Councillor Ted Tynan (Cork North East)

Cork Workers Party Christmas Draw 2012

2011-12-20T10:39:00.000Z

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:

Julia Mulcahy c/o Eugene's Bar - Ticket No. 1658
Pat "the Piper" Hurley, Mayfield - Ticket No. 0168
Paul O'Brien, c/o Billy Tynan - Ticket No. 1828
Dominic Stevens, Tivoli - Ticket No. 1190
Sheila Horgan c/o Tommy Wallace - Ticket No. 2133
Emma Coughlan, Churchfield Avenue - Ticket No. 0320
Shannon Egar c/o John Paul Doherty - Ticket No. 0529
David Foley, c/o Tommy Wallace - Ticket No. 2110
Aoife McCarthy, Copley Street - Ticket No. 2302
Paula Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 2099
Paul Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 0929
Sonya Walsh, Tivoli - Ticket No. 1304
Ann Hales, Knocknacurra, Bandon - Ticket No. 1611
Betty O'Mahony c/o Thomas Mason - Ticket No. 1656
Breda Murray c/o Martin Murray - Ticket No. 0907
Liam Ahern Snr, Clonakilty - Ticket No. 1590
Bill Cogan, c/o Donal O'Driscoll - Ticket No. 1514
Paula Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 2095
Sharon Higgins, Baker's Road - Ticket No. 1774
Aoife McCarthy, c/o Sean McCarthy - Ticket No. 2291
Kelsey Murray, Bishopstown - Ticket No. 1004
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

2011-12-20T10:28:00.000Z

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

2011-08-18T08:20:00.000+01:00

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

2011-08-18T08:17:00.003+01:00

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

2011-08-18T08:16:00.001+01:00

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!

2011-08-18T08:14:00.002+01:00

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

2011-02-04T08:31:00.000Z

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

2011-02-04T08:29:00.000Z

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

2011-02-01T07:54:00.000Z

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

2011-01-30T20:53:00.001Z

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

Fianna Fáil's pathetic last resort - the Red Scare

2010-11-13T14:57:00.002Z

Cllr. Ted Tynan

Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has responded to an attack on him by Fianna Fáil’s Cllr. Ken O’Flynn in this week’s Cork Independent newspaper (Nov 11^th).

Councillor Tynan said he regarded Cllr. O’Flynn’s comments as an acknowledgment that Fianna Fáil had been stung by the Workers’ Party over the government’s appalling record on housing and they had resorted to Fianna Fáil’s last refuge, the Red Scare.

“Fianna Fáil is under pressure”, said Cllr. Tynan. “They are getting it in the neck from people over their appalling management of this country and the fact that they have decided to put the interests of bankers, speculators and the super-rich over those of ordinary working people and their families. I can only say I am bemused that Ken O’Flynn has chosen to launch his attack on the Workers’ Party when his government has allegedly been put on the ropes by the main opposition parties, Fine Gael and Labour”.

“Fianna Fáil has always resorted to the ‘Red Scare’ when under pressure from the left. They used it in the 1930s against Labour when that party was showing some semblance of radicalism. They used it against Noel Browne and Clann na Poblachta in the ‘50s; they first used it against the Workers’ Party in the 1980s and now the ‘Reds under the bed’ nonsense is being dragged out again. This kind of claptrap is past its sell-by-date, just like Fianna Fáil itself and it won’t wash with people who are being bled dry from the cutbacks and incompetence of the present government”.

Cllr. Tynan said he regarded the Fianna Fáil politician’s attack on him as an unintended compliment. “If Fianna Fáil are put out by my criticism of their failures then I take that as a sign that the Workers’ Party is doing its job and providing real opposition instead of the meaningless slanging matches that go on in the Dáil but achieve nothing. I stand over my record and my party’s long struggle on behalf of ordinary people and for democratic socialist policies that put people before profit. If Cllr. O’Flynn’s best response to the government’s appalling reign is to resort to worn-out smear tactics then it can only be a sign that this government is on its last legs and is politically, morally and ethically bankrupt”, said the Workers’ Party councillor.

Government has abandoned another generation of Irish men and women

2010-09-04T08:41:00.001+01:00

Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that the Fianna Fáil / Green Party had decided to abandon another generation of young Irish people to the dead end of emigration and mass unemployment in order to save corrupt banking institutions and Fianna Fáil’s friends in big business.

Cllr. Tynan was speaking at the AGM of the party in the Cork Region in the city, saying that the unprecedented economic growth of the 1990s had been squandered and was now being poured into a black hole created by the greed of bankers and speculators.

“The Irish state as we know it is now approaching 100 years in existence. In that time it has relied heavily on emigration as a safety valve because of the abject failure of the native capitalist class to create jobs. Hundreds of thousands of bright young Irish men and women had to take the boat to Britain, the United States or further afield to find work.

The lofty ideals of ‘cherishing all of the children of the nation’ have remained just that – unachieved pipe dreams”, said Cllr. Tynan. “We have already seen tens of billions of Euro poured down the drain to keep the basket-case bank that is Anglo Irish afloat and many more billions into the other banks. Meanwhile thousands are once again emigrating while the number of unemployed approaches half a million"

"At the same time", said Cllr. Tynan, "we have more hospitals closing or under threat – including the Orthopaedic, the Mercy, Bantry General, Mallow and Cobh in this county alone. What kind of nation saves banks that are rotten and allows citizens who are ill to suffer and perhaps die for want of treatment? Certainly not a democracy and that is why at the next election the present government parties must be thrown from power, not just for a term in opposition, but forever".

There are no dissidents in FF when it comes to vicious cuts

2010-07-05T18:29:00.000+01:00

The spectre of Fianna Fáil backbenchers such as Noel O'Flynn criticizing Brian Cowen's leadership over their party's poll ratings would be laughable were the consequences of this government's policies so deadly serious.

Not once have these deputies voted against the government's economic policies, the bank bailouts and the vicious cuts in health and education services, nor have any of them threatened a heave over the level of unemployment. No, they are worried about their seats and think that a cosmetic change of leadership at the helm of Fianna Fáil with no change in policy is going to save their bacon.

Last week we had Fianna Fáil deputies such as Mattie McGrath from Tipperary crying foul because the government wanted to ban the hunting of stags. The treatment of human beings in our hospitals and the callous cut in funding for respite care for the carers of people with disabilities doesn't seem to worry them at all. They continue to walk into the government lobbies in vote after vote when it comes to the really important issues.

There are no dissidents in Fianna Fáil when it comes to vicious cuts. Sheep-like they have consistently supported attacks on the facilities for vulnerable people while at the same time nodding their heads to the billions poured into prop up basket-case banks. Their concern now is merely a smokescreen.

It is not the Taoiseach’s personality or his leadership of Fianna Fáil which matters at this time but the policies which he continues to pursue in government. People in need of medical treatment or on housing waiting lists couldn't care less whether Mr. Cowen comes across well (or Enda Kenny for that matter). What they care about is when they will get the justice they are entitled to. They will not get that from any government comprised of Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

Hardly a day goes by now when we don’t hear of some section of society which is being hurt by government policies. This weekend we learned of the threat to respite services for people caring for family members with disabilities. There are over 450,000 unemployed and emigration is once again a live issue. Backbenchers like Noel O’Flynn have consistently voted for cutbacks and for the government’s failed economic policies but are now trying to fool the people into thinking they are rebels”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Even if Fianna Fáil were to replace Brian Cowen tomorrow it would make no difference to ordinary people. The policies of cutting vital services and bankrolling insolvent banks would remain exactly the same. Playing musical chairs with Fianna Fáil’s leadership will fool nobody.

Opposition to Mayoral pact is in defence of democracy

2010-06-24T19:04:00.000+01:00

Commenting on Thursday night's (June 24th) election for Lord Mayor of Cork at City Hall, Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan said that comments from the pact candidate Michael O’Connell that he would “take politics out of the Mayoralty” were a total contradiction of the process that would elect Cllr. O’Connell where a three party pact would once again claim the office of Lord Mayor and deny almost one third of councillors their say in the election.

Cllr. Tynan said that it was not politics that needed to be taken out of the office of Lord Mayor but party politics. “The office of Lord Mayor of Cork is a deeply political office and is one the people of Cork are very proud of. One could hardly say that Lord Mayors such as Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence McSwiney were not political when in fact every fibre of their bodies were full of politics but they did not engage in the politics of self-promotion and exclusion of all other points of view”.

“It is a great pity that those members of the pact parties, and indeed some in the media see the nomination of candidates for the position of Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Mayor by those of us outside the pact as some kind of nuisance. We do so in defence of the democracy that people like Mac Curtain and McSwiney fought for. To do otherwise would be a denial of the democratic votes of the thousands of citizens who voted for non-pact candidates”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Cllr. Tynan said he will be supporting the nomination of Independent Councillor Chris O’Leary for Lord Mayor and would propose Cllr. Jonathan O’Brien of Sinn Féin for the position of Deputy Lord Mayor.

New Stadium elsewhere in Docklands is best solution to Páirc Uí Chaoimh dilemma says Tynan

2010-06-13T21:20:00.002+01:00

Speaking in advance of Monday night's (Jun 14) City Council vote in relation to the redevelopment of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that a solution must be found that will satisfy the needs of the GAA to expand and the competing need for a major public park for the citizens of Cork.

Cllr. Tynan said he believed that a totally new stadium within the South Docklands area was the best solution and that he would be opposing the proposal that is before the council, but strongly urging the City Manager to do a swap with the GAA for another site within docklands.

The Workers’ Party councillor said, “The GAA’s proposal envisages the demolition in stages of most of the existing Páirc Uí Chaoimh. This will involve considerable disruption to the stadium’s fixtures with inevitable restrictions on crowd capacity and safety issues for several years. I am proposing that an entirely new stadium, incorporating the proposed Centre of Excellence, be built within a few hundred yards of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. This will preserve the proposed amenity park and give the GAA even more space to expand.”, said Cllr. Tynan.

“The City Council will have to accept that the docklands plan is not a Holy Grail. The economy is a very different animal now to what it was when the lofty plans for docklands were drawn up. It is inevitable in my view that the docklands development will have to be scaled down. This gives the council scope to make plenty of space available to the GAA within a puc fada of its historical home. It can be achieved if people are willing to open their minds and move from their entrenched positions”.

Cllr. Tynan said that the Workers’ Party was fully supportive of the GAA’s plans but that the opportunity to give the people of Cork a magnificent new public park close to the city centre might not arise again for generations. Both of these plans could be achieved if people were prepared to think outside the box and consider his proposal.

Micheál Martin should kick out Israeli Ambassador after convoy attack

2010-05-31T09:46:00.000+01:00

Cork Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has called on Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin to immediately expel the Israeli Ambassador and break off all diplomatic relations with Israel following this morning’s attack by Israeli commandos on the international aid flotilla to Gaza.

There are a number of Cork activists on the convoy including Dr. Fintan Lane who is onboard the Challenger 1 which is one of the vessels attacked this morning. Cllr. Tynan has expressed concern for their safety.

Cllr. Tynan said that while Minister Micheál Martin had visited Palestine recently and had criticised Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian people this was no longer enough and it was now time to isolate Israel as the pariah state that it is following its attack on a humanitarian aid convoy.

“Words of condemnation are no longer enough from Minister Martin and he must stop the Israeli embassy in Dublin being used as a mouthpiece to justify international terrorism. Israel recently used Irish passports and those of other nations in order to carry out a cold-blooded assassination – several of the other countries involved have broken off relations with Israel but not Ireland. We now have peaceful Irish aid workers being put directly in the firing line by Israel in this heinous attack on the aid flotilla and it is time to take off the kid gloves with which Israel is being treated”, said Cllr. Tynan.

"Hands off the State Pension" Tynan warns Ó Cuiv

2010-05-15T05:42:00.000+01:00

Cllr. Ted Tynan has condemned comments of Social Welfare Minister Eamon Ó Cuiv in which the Minister hinted that the State Pension (formerly known as the Old Age Pension) might be cut in the next Budget.

Cllr. Tynan said that the Minister would find himself faced with the wrath of pensioners if he attempted to interfere with a right people had worked all their lives to earn and the Workers Party described claims about wealthy people on State Pensions as a "red herring".

The State Pension is a means-tested payment. People who have paid in via their PRSI or stamps during their working lives may qualify for a Contributory Pension but the Non-Contributory Pension is subjected to a rigorous means test. The whole talk about people with wealth getting the State Pension is nothing other than a diversion and is a bit rich coming from a government that claimed it was unable to cut the massive pensions paid to judges and the golden handshakes given to criminal bankers.

"The Pension is a meagre enough payment and does not even make ends meet for people, particularly during Winter when they have to spend a large part of their pension on fuel in order to keep warm. In the harsh winter just gone by many elderly people, and indeed other people on welfare or low pay, ran up large bills for heating because it was literally a matter of life or death for them. Eamon Ó Cuiv, a grandson of Éamon De Valera, should know how dangerous it is to try and cut the pension - after all his grandfather got elected Taoiseach for the first time after a predecessor, Ernest Blythe took a shilling off the Old Age Pension. Blythe later lost his seat. Mr. Ó Cuiv should worry about his if he does the same", said Cllr. Tynan.

Tynan condemns slams "opposition" for secret deal on Freedom of City

2010-04-26T06:11:00.000+01:00

Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan has a backroom deal has been made between the three parties that control the Mayoral Pact on Cork City Council to share the Freedom of the City over the next four years. The deal has been done in order to push through tomorrow night’s proposal to make the award to former Fine Gael deputy Peter Barry.

Fine Gael and Labour have joined forces with the main government party Fianna Fáil to secure the award for Mr. Barry, a former Tánaiste and member of a coalition government which was in power when thousands of jobs were lost in Cork including Fords, Dunlops and Verolme Cork Dockyard. The latter closed when the government gave a contract for replacement naval patrol vessels to a non-EU member state.

Cllr. Tynan said that once again the controlling clique on the city council had made a secret deal to the benefit of their own parties and to the detriment of democracy and at considerable cost at a time when the council is cutting back on important services and staff.

The Workers Party councillor said that the arrangement made a mockery of the talk of change coming from the alternative government-in-waiting being offered by Fine Gael and Labour. “In Dáil Éireann”, he said, “The main opposition parties give the impression they are at war with Fianna Fáil, but in Cork City Hall they are inseparable allies in order to share the extravagant spoils of office”.

“Just over a week ago”, said Cllr. Tynan, “we heard the Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore talk about fundamental change in Irish politics and “liberating the country from insiders who have squandered our prosperity’ – he also offered a ‘clear break with the political past’”. I wonder is Mr. Gilmore aware that of the insider deals being made by his own councillors in Cork City Hall?”, asked the Workers Party councillor.

“Are we really to believe that a government composed of Fine Gael and Labour would be any different to one led by Fianna Fáil when all three parties can merrily coalesce to share out the spoils of office in City Hall?”, he queried

EU General inspects his troops in Collins Barracks

2010-04-01T17:36:00.001+01:00

Earlier this week (30/3/2010) we had the unnerving spectacle of a Brigadier General from the EU Nordic Battlegroup inspecting Irish troops in Collins Barracks, Cork City. Brigadier General Jan Stephan Andersson of the Swedish Army inspected the troops, who will be under his command for military exercises in Sweden later this year for what was referred to in a communiqué as "warfare training".

I raised this issue because it runs contrary to what we were told during the Lisbon Treaty referndums (1 and 2). When the formation of EU Battlegroups was raised by the Workers Party and others during the referendum and during the 2 Nice Treaty referendums, we were once again accused of scaremongering and people were reassured that these Battlegroups were purely for humanitarian missions. Now I have to wonder where does "warfare training" fit in to humanitarianism? What type of warfare are these Irish troops to be trained in? Now that the Lisbon referendum has been won by the government - on its second outing - the smoke is beginning to clear and the EU army that was so vehemently denied, is taking shape before our eyes. We are still being told that Irish neutrality is secure. The "triple lock" mechanism will see to that but then there's Brigadier Andersson as bold as brass inspecting troops up in Collins Barracks which was wrested from the control of another empire just 90 years ago.

It is even more ironic when we see that this is Easter Week and marks the 94th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising when a small band of Irishmen and women looked the British Empire in the face and flew the flag of freedom. This weekend political parties of all shades will mark that anniversary. No doubt Fianna Fáil will traipse into Arbour Hill at some stage and pay mealy-mouthed homage to that rebellion but it is worth recalling what that the Easter Proclamation of 1916 said:-

We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland, and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people. In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty: six times during the past three hundred years[2] they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades-in-arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and its exaltation among the nations.

Quite clearly our neutrality and national sovereignty continue to be sold while we are driven ever deeper into the mire of the EU / New World Order that gives us EU armies and the likes of NAMA to save the bankers while ordinary workers and their families are thrown to the wolves.

The Workers Party will hold its own Easter 1916 commemoration on Easter Sunday. There will be no sharp suits or PR agencies feeding out a steady flow of media-speak. We will gather at the Republican Plot in St. Finbarr's Cemetery, Cork where the graves of patriots like Tomás Mac Curtain and Terence MacSwiney and many others are; where comrades like John Joe Kavanagh and Martin O'Leary lie buried. Did any of them really give their lives so that we could be ruled by an unaccountable bureaucratic elite in Brussels - or a bosses party in Dublin for that matter? I don't think so.

The Workers Party commemoration in Cork will be addressed by veteran socialist republican Sean Garland who will speak about issues relevant to working people and their families today. The Easter Proclamation will be read with pride by Donal O'Driscoll and we will lay wreaths on the graves of fallen comrades. The ceremony will commence at 12 Noon sharp and all are welcome

Ted Tynan pays tribute to Tomás Mac Giolla

2010-02-04T18:15:00.002Z

Tomás Mac Giolla with Ted Tynan and Cork's Lord Mayor Brian Bermingham in 2008

Cork Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has paid warm tribute this afternoon (Thursday) to his friend and former Party President Tomás Mac Giolla who died in Dublin today aged 86.

Councillor Tynan said that Mr. Mac Giolla will be remembered as someone who played a leading role in the promotion of peace in

Ireland

and who struggled throughout his life for social justice and the rights of workers, the poor and those marginalised within Irish society.

“I am very saddened to hear the news of the death of Tomás Mac Giolla. I have known Tomás for most of my life and he was a decisive influence on the formation of my political beliefs. Tomás could always be relied upon when difficult decisions had to be taken and was a rock of commonsense who could see beyond rhetoric and make clear judgements at difficult times”, said Cllr. Tynan.

“Tomás and his wife May were also personal friends for many years and my heartfelt sympathy goes out to May at this time. It is with great fondness that I recall that Tomás and May came to Cork in August 2008 as guests of Lord Mayor Brian Bermingham. They both thoroughly enjoyed that and were regular visitors to Cork over many years”

Council pre-empting water charges

2010-01-25T18:28:00.002Z

Councillor Ted Tynan has accused Cork City Council of pre-empting the introduction of water charges by installing meter-ready stopcocks in parts of the city over the past five years.

Cllr Tynan said that meter-ready stopcocks had already caused water outages in some areas during the recent freeze-up. He had seen such appliances in the Mayfield area which had a screw-on plastic cap with could be removed in a matter of minutes to install a meter. Many of these covers had burst during the recent freeze. (see photo).

“While Minister John Gormley has this morning announced that installation of water meters would begin next year, the fact is that Cork City Council have been preparing for this for several years and have jumped the gun on this issue”, said the Workers Party councillor.

Councillor Tynan said that the debate on water charges was totally skewed and householders were being blamed for water losses through leakages which were mainly due to years of underinvestment in the public water system. “For the past few weeks we have been bombarded with propaganda about people leaving taps running and wasting water but not one city or county manager can tell you how much of the water is being lost in this way and how much is being lost in the public mains through leakages”, he said.

“There is going to be a major battle in opposition to water charges which are a precursor to privatisation. These charges are another tax on working people and a totally unjust form of double taxation. It should be remembered that public opinion forced the scrapping of water charges over ten years ago. We are confident that this can be done again through a rigorous and determined campaign of opposition”.

“The Workers Party is already preparing its own campaign against water charges and we will work closely with others who oppose these unjust charges in building alliances around the country to oppose them. Water charges make no sense whatsoever, they are against the interests of public health, and water privatisation has been a disaster for ordinary people wherever it has taken place. The battle starts now and Minister Gormley will find he is facing a formidable opposition to charging for water.”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Tynan condemns closure of Ardbhaile council office

2010-01-11T19:13:00.001Z

Councillor Ted Tynan has said that the closure of local Cork City Council offices around the city, including the one at Ardbhaile in Mayfield, is a backwards step and will have a negative knock-on effect for both the public and the council alike.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that the move, forced on the City Council due to cutbacks in government funding, would cause difficulties for people who find it difficult to get into City Hall to report local problems or simply pay their rent.

Cllr. Tynan said that the local offices, such as the one at Árd Bhaile, had proved their worth and had been essential in building better links between the local communities and City Council staff and officials.

“The value of these local offices is that people can get to know the officials who in turn can build up a working relationship with people in the local community. They can also deal with people on a one-to-one basis and for instance, if a person runs into difficulty with rent they can identify the problem sooner and can make an arrangement with that person. It also provides a link for people to report local problems be it broken street lights, pavements or housing maintenance issues”

Councillor Tynan praised the work of staff at the local offices and said it was a disgrace that all their good work was being undone by a petty cutback but he laid blame squarely at the door of the Fianna Fáil / Green Party government. “This is just another one of the many effects of their slash and burn policy of cutbacks. It is also short-sighted as the closure of these local offices will cost the council and the state money in the long run”.

Christmas Greetings from Cllr. Ted Tynan

2009-12-23T17:43:00.001Z

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people of the North East Ward for their support for me during 2009 and wish you all a safe and peaceful Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

Ted Tynan

Running a city on a shoestring not possible says Tynan

2009-12-21T11:47:00.000Z

Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that government cutbacks will seriously affect Cork City Council services and that the allocation from central government to the local authority it totally inadequate.

Cllr. Tynan was speaking in advance of tonight’s meeting of the City Council which will vote on the financial Estimates for the coming 12 months. The Workers’ Party councillor will be voting against the Estimates because they contain domestic refuse charges and because he considers the central allocation as totally inadequate.

“The Minister for the Environment expects councillors to perform a ‘loaves & fishes’ miracle with funding for the city council cut by a further €7 million this year. Already the council has lost in the region of 140 staff through a combination of layoffs of temporary staff and non-replacement of permanent staff. Despite the best efforts of a dedicated staff this is inevitably leading to cuts in services in the area of housing maintenance, roads and other areas”, said Cllr.Tynan.

The Workers Party councillor has called for a more drastic cut in the Lord Mayor’s salary and allowances demanding that instead of an €8,000 cut to €94,000 per annum the mayoral salary should be cut to equal the average industrial wage of €32,000. He is also calling for a complete embargo on conference travel by councillors both within the country and abroad.

“Despite the most serious financial crisis in the city’s modern history, we still have dozens of councillors from the three party pact of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour travelling to conferences in every corner of the country. Some councillors have attended multiple conferences and I can see no benefit whatsoever to the city or the city council of such conferences which are little more than junkets. It is time to call a halt to them”, said Cllr. Tynan.

A Diabolical Budget

2009-12-10T11:46:00.000Z

Cllr. Ted Tynan has described Wednesday's budget as diabolical and utterly perverse, saying it targets working class people and only working class people with a vicious round of cutbacks in their incomes and in public services.

Cllr. Tynan said that Minister Brian Lenihan’s budget was drafted to an agenda set down by IBEC and big business and that the minister had bent over backwards to grant their demands while tightening the thumbscrews on working people, the poor and their families.

"The reduction in excise duty on alcohol and the car scrappage deal is an affront to society. This budget will force some people to cut back on food and home heating. It is a perverse government indeed which can cut child allowance but give an effective subsidy to the drinks industry and the motor trade".

"Nowhere in this budget do we see any effort to seriously tax the ostentatious wealth that is still being flashed around by the moneyed elite in this society, the one percent who hold one-fifth of this country's wealth. Nor has any effort been made to reform the banks as part of the NAMA process. Having gambled away billions they have been given a massive top-up which has been raised by bleeding workers dry and throwing the most vulnerable people to the wolves”, said Cllr. Tynan.

"This is a budget which makes historic figures like Richie Ryan and Margaret Thatcher seem benevolent. It is a slash-and-burn budget which has reduced the most marginalised people in society, not just to poverty, but to abject poverty. The decision to slash Jobseekers payments for young people and cut it for everyone else, in addition to the cut in child benefit is an outright attack on the poor. Not one single job will be created as a result of this budget, but still we have handouts to businesses in the name of so-called competition”.

“In short Minister Lenihan’s budget is an abomination. It is the product of a government which has been bought by big business but paid dearly for by ordinary workers and their families. It is a government with no morals, no mandate and no shame”, said Councillor Tynan

WAS QUAY WALL DAMAGED BY MECHANICAL DIGGER?

2009-12-08T06:15:00.003Z

Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan last night asked City Manager as to whether the quay wall beside the Mercy Hospital may have been damaged by a mechanical digger weeks before the wall collapsed in the recent severe weather.

Speaking at a meeting of Cork City Council which was dominated by the recent flooding crisis, Cllr. Tynan says that he had seen photographs showing a large mechanised excavator (traxcavator) working at the same spot where the wall was to collapse early on the 20th November at the height of the heavy rain and high tides. He has been informed that large amounts of stone, possibly old cobblestones, was removed from the River Lee at Grenville Place around a month before the wall collapsed. His source and a number of others he spoke to say that the excavator’s bucket hit off the quay wall on several occasions.

Cllr. Tynan has tabled a series of questions to the City Manager, Mr. Joe Gavin, in an attempt to find out if the machine in question could possibly have damaged the quay wall and to ascertain why it was removing this material in the first place.

“The recent floods have had a devastating effect on parts of the city centre around the Marsh area. It is estimated that damage at the Mercy Hospital alone was in the order of €2 million and the hospital was almost put out of action. We need to find out why this happened and if there is any connection between the removal of the stone and the wall’s collapse. I haved asked the City Manager tonight to investigate the reports and give his opinion on the matter”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Photos shown were taken with a cameraphone on 19th October - one month before the wall collapsed, and show the traxcavator machine working at Grenville Place.

Tynan praises council staff, emergency services for flood response

2009-11-23T05:58:00.000Z

Councillor Ted Tynan has praised Cork City Council staff and the emergency services for their efforts in response to the flooding crisis in the city.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that staff at all levels had worked tirelessly to deal with the crisis and many of them had stayed at their posts for two or three days with no more than a few hours sleep. He said that the response proved the worth of public service workers and contradicted much recent negative comment on the public service.

“Over the past few days I have travelled to various locations around the city, especially around Mayfield and the North East Ward, and have seen City Council workers doing Trojan work. They have been faced with an extremely difficult situation but have coped very well with it. I would like to thank all those involved including council workers, the gardaí, fire and other emergency services and individuals who have volunteered to help. It was truly a team effort by all concerned”, said Cllr. Tynan.

“This should give advocates of privatisation plenty of food for thought. I have no doubt if these were privatised services we would not have had the same level of response. The public service has stepped up to the mark in a severe emergency and comes out with full marks for dedication, effort and determination”, he declared.

Tax the Greedy, not the Needy - No to Water Charges

2009-08-22T06:47:00.003+01:00

The word is out, the Commission on Taxation, set up by the government over 18 months ago to overhaul this country's taxation system, is recommending further stealth taxes on ordinary workers and their families including the introduction of water charges, a tax on the family home and taxation of Child Benefit (Children's Allowance).

The terms of reference of the Commission on Taxation were deliberately framed in such a way as to prevent it dealing with probably the most glaring problems of the Irish taxation system - it was not allowed to consider increasing Corporation Tax on big business and was advised not to actually increase the overall tax take despite the fact that billions of euro of profits are being made in this country by those not paying their fair share of tax.

It should be no surprise that this QUANGO came up with an anti-worker and anti-family report. No less than 11 of the 16 members of the Commission (appointed by the Fianna Fáil / Green mudguard government) are from the business community and I don't mean your local shop but big business, very big business. There was one lone representative on the commission from the trade union movement and another token member from the voluntary sector. Add in a few right-wing economists and it becomes clear that this commission was rigged from the outset to come up with the government's favoured outcome - just like the so-called Bord Snip.

The Workers Party is very clear on the question of water charges. Like refuse charges they are a form ouf double taxation. If you are a PAYE worker or ever buy anything in this country you are already contributing to the funding of local government. You pay into local government when you pay for your electricity, buy a newspaper or a book and when you buy a so-called luxury item like a television or a fridge. When rates were abolished almost 30 years ago the shortfall was made up by increases in PAYE and VAT - increases which were never abolished.

Let's be clear about this - these proposals, coupled with the cutbacks proposed in the McCarthy Report and the levies already imposed in last year's budget and mini-budget, will mean the government plans to take up to €5,000 per annum from your pay packet if you are a PAYE worker and will further penalise you if you are unfortunate enough to be unemployed, on a small pension or in the low paid category.

In the coming months there will be a battle on Cork City Council in relation to the annual Estimates. It is now clear that further massive cutbacks in the council's services are to be made while increases in rents and refuse charges are definitely on the cards. The Workers Party will not be bullied into supporting these measures and we will not support any budget for the city which underfunds basic services, cuts jobs or contains service charges in any shape or form.

Have no doubt about it, the party and others opposing the Estimates are going to come under massive attack from the establishment parties for our stand. Fine Gael, Labour and possibly others will line up behind Fianna Fáil and further slash already curtailed services such as housing maintenance, road repair, parks, libraries and other services which are essential to this city. They will try to turn the blame back on us and will claim that it is our fault that jobs will be lost and the council will be abolished if the Estimates are defeated. This is simply a lie. We all know why 91 jobs have already been lost in the City Council and why housing and housing maintenance have ground to a halt. This is 100% down to the policies of the present government and the government in waiting of FG / Labour (which are almost identical anyway). Ordinary workers and their families are to be made pay for the sheer greed and reckless trading of banks and building speculators.

We have seen the state and the courts bend over backwards to prevent the Carroll Group from being liquidated while at the same time people in trouble with their mortgages are being hounded and having their homes repossessed by the same banks. The government has agreed to a bank bailout which potentially puts the state at the risk of losing up to €100 Billion - that's right €100,000,000,000 of your hard earned money. Fine Gael and Labour only disagree on the finer details but still support the concept of aiding the banks with vast amounts of taxpayer's money.

The battle lines are drawn. Workers and their families are now under sustained attack from the government, the banks, sections of the media and international capitalism as never before. This alone is reason enough to reject the Lisbon Treaty at the forthcoming referendum which is the second attempt - á la carte democracy where you can re-run a referendum if you don't like the first result. It is in the interests of workers and the poor to firmly reject this treaty which further enslaves working people, finally ditches our neutrality and puts in place another building block towards an EU superstate. Vote No to the Lisbon Treaty on October 2nd.

Tenant's rights must be protected

2009-08-13T10:58:00.003+01:00

Cork Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has strongly condemned a demand from the newly created National Assets Management Agency for changes in the law which would dilute the rights of long term tenants living in properties which are taken into NAMA’s ownership.

Cllr. Tynan was reacting to a report in this morning’s Irish Examiner in which an unnamed government spokesman is quoted as calling for changes to the Landlord & Tenant (Amendment) Act 1980 which gives long term tenants the right to extend their leases for up to 35 years.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that the present protections and rights available to tenants had been hard fought for and won after many decades of struggle and campaigning by tenants organisations and should not be lightly taken away. He also expressed concern that if these rights could be waived on behalf of NAMA, then there would be demands by landlords for them to be taken away altogether.

“The struggle for fixity of tenure is something which has been fought for as far back as the Land War of the 1880s though Michael Davitt and Charles Stewart Parnell and right through to the more recent campaigns of the Housing Action Committees of the 1960s. The economic crisis which has been caused by banks and property speculators, who make up a fair percentage of the landlords in this country, is no excuse for diluting tenants rights”, said Cllr. Tynan.

“I am calling on all public representatives to vigorously oppose any watering down of tenant’s rights at the behest of NAMA, builders or the financial institutions”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Footnote: Ted Tynan was a committee member of the Cork Housing Action Campaign in the late 1960s and also played a leading part in the campaigns of the Mayfield Tenants Association and the Joint Council of Cork Tenants’ Associations during the 1970s.

CUT IN TEACHER NUMBERS SABOTAGES CHILDREN’S EDUCATION

2009-08-07T09:07:00.000+01:00

Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that cuts in the number of teachers in Ireland’s schools in the forthcoming year will effectively sabotage the education of thousands of children and young people.

Reacting to claims by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland that cuts will mean up to 3,600 fewer teachers in second level schools this autumn as compared with last year, Cllr. Tynan said that this would have a devastating effect on schools and pupils and would particularly cause even more educational disadvantage in schools which are already under-resourced and in special needs cases in particular.

The Workers’ Party councillor rejected the Department of Education’s response to the teacher’s union figures, saying that the department was trying to hide behind a smokescreen about numbers when it was clear even by the department’s own figures that there would be significantly fewer teachers in schools this coming term.

“This massive cut in the numbers of teachers in our schools is another cutback resulting from the banking bailout and NAMA. Children are being made to suffer because the government is more interested in saving the skins of greedy bankers and property speculators who lost the run of themselves in the casino style property boom. The result is that thousands of children will fall through the cracks and suffer educational disadvantage which will last for their entire lifetime. This puts many working class people at an even greater disadvantage because it is the most vulnerable as usual who will bear the brunt of these vicious cutbacks”, said Councillor Tynan.

Use Ireland's natural resources for our people

2009-07-20T14:28:00.005+01:00

I was listening to Neil Prendeville on the Opinion Line programme on 96FM radio last Friday in relation to the so-called An Bord Snip Nua and felt it was time to talk about Ireland's natural resources. In the major parties in Ireland there would only seem to be differences in the level of cuts they would impose in government and even the Labour Party now accept cuts in public service numbers. Eamon Gilmore even said that the slashing of 17,000 jobs was "doable". Let you go first Eamon.

The Workers' Party does not share this view and we believe that there is an alternative. There is a consensus among the Irish political elite, big business and economists (who are invariably right wing) that the unrestrained market economy is a sacred cow which cannot be challenged and while it can go wrong sometimes it is effectively infallible. I disagree. Even within countries that hold by the market economy system there are different ways of doing things.

For one moment just consider the two words "Public Service" - what is so wrong about it? That its executives and terms of references are dictated by Fianna Fáil and previously Fine Gael governments may be one problem. That it is top heavy with bureaucrats (appointed by the same parties) may be another. The fact that it is constantly stopped from competing with the private sector by rules which favour private enterprise is certainly a problem. But why throw out the baby with the bathwater? Isn't essential that we have a public service?

The proposals in the Bord Snip report (what a mild name for such a viscious plan) are on the basis that Ireland is in economic crisis. Everyone would seem to agree, from Brian Cowen to even some in the trade union movement. But is Ireland in economic crisis? No it is not. It is the economic system imposed on this country which is in crisis.

Ireland has massive wealth in our seas in the form of fish and under our seas in the form of oil and gas. We have mineral wealth under our mountains and under our bogs and we have wealth in the form of our people who are intelligent and willing to work. They have proved this in every corner of the world.

I just want to briefly outline some of that wealth:-

Official government figures from just last year (2008) estimate that at least 10 Billion barrels of oil lie off the west coast of Ireland and that there is a potential of up to 130 Billion barrels of oil and up to 50 Trillion cubic feet of gas there. The Dunquin Field, around 200km off the coast of Kerry and inside Ireland's territorial seas is estimated at having around 4,130 million barrels of oil and up to 25 trillion cubic feet of gas. According to government figures this find on its own would more than meet Ireland's domestic oil and gas needs for the next 62 years. The Dunquin field is being developed by the giant US oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil (in its previous incarnation responsible for the world's worst environmental disaster with the Exxon Valdez which went ashore off the coast of Alaska in 1989, spilling over 40 million litres (10 milion gallons) of crude oil into the sea devastating the coast and wiping out vast numbers of fish, seals, otters and birds). Should such a company be trusted to harvest our oil and gas and take it away for practically nothing?

Above: Map of Ireland's oil & gas fields

There are also huge deposits of gas off the coast of County Clare and there are proven oil and gas reserves under the Bog of Allen in the north midlands. Ireland also has massive mineral wealth in the form of zinc, lead, gold and other minerals.

Then there is the Corrib Gas Field. I am now addressing primarily the economic aspects as my support of the Shell to Sea campaign is well known. The economic argument is clear - the cost of meeting the concerns of the local people is minimal when compared to the massive value of this resource. The local people of the Erris peninsula have real and justified concerns and want the gas refined at sea (just like the Old Head of Kinsale gas field off Cork is). The cost of doing that seems big at €300 million but this pales into insignificance when compared to the value of the gas, estimated at up to €140 Billion. A mere 2% of this would solve the problem tomorrow if the refinery were just built offshore.

The trouble with all of this is that we are giving away our gas for nothing. The state charges no royalties whatsoever for giving OUR gas to Shell, Marathon or the Norwegian state oil and gas company Statoil which are developing the field. It charges a mere 25% tax. This is the equivalent of a developer giving away houses for free and then charging a small fee for handing over the key. Norway is a country with more or less the same population as the Republic of Ireland (4.8 milllion people to our 4.4 million). Norway is not a socialist country or a communist country but it has its own state oil and gas company. Why can Norway do it and not Ireland? Norway's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008 was $456 Billion, Ireland's was $218 Billion (less than half).

This country has the capacity to be extremely wealthy and to provide for all the needs of our people - to give us a first class free health service and to provide for the education of our children and young people. Why is this massive wealth not put to the benefit of the Irish people? Why is it that we are importing potatoes and vegetables into this country when we all grew up being told that this was an agricultural country?

The Workers' Party is not against the creation of wealth. We are against giving away our people's wealth and our children's birthright for nothing in return and we are against Ireland, a sovereign country, being told how to run our economy, whether it is by the European Union or the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Our people have been robbed by shady deals done between corrupt politicians, speculators, bankers and bureaucrats. The deal done by Ray Burke as Minister for Industry and Commerce when eh signed the contract to agreement to give away the Corrib Gas field to Shell and its cohorts was a crime against the people of this country. This was a corrupt deal done by a man subsequently convicted and jailed for another corrupt act. It was theft on a grand scale from the Irish people and we should not honour such a deal.

This country does not need An Bord Snip or Thatcherite economists like Dr. Colm McCarthy or Peter Bacon to tell us to cut our public services and further decimate our hospitals and schools and to consign another generation of our young people to emigration and poverty. What we need is to take ownership and control of our own natural resources and our economy and put them to work on behalf of the people. This may sound like utopianism and will be portrayed as out of date socialism but in fact it is plain common sense. The United States of America doesn't give away its oil and gas for free, the UK doesn't give away its North Sea Gas and countries like Norway most certainly don't do it. So why should we?

Scrap Bord Snip, defend the public service and stand up for what is ours.

Eight week council break unnacceptable

2009-07-12T10:57:00.006+01:00

Tomorrow's meeting of Cork City Council (13th July) will be its last for eight weeks until it reconvenes on Monday, 14th September, just 2 days before the Dáil returns from its 9 week break.

This is simply not acceptable, particularly at a time when the council is experiencing serious cuts in its budget and a shortfall of at least €2 million in its budget and possibly a much greater shortfall next year. Already 91 temporary and short term staff have been left go and there is a total embargo on recruitment. In addition to this there are threats of cuts in a wide range of council services.

Despite this, tomorrow's City Council meeting will be proposing to send a number of councillors to conferences around the country and in my view and that of the Workers Party this is totally unacceptable and I will be opposing this. It is not justified when the council cannot respond adequately to the demand for services such as housing maintenance. I would also question the value of most, if not all of these conferences.

In addition to this, I have proposed a motion opposing the closure of St. Mary's Road Library in Gurranabraher and the City Council's plan to move the library to a rented premises in Blackpool Shopping Centre. The current premises is owned by the City Council; the proposed one will incur rent in the region of €100,000 payable to one of Cork's wealthiest businessmen, an individual who within the last year was forced to pay over €1.4 million to the Revenue Commissioners arising out of the inquiry into the Ansbacher Accounts tax evasion scam. Is it right that the City Council should pay half a million Euro to this man over the lifetime of this council when it is suffering its greatest financial crisis ever? I think not.

I also have tabled a motion calling for the provision of street nameplates at Silversprings Lawn and Silversprings Court which do not have nameplates despite having being built almost 30 years ago.

Another motion which I am hoping will come up is calling on the City Council to make boarded up corporation houses ready and available for allocation to people on the council's waiting list. It is totally unacceptable that at a time when there are 5,000 people on the City Council's housing waiting list that we have hundreds of houses and flats boarded up. Not only are these houses and flats unsightly but they attract anti-social elements into an area and illegal dumping. This is an issue that I along with my Workers Party fellow candidates Jackie Connolly and Mick Crowley raised during last month's local elections and we intend to follow through on the matter as a matter of urgency.

One motion I have proposed is sure to cause controversy and I make no apologies for that. It is a call for an inquiry into the Corrib Gas Project. Although this is far away in County Mayo it does have relevance to the people of Cork because the Irish taxpayers are being denied billions of Euro of revenue as a result of a dirty deal done by the former Fianna Fáil government minister Ray Burke with the Shell Oil corporation (Anglo Dutch Shell) and other oil and gas companies to pump gas ashore and refine it at Bellanaboy in Co. Mayo. The state, on behalf of the Irish people, should have got billions of Euro for this gas but instead it was practically given away to Shell and the company have been allowed bring it ashore via a very high pressure gas pipeline which pumps gas at an extraordinarly high pressure of 345 Bar (compared to a maximum of 70 Bar at Kinsale Head gasfield) across boggy land in an area where there have been several major landslides over the past decade.

Shell have been facilitated in this by the granting of a compulsory purchase order allowing them to put their pipeline through the property of local families (mostly small farmers and fishermen) and dangerously close to many of their homes. This small community has opposed the pipeline out of genuine concern for the safety of themselves and their families. They have used non-violent resistance to try and prevent the destruction of their beaches, bogs and farms. Despite being a designated area of special environmental interest, the project is being forced through with the help of up to 300 gardaí, the Irish Navy and up to 160 private security personnel. There is a serious question mark hanging over the largest of these private security companies arising from an incident in which two of its employees, both of whom had been employed at the Corrib Gas site, were shot dead in Bolivia and were accused by the government of that country of being involved in an attempted Coup d'etat. While the book is still open on that case, there are very serious questions arising from it which link directly to Corrib and the type of people being recruited for security duty by Shell's protectors.

Five local men from the Rossport were jailed for 90 days and many others have been arrested. There are so many incidents related to this debacle that it would take up too much space here to relate but you can read much more on the Shell to Sea website at www.shelltosea.com or on Indymedia www.indymedia.ie

Finally, while the City Council may not be meeting until September 14th, I will continue to be available to consitutents and anyone who may wish to raise an issue of concern with me. As always I can be contacted on my mobile (086) 190 8281 or by e-mail at tedtynan@gmail.com

Democracy denied

2009-06-15T10:29:00.002+01:00

Once again we have seen over the last week the wheeling and dealing going on behind closed doors and tonight will see the continuation of the 30 year old pact between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party. This pact determines not only who will wear the Lord Mayor's chain for the next five years, but the membership and chairmanship of every City Council and nomination of members to external bodies.

Tonight instead of a democratic election at City Hall, representing the new composition of the City Council, we will see the same old anti-democratic pact in action. The outcome is a foregone conclusion and was decided not in the June 5th election but in secretive meetings between the three biggest parties with the view to excluding all others as much as possible from committees even though those "others" now make up 30% of the council.

The leader of the Labour Party Eamon Gilmore has very publicly sought to distance his party from Fianna Fáil and present his party as a radical alternative to Brian Cowen's party yet here in Cork we will see 7 Labour Party councillors voting with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael tonight to exclude left-wing councillors from committees and ensuring the election of Fianna Fáil councillors instead. So much for a radicalised Labour Party.

As an elected councillor I will actively oppose not only this undemocratic pact, but the continuing waste of public money on junkets and extravagance at a time when the City Council has cut back on key services in order to save money.

Thank You!

2009-06-08T13:44:00.008+01:00

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to the people of the North East Ward for expressing their confidence in me by electing me to Cork City Council as a Workers' Party councillor.

There are very many people to whom I am grateful for their help and support during the local elections.

As a local councillor for the North East Ward I promise to do my very best on behalf of the people who elected me and indeed all the citizens of the area.

All my election posters were removed by the deadline on last Friday, 13th June. However if our postering team missed any of them I would appreciate if you could give me a call on (086) 1908281 and I will see to it that the offending poster is removed immediately.

Should you wish to contact me concerning any issue please do not hesitate to contact me at the numbers given below or by e-mail to tedtynan@gmail.com

Once again, sincere thanks

Councillor Ted Tynan

A Message from Ted Tynan

2009-04-17T09:07:00.007+01:00

The local elections which take place on June 5th come at a time of unprecedented economic and social crisis in Ireland. The country has been brought to the brink of bankruptcy by speculators developers and most of all the banks and political establishment parties. We have had 12 years of continuous government by Fianna Fáil and the current Fianna Fáil / Green Party coalition has continued to feed a culture of of corruption at the highest levels of Irish society.

At the same time the health service, education and other essential services and those who depend on them have suffered greatly. Now that the crisis is biting hard it is once again the most vulnerable who are being told to take the pain while the super-rich get off scot free and are even rewarded for their theft of Irish resources.

Locally in Cork we have growing unemployment, a housing crisis with 5,000 families on the City Council waiting list while hundreds of corporation houses lie idle and often vandalised. Official statistics show that even at the height of the Celtic Tiger there continued to be an unemployment crisis in the Mayfield area. Now that the economy is in crisis, local unemployment in this area has sky-rocketed. There is a better way.

As a candidate in the local elections for the Workers Party, I will be demanding the following:-

A major programme of genuinely affordable houses and an end to the boarding up of houses. Instead they should be immediately brought up to standard and allocated to those on the City Council's housing waiting list.

An end to cuts in education, health and disability services.

Proper local amentities, particularly for young people, and the preservation of important green spaces such as the Glen Park and river valley, playing field at Tinker's Cross and the Tank Field.

Mobile phone masts must be kept a safe distance from homes, schools and people's workplaces.

Greater efforts to deal with an prevent Anti-Social Behaviour and more effort into community policing.

An end to the junket culture at City Hall, with vital resources going to meet the needs of the city and its people, not developers and speculators.

My record of opposition to Service Charges is well known in this area. I will continue to oppose this unjust form of double taxation of PAYE workers and will actively fight against the re-introduction of water charges and privatisation of services.

As a Workers Party candidate and a socialist I stand for workers and their families, including retired and unemployed workers and young people.

Do you require help with a problem related to housing, your rights and entitlements or local issues in the North East Ward?

Please Contact me at:

Telephone: 4503481 (home) / (086) 1908281 (mobile)

E-mail: tedtynan@gmail.com

If you would like to help out in my election campaign or to join the Workers Party please contact me at the above numbers or my Director of Elections, Sean McCarthy on (086) 8360503.

Visit the Workers Party website www.workerspartyireland.net