Letters to the Editor: Emergency court orders for victims of stalking
Stalking victims deserve to live in safety.
I was overjoyed to hear Helen McEntee, the justice minister, confirm that victims of stalking can now apply for emergency court orders.
This is an important start in recognising the fact that stalking is a unique type of trauma.
It is emboldening to learn that victims of stalking can now apply for a court order to stop this egregious behaviour thanks to this new law that came into effect on Monday last.
Stalking is the act of following someone or something very closely and watching its every move.
If one happens to be a very famous movie star, it’s quite likely that someone is sadly stalking this star as one reads this sentence.
The verb to stalk means to pursue carefully and often stealthily.
As a clinician of over 20 years, I always found it most distressing to witness victims literally living in fear for their lives.
What I believe underpins and buttresses this egregious behaviour is a rich seam of misogyny.
I have found that it is mostly men who are stalkers, although men can be victims too.
These male stalkers feel entitled to women’s time, their attention, their bodies, and sometimes even their lives.
In the past, one sometimes got the sense that the gardaí may have regarded women as time-wasters and their complaints as histrionics for objecting to this awful conduct.
May I remind everyone that stalking victims deserve to live in safety.
Up until recently, it’s my contention that we were failing them.
It’s a definite start for victims of stalking that they can now apply for emergency court orders against their tormentors.
The aim of the interim orders is that they will provide victims with immediate protection against ongoing offending behaviour while they await the determination of a court case about stalking.
This allows a victim to now make an application to the court which may grant an order if the judge is satisfied that there is an immediate risk to the safety of the applicant.
If, as you read this, the director of the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the location manager who thought the expenditure of €335,000 on a small, private bicycle shed at Leinster House appropriate are still employed by the State then it has become all but impossible to defend how this State delivers public works.
It has also become impossible to defend how public resources are used. If in, say, a week’s time, those individuals are still employed by the State then the relevant minister — Paschal Donohoe — must consider his position if the “Reform” part of his ministerial brief is to have any meaning.
Though at the opposite end of the spreadsheet of shame bookended by the still unfinished children’s hospital, this latest farce again gives two fingers to the idea of accountability in the public sector.
It gives another two fingers to the efforts of the hundreds of thousands of taxpayers who fund the State through taxes on hard-earned incomes.
The scale of the project is immaterial but the let-them-eat-cake hubris at its core is a deep affront to anyone who hopes that this society might become as good, as admirable as it might be.
These calls will, as is usual, be dismissed by public sector unions and some of their managers — maybe even the myriad politicians averse to hard decisions — but as anyone with the wit of an unpromising junior clerical officer understands this issue must be tackled sooner or later. What a vote-winner it will be for the administration that finds the backbone to begin that vital work — and what a boon for the malignant forces that would destroy our Republic if the can is kicked down the road one more time.
Has the Government and the OPW lost the proverbial plot?
While median house prices are €330,000, according to the CSO, the installation of a bicycle shed at Leinster House, costing taxpayers a whopping €335,000, for 18 bikes, is taking the mick.
While Eamon Ryan tries to wipe his hands off this “very expensive” shed, I ask who sought the shed in the first place?
Is there no level to which this Government or TDs will stoop to satisfy their childish needs?
Have they forgotten that food prices rose by 2% in the last year, while wholesale energy costs rose by 3% — 15.3% higher than last year?
On top of this, transport costs rose by 4.3% in the last 12 months.
Yet here we have a Government, and state agency, willing to spend vast amounts of taxpayers’ money on a shed that could be installed and fitted by many suppliers for less than €5,000.
This is pricing for a 3m by 4m aluminium shed with a ply floor and a six-point locking system.
For a steel frame shed, 5m by 5m, the cost is €6,000 on average.
So unless this shed, for these 18 bikes, is made of titanium, or some other precious metals, why the extravagant and outrageous cost?
Who do we hold to account for this waste of money?
On the same day that the use of €335,000 in public funds on a bike shelter at Leinster House made headlines, the Government announced its €1m Climate Actions Work fund.
This is no coincidence.
Rather, it is government greenwashing ahead of a general election, both to appear climate-conscious and distract from this current saga.
The Government seems keen on presenting itself as environmentally conscious while spending over a third of a million euro on a bike shelter, yet allocating only two-thirds more for fostering meaningful climate conversations across the country
While encouraging communities to discuss climate change is a good start, it falls far short of the bold action needed to combat the climate crisis effectively.
The fund, which ranges from €2,500 to €10,000 per project, is not designed for actual climate action or mitigation measures.
Instead, it focuses on communication and engagement.
In reality, it is a good job the fund doesn’t seek to invest in environmental infrastructure.
If a bike shelter to encourage less car usage costs €18,611 per bike, an allocation of €10,000 per project across the country would not go far.
One must ask: What does the Government aim to achieve through this paltry fund more than a strategic PR stunt?
The Government should consider spending its almost €13bn budget surplus on a once-in-a-lifetime green energy investment.
We need the Government to take the issue of offshore wind development on the west coast seriously and commit substantial resources to that end.
However, the irony is stark: The Government through this fund once again places the burden of change on the shoulders of individuals and small communities, while they stand still, overspending on meaningless projects, promising much but delivering little.
As Sinn Féin launched its new multi-billion euro housing plan, little did it know that it would all be upstaged by a bicycle shed.
I just cannot understand why farmers are not shouting from the rooftops about the failed bovine TB eradication scheme which is costing them millions every year.
J oan Burgess — ‘Leave badger alone’ (Irish Examiner, Letters, September 2) — highlighted the fact that “the current methodology of testing is inadequate” with literally thousands of farm animals being killed each year with no TB symptoms.
And the above failed scheme which started 70 years ago can now be called a national scandal, with bovine TB levels in Ireland still the highest in Europe in 2021.
France on the other hand has been completely free of bovine TB since 2001, Denmark since 1980, and Switzerland since 1960.
TK Whitaker, reckoned to be one of the best and most influential civil servants ever in Ireland, said 40 years ago that “the bovine TB scheme was in danger of becoming the greatest financial scandal in the history of the State”, and how right he was.
If the current scandal continues it is estimated that it will cost farmers almost €1m per week over the next 10 years.
It is also worth noting that a bovine TB vaccine has been developed, but it is not being used in Ireland.
And Eoin Ryan of the Department of Agriculture said in 2021 that “if you vaccinate bovines with BCG they will test positive with the skin test”.
This seems to be a very lame excuse because if every animal was vaccinated, the current failed skin test would become irrelevant.
So the Government should take action now by asking a couple of officials to travel to France to find out how they managed to become free of bovine TB over 20 years ago, while the Department of Agriculture here in Ireland is still using a completely failed testing system.
