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Have your say!

The majority of Local Property Tax collected is to be used for the delivery of local authority services including maintenance of public parks, provision of local libraries and leisure facilities, fire and emergency services, homeless services, street cleaning, provision and upkeep of street lighting, roads and footpath maintenance as well as planning & development services. The legislation that introduced the Local Property Tax allows for a +/- 15% adjustment to the current rate applied. A public consultation is currently under way with regard to a decision being taken by Dublin City Councillors on this adjustment.

I would encourage everyone to participate in this consultation, by way of a survey, and have your voice heard. The survey can be accessed at http://www.dublincity.ie/local-property-tax-consultation It can either be submitted online or by post.  Please note that the consultation closes on Wednesday 13^th August.

Today’s column in the Irish Times by Fintan O’Toole has the potential to start yet another ball rolling on a debate regarding the type of society we the citizens of this country want – one where the market dictates and profit is king or one based on decency and the common societal good.

Last night’s protest by locked out Greyhound workers highlighted the ‘race to the bottom attitude’ of exploitative employers – those who view their workers as units of cost and not partners and colleagues in a  mutual enterprise. Mutual respect and dignity does not enter the equation when a profit has to be turned, bottom line.

These workers are providing a public service, a service that impacts on each and everyone one of us and on every aspect of city activity, particularly when it isn’t carried out. Under local authority management it worked very well, to quote Fintan O’Toole it was ‘a small but significant part of humdrum urban existence’. Now it is a free for all and we all pay more for it – both workers and those whose rubbish is being collected.

The big picture question that arises now and is what part of the emergency motion proposed and passed at last night’s Dublin City Council focused on is whether or not going forward private waste collection is viable and sustainable? To ascertain viable and sustainable, two key questions need to be posed:

1. Can the operation as it currently stands offer drivers and operatives a living wage with decent terms and conditions including a progressive wage and  career path?
2. Can the above be afforded at a reasonable cost to the ‘customers’ – the householders of this city?

If not, then we need to bring waste collection back to where it rightly belongs – local authority management. Here, in the grand scheme of local authority services, supports and provisions, it can be reasonably and collectively subsidised from the various taxes and charges paid by the citizens. This way of operating returns accountability, transparency and dignity to our waste collection services across the city. This way of operating returns a sense of community, decency and common humdrum good to us all, workers and householders alike.

Support the workers

Please add your support to the workers via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/greyhoundworkers and, if you are a Greyhound customer, call LoCall 1890 989 998 (press 3) and ask that ‘The workers be allowed to return to their jobs on their agreed conditions of employment while talks take place aimed at achieving changes that assist the company but are fair to its employees‘. Thank you!

Motions proposed and passed tonight by Labour Party Councillors at Dublin City Council Meeting with regard to the Greyhound Dispute

Emergency Motion For Dublin City Council Meeting 7^th July 2014 (Cllr Brendan Carr & Cllr Dermot Lacey) 

“This City Council deplores the recent Lockout of workers by Greyhound Recycling and Recovery, in an effort to impose grossly inferior terms of employment without agreement. In view of the implications for the continuity and quality of the waste collection service in the City, the Council directs the Chief Executive of Dublin City Council to undertake a review of employment practices among the licensed service providers with particular regard to levels of pay, pension and sick pay provision as well as procedures for the conduct of industrial relations and collective bargaining and to provide a comprehensive report for Councillors as soon as possible. The objective of this review would be to enable the City Councillors to form an opinion of the sustainability of the service as it is currently structured, for the medium to longer term.

The Council also directs the Chief Executive of Dublin City Council to immediately open discussions with the Trade Unions representing the relevant category of workers in the Council’s employment with a view to agreeing arrangements to bring the domestic waste collection service back under direct labour provision on cost effective terms.”

Addendum to Emergency Motion for Dublin City Council 7th July (Cllr Alison Gilliland) 

Dublin City Council views the use of agency workers to carry out the work of those workers as deplorable and not conducive to the fair resolution of the dispute. 

To support any citizen who is of the similar view and uneasy about his/her waste being collected by agency workers, the council directs the Chief Executive to open Dublin City Council waste disposal facilities free of charge to any Greyhound customer who wishes to dispose of his/her waste him/herself rather than have it collected by Greyhound agency workers until the current dispute is over. 

However, the Chief Executive indicated that the opening of DCC facilities free of charge to all Greyhound customers would cause undue financial liabilities to DCC and he would not be able to implement the request.  He would however write a report on the financial implications and make it available to the chamber.

With Cllr Dermot Lacey & Cllr Brian McDonagh (Fingal CoCo) at this eve’s protest

The  new Dublin City Council met for the first time on the evening of Friday 6th June, exactly 14 days after the local election. There is an increase in councillors this time around, 63 instead of 52. This is as a result of an amendment in Local Government legislation.

No one party has an outright majority in the council. There are  16 Sinn Fein Councillors, 13 Independent Councillors, 9 Fianna Fáil, 8 Labour, 8 Fine Gael, 5 People Before Profit , 3 Green Party and 1 Anti-Austerity Alliance. It could be argued that we are an interesting mix!

The main business conducted at Friday’s meeting was the election of the Lord Mayor and the Deputy Lord Mayor. Cllr. Christy Burke, Independent was unanimously elected the 345th Lord Mayor of Dublin City. Christy is one of the longest serving Councillors on Dublin City Council and represents the North Inner City. He indicated upon his election that, as Lord Mayor, his priorities for the coming year would be housing, homelessness, illegal dumping in the city and the speeding up of support (adaptation grants) for disabled persons. I don’t think there is one Councillor that would disagree that these issues need our prioritising!

Cllr. Larry O’Toole, SinnFein, was elected Deputy Lord Mayor. Larry represents my own local area of Beaumont/Donaghmede. As a former teacher in Larry’s home community of Darndale I’ve seen how his strength and determination have contributed in no small way to the transformation of that community. His immense passion and political skills will help our Council successfully navigate the various challenges and opportunities that it will no doubt encounter.

I wish both Councillors the very best in their new roles. I look forward to working with both of them and in particular with Larry on our local North Central Area Committee.

My count was adjourned late last night. There was a small difference between the tally and the first count with regard to first preferences: 871 in the end and 11th placed out of 18 for 9 seats. To be honest for a short campaign with a relatively unknown candidate running for the Labour Party in the current circumstances it was a remarkable turn out. I’m proud of the the result and sincerely appreciative of each and every person who placed their trust in me and gave me their first preference.

We are now going to start eliminating the lowest candidates and it will all be to play for on the transfers. The pic above shows the transfers from the last surplus (in pen). Am heading over now to the RDS for what will no doubt be a long tense day. However, come what may, this has been an amazing journey. I’ve had a most fabulous team supporting me, without them I would not have been able to get to my destination.

Today is polling day and we chose are public representatives for both our local authorities, Dublin City Council in my case, and the European Parliament.

Little did I know 5 months ago that I’d be voting for myself, a local election candidate. It’s been an intense campaign and last night I handed over my ‘destiny’ to the good people across the Beaumont/Donaghmede area. I’ve enjoyed the campaign, particularly, meeting so many really lovely people. My eyes have been opened to the many wonderful things going on in our communities as well as to the many issues that still remain to be resolved both at local and national level.

Voting matters

I often think of conflict torn countries such as Syria and the Ukraine where the right to democratically choose public representatives is not upheld. I see voting as a right as well as a responsibility.  Whatever your political outlook the one thing I would ask of anyone today is to use their democratic right to vote. Your vote counts, it gives you a say.

Thank you

To all those who do chose to give me their No 1 vote or a preference today I say THANK YOU!! Thank you for placing your trust in me, it is very much appreciated.

It will all be over this time next week. It being the campaign. The local people of Dublin and across the country will have made their choice of who they want to represent them. Obviously I’m hoping I will their choice.

I was selected to run in the local elections on 6th February, some 14 weeks ago. Since then I’ve been introducing myself to local residents, listening to them and supporting them with their concerns. These concerns are many and varied. Different people have different perspectives and expectations. They take differing views on what lies within their responsibility and what lies within state and local government responsibility.

One of the differences I have seen between areas is the existence or non-existence of good local residents’ committees. Such committee can really make a difference to a community. They bring people together to work to improve and advocate for their communities. They empower communities.

At an individual level, I’ve seen how the lack of information or rather having mis-information generated by media frenzies about issues causes real concern.  The water charges is one such example. Details were blurred in the long running saga – I’ve lost count of the number of OAPs who did not know that there is a reduction in the charge for their age group.

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Discussing local senior citizens’ concerns in Artane

Many talk about people power but generally mean getting out on the streets and protesting against something. To me people power is having the relevant information to make decisions, to know how to go about resolving your concerns, to know how to get things done. I want to support people in having that power. That is why over the last 3 weeks I’ve been asking them to give me their Number 1 vote next Friday 23rd May. Being elected next week will enable me to enable others

Discussing social housing issues in Darndale with Minister Jan O’Sullivan and Councillor Brian McDowell

Social housing is probably one of the most concerning on the ground national and local issues. It is effecting not only those who are in need of a home as a result of unemployment but also those who could be now termed the ‘working poor’ – those who are working but whose wages are inadequate to support their families and are dependant on family income supplement. It is my view, an associated issue here is wage levels and the need for a debate on a living wage. However, I’ll leave further discussion on that one for another day.

Today, Minister Jan O’Sullivan announced a further investment in the social housing capital building fund from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. This investment will make yet another small difference

The additional €50m will be allocated to the following initiatives, with the vast majority of spend to be completed in 2014.

• An additional €20m to bring long-term vacant units back into beneficial use.  This is in addition to the €15m the Minister announced in April;
• An additional €20m for the construction of mainstream social housing in local authorities with the largest housing need.  This is in addition to the €68m investment the Minister announced in March;
• A €10m boost to funding for people with a special housing need, with a particular focus on the construction and refurbishment of units for people who are homeless.

Click here for further details.

This day 2 weeks is polling day. While national issues tend to dominate doorstep talk it is important to note that these local elections will elect public representatives on to our local councils where local issues and concerns dominate.

Whether national or local, one of the most frequent questions any election candidate is asked is what can you do for me?

So, what can I do for you?

I listen and I take on board local concerns and needs. I can work with local groups on issues and advocate on their behalf.  I can find out information and support people on individual issues.

One issue that is both a local and a national issue is social housing. Other issues and priorities are more generic and local.

Social Housing: The crucial issue of housing provision cuts across all areas of Dublin City and one I have previously highlighted.  As the council begins its new cycle it would be fitting that a longer term plan be drawn up. This plan should compliment national planning for social housing provision. The plan should also seek to work pro-actively with housing associations and NGO experts on the ground.

General local area priorities: My other priorities are drawn from what local residents have communicated to me. Play the video below to listen to what these are.

Council Context

The priorities will be advocated for within the context of Dublin City Council. Our local councils have responsibility for funding and providing local services and amenities – road and street sweeping and cleaning for example, maintaining and developing green spaces as well as providing funding for local community services such as our libraries and swimming pools. They are also responsible for planning and zoning/re-zoning land. Councils  also develop and implement a local area development plan.  In the case of Dublin City Council the current plan (click on image below to view) spans 2011 – 2017. This means a new plan will be developed during the upcoming new council term.

The public representatives elected on May 23rd to Dublin City Council will represent and advocate for the concerns and needs of people of their local areas. They will also contribute to an overall vision for our city. One of their key responsibilities will be to collectively make decisions regarding Dublin City Council’s significant annual budget. Councillors will help shape budget allocations prior to the City Manager and his staff drawing the budget up for presentation/voting upon. Budgets can be re-negotiated. This happened with this year’s budget where the Labour group sought the inclusion of higher funding for homeless services and adaptation grants for disabled persons as well as a non-increase in social housing rents.

On Friday 23rd of May you will be presented with two ballot papers when you go to vote:

• one to select your public representatives for your local area
• one to select your public representatives for the European Parliament (MEPs)

All countries in the European Union will be holding similar European Parliament elections and will elect a total of 751 MEPs. These coming European elections are more important than previous ones. Our new MEPs now ‘co-decide’ virtually all European legislation and set the EU budget – amounting to over €140 billion each year. For the first time the members of the European Parliament will select the next European Commission President. This means influencing the direction of European social and economic policy. Our votes will impact on whether that choice will be a socialist and democratic left, anti-austerity leaning president in the shape of Martin Schulz or the right austerity leaning Jean-Claude Juncker. The majority grouping will have the majority vote.

Who do we vote for?

This is why we all need to vote and we need to vote for our local Labour European Candidate. In our case in Dublin, that candidate is Emer Costello.

As Dublin’s MEP over the past two-and-a-half years, Emer has championed the  concept of a European Youth Guarantee, based on the best practice of Austria, Germany and the Nordics, to tackle the scourge of youth unemployment.

This was agreed during Ireland’s EU presidency last year and Europe is now investing €130 million to roll out the programme in Ireland by the end of next year.

After six months as an MEP she was elected by her fellow MEPs to be the Parliament’s lead negotiator for the new European anti-poverty programme, tackling severe material deprivation, especially food poverty and homelessness.

At the outside of this work, a ‘blocking minority’ of five Member States – Germany, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden – were opposed to this programme.

But by working with MEPs from Labour’s sister parties and supportive MEPs from other groups, and with the Irish Presidency, they were able to both overcome this opposition and to increase the proposed budget from €2.5 billion to €3.8 billion. Ireland’s allocation under the new programme will double compared to the programme it replaces.

Emer ensured last March that the European Parliament for the first time ever came out in support of Ireland’s campaign to lessen its legacy debt burden. Click on the image below to view Emer speak on this issue.

Emer is hard working and dedicated to supporting and progressing Ireland’s recovery – giving her your Number 1 vote will help us all and help Europe put people and not economic markets at the centre of European policy.