Right to Work Campaign protest at the Dail
Tralee Town Council unanimously passes motion of support for KPSWA
At its recent meeting the Tralee Town Council passed the following motion in support of the Kerry Public Service Workers Alliance (KPSWA):
That this council expresses solidarity with the Kerry Public Service Workers’ Alliance and resolves that there is a more equitable solution to the crisis in national finances and that this council would host a deputation from the KPSWA at the next monthly meeting.
The motion was proposed by Cllr. Toireasa Ni Fhearaiosa (Sinn Fein) and seconded by Cllr. Cathal Foley (Sinn Fein). It was passed unanimously.
A similar motion has been put down for the Kerry County Council and is due to be considered at its next meeting.
HSE Cuts Mental Health Funding Even Further
There are two key related factors here. First, the over all health plan for this year the HSE Service Plan 2010 states that the spend for the Irish health service has been cut yet again for 2010 by E668m down to E14,070bn. (www.hse.ie). For mental health the situation is even worse. By EU 15 standards Ireland should spend at least 12 per cent of its overall health budget on mental health. In the mid 1980’s the Irish State was spending just over this around amount. By last year this figure had dropped to 6.9 per cent and for 2010 it has been cut even more drastically to 5.4 per cent of total health spend. To a large extent this has been achieved by the second related factor that of the continuing HSE staffing embargo. The net result of this embargo in terms of mental health is that staffing numbers in this sector have dropped from 10,476 to 9,772 in the last fourteen months, up to February of this year. If one had any doubts of the neo-liberal philosophy of the HSE there is no need to look any further than the title of its current four year health plan, HSE Corporate Plan 2008-2011!
On the current staffing embargo, Caroline Mc Grath , Director of the Irish Mental Health Commission, commented:
“This moratorium is a crude and brutal instrument that is crippling the Government’s reform programme, as outlined in . . . A Vision for Change . . . The Government’s plan for moving from acute hospital care to a community based service was based on redeploying existing staff and expanding the total number of staff. Instead we have a service that is not even maintaining the status quo but is haemorrhaging staff, reducing A Vision for Change to a mere pipe dream . . . Clearly, too, the fact that mental health problems cost the exchequer E3bn per year has not been appreciated.”
The consequences of the Government’s short sightedness is that mental health staff feel increasingly frustrated and that their idealism and dedication is being abused. Increasingly mental health patients are being issued with medication, to the delight of pharmaceutical corporations, because the government refuses to adequately fund an alternative social model, or recovery model of mental health that would provide alternatives to pills.
As suggested in VFC, this model would include increasing staff numbers generally especially in the areas of psychology, counselling and occupational therapy. Greater funding would be provided for far increased mental health service user input and for initiatives for autonomous service user led drop in centres, perhaps as community development programmes. The minister responsible for mental health, John Moloney, is hoping to raise capital (not human resources) funding from the sale of long stay psychiatric institutions which should have been done years ago, but there is no guarantee that their estimated price will be realised or how long it will take to sell them.
Meanwhile Ireland has an appalling level of suicide and the human rights of mental health patients remains a serious concern as highlighted by Amnesty International. Children are still admitted into adult psychiatric wards with all the dangers that that implies and ECT is still being administered despite being banned in many other countries and there is no adequate monitoring of involuntary detention.
Mental health is in an emergency situation and everyone including mental health advocates and members of the health unions need to campaign together urgently for its proper reform and funding.
-- Kieran McNulty.
Unrest among public service workers and community organisations has been mounting in County Kerry.
Unrest among public service workers and community organisations has been mounting in County Kerry.
Members of the newly formed Kerry Public Service Workers Alliance picketed Fianna Fail TD Tom McEllistrim’s clinic twice in a row. On the first occasion he didn’t turn up and his mother instead fielded questions. McEllistrim, who is well known for never voicing an opinion if he can avoid it, was confronted by over 100 angry workers at a second meeting. Martin O’Grady of the KPSWA said afterwards that the TD was very evasive, and refused to give them support in having their wage cuts reversed.
“The wage cuts will result in a direct loss of over €25 million per annum to Kerry. Local businesses will suffer heavily and more jobs will be lost in a county with an unemployment rate that is twice the national average. Slashing the wages of those who have jobs will not create a single job for those seeking employment”.
In a new development, the Alliance said that it would consider running general election candidates if they could get no support from Kerry’s TDs.
A week before, the KPSWA spoke at a meeting organised in association with the Tralee branch of People Before Profit, under the banner “Kerry Campaign Against Cuts”. KPSWA speaker Simon Quinn pointed out that Tralee was hugely dependent on the various services provided by the Public Sector. The KPSWA are hoping that other groups of public service workers will follow their lead of initiating grass roots union activism in the fight for jobs, pay and conditions. Also speaking was Margaret O’Shea of the Kerry Network of People with Disabilities, representing the threatened Community Development Sector, where 29 out of 182 programmes have been cut nationally.
Brid Smith of People Before Profit said that protest could get results. In Ballyfermot people mounted protests against cuts outside a local hospital and got them reversed.
The public meeting represented an initiative to encourage different campaigns to liaise and co-operate in opposing cuts. It attracted a lot of local media attention in the press and on radio, and was well attended.
Local members of PbP attended the inaugural meeting of the KPSWA, and supported the local and regional demonstrations by the CDP organisations. PbP member Seán Moraghan commented, “In a recession, the establishment seeks to divide sectors of society, seeks to pit them against each other, and likes them to believe that they have little in common in their struggles. This meeting saw two sectors, at least, find common cause, and there was much sharing of campaigning experiences.”
Further meetings under the umbrella of Kerry Campaign Against Cuts are planned, with different sectors, such as the unemployed.
Meanwhile, Kerry’s Community Services Programmes have also initiated a campaign to highlight the impact of cuts on the services they provide, which include rural transport and respite care.
Kerry Campaign Against Cuts: Public Meeting Launch
A new pressure group will hold a public meeting in Tralee to launch a broad campaign against the various cuts proposed by the Fianna Fail/Green government. The Kerry Campaign Against Cuts will meet at the Grand Hotel Tralee, on Thursday 11th February at 8PM.
Three organisations are taking part so far, and speakers include: Margaret O'Shea, from the Kerry Network of People with Disabilities, expressing some of the concerns of the Community Development Projects, Simon Quinn, from the newly formed Kerry Public Sector Workers Alliance, and Dublin Councillor Brid Smith, from People Before Profit, who has been very active in anti-cuts actions and demonstrations.
The Kerry Network of People With Disabilities has for more than a decade campaigned for the rights for people with disabilities. It organised a well-attended demonstration in Tralee in August 2009, where speaker Margaret O'Shea called the event "just the start" of the campaign by the Community Development sector. She also said, "We say No to cuts to social welfare, Rural Transport, Community and Voluntary sector supports, RAPID, Community Services Programme, closure of rural garda stations Education for young people with disabilities, minimum. These cuts will have a strong anti rural bias and we won’t take them"
The Kerry Public Sector Workers Alliance includes all the main public sector unions in Kerry and held its first meeting on December 10th the day after the Budget was announced. They have set up a website, and will be engaging in actions to build resistance to the pay cuts. They say its time for the public sector to fight the slashing of pay and pensions and counter the anti-public sector propaganda of the Government. The Alliance also argues that its time to show TDs how important the public service is in Kerry, and show how wage cuts will decimate the local economy.
Five People Before Profit councillors were elected at last years local election. Councillor Brid Smith, who has been a community activist for several years, has been at the forefront of opposing cuts to wages and services, taking part most notably in hospital and anti-bin tax campaigns.
All these cuts would be unnecessary if billions of euros were not being spent by the government on bailing out the banks and property developers, giving tax breaks to the rich and giving away our natural resources.
Speakers are available for interview
For more information: Phone 0876716009
LATEST: KPSWA is holding a protest outside the clinic of Fianna Fail TD Tom McEllistrim, on Saturday 6th February at 11am. Venue situated at the back of the Horan Centre. In the words of the local TUI, " bring as many colleagues as you can along with you. It is crucial that action of this kind begin to happen all over the country so that the appearance of quiet due to the Chistmas break and the bad weather is transformed and the politicians are jolted out of any false sense of security into which they may have been lulled. It is equally important that we demonstrate to the leadership of the trade union movement that there is no way we are ever going to accept and lie down under what has been done to us".
A Public Meeting will be held in Tralee to launch a Kerry campaign against cuts
against Cuts!
Hear a range of speakers:
Margaret O'Shea: Kerry Network of People with Disabilities (CDP)
Simon Quinn: Kerry Public Sector Workers Alliance
Councillor Brid Smith: People Before Profit (Dublin)
Private Sector Representative TBC
Venue: Grand Hotel, Tralee
Date and Time: Thursday, February 11th, 8.00pm.
Ph: 087-6716009 for further information.
All Welcome!
KERRY PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS’ ALLIANCE MEETING 10th Dec
Local Public Sector Workers and supporters
are meeting to organize resistance to massive
pay cuts
Date: Thursday 10th December
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: Grand Hotel Tralee
Public Sector Workers – Unite Now TO Fight the Slashing of Pay and Pensions
· It’s time to counter the anti-public sector propaganda of the Government.
· Join in a united protest and a determined and organised campaign against the cuts.
· Show how there is a better alternative to solving the economic crisis – Fair Taxation.
· Show our TDs how important the public service is in Kerry and
· Show how these wage cuts will decimate the local economy.
· A 7% pay cut is the equivalent in one year alone of more than 28 days of action.
· The cut will be for every year of salary and then of pension .
· There will be much more cuts to come if we remain silent.
WE SIMPLY CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO TAKE ACTION.
For further information contact Martin O’Grady, Branch Chair, TUI (IT Tralee). E Mail: tui@ittralee.ie
Kerry Public Sector unions including TUI, INTO, ASTI, SIPTU, IMPACT, INO, PNA, PSEU, CPSU and others must NOW rally together.
The Case FOR retaining Community Development Projects
a report prepared for the CDP sector by Tom O'Connor, Lecturer in Economics, Cork I.T*.
"The current report is based on audit of all 18 CDPs in counties Cork and Kerry.The rationale for the current research is that decisions which are currently being taken to end the current CDP programme cannot be justified on either economic or social grounds. There is no economic or social benefit to the government or civil society arising from the current plans to shut down CDPs. Those who are work at the coal face within the CDPs know the value of the work involved together with its breadth and extent. They know that the contribution that CDPs make to service provision, employment, education, social care and quality of life in communities all over the country is hugely significant and far outweighs the cost to the state of investing in them, both on economic and social grounds. Focusing solely in economics, CDP managers have known for some time that the loss of employment, services, volunteers and other CDP outputs that would arise from shutting them down would be more than equal to the funding they receive. Even on this narrow economic focus, community workers in the CDPs always suspected that there would be no economic saving to the state if the projects were to be closed.
However, because the state’s plans to end the current CDP programme are oblivious to these economic realities, the decision was taken to compile the data to prove it. In doing so, we have concluded in what follows that the state would save virtually nothing by closing down the CDPs. In addition, the social cost to society would be hugely significant: the unavailability of childcare, day-care, youth services, recreational activities for youth, meeting places for a large array of groups, literacy courses, FETAC courses, services to jobseekers, all would exert a huge social cost to citizens. It would increase marginalisation and result in a sharp deterioration of quality of life at a time when these services were never more needed. As a result, this report attempts to show policy makers the folly of ending the CDP programme in its current form. In what follows, this is shown by comparing the monetary value of the resources which the 18 CDPs in Cork and Kerry receive against the cost to the government if these resources were removed and the 18 projects shut down.
The total funding allocated the 18 CDPs in the various communities amounts to €6,474,000. This is made up of 2.2 million core funding and 4.3 million additional funding across all 18 projects. Removing this funding equates to taking 360,000 in spending power out of each of the 18 communities. The CDPs operate in very disadvantaged areas where there exists far less spending power than more affluent areas. To remove this level of income from these already residualised communities would cause further deprivation. It would also lead to the shutting down of small shops and small local enterprises. This would further marginalise these communities and deprive them of many essential social and economic facilities and amenities. Even if there is the removal of core and additional funding streams to specific CDPs or a reduction of funding to many others, the effect will be the same proportionately. Any cutbacks in funding are socially and economically regressive.
In CDP communities, the vast majority of the populations are from the lower end of the income distribution. As such, economic consumption studies show that the marginal propensity to consume by citizens in the lowest half of the income distribution is 100% of all income. Essentially, less-well off people spend the whole of their income. By contrast, income earners at the highest half of the income distribution either save a proportion of their income or else it leaks out of the economy by spending on luxury goods which are imported. This has been highlighted very recently by the Think Tank on Action for Social Change (TASC 2009) where Prof. Terence McDonogh has highlighted the fact that cutbacks in communities where all the economic resources are spent and which spin-off in to the locality, is economically and socially perverse.
The effect of closing down 18 projects would be to put 306 people on the dole. In addition, given the need for re-training to secure future employment, the closure of the CDPs would remove 147 from skills training employment schemes delivered in the projects. A total of 164 staff members would be entitled to redundancy payments. The total number of years service accruing to these workers currently stands at 624 years. As a consequence, the cost of redundancies, paid at the minimum statutory rate of two weeks per year of service would cost the exchequer over €800,000. The 18 CDPs currently own their own premises. These are quite substantial and valuable and the total value of imputed rent by the 18 CDP premises, essentially a rental subsidy to the state, based on current market rental values would be in the region of 864,000. In the event of the closure of all CDPs, this subsidy would be lost to the state and thereby represents a cost to the exchequer.
Each CDP contributes a mean average of €41,011 in tax and PRSI payments and €7,618 in VAT. The total payments to the exchequer for the 18 projects amount to €451,367 and €129,514 respectively. The 18 projects taken together contribute 41,182 volunteer hours to the state which are currently unpaid. In the event of CDP closures, these hours would be lost. Depending on the number of CDPs that are closed down, the loss of what are free volunteer hours and a subsidy to the exchequer, would be proportionate. The total cost to the state of the loss of voluntary hours which are in dire need and would ultimately have to be replaced by paid workers is €669,207.
Table 1: Cost of Closing 18 CDPs
Cost Elements
Cost €
Unemployment
(306)
Annual Social Welfare Cost
3,246,048
Redundancy Cost
€803,912 (Management= 210,045)
Tax + PRSI lost
451,367
VAT lost
129,514
Non Management Volunteers: Replacement Cost
467,837
Loss of Imputed Rent
864,000
Management Volunteers: Replacement Cost(7 Pub Svts)
343,000
Total
6,305,678
We have noted above that the total revenue from core and additional funding accruing to all 18 CDPs amounts to a total of €6,474,000. , table one aggregates the cost to the exchequer of this action and details the total cost, which are: the cost of paying social welfare payments to 306 unemployed workers previously employed by the CDPs which would cost €3,246,048 in one year. The total cost of redundancy payments for the accumulated 624 years of service would amount to over 800,000. The 18 CDPs contribute a total tax payment to the state of almost 581,000 which would be revenue foregone to the state and thus counted as a cost. To cost of replacing over 41,000 voluntary hours by ordinary volunteers and voluntary management groups would be 810,837. Finally, the loss of rental subsidy by the CDPs to the state is a stated cost amounting to 864,000. The total cost of all these items in one year to the exchequer is 6,305,678. Given that the savings in funding would amount to 6,474,000, this means that the net saving to the state of closing 18 CDPs would be a paltry 168,322 which means the state would save only 2.6% of the present funding delivered. The converse of this is that, in the event of the closure of 18 CDPs, 97.4% of the purported savings would not accrue to the state. This renders any impending plans to close to CDPs as an almost zero sum game which would deliver almost no economic savings to the exchequer.
In the context of the new Local and Community Development Programme, it may be the case that all 18 CDPs will not face closure. The various interpretations from interest groups in regard to the plan is that: many of the CDPs will face closure; the additional funding streams which accrue to the CDPs will be centralised and continuity is not guaranteed. Essentially, these will have to be competed for and the total value of the additional funding is likely to be significantly cut; in addition, for the CDPs that remain open, in addition to their existing additional funding being cut or removed altogether, the management of the CDPs will be centralised within a small number of centralised local development agencies within Cork and Kerry. Additional funding represents almost two thirds of the total resources going to the CDPs and core funding the remaining third. At the moment the state has carte blanch to implement cuts across both funding sources within a centralised LDP structure. What is crucially important here is that even if the state were to cut, for example, a minority of six CDPs, which would be a huge loss to the areas as discussed above, the savings to the state in cutting core funding and/or additional funding in this instance would be equally matched by the cost of doing so. In other words, in the same way as the cost of cutting 18 CDPs would match the revenue savings to the state, likewise the cost of cutting six would match the revenue savings benefit to the state also. Essentially, it is a zero sum game.
Consequently, the figures above show that the savings for the exchequer in closing all 18 CDPs is almost exactly the same euro for euro as keeping them open. The logical extension of this fact is that any proposed savings for the exchequer in cutting additional funding and closing CDPs will be matched almost totally in terms of cost to the state euro for euro also. Thus, for example, if the state were to cut the overall value of the programme by 50% by closing maybe six projects and severely cutting additional funding, this 50% saving would be matched by a 50% cost as per the itemised headings in table 1. In this event, the state still save almost nothing as before.
The Local and Community Development Programme also plans to take over the management of the CDPs centrally within previous LDP structures with the result that all boards management on all 18 CDPs will cease to exist. This is a certainty. Currently, members of voluntary management boards across all 18 CDPs contribute 12,932 hours on a voluntary basis per annum. The standard working week is 1,950 hours per annum. This means that with the handing of management functions to the centralised LDP organisation, then seven extra public servants would be needed to undertake the management role previously undertaken by volunteers. The recent Central Statistics Office data indicates that the average level of public service pay is 49,000 per annum. This would amount to an increased cost of 343,000 to the state. This is included as part of the overall cost above. It is discussed separately here to highlight two points: firstly, local management boards currently cost the state nothing. In the proposed new structure, transferring these new functions back to the state would cost the exchequer 343,000. Secondly, best practice in community development is to empower communities themselves according to the government’s own White Paper (2000) and scholars such as Faughnan (2000), Beresford and Croft (1999) and many others. The combined effect of the plan would be to cost the state 343,000 to implement bad practice.
The removal of management committees would disempower the citizenry of the community. This would result in a huge fall off in volunteering, the antithesis of current government policy. The loss of empowerment and volunteers would lead to a total local disenchantment with the process of community development which would also result in a fall off in those who participate on employment schemes, education and training courses. The combined effect would be to erode social solidarity in the community and increase marginalisation and poverty along with the attendant problems of anti-social behaviour and crime. This would contribute to growing material inequality and inequality of power between the local citizenry and the state. Ultimately, this even leads to social unhappiness, poor quality of life outcomes, poorer overall health, and poorer mental health. This process has been verified beyond all doubt, based on exhaustive quantitative research recently in a highly influential book entitled The Spirit Level, written by health economists Profs. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009). This amounts to the social cost of disempowerment and marginalisation which the stripping of power away from local management boards to a central agency would involve.
At present the 18 CDPs undertake an immense variety of work which fills glaring gaps in state services. These include: affordable childcare; day care centres for elderly; counselling; drop-in centres; after school clubs; continuing education and training courses; facilitation of meetings for groups across a wide spectrum from Alcoholics’ Anonymous, Grow community mental health, recreational facilities for children and adults. In the context of the current recession the demand for these services has increased dramatically due to unemployment, house repossessions, poor mental health outcomes and other social problems. This has been highlighted by a recent report by the Irish Association of Suicidology (2009) which recorded a doubling in suicide from 2008 to 2009 and the critical gaps in mental health services, attendant on the non introduction of services envisioned in the Vision for Change mental health policy document.
In addition, in an attempt to address these glaring gaps in service provision and increase the employment capacity of community members, the CDPs have displayed their tremendous commitment by being heavily involved in recently and newly introduced statutory, local development and local government structures. At present, the combined total involvement by the 18 CDPs on these new democratic structures amounts to 158 in total. These range from RAPID, City/County Development Boards, Local Authority, Vocational Educational Committees to involvement with the local city/county childcare committees, the Gardai, the probation services, local development companies, diocesan youth services, Money, Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS), FÁS and many others.
In addition, CDPs are to the fore in leading the battle against unemployment as there are almost 4,000 participants on FETAC and other educational courses run across the 18 CDPs. In addition, of the 44 participants in community employment/social economy and rural development training in 2008, 34 have progressed to work or further education, demonstrating a success rate of 80%. The deadweight cost of having these participants descend in to long-term unemployment and long-term social welfare dependency is avoided by the work of the CDPs. A figure for this is not included in table 1, but it is likely to be several hundreds of thousands saved for the exchequer. Finally, the 18 CDPs deliver hundreds of childcare places in Cork and Kerry. The investment in childcare offers a huge economic return to the state. At the end of November this year, the Starting Strong Alliance (formerly the Irish Childcare Policy Network), in a new report has noted that: “The best long-term investment the government cut make to ensure Irelands economic recovery would be in early child-care with the return to investment in quality early care and education is high. Cost-benefit analyses in the US have found returns can be as high as $16 for every $1 spent.”(Irish Times 27-11-09)
This short report has shown the economic saving to the government by closing down 18 CDPs in Cork and Kerry is virtually fully matched by the costs to the state if and when this happens. This is taking only the economics of the programme in to consideration. If it was possible to put an economic value on the social hardship, loss of social integration, decline in social capital and overall deterioration of quality of life that would result, the overall benefits to the government would be far outweighed by the costs. In addition, if the government were to cut the numbers of projects and/or the non-core funding of CDPs, by a proportion of the total (e.g. half the projects and non-core funding), the economic cost to the state would also be matched proportionality, resulting in virtually zero saving to it. When social costs are taken in to consideration, the overall cost to government would outweigh any economic benefit. The research conducted on the 18 CDPs in this report can be taken as valid 10% sample of the total 180 CDPs in the country. As a result, we would expect the findings and conclusions arrived at for these 18 CDPs to hold for the 180 projects in the programme as a whole. As a consequence, we can say with confidence that there is no benefit to the state by ending the CDP programme nationally or in cutting the number of projects and non-core funding by a proportion of the total. We hope, even at this late stage, that the current government plans to shut CDPs can now be reversed."
Supporting the Strikers
These nationwide strikes followed on the heels of the November 5th protest against the planned termination of our community development projects and the November 6th protest against the government’s proposed cuts programme, which together involved over 100,000 people across the country.
PbP recognises that in order to avoid further pay cuts and the decimation of our public services, working people must continue to stand together like they have done in these instances and tell this incompetent government that we will take no more. We are aware that chief aim of the government at this time is to divide working people and it is to this end that Fianna Fail have embarked on a campaign to demonise public sector workers.
It is often reported that the average wage of a public sector worker is €50,000, however this figure takes in to account the bloated salaries of consultants, judges and perhaps most importantly our bungling politicians. What is rarely mentioned is that 48.7% of public service workers earn less then the average industrial wage of €32,000 and almost 30% earn bellow €20,000 a year. Yet by fostering the myth that all public sector workers are grossly overpaid Fianna Fail hope to shift the burden that they lumbered our country with, on to the shoulders of our nurses, teachers, elderly, Community development workers unemployed etc…
The propagation of this myth works in conjunction with the suppression of one very important truth, that despite what some may have you believe, Ireland is not a poor country. In fact we are one of the richest in the world. Even taking in to account the recession, our income per capita is higher than that of Spain, France, Italy, Portugal Greece, the new member states and over all is 10% higher than the E.U. average.
Unfortunately for our schools, hospitals, community development projects etc… Ireland is also one of the most unequal countries in the world. Whilst public sector workers trying to get by on under €20,000 are labelled greedy, 1% of our population hoard €100 Billion between them. Figures such as these explain why a recent OECD report claims that Ireland was the 23rd most unequal of 29 developed countries.
With these figures in mind The Socialist Workers Party advocates solidarity amongst all working people and an escalation of public pressure. We need to combine pickets of work places with mass demonstrations, culminating in an all out strike if no concessions from the government are forthcoming. In 1995 public sector workers in France used strikes, like the ones on the 24th to bring the country to a standstill and forced their right wing government in to abandoning savage cuts similar to those proposed in the impending budget. The commitment in evidence on our protest marches and picket lines insists we can do the same here.
Dominic Hewson,
People Before Profit, Tralee
"Is There Any Such Thing as Society Anymore?" see New Articles page
2000-3000 demonstrators attend Munster Community Workers' Protest in Limerick 5th November
Workers in the Community Sector travelled from Kerry to Limerick City to participate in the protest organised by SIPTU. People from Community Development Projects (CDPs) in Kerry, like Tralee Women's Resource Centre made the journey from Tralee by bus.
Members of People Before Profit accompanied them.
The following day there were massive protests, against the government's general cuts programme, in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and several regional centres.
Garda estimates for the CDP protest put the number at the demonstration at 2000, SIPTU figures cite 3000.
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Neo-Nazi meeting stopped in Tralee
see New Articles section...
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Our Natural Resources belong to the people of Ireland
Support Tralee-Fenit Cycleway project
Support Tralee-Fenit Cycleway Project
It is now government policy to turn disused railway tracks into safe cycleways and walkways for leisure. Significant funding has been secured to turn the disused Tralee to Fenit line into one such cycleway/ walkway. If it gets the all clear, which it should by rights as it's outlined in the Kerry County Council official development plan, it will be the first in Kerry and completed by Christmas.
It would be a genuine asset to both Tralee and Fenit - for tourists and locals alike.
But it has met with some opposition. Those with real concerns have been met by Kerry County Council and their concerns, namely for safety of property's verging onto the track, have been addressed as best they can. They are however, still some opposition voices, who want to put a stop to the project. If that happens the funding will go to another such project elsewhere.
People Before Profit Alliance supports this potentially valuable community resource.
If you wish to support the project:
A meeting about the Tralee to Fenit Cycleway is on October 22nd in the Ballyroe Heights Hotel at 8pm. Come to the group's meeting to lend your support.
Also:
Leave your name and put up a comment on the following blog which the project’s supporters set up to garner support http://traleetofenitcycleway.wordpress.com
**Please circulate this event widely
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Tralee Cuts Demo 17th August REPORT
In Tralee over 250 people took part in a lunch-time demonstration against cuts, particularly those hitting the disability sector.
The protest was organised by Kerry Network of People with Disabilities, and supported by several other community organisations, including People Before Profit (Tralee).
Fighting to win was the theme of the speakers. KNPD organiser Margaret O'Shea called the demo "just the start", and overall, the mood was for initiating a prolonged campaign. She pointed out that the proposed cuts in the disability area would be a massive retrograde step for the rights and welfare of those with disabilities. The crowd was also addressed by local service users who would be directly affected. Margaret also stressed that if cuts had to come they should start at the top, with TDs and the top-salaried.
PbP spokesperson Kieran McNulty was also among the speakers. He pointed out that People Power can win against cuts, citing the example of the campaigners who won against cuts in the Medical Card Scheme.
PbP (Tralee) also promoted the national anti-cuts demo which will take part in Dublin on September 19th.
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Community organisations in Tralee are coming together to protest against the Cutbacks. People Before Profit stands in solidarity with them as they fight to retain our services.
Protest organised by Kerry Network of People with Disabilities
Other organisations supporting the protest include: Shanakill Family Resource Centre, Family Resource Centres (Kerry), SIPTU (Dublin), Sinn Fein (Kerry), Clare Network of People with Disabilities, Kerry Rural Transport,
and People Before Profit.
Cuts Protest organised by Kerry Network of People with Disabilities.
Please assemble at The Pikeman statue, Denny Street, MONDAY 17th August @ 2pm
Supporting the Tralee Demonstration against Cuts
People Before Profit Alliance (Tralee) says:
The report from the Bord Snip is an agenda for a huge attack on the poor, people with disabilities, and public services.
The report uses the guise of an objective examination of public spending to produce an agenda for attacks on the poor and the vulnerable.
The agenda of measures includes cutting 17,000 jobs from the public sector (even though 1 in 6 workers will already be unemployed next year), slashing the health service, increasing the pupil teacher ratio, reducing special needs assistants, slashing social welfare and forcing medical card holders to pay new prescription charges.
The members of Bord Snip are drawn from, or are close to, the political establishment and have links with banking, construction and financial speculation --the very sectors of our society that got us into this Recession. There was never any prospect that they were going to demand cuts on those on top salaries: their target was always the poor and the marginalised.
The Alternative Solution:
As an alternative to these cuts People before Profit argues that instead of bailing out the banks to the tune of E25 billion one good publicly owned bank should be established. Our natural resources worth $350 billion could be brought into public ownership, all tax loop holes to the rich should be closed and all incomes over E100,000 should be taxed at 70 per cent.
People Before Profit Alliancewant to ensure that local people are not denied disability services and other public services. The people of Ballyfermot have already shown how pressure and “people power” can force the HSE to keep open respite centres for the elderly. We need to bring together representatives of different organisations who are affected by the cuts at local level, together with the unemployed and those on social welfare, and form broad coalitions to resist them.
Next meeting of PbP tomorrow Tuesday 18th August All Welcome
(Imperial Bar, basement @ 7.30)
Find out more at www.pbptralee.com or phone 086 7397458
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People Before Profit Alliance (www.pbptralee.com) has been invited to attend, and we will support and promote, the following *local protest* against the Bord Snip report.
Protest organised by Kerry Network of People with Disabilities.
Please assemble at The Pikeman statue, Denny Street, MONDAY 17th August @ 2pm
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Press Release from KNPD:
"In response to the proposed cuts in the Governments McCarthy Report, Kerry County Newtwork of People with Disabilities, and others, we are organising a protest on the streets of Tralee for the 17th of August at 2pm.
"We have worked for the recognition of the equal rights of people with disabilities their families and carers for at least 14 years now. The Government supported our work in the good times. Now we are calling on them not to cut us out in the recession. All Budgets must be compliant with international best practice on Human Rights.
It would be a mockery of Ireland’s record to date, where we all worked together with limited resources to achieve the greater inclusion of the most marginalised to now stop this work. When we signed up to the UN Charter for Human Rights Ireland showed an excellent example of working together to improve the lives of all of our citizens going a long way towards realising cherishing all of the children of the nation equally. We won’t be softened up for the “inevitable” cuts in our next national Budget!
We say NO! To cuts to social welfare, Rural Transport, Community and Voluntary sector supports, RAPID, Community Services Programme, closure of rural garda stations Education for young people with disabilities, minimum wage and Christmas bonus for the poorest in Ireland. These proposed cuts have a strong anti rural bias and we won’t take them!
We say YES! To capping earnings by fat cat TDs and Civil Servants at at least €100,000 per year inclusive of all expenses and perks surely they can live on that? There are savings to be made but we must all work together to come up with solutions not penalising the most vulnerable.
Please join us on the streets of Tralee and make our feelings known before its too late!"
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An Bord Snip: A Plan to Attack Workers and
the Poor
The following is a detailed critique of An Bord Snip. We would welcome any comments or additional points you would like us to consider. If you are interested in helping to organise protests against this planned cuts, please reply by e mail or text 086 7397458 (Tralee).
There is nothing independent or objective about the Bord Snip Report. It pretends to be an expert body which stands above social conflict. In reality it was pre-programmed to produce a wish list of neo-liberal attacks on the poor and social services.
This is evidenced in three main ways.
Composition: Bord Snip is composed of six individuals who are drawn from establishment circles and who share a common mindset. Its includes a former business consultant turned academic; the second secretary of the Department of Finance; a former regulator who is now a European vice-president of a hedge fund administration company (hedge funds being gambling pools for the rich); a former deputy CEO of the HSE --who resigned because his pension payments were not high enough!, a former governor of the Central Bank who failed to act on tax evasion of the wealthy in the DIRT scandal; a former partner of Pricewaterhouse Coopers.
The neo-liberal mindset is evident in Bord Snip’s description of its ‘first principles’. These principles include ‘why public service provision might be warranted, rather than allowing the private sector to provide the service’. In other words, even though there is a catastrophic economic crisis as a result of the failure of the private sector, justifications have to be advanced for continuing public sector provision.
Terms of Reference: Bord Snip was established to ‘make recommendations on reducing the numbers employed in each area of the Public Service’. It was precluded from looking at alternative measures which might have, for example, raised taxes on the rich in order to promote a public works programme. All proposals concerning taxation have been hived off to the Commission on Taxation and the composition of this body also displays a distinct social class bias. Its 17 members include three company directors of financial corporations, four tax solicitors or partners in accountancy firms which help corporation avoid tax; the CEO of the Irish Stock Exchange, a representative of the Bankers Federation -- and one token union official. This Commission has also been pre-programmed to avoid proposals for taxing the rich in any meaningful way. This reality is acknowledged by the Bord Snip report which baldly state that ‘The Minister for Finance has stated that the scope for further income tax increases is very limited and that the Government will be looking to the expenditure side for the greater part of fiscal consolidation’.
No independent Research: Bord Snip conducted no independent research but relied on Government departments and particularly the Department of Finance to provide 'possible options for reductions in numbers and programme expenditure’. Its conclusions are merely the result of discussions with elite figures in the state bureaucracy who share a similar neo-liberal mindset.
No research was conducted on the social impact of proposed cuts on the lives of the poor.
THEIR PROPOSALS:
The following outlines some of the proposals of Bord Snip in three key areas. They give a flavour of the elite agenda that is using the shock created by the economic crisis to re-configure Irish society in decisive ways.
Education:
1 Increasing the pupil-teacher ratio in primary and secondary schools: Ireland already has the second highest primary class sizes in the EU and has already lost 1,000 teachers.
2 Closing smaller schools and forcing parents to pay €500 a year for school transport. Bord Snip claims that 47% of schools are too small and wants to amalgamate many of them into larger schools.
3 Reducing substitute cover for schools. When a teacher is sick and out of work for three days, a substitute teacher is employed. Bord Snip wants to re-distribute the pupils to other classes, increasing disruption.
4 Eliminating 2,000 Special Needs Assistants and 1,000 Language Assistants. The former help pupils who are assessed as having special needs.
5 Cutting primary and secondary school funding by 10%.
6 Re-writing teachers’ contracts to intensify their workload.
7 Eliminating 2,000 jobs in Third Level – the equivalent to 10 percent of the staff.
8 Outsourcing libraries to private, for-profit, companies.
9 Cutting the student support scheme in Third Level and preventing Back to Education Allowance holders getting a Maintenance Grant. Irish universities have a low intake of students from working class backgrounds – Bord Snip wants to penalise these students further.
Instead of attacking the gross salaries paid to university presidents and managers, Bord Snip wants to attack mature students who gained a place in university after spending a considerable period on social welfare.
10 Re-introducing student fees, making it even harder for the poor to get to college.
HEALTH:
1 Tearing up the existing contracts of health workers – forcing them to work between the hours of 8am and 8pm -- without overtime payments.
2 Cutting 6,000 jobs through compulsory redeployment and, if necessary, redundancies. Allowing for outsourcing of ‘non-routine services’.
3 Preventing a greater number of poor people getting a Medical Card. Bord Snip complains that items such as childcare costs, rent and mortgage payments are included in assessments for medical cards. Instead of low income entitling people to a right to a medical card, it wants eligibility determined by strict ‘medical need’. In other words, the numbers of normally healthy medical card holders to be severely reduced.
4 Making Medical Card holders pay a €5 prescription charge and forcing other to pay €125 per month for the cost of drugs. These measures could force some with chronic illness to choose between medicines and food.
5 Eliminating nearly a quarter of hospital beds. Bord Snip uses a growing dogma within the HSE to claim that Ireland only needs 8,800 hospital beds rather than the current 12,778. No extra resources are proposed from a wider longer term programme of preventative medicine.
6 Increasing hospital charges to A&E to €125. This will be higher than some private hospitals! And the clear aim is to drive people towards the private sector. Bord Snip also proposes that the National Treatment Purchase Fund be required to only use private facilities.
7 Making older people pay more for access to long stay care, and means testing home care packages.
SOCIAL WELFARE:
Bord Snip’s class bias is revealed in the fact that the largest cut of all - €1.8 billion – will come from Social Welfare. The proposaled measures include:
1 Cutting Social Welfare payments by 5 percent. One of the main reasons advanced is a ‘race to the bottom’ argument: wages have already been cut by an average of 4 percent and further cuts are expected – so there must be no ‘disincentive’ to work for reduced wages.
2 Cutting the Rent Supplement further. Social Welfare recipients have already been forced to pay an extra €15-€20 a week in rent payments in the last budget.
3 Discriminating against Social Welfare recipients according to age. The last budget started this by reducing Social Welfare for under 20s to less than €100 a week. Bord Snip wants to cut welfare for 20-24 years olds to €150 a week.
4 Slashing payments for those employed on Community Employment schemes. Someone on a One Parent Family Payment gets €228.70 for taking part in a CE scheme. Bord Snip does not regard CE schemes as providing real work, so it wants the additional payments removed.
5 Eliminating Family Income Supplement for those receiving One Parent Family Allowance, Disability Allowance or Widow(ers)s Contributory Pension
6 Increasing our retirement age for the state pension. The decline in occupational pensions means that huge numbers will be dependent on the state pension of €230 a week. Bord Snip wants to drive people further into poverty by forcing them to wait until 66 or even 67 to get a state pension.
These measures give a flavour of the deep social class bias and hatred of the poor contained in Bord Snip. In addition to such measures, there are also proposals to introduce water charges, abolish energy conservation programmes provided by Sustainable Ireland and allow energy companies to provide this function; reducing or eliminating many support funds for small farmers and, incredibly, abolishing the state grant to local authorities so that would become entirely dependent on items such as water charges for funding.
In almost every other part of the world, neo-liberal economics has been discredited as the philosophy which has helped create the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. In Ireland, however, the political elite are becoming even more vicious in their adherence to these Thatcherite dogmas. They have been emboldened by the failure of the union leaders to mount any adequate resistance. But this has also led them to go too far, and a cry is emerging from the grassroots of Irish society to proclaim: 'enough is enough'.
OUR STRATEGIES AND RESPONSES
Over the past two decades, the Irish establishment has perfected the imposition of neo-liberal measures to a fine art – while continuing to co-opt leaderships of civil society through ‘social partnership arrangements’.
The Bord Snip report is designed to allow for a continuation of this strategy in a more limited form.
The report recommends over €5 billion in cuts which represents the longer term wish-list of the elite. But the report also functions as a menu which gives them some scope to "negotiate" with and co-opt potential opponents. By promoting this flexibility, leaders of unions and civil society groups can be invited in ‘to the inside track’ to discuss which part of the cuts agenda can be implemented. Divisions can also be fostered between them.
The overall paradigm is therefore set – and all who accept an invitation to join the inside track must respond within the terms of the neo-liberal framework.
Evidence of these mechanisms is already clear in the response of the Labour Party and the union leaders.
The Labour leader, Eamon Gilmore has opposed reductions in social welfare -- but has supported the reduction of 17,000 public sector workers and ‘maybe even more’.
IMPACT leader Peter McLoone, has agreed on the need to transform the public sector to get ‘more for less’ -- but argues that this needs to be achieved by partnership rather than confrontation.
What is missing here is a wider rejection of the whole philosophy of neo-liberal economics. Yet there is every sign that Bord Snip will only add to the failed economics that is bringing Ireland to the verge of disaster!
OUR ALTERNATIVE TO FAILED ECONOMICS:
Ireland has already undergone four sets of expenditure reductions – measures announced in July 2008 and February 2009 as well as the October Budget of 2008 and the Supplementary budget of February 2009.
Yet the shocking irony is that government expenditure is still set to rise in 2009.As Bord Snip acknowledges, ‘Upwards pressure on spending, including the rising cost of social transfers due to the increase in unemployment and rising debt service burden, have more than offset the expenditure economies already announced’.
Some translation may be helpful here: Because the last round of cuts have been so deep, Ireland has entered a deflationary spiral which has thrown more people out of work and so more is spent on social welfare payments. In addition, the bail out of the banks is adding to Ireland national debt and higher interest rates are being extracted by the global rich.
In other words, the economic agenda of cutting wages, slashing social spending and bailing out the banks is a failure because it only deepens the recession.
What is now required is a complete break form these policies by developing popular support for a series of anti-capitalist economic measures which can alleviate social suffering.
The alternative to Bord Snip must therefore start from the fact that private business has failed and is unlikely to create significant numbers of jobs in the future.
Instead of cuts we need measures which might include:
A) Stop the bail out of the Banks – Create a 'Good' state bank. The Bail-out of the banks will cost an estimated €24 billion and is already pushing up interest rates on the national debt by €1 billion a year. By ending support for private banking and creating a new state banking network, billions could be saved.
B) Establish a public works scheme to put people back to work. We need, for example, a proper transport system; an insulation programme for houses, more primary care centres. There is plenty of work to be done. By putting people back to work, we can reflate the economy and take up the slack which private corporations will not fill.
C) Nationalise our natural resources. Take back our oil and gas fields from Shell and Exxon. Use the additional funds to promote wider state led industrial development.
D) Take punitive tax measure against wealthy. Confiscate their assets where necessary. At present 440 very wealthy people control €22.5 billion in assets. If it comes to a choice of slashing social welfare or taking their wealth, our needs must come first.
E) Genuine reform of the public sector. Cut all salaries above €100,000. Eliminate the use of PR companies, and “external consultants”, who rip off taxpayers. Unleash the creative energies of public sector staff by cutting back on layers of managers and needless paper work, and encourage a new form of workers control.
F) Develop a planned economy built on public enterprise that can re-build Ireland’s manufacturing base after the failure of private capitalism. This is the only realistic way to create jobs in the long term.
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FIVE PbP CANDIDATES ELECTED!
In breaktrhough for a new left-wing political movement, 5 'People Before Profit Alliance' Candidates were elected to local councils.
Brid Smith elected in Ballyfermot, Richard Boyd Barrett elected in Dun Laoghaire, Joan Collins elected in Walkinstown, Hugh Lewis elected in Ballybrack, Gino Kenny elected in Clondalkin.
(In Tralee, Seán Moraghan survived until the 8th Count, beating two Fianna Fáilers and one ex-Sinn Fein candidate. Eliminated at the 9th Count).
_________________________________________________________________________ People Before Profit support Hospital Demonstration
People Before Profit attended the demonstration held at Kerry General Hospital on Saturday 23rd of May.
Over 200 people turned out early Saturday morning to protest about the state of cancer care services for women, and the quality of services at the hospital generally.
This demonstration took place against the backdrop of possible removal of other acute services.
Remarkably, Fianna Fáil and Green councillors and candidates also attended (as if they were not fully paid-up members and supporters of the parties doing the removal of services).
But People Before Profit were also well represented and gave out a specific leaflet detailing our need to fight for the hospital.
Local press documented the event, which continued with a march into the centre of Tralee, and a moving testament to recovery from ilness and the need for services by a former cancer patient.
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May 2009
STATEMENT on the Closure of Amann
The closure of Amann Industries in Tralee, and the removal of over 300 workers’ jobs to China and Eastern Europe demonstrates that private industry is not a sustainable solution to unemployment. This is particularly true now, as the world economic system continues to fail, generally. If the world of business is supposedly the arena that is going to provide a solution to the latest crisis of capitalism, why cant it do so now?
The truth is that private enterprise provides jobs only as long as a maximum level of profitability is maintained for the owners and shareholders. Business, as business people will tell you, is not a social service.
In that case we now need the Irish state to step in and nationalise companies in difficulty, and preserve the jobs. If we can nationalise banks (at our expense) why cant we nationalise businesses? Let’s bail out jobs and services, not bankers and big business. At the very least, we could inject a kind of Obama stimulus package to companies, in return for partial public ownership, with the state guaranteeing standards of employment and workers’ rights.
If high energy costs are a problem for industry, we also need the state to take back our energy resources, like the Corrib gas field, into public ownership. Then we could supply energy to companies as a service, stripped of the higher price necessitated by private energy companies’ quest for profits.
With over 6000 people on the Unemployment Live Register in the Tralee area, we certainly need a different kind of solution to job creation and job sustainability.
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April 09
Fight to Save Services at Kerry General Hospital
Kerry General Hospital (KGH) is being systematically run down by the HSE, which Mary Harney created as an attempt to further extend privatisation in the health service.
The hospital is now facing a even deeper crisis with Outpatients clinics closing for six weeks every year, and Annagh Ward closing at weekends.
The slim hopes that the recommendations in the Vision for Change report (January 2006) on the future of mental health policy in Ireland were dealt a devastating blow when in Kerry alone e1,000,000 was knocked off the budget.
In the A&E, growing numbers of patients of all ages and all conditions are put on trolleys often for more than 24 hours due to the bed crisis at the hospital. And it has recently been announced that KGH is one of the most likely hospitals to get it’s A&E service halved from 24 hours a day to just twelve hours a day.
As if this wasn’t enough there still is no Diabetic consultant and proper Renal treatment. The Cardiology unit is significantly under-resourced, while the Angiography service which provides x-rays of blood vessels was closed down three years ago. The removal of Cancer Care services means that ill patients have to make a round-trip to Cork to be treated. Only recently has a Breastcheck facility been announced. There should be a permanent Mammography unit at KGH and not just a mobile Breastcheck unit. We sufficient and adequately funded health care at our hospital.
The crisis at Kerry General Hospital is caused to a large extent by the chronic shortage in staff numbers. This is what Michael Dineen the Irish Nurses Organisation local representative had to say on this issue:
“The nursing shortage within Kerry General Hospital are so acute that they pose a daily challenge to our members in their efforts to deliver a safe and appropriate level of care to the patients in their charge … the only option to them at this juncture is to curtail services”.
People before Profit also support the INO’s recent decision to ballot for industrial action to end the continuing staffing embargo imposed by the HSE.
All this is part of Harney’s cuts in the health budget and crazy policy of co-location of private hospitals next to public ones. Harney has now cut a further e1.1 billion off the health budget and is directly responsible for the needless pain and suffering large numbers of people in Tralee and indeed the rest of Ireland are having to put up with.
The argument that People Before Profit put forward is simple. We need to fight back in the way the old age pensioners did and won over the Medical Card issue. It was their courageous resistance to Harney that has inspired the more general protest movement which we see against the government today.
‘People Power’ can win, and internationally a movement for social change is growing. In Ireland we can get rid of this ridiculous two-tier health system and replace it with a free universal health service paid for by taxing The Rich and introducing a PAYE national health insurance scheme thus eliminating private health insurance. Privatising elements of the health service is not an intelligent solution: we want world-class state health care.
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Cutbacks in Education Are Hitting Tralee
8 Feb 2009
The government’s cutbacks in education will have a drastic effect on Primary schools in Tralee.
PbP local election candidate Sean Moraghan supports local demands for their reversal.
Scoil Eoin, which will have over 600 students next year, will lose one teacher as a direct result of the increase in class sizes and will face cutbacks in language support staff which will have a severe impact on students for whom English is not their first language. In addition three quarters of its students are studying in prefabs and in a building dating back to 1858! They are still waiting for a new school.
Scoil Eoin's Principal, Kieran O’Toole, tells us that for decades “almost a complete new school has been promised, and nothing has happened”. There is a massive number of out of work construction workers in Tralee at the moment who could be usefully employed in such school building programmes. Kieran is so angry that he has joined the campaign by the National Parents Council in an attempt to reverse the government’s education policy. Thousands of postcards will be sent to parents across the country as part of this campaign.
People Before Profit Alliance candidate Sean Moraghan is demanding a reversal of the cuts which will include an increase in primary school class sizes from twenty seven children per class to twenty eight, which would abolish Substitute cover for teachers and would have cut teacher numbers by at least a thousand. We oppose the cuts in the provision of English Language support teachers, the cuts to funding to Special Needs children and the cut in Traveller education funding. We reject the increase in School Transport charges and the elimination of the excellent Free Book Scheme.
Said Sean, “These cuts in resources for primary school education represent an extremely short-sighted policy on the part of the Fianna Fail/Green government and will have a poor effect on the future skills-base of our local workforce with dire consequences for our economy here.”
“In fact, we need increased investment in our schools, especially if we are to create the so-called Knowledge Economy: We need science labs in schools and computers for every class room (and not funded through collecting huge numbers of vouchers in supermarkets).”
CONTACT DETAILS: To contact Sean: 086 7397458
e-mail: earthsoulrocknroll@gmail.com
ELECTION AGENT: Kieran McNulty 087 6716009
www.people-before-profit.org
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Lets stop kicking Public Sector workers
7 Feb 2009
Public sector workers did not cause the economic mess we are in now.
The pension levy on public sector workers is an outrage. Many low and middle income employees, who have taken out large mortgages, simply cannot afford to pay it.This levy is another name for a pay cut: an employee on €35,000, will pay €43 a week, an employee on €45,000 will pay an extra €63 a week.
This pay cut is on top of a 1 percent levy on gross income and the deferment of all wage rises due under the current partnership deal.
The public sector is not the 'bloated' over-paid sector portrayed by the media. According to the OECD, Ireland has the third lowest rate of public expenditure compared to Gross Domestic Product, just ahead of Korea and Mexico.
Of course, the uppermost grades are different. People Before Profit has no problem in calling for those benefiting from incomes of e150,000 to be taxed heavily.Public sector workers already pay a 6.5 percent contribution to their pension. The real problem is not public sector workers but private sector employers who would prefer to pay nothing to their employees' pensionfunds.
While public sector workers are being attacked remorselessly, the government is putting up €8 billion to 're-capitalise' the banks. Despite all the nonsense talk of a 'national effort' to solve the crisis, no extra taxes have been imposed on the super-wealthy.
Instead of bailing out bankers, the government should put money into saving the jobs at Waterford Crystal and other areas where workers are being made redundant.And we need a massive programme of public works to help people who have been made redundant.
In this economic crisis, we are once again being asked to carry the can – while the super rich, who helped to cause the economic collapse, through speculation and unregulated banking practices, get off lightly.
The over-70s showed how 'people power' could bring about some measure of social justice. Now is the time for the rest of us to do the same.
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