Specific policies for a new Irish political party.

(AS Elsewhere (CSP, 2013) I have written about what a constitution for a new Irish republic might look like.

You can find this book, the proceedings of the first ICIS conference at UC Berkeley, with a free excerpt at

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/ireland-in-crisis-16

The monograph can be found at

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/ireland-16

A free excerpt from my monograph is at;

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/59226

I include this parenthesized antescript  as the readership of this blog is indeed international)

Here the objectives are less abstract; simply to outline current absurdities and  to propose a course of action to resolve them

I. The nation and its territory

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That there is a national territory

-         That there be no ambiguity about sovereignty

-         That there be a clear ownership of the island’s  natural resources by the Irish people for their own benefit

-         That we Irish be accorded the status of a sovereign nation by the USA rather than have a charge d’affaires

-         That the US embassy in Dublin properly safeguard the Irish passports entrusted to it for visa approval

Neither of the above is true as of the early 21^st century; after the 1998 referendum there is no territory and none of the island is ours. After the  2004 referendum , the alternative pre-1998  definition is also gone. Therefore these are the policies;

1 The territory of the Irish state is the island of Ireland

2. A referendum is to take place in “northern Ireland” allowing areas to secede. Those that do secede will lose immediate access to Irish passports

3. If the USA continues to treat us abusively , we should recall our ambassador

II Macroeconomic policy

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That we should have control over a currency

-         That we should not set a world first in having junior private bank debt transferred to the sovereign

-         That we should get a deal at least as good as Iceland, post 2008, whose private banks defaulted on British account holders

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose;

1. We should refuse to repay all debt imposed by the IMF/ECB
2. As a quid pro quo, we should offer to bring our corporation tax regime in line with the rest of the EU;
3. If this offer is not accepted, we should reboot our “punt” currency and exploit the carrying capacity of a land currently exporting over $13 billion worth of food every year

III Civil and corporate law enforcement

It would seem reasonable to assume;

- That our corporate law enforcement body has taken at least one successful prosecution since its formation in 2001;

- That there be no ambiguity about whether civil or common law exists in Ireland, and whether its basis is natural law or not;

- That judges should be properly trained, and refrain from gratuitous comments;

- That 100% of the new law should come from Ireland, not 25%

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose , in a land whose revolution was exemplified by the creation of a new court system;

1. The civil and corporate law systems be stripped down to basics about property;
2. That criminal law rely on the common law;
3. that properly trained judges interpret the law vis a vis justice and civil society precedent and in so doing create the basis for new fundamentals

IV Culture and ethnicity

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That Ireland is the land of the Irish, as France is of the French, and that the public statements of university presidents should not demand that the Irish be a minority ethnicity in Ireland;

-         That the highest cultural resources of the state be reserved for the ethnically Irish;

-         That the state behave to its citizens with decency and with a sense of the benefits to the world of a fully-realized Irish state;

-         That the goal be the Irish fully alive, rather than neoliberalism exemplified

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

-         A definition of Irish ethnicity, one that recognizes our vast Diaspora, be included in the constitution;

-         That any immigrants should be assimilated;

-         That we cease projects like those in science that replace native enterprise with extravagantly-funded and foreign-staffed nonsense

V Right to life

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That life in all its manifestations be honoured, including  through a well-provisioned health service

-         That, given scientific  ignorance of the relation between impulse and action, suicide not be grounds for full-term abortion with its Gothic mechanism

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

-         The state refrain from having power over life and death

VI Property

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That those losing their homes to foreclosure would not have to pay the debt for which their inability to pay is the reason for their eviction;

-         That those who make massive property investments and lose them through incompetence should not be able to hold onto them at the taxpayers’ expense;

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;;

1. NAMA be scrapped and the property be sold at market price, or alternatively used to woo the recent Diaspora back with cheap home deals;
2. That, given that homelessness is more expensive to the state than building cheap housing for the indigent, we should do the latter;
3. That the current scams involving NAMA to promote scarcity in various prestige areas of Dublin to pump up the property values of the Irish establishment be scrapped

VII Industrial relations

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That since unions are legal, so are strikes for illegal dismissal

-         That the state should ensure equality of representation at illegal dismissal tribunals

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

1. The current “social partnership” model be abandoned and real unions be allowed to emerge
2. Equality of representation should be enshrined in law as the ECHR required in Morris and Steele vs UK (2005)

VIII State media

It would seem reasonable to assume;

-         That the national broadcaster should stress quality material, from all over the world;

-         That it should either pay for itself through ads or attenuate to a bare-bones quality service

Neither  of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

   1. RTE should cast off its “pop” wing and be subsidized as a quality service, as distinct from consuming hundreds of millions annually in the production of trash

  2.   Producers and presenters currently with RTE  and having to leave should be subsidized to create independent media companies

IX Culture

It would seem reasonable to assume, particularly in a country with as ancient and attractive an attested and living culture as Ireland;

-         That state export boards would not collude with criminals in selling the quality expression of its greatest artists for Walmart to market at cut-price;

-         That the national “music rights body” should not be involved in copyright theft at an industrial scale;

-         That the entire corpus of traditional should not be privatized, but be in the public domain;

-         That criminals in this area should be brought to justice once caught in Ireland by the Gardai, and exposed both in British litigation and US federal court proceedings

None of the above is true as of the early 21^st century. We therefore propose that;

1. The statute of limitations be lifted for these crimes as for others;
2. Civil “servants” involved should be prosecuted, and lose their pensions if convicted

Seán O Nualláin