Taoiseach accuses SF of ‘hypocrisy’ as phone pouch scheme already in place in Northern Ireland

https://www.thejournal.ie/sinn-fein-accused-of-hypocrisy-phone-pouches-6506161-Oct2024/

Posted by MeinhofBaader

24 Comments

  1. _FeckArseIndustries_ on

    It’s almost as if the pouch scheme in Northern Ireland was introduced by Paul Given from the DUP and not Sinn Fein. Honestly, does Simon Harris not have the first clue on what happens an hour up the road?

  2. bathtubsplashes on

    Yet again having to defend the current crop of gowls as opposed to the crowd I’d prefer to see in government.

    SF roaring at the moon about how this money could have been designated towards mental health initiatives. It is a bloody mental health initiative!!! 

    Talk about looking to be reactive rather than proactive and try and stop one of the root causes of the surge in mental health issues amongst children, at it’s origin. Pure populist politicking, and I’m beginning to lose my patience with them.

  3. Any-Shower5499 on

    Stupid statement from all parties. It’s a good use of a couple of million (stupid from SF) and SF aren’t the only party in the north (stupid from FG)

  4. Humble_Ostrich_4610 on

    He’s got a point, if SF weren’t sending letters about it up north, they should STFU about it here. If they want to lead a Government they need to grow up and be better. 

  5. Pointlessillism on

    It’s just gross and depressing to see a minor mental health initiative get turned into some stupid political football. 

    It’s nasty when ML did it and it’s equally shit to see Harris doing it. 

    Not much hope for us if we start doing stupid culture war shit over stuff like this. 

  6. tearsandpain84 on

    Ban smart phones for anyone 35 or under, allow them one hour of supervised access to teletext.

  7. Am I missing something, or could classrooms not simply have a cardboard box that they put the phones into?

  8. “The scheme in the North cost £250,000 for pouches for 10 schools” wtf? If we have an average of 500 students in each of those schools, that’s 50 euro per pouch. Doesn’t that seem excessive? Especially for bulk pricing?

  9. SF taking L after L. Do Mary Lou and Michelle actually talk to each other about policy at all?

  10. BigDickBaller93 on

    Ive used these at concerts before, what a colossal waste of money, a teenager gets through this in 30 seconds tops and itll be unusable afterwards

    Cant believe these yondr things blew up as big as they are.

  11. Just a quick Google shows them as $25-$30 per pouch, for a neoprene sleeve with a magnet? And our shitehawks in Dublin will be paying €50 for it? Shitehawks! Shitehawks everywhere. They’ll probably end up in the same shed as the voting machines making a mint for some politicians cousin to store them.

  12. Has nothing to do with SF in the north. It is a DUP initiative and to be fair, only cost 250k.

    “Under Stormont rules, only matters that are significant or affect more than one government department go to a meeting of the four-party Executive for approval.

    This was not required in this case, so the other parties — Sinn Féin, Alliance and the UUP — were not asked to approve it.

    Sinn Féin has not commented on the pilot phone pouch scheme in the North. It has been asked by The Irish Times for its view.“

    https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2024/10/05/sinn-fein-border-hopping-on-criticism-of-mobile-phone-pouches-spend-says-norma-foley/

  13. Tax-Evasion-Is-Good on

    As a student you need your phone for maths. Most maths teachers are useless so you need solutions on your phone to understand some complicated questions

  14. Could we put some of those pouches in libraries or shopping centres? For adults like me with no willpower who’d like to do an occasional 24 hour digital detox

  15. I always love this with government and education.

    Pay for iPads for every single student even though studies have shown it hinders education. Pay a Fortune for Apple TVs for the iPads to run on fancy projectors or touch tvs. Pay Google or Microsoft for the services for these iPads to run(classroom, 365). Pay VS ware for a digital role book. Pay a fortune for these pouches to keep phones out of schools. Need a spare building, rent prefabs for a decade.

    But we can’t get teachers, and when they go on strike the budget isn’t there to pay them. Funny that.

  16. saggynaggy123 on

    It didn’t cost €9m in the North lol that’s for proving SF are better at spending money Simon