Cork Workers Party Christmas Draw 2012

The Cork Region of the Workers' Party held its annual Christmas Draw at Eugene's Bar, Shandon Street on Monday, 20th December.   The following  were the winning tickets:

1.  Julia Mulcahy c/o Eugene's Bar - Ticket No. 1658
2. Pat "the Piper" Hurley, Mayfield - Ticket No. 0168
3. Paul O'Brien, c/o Billy Tynan - Ticket No. 1828
4. Dominic Stevens, Tivoli - Ticket No. 1190
5. Sheila Horgan c/o Tommy Wallace - Ticket No. 2133
6. Emma Coughlan, Churchfield Avenue - Ticket No. 0320
7. Shannon Egar c/o John Paul Doherty - Ticket No. 0529
8. David Foley, c/o Tommy Wallace - Ticket No. 2110
9. Aoife McCarthy, Copley Street - Ticket No. 2302
10. Paula Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 2099
11. Paul Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 0929
12. Sonya Walsh, Tivoli - Ticket No. 1304
13. Ann Hales, Knocknacurra, Bandon - Ticket No. 1611
14. Betty O'Mahony c/o Thomas Mason - Ticket No. 1656
15. Breda Murray c/o Martin Murray - Ticket No. 0907
16. Liam Ahern Snr, Clonakilty - Ticket No. 1590
17. Bill Cogan, c/o Donal O'Driscoll - Ticket No. 1514
18. Paula Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 2095
19. Sharon Higgins, Baker's Road - Ticket No. 1774
20. Aoife McCarthy, c/o Sean McCarthy - Ticket No. 2291
21. Kelsey Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 1004
22. Mary Wallace, Togher - Ticket No. 2129

The Cork Region of the Workers Party would like to congratulate the lucky prizewinners and thank all those who participated in the draw by buying or selling tickets.

Cork's Troika of FF, FG, Labour unite to inflict vicious cuts

Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that the adoption of the 2012 budget by Cork City Council last night (Monday) would further devastate services in the areas of housing maintenance, roads, footpaths, street lighting and a whole range of other tasks the council is responsible for. 

Cllr. Tynan said that the three main establishment parties on the City Council,  Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil,  had acted with a single voice last night, proving that the pact formed over 30 years ago is still active.  He described the three parties as “Cork’s own Troika – ruthlessly cutting council services at the behest of the country’s new EU/IMF and ECB masters”.  

“Despite their grandstanding in the Dáil on a weekly basis, there was no difference between the three main parties last night, they were a coalition for cutbacks, and true to form they also united to protect their lucrative perks in the form of conference expenses, the Lord Mayor’s totally inflated salary and other pet projects”, said the Workers’ Party councillor.

Cllr. Tynan voted against the  City Council budget in opposition to the new Household Charge which his party strongly opposes and against underfunding of key council services.  He described the budget as a charter for further job losses, privatisation and the neglect of citizens and their needs.

Cash-strapped Cork City Council splashes cash on Queen and Junk Garden

The knife continues to be wielded on a daily basis at City Hall as vital services such as housing maintenance continue to be subjected to cuts.  At the same time, the city’s refuse service has just being privatised and householders can now expect to pay a lot more for a poorer service while waivers will soon be a thing of the past regardless of your personal circumstances or income.  However while this slashing of expenditure goes on relentlessly, there seems to be no shortage of cash when it comes to junkets, so-called VIPs or frivolity.   A case in point is the visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth last May.      

Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan condemned the “wanton waste of public money” surrounding the visit and put down a series of probing questions to the City Manager at a recent council meeting, seeking to get to the bottom of the expenditure.  The answers to his questions were astonishing with the following expenditure being uncovered:

·         A fast-tracking of €40,031 on capital improvement to the Princes Street Market in advance of the queen’s 15 minute jaunt through the market.

·         €87,439 spent on special road works and cleansing in addition to the cost of sealing drains, manholes and culverts in case terrorists might lurk in them.

·         €70,000 on floral and hedging displays, environmental improvements and enhancement of the visual environment (putting up hoardings to hide derelict sites, painting over graffiti, etc)

·         €5,000 on a once-off website for the visit which is now redundant.

·         €30,380 on producing press packs and providing media facilities to local and visiting press and television.

·         €786.50 for a silver brooch and some leather-bound books for the queen

·         €90,195.46 on staging street events, music and producing a video.

·         €2,344 for hospitality (presumably food and drink) for visiting “dignitaries” including the Mayor of Swansea and government ministers.

That’s a total of €326,133.46 on the visit, which does not include expenditure at national level such as garda overtime, security, etc.

Then there is the now infamous sky-garden designed by “celebrity” gardener Diarmuid Gavin which Cork City Council has already spent in the region of €400,000 in purchasing, on top of almost €750,000 of taxpayers’ money spent by Fáilte Ireland.   The garden, which is now covered in tufts of grass and weeds, is lying redundant and starting to rust in the Showgrounds while the council decide what to do with it.  Meanwhile the City Manager has refused to disclose documentation on the deal with Gavin which was sought by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information.   Cllr. Tynan has pledged to pursue the matter when at the next meeting of the city council.

Cork City Council privatises bin service

Workers Party city councillor Ted Tynan has condemned the decision of City Manager  Tim Lucey to privatise the city’s refuse service which came into effect on Monday, August 15th.

Cllr. Tynan said that the decision would have serious effects on the city and he said that the 11,000 people and families currently on council waivers would be thrown to the wolves once a 2 year introductory arrangement was over. 

“This decision by the city manager without any reference to the elected members”, said Cllr. Tynan, “is a step backward and will inevitably lead to a poorer service where profit will overtake public health and cleanliness as the number one priority.  It is a further move in the direction of rampant privatisation and gives a warning to householders that once water charges are introduced privatisation of the water service will be next on the agenda”.

“The temporary continuation of a waiver scheme and the initial price to consumers is merely a ploy, the real cost of this to consumers, and particularly to those on very low incomes, will come in a few years time.  Then we will see the real price of this service to consumers and the price to the environment and to workers’ rights and rates of pay”, he said.

The Workers Party councillor said that the move should alert householders to what is coming down the tracks if water charges are introduced without a strong challenge.  “Water Charges must be resisted because water privatisation is next on the agenda.  It cannot succeed however if there is massive resistance from householders to water metering and charges. Privatisation is about private profit and without charges there is no private profit”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Fás - New Name, Same Old Schemes

Cllr. Ted Tynan has said that the rebranding of the national training and employment agency Fás as SOLAS would be meaningless to the unemployed and those seeking to improve their work prospects unless there was a fundamental change in emphasis and a real commitment to job creation.

The Cork Workers Party Councillor said one only had to look at the Fás website on any day and see that two-thirds of the positions on offer consist of unpaid work placements, CE schemes and the recently launched Internship placements.  Unless a real job-creation programme was put in place, the new agency would merely be a sticking-plaster to cover up mass unemployment, he said.

“This is not the first time the state training and employment agency has been rebranded”, said Ted.  “In the 1980s there were two separate agencies known as AnCo and National Manpower which were merged to become Fás but there was no fundamental change.  It was merely a change of the signs over the door and the corporate stationery. The same will happen with the new agency SOLAS and the rebranding will convince nobody unless real change is seen to be taking place”.

“While an increased role for the VECs in the training element of the new agency is to be welcomed, it takes place against a contraction in the number of VECs and without any specific commitment to funding for them which has been cut in recent years”

“What is needed is not a name-change for Fás,  but a commitment to the creation of real jobs with proper pay and conditions, real training based on sound principles, and a thorough shake-up at the top which will ensure that sleaze such as that exposed some years ago can never occur again through transparency and accountability at all levels in the organisation.  We shall wait and see if SOLAS lives up to this but the omens are not good from a government which has, in its first six months, been found to be venal, dismissive and dishonest”, said Councillor Tynan

Fight the Household Charge - Don't Pay!

Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan (Cork) has called for massive and determined resistance against the new household charge that was agreed by the Fine Gael / Labour government recently.

Cllr. Tynan said that people should not be tricked by the €100 per annum charge and that this apparently low level was merely a sweetener for the Labour Party grassroots.  Past experience showed, he said, that once the principle of such charges is established they invariably increase to several times that amount in a short period.

“Make no mistake about it”, said Cllr. Tynan, “this is a Trojan Horse for water charges which may or may not be based on metering.  It is also a precursor to the privatisation of water and other local authority services.  The Workers Party is totally opposed to this form of double taxation and will work with others in mounting a massive campaign of resistance against this unjust charge.  This Trojan Horse charge should be smashed from its inception and we urge people not to pay the household charge and to make it uncollectable.”

Tynan alams ESB as "callous and uncaring" on disconnections

Cork North Central Workers’ Party candidate, Cllr. Ted Tynan has said that his canvassing team is coming across a significant number of family homes which have been disconnected by the ESB recently and he has described the electricity supplier’s actions as “callous and uncaring commerciality”.

Cllr. Tynan was speaking this morning (Sunday) after a meeting of Workers’ Party canvassers in Gurranabraher.  He said that several of his team had reported coming across families whose electricity supply had been cut off because of problems paying off large bills that had been accumulated during the recent and ongoing cold weather.

“People do not risk having their electricity supply disconnected unless they are in dire trouble with their family finances”, said Cllr. Tynan.  “As the ESB is being prepared by the government for eventual privatisation, the company is becoming more and more uncaring and purely commercial decisions are being taken with little consideration for the consequences these will have on families who will go without heat, light and cooking as a result”, he said.

Cllr. Tynan said that the ESB’s decision to spend €8 million this year on changing its name to ‘Electric Ireland” should be scrapped and the money allocated instead to a hardship fund for customers who are genuinely in trouble with their accounts.

Candidates should unite behind Mercy & Orthopaedic Hospitals

Cork North Central Workers’ Party candidate, Councillor Ted Tynan, has said that election candidates in the constituency should fight for the retention and development of the existing Mercy & Orthopaedic Hospitals instead of rowing over a hospital that may never be built.

Cllr. Tynan said that the spat between Labour and Fine Gael candidates over the location of a possible new hospital was academic as there are two hospitals of long standing in the city which are under threat.  He said that candidates were debating the merits of two sites which may never be developed instead of fighting to keep the Mercy & Orthopaedic hospitals fully open.

“The people of Cork, and of Cork North Central in particular, want to keep the hospital services that they have and which have served them well over many, many years.    They want to see those hospitals being modernised and improved and are not interested in a political circus over what might happen when the current recession is over, which is likely to be a very long time.  There is plenty of room to build on the Orthopaedic site but it will be lost to developers if people don’t stand together now and fight for it”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Pharmacies profiteering on coeliac sufferers says Tynan

Cork North Central Workers’ Party candidate, Councillor Ted Tynan, has accused chemists of blatant profiteering on the sale of special food products for coeliacs and others.

Cllr. Tynan was responding to comments from the Irish Pharmacists Union which had said it had no control over its members charging high prices for gluten-free foods sold in pharmacies around the country.

The Workers’ Party candidate has said that with some chemists charging up to €7.50 for a packet of gluten-free pasta and similarly high prices for gluten-free bread products it was time for the government to put a price control on such products.

“Gluten Free foods are not a luxury for coeliacs.  If they eat bread and other foods that contain gluten then they become ill. It is items such as this and others which are essential for  those who are affected that profiteering takes place.   Given the response of the Irish Pharmacists Union and individual pharmacists there is a strong case for the introduction of a maximum price order for such products”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Tynan for Cork North Central

Councillor Ted Tynan has been selected by the Workers' Party to contest the forthcoming general election.
Councillor Tynan, who was elected to Cork City Council in 2009 representing the North East Ward, has an unrivalled record of defending the rights of working people and their families in Cork North Central. Over many years Ted has been consistent and true to his principles. As a democratic socialist who believes that people must come first, Ted has never shied away from controversy and believes in standing up for people's rights.
The Workers' Party recognises that there are many issues which are of concern to the people of Cork North Central, including:

The creation of local jobs as a priority

The housing situation afor those on household mortgages and the thousands of people on Cork city and County council waiting lists

The appalling decision to close the Orthopaedic Hospital and the ongoing threat to the Mercy University Hospital

Ted Tynan believes that for the vast majority of people, this election will not only be about issues of local concern - no matter how acute but also this election will be about the economic issues which are affecting almost every household in this country:-

Unemployment

Cutbacks

Emigration

the appalling Bank bailout

Ted Tynan and the Workers' Party offers the people of Cork North Central a socialist alternative to the failed right-wing agenda of the mainstream parties.

...Not just another party, not just another candidate

www.wpcork.org

Vote No.1 - Tynan, Ted

Join our campaign, telephone Ted at (086) 190 8281.

Contact Ted at the above number or by email at tedtynan@gmail.com