On Wednesday May 13th, at 7pm, People Before Profit by-election candidate Denman Rooke is to host a special public meeting at the Ballybane Community Centre to discuss the issue of housing.
Rooke will be joined by members of the 14 families who are being evicted from Cúirt Éigis by a landlord who wants to renovate the properties. The mothers, fathers, and children living in Cúirt Éigis, Ballybane, were informed by Landlord Cathal Shevlin that they have until autumn to leave their homes and communities. Some of the residents are on Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) support and Rental Assistance Support (RAS), while others are private tenants.
At the meeting Rooke, who is a CATU activist and trade union member, will be discussing the importance of community organising and active resistance against evictions.
“If there’s one thing that the fuel protests in April have proven to everyone,” said Rooke, “it is that collective and direct action works. We need to grow that fight to remind any government that its obligations are to the people of Ireland, not to business and profit”.
While the primary focus of the meeting is housing, Rooke stressed that this was an opportunity for residents to voice any concerns they had. Whether that was the cost of living, the ever-rising energy bills, the lack of job security, or the feeling that, by the government’s standards, they simply did not matter any more.
“The Independent-supported Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael coalition tries to convince everyone that this is ‘just the way it is’, and that there are limits to the extent which they can intervene in the Market,” said Rooke, “but everyone knows that’s a lie. Time and again they have stepped in to bail out banks and corporations, subsidise tech companies, and give tax breaks to multinationals. Their refusal to help the average person in Ireland is simply a matter of choice - they don’t want to.”
Rooke described this meeting as “an opportunity for people to connect and organise, with the explicit aim of fighting back, and forcing the government to put people - families and children whose lives are embedded locally, individuals who have friends and support here - before profit.”
Public Meeting
Wednesday 13th May at 7pm
Ballybane Community Resource Centre