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Election Posters? Yes or No?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Election Posters? Yes or No?

Elections usually come with a small discussion about election posters. At every election a vast amount of “Vote Me! Vote Me!” posters with the faces of the numerous candidates are put up on lamp posts and bridges all over the country. But it is not certain, possibly even doubtful, if the posters have any positive effect on voters. Many think that they are just totally ineffective and do not influence voters at all.

The rules around election posters are very strict. They are only allowed to be on display from a clearly specified date before the elections (max 30 days) and until 1 week after the election. If posters are up too early or didn’t get removed in time, they are considered as litter and the party will get fined for each poster that has been found. But even with all these rules, many think posters should be forbidden completely.

And then a Referendum comes along that doesn’t just bring mugshots of wannabe politicians onto the posters, but instead shows foetuses, pregnancy bellies with painted babies on them and other graphic posters by the NO side with all sorts of dramatic and seemingly not always truthful warnings. The YES side on the other hand might be accused of too much simplifying the options. And since we know that this is a hugely emotional disagreement between YES and NO and that it is highly unlikely that the posters will change someone’s opinions, I am totally in favour of forbidding all election and referendum posters in future.

Keep the lampposts free from litter and save the money for better uses!

Elections, Environment, Politics, ,

Goodbye, Internship!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Goodbye, Internship!

Google’s interpretation of “internship” is the “position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification.” The part that is missing in this definition is that the internship is only for a limited period of time. But this is not the only problem with that definition. The other problem is “sometimes without pay”.

Many arts organisations in Dublin regularly look for interns and some say that they couldn’t operate without them. Internships are usually restricted to 6 months and are very very often unpaid.

BUT, this is not ok!

This week the RTE News website reported that the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) was forced to withdraw a job advertisement for a full-time six month long unpaid internship in the area of sports science that required the candidate to have a PhD or a Masters degree. The IRFU claimed that the job ad was publicised “in error” and without approval, seemingly when it was pointed out to them that unpaid internships are essentially illegal.

And this is the shocker that arts organisations in Ireland are clearly unaware of: The Workplace Relations Commission has stated that ALL employees with a contract of employment, even if they are called “intern” are entitled to salary of a minimum of EUR 9.55 per hour. That is EUR 382 for a 40 hour week and is a minimum of EUR 1528 per month. The National Minimum Wage act does NOT contain an exemption for internships.

So what does that mean for the art gallery in Dublin that says “Please note that internships at XXXXXXXXX are unpaid.”? It is illegal! And what about these current (!) job ads:
www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/670035213/ or
ie.indeed.com/cmp/KEELINGS/jobs/Interniship-97faca21db54e156 or
ie.indeed.com/company/Decathlon-Ireland/jobs/Business-Development-Intern-e52c37583b99df09 or
ie.indeed.com/company/Dualway-Group/jobs/IT-Intern-96fc0b43d65cff48
jobs.trovit.ie/listing/marketing-intern.1VB1Dy1j1s1o17
ie.jooble.org/desc/-432130274709652778
ie.jooble.org/desc/2112319712079505216

All dodgy!! And the names of the companies and organisations that break the law? Keelings, Decathlon, Dualway, Connect The Dots, YouBloom, Christ Church Cathedral. This list was the result of a quick Google search and a more detailed search would probably bring a MUCH longer list of companies and organisations that want to employ but not pay.

It is highly likely that plenty more unpaid internships are among this list of vacancies on all websites, especially because many companies don’t say if the internship is paid or unpaid. Sneaky!

The rules seem clear, but do the rules make sense? Yes and no! And it is a similar problem as with Au Pairs in Ireland where the Workplace Relations Commission has said that Au Pairs have to be paid at least the minimum wage. There are circumstances where an Intern (or an Au Pair) can learn a HUGE amount and will get therefore an adequate compensation through the learning that they couldn’t get otherwise. In that case there should be an option maybe to pay a lower amount than the minimum salary. But I know also cases where internship is or has been totally abused to get a free worker in the same way as the IRFU was nearly doing it.

Our government should spend time on fixing the Au Pair and the Internship rules. The way they are now is not helpful to anybody!

Uncategorized, , , ,

Bad news for us – TD Kevin Moran will remain in his job

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Bad news for us – TD Kevin Moran will remain in his job

Kevin Moran is an Irish politician and TD from Longford-Westmeath. He usually and oddly is referred to as “Kevin “Boxer” Moran” and it seems that the “Boxer” nickname – which he personally seems to love – is based on a story from when he was 8 years of age and punched another child on the football field. twitter.com/SineadHus/status/703728764564467712 It is quite odd that a grown up would use a nickname he got as a child (even worse that it is about punching another child) and with his website constantly referring to him as “Boxer”, you definitely get the impression that this guy is – let’s say “different”! From his website: “Boxer lives in Cornamagh, Athlone, is married to…… Boxer has been a keen angler all his life…” Boxer this and Boxer that! kevinboxermoran.com/about-kevin/

But back to his role in society! He is a politician and once was a Fianna Fail member until 2011, when he left the party NOT in a disagreement over some relevant party principle, but because he was unhappy that his party didn’t want to chose him as a candidate. IN 2016 he got elected to the Dail as an independent candidate and when Fine Gael needed to strike a deal with the Independent Alliance to get into government, Sean Canney and Kevin Moran were offered a shared role as the junior minister for the Office of Public Works (OPW).

As you would expect it from responsible politicians working in the interest of the Irish public, the two decided to toss a coin to decide who will take on the role first. :-O

Sean Canney won and took over the first term (he really lost, as you will see in the next sentence). One year later, in May 2017 then Kevin Moran took over the role and this week it has been confirmed that unfortunately he will remain as junior minister for the OPW as long as the Fine Gael government is in place and will not swap the role again with Sean Canney.

You might wonder why that affects us. So let me tell you what the OPW does. The Office of Public Works is responsible for all properties in state ownership. This includes all buildings that are owned or rented by the state, for example for offices for departments or semi-state agencies and it also includes historical and cultural sites like Newgrange, Dublin Castle, Kilmainham Gaol, Phoenix Park, all National Museums, Farmleigh House etc

We have a great situation in Ireland with free admission to the National Museums and the National Gallery, but other historic buildings usually charge admission charges. There is nothing wrong with that, after all the maintenance of these buildings and staff costs etc are very expensive and money either needs to come from the visitors OR from tax payers.

But in 2011 a great idea was implemented that brought the historic sites so much closer to the population in Ireland and not just visitors: While Brian Hayes was Junior Minister for the OPW and Clare McGrath was Chairman of the OPW the “First Free Wednesday” scheme was introduced. www.rte.ie/news/2011/0706/303306-heritage/ Every first Wednesday of the month all OPW properties were free to visit for everyone and it was a HUGE success. People in Dublin visited Kilmainham Gaol or Dublin Castle or the Casino in Marino often for the first time and there was a great buzz every first Wednesday.

But as soon as Sean Canney became Junior Minister and Maurice Buckley became OPW chairman in 2016 things changed. First Kilmainham Gaol was removed from the First Wednesday scheme, then Dublin Castle and recently Newgrange also is not free anymore on that one day every month.

But this April things even went one step further. For as long as I can remember, the guided tours in Farmleigh House were free, but in April when Farmleigh House re-opened after a long winter closure suddenly and completely quietly an admission charge was introduced for the guided tours there. The tour is just about 45 minutes long but the charge is bigger than you might expect: EUR 8 is the price of this tour that last year was completely free.

There is no doubt that “free programmes” cost money and in the end we all pay for it, but the justification for offering it for free (at least one day per month) is to bring the local touristic sites attractive and appealing to non-tourists in Dublin. We travel around the world and wherever we go we go to museums and visit monuments, but back on our home patch we seem to think that museums and historic buildings are only for visitors. The free programmes can – as we have seen from 2011 until 2015 – change that around and it is a big mistake to cancel this programme.

I can’t say for certain if the Junior Minister is the person responsible for cancelling the free programmes or if it is the OPW Chairman, but ultimately the responsibility lies with the Junior Minister and Kevin Moran (or Sean Canney) certainly hasn’t impressed with ANY great initiatives. So it is bad news that he will stay in the job for another while!

 

Dublin, Politics, Tourism, , , , , ,

Project Arts Centre: Get two cans of paint and achieve a BIG impact!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Project Arts Centre: Get two cans of paint and achieve a BIG impact!

Some people are skilled in using minimalist means to get max. effect and the Project Arts Centre is definitely good at that!

They tried it in 2016 and were very successful with it and they just copied the same recipe again and seemingly will get a similar maximised effect. Others would have to pay THOUSANDS for it, the Project Arts Centre just had to pay for two cans of paint.

So what is this clever recipe? Here it goes: Get a recognised artist, give him a can of white paint and a can of red paint and get him to paint a controversial message on the wall of your building. The artist can get help to speed up the process by the way. And don’t worry about the fact that not tooo many people will actually see the painted on message. Just make sure that the “authorities” will find out about it. (In 2016 it was Dublin City who had a problem with the missing planning permission for the “advertisement message”, this time it is the Charities’ Regulator.)

Hope and pray that the authorities have a big problem with that controversial message on the wall and tell you off and DEMAND that it will be removed. Now you get the press involved and tell them about it. Because it is a “sensational” thing that you are told off, they will hopefully write about it. And bingo! You didn’t have to hang a single poster of pay for expensive ad space online or on lamp posts and you reach more people than anyone else.

When you are told off, don’t fight it, but declare immediately that you will be happy to remove the international respected artists’ piece of art work. Then turn the removal of the message into an event by giving a date and time when you will remove it and with a bit of luck you might get the press to queue up to get a cool picture of the destroying of public art and if that goes into the newspapers and TV news, you get a second BIG exposure.

And if EVER again there is another message you feel passionate about, just rinse and repeat! The recipe works as long as there are authorities that complain. And in case there is no complaining authorities anymore. don’t worry, the message just stays where it is and that way still has some effect.

Sooo smart! :-) The controversial message was “Repeal the 8th!” and the Charities’ Regulator says it breaks the rule that forbids charities to engage in political activities. The artist is Maser and the removal will happen on Monday morning at 11:00.

 

Dublin, Media, Politics, , , , ,

Topaz filling stations undergoing an odd re-branding

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Topaz filling stations undergoing an odd re-branding

All 420 Topaz filling stations in Ireland will be re-branded to “Circle K” at a cost of a mad EUR 20mio. There is absolutely no need to move away from the well established “Topaz” brand in Ireland and in my opinion the new “Circle K” brand looks much cheaper than the Topaz brand, which makes the move even more odd.

Here is a picture of a Topaz station and here is one of a Circle K filling station in the USA.

But a LOT has happened with Topaz recently. Topaz was owned by Denis O’Brien and in 2015 he sold it to the Canadian company Couche-Tard, which has something like 6500 filling stations in North America and 1500 other stores and also is operating convenience stores and/or filling stations in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Indonesia and Mexico.

The global Circle K stores and filling stations is the reason why it was decided to bring the Irish brand in line with the global branding. But remember that Topaz only recently re-branded all Esso filling stations to Topaz and now another rebrand is happening. 20mio to make your brand look cheaper than before. Mad! You might also remember that Topaz was some while back Statoil and Shell, so a lot of rebrands and changes. :-O

Dublin, , , , ,
 
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