Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
TDS AND SENATORS who refuse to remove their Yes pins in the Houses of the Oireachtas will not face any sanction.
This is despite a long-standing rule that members, staff and visitors to Leinster House are not permitted to wear emblems of a party-political nature while in the complex.
Oireachtas authorities have confirmed they will continue to request that people within the parliamentary precincts remove any pins or badges that promote a Yes vote, but a spokesperson confirmed that those who do not comply will not face any sanction.
“We have no plan to issue any sanctions,” the spokesperson said.
The Houses of the Oireachtas protocol states:
Emblems of a party-political nature should not be worn or otherwise displayed within the parliamentary precincts, an exception being made solely in respect of persons attending the Distinguished Visitors Gallery.
Leo Varadkar wearing a Yes pin during a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee today.
The issue has arisen in recent days with several TDs and Senators being asked to remove pins and badges advocating a Yes vote in the same-sex marriage referendum on Friday week.
But two Labour TDs said today that they declined a request from ushers, who are in charge of security and keeping order in Leinster House, to remove their ‘Yes’ pins.
Advertisement
Tánaiste Joan Burton, who wore a pin yesterday but was not asked to remove it, today backed her Labour colleagues, Emmet Stagg and John Lyons.
Independent senator David Norris has also refused to comply with requests to remove his ‘Yes’ badge. Fine Gael TD Jerry Buttimer said last night he would refuse to remove his pin if asked.
A spokesperson for the Oireachtas said that members, staff and visitors were being asked to remove the pins and badges “on the basis that most political parties and individual Members have taken particular positions in the upcoming referendum”.
Whoops!
We couldn't find this Tweet
“Therefore, Oireachtas authorities do consider emblems that advocate a particular stance in the referendum party political in that sense,” they said.
But a well-placed Leinster House source said that the issue was not “exorcising the authorities here too much”.
“There hasn’t been any complaints about it. It’s more a reminder about the protocol, but it’s not something that is seen as a big issue here,” they added.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Obama and democrats want an open boarders and amnesty to strengthen their political base; republicans and the U.S. chamber of commerce want open boarders for cheap Mexican labor. The American people just want a government who will put them fist as the U.S. Constitution demands and protect them. Cancelling flights flights from Ebola countries will put pressure on to close the boarder with Mexico so they would rather pretend they are doing something about it by pointless airport screenings that make little sense given the incubation period.
Were not, but I still think it’s going to get here eventually. Immigrant communities stick together, so Mohammad from Nigeria is infected and infects his girlfriend who infects her friend whos on her way to Ireland to claim asylum, that’s a perfectly plausible scenario.
We’ll probably get 1-2 cases, we might even have a case of accidental healthcare worker infection (which is why we ought to be doing drills) but we won’t have an outbreak.
I agree. The WHO reckon there will be 10000 cases a week by Christmas. And they say it has a 70% death rate. If they are correct which we all hope they are not, that means by Christmas there will be at least 7000 people dead every week…. Scary stuff.
Ireland is in the full report on this. Despite us being close to France, despite our refugees and indirect traffic and traffic from non infected areas of Africa being factored in, they still estimated our odds at <5%
The hysteria surrounding this is comical. Its not as contagious as its made out to be, more people will die from flu this year and the spread is mainly due to poor healthcare standards, as mentioned in the article, and the washing of the dead ritual. Unless your granny died just after travelling to Liberia and you washed her naked body before burying her, you should escape unscathed.
I agree. The over reaction is unbelievable. In the early stages of this outbreak I was reading up on it and found that the biggest concern of the people who are panic mongering was funding.
Diarmuid, it absolutely is not one of the most contagious diseases out there, it is not airborne, you’ve clearly bought into the hysteria without actually reading up on the facts. Ebola has been around for a LONG time and this outbreak has infected more than ALL OTHER outbreaks put together, and it is still only a tiny amount of people. The influenza virus will kill 300,000 people this winter alone, including some in Ireland. But you keep freaking over that 4,000 “highly contagious”. Lord almighty.
That’s unsubstantiated bollocks Diarmaid. Try backing up your claim with a single source. Literally the first link on Google for “How Contagious is Ebola” says:
“Infectious disease experts say the risk of that is low for several reasons. Ebola is hard to contract, they say, and good infection-control practices can stop its spread.
What’s more, Ebola is much less contagious than many other more common diseases. The virus, much like HIV or hepatitis, is spread through blood or bodily fluids and is not airborne.”
I like your comment. I have been trying to do my own research but I’ve not found info like what you have, I seem to come across the same as the media is spreading. I would love to read the truth about this virus, could you possibly guide me with a link. Thank you.
There is a diff between highly infectious and highly contagious.
There is a diff between contagious and highly contagious.
Words and definitions matter.
If people would just take a deep breath, calm down, and take 1 hour to go to the CDC website and read about it or the wikipedia article on the outbreak then 2/3 of the comments and questions on these articles would never have to be made.
Take your damn tablet or iphone out when you are on the train or bus and read the cdc website or the wikipedia article on the outbreak and you’ll be well informed very quickly, stop listening to quacks and conspiracy theorists and the tabloids.
I’m on the fence here. While it hasn’t infected proportionally as many people as influenza, it is a far more lethal disease, travelling far more quickly and with a much higher mortality rate. As well as this, scientists are trying to determine the factors which have caused a disease in containment to infect healthy people. The major important factor is to remain calm while putting in place safeguards for disease control; monitoring at airports, monitoring for early warning signs, quarantining any potential victims.
The saddest thing about this, as with most global issues, is that it’s worst affecting the poorest people in the world who aren’t equipped to deal with it. There was an article in the Observer at the weekend written by a girl in an African village which has been affected. I cried reading it, the terror they live in is inhuman. It’s a genocide.
I think the “hysteria” is justified.
-SPANISH FLU killed more people than WW1. Most people have seen over a 100 programs and read tens of books about the war and almost nothing about that epidemic.
-This epidemic is predicted to grow EXPONENTIALLY. Do WE really understand what this means?
- Ebola has been around for decades so clearly a vaccine is NOT EASILY found.
-The response of the global authorities is completely INADEQUATE. Cuba has given more assistance than most counties including China, Russia etc.
-The worst continent for an epidemic to start is Africa. Such extreme poverty and inadequate facilities makes AFRICA a VIRUS BREEDING GROUND.
-Modern air travel combined with human stupidity/hubris means it is guaranteed to travel FAST. Flying infected patients is CRAZY.
- IMO there is something very SUSPICIOUS about the behaviour of the authorities. Just how are so many medical staff getting inflected and dying when the virus “can only spread by bodily fluids”?
- there is clearly a major KNOWLEDGE GAP Eg they don’t know if pets can carry the virus etc.
-Our government goes on air giving reassurances that there are no direct flights to Africa!…”so we are safe”. London to Dublin is one of the busiest travel routes in the world making it a human corridor and therefore a VIRUS CORRIDOR.
-In point of fact there are direct flights to Africa (Morocco etc) and we have many communities of Native Africans from the affected areas ( Nigeria).
African countries have managed and dealt with Ebola before, Senagal and NIGERIA have had cases and gotten past it this time.
The countries where it is growing exponentially are ones where there is no TRUST in medicine or hospitals, very few doctors, local customs which help the disease thrive and a broken down state.
Your getting off on the FEAR for you own pleasure or punishment.
A vaccine was never developed because out breaks were rare and small and it just wasn’t worth it when only hundreds die every 20 years
.
ZMAPP is a new vaccine that has been used to quite a degree of success.
What’s scaring the scientists the most is, as the guy who discovered it recently said, it’s not following the pattern of the previous 25 outbreaks. It usually follows a very predictable liner pattern and contact tracing is really easy. In past cases it’s hit isolated villages not really cities, and was thus easy to contain. This time it’s hopping all over the map with no predictable pattern.
That’s reason to worry if you’re in subsaharan Africa, but not for the rest of us.
:@Kev to your points…
-The Spanish flu was highly contagious and easy to spread, ebola while being highly infectious is not highly contagious.
-The NIH in the US has said if the US govt had given it the funding it asked for they’d have a vaccine by now, the barriers to a vaccine or treatment are not as much the disease as resources dedicated to treatment. and as Sean said several promising drugs are on the horizon.
-Flying in infected patients is not crazy it’s logical. The people going out there to help treat innocent victims are the best of what humanity has to offer. remember many of the people infected are babies and children, if we don’t send people out there to at least help them die without pain a lot of innocent kids will die in agony, nobody could want that, and if the people doing that heroic work are being infected we owe them every chance at saving their lives. You can’t infect people on a plane anyway.
-It is spreading to healthcare workers because of innocent breaches in protocol, look at the other posts on this article I made you can see how easy it can happen, this is why in the west they usually wear full PP suits instead of just gloves and goggles.
-We do know if pets can become infected, they can.
-Sure London to Dublin is busy…so where are all the infected people? We’ve not had one yet? where are they hiding?
-People are splitting hairs with the Morroco stuff, do you know how far Morrocoo is from the affected region? When we say africa we mean subsaharan Africa and the affected region, Morocco has no infected people and is thousands of miles away from an infected country.
It seems that is is a very large leap for it to become airborne.
The fear is that in countries like Liberia etc where there is massive distrust of doctors and hospitals and modern medicine that people will not listen to them and be wiped out.
There is a slum belt from West Africa to the far east with a billion people in it.
It could take a long time to eradicate if it spreads across that.
That said, there is plenty of evidence and an example where even slums can isolate this.
I saw a documentary called Outbreak about a scientist called Dustin Hoffman who was fighting to contain an outbreak of a new airborn strain of Ebola. Fortunately, on that occasion it was contained, but it’s only a matter of time before it happens again.
Next time, if there isn’t a genius renegade scientist on hand to stand up those god damn beurocrats and military conspirators, then god help us all.
Now that ebola has reached the United states and Europe, media types are working round the clock to come up with a hashtag slogan to contain the disease
It’s makes sense that if you are in a west African country and you think you are infected that you would hop on a plane to a country with proper healthcare facilities to I prove your chances of survival. Cases are going to spread. Improving care in west Africa is the first step . Giving people and those who look after them a real fighting chance . After that you just need to ensure you are prepared for when cases do land here.
Zmapp probably is your answer as to why it will happen now more . Although there isn’t any left at the moment anywhere in the world but it us in production , just takes time to make apparently. I agree completely about containment and Nigeria is a good example which is why we do need to Improve treatment and containment in Africa then you won’t have desperate people making plane trips in the hope of better treatment . I don’t subscribe to the night are scenario painted by some on here. It can can could be well contained here and one of the best ways to stop the spread is to Improve healthcare and containment is the affected African countries.
Seanie ….senior scientists are comparing Ebola to Aids. AIDS…DRAMA?
Ryan ….thank you for your reasoned response.
-I think the inability of modern hospitals to contain the virus among their medical staff with the best that Western Medicine has to offer proves the virus is SERIOUSLY CONTAGIOUS. They are blaming the nurses for “breaking protocol”. I smell a COVER UP, forgive the pun.
-Whether flying known infected staff does test our best hospitals procedures and staff and raises the profile of the epidemic which in i suppose could be argued is a good thing. So far its clear the virus is winning. I still believe its CRAZY. A professional compassionate person who wishes to help would forego the possible benefits of flying back for the benefit of humanity.
-The point about Morocco is that these land borders are difficult to control. Eg to travel from Nigeria by land or air to Morocco. So Lets stop pretending we have a natural barrier with no direct flights etc.
- if pets etc can spread the virus its pretty serious. A dog cannot tell us its feeling ill. And we still dont even know for sure the Incubation period for humans!
Neal…I think links to the mainstream media are good. Someone mentioned this story linked below …i think its shows the human side to the story we are debating and well worth reading http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/11/bintu-sannoh-ebola-sierra-leone-eyewitness
My reason for posting here is to inform and be informed.Not to Alarm.
Fianna Fáil TD apologises after claiming in Dáil that British Army never shot civilians in Ireland
1 hr ago
21.2k
128
Cloghan
Man (50s) dies after being struck by a car in Co Offaly last night
7 mins ago
0
United Arab Emirates
Kinahan gang figure Sean McGovern to appear in Dublin court after his extradition flight lands
Updated
10 mins ago
34.6k
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 197 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 137 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 177 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 139 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 101 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 102 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 47 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 43 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 161 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 73 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 96 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 102 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 45 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 60 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 29 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 112 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 115 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 84 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 63 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 107 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 90 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say