No quotas, thanks.

The Irish Times reported recently that women politicians want a quota system to ensure that a minimum number of Dáil deputies are women. Former Progressive Democrat TD Liz O'Donnell said that "without women in politics, our democracy was unfinished." Well, if women should be guaranteed a certain percentage of seats, what about other underrepresented sections of the population: people under 30; immigrants; people who haven't finished their Leaving Cert; people who are not teachers, lawyers, publicans; etc.

And, the truth is, our democracy will surely be finished if we start adopting quotas in a bid to deny the electorate their democratic rights to vote for whomever they want. Just as many women as men are eligible to vote. Why don't these women ask why this fact alone doesn't guarantee 50% of the Dáil deputies are women?

Oh yeah, the results

I can't say I'm unhappy with the outcome of Thursday's vote (it would be easier to be sure if I knew the make-up of the next government). For the most part those who I wanted to see lose lost and those who I wanted to see win won.

I was a little disappointed that Michael McDowell lost. He's unlikable and, I think, more talk than action, but still I thought he was kind of useful. Lest you think I was downhearted after McDowell's defeat, you should have heard my gleeful singing when I learned that Liz O'Donnell had lost. PD's lose two and it's a result I was happy to accept. (O'Donnell and, to a lesser extent, Fiona O'Malley are the primary reason I didn't vote for the PD's.)

Overall, here's my take on the election: decent result for the economic conservative in me, a very good result for the social conservative in me and (possibly the least important, but still satisfying) an excellent result for the American in me. If only John Gormley had lost ...

I should add that despite the fact that his politics are the complete opposite of mine, I sort of wish that Joe Higgins hadn't lost. I'd much prefer to have Higgins in the Dail than John Gormley. At least Higgins is amusing.

Were nuns paid by the state?

Auds brings up something that I've been wondering about in her post on Liz O'Donnell's ravings. Were the priests, sisters and brothers who built and ran Ireland's primary education system remunerated for their efforts at the same level as were lay teachers? I don't know this answer. I always assumed that the state paid the wages due to members of religious orders directly to the orders.

By the way, I love this bit from Auds about Liz O'Donnell:

Get over it, honey - you can't be a priest in the RCC but rest assured, you're a fully signed up priestess of the new Irish secularism, armed with a Fendi crozier, an Irish Times Bible and enough bile to obliterate any pretensions of a pluralistic respect toward what is simultaneously believed to be a greying impotent force of irrelevancy and a powerful enforcer of a "rigid right wing morality".

I don't even know what 'Fendi' is, but I know when I find out I'm going to like this even more.

St. Bartholomew to the rescue

Who knew? I sure didn't. During all those years when the media kept insisting on providing us with endless details about his domestic life I never suspected that our own dear Taoiseach was a true defender of the faith.

Yet, that's just what he was yesterday. Stepping up to the plate and delivering just when Irish Catholics needed it most.

On the role of religious in education Mr Ahern said there were 3,200 primary schools in the country of which about 3,000 were owned by the religious communities - the vast majority of these by the Catholic Church.

The State would not be able to manage the schools without the religious, he said, and he believed the State owed a great debt of gratitude to the communities.

Yes, the child sex abuse scandals are damning, but they are not the full story of the Catholic Church's role in Irish life or, particularly, Irish education.

{Note this typo from the Irish Times reporting on the Taoiseach's speech yesterday, "the State-owned religious communities a great debt of gratitude". "State-owned" - just as Liz O'Donnell would love it, I guess.)

Sticking the boot in

These are hard times for Catholics in Ireland. All the old certainties are gone. Many Irish Catholics are floundering and not sure what to think. Many have simply drifted away. The seemingly incessant revelations of child abuse by priests and other religious are almost unbearable. Catholics are like wounded animals just waiting to be hit again.

So, not wanting to miss such an opportunity, Liz O'Donnell stuck the boot in yesterday.

In the strongest Dáil attack on the Catholic Church in memory, the PD backbencher called for an end to the "special relationship" between church and State.

"The cosy phone calls from All Hallows to Government Buildings must end," she said. She also demanded that "the church's almost universal control of education" be "radically addressed".

Apparently implying that children may still be at risk of abuse in church-run schools, she said Catholic Church control of education must be addressed "if our stated commitment to taking all necessary steps to protect children is to be more than just rhetoric".

I have no idea how often All Hallows calls Government Buildings for a "cosy" chat, but so what? There are still a large number of church-going Catholics in this country. Why wouldn't the government be interested in the Church's advice? And, I would imagine that other denominations and faiths are also regularly consulted - probably out of proportion to their relative sizes compared with the Catholic Church. I have no problem with that.

Watching her on the news last night, I saw her disdain for the Catholic Church haughtily on display. I doubt she truly believes in secularism, just anti-Catholicism.

Although O'Donnell complains that the Church has "almost universal control of education", the Church's influence is as nothing compared with the state's. Talk about 'universal control' - the state decides what is taught, who can be hired and who can be fired, the length of the school year, and countless other small matters. The state controls education from nursey school right up to higher degrees in universities. That's universal control.

O'Donnell's stance seems to imply that non-Church schools are free of such scandals, which is false. Although the media chooses not to provide the same breathless headlines, these scandals do exist in the state-run schools.

The Church is down, but not out. I believe the road back will be led by immigrants, many of whom are Catholic and have a strong faith. And, they know nothing of child sex abuse scandals. These scandals are history as far as they're concerned, not relevant today.