Category: Council News

I questioned officials from the Department of Agriculture . We have one the worst records in Co2 emissions and our plan is to increase those emissions in agriculture, despite what the IPCC report tells us is happening. They really dont get the urgency of tackling #ClimateChange, and while our forest cover is among the lowest in Europe, planting monocultures of Sitka spruce will do nothing to help the environemnt or climate. Nor will Govt policy help lower-income farmers, who could play a huge and progressive role in mitigating climate change

“A CRAZY FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH” is how Google workers described themselves. And fair play to them – a GLOBAL walkout the other day for pay equality and against sexism!! I asked the Minister to join me in congratulating them, but also, WHAT ABOUT NURSES? Would he congratulate them when they are forced to strike for their, more than reasonable, demands? 7.11.18

The Minister says he must respect the Public Sector Pay Agreement and can’t support the nurses threatened strike for pay. But since that agreement was signed, rents have increased, childcare has increased, fuel has increased and nurses’ (and others) pay has stood still. We are 1,000 nurses short. Nurses are stressed to bits. The health service is on the verge of collapse. This is why they have to strike. How else can they make the government sit up and take notice!! 7.11.18

 

It speaks volumes, doesn’t it, when the new Minister for the Environment OPPOSES a Bill that seeks to ban the use of a type of plastic that serves little purpose other than to pollute (and to make profit of course). And as for the mafia-like ‘waste disposal’ outfits – where’s the controls on them? These were some of the points I made in the debate yesterday

Its not just dodgy builders, it’s a dodgy procurement system. How do they award public contracts? – the gerry-built schools that will now close; the €16million wasted on the broadband tender; the cervical smear contracts; the ‘Bus Connect’ fiasco; all public money, all waste and much pain. Who decides who gets the contract, and how? Where’s the accountability?

Yet again, the beds at the Linn Dara facility In Cherry Orchard have been cut from 24 to 13. a huge reduction in a vital service for young people struggling with mental health issues. This comes at a time of rising suicides of young people in the wider area. Nothing highlights the failure of this Govt more than this: years in power and again unable and unwilling to address the shortages of nurses and others in our health service. We need to bring huge protests outside the Dail on this. 17.10.18