Tom Cruise foisted “Far and Away” on us and we got him back by foisting a “Certificate of Irishness” on him, and if you ever visit at his ranch in Murrieta, California, he’ll have to take it out of storage and hang it on the wall. And he can’t sell it because it’s unique to him with his name printed on it. Mind you, it seems these Certificates might become collector items, because, since the launch of the Certificates in August 2011 – yes, this was a Fine Gael/Labour initiative – it was confirmed this week that just 1,794 have been issued.
There is a dedicated website which promotes the Certificates and a quick review of it shows about a dozen framed certificates being forced on people with a link to Ireland. From President Barack Obama to Tom Cruise, we’ve displayed a staggering lack of tact by foisting certificates on the slow and unwary.
Perhaps in future, we could use these Certificates as diplomatic weapons to embarrass people – maybe doorstep Piers Morgan (born in Banagher, county Offaly) who nurtures a Hugh-Grant image of Britishness in the US; where would Piers be, if he was uncovered as an ordinary Mick. And what about Tory toff, the British chancellor George “Ireland is a friend in need” Osborne whose folks originally hailed from Tipperary and Waterford. Maybe pay him back for claiming the €4bn bilateral loan was just digging us out of a hole, when in fact it is being used to repay British bondholders in Irish banks. What would they say in the Bullingdon Club is they knew George was really a Paddy?
We also learned this week, that it has cost us €3,163 to develop the Certificate of Irishness programme, which equates to €1.76 per Certificate issued. Now, you might think that with Certificates selling for €40 a pop, that we’d be in clover, but it seems we have a deal with the foreign exchange chain Fexco whereby they manage the scheme and keep any receipts. Given the number of certificates we’ve gifted with frames though, you can be pretty sure that Certificates of Irishness have not been a very profitable export.
The serious point to be made, is once Irish people emigrate, they are disenfranchised. For the year in which most recent statistics are available, 87,100 of us left and history tells us, they won’t return. It must fill us with shame to see Poles snaking around the block of their embassy in Ireland so that they can cast their vote. And yet, all we offer our Diaspora is a €40 Certificate of Irishness.
The parliamentary question and response is here.
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will confirm the cost of the Irish heritage certificate scheme to date and specifically the amount paid to date to scheme operator, Fexco; and the projected amounts overall to be paid to Fexco to the end of its contract.
Deputy Pearse Doherty: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will confirm the number of Irish heritage certificates issued to date. .
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eamon Gilmore: I proposed to take Questions 156 and 158 together.
With the vast majority of the global diaspora no longer eligible for Irish citizenship, the Certificate of Irish Heritage was introduced to recognise descendents of previous generations of Irish citizens in an official way and to give greater practical expression to the sense of Irish identity felt by many around the world.
Following a public tender in April, 2010, Fexco were awarded the contract to operate the Certificate of Irish Heritage on behalf of the Department. Under the terms of the contract, Fexco developed the web systems and necessary software. Fexco also process applications, issue certificates and are the initial point of contact for all customer enquiries.
To date, 1794 Certificates of Irish Heritage have been issued.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has spent €3,163 to date on the Certificate of Irish Heritage. These costs are mainly on technical issues relating to the websites which the Department owns (registering domains and security validation procedures etc.) as well as travel costs to meetings with Fexco in Killorglin and some photographs at the launch in New York.
No payments have been made to date to Fexco nor are any expected to be made during the contract period. Under the terms of the contract, the Department is not liable to Fexco for any costs associated with the establishment or operation of the scheme.
NAMA Wine Lake 
All your cynicism is, I think, justified – or, at the very least, rational. But I can report that I went last year to the presentation of one of these certificates, on a judge, in Los Angeles, and the recipient was genuinely moved – tearful – and gratified. Atavism’s a strange master …
Funny on using the certs as a weapon :) Had no idea Piers was an Offaly Man. That would destroy him :)
On the general idea though, at least its better than flogging passports to Saudis. Or are we still doing that?
Hello
Love the blog. A quick question.. Is Pierce Doherty the only TD asking questions of the finance minister. It appears he is the only opposition finance spokesman asking any relevant questions… Which is despairingly bleak if Sinn Fein are the only credible finance opposition ( given the previous clowns in government) Do you have any stats on who ask the most questions of the finance minister
Thanks
Ciarán Carrigg
Somehow, I think Pierce gets a nudge in the right direction
@Ciaran, given the week that’s in it and the fact that KildareStreet.com is back online, it is worth referring you to that site to see the volume of questions asked by TDs.
Click on the TD here and you can view all their PQs by date
http://www.kildarestreet.com/tds/
Contrary to any perception, there is no potential goldmine there being ignored.An unbelievable volume of PQs relate to matters that shouldn’t need be raised in a national parliament if the institutions of state were doing their job. Exclude the medical card, immigration cases, fines and such like and the important economic questions are few and far between
In general each week, the PQs of Deputy Michael McGrath and Deputy Pearse Doherty are examined, plus a small range of others. PQs relating to NAMA are also examined. Not all PQs are newsworthy and most don’t receive responses worthy of publication – if a TD asks what is happening to a NAMA building and is told in response that the information is confidential, it won’t generally get a blogpost on here. In terms of publicising responses to questions, some parties and individuals distribute PQs and response to media outlets, and that can be particularly helpful as the Oireachtas and Kildare Street websites are usually one day behind the PQs actually being provided to TDs – for example on a Tuesday afternoon TDs normally get provided with responses but these may not be available on the Oireachtas until Wednesday evening, and if you ask the old media, they will tell you that some parties and individuals are better at providing information than others.
FG and Labour rarely get a look-in but that is presumably because they ask questions at their parliamentary meetings. But in recent weeks Kevin Humphreys and Colm Keaveney have asked solid questions. I cannot recall seeing any questions from Peter Mathews which would have justified a blogpost, though he is better in the media and at committees.
The standard adopted on here for coverage is relevance and information value relating to NAMA and related subjects of the economy. The weekend has a different tone on here as there generally is less breaking news compared with weekdays and frankly, it can all get so serious that people seek a lighter tone.
If you think some news or PQ has been overlooked, we’d be most grateful if you could draw attention to that.