Author: Mary

DATA CENTRES – A MASSIVE DRAIN ON POWER AND WATER. Our government becomes more craven by the day to the multinational tech corporations. And it’s getting scarier, with plans for more and more data storage centres that consume precious resources at a voracious rate, so much so that by 2030 HALF OF OUR RENEWABLE ENERGY will go on maintaining them! And yet they are getting special permission to by-pass normal planning, to construct more. And the Greens stand over this?

We tried today to put a pause, for a year, on shutting down the Commission of Inquiry into the Mother and Baby Homes. They had produced a very flawed Report that many survivors were hurt by. And to add insult to injury, the testimonies given by the survivors to the enquiry were put in serious jeopardy with threats being of permanently erased. I spoke on this in the Dáil today. Tragically, the upshot was that despite the Dáil vote to extend the life of the Commission, the Minister is choosing not to accede to the wishes of the survivors. Interestingly, having said the testimonies were not retrievable, it now turns out (after the survivors fought for the truth) that they in fact are. We’ll keep fighting to have the rights of the survivors, and of history, vindicated. Shame on Roderick O Gorman and the rotten govt he’s part of

Our sympathy and solidarity are with the family of George Nkenco, whose funeral is tomorrow. George was shot dead by Gardaí at his home last month. I spoke on this in Dáil yesterday, and called on the Táiniste to deliver an INDEPENDENT, PUBLIC, ENQUIRY into George’s death. Varadkar said he trusted the GSOC (the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission) to deliver such an enquiry. I don’t. Many people seeking justice, like Sgt. Maurice McCabe for instance, were poorly served by GSOC. They’re not independent, and they certainly don’t do ‘public’

Big Phil Hogan was put back in his box by thousands of us who protested, and won, over Water Charges. But we are still waiting for the promised referendum on putting into the Constitution, the commitment to keep our water out of private hands. And now we hear the public service workers involved in water services, 3,200 of them, who were transferred to Irish Water on the promise that they remain ‘public service’, are now faced with an attempt by Irish Water to go back on their word to them. This is not on. Neither is the delay on the referendum. I spoke about our #Right2Water issues, and the workers rights, today in the Dáil.

VACCINATIONS CANCELLED WITHOUT WARNING! Almost a hundred people over 85 years, in Ballyfermot today, were left worried and anxious when the vaccinations they were expecting to have, failed to materialise. No warning from the HSE. No answer at the other end of the phone. Just typical of FF,FG, Greens cock-up in what they do about Covid. WE NEED TO MAINTAIN SOCIAL SOLIDARITY to beat this thing, and that’s just what the government are squandering with their shoddy arrangements, and ridiculous new Bill, that won’t impose quarantine for non essential travel for another 4 weeks, and even then, in the most incomplete, half-assed way. I spoke in the Dáil today about this.

I spoke on The Tonight Show last night about the HALF-ASSED GOVERNMENT PLAN ON QUARANTINE. While we can’t travel more than 5 kms from home, there are, and will continue to be, plane-loads arriving here from 5,000kms away, and who is monitoring where they go?? And what have they done to make school safe? or to ensure adequate vaccine supplies?

THE DAIL WILL DEBATE TOMORROW ON MOTHER AND BABY HOMES. You will probably be aware that the Commission set up to investigate the Mother and Baby Homes scandal, have set out to destroy the testimonies of the survivors. HOW DARE THEY! And Minister O Gorman may, or may not, retrieve a back-up copy of the tapes. For God’s sake – this is important history – is this the best they can do? We say RESPECT THE SURVIVORS – demand those tapes now!