Candidate calls for training hub in Athy

REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin candidate for Athy Town Council Des Dalton – who is also Vice President of the Athy Branch of SIPTU- has called for the former Athy swimming pool located at the ‘People’s Park’ to be converted into a training centre.

“The conversion of the former swimming pool would be a practical step to addressing the needs of those who are faced with job loss or redundancy. Such a centre would make Athy a training hub offering a menu of training both long-term and short-term. This development would take us beyond the usual cliché and lip service about offering support to the unemployed and provide a real pathway for those beginning the process of re-entering the workforce.

A training hub in Athy could provide a centre of training excellence for South Kildare. It would also mean people did not have to travel to training centres such as Athlone but access many of the services much closer to home. It is a real opportunity for Kildare Co Council to make a positive contribution to the many real victims of the economic collapse in South Kildare.”

Local Election Update

REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin candidates in the local elections on June 5 reported a positive response on the doorsteps to their canvass. “People are fed up with the antics of the present administration which has reduced the country to the point of bankruptcy” according to the candidates, “not to mention all the scandals over the years”.

Unemployment, the collapse of the building industry, cutbacks in health, education and welfare and lack of facilities for young and old are on the agenda of all the local candidates. The misery and destruction to families from drug misuse is also a huge issue, and affects every area in the country and people from all walks of life.

An issue of concern to Paddy Kenneally in Clare is the practice of Clare County Council in awarding building contracts to the lowest bidder. On May 12 Paddy said that “some tradesmen have not been paid for two months on a site in Milltown Malbay.

“The Council awarded the contract for Council housing to a builder who had no track record in the county and now we find that he is under paying trade union men on the site.

”We now have the case where men are being underpaid and in fact not being paid so it is time to review the entire tendering process within Clare County Council and ensure that this type of activity does not happen again.”

Paddy, as the secretary of the Clare Plasterers Union is acutely aware of the domino effect resulting from the fallout of the collapse of the building industry. The provision of playgrounds and facilities for children and youths is on his agenda as is the lack of public toilets/washrooms, fishing piers and car parks for tourists in towns and villages in Clare.

Des Dalton canvassing with Republican Sinn Féin President Ruairí Ó Brádaigh on May 8, said that: “Now more than ever strong and principled local political leadership is needed in Athy. People are struggling to protect their jobs, and in many cases their homes. As a trade union Shop Steward and Vice President of the Athy Branch of SIPTU, I am dealing everyday with the consequences of the collapse of the economy for ordinary people. Today over 2,000 people are now signing on the live register in Athy.”

The provision of affordable and social housing, the establishment of a community forum and facilities for the youth are just a few of the issues that concern Des.

Pat Barry, standing in Bundoran, Co Donegal for the first time is canvassing on local issues such unemployment in the area and the effect of the sterling on the euro at the moment and the effect it has not just on tourism but also on tendering on what little trade there is in the building industry. The cut-backs on health and education services are an issue for him as is the retention of caner services in Sligo general hospital.

The plight of local fishermen and small farmers is high on the list of Tomás Ó Curraoin’s priorities, as is local once-off housing. Tomás is no stranger to the effects that big business/multinationals have on the local economy.

Seán Lynch from Longford is campaigning for the farmers in Longford and is concerned about the lack of facilities for those with special needs; public lighting and improvement of the infrastructure.

In Kells Co Meath, Peter Fitzsimons is campaigning on a range of local issues among them better infrastructure and transport. He is also promoting a suicide awareness campaign.

Two candidates are contesting Limerick city and one in Broadford, Co Limerick. Seán O’Neill and Mick Ryan are well known in Limerick (contesting the south and north wards respectively) for their community and trade union activism over the years. Both men know that the current elected politicians have failed to address the serious problem in Limerick and that Limerick is “fast becoming a two-tier society with the ordinary people having to pay for the abuses of the wealthy”. The regeneration of Limerick and anti-social behaviour are just two areas that need to be tackled they say.

They have promised to be “accountable to the people of Limerick” if elected. The two city candidates reached a decision not to erect election posters on environmental and visual grounds.

Seámus Ó Suilleabháin, in Broadford is campaigning on a range of issues including the retention of the local post offices in the country areas. Improved social housing and the retention of St Ita’s Hospital are also serious issues for the locality. Seámus is a local historian and contributes to local radio on a regular basis, he hosts a history programme once a week.

On a national level the candidates are promoting ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA, the policies of Republican Sinn Féin for a new Ireland based on federal structures. Copies of the national manifesto can be had on request from head office.

from: Irish Republican Information Service No. 197

Election fund raiser in Athy

A fundraiser for Republican Sinn Fein candidate for Athy Town Council Des Dalton will be held in 'Smuggler's' bar' Duke St Athy on Friday May 22 at 9.30pm. Music on the night will be supplied by Devil a Bit.

All Welcome!

RSF candidate backs residents

REPUBLICAN Sinn Féin's candidate for Athy Town Council Des Dalton expressed his support for the residents of Towns Park and Castle Park in their fight for services and support for their estate.

“For too long the people of this area of Athy have been ignored. Now the people of Castle Park and Towns Park are making community politics a reality by organising themselves and putting the issues which affect their community such as bad housing conditions, poor services and litter on the political agenda.

Politics if it means anything should be about empowering people. The community in Towns Park and Castle Park following years of neglect and frustration are taking important steps in empowering themselves. They need to listened to and supported.”

Republican Sinn Féin Local Election Manifesto 2009

Real Local Democracy

empowering people, communities, regions and the provinces in a meaningful way, socially, politically and economically.

WE enter a 26-County Local election in the midst of the meltdown of the free-market capitalist economic system. In Ireland those who profited least from the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ are those who are now suffering most while those who profited most are protected. People are searching for an alternative, for a different politics. Writing last year in the New York Times, Noam Chomsky had this to say about bringing about radical change: “consistently over the centuries, progressive legislation and social welfare have been won by popular struggles, not gifts from above.

“Those struggles follow a cycle of success and setback. They must be waged every day, not just once every four years, always with the goal of creating a genuinely responsive democratic society, from the voting booth to the workplace”.

There must be a revolutionary change of direction both politically and economically if this country is to cherish all the children equally. The will of the people is supposed to be expressed at the ballot. Our candidates will be going forward on a wide range of policies for change in local communities. All across the country people are engaged in a struggle to survive – to save jobs and homes. Now is the time to advocate change, and change shall only come when the people demand it.

Republican Sinn Féin as a political movement and through its elected representatives has been spearheading the drive for more local control, increased participation in government at every level, a fundamental change in structures, a radical decentralisation of power and administration and the building up of a Federal and Democratic Socialist Republic that will ensure peace, freedom, a fair share for all and political recognition to all communities.

Our candidates will continue this work even within the present unsatisfactory structures of local administration. The system to which councillors will be elected in the 26 Counties on Friday, June 5, is not one of local government, but rather one of local administration. This is because down the decades local councils have been stripped of most of their powers.

A New Vision

The Republican Sinn Féin programme for political and economic democracy contained in ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA are a real alternative to the failed free-market capitalism championed by the 26-County political establishment. Despite the fact that this economic model has self-evidently failed, the ‘state’ class of the 26-County state are scrambling to salvage it, whatever the cost. This is like trying to rebuild a collapsed building before you have rescued the people from the rubble. In other words the economic system is considered more important than the people.

RSF Candidate Des Dalton, Athy Town Council

This sums up the philosophy which underpins free market capitalism - where people are merely there to oil the wheels of the economy. It is time to cry stop- we demand a new kind of economics. As we state in SAOL NUA: “It is a fundamental conviction of Sinn Féin Poblachtach that people come first, that all social and economic policy should serve the interests of people.” With that as our starting point we believe a new political, social and economic vision is required if we are to construct a New Ireland which would “cherish all the children of the nation equally”.

SAOL NUA and ÉIRE NUA are the means by which we can make a reality of the Republic (of which James Connolly wrote) which: “might be made a word to conjure with – a rallying point for the disaffected, a haven for the oppressed, a point of departure for the Socialist, enthusiastic in the cause of human freedom.”

We are at a time in human history when the possibility of creating a new economic order was never more necessary or timely. This year, 2009, as we commemorate the 90th anniversary of the First All-Ireland Dáil, the Ireland of today could not be more different from the Ireland imagined in the Democratic Programme: “we declare that the nation’s sovereignty extends not only to all men and women of the nation, but to all its material possessions; the nation’s soil and all its resources, all the wealth producing processes within the nation”.

Today we have one of the most unequal societies in the developed world. In a ranking of 17 according to the United Nations Human Development Report of 2003 the 26-County state is second only to the US as being the most unequal society in what is referred to as the developed world.

According to the report by Professor Peadar Kirby and Dr Mary Murphy entitled A better Ireland is Possible, the top 1% hold 20% of the wealth; the top 2% hold 30% and the top 5% hold 40%. The report continues: “When the value of home ownership is excluded, then the concentration of wealth is even greater with 1% of the population accounting for around 34% of the wealth.” Even at the height of the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ one in every five people in the 26 Counties lived in poverty and one in every four households. It is time for new thinking and a radical alternative.

Local democracy in Ireland was eroded over the past decades to a point where once we had local government we now have only local administrations. Republican Sinn Féin believes in real local democracy as set out in our proposals for a Federal Ireland which proposes maximum decentralisation of power and decision making from national right down to provincial, regional and local or community level. That is the agenda Republican Sinn Féin candidates will be fighting for.

As an integral part of its alternative to the present system in Ireland, North and South, Republican Sinn Féin visualises and puts forward the objective of an Ireland of self-governing communities in which people will control their own affairs.

ÉIRE NUA is about delivering real local democracy. ÉIRE NUA enshrines the concept of local democracy, ensuring that all decision-making which affects the everyday lives of communities, in areas such as health, education, job creation, planning, housing and the environment, are accountable to the people upon whom they will have most impact. It is this philosophy which also underpins SAOL NUA, our social and economic programme, which is designed with the aim of delivering real economic democracy.

ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA taken together, are driven by the idea of empowering people, communities, regions and the provinces in a meaningful way, socially, politically and economically. This is what true local democracy and decentralisation is all about as summed up in the introduction to ÉIRE NUA: “So, we must work to liberate the Irish people and establish a democratic system, based on justice and equal rights – to build ÉIRE NUA: a New Ireland. In that Ireland, Irish people will begin to experience real power in their own communities serving as the foundation for a modern pluralist Irish Republic.”

ÉIRE NUA and SAOL NUA envision an Ireland based on Republican, Socialist, Self-Reliance and Ecological principles.

RSF Candidate Séamus Ó Súilleabhan, Limerick County Council

The present economic crisis has exposed the real face the unbridled capitalism upon which the economy of the 26-County state was based. Today the Irish people are being punished in order to protect a coterie of vested interests consisting of bankers, builders, and developers. The academic and political activist Anthony Coughlan described the decision of the 26-County administration to bail out the banks as: “This foolish act by a handful of politicians put Irish taxpayers into hock indefinitely for the benefit of the Banks that were the main instrument of the crisis, the builders and developers to whom the Banks lent money, and the politicians themselves, who set the administrative-political framework for the borrowing binge. What is required is new and radical thinking.”

In the short term we support the proposal to create one ‘State Bank’. This would allow the other subsidised banks to collapse and free people from the exorbitant cost of propping up insolvent banks and free much needed capital for investment into the economy, creating jobs and bringing down the price of houses and commercial property.

We once more reiterate the proposals contained in SAOL NUA: “Banking and all key industries must be brought under public, democratic or social control, and the scope and extent of local community banking, like the Credit Unions, should be extended, so as to serve the needs of local people. Social control of capital is essential, to ensure that capital serves people, rather than people being the slaves of capital; to achieve wider capital ownership; to promote balanced development and an equitable distribution of wealth. Money must be regarded, not as a commodity, but as an accounting system in which all participate.”

Immediate Aims

Republican Sinn Féin believes local authorities should have power for local financing. Without control of funds local authorities lose their effectiveness and cannot serve the people they are elected to represent. Republican Sinn Féin envisages local bodies with annual budgets drawn from local and provincial taxation and from central funds.

Revenue for local government should be based on a more equitable taxation system based on income and one’s ability to pay. While opposing the present system it will support moves to have certain major items, eg national road networks, health etc, paid from central funds but will insist that the local representatives will determine the way in which the service is administered.

Republican Sinn Féin opposes the 26-County Administration’s introduction of ‘stealth taxes’ such as service charges. Our candidates will campaign intensively to reverse the policy of privatising local services, ensuring that these services are placed once again under the control of the local authorities

Gaeltacht

We believe that no healthy society can disown the essence of its own identity. Sinn Féin Poblachtach will therefore plan for the development and reinvigoration of our distinctive Irish identity, particularly the Irish language, which is central to that identity.

RSF Candidate Peter Fitzsimons, Kells Town Council

Tá féin-rialú don Ghaeltacht molta againn cheana féin. Cuirfidh Sinn Féin Poblachtach úsáid na Gaeilge chun cinn do chainteoirí Gaeilge agus dá dteaghlaigh i ngach déileáil a bhíonn acu leis na húdaráis phoiblí. Ba cheart go mbeadh na foirmeacha agus na cáipéisí uile ar fáil go dátheangach, mar atá i gCeanada agus i dtíortha eile. Agus ba cheart go gcuirfí i bhfeidhm an riail ghinearálta go bpléifí le saoránaigh i cibé teanga is rogha leo.

Saoránaigh a ndéantar leatrom orthu nó a mbíonn costais bhreise orthu de bharr gur ghlac siad seasamh ar son a gcearta teanga, ba cheart go ndéanfaí cúiteamh leo. Ar an gcuma chéanna, ní foláir don rialtas láir gach cumarsáid a bhíonn acu le brainsí den rialtas áitiúil sa Ghaeltacht a dhéanamh trí mheán na Gaeilge.

Go dtí go mbeidh féin-rialú iomlán ag an nGaeltacht, ba cheart go mbeadh oifig áitiúil Chomhairle Contae i ngach ceantar Gaeltachta, m.sh. an Cheathrú Rua i gConamara. Bheadh Innealtóir, Bainisteoir agus foireann lonnaithe ansin agus chuirfidís seirbhís iomlán ar fail trí Ghaeilge.

We have earlier stated our advocacy of Gaeltacht self-government. The use of Irish for Irish speakers and their families in all dealings with public authorities will be promoted. All forms, documents etc should be available bilingually as in Canada and other countries. The general rule that citizens should be communicated with in the language of their choice should be enforced and citizens who suffer hardship or expense because of insisting on their linguistic rights should be compensated.
Similarly, all communication by central government with local government bodies in Gaeltacht areas must be done in the Irish language.

Pending full Gaeltacht self-government there should be a local Co Council office in every Gaeltacht area, eg in Ceathrú Rua for Conamara, with a local Engineer, Manager and staff who would provide a full service through Irish.

Education and Culture

Republican Sinn Féin calls for greater local involvement in education at all levels by local authorities. Under ÉIRE NUA the administration, development and expansion of third-level education would be devolved to the Provincial parliaments whilst the regional boards would have responsibility for secondary and primary education. We oppose the increase in the teacher/pupil ratio and uphold the principle of universal education as a right to all citizens. As we point out in SAOL NUA: “Sinn Féin Poblachtach will institute an education system which will provide for the development of the whole person and all his/her faculties and abilities; will enable people to fulfil their needs for self-esteem and self-fulfilment; and will develop their capacities to manage their own lives and contribute to the well-being of the community.”

Cultural contacts with all countries should be encouraged and especially with small independent nations, eg Finland, Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and nations not yet liberated, eg Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Euskadi.

Lisbon Treaty and the EU

Republican Sinn Féin has opposed full membership of the EU from the outset as a highly centralised political and economic power-bloc where decisions about our lives are taken in completely undemocratic institutions. Our struggle has been to manage our own affairs and our programme is for maximum power at the base. That is real democracy and the very opposite of EU imperialism.

Consequently, we were at the forefront of the campaign which secured the rejection of the Lisbon Treaty/EU Constitution in the 26-County referendum in 2008. By voting NO to the Lisbon Treaty the Irish people stated their opposition to the creation of an undemocratic EU superstate, increased militarisation, the erosion of neutrality, the privatisation of public services and unfettered capitalism. Instead of standing by the democratic decision of the Irish people, the 26-County administration in an act of national treachery lined up with the EU political elite and have collaborated in forcing the people to vote again. Once more Republican Sinn Féin will take its place in the campaign to defend sovereignty, neutrality and democracy and once more vote NO to Lisbon.

Border Areas

The spending of large sums of money from abroad in equal amounts on both sides of the Border is designed to bolster Partition and British rule from both sides.

Meanwhile, shameful Border collaboration costing many millions of Euro a year is the fruit of sustaining the present system which Britain is attempting to update and make more acceptable — nationally and internationally — through the Stormont Agreement. The spending of large sums of money from the US and EU in particular is done with the purpose of reinforcing partition and British rule.

People must not allow themselves to be divided, nor must they fall into the trap being set by the 26-County administration. Public sector worker should not be set against private sector worker, employed versus unemployed or old versus young. People must not be diverted from the real issue or fooled by false argument. Now is a time for unity of purpose not division.

The Dublin administration is attempting to shore up the present failed neo-liberal economic system at the expense of families, workers, students the elderly and the unemployed. In short, what we are witnessing is the political class attempting to shore up the discredited economic model which they have championed in the interest of a privileged few regardless of the human cost.

RSF Candidate Mick Ryan, Limerick City Council

Workers who are engaged in a struggle to save jobs – in many cases enduring cuts in pay in order to do so – are now being squeezed by both employers and the state.

New thinking on a national and international level is the only answer to the economic collapse. Accepting that the free market capitalist system has failed we can begin to create an economic system which serves people as opposed to the other way round. The programme for real economic democracy as set out in our social and economic programme SAOL NUA has never been more relevant and provides a basis on which to bring about the kind of radical social and economic change which is needed. Let us not be divided, blinded or fooled, what the state class and the vested interests they protect fear most is people uniting to replace their corrupt and bankrupted system with a New Ireland worthy of the vision of those who drafted the 1916 Proclamation.

The local elections provide an opportunity to send a clear message that people have had enough. The elections in themselves solve nothing but provide an opportunity to put across a clear alternative to the people and provide strong and coherent local political leadership laying the basis for a movement for revolutionary change in Ireland.

VOTE REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN
VÓTÁIL SINN FÉIN POBLACHTACH

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh in Athy

Local Elections: Press Conference
Address by Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Sinn Féin Poblachtach, in Athy, Co Kildare

The system to which councillors will be elected in the 26 Counties on Friday, June 5, is not one of local government, but rather one of local administration. This is because down the decades local councils have been stripped of most of their powers.

Under the Republican Sinn Féin proposals for a new and better Ireland known as ÉIRE NUA there would be optimum devolution of powers and decision-making to local and regional bodies under a four-province federation.

This alternative structure would have three benefits: (1) it would provide a political solution to the Ulster situation; (2) it would help to correct East-West economic imbalance in Ireland and (3) it would bring power nearer to the people.

In the immediate limited position of local councils, Republican Sinn Féin is putting forward about a dozen candidates. These have been selected on the basis of honesty and integrity first and then as much ability as is available.

In this campaign communication with the voters will have primacy of place. We must be in contact with the voters and identify the possible favourable vote. Our candidates and workers must get personal with the voters.

In each area contested we must have (1) good candidates, (b) good issues and (c) good organisation. We believe that we have all three in the areas contested, but we feel that (c) organisation can be improved upon.

It is necessary to be aware of personal issues and to build personal trust. The Republican Sinn Féin candidate is Des Dalton.

Bí linn agus Beidh linn!

Des Dalton pledges to fight for real change in Athy

SPEAKING at a press conference held in Athy and which was also attended by the President of Republican Sinn Féin Ruairí Ó Brádaigh on Friday May 8 Republican Sinn Féin candidate for Athy Town Council Des Dalton said: “Now more than ever strong and principled local political leadership is needed here in Athy. People are struggling to protect their jobs and in many cases their homes. As a trade union Shop Steward and Vice President of the Athy Branch of SIPTU I am dealing everyday with the consequences of the collapse of the economy for ordinary people. Today over 2,000 people are now signing on the live register in Athy

“The recent announcement that the much talked about ‘decentralisation’ of the Revenue Commission jobs to Athy is now to be put ‘on hold indefinitely’ contrasts with what real decentralisation is about. Unlike the present system of local administration, real local government is about putting the services and most importantly the decision making process in the hands of local communities and not at the whim of civil servants and politicians in Dublin.” Des Dalton said

As a member of Athy Town Council Des Dalton said he would be fighting for the following issues:

• The construction of the Southern Distributor road and the drafting of a traffic management plan for Athy.

• A reliable and clean water supply for the people of Athy, ensuring no repeat of the fiasco which saw water supplies cut because of flooding in January 2008.

• The provision of affordable and social housing. At a time when many people suffer the fear of home repossession by the banks and lending institutions local authorities can provide an alternative and secure path to home-ownership.

• The involvement of young people and youth organisations in the development and support of youth services in Athy. This ensures active involvement by young people in addressing the issues which affect them - making politics relevant to them.

• Establishment of a community forum. Such a body would complement the work of the Town Council whilst also providing a platform for the people of the town to set the agenda on the issues which are important to them and come up with working proposals. Democracy shouldn’t just happen once every five years – it must involve people every day in between elections also.

Des Dalton is a native of Athy and has been a member of Republican Sinn Féin for 20 years. He has served as Vice President since 2003. He played a leading role in organising Republican Sinn Féin’s campaign against the Lisbon Treaty in 2008.

He is an active member of SIPTU serving as a Shop Steward and was recently elected Vice President of the Athy Branch of SIPTU. A keen supporter of Gaelic games he is also a member of Athy GFC and Club Kildare.

Athy Republican Sinn Féin candidate holds press conference

REPUBLICAN SINN FÉIN candidate for Athy Town Council, Des Dalton will be holding a press conference in the Clannard Court Hotel in Athy, on Friday May 8 at 11.00am.

The President of Republican Sinn Féin Ruairi Ó Brádaigh who will be visiting Athy in support of Des Dalton’s campaign will be also attending.

Election fund raiser in Athy, May 22

A fundraiser for Republican Sinn Fein candidate for Athy Town Council Des Dalton will be held in 'Smuggler's' bar' Duke St Athy on Friday May 22 at 9.30pm.

Music on the night will be supplied by 'Devil a Bit'.

All Welcome!