If you dont watch Vincent Browne on TV3 then please allow me to recommend that you do. He is always entertaining and his programme is lively and informative.
Last night they were discussing the penalty points row and the way the whistle blowers are being treated by the Garda Commissioner and Alan Shatter Minister for Justice. This is going to run and run as it would appear in this country it is more favourable to break the law and look after your mates than keep the law. It would appear that members of the Gardai have carte blanche to do as they please. As we all know if the ordinary person steps out of line well tough.
After this discussion Vincent moved on to the extraordinary story of a travelling family with two small children. The mother went to the Gardai station to have their passports stamped only to discover that their two children's names were on the Gardai Pulse list. This is a Gardai Intelligence Data base. Why would the name of a child of 16 days be on this list. A child from a Traveller family. There were certain reasons give when you would be on this list i.e. if you had committed a crime, if you were the victim of a crime, but no reason with any stretch of the imagination would be a reason to put young Traveller children on this list. I was disgusted and shocked but even more so when at the end of the programme Vincent read out the result of the Poll. You could vote in as to 'whether you thought young traveller children should be put on the Pulse list'
Poll result - a whopping 30% said yes while 70% said no. A third of the viewing public voted Yes. I cannot understand why anyone would say yes to this. Do people dislike travellers that much, do they dislike very young innocent children. It doesnt make sense. I know it made me feel very uneasy going to bed knowing I am living in a country that proports this type of thing.
