Are Leaving Cert foreign holidays an incentive too far?

I collected my Leaving Cert results way back in 1987. Memories of that morning came flooding back today when I saw images of overjoyed teenagers all over social media sites.

I know I sound like an old curmudgeon but our celebrations were a little more muted and innocent than what you see today. A group of us boarded a DART to Howth and tried our luck in some of the local pubs, with mixed results. Frustratingly, I had just turned 18 but still found it hard to get served. Not surprisingly, the girls fared better than the lads thanks to the transformative power of makeup.

The upside was that I had a part-time job in the St Lawrence Hotel, home to the legendary Good Time Charlie's nightclub. Staff were permitted free entry on Thursday nights. The doorman was a neighbour of mine and turned a blind eye to the 'over 21s' policy for the night that was in it. I was home by 2am and slept till the afternoon the next day. Pretty lame, as kids today would put it.

•Life's a beach: should we allow our teenagers to go on holidays unsupervised? PIC POSED

Things are different now. For many Leaving Cert graduates, a foreign holiday with their mates, without parental supervision, is the norm. Perhaps the lure of a trip abroad helps keep them motivated through those difficult months of intensive studying. But is it sensible to give a teenager such unrestricted freedom?

Even before the recent controversy surrounding the hellhole that is Magaluf came to light, I had serious reservations about the post-Leaving Cert holiday trend. While not every resort has such a seedy reputation, allowing teenagers to celebrate the end of their exams or results in another country is a risky move.

Even 'sensible' kids can go off the rails when exposed to cheap drink, excess sun and the prospect of no-strings attached holiday sex. It's a potent mix. To an impressionable teenager on holiday with their peers, this type of temptation can throw up many potential dangers: alcohol poisoning, drownings, exposure to drugs, unplanned pregnancies, STDs ... take your pick.

While most of these risks can as easily present themselves at home, young people are often in fear of being caught by their parents. Such a deterrent does not exist when they are abroad, making them more likely to engage in uncharacteristic, reckless behaviour.

I'm of the view that a 17 or 18-year-old does not have the emotional maturity to navigate the hazards presented by a foreign holiday. Sitting the Leaving Certificate remains one of the most trying times of a young person's life. Even many university graduates will attest that it remains the most difficult exam they ever had to face.

Parents will understandably want to dangle a carrot during the difficult two years preceding the Leaving Cert and reward their children for the hard work and effort. There are other ways to do this: give them money; put them on your car insurance policy; bring them on a shopping spree; organise a party etc.

But I believe that allowing teenagers the freedom of an unsupervised foreign holiday is perhaps an incentive too far. It's not enough just to trust them. Protecting your children should always take precedent over pleasing them.

Here come the good times . . . apparently!

It has been a pretty busy silly season so far. Newspapers usually struggle to fill their pages with interesting copy during the summer months but this year has been something of an exception, what with the Garth Brooks fiasco, the conflict in Gaza, multiple air disasters and a former politician being sent down for a spell of porridge.

Governments often try to bury bad news when there are a lot of other things happening. But this week we were showered with nothing but positivity. It was like being given a great big hug, with a reassuring whisper in our ear that everything is going to be OK.

•Party time is almost back - but we're still suffering a hangover from the last one. PIC POSED

Indeed, most of the things that have troubled us since the turn of our fortunes in 2008 are about to get back to near normal if the ESRI is correct. Easing fears of a new property bubble, the think-thank reckons that our humble abodes will be worth 20 per cent more by 2017. Not quite back to the Celtic Tiger prices we paid for them but possibly enough to drag most of us out of negative equity. I suspect it will make the option of repossessions more attractive for the banks, too.

Next year should see the creation of 50,000 new jobs and Ireland's unemployment rate will fall below the magic 10 per cent figure. It remains to be seen if the level of wages offered by prospective employers will support an average mortgage repayment. Unlike the heady days of the early noughties, the job seeker of today will be conditioned to accept the new reality when it comes to salary expectations.

We were also told that the Government may revise its growth projections upwards and we are being drip-fed hints that this year's budget may not be as harsh as previously feared. But the reality is that even if Michael Noonan has a bit of wriggle room to feed the taxpayer a few scraps from the table, any such gains will most likely be eroded by water charges and the next LPT payment. As Bertie Ahern would have put it: it's all "smoke and daggers" really.

Some people seem to think that the good times are already here and have started celebrating early. Sales of luxury cars in the 100k-plus bracket are up, according to new figures. And notoriously, one pub in Temple Bar was recently shamed on social media for charging the bones of €20 for two pints of beer and two packets of crisps (in fairness, there was 10 cent change).

But our rip-off culture extends way beyond our city's tourist traps. I was at a community festival earlier this month where I was relieved of over €7 for a hotdog and chips. Note to food stall owners everywhere: putting the word 'gourmet' in front of sausage, burger or pizza does not mean you can charge exorbitant prices for what is, after all, just basic takeaway grub.

When the good times eventually return, we will need to be more vocal when faced with ridiculous prices. So the next time a barman tries to charge you more than €7 for a standard pint, simply walk away and let them try to sell it to some other gullible fool.

It's not my intention to put a dampener on last week's good news. But we can only prepare for the next boom by learning from the mistakes of the old one. And that means being more assertive when it comes to standing up for your rights as a consumer.

Callely has paid a higher price than a prison sentence

Ivor Callely was first elected as a TD in 1989, the year I joined Northside People. He was a great man for feeding stories to his local paper, always making sure you knew that he was giving you the 'exclusive' first and at the expense of the national media.

The first time I met him was on Bull Island causeway in the heart of his Dublin North Central constituency. I was working on a story about a proposal to breach the causeway to prevent silting in the bay. Naturally, Callely was giving me the lowdown first. If memory serves me correctly, he pulled up that day in a Merc. A lot of flash for a mere backbench TD but each to his own, I suppose. Dapper as always, he was smartly dressed in a suit, which was pretty much how you'd expect your local representative to look.

•Ivor Callely pictured in his office just after his appointment as Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, June 2002. PHOTO BY DARREN KINSELLA

Callely seemed to subscribe to the theory that to be successful, you had to appear successful. It would be at least another decade before he would be appointed a junior minister but that day he already looked the part. Seemingly, in Ivor Callely's mind, being a local TD was simply a dress rehearsal for greater things to come.

His stated ambition to one day become Taoiseach was not as fanciful as it seemed. Callely was one of the biggest vote-getters in the country and was nothing short of a local legend with his constituents. He had a reputation as a hard worker; a fixer; a politician who got things done. He was a familiar face on the funeral circuit.

But 'Ivor the Engine' was viewed with suspicion by his political rivals. The late Sean Dublin Bay Loftus once told me in no uncertain terms that he had little time for him. Unsurprisingly, Callely was seen as a constant threat to the Haughey political dynasty. His critics dismissed him as a delusional dreamer with ideas above his station.

But it was impossible for Bertie Ahern to ignore such a consistently strong performer in elections and Callely finally got the nod in 2002 when he was given a junior ministry at the Department of Health. He was later moved to the Department of Transport before it all came crashing down spectacularly over a free paint job to his Clontarf home by a developer who had carried out work for the Eastern Health Board in the early 1990s, when Callely had served as chairman.

From this point onwards, his political career descended into chaotic freefall. In the wake of his resignation from ministerial office, Callely's star was on the wane and his once-loyal constituents dumped him as a TD in the 2007 General Election. Bertie gave him a dig-out by appointing him to the Seanad but this would turn out to be Callely's undoing. His tenure as a senator was dogged by a long-running expenses controversy that ultimately resulted in his jailing this week for making fraudulent mobile phone claims.

Ivor Callely, now aged 56, is a shadow of his former self. He seems haunted by the events of recent years and the stress has clearly taken its toll. Personally, I feel sympathy for his family. Jailing Callely doesn't seem to make economic sense. The cost of imprisoning him will be far greater than the few grand he ripped us off for. But the general consensus seems to be that the judge made the right decision on the basis that there was a breach of trust involved by a person holding a position of public office. It's hard to argue with her reasoning.

Ivor Callely is highly unlikely to make a political comeback. He has suffered enormous reputational damage that far outweighs the length of his custodial sentence. Even if he only serves a portion of his time behind bars, he will have paid a high price for his serious errors of judgement and blatant sense of entitlement.

And for that, he should be afforded the opportunity to rebuild his life as a private citizen.

Rip-off Ireland laid bare by Garth Brooks fiasco

Not since JR Ewing was shot in 1980 has a man in a Stetson hat proved such a talking point in this country.

But despite global coverage of the Garth Brooks Croker fiasco, I expect the international media have already moved on from a story that has dominated the headlines here for the past number of weeks (seems longer somehow, doesn't it?).

•Garth Brooks pictured in Croke Park earlier this year at the announcement of his planned concerts

In true Irish style, no party to this sorry mess comes out in a particularly good light in the aftermath of the cancellations. As the blame game continues, we have politicians, the GAA, Dublin City Council, the promoter, local residents and, darn it, even the great country crooner himself, taking their share of the flak.

Notwithstanding the High Court injunction threat, which has since been withdrawn, three sold-out gigs could have gone ahead had Brooks not thrown a strop and taken his ball back. Frankly, his "five or none at all" ultimatum was a crass display of brinkmanship that won him little sympathy. Similarly, comparing which concerts to play as being like having to choose between children was mawkish sentimentality at its worst. It's hardly 'Sophie's Choice', Garth.

So should we be collectively embarrassed as a nation, as has been widely suggested? Well, yes and no.

In my view Dublin City Council management are to be applauded for not bowing to the considerable pressure from political and commercial interests to reverse its decision to only allow three concerts. A number of politicians did themselves a disservice by issuing populist statements to the media calling for a solution to the standoff, while naturally being cognisant of the local residents' grievances. Er, isn't that what Dublin City Council's decision sought to achieve in the first place?

We should rightly be embarrassed by a system that allows 400,000 tickets to go on sale for concerts that have yet to receive a licence. This is a particularly Irish way of doing business and will no doubt force a belated review of our licensing laws. The army of loyal Garth Brooks fans who bought tickets were caught in the crossfire and it's hard not to feel sorry for them.

Much has been made of the reputational damage caused to Ireland by the controversy. Residents were urged to support the five concerts in the national interest, with dire warnings that €50m would be lost to the local economy if they didn't go ahead.

I certainly have a degree of sympathy for genuinely struggling hotel and pub businesses affected by the cancellation of the concerts. I have also been impressed at how some hotels have been facilitating full refunds to their customers owing to the exceptional circumstances involved.

But let's cast our minds back to January when the tickets first went on sale and a number of Dublin hotels immediately hiked up their rates to cash in on the Garth Brooks bonanza. This type of behaviour smacks of greedy opportunism and lays bare the rip-off culture alive and well in post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.

And for that, we should be genuinely embarrassed.

Critics' reaction to Mrs Brown movie is hilarious

Mind-numbingly boring, off-the-wall, totally hilarious and outrageously vulgar. But enough about some of the reviews that have greeted the release of 'Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie'.

If you don't find the antics of the matriarchal Finglas street trader funny, you can guarantee yourself a good laugh by Googling a selection of the serious critics' reaction to Brendan O'Carroll's first big screen outing. Some of them can be very grumpy, precious individuals, to say the least. It's hard to know what bothers them most: the commercial success of the Mrs Brown franchise or the lack of subtitles in the film.

They might have preferred it if the movie was three hours long and set in a monastery in Tibet. Naturally, it would have to be filmed in a single sequence on a handheld camera with the actors eschewing a script in favour of some self-indulgent improvisation. You can almost predict the plaudits coming off the pages - 'brave', 'groundbreaking', 'exceptional', 'challenging'.

•PRAMTASTIC: A scene from 'Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie'

The point that many critics miss is that 'Mrs Brown's Boys' is not art for art's sake. It's not even art. It's old fashioned entertainment and does exactly what it says on the tin. The sexual references and bad language have certainly polarised opinion. But taste is a subjective thing and millions of people around the globe love Mrs Brown and her on-screen family. She certainly has her knockers (fnar fnar!) but TV viewing figures consistently show them to be very much in the minority.

Brendan O'Carroll is no fan of the critics as he believes many of them have been unkind to him since his early days. He has been at pains to point out that he writes for his fans, not the reviewers. But even O'Carroll must have been taken aback (and hopefully amused) by some of the brickbats flung at Mrs Brown's first big screen venture. Frankly, suggestions that the film is racist, sexist and homophobic are pretty wide of the mark. Criticising the vulgarity of a film featuring Mrs Brown is like saying you were shocked by the level of violence in a Bruce Lee movie.

There's a scene in the classic American comedy 'Seinfeld' where the hapless George Costanza tries to chat up a woman by telling her he's a writer. She seems initially impressed until he discloses that he's writing a sitcom, at which point she laughs with derision at what she perceives to be such a low art form. It reminded me of some of the critics' reaction to Brendan O'Carroll's work.

So while 'Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie' will not be to everyone's taste, it's already a box office sensation here and is likely to propel O'Carroll and his team to even greater heights of success. Quite rightly, he will be more focused on his core audience's reaction to the film than the elitist, snobby views of some of the begrudgers. He should make a sequel, just to annoy them.

Life's a beach this summer - so let's make the most it

The recent spell of good weather has seen us flocking to Dublin's sandy shores in our droves.

For a capital city, we are pretty spoiled when it comes to quality beaches on our doorstep. Northside gems include Skerries, Loughshinny, Rush (North and South), Donabate, Portmarnock, Sutton and Dollymount, while south Dublin boasts the likes of Sandymount, Seapoint, Killiney and Sandycove.

If only we had the climate, our beaches would be thronged for most of the summer months, like they were at the end of June. For the rest of the year, they are usually the preserve of dog walkers, kite surfers and keep fit enthusiasts.

•Portmarnock's Velvet Strand pictured in 1994. PHOTO BY DARREN KINSELLA

Nevertheless, we are blessed to have access to such a variety of coastal havens so close to a major European city like Dublin.

I am lucky enough to live within five minutes' walk of a fantastic beach, which I visit on a daily basis with my four-legged companion. For most of the year I am among a handful of users of this wonderful amenity and it was heartening to see it packed with locals and tourists during the recent 'heatwave'.

I must pay tribute to my local authority for implementing such an efficient early morning beach cleaning programme, which made the experience all the more pleasurable for swimmers and picnickers alike. As usual, unfortunately, some inconsiderate idiots left a trail of litter in their wake. Seriously, how hard can it be to bring your rubbish home with you?

In the case of my local beach, there is a serious shortage of bins. While this is not entirely a justification for irresponsible littering, it is an area that councils need to improve on. The problem with dog dirt in public places could also be eased if the facilities were in place to encourage responsible behaviour by pet owners.

It would also be nice, incidentally, if more public showers were installed on our beaches (particularly the ones without Blue Flags!)

Anti-social behaviour at our beaches can also ruin a perfectly good day out for families. While there were reports of near-riots in Howth at the beginning of the bathing season, I was happy to note a strong Garda presence at nearby Portmarnock on one of the hottest days of the recent warm spell.

There have been other improvements, too. Many beaches (including my local one) have been closed off to cars in recent years on safety grounds. Once a magnet for brainless boy racers, our sandy shores have been rid of this menace once and for all.

Parents also need to be mindful of safety when their children take to the water. An inviting sea can be an unpredictable, dangerous beast and rip currents or rising tides need to be taken into account. Despite the presence of lifeguards, remember that they are not babysitters and it is primarily the job of parents to ensure their child's safety in the water. Cheap floating devices or toy store dinghies should also be discouraged at all times.

We can only hope that the best of the summer is not behind us so we can continue to enjoy Dublin's enviable selection of seaside hot spots.

Tears are not enough to resolve medical card fiasco

Health Minister James Reilly has a tendency to get emotionally involved in the plight of others and can turn on the waterworks with the frequency of Eamon Dunphy. Fortunately for him, the Government has no proposals at present to install water meters on our tear ducts.

For all his perceived failings as a minister, at least he comes across as sensitive and humane. Personally I like that about him and see it as a strength rather than a weakness. However, it does make his department's shambolic handling of the discretionary medical cards fiasco all the more difficult to understand.

•Face in the crowd: Minister for Health, James Reilly. PHOTO BY DARREN KINSELLA

After the coalition parties received a right old kicking in the recent local and European elections, the penny finally dropped. There appeared to be a sudden realisation that the electorate didn't approve of medical cards being removed from some of the most vulnerable members of society.

The Government's response to public outrage seemed to be: "Really, you didn't like it when we did that? Why didn't you say something? If only we had known."

The Taoiseach himself announced that the callous cull would be suspended and ordered an immediate review of the eligibility criteria for entitlement to cards to be based on specific medical conditions rather than household income. It was expected that this review would be finalised in a matter of months, ending the misery and uncertainty for those with lifelong illnesses or disabilities.

Maybe - just maybe - this Government was starting to cop itself on.

But not exactly. Minister Reilly has since announced that discretionary medical cards will now be restored to over 15,000 people. Quite rightly, he apologised to those with serious illnesses who had been affected. This, he said, was an "unintended consequence" of the decision to centralise the processing of cards in 2011. On this occasion the Minister managed to keep the tears at bay but his apology sounded sincere.

But this good news was tempered by Reilly's refusal to entertain the notion of compensation for those who had their medical cards taken away. He was quoted as saying that the decision to remove the cards had been made "validly and legally".

Perhaps, Minister - but what about morally?

Minister Reilly also revealed that while the expert group tasked with reviewing the criteria for eligibility of medical cards was expected to report by the autumn, legislation on the matter was unlikely to be enacted until 2015.

The Government's U-turn on medical cards is to be welcomed but kicking the legislation on new eligibility into next year has taken the fizz out of the announcement. If only the health and wellbeing of our nation could be treated with the same urgency as the banking crisis was in September 2008.