At the May South Central Area Committee, one of the issues we discussed was the plans for Cherry Orchard. I raised the issue of cuts within the area and the effects it has to local projects; how we as a community need to come together with appropriate authorities and agencies to challenge this.
Children have a right to their own language. This is why Brid supports the campaign of parents in Ballyfermot for pre-school facilities delivered as Gaeilge in Ballyfernott.
Published on Feb 14, 2015
Cllr Smith said “The hated and unjust water charges have been pushed through by Enda Kenny and Fine Gael.
Despite their election promises to end austerity, this Government with Enda Kenny at it’s helm have inflicted severe austerity on the Irish people.
Their austerity budgets have cut the ordinary people to the bone, at the same time protecting the rich and creating new quangos like Irish Water.
To add insult to injury they are pursuing an agenda of demonising those who protest against them.”
Brid Smith added
“We are calling for the release of the five protesters jailed by the State.
This is an attempt to break up the mass movement against the Water Charges.
The Right2Water campaign will be back on the streets today and on 21 March.
Today in Castlebar we are sending a message to Enda Kenny and his party that they will get their answer at the next Election.”
Cllr Bríd smith condemns the treatment of protesters in Jobstown, Tallaght.
Childcare in Ireland is the most expensive in Europe, and worldwide second only to the USA, according to recent research from the OECD.
The government here spends just 0.2% of GDP in the development of children up to the age of 6, compared to an OECD average of 0.7%.
This means that typically already hard-pushed parents in Ireland pay 40% of the average wage in childcare costs, while in other OECD countries this falls to 12% thanks to government subsidies.
Another consequence is that childcare workers here are underpaid and overworked, with up to 25,000 people working in the sector on an average of less than €11 an hour – less than the minimum wage, according to figures from the Association of Childhood Professionals.
ESRI has recently warned that the high cost of childcare in this country is a major factor contributing to the large number of jobless households throughout the country.
Yet in spite of the official acknowledgement of the need for greater investment as far back as 2000 when the National Childhood Strategy was published, funding for childcare still needs to be increased fivefold if it’s to meet the standard of services to which successive governments have claimed they aspire.
This government’s cutbacks have hit the poorest the hardest.
People Before Profit calls for immediate investment in childcare services to help ordinary families already struggling under the unfair burden of austerity.
Hundreds came out to protest at the Department of Justice in Dublin Thursday night overthe arrests of 17 people including three minors. It is in relation to a protests last November when Tanaiste Joan Burton was not let out of her car for two hours by Water protestors.
Hundreds came out to protest at the Department of Justice in Dublin Thursday night overthe arrests of 17 people including three minors. It is in relation to a protests last November when Tanaiste Joan Burton was not let out of her car for two hours by Water protestors.
