Come to the meeting to discuss how we challenge… Water Rates Cuts in wages, welfare & community services St Andrews Community Centre, SCR, Rialto.
People Before Profit South West Inner City Branch
Basin Street/Grand Canal Harbour development
Residents in the Basin Street area asked People Before Profit (PBP) to assist them in challenging the extensive development proposed for the Grand Canal Basin. The planning application did not make any provision for social housing or community gain, nor did it include any information on what residents could expect in relation to construction timing, traffic management or environmental impact. Residents in the area feel they were not adequately consulted with by the developers prior to submitting their application. In total six objections were lodged on behalf of resident associations in the area. Residents are now proposing that a working group be established with the support of PBP to prepare for the outcome of the planning process.
Bulfin Estate
A number of issues have arisen in relation to the Bulfin Estate:
In a statement today the People Before Profit Alliance announced that Brid Smith, a People Before Profit Dublin City Councillor from Ballyfermot/Drimnagh, will stand for in the election for Dublin’s first directly elected Mayor.
By Cllr Brid Smith, People Before Profit Alliance. Labour and Fine Gael claim to be in opposition to the Government. Yet even though they have a majority on Dublin City Council, they had no problem passing on cuts in this year’s budget. The government has cut funding to the City Council this year by 6.3%. This amounts to a 20% cut in funding to the biggest council in the country since 2008.
This gives elected councillors a choice – to cut funding to housing, local amenities and services, to increase bin charges, rents and others OR to stand up to the Government.
No prizes for guessing which choice was made.
This budget abolished the waiver for bin collection for everybody on social welfare. It increased bin charges for the rest by 5%. In July the Council will impose VAT on all charges including bins by either 13.5% or 21%.
On top of this the budget for the fire service was cut. Funding to the BASE youth project in Ballyfermot was cut. And council rents for subsidiary earners was increased.
The same budget cut the rates for businesses by 2.4% and gave a further hand out to developers by cutting capital spending on social housing and giving extra to the council to lease property from developers. And all council workers have had their pay cut by over 17% in the last year.
The PBPA statement follows a recent meeting of the Dublin City Council Finance Special Policy Committee, (SPC) where it was revealed that a case taken by the EU commission to the ECJ on the issue of Ireland’s failure to impose VAT on publicly provided services would mean VAT would have to be imposed on such services from now on.
At the Dublin City Council Budget meeting on 21 December 2009, Killian Forde proposed the budget as Chair of the Finance SPC and voted in favour of it. As a Sinn Fein member he was apparently, in breach of his party’s mandate. The most controversial content of the budget was the removal of the waiver for social welfare recipients of the waiver on bin lifts (the waiver remains on the standing charge of €95 per annum).
Sinn Fein says he went against the party mandate on the budget given their opposition to the removal of the waiver but this is not the first time that SF councillors voted in differing ways on the budget. In the past a number of their councillors voted for and others against the same budget, all of which contained bin charges. It seems though that this has been a step too far and Forde has resigned from the party saying he would be guilty of “chancery” if he voted against this budget.
Some facts about the recession
The Public Sector
Size and social welfare rates
Far from what the government would have us believe the Irish Public Sector is not bloated. The 2008 OECD Review of public services showed that spending on public services in Ireland in 2005 was third lowest of 25 OECD countries.
CSO data show s that current public spending dropped from 33.6% of GDP in 1996 to 28.5% in 2005.
According to CSO between December 08 and June 09 public sector numbers have fallen by 3,000.
Recent EU data shows that spending on social protection in Ireland was 18.2% of GDP in 2006 compared to an EU average of 27%. Welfare rates are the fifth lowest in the EU.
Pay
In response to a Dail Question from Joan Burton on 21 Oct 2009 the following information was given in relation to the incomes in the public sector and more generally
Income Tax Year 2007 Public Sector Employees All Employees
Range of Gross income Total Number Total Number
€0 – €10,000 49,747 414,298
€10,001 – €20,000 64,116 392,697
€20,001 – €30,000 69,766 379,180
€30,001 – €40,000 69,954 263,576
€40,001 – €50,000 55,586 167,904
€50,001 – €60,000 34,562 103,273
€60,001 – €70,000 22,555 67,776
People Before Profit Alliance Councillors Joan Collins and Brid Smyth, Dublin City Council, Richard Boyd Barrett and Hugh Lewis, Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown Council, and Gino Kenny, Dublin South today condemned cuts in the rate support grant from central government to local authorities which will be reflected in cuts in local services, job losses and increased charges for householders.
Councillor Joan Collins said, “On Monday Dublin City Council will propose a budget including the removal of the waiver for bin charges from the low paid and social welfare recipients. This will hit 40,000 pensioners and social welfare recipients many of whom are facing cuts in their payments as a result of the government budget announced last week. Depending on how often they use the service, they could be faced with charges for each lift, costing up to 150euro a year which they did not previously have to pay. So much for the government not attacking old age pensioners in the recent budget”.
People Before Profit Alliance says Low and Middle Earners to be hammered while corporations get off scott free
Report of the Commission on Taxation
Once again people in Dublin have voted for change on their City Council. In 2004 Labour was voted in as the largest group, ending Fianna Fail’s domination of the council. Instead of change, the people were treated to a game of musical chairs, with Labour entering a deal to divvy up the Mayorship and committee chairs with Fine Gael, and the sole Green and PD Councillors. When that deal broke down, Labour concluded an arrangement with Fianna Fail. The merry go round now continues with Labour in a deal for the new council with Fine Gael.
Councillor Joan Collins (pictured above) said “We will play no part in this charade. We will be voting against the Labour/Fine Gael nominee for Mayor. Our job is to provide a voice for the anger of the people who elected us. Funding from central government has been cut by 7% for this year. This will mean cuts in much needed services. It will mean increases in double taxation charges such as the bin tax. There will likely be an attempt to re-introduce a water tax in the course of this council term. There will of course be no cuts in junkets at the taxpayers’ expense. We will oppose these measures and provide real opposition to policies which inflict hardship on ordinary families.”
Revelations about Eamonn Casey point yet again to the gross hypocrisy of the Bishops.These are mostly elderly males who think they have every right to
Calls For Broad Mobilisation To Face Down Far-Right Terror Campaign The riot and arson in Coolock today is another shocking development driven by far right
On the back of the recent election results in France, where the French left united around radical demands and came out on top, People Before
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