People Before Profit calls for opposition to Sinn Fein/DUP proposed education cuts in Northern Ireland

The Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) has described proposed cuts to the education budget in the North as “unprecedented in their ferocity and highly alarming” and likely to see between 4 and 5,000 teaching jobs being cut. The cuts, proposed by Sinn Fein Minister for Education, Catriona Ruane, amount to a staggering £871 million over the next four years.

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February 4, 2011

United Left Alliance candidates protest over water services

On the day when the People Before Profit Alliance launched its Election Campaign Launch, United Left Alliance candidates Joe Higgins MEP & Cllr Joan Collins have said pressure on the Government from the EU to privatise domestic water supply must stop.
The Dublin-based candidates yesterday protested outside the European Commission’s Dublin offices, claiming the commission is putting pressure on the Government to privatise water services.
They handed in a letter for commission president José Manuel Barroso in which they noted “with dismay” the requirement in the EU-IMF Memorandum of Understanding that “the public provision of water services is to end and this function is to be transferred to a utility company”.
The memorandum, signed by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan last December, stated: “We are also planning to move towards full cost-recovery in the provision of water services.”
It also said that in advance of introducing charges, the Government will have undertaken an independent assessment of transfer of responsibility for water services provision to a water utility and “prepare proposals for implementation as appropriate with a view to start charging in 2012-2013”.
Joe Higgins, a candidate in Dublin West, said Veolia, which operates the Luas, was already charging for water in Sligo and had “made inquiries about Ireland’s reservoirs”. According to its website, Veolia also has water operating contracts in Wicklow, Limerick, Westmeath, Waterford, Dublin, Mayo and Donegal.

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February 4, 2011

Mortgages: Gino Kenny Calls for Jingle Key Legislation

Reports that the mortgage provider Permanent TSB is set to raise interest rates by 1% has sent a wave of fear through many households. The rise in the standard variable rate will add €60 to every €100,000 borrowed. Once this increase goes through, other mortgage providers will follow. These will include companies who have received huge bail outs from Irish taxpayers.
 
Councillor Gino Kenny, the People Before Profit candidate for Dublin Mid West, has claimed that these rises will trigger a social crisis of massive proportions.
The UCD economist Morgan Kelly recently claimed “that gathering mortgage crisis puts Ireland on the cusp of a social conflict on the scale of the Land War”. The mortgage increases are a time bomb that is ticking away at the heart of Irish society. Already one in ten mortgage holders are in difficulty and the interest rate hikes will push many more over the edge. We cannot keep on bailing out banks while they simultaneously try to solve their problems by squeezing families dry. It is time to stop the blame game and openly acknowledge that the mortgage crisis is not just an individual problem. The elite structures of Irish society pushed hundreds of thousands of people onto unsustainable mortgages through a policy of reducing social housing and stimulating the property bubble. "We need a clear change of policy and I propose three measures to help those in mortgage difficulties.
1. We need to declare an economic emergency. During this period, mortgage companies should be forbidden from re-possessing the houses of any family that can prove financial distress.

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February 4, 2011

PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT LAUNCH GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN

Opening today’s press conference Cllr. Brid Smith announced that People Before Profit is running nine candidates in Dublin, Cork and Wexford in the upcoming General Election: “The People Before Profit Alliance is a real alternative to the political establishment. We support a strategy of ‘people power’ to bring change. We are part of an exciting new force in Irish politics, the United Left Alliance, standing in constituencies across the country to fight for genuine change.” 

People Before Profit candidates are:

  • Cllr. Richard Boyd Barrett Dun Laoghaire
  • Cllr. Joan Collins Dublin South Central
  • Cllr. Gino Kenny Dublin Mid West
  • John Lyons Dublin North Central
  • Nicola Curry Dublin South
  • Annette Mooney Dublin South East
  • Andrew Keegan Dublin North West
  • Seamus O’Brien Wexford
  • Ann Foley Cork North West

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February 4, 2011

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