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2
NEWS
APOLOGISE FOR THE SLAVE TRADE
– NOT ME!
A monument to the slaves sold at the old slave market in
Stone Town, on Zanzibar.
By Helen Morrogh
In February, Virginia became the
first American state to make a formal
apology for its involvement in
the slave trade that ended approximately
two hundred years ago. The
JOBS GLOOM FOR PHYSIO GRADUATES
By Enid O’Dowd
Figures for 2007 CAO applications
released this week show a 30%
drop in applications for the high
points physiotherapy degree after
complaints from 2006 graduates of
poor job prospects.
This does not surprise 22 year
old physiotherapy student Petra
Grehan who is in her final year.
“Most of my class are planning to
go to New Zealand. There are no
jobs for us here.” Petra is one of
two UCD student representatives
to the Irish Society of Chartered
Physiotherapists (ISCP).
Petra and her fellow students
only became aware of their limited
prospects in the past few months.
Over their four-year B.Sc degree
programme, they spend 1000 hours
working on clinical placements in
hospitals for no pay and normally
not even a free or subsidised lunch.
Nursing students on placements
are paid. Physiotherapy students
had assumed there was a job for
them at the end of their free stint
in Irish hospitals.
Figures released by ISCP late last
year revealed that the majority of
the 150 physiotherapists who graduated
in 2006 are unemployed,
under employed or on part-time or
temporary contracts.
The situation is exacerbated by
the return of young Irish physiotherapists
who trained in the UK
state’s legislators expressed ‘profound
regret’ over the use of
natives as slaves by the colonisers
and described the slave trade as
‘the most horrendous of all depredations
of human rights and violations
of our founding ideals in our
nation’s history’.
because they could not get the 530
plus points needed here.
Following pressure from ISCP,
the Minister for Health and
Children, Ms Mary Harney, admitted
in an RTE radio interview in
December 2006 that there was
unemployment among young physiotherapists.
A meeting between ISCP and
the Health Service Executive
(HSE) resulted in an advertisement
in January 2007 for physiotherapists
but with no indication as to
the numbers to be employed.
Finola Doran, National projects
Office, HSE, refused to tell this
reporter how many jobs were on
offer. She referred me to the press
office who said it was “not really
within their remit”.
It took a parliamentary question
from Green Party Health
spokesman John Gormley TD to
find out the answer. Deputy
Gormley said, “the reply says the
number is ‘of the order of 30’,
which in my opinion only represents
some of the long sanctioned
posts left unfilled to save money.
This number is quite inadequate to
meet the needs of patients.”
The advertisement makes it clear
that any further recruitment in
2007 is unlikely as panels will be
formed from the unsuccessful
applicants.
A staggering 370 applications
have been received from unemployed
or underemployed physiotherapists
for these 30 posts.
This apology leads us into the
debate that existed long before
Virginia issued its apology; should
anybody be apologising for the
slave trade
No state should have to apologise
for something that ceased
some two hundred years ago. To
do so, is to admit responsibility for
a time when none of us were alive.
The British Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, following the bi-centenary
of Britain’s involvement in
the slave trade, refused to submit
an apology and instead expressed
a ‘deep sorrow’ for Britain’s primary
role in the exploitation of
natives by white settlers. This is
sufficient. While Blair recognised
Britain’s role in the slave trade, he
did not admit responsibility. The
time for apologising was when
those who were directly involved
were still alive.
Who is actually being
apologised to The slaves are now
long dead. They do not need a feeble
apology from statesmen wishing
to secure votes who had
absolutely nothing to do with the
tyrannical regimes run by the
colonisers.
Yet, many feel that the descendants
of the millions of slaves
Interview panels throughout the
country are currently interviewing
350 of these applicants.
In July 2001, the then Minister
for Health and Children, Micheal
Martin, launched a report by Dr
Peter Bacon on the ‘current and
future supply and demand conditions
in the Labour Market for certain
professional therapists.’
The report concluded that a
major expansion in the number of
therapists (physiotherapists, speech
therapists and occupational therapists)
was essential to pre-empt the
emergence of a persistent and
growing deficit in service provision.
In response to the report, the
government opened a new training
school with 25 places in the
University of Limerick in 2002.
The first students graduated in
2006.
A more recent report from the
Expert Group on Future Skills
Needs in October 2005 endorsed
Bacon’s findings and predicted
shortages of physiotherapists in
the future.
In the context of these reports it
seems strange that young graduates
are unemployed.
According to Ruaidhri
O’Connor, ISCP Chief Executive
Officer, “there is a shortage of
approved posts within the Irish
who were so horrifically treated by
their owners are owed an apology.
They have had to live with the
knowledge that their ancestors’
existence was as mere commodities
to the white settlers. Their
ancestors were beaten regularly
and many died through disease or
maltreatment. They neither
received an apology nor saw justice
carried out. While slavery was
finally abolished worldwide by the
early nineteenth century, nobody
was ever forced to pay for what
happened. Nobody was ever
obliged to face up to what they
had done.
As a woman, I do not feel the
need to be apologised to for the
way in which women were treated
centuries ago. Neither do I feel I
should be apologised to by the
British for the way in which the
Irish were treated in the nineteenth
century and before. It may
sadden me, but I certainly do not
feel that anybody owes me an
apology.
Rightly, Tony Blair has refrained
from apologising as this could lead
to compensation claims. If he
admits to guilt, then somebody
else who wasn’t alive at the time, is
going to gain. As far as the present
health service. The recruitment
cap has meant the non-filling of
vacant posts and targeted new
development posts failing to materialise.”
A recent caller to the Joe Duffy
Liveline show told listeners of a letter
from the HSE – western area.
His son, recovering from a broken
bone in his foot, had been taken off
the list for an outpatient physiotherapy
appointment due to ‘staff
shortages.’
According to the HSE, there has
been a 129% increase in the
employment of all grades of physiotherapists
in the ten years from
1996 to 2006, and 190 new development
posts are “anticipated” in
the next two years.
However, closer examination
of the figures show that the
increase in the employment of
physiotherapists (graduate entry
level) since the Bacon report was
19.6% or just 83 posts.
There was no increase in
employment – not one single job –
in 2006, the year which saw the first
Limerick graduates and increased
overall numbers of graduates.
Petra Grehan and the rest of the
class of 2007 are facing their finals
knowing their professional future is
uncertain.
It costs up to 100,000 of taxpayer’s
money to train each physiotherapist.
The public interest is not
served by their involuntary emigration.
Even allowing for retirements,
“promised” new posts in community
care and some opportunities in
the private sector, the situation is
bleak.
is concerned, the slave trade
should remain a topic in books,
and one that is taught in schools
and universities, not something
that is turned into a wrong-doing
of contemporary society.
History is something that must be
respected. No matter how
appalling, the pages of history
cannot be changed. Rather than
apologising for what happened, we
should be analysing what each
event in history means, how and
why it happened and what the outcome
has been. If this means that
we discover the plight of certain
historical peoples’ has shaped the
way many live their lives now, very
well, but this does not mean that
we should apologise.
The slave trade should never
have started, but it did. Most of us
cannot even begin to understand
how anybody could treat a fellow
human being in such a manner.
Slavery is something that should
never be forgotten and it most
likely never will be. The time for
apologies has passed. Now, all we
can do is document the lives and
hardships of these slaves and
remember them with the respect
and dignity that they were robbed
of all those years ago.
Petra Grehan
THE CIRCULAR
When the 30 posts on offer are
filled, there will be 340 qualified
physiotherapists out of work. The
class of 2007 joins them in May,
bringing the number of unemployed
young Irish physiotherapists
to 490.
Martin McDonald, National
Director of Human Resources,
HSE, says in a letter dated February
28, 2007 to Deputy Gormley, “I am
aware that an issue has arisen
around the availability of employment
for recently qualified physiotherapists.”
ISCP is seeking an urgent meeting
with the HSE. “This year’s
graduates must not face the same
situation as the 2006 graduates
did,” insists Ruaidhri O’Connor.