Malley and others like them refuse to give up the fight. “It’s small victories,” says Kerins, “It’s not perfect by any means, but it is a lot safer than it used to be.” This is a fight that is not going to won overnight, but there are realities to be faced. O’Donnell echoes this by stating, “The pipeline is always going to be built, that’s a fact, and the local people have lost a lot, but Shell won’t win.”

However, O’Donnell is certain that the Corrib residents will not be forgotten in a hurry, “They have set a precedent. Shell are shit scared of what will happen next, and what the residents are capable of, in terms of bringing attention to the area. Shell are absolutely dumbfounded, perplexed, by some of the characters in the area”.

As one of the Rossport 5, Micheál Ó Seighin once said, if the “dobe” (the under layer) of the bog is disturbed, as it has been here, and very irresponsibly so, it sets in motion a series of very unfortunate happenings on those who disturbed it. Almost like fate.”

Research Needed Before Fracking Considered Campaign groups disagree with industry and say evidence shows fracking is not safe. Peter O’Neill investigates.

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ydraulic fracturing or fracking, is a process used for the extraction of unconventional gas from up to 6,000 metres underground. This highly industrialised procedure involves the pumping of a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under huge pressure underground into gas bearing rock to fracture it and release the shale gas or methane contained within.

“Now it’s impossible to use the water in my area due to this process,” states Jessica Ernst of Rosebud, Alberta, Canada. Called a modern day Erin Brokovitch, Ms Ernst has over 30 years’ experience in the oil industry as she was previously employed with the EnCana Corporation, a fracking company based in Canada, yet has quit her job and is now suing her former employer and the Alberta State Government for what she calls “lies” being put out about fracking in her home state.

She notes the Environmental “The idea that there are any Protection Agency (EPA) in the US is immune from substantial risks to health are just prosecution if they release perpetrated by those eco-warriors” bogus information and also says “the EPA steering committee in America does not cover issues concerning human or animal health”.

She explains this is due to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney signing the Clean Water Bill in 2005, which left the EPA there free to operate how it sees fit. “This has damaged the drinking water which has killed my animals and left burn marks on my skin,” states Ms Ernst. She describes taking on the corporation and the Government as “a bit of a David and Goliath battle,” but adds: “There are no knights in shining armour – we have to be those knights for the people whose futures are in the corporation’s hands.”

In the fracking process, Ms Ernst notes, concrete casings are used in the process to stop the chemicals used leaking in to the water table, yet states these casings are put under an enormous amount of pressure. She points out information given to her by a whistleblower within EnCana states the corporation estimates anywhere between 20% and 80% of these casings are leaking.

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“Even when I wash up using the water there are no bubbles being made by the washing up detergent,” she states.

“This shale gas is also leaking into our atmosphere and causing unknown damage to the environment and even causing the water to go on fire when a flame is held up to a faucet (tap).” She suggests people who want to know more about the controversial process should look at the documentary Gaslands. Óisin Fanning is head of San Leon Energy which has a license to explore the possibilities of fracking in Poland. He previously wrote an article published in the Irish Independent stating: ‘Greens have got it wrong: fracking rocks’ (14th August 2011) and still stands over his article. When asked about the health risks associated with fracking, such as the poisoning of drinking water with heavy metals, running tap water which goes on fire when a lighter is held close to it, dead animals, etc., he claims there are none.

“The idea that there are any substantial risks to health are just perpetrated by those eco-warriors,” he states. “On “This [fracking] has damaged the every find like this you will drinking water which has killed my have various groups coming animals and left burn marks on my out and saying ‘we’re against this,’” he adds. He points skin” out the arguments for and against fracking is all one sided and states: “There is a lot of scientific evidence out there in support of fracking.” He also notes the process of thermal energy (the extraction of energy from underground heat) has just been approved in France and states “this could be a lot more damaging to the environment than the process of fracking”. He suggests anyone who wants to see a more truthful side of the process should watch the short documentary Truthlands.

The process of fracking is not a new phenomenon as Green Party Councillor Brian Meaney of Clare County Council points out. “Fracking has been around for over 30 years but wasn’t economically viable before; but because of increases in fossil fuel prices and emerging technology, the Americans have successfully exploited gas reserves in rock and it has transformed their energy market,” he states. Cllr Meaney states he’s an engineer on one hand and an environmentalist on the other and notes the dangers involved with fracking are substantial. “The problem with fracking is the huge environmental impact it has had which is evident from the experiences of the people living in those areas in America where the process has been in operation for the last 30 years,” he states. “There has been multiple series of environmental issues in relation to deterioration in ground

Research Needed Before Fracking Considered, O’Neill

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water, landslides, earthquakes such as the recent ones experienced in Britain, and a drop in air quality and there are also a number of reports which shows fracking is a lot more hazardous in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than even coal.”

He explains there are a number of exploratory sites in Poland and there two or three companies here in Ireland looking at the viability and accessibility of shale gas.

Britain has also recently lifted its ban on fracking despite it being linked as a cause of earthquakes experienced there.

So what is the Irish Government’s position?

Oral Ryan, a petroleum officer of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources says presently the department “can give no definitive answer” concerning Ireland’s position on hydraulic fracturing. She states: “The Irish EPA has been asked to do further research by the Minister” involved yet admits: “we are nowhere near establishing whether hydraulic fracturing can be done in Ireland”. She points out Ireland’s EPA’s report is due out around March 2015 and states: “no fracking will commence until the report has been studied”.

When asked about the lack of regulation Ms Ryan notes this is not the US as there are a number of statutory criteria to be filled before a company can start fracking. “In Ireland, a planning consent from Án Bord Pleanála is needed; an Integrated Pollution Prevention Control Licence from the EPA under the Directive on the Management of Waste from Extractive Industries or Mining Waste Directive is required; a Petroleum Lease, a Plan of Development consent and a Gas Pipeline consent from the relevant Minister is needed; a Gas Act consent from the Commission for Energy Regulation; a safety case approval from the Commission for Energy Regulation; and also a technical safety assessment for such an approval would only be carried out by the department after the Minister had authorised it.”

She also notes a number of criteria in relation to EU environmental legislation are also required. These include: a directive establishing a framework for community action in the field of water policy; a permit from the EPA which may be subject to Environmental Impact Agency (EIA), which is a separate safety group; regulation on company registration; there are also regulations on chemicals and their safe use implemented by the EPA directive on placing biocidal products on the market or the Biocidol Products Directive; there is also a directive on environmental liability with regard to the prevention of remedying of environmental damage or the Environmental Liability Directive.

Yet will this be enough to guarantee the safety of the Irish environment?

Fergal Scully of Gluaiseacht [Movement]for Global Justice, a group affiliated with No Fracking Ireland thinks this is all rubbish “You can have all the regulation you want but it just takes one mistake to ruin things; just look at the banks and the regulation

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that was involved there,” he states. Mr Scully also notes the Departments of Health and Agriculture are presently not on the Steering Committee which is looking at the environmental and socio-economic impact fracking would have if allowed. “At the moment,” according to Ms Ryan, “we are only looking at the environmental impact, when the EPA’s report is published in 2015 these other departments will then look into it.”

Of course, all this new shale Even when I wash up using the water gas could only mean one thing there are no bubbles being made by for the Irish consumer – cheaper the washing up detergent gas! Yet Ms Ryan points out “There is no determination it will have any impact on energy prices.” This is since private companies which extract gas or oil are under no obligation to sell their product back to Ireland at any price and the gas or oil could be sold abroad if wished.

So what is in it for dear old Ireland?

Ms Ryan says: “Any fracking company reaching production stage would pay up to 40% tax on profits and this figure should be considered in the context of the normal rate of corporation tax, which is 12.5%.” She also notes compensation will be paid out to landowners whose land is fracked which falls under the provisions of Section 5 of the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act, 1960. However, Fergal Scully points out this effectively means that most landowners do not have the mineral rights to the gas on their land. “Mineral rights only apply to around 3% of the top landowners in this country. You may own the land but you do not own what is under the land,” he states.

Cora Molloy is the secretary of Ardcarne Against Fracking which is also affiliated with No Fracking Ireland. She raises a number of concerns in relation to the fracking process being introduced to the Allen Basin, which is the source of the river Shannon, and the focus of fracking companies’ interest. Firstly she points out if something does go wrong with the process “the Shannon is finished”. If this does happen, a knock-on effect she notes is: “our tourism trade as well as our agricultural industry will be ruined.” She also points out the huge amounts of gravel used in the process goes into the millions of tonnes and the amounts of water which will be needed to be trucked in “will destroy the roads around here”. And that’s during the extraction process. She asks: “How will they transport the gas as well as the waste water used in the process? They will need even more trucks or else they will have to build pipe lines to transport it.”

She also asks “Is it economically viable?” She explains the amounts of gas extracted

Research Needed Before Fracking Considered, O’Neill

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are only small pockets of gas and says “it is hardly worth the hassle involved”.

Gary McFarlane is Director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. As he sees it: “The problem with fracking is largely to do with what we don’t know in terms of what we do know in relation to the scientific evidence base. There is no doubt that there are some positive benefits, in terms of securing a fossil fuel for Ireland yet there is no real evidence in terms of the carbon foot print that is involved in the extraction process,” he notes.

McFarlane added: “There are also benefits in terms of taxes raised and in terms of jobs; but there are also risks involved, there are serious environmental concerns and these concerns have not yet been fully allayed since there is a lack of information around this process.”

“And very fundamentally linked to that, which governments are not making, is there is a real lack of any helpful information concerning the process and the effect it could have on health and clearly there are environmental links between our environment and our health, there always has been and in terms of weighing up the pros and cons we need to be much clearer on the aspect of that,” he adds. Óisin Smyth is the Green Party Communications, Energy and Natural Resources spokesperson and an advisor to the EU on energy and climate change policy. He highlights the amount of groundwork which would be required for the process of fracking: “Fracking requires extensive above-ground pipework and also many well heads converting the landscape into an industrial web of steelworks; this network typically covers thousands of acres, for example, the proposed fracking in Leitrim would cover 70,000 acres.” He points out the Green Party wants to ban shale fracking in Ireland and instead favours investment in renewable and clean energies in an effort to create long term employment and boost Ireland’s economy.

“Ireland has substantial untapped resources of renewable energy: wind, wave, tidal and wood; we should look towards capturing and using these resources before we sacrifice our landscape and water supply and atmosphere in the hope of fracking for unconventional gas,” he states.

“We should capture these resources and export surplus electricity to the EU by subsea cables; we should convert more of our transport systems to run on electricity rather than fossil fuels; we should insulate our houses better and look towards domestic solar panels for water heating and electricity generation; we should obtain energy from the tides and research wave energy further; encourage offshore wind farms since our sea area is ten times the size of our land area and we should encourage farmers to grow energy crops such as willow and miscanthus, which can be used to replace coal in thermal power plants as is already being done in Drax in Yorkshire.”

For those who are still unsure about the pros and cons of fracturing, Jessica Ernst

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offers this advice: “I would say to the people of Ireland concerning hydraulic fracturing; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others; wait, and watch the mistakes happen everywhere else.”

For more information see: •

Gasland, the documentary: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

•

Truthland, the movie: http://www.truthlandmovie.com/

•

Contacts for 25 anti-fracking community groups around Ireland: http://frackingfreeireland.org/contact/contact-local-groups/

White Supremacy Groups in Ireland: a Growing Concern White nationalist organisations are trying to influence the general public through a web of lies. Ian Begley investigates.

R

acist organisations like the Irish Nationalist Movement and the Irish Nationalist Brotherhood continue to generate a large degree of controversy and concern in Ireland.

Those who belong to these far-right groups communicate primarily through racist internet forums like Stormfront.org and ThePhora.net, where they have free reign to exhibit their provocative views with other likeminded individuals.

Unlike the far-right British National Party (BNP), Ireland does not possess an authentic political party that advocates white nationalism and anti-multiculturalism.

Instead, several small numbered white nationalist movements have formed around a common theme of republicanism, white supremacy, and anti-immigration.

Many of these groups range from different levels of extremes, scaling from hardline Christian conservatives to flag burning Neo-Nazis. Their value systems are internally flawed and incoherent, “You don’t have to be a racist to hate therefore making it difficult niggers - just a good Christian. And to establish whether they are a thank God Dublin is full of good legitimate factor for concern in Christians” Ireland.

Rosanna Flynn, spokesperson for Residents Against Racism, states that she frequently suffers from death threats and other forms of abuse from racist individuals.

She described a letter that was personally addressed to her with a message stating: “we’ll get you, you nigger cocksucker”, attached to a drawing of a gun pointed at her head.

Rosanna does not think that racist organisations in Ireland will ever be as prominent as the BNP is in Britain, but believes there has been a slight increase in racist ideology in Ireland in recent years, and is critical about the lack of governmental action towards white extremists.

“I don’t think racism is dealt with properly in Ireland. I know it’s no use reporting these things to the Gardaí because nothing is ever done about it,” she said.

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Rosanna says that many white nationalists do not deem themselves as racist, often attempting to put a respectful front “on something that is anything but respectful.”

She states that people often send her messages, attempting to justify their disjointed dogma towards other ethnicities.

‘You don’t have to be a racist to hate niggers - just a good Christian, and thank God Dublin is full of good Christians’, is one such example Flynn provided.

Michael Quinn, founder of the Irish Nationalist Brotherhood (INM), a rebranded version of the Democratic Right Movement (DMP) has been involved in far-right politics for over 30 years in Ireland.

His organisation models itself off the BNP, and has links with several other white supremacist groups like Combat 18, the English Defence League and the KKK. On his website, Quinn outlines his intention to develop a well-backed political party that coincides with his far-right ideology: “My belief is that the only solution to this politically created societal mess is a strong right wing Nationalist political force, which in time could become a political party similar to other Nationalist political parties such as the BNP [sic].”

Quinn’s political integrity that he tries to instil upon himself is often jeopardised by the provocative rants that he These movements masquerade their regularly posts online. In 2011, racism by using populist terms to he made tabloid headlines highlight their policies and beliefs when he uploaded a video of … to justify their racist ideology himself speaking in favour of the Norwegian massacre, adding by blaming Ireland’s economic that he would have “no problem” problems on multiculturalism with an Anders Breivik stylemassacre in the Dáil.

The Irish Nationalist Movement (INM), run by cofounder John Kavanagh, is a widely criticised splinter group of the DRM. Like many other white nationalists, Kavanagh denies that he is racist and states that he is a right-wing activist who strives to protect Ireland’s culture and native identity.

“I am not racist; I don’t hate other races. I do support tight immigration control and abolishment of the asylum process. I do believe that some levels of immigration is acceptable [sic], commented Kavanagh.”

However, Kavanagh contradicts himself in nearly every way imaginable on his website. On 25th October, 2012, he writes:

White Supremacy Groups in Ireland: a Growing Concern, Begley

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“I had a woman came in to my repair shop looking for money for black kids in Africa for soccer uniforms!!! She had a shocked look on her face when I said i wasn’t interested in giving money to blacks [sic],” - a racist comment in anyone’s eyes.

On another occasion in 2009, posting on Stormfront.org, Kavanagh declared: “I hate indians, paki, muslims and all that other crap in my country. I want to take the fight to them directly… If I had power...Blacks, muslims, pakis, etc. Id round them up and shoot them all for invading my country. Dont Worry about the tidy up, I make them dig their mass graves first [sic].”

Although members of the INM don’t seem to expand beyond the anonymity of the internet, Kavanagh and his INM associate, Andrew Walsh, infrequently attempt to organise meet-ups for their handful of followers.

On November 18th, 2012, Kavanagh and Walsh set off to an undisclosed location in Roscrea, Tipperary for the purpose of launching a newly drafted manifesto with several other INM members. Asked to collect a ‘new recruit’ at a bus stop, Kavanagh and Walsh walked right into a trap and were attacked by several members of the NGO, Anti-Fascist Action (AFA).

A physical fight broke out and resulted in several minor injuries to both parties. The day after the incident occurred, Walsh and Kavanagh described the details of the fight on the INM website.

“Antifa attempted an ambush on Irish National leader Andrew Walsh and John Kavanagh of the Nationalist Movement. About seven or eight antifa scumbags came out of the woodwork like termites,” wrote Kavanagh.

“I don’t like violence but they were so weak and I felt so powerful, I got to say I enjoyed punching their dirty heads off. Even better, one of them that attacked Andrew was a black bastard,” they commented online.

Speaking with a spokesperson from the AFA about this incident, it seems that the turn-out for this meet-up was significantly lower than expected.

“The meeting in Roscrea had expected to gather around 50 guests, but ended up with only two people showing up,” declared the spokesperson. Kavanagh has since disputed this claim.

The AFA spokesperson also made observations about the mind-set of Kavanagh and Quinn.

“They both have an odd, conservative outlook on things and seem to be very out of tune with today’s society. They live in rural areas with little diversity, and have a lot of free time on their hands which basically allows them to be full time racists,” he said.

White supremacy groups in Ireland strive to divert public opinion against multiculturalism, and share a common ideology that Ireland should be maintained for white Irish nationals only.

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Their failure to unite under a banner of set policies and goals creates rivalry and contempt amongst their nationalist counterparts, which further decreases any hopes of them forming a BNP type party.

It is also evident that these movements masquerade their racism by using populist words and terms to highlight their policies and beliefs, and seem to justify their racist ideology by blaming Ireland’s economic problems on multiculturalism.

If racism in Ireland isn’t combatted effectively by our government, police force and citizenry, then it is possible that these white nationalist organisations will gain more support and sympathy from the general public, as a result of the current recession, thus putting foreign nationals at a greater risk in our society.

Illegal Sports Supplement on Sale in Irish Retail Outlets Despite the efforts of the FSAI, sports supplements containing an illegal stimulant, DMAA, are still finding their way onto Irish shelves. Tara Cunningham investigates.

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laire Squires, 30, an amateur athlete, purchased sports supplement Jack3d online, consumed it on April 22nd 2012 during the London Marathon, collapsed one mile from the finish line, and died. Cause of death: a single dose of Jack3d.

If the media had not highlighted her death in the manner in which it did would Jack3d still be legally available? Perhaps! Thankfully, the global media coverage this story received ensured that four months later, Jack3d was banned in the UK. Ireland also banned Jack3d in 2012.

Jack3d contained DMAA, an illegal central nervous system stimulant related to amphetamine. DMAA is listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Prohibited List; it is a banned substance for in-competition athletes. DMAA is banned also in Canada, Australia (where a man died after buying the drug online), and the US, where after taking the drug, two soldiers died from cardiac arrests during fitness exercises. It is widely reported that the consumption of DMAA can cause high blood pressure, nausea, cerebral haemorrhage, stroke, psychiatric disorders, heart attacks and deaths.

Sports supplements are products used to enhance athletic performance, build muscle, and act as a stimulant. They are considered a dietary supplement. Sports supplements are commonly used by athletes in the hope of maximising the benefits of participating in sport.

Today, more than ever in Ireland, we see people pounding the pavements. There has been a surge in the popularity of marathons, half-marathons and triathlons. In a bid to enhance their performance, amateur athletes are increasingly turning to apparently safe sports supplements. It is an accepted part of sporting culture nowadays, and many athletes fail to recognise the dangers of the potential side-effects related to the consumption of sports supplements. Many sports supplement retail outlets have been established, with both a physical and online presence due to this high demand.

There is no universal ban on DMAA, and therefore, it is still available for purchase online from countries in which the product is still legally on sale. In a joint statement issued by the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) in July 2012 it stated that “products containing DMAA are deemed to be

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unauthorised medicines and therefore their supply is prohibited into and within Ireland”.

Despite the ban on these products in Ireland they can still be imported. The IMB and FSAI in their aforementioned statement also advised consumers not to purchase these products online. The FSAI indicated that they were “aware that supplements containing DMAA have been imported into Ireland and are available online”. Surely customs will stop a banned stimulant entering the country when the dangers associated with its consumption are grave? When this question was posed to Ray Ellard, Director of Consumer Protection at the FSAI, he explained “We do have arrangements with customs. All products have a CAS number, a customs code. Customs can block products based on the customs code. When they see declarations coming through with the custom code they can stop them.” Reassuring? Hardly!

As he further outlined to me that “We haven’t asked them (Customs) to do this, to stop DMAA substances going through. Our focus is on shops not individuals”. Customs will only stop products that have been requested to be blocked. As the FSAI have not asked for DMAA to be blocked, customs will neither stop it entering the country, nor look for it. The sheer disregard for the welfare of individuals who may be unaware that sports supplements they purchase online contain this illegal substance is disturbing.

Awareness and education is crucial of this industry. There is a thesaurus of names by which DMAA can be listed as. This makes it increasingly difficult for athletes to spot the dangers associated with the sports supplements they purchase. Troy Reneker, AntiDoping Education Consultant at the Irish Sports Council (ISC) expressed his concern; “Inconsistent, unclear and inaccurate labelling is a huge area of concern for athletes who are subject to drug testing. The numerous ways in which a substance can be written can cause confusion and athletes might not be aware that in fact these are the same ingredient written in a different way”.

However, Ellard said of this; “As long as they are telling the truth, the labels aren’t misleading. Most people looking for these substances know what they are looking for”. DMAA can also be referred to as methlylhexaneamine, 1,3-dimethylamylamine, Dimethylpentylamine, DMP, Geranamine, Geranium Oil, Floradene, 4-methyl-2hexanamine, C7H17N, and Forthane.

Ellard (FSAI) admits, when discussing consumer awareness of the dangers associated with DMAA, that “Until we (FSAI) highlighted the issue last year, I don’t think that they (consumers) were aware”. Yet, upon interviewing four rugby players who play for a well-known south Dublin team, only one knew what DMAA was. Whilst two of them admitted to regularly consuming sports supplements, none of them study the ingredients on labels, preferring to “go with what’s recommended”.

The FSAI and IMB’s joint statement attempted to highlight the health dangers associated with the consumption of supplements containing DMAA. Products known

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to contain DMAA, include Hemodrene, Hemorush, Crack, Marrow Matters, Jack3d, Spriodex, Napalm and Lip-6 Black. The FSAI ordered environmental officers to check retail outlets to determine if products containing DMAA were on sale. Ellard (FSAI) asserted that there had been an “extensive follow up across Europe” following the ban, and that the “EHOs [Environmental Health Officers] went out and chased these (retailers)”. Outlets were merely asked to remove the products from their shelves; no fines were levied and no threats of legal action were placed on those who chose not to obey. So why bother?

Less than one year later, I found that one online store, iprotein.ie, continue to list a product containing DMAA (listed as Geranium Oil), Lipo 6 Black, as a product they sell but remains Out of Stock indefinitely. On phoning the company to inquire whether this product will be restocked, they confirmed that it wouldn’t be. They were aware that it had been banned last year ( July 2012). However, they have not made any effort to remove the product as a “for sale” item on their website since After taking the drug, two [US] the DMAA statement issued by the FSAI and the IMB in soldiers died from cardiac arrests July 2012, nor did they express during fitness exercises their intent to do so and why should they, the customs are not checking for it!

Discount Supplements are a retail outlet with both a physical and an online presence. Their physical presence consists of retail stores in Dublin, namely Terenure, Clondalkin and Kilcoole. Discount Supplements according to their website www. discountsupplements.ie are still selling Nutrex Hemo Rage Black Ultra which contains DMAA, listed on this product as methlylhexaneamine. These products are available to purchase online. Upon phoning the store in Terenure to inquire if this product was still in stock, a staff member informed me that it was. The same enquiry was made by calling the Clondalkin store; a staff member informed me that “both flavours are in stock”.

Amateur sportspeople can access illegal substances; consume them in whatever dosage they see fit, in many cases blissfully unaware of the potential catastrophic side effects. Orla Walsh, Dublin Nutrition Centre (DNC), said of this, “A scientist may see a drug in a lab-rat one day, and in an athlete the next. You do not always know what you are taking, especially if you are buying it illegally. Even if it is legally obtained, every single body is different. So when you are taking something into your body, there is always a risk that it may not agree with you in the short or long term”.

This is undoubtedly an industry which is largely unregulated, the sellers of these illegal sports supplements cannot be jailed nor can hefty fines be imposed on them, they

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are merely asked to remove the products from their shelves. In Ireland, the IMB, FSAI and Irish Sports Council in 2012 issued statements on DMAA. Yet, the nation largely remains uneducated about sports supplements consumption and the illegal stimulant DMAA. Two statements are not enough to educate a nation, to educate amateur athletes, to highlight an issue of grave salience.

The FSAI couldn’t even confirm to me the number of environmental health officers they have out checking sports supplement shops.

Who do we blame?

Orla Walsh says “It’s too easy to point the finger at one person or group. The FSAI need to have back up from the government, from police, from society” and notes that “stricter legislation would help” and whilst I agree with her to some extent, I can’t help but feel there has been some negligence on the FSAI’s part. We must remember, the FSAI disclosed that they are aware supplements containing DMAA are being purchased online and imported to Ireland, yet fail to apply a customs code to these products to have them blocked when people attempt to import them. Furthermore, to state that “Our focus is on shops not individuals” is extremely distressing.

If the FSAI’s focus was indeed shops, the environmental officers would have continued to follow up on all retailers to ensure they are not selling sports supplements containing DMAA. They didn’t. Their lax approach provokes a notion that the welfare of the individual is unimportant. Yet it is in cases like Claire Squires’, an individual, who purchased a product containing DMAA online, we are reminded individuals are at danger.

When I mentioned to Ray Ellard that I had found possible cases of sports supplements containing the illegal stimulant DMAA still being sold openly in shops in Dublin, he kindly asked me to “pass on the information if it’s still happening” to him upon the completion of my investigation. What a negligent attitude!

The government needs to step in, and dare I say it, be proactive, otherwise the headlines will be laden with tragedies similar to that of Claire Squires. The time has come for the government to liaise with the FSAI and the IMB to ensure this is not the only investigation which highlights this issue, to ensure all products containing DMAA are banned from being on sale in or imported to Ireland, and to ensure that the sports supplement industry is once and for all regulated in Ireland. By imposing fines, threatening legal action, having a group of officers that have oversight of, and regularly patrol the sports supplements industry regulation is possible.

Are you comfortable with picking up a national newspaper in the near future with a headline that reads “Cause of death: DMAA”?

I for one am not.

The Lack of Female Radio Presenters We are supposedly living in an ‘equal’ Ireland these days. This is most certainly not the case for women radio presenters. Women are out-numbered by a ratio of 4:1. Eimear Felle investigates.

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e all listen to the radio whether it be in the mornings on our way to work, college, school or when exercising and during the evening drive home.

You can’t escape the radio, but if one were to ask you what percentage of presenters are women - the answer is alarming. According to a National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) survey, Women’s Representation in the Irish Broadcast Media, which was carried out last year, the results are saddening to say the least. They carried out research into the participation and representation of women’s voices in the broadcast media using radio current affairs programming as their sample. In their own words: “The results are not startling, but deeply disappointing: On average, less than one quarter of all voices on air are women (23%)”.

Upon finding these figures I wanted to speak to someone directly regarding the figures The results are not startling but posted from the NWCI and deeply disappointing. On average, so got in contact with Eoin less than one quarter of all voices on Murray who works for them. I air are women (23%) asked him how do the NWCI feel about the fact that women are such a minority among presenters on radio and he responded by saying, “The NWCI believe this is another example of unfair treatment of women. We also believe that it means there are limited role models for women to look to if they want a career in news/current affairs media.”

I furthered my conversation with Eoin by asking him, as a man working for the NWCI, how does this topic make him feel and he said he was sad at the unjust nature of our society, especially because many people just don’t see it.

This then got me thinking. Do we the people and the listeners see it or do we actually ignore it? I focused the investigation on four particular radio stations. Two being news and current affairs, Today FM and Newstalk; the other two being music, Nova and Q102. At first I went onto their respective home pages to check out how many women

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actually had their own shows. The findings are there in your face for all to see and yet this is never a subject that is openly debated on Prime Time on RTÉ TV or any other well-known current affairs programmes. The ratios were disturbing! Nova has 2 women to 11 male presenters. Q120 is 2:7, Today FM is 1:7 and Newstalk is 6:15. One of those six on Newstalk is a co-host with another male.

Next I looked into radio stations of both current affairs and music genres, to see which genre employed more women. I thought that music stations would have employed more women but the findings speak for themselves:

Today FM: 1 woman to 7 men (12.5% female presenters); Newstalk: 6 women to 15 men (29% female presenters); RTÉ Radio 1: 7 women to 18 men (28% female presenters); 98 FM: 4 women to 11 men (27% female presenters); FM 104: 1 woman to 15 men and finally (6% female presenters); Q102: 2 women to 7 men (22% female presenters).

These figures show that only 20.75%, or one-in-five, of all radio presenters in Ireland are female.

I wanted to find out more from the people who make the big decisions in radio and what they actually think. I also wanted These figures show that only to know what it felt like to be 20.75%, or one-in-five, of all radio a female radio presenter in an presenters in Ireland are female obvious minority. I contacted all four radio stations mentioned above but only got replies from two. Today FM and Q102 responded, as did Dee Woods one of two women radio presenters on Nova. On contacting the marketing and public relations department of Today FM, their response was passed over to their CEO, Peter McPartlin. So I preceded to ask him the following: “I just wondered why there are no women radio presenters apart from Louise Duffy? I am aware of the female contributors but what about a woman other than one, hosting her own show?”

His answer was as expected, precise but safe so as to not let anything out of the bag: “Today FM’s primetime schedule has been in place for a number of years with some very popular presenters, most of which, as you know, are male”. He continued by saying that the presenters and their shows have been built up over years, “When you have a

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successful line-up then you change it at your peril”.

I continued our conversation by asking was it fair to say that Today FM is unequal as far as numbers of male versus female presenters is concerned. This particular question made him uncomfortable as he responded quickly with, “Unequal sounds very discriminatory.” Then he gave me the usual, women are present in other capacities jargon: “Women feature throughout our schedule as contributors, guests, experts and producers. Our news team is almost entirely composed of women”. It was clear from our conversation that he wasn’t really going to budge past the facts and figures of his own station.

I contacted Scott Williams of Q102 on the topic also. He hosts the morning breakfast show now but before this he used to do the drive-time show mainly talking about current affairs issues. He is presently the acting marketing and sales manager, until they find a suitable replacement. I asked Scott about Debbie Allen, she is the only woman on Q102 who has a stable show nightly. I wanted to know was Debbie Allen a marketing choice or was she the best candidate for the job? Scott answered me by saying that it was not a marketing decision but that she was the best person for the job; he also told me that it was on that ground alone, and not on gender, that the decision was made.

I asked him do you think the issue of inequality should be addressed and if so how?

He responded promptly: “It’s not inequality - more women need to come forward.”

I furthered my investigation by interviewing Dee Woods of Nova who has her own popular show. “There are plenty of women contributors but few women presenters with their own show. How do you feel about being in the minority?”, I asked. She replied by saying “I have to say it’s not something I think about too much. Would I like to see more women presenting radio shows? Of course, but I do believe a person should be given a radio show because they’re right for the job.”

I finished up my interview with Ms Woods by asking her, “do you think that the unequal numbers of women in radio to that of men is coming from the top? As in, do you feel that management are more worried about profit margins and numbers than equality? She responded by saying “I would certainly hope not, but management will always go with whatever formula they think fits their station best and will attract the most listeners. There are many theories as to why there are more men than women on the air. Some say it stems from the days of pirate radio where 99% of jocks were men who then went straight into commercial radio when the pirates were shut down and they’ve been there ever since, hindering opportunities for women nowadays to get in the door.”

The marketing and public relations departments of both Nova and Newstalk never replied to my questions.

One in five! The numbers speak for themselves, but in 2013, it is a sad case to think that women still have to fight for their right to be equal.

Taxi Drivers with Criminal Records The proposed Taxi Regulation Bill 2012 will bring about lifetime bans for taxi drivers who have been previously convicted of criminal offences. After 11 years of deregulated chaos, why is this bill only now being introduced? Olivia Weaver investigates and finds authorities unwilling to talk.

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raveling through Dublin, the most common form of transport is to use public transportation whether it is by bus, rail, or taxi. In relation to taxis, each day you put your faith in a driver you have never met and most likely will never meet again. Most people have no idea whether they’re getting into a shared space with a convicted criminal or not. In Ireland, there are “around 6,000 people with pubic service vehicle licenses who are driving around who have some sort of criminal conviction” according to Minister of State Alan Kelly. With no knowledge of a driver’s background, how would someone know if they are getting into a car with one of these 6,000?

In September 2004, the Commission for Taxi Regulation was established under the Taxi Regulation Act for the purpose of regulating all Small Public Service Vehicles (SPSV). The Commission consisted of a group of representatives from the taxi, limousine, and hackney industry and its function was to construct rules for public service vehicles and their drivers. The Commission made it easier to acquire a taxi license since the government was now not in control of the regulation. This new system opened up the taxi market to more individuals, therefore increasing the amount of drivers who may have been convicted of criminal offences.

In an article from the Irish Independent in 2004, Vinnie Kearns, National Taxi Drivers’ Union vice-president said, “Prior to deregulation, parents felt happy that if their kids were in town at the weekend and coming home in a taxi, they were safe. That isn’t the case any more. People in a vulnerable situation, on their own and late at night, put their trust in taxi drivers. Before the market was opened up, a proper system of regulation should have been put in place, in respect of standards for both vehicles and drivers, to protect those passengers. We are now paying the price for the lack of regard the Government had for people’s safety”.

The Commission for Regulation was dissolved in January 2011 and its roles and duties were subsumed into the National Transport Authority. They now implement the rules and guidelines outlined in the Taxi Regulation Act 2003. However, the National Transport Authority may implement standards for drivers to follow, it does not oversee

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in the licensing authority. The Carriage Office in the county’s local An Garda Síochána station performs this function alongside the Department of Environment.

When applying for a SPSV license, one must take the Skills Development Test, pay a booking fee of €85.05, and a fee of €250 for your driver’s license. If both sections of the test are passed, then an application is sent out to the local Garda Síochána containing a receipt of payment, the Skills Development Certificate, a tax clearance form, and a copy of one’s driver’s license. The Carriage Office in the Garda Síochána provides the service for taxi licensing in large and small public service vehicles. After contacting the Carriage Office in regards to taxi licensing multiple times using phone and email, they remained unavailable for comment.

While the Carriage Office of An Garda Síochána oversees taxi licensing, the Department of the Environment is also used in the application process for public service vehicles. Its purpose is to ensure that a taxi driver applicant is a “fit and proper person”.

In speaking to Phil Hogan, Minister of Environment and Local Government, he said, “As this matter is more appropriate to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport, I suggest you contact my colleague Minister of State Alan Kelly.” Even though his department is in charge of deciding whether a person may be eligible for a license, Minister Hogan avoided answering my questions and Even though his department is passed them off to someone else. in charge of deciding whether a Alan Kelly, Minister of person may be eligible for a license, State at the Department of Minister Hogan avoided answering Transport, proposed the Taxi my questions and passed them off to Regulation Bill. The Bill someone else “deals with the requirement to strengthen enforcement of the taxi regulations and, in order to ensure a robust legislative framework for these new enforcement provisions, to replace the Taxi Regulation Act 2003,” the Minister stated in January this year. “We are coming from an era where there was a ‘Laissez Faire’ approach to taxi regulation which has to be ended. This Bill along with other measures will make 2013 a defining year for the taxi sector and finally it has been placed at the top of the political agenda,” he said.

The Taxi Regulation Bill is supposed to “bring about temporary bans for convictions such as burglary, firearms offences, serious assault and harassment.” Not only introducing bans for serious offences, it will also introduce a penalty-point system where drivers will receive demerits for various offences and if the demerits rack up, they will have their license suspended.

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The new Bill will “speed up prosecution of offenders” and unlike the existing Act, the 2013 Bill will introduce a mandatory disqualification system. Mandatory disqualification will make sure that no applicant with a serious and violent conviction will be able to attain a license. If a driver previously held a license before the Taxi Regulation Bill 2013 was passed, but does have a violent conviction then he will be immediately disqualified and excluded from the industry. In the Breaking News section in Minister Alan Kelly’s homepage, it states, “The provisions of the Bill facilitate the development of a greater physical enforcement presence and capability to effectively enforce the taxi regulations.

It will improve the speed of dealing with regulatory breaches through fixed payment offences and the new demerit scheme, even before these issues reach the Courts.”

Unlike the Taxi Regulation Act 2003, the new Bill, if passed, will create a safer taxi industry for the citizens of Ireland. After repeated attempts at contact, no one was available to comment on the Taxi Regulation Bill 2013 in the Department of Transport, Tourism, and Sport.

Convicted criminals driving public service vehicles create a danger for people all over Ireland. Not only does this serve as a danger, but many taxi drivers also overcharge on their fares. Complaints about overcharging increased 62% from 2007 to 2010 according to the National Transport Authority’s website. In just the month of February 2013, there were 83 complaints to the National Transport Authority on the conduct and behaviour of drivers, cleanliness of the vehicle, and also overcharging. In 2010 there were 20,877 taxi drivers in Ireland. The rate at which new drivers acquire taxi licenses keeps increasing “I cannot answer your questions due which means that more convicted drivers are now on to my position within the National the roads. The government has Transport Authority” not put a stop to this system and why now in the year 2013 after complaints have increased so drastically over the years is the Department of Transport, Tourism, and Sport just now doing something about it?

The National Transport Authority has been lenient in dealing in the affairs of the public service vehicle regulatory system, especially with taxi drivers. When contacting the National Transport Authority, I was put on hold twice and asked many questions about my investigation before finally being put through to the supervisor. After debriefing the supervisor about my call, I began to ask the initial questions. Flustered from the start, he refused to partake in the interview anymore and said “I cannot answer your questions due to my position within the National Transport Authority.” An odd response

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considering his position deals hand in hand with the Taxi Regulation Bill 2013 and the regulation of small public service vehicles. Speaking fast and in a harsh tone, he told me somewhere to email my questions and quickly hung up the phone before I could “We are coming from an era where get another word in. Having there was a ‘laissez faire’ approach contacted those emails prior to his interview, I emailed them to taxi regulation which has to be again hoping for a response. ended” Week’s later after further emails, still no response has been given.

With 10,572 taxis in Dublin county alone, and 6,000 convicted criminals driving taxis around, then more than half of the taxis in Dublin could have a driver that has previously committed a criminal offence. In Ireland in 2012, there were 377 complaints against taxi drivers to the National Transport Authority. Somewhere in the taxi application process, something has gone wrong. It would be unheard of to hire a convicted rapist to watch your child for a day, so why is it so common for a convicted rapist or murderer to be driving you around on the streets? Finding the answers to these questions proved impossible, as every source referred another person to answer the questions they did not want to deal with themselves. The investigation highlights the necessity to find the flaw in the application process for acquiring a license in order to stop criminals from driving Ireland’s citizens and putting their lives at risk.

Small Farmers Conned Out Of Livelihoods Adoption of EU environmental conservation rules, as implemented by the Irish government, means small farmers are neither allowed to farm their land nor to receive financial compensation. Elisha Bourke investigates.

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Special Area of Conservation is one of three different designated environmental site types implemented by the government at the instruction of the EU: Special Areas of Conservation (SAC), Special Protected Areas (SPA) and Natural Habitat Areas (NHA). Unfortunately its implementation here in Ireland has come to stand for an unjust invasion into farmer’s property rights, and removes their ability to make an income from their land. These restricted farmers were promised they would receive fair and reasonable compensation due to not being allowed to engage in farm activity any longer, however, this has not been the case.

In 1997, the EU Habitats directive was implemented requiring member states to “maintain or restore the favourable conservation status of the habitats and species listed in its annexes in the SACs” by designating land into the three different types listed above.

While in theory this policy of site designation and protection is amiable, in effect its consequences are detrimental for the landowners involved whose rights are being impinged on. Farmers who were informed that part or all of their land was designated, were hit with farming restrictions, including: destocking of animals, bans on seeding grass, fertilising, the use of a wide range of machinery, and a ban on building or developing anything on the land. There was no choice given to the land owners as whether to opt into or out of one of these designations.

In an official release from the National Parks and Wildlife Service’s (NPWS) farmers were told, “The Government is committed as part of a social partnership process to the payment of a fair and proper level of compensation to landowners for actual losses suffered due to restrictions imposed as a result of their lands being included in SAC/NHA/SPA”.

Looking back now at the compensation system which was set up, and the guidelines for receiving it, anyone would understand the procedure as the designated farmers did, however, this is where the trap for those famers began.

They were told by the NPWS that there were two options for compensation. Option one was to join a Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS), a full farm environmental plan, available to all farmers designed to encourage environmentally conscious farming methods. “Farmers who enter or are already in REPS would receive additional payments

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on top of the standard REPS payments,” for carrying out SAC restrictions in addition to REP guidelines.

Option two, the Farm Plan Scheme stated: “Land-owners seeking compensation who do not join REPS will be required to manage their lands in accordance with a farm plan or management agreement drawn up by the National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS).

Where these restrictions result in a loss for the farmer or additional costs, these will be compensated for by NPWS.” Anyone whose land is within a SAC, SPA, NHA, or commonage, can join the second option “Farm Plan Scheme” so long as they are not already within the REP Scheme.

When farmers asked what the difference was between the two options they were told by the NPWS, while the REP Scheme offers an incentive, the Farm Plan Scheme merely covers losses and additional costs of the restrictions. In fact this, along with the phrase, “REPS may offer a better return” still remains on the official website of NPWS as the official differences in compensation plans. This is very interesting considering they have now decided there are more differences between the two schemes. The first option REPS, which they openly urged farmers towards, is not an official SAC compensation method at all. Under the clause that more than just SAC farmers were entitled to join REPS, all farmers could. So according to the government, SAC farmers were not receiving “specific” compensation for the restrictions imposed by the designations as farmers believed they were.

The REPS has now ended, and this has left these designated farmers in a While the financial compensation distressing position. Where has ceased, the restrictions on do they turn now for their continued compensation, for farming activity are all still as active I assure you that now that the as ever REPS scheme has closed and the compensation for these environmental restrictions ended, they are certainly not permitted to farm as they would have done before the designations. No, while the financial compensation has ceased, the restrictions on farming activity are all still as active as ever. A new scheme was set up by the NPWS called the Agri-Environmental Options Scheme (AEOS). However, non-designated farmers were given priority and admitted into this scheme first, making the SAC famers last in the queue. It took nine months for most SAC famers to be admitted into the scheme, and many had to wait a further 12 months before receiving any payment at all. When these farmers finally were allowed to enter, they received only half the amount they had been

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receiving under REPS. After being made wait 18 months without any compensation, plenty of restrictions and no real way to make much of an income, they had no alternative but to accept this minimal payment.

In terms of now taking up the earlier offer of the SAC compensation, “option two Farm Plan”, they now found themselves faced with another obstacle. Layered deep down in the red tape of these designations is a frightful piece of legislation 20% of the largest famers, with which all, or at least all SAC the best land, and no restrictions, farmers, were oblivious to, called “the five year clause”: “If you have are getting 80% of the [EU] CAP not been carrying out an activity payments made to Irish farmers for five years you are no longer entitled to receive compensation for it”. By this time the farming activity restrictions had been in place for far longer than five years, making it illegal to have done so. If you say, ‘I have been carrying out these activities over the past five years’, then you are prosecuted for illegal activities on a SAC site, but if you don’t, you are left as these farmers are, with land to which you have barely any rights at all.

“There are more than property rights being denied here. There is a right to exist in one’s own place. This is a very clever policy of eviction, because if farmers are denied the use of their own property as a means of wealth creation they have no way to survive,” said Mayo SAC farmer Francis O’Malley. All future development including farm development is banned without permission from the minister. Conservation now takes total precedence over every farming activity. People will always have to eat, but this ensures that faming will be obsolete in those areas in between 10 to 15 years according to SAC farmers. From sale of site, building cottages to let, forestry, even generation of electricity by wind turbine, all are policed and banned.

According to Rita Kilroy Barrister at Law, who was consulted by a group of SAC farmers inquiring over heir legal rights, these outrageous circumstances which SAC famers find themselves caught in are indeed “in breach of natural and constitutional rights”. She `could find no obvious justification for the five year rule. She claimed in her professional opinion this type of rule makes for an arbitrary scheme and constitutes a disproportionate interference with property rights, and recommended a test case constitutional challenge be brought forward.

While it is the official position of the IFA that they fully support SAC and all designated farmers, in reality their priorities lie with the money, the bigger farmers. This is particularly evident at the moment as they back large farmer’s outcry at the European thought of reexamining the division of CAP payments to Irish farmers. Currently, 20% of the largest

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famers, with the best land, and no restrictions, are getting 80% of the CAP payments made to Irish farmers through the “Single Farm Payment” from the EU. Armchair/hobby Farmers is how they refer to these less fortunate famers continually in the media, as though being unable to farm their land is leisurely.

Jerry Cunning, leader of the Rural Development Scheme in the IFA, said that from their own legal advice “even if you win your legal case today, they will withdraw the designation, change the rules tomorrow and re-designate you.”

This entire situation shares an eerie resemblance to that of the Native Americans; most This is clearly an unsustainable of these farmers have held development for farmers and their this land in their families for families who will have to move generations, since the land wars in the 1880s. In fact one out of those areas to escape this interviewee I spoke to, Gerry deliberately created poverty trap Burke, could not give me a definite time his family had not lived there, be they as tenants and then later buying the land, making it ten generations at least according to the oldest census 1821. He had himself paid the last instalment of the loan originally taken by his ancestor from the Congested Districts board in 1891. They are being forced to preserve their hard won property to service conservation- recreation needs of a section of society who are themselves prepared to share nothing with them. Under developed rural communities are being frozen in their present state of underdevelopment. Income levels within these areas are but a fraction of the national average.

Gerry Burke continued to say, “the state, while preventing development has no intention of making up the income shortfall. This is clearly an unsustainable development for farmers and their families who will have to move out of those areas to escape this deliberately created poverty trap. It seems to me farming in SAC areas is to make way for a governmental long term plan of national parks.”

Indeed it is a depressing scenario which the Irish small farmer in environmentally beautiful parts of the country now faces: forced from the land by the Irish government.

‘Slave’ Internships Just how useful is JobBridge, the government’s “employment” internship scheme? Holly Lenny investigates.

I

n the early 2000s the term ‘internship’ arrived on the shores of Ireland. The purpose of an internship is supposedly to shadow an expert in order to gain valuable experience with the prospect of employment. In 2013, internships have now become part of many university course outlines, which is hopefully guaranteed to churn out well-educated graduates into the real world with prior experience of how things operate, making it easier for them to find employment. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. With the economic downturn, jobs are rare, meaning the demand for securing a position within a company has become a game of survival of the fittest. As of July 2011, the Irish Government has stepped in, in an attempt to improve job prospects with the introduction of JobBridge.

JobBridge is a “national internship scheme that provides work experience placements for interns for a six or nine month period” according to the their website. Dave Murphy, a ScamBridge.Org official (an organization set up to show the exploitation of JobBridge), believes, “JobBridge is a scheme which allows the government to look like they have a coherent plan to tackle the unemployment crisis. At a basic level, it allows the government to lower the numbers ‘officially’ on the Live Register.”

The aim of JobBridge is directed at citizens on social welfare who are on the hunt for a job. While attending an internship, they will continue to receive their unemployment allowance and on top of that, €50 more each week for taking part in the internship scheme, once again paid by the state, meaning the host organization will avoid any PRSI or wages, two expensive operating overheads in Ireland.

In relation to additional payment, “there is nothing to prevent a host organization reimbursing an intern for expenses incurred as part of the internship”, which is outlined on the JobBridge website. It seems as though the “employer” is only benefitting, as “expenses should not be provided for normal activities such as travel to and from the main location of the internship”, stated Sarah Mooney, a JobBridge official. After contacting one of Minister Joan Burton’s spokespersons at the Department of Social Protection, they were very hesitant to make any sort of comment on this topic and referred me to Sarah Mooney, a representative for JobBridge. She stated the intern would “experience a real workplace and to acquire the knowledge and skills of a real working environment similar to that of other employees, taking into account their status as interns”.

According to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ (ICTU) website, outlined in the intern’s rights are, “if you are doing work of value to the employer, have a similar level

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of supervision and responsibility as the rest of the workforce, then you are likely to be entitled to be paid at least the national minimum wage regardless of what title your employer has put on you”. This comes across as a contradiction in some ways, because on a JobBridge internship you’re paid, sponsored by the government, but the pay doesn’t match up to the national minimum wage which is €8.65 per hour.

The average amount of hours an intern must complete per week is 30-40. The Jobseekers allowance is a designated Social Welfare payment in place for people actively seeking employment. For a 22-24 year old it’s €144 a week, with their €50 top up included it’s €194. A breakdown on how much they are receiving an hour for their 40-hour week is €4.84, which is only 56% of the minimum wage.

For anyone aged between A 22-24 year for their 40-hour 18-21 years old, they receive week is [getting] only 56% of the €100 per week from the minimum wage; 18-21 years old, Jobseekers allowance, so they receive 43% of the minimum including their €50, they are wage working for €3.75 an hour that’s 43% of the minimum wage. The alternative, that is emigration, is becoming a much more feasible and sustainable option for Irish youth, including the more elderly unemployed. Although Joan Burton would disagree with this, believing the scheme to be one of the “innovative approaches which will assist in tackling the current jobs crisis to keep our talented and skilled individuals in this country”.

ScamBridge.Org official, Dave Murphy, stated, “The scheme is also a mini bailout for the private sector. Basically, taxpayers’ money is being given to these companies for free so that they can have a free worker. This will push up their profits as they have someone adding value to their company but do not pay anything for it”.

Patrick, a 27-year old multimedia graduate, wrote on the ScamBridge site, “I recently designed a logo for an international film festival. No pay. If an international film festival organization aren’t willing to pay a designer, who is? That just says it all for the career I’ve spent years foolishly studying and working to get into”.

Speaking to solicitor Simon Murphy, he too agreed that these unpaid positions were not beneficial for the government, but a good experience “everyone benefits except the government”. His whole attitude came across as if it is one of those things in life, whether you want to or not, you have to do it. Where are our rights, our morals, and our democratic justice if even men of the law are turning a blind eye to this issue?

Since July 2011, according to a report carried out by Indecon, an International Economic Consultant for JobBridge, 12,300 people have taken part in the government

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scheme. In this report, one third, 4,100 people, cited dissatisfaction with their placement as a reason for “early completion”, i.e. quitting. Murphy told me “the figures show that 59% of interns do not complete the whole internship, the government calls these people ‘early completers’ but they are really people who quit JobBridge. That figure shows how people who partake in it feel about it themselves and shows the true reality”.

Joan Burton’s official website stated: “There have been a relatively high proportion of interns not completing their internships. By September 2012, 2,295 or 41% of internships were completed in full, while 3,297 or 59% were ended before their scheduled timeframe”.

It is not compulsory to partake in JobBridge while on the dole, although Dave Murphy feels, “it suits the government because it allows them to portray the unemployed as lazy if they do not take this scheme up, and try to turn working people against the unemployed, divide and rule tactics, etc.”.

Finishing your internship early has no direct impact on your Social Welfare, it only affects the extra €50 per week. Instead of an employer traditionally employing someone with a proper wage, they can get an intern and have the state pay for them to be trained and then after nine months decide if they want to take someone on.

Sarah Mooney, JobBridge spokesperson, declared, “61% of individuals who have Examples of JobBridge ‘internships’: participated in JobBridge have Childcare assistant: 6 months. No progressed into employment experience required; Shop assistant: within five months of 9 months. No experience required completing their internship placements”. Out of these 12,300 internships, only “1,417 have been monitored with visits and out of that 98% of visits were of a satisfactory nature with remedial action taken in the remaining 2% of cases”, confirmed Sarah Mooney. This government scheme is directed at “lower-skilled individuals who are most at risk of unemployment”, but these days’ even highly skilled graduates are in a high-risk category of unemployment. A report

by Indecon, undertaken for the Department of Social Protection, found that employment rates among graduates and those without third level qualifications were much the same after completing the JobBridge scheme. Sarah Mooney’s response to Indecon’s report was that this was “a positive feature of JobBridge”. 22.4% of interns in fact held a postgraduate qualification; fortunately for them, there are greater opportunities abroad for these graduates than for lower-skilled individuals who have fewer choices and can illafford to go to college to gain a degree, and so have to take part in a government scheme like JobBridge, working for half, or, less than half of the minimum wage.

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Within the JobBridge scheme, an intern is expected to work from 30 to 40 hours per week, which in the working world, classifies as fulltime employment. While I was searching through different internship positions on JobBridge, a nine-month position was being offered as a ‘School Cleaner’ in Listowel, Co. Kerry.

According to the current guidelines in order for an organization to participate they must have a minimum of one full time employee who is employed for 30 hours or more per week, have no vacancies in the area of activity in which the internship is offered, the placement is not displacing an employee, have insurance, obey workplace health and Some more examples of JobBridge safety requirements, comply ‘internships’: Valet: 9 months. with Garda vetting, and the host organization may No experience required; ‘School not provide an internship Cleaner’ in Listowel, Co. Kerry: opportunity under the scheme nine-month position. to an individual they have an existing employment relationship with.

ScamBridge.Org’s Murphy believes this scheme “isn’t necessary illegal by Irish law, but it should be. It is exploiting the unemployed”. A positive aspect of JobBridge, given to me by Sarah Mooney cited that “89.3% of interns felt JobBridge had given them new skills.” Along with, “boosting the participant’s self-confidence, assists in identifying job opportunities suitable to their abilities, keeps them close to the job market, and helps participants to establish contacts/networks”.

MacDara Doyle, an official for ICTU, believes it is “not acceptable” for a business to be solely looking for interns’: “Interns are not designed to replace paid employment or fulltime work”. This is exactly what Dave from ScamBridge believes is happening; “The rules for what a host company should be are very lax. Also the rules on the ‘cooling off ’ period [a period of six months in which the host organization cannot advertise another intern placement in the same area in which an intern has recently been, unless approved

by JobBridge] are easy to get around. “We had one instance where a guy contacted us to say that he was in an office and the majority of the staff were there on JobBridge, or other employment schemes like TUS and CE schemes. There were very few people actually getting paid”.

In the end though, just how successful is this scheme? After all, it is the taxpayer’s money being used. According Murphy, “the actual jobs ‘success’ rate of people, i.e., offered a paid position, employed within the company they did the internship with is around 19%, another 8 or 9 % get a job with the company but not directly through

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JobBridge, they have to enter into the normal jobs procedure i.e. interview etc. The fact they worked for €50 per week for nine months is not taken into consideration. The rest of the government’s 60% figure is made up of people who six months after completing JobBridge have a job. There is no relationship between JobBridge and these people most people while on JobBridge continue to apply for other jobs so the fact that they got one doesn’t have anything to do with JobBridge”. However, Sarah Mooney, believes “25% of the 58% of internships which finished early were completed because the intern had been offered employment by the host organization and a further 38% were finished because the intern had been offered employment elsewhere”.

Private organizations in Ireland also seem to be taking advantage of interns, as there is no official law clearly stating legality from illegality. For example Internships Ireland “is a specialist organization dedicated to arranging internships for young professionals seeking international experience in their academic field”. Inquiring into the price of undertaking an internship, I received a reply stating, “Our total fee for finding you a suitable internship is €500. Are you ok with this?”, and “Internships tend to last three months or longer”. Is this really how desperate we have become: paying to become ‘employed’ for no wages, or believing that half the national minimum wage is acceptable to survive on for three quarters of a year?

Modern Day Slavery 150 years ago slavery was illegalised in all countries, but still today millions of people around the world are forced into labour.

Viviane Stroede investigates the roots and causes of modern-day slavery and the impact it has.

A

ccording to the International Labour Organization (ILO) there are around 21 million people forced into labour today, although due to its illegality there is no exact census. It is a global problem especially for developing countries and poverty-stricken people, whose vulnerability is being exploited by others for the gain of profit.

The 1930 Forced Labour Convention states that slavery is “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

Despite the fact that Article 4. of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms”, traditional definitions of slavery have changed and a distinction between different forms of forced labour has developed: Bonded labour affects millions of people around the world. People become bonded labourers by not being able to repay loans and being forced to work for free in an attempt to repay the debt which can be passed down through generations of families.

Forced labour effects people who are illegally employed and forced to work for little or no pay, usually under the threat of violence.

Slavery by descent describes people who are born into a family that belong to a class of slaves.

Trafficking involves the transport and trade of people for the purpose of forcing them into labour.

Forced marriage affects women and girls who are married without consent and are forced into lives of sexual and domestic servitude.

Child slavery is widely spread in the cocoa, fisheries and sex industries, as well as child soldiers. Children are being separated from their parents and forced into labour that is harmful to their health and welfare.

According to Beate Andrees, head of the Forced Labour Programme of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of the United Nations, “there are certain economic sectors that are more vulnerable than others, which are domestic work, prostitution, construction, agriculture and manufacturing, including the textile industry.

If you are trying to get a job in one of those industries you are already at a higher risk.

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Additionally, certain groups of the population are more vulnerable than others. Apart from the fact that women are slightly in the majority among the victims, we also know that indigenous people, in particular irregular migrant workers and in some parts of Africa descendants from slaves, from the old slave system, are more vulnerable than others. Interestingly, education is not always an indicator whether you are vulnerable or not, as it is more a question of discrimination. Groups that are discriminated within their society have a higher risk than others. ” According to Terry Fitzpatrick, communications director of Free The Slaves, “today with overpopulation, mass migration from poor rural areas, from poor countries to wealthier areas, there are people trying to find any kind of job and that’s were traffickers are able to pray on people, pretending to offer real jobs. When they get them The investment in those people in place or often move them today is around $90 for an average somewhere else, they find the slave - so you can work them to person is trapped - they are death, literally and then just find in a country where they don’t have legal standing or they somebody else don’t understand their rights or they don’t even know the language. They certainly don’t have any money, so they are trapped. These people are truly disposable to them because the investment in those people today is around $90 for an average slave. So you can work them to death, literally and then just find somebody else.”

Although forced labour is a global problem, it is more concentrated in the global south. According to Terry Fitzpatrick, “debt bondage slavery is the number one form of slavery and you find it in agriculture, you find it in brick kilns, you find people working at carpet factories and other kinds of light manufacturing. You find this concentration of slavery throughout India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Other hot spots are Brazil, especially in the agricultural, the timber cutting sector and the cattle ranching sector.

There are a lot of cases of forced labour to be found in the Ivory Coast and Ghana; a lot of that is in fishing and in cocoa farming. Then you find a lot of slavery in the palm oil sector in south East Asia. So some of the slavery is connected to the global supply chain, some of it isn’t. Some of it has popped up because of world globalisation; some of it is a vestige of an old serf system for landless peasants in Brazil. Some of it is new forms of slavery, some of it ancient forms of slavery. ” People can fall into slavery for generations over little amounts such as $100, which they borrowed off a landowner or factory owner in the time of an emergency, but people end up not being able to repay and therefore are indebted for life.

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According to Andrees of the ILO, “the rule of law and governance is a key issue.

In countries where you don’t have a rule of law and in conflict ridden areas you have a higher risk of slavery. Another reason is discrimination. When there is systematic structural discrimination against certain groups, then there is a higher risk of them being exploited. They are not only discriminated in life generally but also in the work place, if they have access to jobs at all.”

In 2005, the ILO estimated that illegal profits from prostitution alone amounted to more than $44 billion. In 2009 the loss in terms of unpaid wages and illegal recruitment fees summed up to $21 billion per year.

Terry Fitzpatrick says “it is easy to think that the price of The EU is developing laws and my laptop or cell phone or my guidelines that would require t-shirt or my car or my coffee is lower because slaves are companies to investigate their being exploited and not paid product supply chains all the way to do it. The reality is it would down to the raw materials not change the cost of your products by one cent if slavery were to be removed from those product supply chains. That is because when you get to the global commodity price level, those prices are set on world markets in London, in New York and in Tokyo and other places. The people who exploit slaves to mine precious metals or to harvest cocoa beans are selling those products at world market prices, not undercutting that market.

It is a criminal enterprise where the ring leaders are skimming the profit off the top, not passing along the savings to anyone”.

Areas which are hit hardest by those losses in income are poverty-stricken communities, as there is no possibility of improving living standards.

“Billions of dollars a year are being lost out on. Therefore getting rid of slavery is not just the right thing to do but it is the smart thing to do for economic development around the world. If you were to take $20 billion and put it back into the hands of poor vulnerable people in rural communities or in urban poverty hotspots, the people there would invest it in building better homes, in buying school books or uniforms for their kids, getting health care, doing all the kinds of things that international aid agencies are now spending tax money to do”, Fitzpatrick adds.

According to Andrees, “forced labour is not just a crime against a person, because the key really in why forced labour still exists is because profits can be made and profits are largely being made on the expense of workers by squeezing their wages or not paying any wages at all. It is only through real employment that people will work their way out

of poverty. In some sectors and often in sectors that are not well regulated it is easy to abuse and to exploit workers. People are basically kept in a vicious cycle of dependence and poverty”.

Though what can be done on a global and individual level? Trying to build attention in Europe and North America for a problem that is worst in the global south is always a challenge.

According to Fitzpatrick, “the root causes of slavery are things we need to work at.

We can’t end slavery simply by rescuing slaves; because if you don’t convict the traffickers or shut down the facilities where people are enslaved, someone else will just be enslaved to take their place. People fall into slavery for a reason, such as poverty or unequal statuses for women and girls, racial or tribal or ethnic discrimination and traditional patterns.

There are many reasons why people fall into slavery and if you don’t solve those problems, the people who are rescued or break free are likely to fall back into slavery themselves, so we talk about sustainable freedom as the key to ending slavery.”

It becomes clear that it is important to not only address the symptoms of slavery but also the root causes. “We need to focus on the structures that facilitate modern day slavery,” Beate Andrees states.

In recent years there has been a movement towards corporate supply chain accountability in the United States. The European Union is now also moving into the same direction by developing laws and guidelines that would require companies to investigate their product supply chains all the way down to the raw materials, in order to rid slavery from their products.

According to Fitzpatrick “you can’t rid the world of slavery with one computer purchase at a time or one cup of cocoa at a time. We are working to try to improve the supply chains of entire industries, not just individual companies or individual purchases, it still takes consumer alertness.”

Factory and landowners worldwide profit from the vulnerability of some of the poorest people in the world. It becomes clear that modern-day slavery is an issue which directly interconnects producer and consumer countries, underdeveloped and developed countries, and therefore makes it a problem that needs to be confronted at a global level.

Raising awareness about the issue is essential in the fight against modern-day slavery.

Buying fair trade products as often as you can is already a first step towards addressing the issue on an individual level.

For more information see: •

Free the Slaves: www.freetheslaves.net

•

Anti-Slavery: www.antislavery.org

Gambling on Hunger Food speculation (i.e. gambling) by banks, hedge funds and pension funds leads to volatility and increases in global food prices, leaving nearly one billion people around the world facing hunger, malnutrition and greater poverty. Viviane Stroede investigates.

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n 2007 and 2008 increasing food prices led to spikes in global famine. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food prices increased by 71% from 2006 to 2008. In 2009 prices fell again only to increase in 2011 to the heights reached in 2008. Rising demand, “Massive inflows of money from higher production costs due to increased prices in oil and investors seeking to diversify their fertilizer, as well as bad harvests investments and them treating food and higher concentration on as another financial product has bio-fuels production were really caused serious problems” seen as the reasons for the increasing food prices. Though the extreme peaks can not only be explained by those factors alone, but by the excessive and unregulated speculation (i.e. gambling) on food in financial markets.

According to Marc Olivier Herman, EU Policy Advisor for Oxfam, there is “increasing evidence to say that speculation on agricultural commodities is a serious part of the problem and has driven volatility of the prices on the food market. Massive inflows of money from investors seeking to diversify their investments and them treating food as another financial product has really caused serious problems.”

Food speculation works on the basis of investors buying ‘futures’ which are traded on the commodity exchange market. After the stock market crash of 1929, and up to the late 1990s, this was a heavily regulated market where producers and processors of raw materials were able to sell their products for a guaranteed price at a future date and therefore avoid sharp price fluctuations. There were regulations governing how much one investor could buy and how close one was to the actual commodity (i.e. food) itself.

These regulations were scrapped in the late-1990s, so now, to buy those ‘futures contracts’ it was not necessary to trade actual food, so more and more financial players entered the market to profit from these contracts. Speculators, gamblers, can now even bet that the price of, say soya, or wheat, which they do not own, is going to increase by

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X% over Y-time, and take out insurance in case they loose the bet, and also bulk-buy massive volumes of the commodity so as to force the price up, sell it and then cash in on the bet they made that the price would increase.

Since the deregulation of the financial markets in the 1990s, commodity future exchanges have moved a long way, from originally aiming to hedge prices, to instruments for capital investment. By investors using commodities such as food as capital investments, they create fake high demand for the food over a long period of time, which leads to food prices being higher than they would be without these financial investments.

According to Christine Haigh, Food and Finance Campaigner at World Development Movement, there has been “a big increase in financial speculation on food prices, where banks and other financial institutions trade ‘futures’ or other financial contracts for While industrialized country food. By trading these contracts in large quantities, investors are households spend an average of 10 increasing food price volatility – 20% of income on food, people in and contributing to some of the developing countries spend around big price spikes we have seen in 50 – 80% of their income on food the last few years. In 2008 there was a major spike in the price of food and colleagues of mine visited Kenya to talk to people about the impact the high food prices had on them. They heard about how people had to go without food so they could feed their children. We heard stories about people becoming malnourished, people having to cut back on spending on health or education.

People literally are just going hungry.”

870 million people around the world do not have enough to eat and developing countries are hit the hardest by the rises in food prices. While industrialized country households spend an average of 10 – 20% of income on food, people in developing countries spend around 50 – 80% of their income on food.

According to Herman “everybody is affected by prices on global markets, but the impacts are different. In countries where you have a population that is poor and these countries are food import dependent, the consequences for the population can be very dramatic. Increased food prices are not threatening our livelihood [developed countries] as it is the case in poor developing countries.”

Talking to David Hachfeld, Trade Policy Advisor at Oxfam Germany, he stated that “the future exchanges in Europe are not as developed as those in the US. This has a lot to do with common agricultural policies in the EU, which was a strongly regulated market,

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with a lot of political interventions. Therefore the future exchange played a minor role.

This is slowly changing now, so we see bigger rates and bigger amounts of capital flowing into the European market.”

Some of the major banks and investors involved in Europe are Allianz, Generali, HSBC, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank.

Klaus Thoma, working in the Press and Media Relations of Deutsche Bank, stated that “the agricultural commodities sector has been the subject of controversial discussions for some time now. Deutsche Bank set up a working group to analyse the role financial investors play on the commodity futures markets already in 2011. After evaluating numerous studies on the matter, the working group established that there is little empirical evidence to support the notion that the growth of agricultural-based financial products has caused price increases or volatility. At the same time, it confirmed that agricultural commodity-based futures markets offer substantial benefits to farmers and processors. Thus, Deutsche Bank’s Management Board decided to continue to offer financial instruments based on agricultural staples.”

Though still in the last year, banks such as Landesbank, Commerzbank, Volksbank and Nordea Bank AB have reduced their involvement in food speculation or fully pulled out. Recently also Barclays announced their withdrawal from food gambling, though according to Christine Haigh they still “offer opportunities for institutions like pension funds to speculate on food prices.”

“We should not think that because a few banks are becoming a bit more ethical therefore the business is going to regulate itself. No, the competition is there between financial players and the bottom line is, if financial players can make a profit Farmers will have to feed nine billion they will and they may people in the world in 2050 - we cannot well go back to the practices later on even afford to leave them at the mercy of though they have pulled irrational speculation out. The conclusion that we should draw from that movement from these banks is that there is a real link between speculation and food price volatility that must be regulated rather than the financial sector starting to regulate itself. “, stated Marc Olivier Herman.

Currently the European Union is discussing new legislation to tighten the rules on speculation. At present the draft of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) is still in negotiation within the EU. These rules aim to limit the amount

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of ‘futures’ an individual company is allowed to trade, in order to lower the size of investments. According to Herman the legislation “can do two things: it can stop people being pushed into poverty in developing countries and on the other hand it can restore the markets to their true purposes.” Although according to Hachfeld there are “signs from banks trying to water down the regulations, we also see banks stepping out from this business.”

Roger Waite, Spokesperson for Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Cioloş, stated that “food speculation should not threaten the economic viability of otherwise profitable farms. The Commission has already taken a series of initiatives against the volatility of food prices and will continue to do so, at both EU and global level. Farmers are already confronted to the challenges of oil prices, climate change and extreme weather events; they will have to feed nine billion people in the world in 2050. We cannot afford to leave them at the mercy of irrational speculation.”

It becomes clear that the financialisation of food commodities has caused a lot of harm for producers, processors and consumers around the world. Investors are gaining from gambling with one of the most important necessities of life. The problem itself starts with the fact that there is a lack of transparency evident in financial markets, making it hard for consumers to directly approach the core of the issue. Although food speculation is presently not illegal in Europe, investment banks worldwide are acting morally wrong at the cost of millions of people around the world struggling with poverty.

For more information see: •

www.oxfam.org and www.wdm.org.uk

Also: •

The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive: http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/policy/not-game-speculation-vs-food-security; http://www.wdm.org.uk/sites/default/files/Back%20to%20fundamentals%20briefing%20 refs%20final.pdf

•

Oxfam briefing on food speculation: http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/ib-speculation-vs-food-security-031011-en. pdf

The Truth About the Pink Ribbon Some products sold to spread breast cancer awareness may cause cancer. Alyson Kerr investigates.

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ou have probably seen various products in the supermarket turn “pink” or sport the pink ribbon every October for Breast Cancer Awareness month. The companies producing these pink products claim to be sponsoring breast cancer awareness/research foundations. Many companies so far have been doing a superb job raising money for various breast cancer charities both nationally and internationally.

However, many of these companies produce, manufacture or sell cosmetics that contain allegedly harmful, carcinogenic toxins which are linked to the cancer. This practice is known as “pinkwashing”.

The pink ribbon was originally neither pink nor was it intended to be used as a marketing tool. It was a peach ribbon developed in the early 1990s by Charlotte Haley.

Haley had witnessed her daughter, sister and grandmother suffer from breast cancer.

Determined to start a grassroots movement, she started the peach-coloured ribbon campaign, demanding that the National Cancer Institute increase its budget for cancer prevention research. Haley crafted thousands of peach ribbons by hand. She bundled them into sets of five, each with a card that read: “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is $1.8 billion; only five per cent goes to cancer prevention”. She distributed the bundles at her local supermarket and wrote to prominent women to call attention to the campaign.

Estee Lauder and Self magazine teamed up to create the second For Charlotte, the ribbon was an annual Breast Cancer instrument to inspire women to become Awareness Month issue.

They envisioned a breast politically active, not to sell products cancer ribbon displayed on their cosmetics. For Charlotte, the ribbon was an instrument to inspire women to become politically active, not to sell products.

Estee Lauder and Self really wanted that ribbon. Their lawyers advised them to choose another colour. In 2005, Estee Lauder started emblazoning the pink ribbon onto their products and other companies soon followed suit.

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“In focus-groups and studies, pink came out as something that was warm, happy, pleasant and playful, which is everything that breast cancer is not. Especially for women who are living with the disease,” says a consultant from Breast Cancer Action (www. thinkbeforeyoupink.org). “Thats where the pink ribbon was born. And Charlotte Haley’s peach ribbon disappeared, inundated under pink ribbons.”

Fast-food chain restaurant KFC turned their buckets “pink” last year. KFC’s fried chicken contains mutagenic chemicals such as Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs). There were also substantial amounts of PhIP (a chemical formed in cooked meats) which is linked to numerous cancers in humans, including breast, colon, and prostate.

Last year, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation had to take their perfume “Promise Me” off the shelves after it was revealed that it may contain carcinogenic ingredients. “On one hand, they said they test their ingredients. On the other, they said they are working with the manufacturer to reformulate the perfume to eliminate any doubts. In a situation where not enough is known about what is putting women at risk, and why so many women are getting breast cancer and dying of breast cancer, we feel that every precaution should be taken” declared the NGO, Breast Cancer Action.

Paraben is a preservative found in most cosmetics and some food, and is allegedly harmful to humans. There have been controversies with the use of paraben in Avon’s products (who sport the pink ribbon each October). “Many leading cancer charities around the world, including Avon’s long term charity partner, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, agree that while there has been much discussion about a possible link between underarm products and the disease, there is no clear scientific evidence to support a direct causal link,” says Glenys Houghton from Avon. However, when I was speaking to Breakthrough Cancer, they said, “A study published in 2004, in the Journal of Applied Toxicology, looked at 20 human breast tumour samples and found that parabens were present in 18 of them. They concluded that these results suggested that parabens in cosmetic products were absorbed through the skin and could increase the risk of breast cancer.”

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been sporadic human cases reported of anaphylactic reactions following paraben exposure. Academic studies also show that butyl paraben may alter male reproductive organ size, sperm count and sperm activity.

Nurses that I spoke to from the Irish Cancer Society said that there was not enough evidence to show that parabens are a direct cause of cancer but said it is “better to avoid them”.

It would be more beneficial to women’s health if these companies used safer ingredients in their products as well as donating to legitimate breast cancer charities. The main issue is not the use of parabens in cosmetics, but companies such as these profiting off a deadly disease.

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“About 2,700 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in Ireland each year,” says Prof Michael J. Kerin, Professor of Surgery, National University of Ireland, Galway. More women die of Non melanoma skin cancer every year. In 2009, there were 8,145 cases of non-melanoma skin cancer in the country. Non-melanoma skin cancer is the most common cancer in Ireland. However, non-melanoma charities are not sponsored by any cosmetic company. Breast Cancer is the only disease these cosmetic companies sponsor.

“The reason for this is because women buy the most products and these A study … concluded that these results products are marketed suggested that parabens in cosmetic at women. Women are generally more concerned products were absorbed through the about breast cancer than skin and could increase the risk of any other disease. It’s also breast cancer a way for companies to talk about sex without actually talking about sex.

So its “sexy” to talk about breast cancer and that has its own sales impact,” says a consultant from Breast Cancer Action.

Most companies that sport the pink ribbon are legitimate such as Ballygowan which raised over €350,000 for the Marie Keating Foundation, and Esso which raised €150,000 for the Irish Cancer Society. However, some companies that go “pink” do not have a direct tie to a breast cancer charity. Some companies also put a “cap” on funds to charities.

In 2010, Dansko footwear company sold pink ribbon clogs. It was highly likely that consumers thought that a portion of their purchase of pink ribbon clogs went to a breast cancer program. However, purchase of the clogs was not connected to Dansko’s donation - none of the portion of the sales went toward their already set donation of $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. No matter how many clogs were purchased, their donation was the same.

Corporate companies are making themselves look like the “good guys” by emblazoning the pink ribbon onto their products when, in fact, they are just capitalizing on a deadly disease. The bottom line is -shopping won’t prevent breast cancer. The best route to preventing cancer is donating directly to cancer research charities.

The Cookie Conspiracy How airlines use web cookies to track customers’ online activity and raise prices accordingly. Antonia Luehmann investigates.

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ll online activities are tracked. With the help of so-called cookies, airline websites are enabled to remember each step their users take online, and they use this information to send out customised advertising and to raise prices according to your searches.

Cookies store data online. They are small text files that remember website visits, search entries and personal settings on websites. In other words, “cookies are little pieces of information, that are stored on your computer so that a website can recognise you and you have an overall better experience at that particular site”, explains Marcel Othersen, System Management Consultant at MEKO-S in Breman, Germany. Cookies are used by many websites for marketing and advertising purposes, to track visits and to ease the website experience by remembering personal settings.

But cookies can also be used for malicious purposes.

Websites can save text files on their They store information about a customer’s visits at online server which combines your ID with stores and airline websites previous searches or bookings you to send out customised may have placed advertising. Cookies help to connect these website visits to previous purchases and searches the customer has made. This can allow the airline websites to use the information not only to send out the right advertising, but to raise the air fares accordingly. Price fluctuations seem to be random but through the use of cookies they can be made specific to individual searches. Marcel Othersen says that, “normally a cookie will only save anonymous data like some sort of an ID. The website can however save a file on their server which combines the ID with previous searches or bookings you may have placed” Another risk is constituted by a special kind of cookies, so-called ‘Flash cookies’.

Flash cookies are particularly dangerous because “you can’t delete them easily through your browser, or prevent from being used via private modes in your browser,” says Othersen. Many users are not aware of Flash cookies and thus, “it stands to reason that users lack knowledge to properly manage them”. They are more difficult to turn off than normal cookies and “even the ‘Private Browsing’ mode still allows Flash cookies to operate fully and track the user’s online activities. These differences make Flash cookies

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a more resilient technology for tracking than HTTP cookies and creates an area of uncertainty for user privacy control,” clarifies Othersen. Thus, cookies and Flash cookies in particular, are an invasion of our online privacy. Marcel Othersen confirms, “I think these kinds of cookies definitely intrude our privacy, since we have to take special care to really get rid of them”. Thus, Flash cookies are particularly difficult to delete and they can track a customer’s website visits unnoticed. This makes it easy to remember flight searches and to raise the prices within minutes.

Airline websites outline their online cookie policies on their websites; some are more precise, others are less so in their description about the information they store about you. These cookie policies mostly highlight the positive effects for customers. the Aer Lingus policy states that cookies are used to “improve website security” and “to assist us in making our website and our emails work more efficiently as well as to provide us with business and marketing information”. British Airways also formulates their use of cookies positively. One use of their cookies is to “gain insight into how customers use the website so that we can make improvements to its usability”. Thus, airlines admit that they store such information which is already upsetting enough but it also enables them to raise the prices individually.

One airline particularly mentions the use of Flash cookies. Air Canada’s cookies policy states: “We use local shared objects, also known as Flash cookies, to store your preferences such as volume control or high game score, or display content based upon what you view on our site to personalize your visit”. Air Canada thus admits to show content based on previous visits of their website, which includes the searches for flights.

And thus, they can raise the prices according to individual website visits.

Christopher Elliott, a multimedia journalist, investigated for the Washington These kinds of cookies definitely Post and said that “airlines intrude our privacy and online travel agencies surreptitiously use computer ‘cookies’ they’ve implanted on your Web browser to track your activity on their sites and then raise prices when it appears that you’re interested in a fare”. in interview with me, Patrick Collinson, money editor from the Guardian confirms this experience: “I found that when turning off cookies, the price went back down.”

I looked up flights from Dublin to Hamburg, Germany, for several dates on the Aer Lingus website and the prices fluctuated upon each visit. I only experienced once that the price went down. In March, I searched for flights for the first week of April. I checked the price several times and two days after my first search the price was lower

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than before. When I checked the price again that day, the price went up and was higher than at my initial search. I checked the cookies in my web browser and found a long list of cookies used by Aer Lingus. These price fluctuations and the list of cookies used by Aer Lingus show the potential of cookies to change air fares individually.

I also checked flights overseas. Over time, I looked up flights from Dublin to Chicago for the same dates on the website of American Airlines. Within my search, the air fares went up every day. As it is an American company, they don’t have to notify users of their use of cookies. But their privacy policy states what kinds of information they store. Among I looked for the same flight on other information, American the same day and got completely Airlines collect “transactional different results than her, just and online activity data”. I checked the cookies in my web seconds after her search browser again and American Airlines implemented cookies to remember my first visit, the route I was looking for and the session ID of my search. This shows again the potential of cookies to raise prices according to individual visits.

My roommate looked for flights within Europe on skyscanner.com, a website which compares air fares of all available airlines. She used this website often to look for flights and when a cheap offer disappeared at one of her searches, she asked me to look it up on my laptop. I looked for the same flight on the same day and got completely different results than her, just seconds after her search. The fares and even the times of the flights were different. It was my first visit on skyscanner.com and it offered me cheaper fares than her. This experience again shows that airline websites remember customers’ visits and can raise prices with each visit. Thus, to avoid the fares to go up it can help to turn off the cookies or just to use a different computer.

The IT departments of the airlines themselves are hard to get a hold of. At Aer Lingus each phone number leads to an automatic system where the customer is given a limited number of options which all lead to helpdesks. Ignoring all the options, the caller should be led to an operator but they don’t seem to be working. I called Aer Lingus several times, on different days and on different times of day, but no operator picked up.

All efforts to contact other airlines led to the same results.

In 2011, a new EU law regarding the use of cookies on all websites, not only airline websites, was implemented. The new legislation requires “that cookies can only be placed on machines where the user or subscriber has given their consent”. In other words, this regulation is “a requirement to obtain consent for cookies and similar technologies”.

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The law of 2011 obliges all websites to make their users aware of the use of cookies and to make them agree to the use of cookies. These notifications are often hidden or only appear on the first visit of a user. When looking for a flight with Ryanair for example, customers have to agree to the terms and conditions, and thus to cookies, before they can search for a flight. But this ‘agreement’ only means to tick a box. Ryanair is aware that most customers don’t read the terms and conditions and so they can easily get the permission to use cookies.

Other airlines have more visible notifications of their use of cookies, such as Aer Lingus and British Airways. But once noted, the notifications disappear on the next visits because a cookie remembers the previous visits. When searching for flights in the private mode of a browser, the notification appears on each visit as cookies are disabled.

Thus, airlines implemented the new cookies legislation on their websites, but still hide the notifications after the first visit or trick customers into agreeing to the use of cookies.

There are some websites that explain cookies, but, says systems management consultant Marcel Othersen, “the majority of users have no clue what cookies really are”.

Othersen explains further, “there are some sites which try to raise awareness, but if you haven’t heard of cookies in the first place, you most likely won’t visit such sites to inform yourself about it”. Airline websites can still use cookies mostly unknown to their customers and thus use them in any way they want.

Costumers should be made aware of the use of cookies on every site visit. They should know what they are able to do and how they can be misused. This investigation shows that in order to get the best price, it is important to read the terms and conditions and to check air fares in the private mode of a browser or even on different computers. Some websites might not work perfectly in private mode without cookies, but it is definitely safer to turn them off when you want to purchase a flight or anything else for that matter.

It can save you money!

Supermarket Pressure Leading to Standards Drop Was the horsemeat scandal a one-off or are consumers still being deceived about what they are eating? Patrick Allen investigates.

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he horsemeat scandal showed widespread deception by food producers. It was not an isolated incident but a systemic problem highlighting the failure of the food supply chain. Suppliers are using other forms of deception to keep down costs as a result of the pressure applied by supermarkets, such as “hello money”.

In a report published this year, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) stated that 84% of European suppliers to the large retail sector were victims of breach of contract in 2009; 77% were threatened with product delisting; 63% saw a reduction in their invoice price; 60% were forced to make payments for which there was nothing in return. The report states that a handful of retailers controlled most of the market: “As a result, they are able to impose trading terms on their suppliers which are far from balanced”1.

“Supermarkets are the same as any other business,” says Matt Dempsey, chief executive of the Irish Farmers” Journal. “They will try to buy [products] at the basic minimum cost. They will have a supplier and the supplier’s profit will be dependent on meeting the supermarket’s contract.”

The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidises farmers to produce at these low prices and their share of the final price to the consumer has been diminishing continuously. The supermarkets” share, however, is the highest in the supply chain. While food prices in Ireland rose by only 3 to 4% since 2005, prices generally in the euro area increased by 15%. The low costs demanded are not compatible with quality food.

In its report into the horsemeat scandal2, the Department of Agriculture established that QK Meats was purchasing its raw material from Poland at €400 per tonne less than the price of corresponding beef trimmings available here. The report stated: “It is clear that in a country that is a net exporter of beef products, this competitive pricing aspect of 1. EESC (2013) Opinion of the Section for Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment on The Current State of Commercial Relations between Food Suppliers and the Large Retail Sector.

2. Department of Agriculture (2013) Equine DNA & Mislabelling of Processed Beef Investigation Report. Available at: http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/publications/2013/ EquineDNAreportMarch2013190313.pdf (Accessed 6 April 2013).

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the trade is the primary motivator in utilising imported ingredients in the manufacturing process.”

A veil of secrecy surrounds the turnover and profit generated by the large overseas retailers that operate in Ireland. Tara Buckley, director-general of the Retail Grocery Dairy & Allied Trades Association (RGDATA), the representative association for the independent grocery sector, said: “They have a complex web of unlimited companies, The supermarkets’ share is the subsidiaries of foreign-based companies and other structures highest in the supply chain designed to conceal financial information about their activities.

“Until we have visibility on the level of profits generated by major retailers operating in the Irish market, the committee, producers, retailers and ultimately consumers will be in the dark about whether the efforts of retailers to squeeze suppliers is genuinely in consumers” interests or more concerned with squeezing higher profits.” She was speaking at the Dáil Select Committee on Food, Agriculture and the Marine in March3.

In 2012, Tesco Ireland reported growth of 2.8% with sales of €3.07bn in the year to 26 February 2012. However, Tesco is alone in publishing sales figures for Ireland as none of its competitors do. However, what’s lacking are their profit figures. The group’s profit for their European operations as stated in their 2012 Annual Report stood at £529 million. The margin generated by their suppliers could not compare to this sizeable figure.

Light-touch regulation and voluntary codes of conduct do not work in the food industry. Following cuts to its budget and fragmentation of its responsibilities, the UK’s Food Standards Agency had to rely on testing by the FSAI to uncover the horsemeat scandal. Routine testing is essential to protect consumers from such deception.

“I think the penalties on farmers are much more severe [than processors],” says Mr Dempsey. “The power of the Department of Agriculture to confiscate a large amount of the Single Farm Payment is a much more severe penalty proportionately than applies to the processors.”

There has yet to be a prosecution arising from the horsemeat scandal. EU Commissioner for Health & Consumer Policy, Tonio Borg, plans to introduce a clause in upcoming EU legislation that would oblige member states to impose financial penalties on those found violating food-chain rules.

3. Dáil Éireann Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine. 5 March 2013.

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A flaw in the long global supply chain of raw materials is that it is vulnerable to criminal activity. Raymond Ellard, the FSAI’s Director of Consumer Protection, said: “It would appear that definitely some people set out to defraud their customers and it appears to have been done knowingly in some cases.”

Instead of going straight from farm to market, meat might follow a convoluted chain across several countries from the slaughterhouse to a cutting plant and then a food manufacturer where it is processed into packaged meals.

In absence to a response to my query, a statement by Tesco Chief Executive Philip Clarke said: “I have asked my team Light-touch regulation and to review our approach to the voluntary codes of conduct do not supply chain, to ensure we have visibility and transparency, and work in the food industry to come back with a plan to build a world class traceability and DNA testing system”.

Without any emphasis on traceability in these supply chains, it would be inevitable for individuals to engage in fraudulent activity in pursuit of profit.

The deceptive labelling of products should also be of concern to consumers. For example, products can be misrepresented as food produced in Ireland. “There is the whole concept of substantial transformation that lets a category of food be labelled as coming from the country where, we’ll say in the case of chicken, breadcrumbs were scattered on it,” says Farmer’s Journal editor, Matt Dempsey. “Even though it might be coming from Brazil or Thailand, it would then be classified as European, Irish or Dutch if some extra processing took place in those countries”.

“The labelling regulations have facilitated creation of confusion for consumers as to whether the food they are buying is actually sourced from Irish ingredients and produced in Ireland,” said Ms Buckley at the Select Committee on Agriculture.

Clever labelling tactics are used by some producers to mislead consumers that their product is Irish produced. These include the use of an Irish flag or an Irish place name.

For example, neither Charleville Cheese nor Erin Soups are produced in Ireland, despite their Irish-sounding names.

The European Commission is considering extending rules on country-of-origin labelling to processed food. It is currently only required for fresh meat products.

Although there is no serious health hazard posed by the mislabelling, consumers are entitled to get what it says on the label. Mr Dempsey says DNA testing for country-of-

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origin is “another diagnostic tool that’s going to become part of the routine and should certainly serve to give extra assurance to consumers”.

Under legislation, a list of ingredients is compulsory on all food products. Directive 2002/86/ EC on the Definition of Meat states products containing meat as an ingredient must declare the animal species from which the meat is derived. “The rules are already there,” says the FSAI’s Mr Ellard. “You have to give a list of ingredients on the label or if it’s trade between businesses, the ingredients and information about the product have to be in the commercial documents.”

Consumers should be concerned that QK Meats carried out DNA tests in June 2012, six months before the FSAI carried out their testing. “They found traces of horsemeat and simply sent it back to Poland but they didn’t tell anybody,” says Mr Dempsey. “That’s the inevitable human temptation Clever labelling tactics are used not to blow the whistle but to by some producers to mislead try and keep your own patch consumers that their product is Irish reasonably clean.”

While consuming produced horsemeat does not pose a risk to health, the potential presence of the veterinary drug phenylbutazone (“bute”) is worrying. Its use in food-producing animals is illegal as it can cause a potentially fatal blood disorder in humans called aplastic anaemia, where the bone marrow fails to produce enough blood cells.

France’s agriculture ministry said in February that several horse carcasses containing the drug probably ended up in the human food chain. However, Mr Ellard confirmed that, in their initial survey, the FSAI tested the positive-horsemeat results for bute and 15 other drugs, but did not find any. Tests ordered by the European Commission found that one of the 840 samples of horse meat from Ireland tested positive for bute, while there were 14 positive samples of the 836 in the UK. Mislabelling is also evident in methods used to bulk up chicken. Chicken can be injected with beef and pork waste to help it retain water to increase its weight and value.

While the labels may mention water and other added ingredients, they will not include beef and pork. Their omission from the list of ingredients goes against European food labelling legislation.

“The case of chicken is a particularly good example,” says Mr Dempsey. “There can be collagen and protein supplements pumped in to give the appearance to certain cuts of

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chicken that there’s more lean meat of actual chicken than is the case�.

This practice of mislabelling is particularly troubling for Muslims, Jews and Hindus who are forbidden for religious reasons from eating beef or pork. In February, Northern Ireland-based McColgan Quality Foods Limited was named as supplying halal food containing traces of pig DNA. To protect consumers from a repeat of the horsemeat scandal, the budget for food regulation and inspections needs to be maintained and farmers need to be properly subsidised to produce above the cost of production.

Poor Criminal Sentencing in Ireland Judges lack proper sentencing guidance for punishment of crime. Michelle Manuel investigates.

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n our criminal justice system, sentencing is one of the issues that brings about the most controversy and public outcry. The numbers of well-publicised cases that have been reported in recent months have once again brought sentencing guidelines to the front line of public and academic discussion.

A Coyne Research survey done in August 2012 showed that 69% of Irish adults rated the Irish judiciary as ‘poor’ when it comes to sentencing criminals. Only 15% of the 1,000 respondents recognised the judiciary as good or very good.

Irish sentencing of criminal offenders is a complex issue and calls for an in depth review by our lawmakers. Mainly, sentencing for rape, aggravated sexual assault, and burglary with violent assault, needs serious deliberation to ensure that sentences fit the There are no formal guidelines gravity of crimes.

Last year, in a series on it and there is no appropriate of rape and sexual assault guidance and training for judges to cases heard in the Dublin sentence consistently Circuit Criminal Court, a judge imposed suspended sentences on condition that the offenders pay their victims amounts ranging from €3,000 to €15,000 to compensate for the crime done, recognising this as a token of remorse without imposing any type of incarceration.

The most recent case under the scrutiny of the public eye is the case of Patrick O’Brien vs. Fiona Doyle. 72 year old O’Brien was found guilty of raping his daughter for a decade and was granted bail pending an appeal.

Following a great deal of sensational media exposure the judge revoked the bail and admitted that he erred in making his decision. In the Bail Act, 1997, an application for bail of a person charged with felony, a court could refuse bail.

The Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act, 2001 states that a person guilty of burglary is liable on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years or both.

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The sentence of a case heard by Judge Margaret Heneghan is not illustrative of the Act. A 24 year old man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for burglary and violent assault of an old couple in their home. The sentence was fully suspended and the man was ordered to hand over â‚Ź5,000 to the couple as a token of his remorse.

A suspended sentence involves the judge imposing a prison sentence but suspending it on certain conditions. This means that an offender does not go to prison as long as he does not break the conditions set by the judge, but in the event the offender breaks those conditions during the He was asked to pay â‚Ź15,000 as period for which the sentence compensation to his [sexual assault] is suspended, he will have to victim instead of getting a prison serve the term of imprisonment originally imposed. term for such a serious and violent In said case, it was not clear offence if the victim impact statement of the old couple was taken into consideration at the time of the sentencing.

These cases are examples that show disregard of the principle of proportionality in sentencing.

The habitual conduct of judges passing down light-handed sentences of this nature has evoked controversy, with calls for sentencing guidelines and if possible even mandatory sentences. This alone manifests the lack of proper sentencing guidance for judges.

In Ireland, the only mandatory sentence is the life sentence for murder - without a possibility for parole. A person guilty of rape or aggravated sexual assault can get imprisonment for life- but can be up for parole.

The Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990, states that a person guilty of sexual assault could get a prison term not exceeding five years or ten for aggravated sexual assault. But in the special case of a victim under the age of 17 the maximum sentence for the offender of sexual assault is a jail term of 14 years.

Other sexual offences: child trafficking and sexual exploitation brings life imprisonment, a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment for child pornography production and distribution, and a maximum of five years imprisonment for possession of child pornographic materials.

Particularly in the United States, there is considerable use of mandatory minimum sentences. Advocates maintain that they are based on the principles of “consistency,

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fairness, certainty, truth and greater justice in sentencing” and place greater constraints on judicial discretion, resulting in greater certainty and consistency in sentencing. But this is not the case of Ireland.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT) conducts “original research on human rights issues as diverse as equal rights for all families, the right to privacy, police reform and judicial accountability”. They believe that mandatory and presumptive sentences should be removed altogether. Both sentences are similar. However a mandatory sentence is a minimum, it is ineffective as a deterrent, and impacts society negatively with increased prison rates.

While a presumptive sentence carries a specific fine, or amount of incarceration time, they said, under specific circumstances a judge is allowed to increase or decrease the sentence imposed.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), a human rights watchdog, believes that a fair trial and justice system should protect the human rights of both defendants and victims. The ICCL is seeking improvements in judicial studies to ensure that judges are more aware of their human rights obligations and of diversity issues, together with a system of judicial accountability for members of the public.

Criminal offences in Ireland are tried in two ways: “Summary Offences”, which are dealt by a judge, are held at the District Court; while a judge, or a judge and a jury tries Indictable Offences in the Central Criminal Court.

Ciara Fitzgerald, a barrister, stated that, “the selection of judges to handle a case depends on the degree of the offence committed. Serious crimes like murder are dealt with in the Central Criminal Court and the less serious ones will be dealt at the Circuit Court or District Court. In relation to Circuit and District Court cases, a judge is assigned to any of the two particular courts and they handle the cases that are given to them”.

However, in imposing sentences “personal circumstances are one of the most important factors judges have to consider. There is no official method of balancing these extenuating circumstances that exist [as they relate to] the nature of the crime and the criminal. But the judge is entitled to take into account these personal circumstances before making a sentencing decision; however, there are no formal guidelines on it and there is no appropriate guidance and training for judges to sentence consistently. There is disparity of the judges’ decisions to sentence an offender; some are lenient and there is a disparity between individual sentencing behaviours associated with individual judges or regions within Ireland,” said Ms Fitzgerald.

“The maximum penalty is set by the Oireachtas and the judge then generally has discretion as to what exact sentence to impose taking in account the mitigating and aggravating factors,” she added.

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The Probation Service

The Probation Service and Central Statistics Office hold valuable data that has important implications for sentencing policy.

Over a third of offenders who received non-custodial or probationary sentences in 2007 have reoffended. These 37% used the Probation Service as a circular door of the court system, victimizing society while repeatedly committing crime after crime. This explains the cases of offenders who are repeatedly moving through the court system with 25, 49 or even an unimaginable 104 previous convictions.

For adult offenders, alcohol abuse, ill health and old age are often cited as mitigating factors. For young adult offenders, the Probation Service provides the reports containing information on the offender, family circumstance and lifestyle, as well taking into account alcohol or drug problems, and any other convictions. If deemed unfit for prison sentence, non-custodial sanctions in the form of probation orders and or community service orders are often cited as an alternative to incarceration.

Some of these mitigating factors can be a remarkable The LRC recommended that a offset to the serious offences committed and the guilty plea sentencing judge in the District of an offender. Thus, a sentence Court should provide a written can be reduced in the light of explanation of any custodial mitigating or excusing factors. sentence, including the mitigating A cited example is the Griffiths vs a teenager. Griffiths and aggravating factors pleaded guilty at the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court for sexually assaulting a teenager. He told the judge that he took many LSD tablets the previous night and by the time of the attack lost all sensibility. He was asked to pay â‚Ź15,000 as compensation to his victim instead of getting a prison term for such a serious and violent offence.

The Court of Criminal Appeal

The decisions from the Appeals Courts help to define precedence for lower courts, providing some guidance that is lacking through any other formal mechanism. They have a better chance at giving out reasonable sentences because they consist a judge from the Supreme Court, and two judges of the High Court thereby balancing the opinions of individual judges who may impose overly harsh or light sentences.

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Appeal court judges will read the written record of the trial to understand the trial judge’s reasons for giving the sentence. They will consider a sentence to be ‘unduly lenient’ only if they believe that the trial judge was wrong in law to give such a light sentence. This process however is not universally recognised.

The Court Services analysis suggests that, “Judges are guided by certain principles.

For example, sentences tend to be more lenient where the offender is young, where the level of violence is not too severe and where a plea of guilty is offered at an early stage.

The problem however is that these principles are unwritten and, to the general public, largely unknown.”

Ireland’s Law Reform Commission (LRC) has noted deficiencies in the Irish sentencing system. There is a lack of consensus, a potential breach of the humanitarian principle, a potential breach of the justice principle of legality, proportionality and consistency.

Ireland has a largely unstructured sentencing system in which the courts exercise a relatively broad sentencing discretion. The LRC recommended that a sentencing judge in the District Court should provide a written explanation of any custodial sentence, including the mitigating and aggravating factors considered.

Evaluating the system, it’s become clear that the approach, while laudable for its human intent, does not recognise the rights of society to receive adequate protection from habitual or career criminals. The lack of structure and consistency and over broad sentencing requirements clearly illustrates the necessity to provide the judiciary with clear and immediate guidance to support efficient and effective sentencing in the Irish court system. Sentencing policy needs to recognise both victims’ rights to receive justice for the crimes committed against them, and society’s right to have fair and equitable sentencing that offers rehabilitative opportunities while protecting its citizens from predators and career criminals.

Homophobic Bullying in Irish schools At least half of young LGBT people in Catholic schools are being bullied by their peers and teachers because of their sexual orientation. The consequences of the bullying are deadly. Vanja Skotnes investigates.

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GBT stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Most LGBT people perceive secondary schools to be unsupportive and hostile places. “The Catholic church’s views on homosexuality is definitely a problem, and has a lot to do with the ongoing serious homophobic bullying”, says Brian Sheehan, director of GLEN (the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network).

Currently, many Catholic schools in Ireland do not address sexual orientation. Many young LGBT people feel unsafe in schools and face considerable challenges related to bullying, invisibility and marginalisation. Sheehan states that homophobic bullying is an urgent, serious problem in Ireland.

Catholic views drives gay teens to suicide There is a direct link between homophobic bullying and suicidal behaviour amongst young LGBT people. According to research carried out by GLEN and BeLonG To Youth, those who experience homophobic bullying may be more likely to attempt suicide,.

“It is challenging with the Catholic religion. In schools, there is a lack of clarity – teachers do not know what to say to a teenager when he or she is coming out openly as gay. It is also a problem with the terms many teachers use in referring to homosexuals – it is the negative tone they use”, says Sheehan.

Research done by the gay rights organisations GLEN and BeLonG To Youth shows that one third of young LGBT people had seriously thought about ending their lives. 25 per cent of the females and 15 per cent of the males had attempted suicide on at least one occasion.

“Many Catholic schools do not even have any teaching about homosexuality at all.

Some Catholic schools want to do something about this, but most of them don’t. You may have your religion, but there must be equality. No one should be discriminated against. Right now teenagers are being discriminated against in Catholic schools because of their sexual orientation”, says Brian Sheehan.

The research done by these gay rights groups is the most comprehensive study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Ireland, and it was funded by the HSE’s

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National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP). The report, “Supporting LGBT Lives”, shows that over half of young LGBT people were bullied both by their classmates and their teachers.

The most common age for an LGBT person to discover his or her sexual orientation or gender identity for themselves is at 12 years old, and the most common age to start “coming out” to others is at 17 years.

The period before these young people come out is particularly stressful because of fear of rejection and isolation. And the five-year period of young gay people “being in the closet” coincides with puberty, school and it is a critical period of social and emotional development.

“Catholic schools need to understand that it is not a decision to be gay, Research shows that one third of it’s a discovery”, says Brian young LGBT people had seriously Sheehan. He also says that many would argue that the thought about ending their lives problem with homophobic bullying has only been getting worse.

“I think that many teachers see these issues, but since many schools don’t even have any teaching about sexual orientation, they feel ill-prepared to deal with it. There is a lack of professional training on LGBT issues, lack of specific schools policies and programmes on LGBT issues, a lack of clarity as how sexual orientation issues fit into school ethos”, says Sheehan.

This is a quote from the research report, “Supporting LGBT Lives”: “I lost a close friend to suicide earlier this year as he couldn’t face coming out and the jeering he was getting for being suspected of being gay. Yet the school he was in did NOTHING in the way of policy afterwards so it could potentially and probably will be repeated. I was also sent to a counsellor in the hope it would “talk me out of being bisexual” and got a warning that if I dated girls in college or had gay friends my parents will not pay for my education,” – Bisexual female, 18 years old.

An official for the Catholic Bishops asked me to email her my questions. I did. They were however, reluctant to talk about homosexuality at all. The Irish Catholic Bishops would not answer any of my questions regarding their teaching about homosexuality, sexual, personal and social issues in their schools. They would neither answer if they had any experiences with homophobic bullying in their schools, nor my question about what their teachers are told to say to a teenager who openly comes out as gay.

It transpired that every email sent to them containing certain words, such as “homosexuality”, were not even read. After researching, I discovered that in fact every

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email sent to them containing the word “homosexuality” went straight to their spam filter!

“The problem of homophobic bullying is a Right now teenagers are being reflection of society. There has discriminated against in Catholic been a huge change in our society the past 20 years, and schools because of their sexual we need to catch up with the orientation change,” says Brian Sheehan, director of GLEN. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students are part of every classroom in Ireland. Over 20,000 young people at second level in school are LGBT, and every class will therefore have an average of two students who are LGBT. “Many don’t experience school as safe and supportive, and most will not come out until they leave school due to fear of rejection, isolation and bullying”, says Sheehan.

Key findings from “Supporting LGBT Lives” - the most comprehensive study of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Ireland (1,110 LGBT people participated in the research and were 25 years or under): • 58% reported homophobic bullying in their schools; • 34% reported homophobic comments by teachers and other staff members; • 40% had been verbally threatened by fellow students because they were or were thought to be LGBT • 20% admitted to missing school because they felt threatened or were afraid of getting hurt at school • 5% left school early because of how they were treated as a consequence of their LGBT identity.

Research among asked teachers found that: • The majority of teachers hear and witness homophobic name-calling and bullying.

• Many teachers feel ill-prepared to be able to do something about addressing this issue.

For more information see: •

Gay & Lesbian Equality network: www.glen.ie

•

BeLonG To: www.belongto.org

Ireland Fails its Elderly Citizens Elder abuse is a problem in contemporary Irish society with many older people suffering and being hurt on a weekly basis.

Unfortunately, there is a lack of legislation protecting those who find themselves to be victims of such abuse. Zoldy Kate Moloney investigates.

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here have been numerous reports within the media detailing forms of elder abuse in certain nursing homes and care institutions etc., yet still the Irish government has not made it a priority to at least begin drafting legislation to protect those braving this intolerable experience. We had a Children’s Referendum, yet there is no sign of an Elderly Adult’s Referendum!

Suzanne O’ Hara* is a Primary Care Occupational Therapist, who travels to the homes of older people who are unable to get to hospitals to receive treatment. Suzanne relayed to me one of her most horrific experiences while at work: “Less than a year ago, there was an elderly woman whom I was due to visit. I rang ahead “If you complain about me to anyone, before I went over and there I’ll leave you and then you’ll have no was no one there, so I decided one” I would check in on her another time. I came back a few days later and knocked on the door. The woman spoke to me through the door, and told me she could not let me in as her husband and son had locked her into the house and gone out. They hadn’t left a key or anything. I visited her a few times, and there was one day where I went into the house and she was alone, sitting up in her bed covered in faeces and urine. She was unable to tell me how long she had been alone for.”

Suzanne’s story takes a particularly nasty turn when she goes on to detail her attempt to get help for the elderly woman: “To take action, I contacted a social worker who told me that, short of calling the Gardaí, nothing could be done. I alerted as many people as I possibly could; the woman’s GP, her social worker, her nurse... but there was no specific authority I could turn to for help with this. There was no emergency placement for the woman either. There was no system to deal with that issue as it happened, and no specific person I could phone to hand the case over to. I did a joint visit with the social worker to speak to the woman’s family and they argued that they did what they did from a ‘management’ point of view.”

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This is not even the worst of what goes on regarding elder abuse. There are people in severe danger right now who will never get the help they need.

According to Heath Service Executive (HSE) literature, elder abuse is “a single or repeated act or lack of appropriate action occurring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person or violates their human and civil rights.”

There are several forms of abuse, any or all of which may be executed as the result of ignorance, negligence or deliberate intent: Physical abuse: This includes hitting, slapping, negligence, ignorance or the misuse of medication.

Sexual abuse: Including sexual acts to which the older person has not consented, was resistant to consent or could not consent, and sexual assault.

Discriminatory abuse: Includes sexism, ageism, racism, that based on a person’s disability and other forms of torment, vexation or provocation.

Psychological abuse: Including threats of abandonment, humiliation, isolation, intimidation, emotional abuse and duress.

Financial/material abuse: Including theft, fraud, and pressure in connection with This deficiency [the lack of case wills, property inheritance etc., workers] has enabled elder abuse to or the misuse of possessions of become chronic benefits.

Neglect and acts of curtailment: Including withholding of medication, heating or adequate nutrition, ignoring physical care needs and failure to facilitate the older person with access to sufficient health, educational or social care services.

Locking people into their homes is related to the aforementioned type of abuse called ‘Neglect and Acts of Curtailment’, and is known as ‘Deprivation of Liberty’, and put quite simply; no one is allowed do that to anyone, regardless of the circumstances.

The issue of the elderly woman sitting alone in her bed covered in her own filth is straight up neglect; one of the ugliest and most devastating types of abuse.

Another disturbing aspect to this story is the fact that a fully qualified social worker could only advise Suzanne to call the Gardaí, and after that could be of no more assistance.

Intrigued as to where a social worker really stands in this mess, I spoke to Ella Fitzgerald*, a Senior Practitioner Social Worker of Primary Care. Ella stated that there was “a serious lack of legal framework to support what is taking place.” She went on to say that any legislation that was in place was completely outdated, and pertaining

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to financial abuse; some legislation even falls short of criminal law standard. This retrenchment of legislation makes progressing towards helping victims “…slow, almost at a standstill,” says Fitzgerald.

This ineffectiveness of existing structures and the lack of appropriate legislation to protect vulnerable older people was also highlighted in a 2011 report compiled by Age Action Ireland with the University of Ulster, Queens University Belfast, the South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust and the Social Policy & Aging Research Centre “I went into the house and she was Trinity College Dublin, alone, sitting up in her bed covered entitled, ‘A Total Indifference in faeces and urine ... but there was to our Dignity - Older no specific authority I could turn to People’s Understandings of Elder Abuse’. The report for help” stated: “These structures are not underpinned by legislation and a lack of legislation generally in relation to the abuse of older people is evident in both jurisdictions” [north and south of the border].

Ms Fitzgerald then went on to refer to the lack of case workers, saying that this deficiency has enabled elder abuse to become chronic.

While plenty of older people are adequately cared for by family members, fewer older people now have the choice to avail of this form of personal care, thus are increasingly more reliant on public and private healthcare services to arrange the care they need. Due to life expectancy rising every year, there is a greater demand for and dependency on these state services, state services being home helps, public health nurses, etc.

The Irish Carers’ Association estimate that unpaid family care-givers are providing 193.7 million hours of care a year, saving the economy a staggering €2.5 billion per annum. The truly shocking minutia about this fact is that the majority of these carers are older people themselves. Is the Irish state really neglecting to assess the needs and rights of the elderly using ‘penny-saving’ as their motive?

Kathleen Lynch is a West-Cork TD and Minister of State at the Department of Health and the Department of Justice, Equality & Defence “with responsibility for Disability, Older People, Equality & Mental Health”. After five emails and two phone calls to Ms Lynch, asking her to give the government’s side of the story, her secretary emailed me back giving a generic description of elder abuse and the organisations available for those enduring it. In other words, the question I put to Ms Lynch (“Is there any system in place in Ireland that can immediately, legitimately and directly assist an

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elderly person who has been found to be a victim of abuse?”) was completely ignored, and Ms Lynch, after five weeks of ignoring said question, has failed to comment.

In November 2004, the then Minister for Health, Mary Harney, gave her assurance that she would “retain clear accountability for our health services”. The subsequent establishment of the HSE on the 1st of January 2005 was meant to resolutely conclude the issue of accountability once and for all. However, what has transpired is a health service and health policy system that is even less capable of this than the one it replaced.

The 2004 Health Act did not specify the incumbency or the committal of the Health Service or the HSE , thus leaving these organisations completely indisposed to and free of responsibility to older people waiting to receive the particular care they need – this neglect categorically and unequivocally counts as abuse.

Alice Bannon* spoke to me about Mary Cassidy*, a friend of hers who suffered financial and psychological abuse under the hand of her home-help in the years leading up to her death: “If Mary wanted help with making the bed, washing her hair or getting the clothes off the line, her home help would refuse to do anything unless she paid her. There was one time where the help refused to iron unless she was given €20 for it. I remember Mary telling me one day that the home help said to her ‘If you complain about me to anyone, I’ll leave you and then you’ll have no one.’ I was very concerned and rang the HSE on behalf of Mary, to see if anything could be done. They said the only thing they could do was send down an inspector to interview the home help. That was it. So nothing was done.”

If you are or someone you know is experiencing Elder Abuse, while there is no practical system in place to turn to, there are a number of helplines and organisations you can contact to seek help, consolation, advice etc.

For more information: •

Age Action Ireland: A leading charity for older people which campaigns for better policies and services for older people. Works with older people to change attitudes and provide key services.

Ph.: 1890-369 369; email: library@ageaction.ie; web site: http://ageaction.ie

•

Senior Help Line: For the price of a local call you will be talking to an older person. All calls are confidential. Ph.: 1850 440 444; Email: info@seniorhelpline.ie

Contraception Saves Lives Education and commitment to condom use in sub-Saharan Africa is yielding positive results despite the efforts of ‘religious’ groups to promote a lethal misogyny. Rachel Bonvie investigates.

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ub-Saharan Africa has the highest statistics in the world for people infected with AIDS and HIV. AIDS stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and it means that the infected person’s immune system is too weak to fight off infections. HIV, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is a virus that attacks the immune system and is the cause of AIDS. There are currently about 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS all around the world.

The Catholic Church is strongly opposed to the idea of condom use as a way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Governments that promote this stance have gone to drastic measures to block aid from non-governmental groups that send contraception to Africa. The religious dogma surrounding contraception is stunting any progress being made by those trying to help the Sub-Saharan African people who suffer from HIV/ AIDS every day.

In 2009, former Pope, Benedict XVI, visited the areas of Africa such as Angola and Cameroon where the population of people infected with HIV/AIDS was around 22 million. He made some statements about the Catholic Church’s stance on condom use that reignited controversy over contraception use.

In an article in the Guardian, Pope Benedict XVI was quoted as saying: “A tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems” referring to conditions in Africa. Health agencies trying to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS were outraged to hear what the Pope had said regarding condom use. The Catholic Church encourages abstinence as the only failsafe way of preventing sexually transmitted diseases or illnesses such as HIV/AIDS. Benedict XVI also stated “it is of great concern that the fabric of African life, its very source of hope and stability, is threatened by divorce, abortion, prostitution, human trafficking and a contraception mentality.” A spokesperson from the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said that if the Pope was serious about preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS that he would help promote condom access and information about using them. It seems as if he believes that African lives are less important than religious beliefs.

Benedict XVI did say that he understands that the disease is a “cruel epidemic” but he does not believe that it can be cured through using condoms.

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During the George W. Bush administration in the United States, all aid to the UN Population Fund was cut off. The United Nations’ Population Fund works to achieve universal access to sexual and reproductive heath (including family planning), promoting reproductive rights, reducing maternal mortality and accelerating progress on the International Conference on Population and Development agenda. From 2002 to 2008, while Bush was in office, the United States withheld funding for the United Nations’ Population Fund. The interpretation the Bush administration took on the United Nations “Kemp-Kasten Amendment” was so broad that it was applied to Marie Stopes International - a large international sexual and reproductive health clinic.

The Kemp-Kasten Amendment was enacted in the United States in 1985 as a part of the appropriations law. It prohibits foreign aid to any organization that the administration thinks might be involved in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. The United States Agency for International Development issued a directive to African governments preventing distribution of United States-donated contraceptives. The UK-based Marie Stopes International is one of the world’s leading providers of family planning services in developing countries and was delivering aid funded by the United States, to Africa. In 2009, with President Barack Obama in office, the United States Congress was directed to restore this funding.

One of the goals of Marie Stopes International is for all women to have access to sexual and reproductive health services, regardless of where they are in the world.

More than 20 million women each year resort to an unsafe abortion and about 47,000 of these women die and about 5 million need urgent medical care. In countries where abortion is legal, Marie Stopes International has set up clinics where women can get a safe abortion as well as post-abortion care. At these clinics, women also have access to contraception and information about how to use it correctly. There is also voluntary testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Those diagnosed with HIV or another infection are referred to agencies that can offer them treatment. Marie Stopes International strives to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal 5, which aims to cut maternal deaths by three quarters by 2015.

Some religious groups feel that their opinions or beliefs are not being heard. According to an article on thenation.com, Austin Ruse of the conservative Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, stated at a United Nations forum “it is at these [UN] meetings where global plans are hatched to spread abortion around the world, to redefine family, and to mandate homosexual marriage.” This group is known for being extremely rightwing and anti-feminist. Most of the people that take part in international anti-feminist movements are Catholics, Evangelicals, Baptists or Mormons from countries such as Canada, United States and Great Britain, and most of them are men. Those who support this anti-UN idea are generally opposed to sending contraception to countries in Africa.

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Some Christian groups are supportive of contraception in the form of condoms if it is going to help reduce sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Christian Aid is a development charity in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The group focuses on creating a world free of poverty. Christian Aid is working to reduce the spread of HIV through educating people about how to prevent it.

Christian Aid promotes people living with safer sexual practices, including correct and consistent condom use, abstinence and faithfulness. In a short phone interview with Jennifer Swensson of Christian Aid, it was found out that they provide information and education to people in Sub-Saharan African countries about how to use contraception.

Christian Aid also provides services such as counselling and testing for HIV. They will provide infected people with information on treatment and The Catholic Church is strongly information on how to opposed to the idea of condom use avoid transmitting HIV to as a way to prevent the spread of others. Unlike Christian Aid, The Catholic Family HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Institute, or C-FAM, is a non-profit organization that says their mission is “to defend life and family at international institutions and to publicize the debate.” Their core values include fidelity to the teachings of the Church, perseverance, professionalism and truth telling.

As of 2009, there were 12,100,000 cases of women with HIV/AIDS and 2,300,000 children under the age of 15 years old living with HIV/AIDS in Africa. Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have the highest population of people infected with HIV/ AIDS. In 2009, South Africa had the highest number of people with HIV/AIDS with approximately 5,600,000 people. Also in 2009, approximately 1,300,000 people died in Sub-Saharan Africa from HIV/AIDS. There is no cure for HIV/AIDS, but there are ways of preventing it. The disease is transmitted in three ways: sexual transmission, transmission through blood, and from mother to child in the womb.

According to avert.org, a HIV/AIDS charity, methods of prevention include HIV testing and counseling, condom use, circumcision, family planning and sex education.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) states that abstinence and monogamy are the surest ways of avoiding sexually transmitted diseases. It also states that condoms are not 100% safe but if they are used correctly they will significantly reduce risk of sexually transmitted diseases. Also according to the FDA website, “experts believe that

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many of these people (infected with AIDS) could have avoided the disease by using condoms.” Condoms are used as a method of birth control, along with IUD, diaphragm, cervical cap or the pill, but condoms are the only one that will reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases.

When an uninfected pregnant woman has sex, a condom is very important because the disease could not only be transmitted to the mother, but the unborn child as well.

The condom protects against sexually transmitted diseases by blocking blood, semen or vaginal fluids from passing from one person to the other during intercourse.

According to The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, located in Atlanta, Georgia, “Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.” As stated on their website, laboratory studies have shown that latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of HIV. HIV can be treated, but not cured, using antiretroviral drugs that keep the levels of HIV in the body at a low level so that the immune system can recover and work correctly. Taking these drugs takes commitment because they are to be taken every day for the person’s entire life.

As it turns out, many of the religious affiliated non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have been looked at and spoken to have offered some form of help when it comes to contraception in Africa. Some NGO’s like Christian Aid would actually provide people with condoms and information on how to use them, just like Marie Stopes does. Other NGO’s that were not religious would provide the same care as Christian Aid, but perhaps be a little more public about this. The Christian Aid website does discuss contraception for those in Africa suffering from HIV and AIDS, but this information took serious effort to find because it was located in an attached document which elaborates upon their work with HIV/AIDS. Jennifer Swensson of Christian Aid also sent the document in an email.

Christian Aid is a much different organization than the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute. Human rights do not seem to include women’s rights or children’s rights according to C-FAM. “Women’s rights are human rights” said Hilary Clinton at the 1995 United Nations sponsored Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The claim the Pope made about condoms making the HIV/AIDS epidemic worse does not seem to have had that large of an effect on the way the organizations are run. Even religious affiliated charities and non-governmental organizations seem to have continued to distribute condoms and information about how to use them correctly to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. This may just be Christian Aid, but it does show that at least not all religious affiliated organizations are promoting an anti-feminist worldview which endangers women’s lives by discouraging contraception as a way to prevent HIV/ AIDS in Africa.

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Mary Mc Fadden investigates James Reilly’s unfulfilled promise of introducing legislation to make restaurants include calorie information on menus.

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n 2012, Minister for Health Dr James Reilly promised legislation would be brought in to include calorie information on restaurant menus. He has not kept this promise and it remains voluntary for restaurants to offer this service or, more usually, not.

Calorie menu labelling is a relatively new concept, and as such, evidence is still being analysed on the impact that this approach has on eating habits. Studies show that people who use calorie menu labelling, purchase fewer calories.

A large study by Tamara Dumanovsky published in the British Medical Journal in 2011, reported on consumers who used the calorie information provided: “15% of customers reported using the calorie information, and these customers purchased 106 fewer kilocalories than customers who did not see or use the calorie information”.

Another study by Bollinger in 2010 showed that, on average, 6% fewer calories were purchased by consumers “The Minister requested the Food in a coffee chain that had Safety Authority of Ireland to carry calorie menus, though a reduction of up to 26% less out a national consultation, which calories was reported for some found that over 95% of consumers consumers. Very importantly, in Ireland want calories on menus.” this reduction was sustained over the ten-month period of this particular study.

Paulette O’Reilly of the health department said, “Minister Reilly has indicated that he is still very much in favour that the programme of putting calories on menus in Ireland be introduced, but on a voluntary basis at first.

The Minister requested that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) to carry out a national consultation, which found that over 95% of consumers in Ireland want calories on menus. Nevertheless, if a voluntary approach fails to make the desired impact then forced legislation will be introduced. The consultation showed that 92% of consumers and 88% of health professionals supported a mandatory approach for large food service businesses although only 58% of food businesses would support that approach.”

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The principal function of the FSAI is to ensure that food complies with legal requirements, or where appropriate with recognised codes of good practice.

Jane Ryder, a spokesperson of the FSAI says, “There is no single approach which can successfully address the obesity crisis that plagues Ireland today. It is important to recognise that a small but continually positive change in the eating behaviours of a large number of individuals can have a huge effect on the obesity crisis; calorie menu labelling offers this potential.”

Apart from the minority of consumers who use the calorie menu information with immediate effect on their “Any chef will tell you that menus food purchases, there are other in restaurants can vary every few positive effects, which can be expected to increase the days and therefore calorie counting health benefits of food sold. would be highly inaccurate anyway.”

These effects include consumer demand for smaller and more appropriate portion sizes for meals and snacks, and for healthier foods and beverages. Without the drive of consumer demand, food service businesses could not initiate these changes without risking a loss of revenue.

The current food environment is represented by excesses of energy-dense foods.

Such foods strongly appeal to people’s innate preferences for sweet, salty and high-fat tastes. Such taste preferences, combined with the human tendency to eat when food is available and to eat more when more food is readily available, increases the risk of being overweight or of obesity.

Approaches to change this environment are needed to protect the population against foods and eating patterns that add to these problems. There is no single approach which can successfully address the obesity epidemic – a varied approach involving all levels of society is required. Recent data from the FSAI shows that 18-64 year olds consume 24% of their total energy from food and drink outside the home. As such, the food service sector can play a very positive role in promoting public health. Calorie menu labelling is one approach to addressing the obesity crisis which benefits consumers who use the calorie information provided.

On the matter of forced legislation, Zack Gallagher of the Irish Food Guide, said, “I think the cost of implementing it is something restaurants have been thinking about for a while anyway. However, it is quite a lot of work to find out the calorie count of a whole menu. The government made an announcement to make it mandatory before they

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thought about the implications; they should concentrate on a campaign that encourages restaurants to modify their menus rather than enforcing it.”

The Restaurants’ Association of Ireland (RAI) agrees. They feel that implementing forced legislation will cost the industry €110 million. The planned changes to put calories onto menus has not been supported by owners of restaurants, who are currently finding it a struggle to get money from the banks. They won’t be able to afford the estimated €5,000 it will cost to give details of calories on their menus. This would be a stretch for struggling independent businesses.

Chief Executive of the RAI, Adrian Cummins, says that only a small amount of restaurants have decided to change their menus to include calorie counts. He says, “Any chef will tell you that menus in restaurants can vary every few days and therefore calorie counting would be highly inaccurate anyway. A common sense approach to healthy eating is what is needed in our society. Restaurants are not the cause of Ireland’s weight problems. People are rarely eating out in these bleak times. It’s a rare treat for them, and the last thing they want is to be made to feel guilty or conscious of enjoying a meal.”

The RAI have proposed that restaurants should include a ‘healthy option’ on menus and offer a universal ‘healthy options’ symbol that would help to curb the obesity problem we are faced with, while also being an inexpensive solution for those eating out.

Seeing as Minister James Reilly hasn’t forced legislation on businesses yet as promised, it doesn’t seem likely that it is going to happen straight away. Although it may have some adverse effects on businesses cost-wise, calorie information on menus is what consumers want and that needs to be addressed by both food establishments and James Reilly himself.

Male Eating Disorders: An Overlooked Problem There is a general misconception that eating disorders only effects women. The reality is that a significant number of males are also enduring abnormal eating habits today. Ian Begley investigates.

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t used to be estimated that about 10% of people who suffer from anorexia and bulimia are male, but recent studies suggest that this figure could be as high as 25%.

Cases of binge eating disorders are in fact a lot more equally divided, with up to 50% of reported cases occurring in males, and in total affecting up to 2% of the Irish population.

In recent years there has been a substantial increase in the number of males who have contacted help agencies admitting to some sort of abnormal eating habit.

Michael Byrne, a psychotherapist who has been working with people with eating disorders for over ten years says that the rising numbers of male cases is a clear indication that this condition is not solely a “female issue”.

“It is very important for people to understand that men aren’t exempt from any form of anorexia or bulimia. We see a lot of males who have excessively changed their diet to achieve an unrealistic sense of beauty,” said Mr Byrne.

Mr Byrne also admits that men are often too embarrassed or self-conscious to seek professional help, and blames the media for convincing young men that the only way to succeed in life is to attain a muscular body or a slim, attractive figure.

“Many of the men who I’ve been in touch with believe there is a social stigma about being a male with an eating disorder, and fear they will face ridicule from their peers and family if they choose to seek help. More men today are eating more and working out excessively to achieve the typical body builder or slim athletic physique. This can cause serious damage to their health as many men tend to take dangerous amounts of performing enhancing drugs to bulk up,” stated Mr Byrne.

Eating disorders are usually triggered by emotional stress, depression or low selfesteem. Compared with women, eating disorders may be somewhat different in men.

Women primarily strive for a slim figure, while men often focus on over-exercising or building muscle mass. This obsession is known as Muscle Dysmorphia.

Professions that demand a thin or muscular build put male models, actors and entertainers at greater risk of developing eating disorders than the general population.

The misconception that eating disorders affect only women can lead to many men

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disregarding any abnormal eating habits they believe they have, thus making them unlikely to seek support or guidance.

According to the National Association of Anorexic Nervosa and Associated Disorders, gay and bi-sexual men are at a greater risk of developing eating disorders.

Pressure to look physically attractive within the gay community often leads to gay and bisexual men purging or starving themselves in the search for physical perfection.

Patrick Dempsey, a peer worker with LGBT youth group Belong To, states that many young males in the gay community feel the need to obsess over their appearances, and often take extreme measures to ensure external perfection.

“It’s quite disheartening to see so many teens and young adults talk about nothing but their weight and appearances. It does seem prevalent that many young men in the gay community worry too much about the way they look. If we suspect anyone here of having an eating disorder we will of course guide them in the right direction,” stated Mr Dempsey.

There is now a growing concern over the surge of pro-anorexic and bulimic sites sprouting up across the web. These websites openly endorse anorexic behaviour to young people and create misconceptions that attempt to justify eating disorders.

Many of these sites are forum-based and provide their readers and members with tips on why and how they should maintain and nurture their eating disorders. One which I shan’t name, lists off 40 reasons why their readers “should starve today”: “You will be Fat if you eat today; You don’t NEED food; People will remember you as the ‘beautifully thin’ one.”

Out of the 21 pro-anorexic and bulimic sites I found, nine were either run by males or “It is very important for people to had male-specific sections. Six understand that men aren’t exempt used the social networking and blogging site Tumblr to post from any form of anorexia or huge quantities of pictures of bulimia” men whom they felt emulated their notion of idealised beauty.

These photographs primarily featured male models that were either extremely skinny or excessively muscular. Several images had motivational captions over them with bizarre messages like: “Reason to lose weight #521: So people will say, ‘Wow he’s so skinny’” and “I didn’t eat for three days so I could be lovely.”

Another pro-anorexic blog I came across was run by a 20 year old, openly-gay man named Michael Stone, and featured diary entries about his pro-anorexic life.

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“Sick of feeling fat, ugly and useless to society, I am going to be blogging my ana experience, for support, help, tips and for the male POV related to anorexia. I just want to be perfect. I will always support other weight-loss blogs, we have to look after each other [sic],” Michael wrote in one post.

Michael’s blog was very popular amongst fellow pro-anorexic and bulimic males.

He received positive feedback from his followers and gave advice and support to those struggling to maintain their abnormal eating habits.

More often than once, the perilous extent of Michael’s anorexia was apparent in his “Two weeks ago my son died from blog entries: “I fucking ate a sandwich. I hate myself,” he a heart attack brought on by his wrote. anorexia battle. He weighed near to When Michael failed to 100 pounds” post any updates on his website for several weeks, his followers were becoming concerned about his inactivity and demanded a reason for his absence. It was not until October, 2011, that Michael’s mother wrote a message on his website declaring that her son had died from a heart attack due to his battle with anorexia.

“My name is Sharon and I was Michaels mother. 2 weeks ago my son died from a heart attack brought on by his anorexia battle. He weighed near to 100 pounds. I’m sending out this message to all of his ‘followers’ who may be suffering from anorexia.

You are KILLING yourself, please seek help now, life is more than the weight you are, and now my son will never know. Michael’s account calls himself “pro ana boy”, if you are “pro ana” I want you to stop, BEFORE IT STOPS YOU [sic],” stated Mrs Stone.

I set up a false account on one of the web’s largest forums for people who are proanorexic and bulimic, and was invited to join the private chartroom designated for males with eating disorders.

I observed the transcripts of males as young as 12 talking about how insecure they felt about their bodies and the extent they go to in order to maintain their unhealthy lifestyles. One teenage male who went by the user name of “slimdude16” described his recent experience at an anorexic council group that his parents forced him to attend: “The place was full chicks and I felt real out of place being the only guy there. I just sat down saying nothing listening to the lady warning everyone about how starving yourself can lead to infertility and all that. The whole thing was a waste of time tbh [sic],” said the teen.

Male Eating Disorders: An Overlooked Problem, Begley

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Another user by the name of “TheBlueBoy” explained to the group how he manages to live the ‘anorexic life,’ while still in school.

“For breakfast I eat a hardboiled egg – 92 cals and drink a glass of OJ – 90 cals. Then I go for a 10km run before school starts. I chew gum all day during class so I dont feel hungry and usually nibble at an apple at lunch which is about 47 cals. At home when my mom makes me dinner I’ll eat what I can and throw out the rest. In total I say I eat no more than 550cals a day.” stated the user.

Teenagers need to consume a sufficient amount of calories to meet the needs of their developing bodies. According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, boys between the ages of 11 and 13 need 1,800 to 2,600 calories per day while boys ages 14 to 18 need between 2,200 to 3,200 calories per day. Girls aged 11 to 13 require 800 to 2,200 calories per day while those between the ages of 14 and 18 need 1,800 to 2,400 calories per day.

Combatting the stigma of males with eating disorders is vital to encourage men and teens to seek professional help if they believe they fall under the category of anorexic, bulimic, or binge eater. It is a serious mental illness that composes of physical, psychological, behavioural and emotional aspects, but can be addressed and treated just as effectively as women with similar eating habits.

If you are concerned about taking the first step towards recovery, the non-judgmental support provided by The Marino Therapy Clinic could be a helpful starting point. A hotline for men is open on Tuesday evenings from 6pm-8pm, Tel: 01 8333603.

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The Griffith Book of Investigative Journalism 2014, Vol IV

ISBN 978-1-90-687806-1

Griffith College Dublin Faculty of Journalism and Media Communications

9 781906 878061