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version from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0yjHaTUuzQ simply because Barbara's request for sponsorship is now out of date.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

Creative skills

Creative skills involves many of the following - designing posters, choosing colours or paper, writing slogans, printing posters, making resources or flyers. Did you make an election box? Did you make a PowerPoint presentation?

Here is a sample answer for someone who designed posters for a project to raise awareness about landmines:
Creative skills: I had to design the landmines posters that I was making and choose what colours I would use. I decided to use brightly coloured paper (yellow, lime green, pink and pale blue) and poster paints as these would catch peoples' attention. I thought A2 size paper would be the best size for advertising the awareness day.

Your part in a CSPE project

In Section 3 (b) you gave a detailed list of all the committees that were involved in making your action plan a success. It should have lots of 'We' statements.

The next section, Sec. 3 (c),  asks you to:

Give a detailed account of ONE particular task/activity from the list in Section (b)
that YOU undertook as part of the Action Project.

This section must focus on what YOU did, and have lots of 'I' statements

 Below is a sample answer:

Action Project: Raising awareness about the dangers of landmines

It was my job to produce posters that would advertise our awareness day.
I decided that the best way to do this would be to produce some colourful posters. I asked the Art teacher for some art supplies and then I got to work. First I decided on the words I needed to put on the posters. This included the date and time of the awareness day. Then I worked on the graphics. I used some very dramatic colours, mainly black and red, because I thought this would capture attention. I had gathered some pictures of landmines so I copied them onto the posters.
When I was finished I found some good places to hang the posters where they could be easily noticed.

The Green Schools Movement

This video is taken from the EcoEye series, and was originally broadcast on RTE in 2009. Produced by Earth Horizon in association with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), EcoEye is among Ireland's most popular television programmes, bringing news and updates on a range of environmental issues to a weekly audience of up to 400,000. For further details on the EPA and its role in protecting Ireland's environment, see http://www.epa.ie/

Why do an action project

You will be asked to give a reason why you choose to do your particular action project. Here is a list of possible reasons.

• To raise awareness about......
• To inform ourselves more about......
• To raise money to support the work of............
• To help others by...........
• There was an article on it in the news / newspapers / radio etc...............
• There was much discussion on the topic in class.........
• To understand how  xxxxx worked by doing it ourselves.
• To be able to ask questions from someone who knew more about.......
• To share information with our school community.
• To find out what others think about.....
• To find out how we could help........
• To make a difference.....

The committee system

When doing an action project, the committee system is the best way to organise the class into groups. This make sit easy to report on who did what for the project write up.

Section 3 (b) asks you to:

Write a list and brief description of the main tasks/activities undertaken as part of the Action Project.


Below is a list of possible committees for any action project. Of course the list could include many more committees that are specific to particular action projects.

The Contact Committee
Tasks: Contacting guest speakers to arrange visits. Writing letters, making phone calls. Confirming dates / times / etc.

The Permission Committee
Tasks: Getting permission from Principal, Teachers etc to carry out a project.  Writting letters, arranging meetings with those involved in giving permission.

Room Committee
Tasks: Organising a room for a visit by a guest speaker. Moving desks, chairs, rearranging desks + chairs afterwards. Cleaning desks / chairs /rooms. Having suitable equipment available in the room ie laptop / data projector. Booking rooms for events ie, Demo Room, Hall, Art Room etc with relevant teachers.

Finance Committee
Tasks: Raise money, record money raised, count money, lodge money. Keep receipts. Report back to class on spending. Price and buy gifts etc or anything needed for project

Refreshments Committee
Tasks: Having water + glass for guest speakers in rooms. Arranging permission from Home Ec Department to borrow jugs + galsses. Returning glasses etc to Home Ec room washed and cleaned. Reporting back to Home Ec teacher that glasses etc have been returned.

Questions Committee
Tasks: Get class to suggest questions for guest speaker. Sort through questions, choose suitable questions. typing questions on slips of paper. Distribute questions among class. Coordinate the questions asking during the talk.

Publicity Committee
Tasks: Get paper / card / paints etc Make or print posters, put up posters. Write announcements in announcements book. Record event on video or photographs. Submit photos and report on event to school web committee for school website.

Thank you Committee
Tasks: Publicly thank speakers after their talk. Write letters of thanks after events.

Transport Committee
Tasks: Phone bus companies and get prices for buses. Inform class of bus prices and get agreement. Book buses. Collect bus money from class. Arrange payments to bus company.

Crowd control Committee
Tasks: To control crowds at cake sales etc. Allocate enough students to entances / exits. Make decisions regarding how many will be allowed into hall / Room at any one time. Communicate between doors. Ask additional teachers to help out on the day.

Pricing Committee
Tasks: Make decisions regarding how much cakes etc will be sold for at a cake sale. Make price tickets. Allocate enough tickets to students selling cakes. Make decision when to reduce prices at a cake sale.

The Product Committee
Tasks: To source and get products for display for a designated day project ie Fair Trade products.

Research Committee
Tasks: Research a place to visit / guest speaker. Finds out background information. Makes presentation to class about what they learned.

Self Help Africa

Self Help Africa is 25 years working with communities in nine African countries where they are implementing a series rural development projects.



Self Help Africa has launched a Spring campaign to promote seed production in some of the poorest countries in the world.




Africa's rural poor must produce their own food, or buy it. Read here how farming as a business can provide opportunities for millions.

Action Project ideas

Democracy

• Mock election.
• Visit to Áras an Uachtaráin. the Daíl, the Senad, a prison,
• Guest speaker - local TD, Trade Union, National Youth Council, GAA

Action Project ideas

Development

• Invite a speaker to  talk to the class - Self Help Africa, a local Councillor, a Planning Officer, Niall Mellon Township.
• Hold a 'Know your County Council' week.
• Conduct a survey of the local amenities and decide what the area needs.
• Hold a mock summit on global development.
• Organise a Development Education week.
• Organise a 'Connect with Your Community' Week and get people to volunteer locally.
• Complete a research project on the Millennium Development Goals.
• Find and propose an area around the school to 'develop'.

Action Project ideas

Stewardship

• Host a showing of the film An Inconvenient Truth follwed by a discussion session.
• Invite an environmentalist to talk to the class.
• Have a 'carbon footprint' day with a prize for the person with the lowest footprint.
• Conduct a survey on your lunch box food miles.
• Invite someone from an animal shelter to talk to class.
• Visit to an animal shelter such as DSPCA.
• Volunteer at an animal shelter.
• Organise  an awareness campaign on endangered animals.
• Organise a trip to the zoo.
• Host a debate on animal rights.
• Organise an energy saving week in September
• Have a recycling blitz at lunch times.
• Organise a cycle to school week/day.
• Invite a representative from WEEE to talk to class.
• Invite a representative from the Green Party to talk to class.
• Visit a dump / recycling plant.
• Volunteer with Tidy Towns Committee / local Residents Association.
• Take part in National Spring Clean week.
• Plant a tree during Tree Week in March.
• Christmas card recycling campaign.

Act Now, Save Later

The great Pacific Garbage Patch

The story of a plastic bag

United Nations Observers