Government playing a "softening up" game on water charges

Councillor Ted Tynan

Cork Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has accused the government of playing a cynical game of rumour and denial as part of a “softening up” exercise to prepare people for much higher water charges than originally stated.

Cllr. Tynan said that the issue of whether there would be a standing charge on water bills was a “red herring”.  The real issue, he said, was the fact that these charges are unnecessary, have nothing to do with water conservation and are a prelude to privatisation of water services in this country.

“Water”, said “Cllr. Tynan, “ is essential to human life, wellbeing and hygiene.  It is already more than paid for through central taxation as it has been for decades. The new water charges are nothing less than extortionary double taxation.”  

“The standing charge issue is just further proof that water charges will cripple working class families and must be resisted and stopped.  If we do not fight the installation of meters and these unjust charges then the sky is the limit on how high the prices will soar”, said the Workers Party councillor.

Tynan slams wanton waste of boarded-up homes

Hundreds of thousands of euro paid annualy to private company for hire of steel shuttering

Scarce money paid for this!

Mayfield Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has described the situation where over 500 local authority flats and houses remain empty in Cork City at a time of housing crisis as a “no brainer”.

Speaking at tonight’s (Monday) meeting of Cork City Council, Cllr. Tynan said that with  8,000 people on Cork City Council’s housing list it simply made no sense to have hundreds of homes boarded up at considerable cost to the local authority. He also raised the ongoing problem with the faulty district heating system in Mayfield

“People may not realise that Cork City Council is paying out hundreds of thousands of euro every year to rent out the steel shuttering used to secure the empty homes.  In 2012 the council paid over €175,000 to a private company to hire these steel shutters.  This figure continues to rise.   At the same time there is a hidden cost to the council in tackling vandalism, illegal dumping and other forms of anti-social behaviour which are encouraged when an area looks neglected”, said Cllr. Tynan.

The Workers’ Party councillor said that the City Council was paying for neglect and the money used in shuttering, security and tackling anti-social behaviour should instead be used to make good the empty homes.  “This simple act”, said Cllr. Tynan, “could create badly needed building jobs, reduce the housing list, improve the look of many areas and actually increase the revenue of the City Council through rent”.

Cllr. Tynan said that the government had become ideologically blinkered against anything progressive, viewing everything purely on grounds of immediate cost rather than weighing up the benefits of a scheme.  “They would rather leave the 500 homes boarded up and pay for  them to remain derelict than invest in the future because the whole culture of austerity has infected their thinking.  They simply refuse to see the obvious”, said the Workers’ Party Councillor

Concluding, Cllr. Tynan appealed to the City Manager for urgent action to deal with the ongoing problems with the district heating system at Glenamoy Lawn and Ardbhaile, saying it was causing serious hardship for many residents who were paying for heat they were not getting from the system.

Tynan slams Irish Water's €50 million consultancy spent

Workers Party councillor Ted Tynan has said that the new Irish Water company had become a magnet for profiteers and opportunists, many of them hoping to make a financial killing from the eventual privatisation of the public water system.

Cllr. Tynan said that while Fine Gael and the Labour Party had come to power on a platform of so-called reform, including the abolition of 145 Quangos, they had created a super-quango in Irish Water which had already engaged a raft of consultancy firms at a cost of €50 million to the taxpayers.

“It is not however only the issue of this huge sum of money paid to consultants that is deeply disturbing”, said Cllr. Tynan, “but the nature of the consultants and the previous roles most of them have played in privatisation of public assets, including water. Like vultures these consultants have come to pick on the bones of the public water system and are being paid a huge bounty in the process, a tab that will be put onto the consumers who already pay for water through taxation”.

Cllr. Tynan will be calling for the suspension of Standing Orders at a meeting of Cork City Council tomorrow evening (Monday) in order for the issue to be discussed.   He concluded by saying that the Irish Water debacle should be a wake-up call to householders. “It is not too late to stop water charges and the march of Irish Water in their tracks by halting the installation of water meters. This requires public resistance on a major scale but the alternative is to surrender to ever soaring charges and sale of a critical public asset”.

Government takes away key elderly / disabled grants

 The latest changes in eligibility criteria for home adaptation and mobility grants for the elderly and those with a disability have been condemned by Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan.

The Mayfield councillor said that the government had come like a thief in the night on New Year’s Eve to bring in the new rules, which will make it harder for people to qualify for grants to adapt their homes and would affect three key areas of assistance:  the home adaptation grant for disabled people, the housing adaptation grant for the elderly, and mobility aid grant scheme.

Cllr. Tynan said that after all the hype about the departure of the Troika and the so-called regaining of Irish sovereignty it was clear that nothing had changed in relation to austerity and cuts to the most basic of services.  “The Troika maybe gone”, said Cllr. Tynan, “but the culture of vicious attacks on the most vulnerable remain and will continue under the Fine Gael & Labour coalition”.

Sale of Bord Gais Energy is an act of treason

 The proposed sale of Bord Gais Energy by the government has been described by Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan as an act of treason.

Cllr. Tynan said the decision was a total capitulation by the Labour Party to Fine Gael’s Thatcherite economic policies and showed that Labour had abandoned any pretence of public ownership of Ireland’s State companies.

“It is interesting”, said Cllr. Tynan  “that Minister Pat Rabbitte, who was during the 1970s a leading member of the Resources Protection Campaign, is now the minister who will deliver Bord Gais Energy into the hands of UK based Centrica, a company with a reputation for regularly hiking energy prices in order to make huge profits.

Councillor Tynan said the government’s claim that some of the money earned from the sale would be used for job creation only added insult to injury.   “Up to now”, he said , “the main form of "job creation" that the coalition has engaged in has been handing over subsidies to gombeen men to take people on such mickey mouse schemes as Job Bridge. These schemes do not create real jobs, but merely massage the unemployment figures to make them look better than they really are”.

He said the decision confirmed the Worker's Party's worst fears in regard to the future of Irish  Water which is owned by Bord Gais. “It can only be a matter of time before the new water company too is privatised and Irish citizens will become "customers" of yet another multinational to buy back natural resources which they themselves own but have been robbed of  by the treachery of the present government". said Cllr. Tynan.

Tynan pays tribute to Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013)

Cork Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has paid tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela, saying that he and his comrades in the African National Congress had been an inspiration for many decades to all those involved in people’s struggles in Ireland and around the world.

Cllr. Tynan said he will support the posthumous granting of the Freedom of Cork to Mr. Mandela, saying it was an appropriate, if belated, bestowing of proper recognition on behalf of the people of Cork.

Cllr Tynan said, “As usual the majority of the Irish citizens were way ahead of their elected representatives when it came to supporting demands for the freedom of Nelson Mandela and for an end to apartheid in South Africa.  When the Workers’ Party proposed that Mandela be given the Freedom of the City of Cork in 1987 the motion was defeated by some of those who are now loudest in their praises for Mandela.  They have very short memories”.

The Workers Party councillor said that without the brave stand taken by the Dunnes Stores workers and others at home and around the world it is likely that Nelson Mandela would have died in prison.    “It was the acts of solidarity worldwide and the struggles of the ANC within South Africa which defeated apartheid, not the worlds’ political elite now claiming credit”, he said

Cllr. Tynan continued, “With a few notable exceptions most of the world’s governments had to be shamed by their citizens into joining the fight against apartheid.   It is fitting too”,  he concluded, “that we do not forget the many who did not live to see the end of apartheid, from those who led the struggle to the many victims of the murder and repression of the apartheid state.  For their sakes and for all peoples it is essential that the struggle continues against the class and economic apartheid that continues to exist in Africa, Ireland and throughout the world”.

Tynan condemns proposed rent hike for Cork City tenants

Boarded up council house in Cork City

500 empty housing units in Cork City alone

Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has hit out at proposals by Cork City Council to increase housing rents in order to cover the council’s Property Tax bill.  He described the 2014 estimates proposals as “death by a thousand cuts” for council services.

Cllr. Tynan also questioned a report leaked to RTE which showed 3,500 vacant council homes in the state.  He pointed out that there were 500 such units in Cork City alone.

“The proposal to pass on property tax to council tenants exposes the true nature of this tax”, said Cllr. Tynan”, “Firstly that this is not a property tax but rather a tax on the family home since non property owners are now expected to pay.  Secondly it demolishes the government’s claim that the Property Tax is about funding local government.  This is ludicrous when local government itself is levied with this tax and seeks to pass the charge on to its tenants.”

“Once again Cork City Council is being left seriously short of government funding.  The result will undoubtedly be massive additional cuts in council services, especially in the area of housing maintenance.    The council is unable to renovate the 500 empty dwellings it owns and offer them to some of those on the housing list.  To make things worse it has emerged that funding under the RAPID scheme for five Community Safety Wardens on council estates is not going to be paid next year meaning the probable loss of these key workers who play a vital role in combating anti-social behaviour, illegal dumping and other issues.”

Cllr. Tynan said there will be strong opposition to any attempt to increase rent, especially to levy the property tax onto tenants.  “Once again local government services in Cork are being decimated by an unholy alliance government, the city hall pact parties and management, Cork’s very own Troika of destruction.”, said Cllr. Tynan.