Media Release- Bríd Smith TD, People Before Profit, 06/11/2018

Bills benefits would far outweigh any costs says Brid Smith TD

People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith has labelled an Oireachtas report on the proposed bill to ban exploration for oil and gas as “pure fantasy” based on “pretty flimsy economic grounds”.

The research explicitly excluded looking at any economic benefits of the ban while much of its figures are based on “what if” scenarios that speculate on some find in the future.Read more »

Brid Smith, Richard Boyd-Barret and Gino Kenny, the People Before Profit TDs, launched their poster (27.4.18) urging a YES vote in the Referendum on Repeal of the 8th amendment to the constitution. This video is of Brid explaining the implications of the 8th for assylum seeking women at the press conference.

I’ve just finished speaking in Dail to the new Social Protection Minister. I spoke mostly on the pensions issue, and also about how unfair, and unproductive it is, to ignore tax cheats in the corporate sector, while hounding the poor. Will she be any better than Leo? Don’t hold your breath.

BIN CHARGES: ‘DIG DEEPER IN YOUR POCKET’…THE CHEEK OF THEM!

I spoke in the Dail last night and reminded the Minister of the rotten history of these charges…privatisation, loss of waivers, increasing costs and illegal dumping, and crucially – the profits of the operators who registered off-shore to hide how much they make off us. I put the PBP proposal: Fund local authorities to run the services. Meantime – an immediate price freeze before abolotion of all charges.

AAA-PBP submitted a motion today to reverse Bin Charge hikes and to reinstate waivers for low income families – both the bitter legacy of neo-liberal policies of successive Governments.

Simon Coveney has since been back pedalling rapidly, talking of introducing a new Statutory Instrument next week.

The Government is backing down already. Let’s see how they vote next week!

Questioning the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in the Dáil on 9 June, Bríd highlights that the private for profit model of childcare is not working. Some of the poorest people spend up to 25% of their take home income on childcare. We must look at the publicly funded model.