Dáil Éireann

There are 166 Members of Dail Éireann. They are known as TD's or Teachta Dála and all are directly elected by the people of Ireland.

Deputies to the Dáil have many functions and duties. A typical week of a TD involves:

• Meeting constituents and holding advice clinics,
• Attending the Dáil to discuss matters of local and national interest,
• Attending Committee meetings,
• Representing their constituents,
• Attending official functions etc.

TD's come from 43 Constituencies around Ireland. Which constituency do you live in?

Kildare is divided into two constituencies - Kildare North and Kildare South. There are 4 TD's representing the people of Kildare North in the Dáil:

Bernard Durkan - Fine Gael

Emmet Stagg - Labour

Catherine Murphy - Independent

Anthony Lawlor -  Fine Gael

Seanad Éireann

The Cathaoirleach Sheanad Éireann is Senator Paddy Burke, FG

The Cathaoirleach is the sole judge of order in the Seanad. His job involves:

• Calling members to speak and all speeches must be addressed to the Chair.
• Putting questions to the House, supervising votes and declaring the results.
• Keeping control of the Seanad debates and making sure Senators behave in an orderly manner.
• He has the power to suspend or adjourn the House.

A typical day in the Seanad involves:

• Debating and voting on legislation,
• Discussing matters of national importance,
• Attending Committee meetings,
• Providing important contributions and expertise to topics being debated.

In addition to their parliamentary duties, Senators also work on behalf of their electorate.
Find out more about the Seanad here

Senator Mary Ann O Brien is from Kildare. Read more about her here.

Irish flag protocol

What does the Irish flag stand for?

When is it flown at half mast? Where is half mast?

Why do we not fly the flag after dark?

 What should you do if the flag becomes torn or worn?

Irish flag protocol from Noeleen

From the Office of the Taoiseach

I can build houses.....

Here is a short video from a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity describing the work she does on a HfH build.



Original video by Barbara Ryl. This chopped version from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yjHaTUuzQ simply because Barbara's request for sponsorship is now out of date.

Helping Habitat for Humanity

Class Amber did their Action Project this year to help Habitat for Humanity. They had a speaker in to talk to them and also held a cake sale to raise funds for HfH.

Here is a short video about the work of HfH and the 'why' they do their work. For Habitat Ireland, "why" isn't a question. It's the answer. It's why they build.




Here is the presentation Niamh gave class Amber.

Self Help Africa

Last wek we had a speaker, Mr Patsy Toland, from Self Help Africa come to the class to talk about their work in the developing world.

Here are some of the facts we learnt:

1. SHA was set up in 1984 after the Ethiopian famine which was highlighted by Bob Geldof. A priest and a teacher went to help and afterwards decided they wanted to do more but on a long term basis. They set up SHA with a grant of £1m from the Live Aid Foundation.
2. Their aims were to

-           1. help farmers,

-          2. train local communities,

-          3. give money to the community not through governments. SHA is an NGO

3. Africa is the poorest part of the world, especially rural Africa. SHA will not solve all the problems but have decided to help with agriculture because then farmers can grow own food, feed own families, make own money.
4. Why is there such poverty in Africa? - this dates back to colonisation - Africans had no control of their own lands. When colonisataion ended they had no experience of managing the land.
5. Farmers in Ireland help farmers in Africa - SHA is supported by Teagas and Irish Farmers Association through funding and expertise.
6. SHA projects are Sustainable / long term projects and the local communities are able to maintain the projects after SHA leave. Most SHA projects last for 5 years.
7. In the aftermath of Live Aid, the public support and donations was diminishing so in the late 1980's SHA realised they needed to TELL people about where their funds were being spent so people could understand and continue to support them. SHA focussed on Development Education to raise awareness of the injustices in the world. Patsy is the Development Education officer for SHA in Ireland. St Wolstans TY follow a SHA development education programme so the issues are being studied each year and more people are becoming aware of the injustices in the world.
8. 1/2 people in the world live in very tough conditions and we are part of the problem. In Ghana 1/4 mil children work in the chocolate industry - indentured slaves (An indentured servant was a worker, typically a laborer or tradesman, under contract to an employer for a fixed period of time, typically three to seven years, in exchange for their transportation, food, clothing, lodging and other necessities.) Do you buy Fair Trade chocolate? If not, then you are part of the problem.
9. SHA projects focus on subsistence for farmers - growing enough to feed their family and selling the extra to help improve their lives. SHA realised that women are the main workers in rural Africa, they do all the work and the men control the money and what is done with it. SHA projects aim to empower women - give them access to money - micro credit
10. SHA set up a Cooperative Credit Union scheme:

-          literacy training for founders of CU

-          woman saves a little money and SHA match what she saves.

-          women own the money

-          women entrepreneurs have made huge changes in their communities.

11. SHA don't run a volunteer programme because their aims are for long term projects and ones that use local manpower etc.

Find out more about Self Help Africa at www.selfhelpafrica.org

Decision-making skills

Did you have to make any decisions in your action project? Did you have to decide to take one action instead of another? Perhaps you had to decide which colours to use for a poster. Perhaps you chose to write a letter rather than an email - why? There are many decisions that need to be atken during an action project.

Below is a sample answer for someone who used decision-making skills in their project:

Decision-making skills: I had to decide on the slogans I would use. I wanted to use the most catchy ones to attract attention. I also had to decide on the shape of the posters. I decided to use irregular shapes as I thought these would attract interest. Then I decided on the best locations around the school for displaying the posters. As the campaign was aimed at first year students I decided that it was best if the posters were hung along the first year corridors so that they would find out about landmines on their way to and from class.