Sale of the state’s “family silver” will be a nightmare for ordinary people
All citizens who value the need for publicly owned vital infrastructure would have experienced a shudder of fearful anticipation last month when the Minister for Finance established a Review Group on State Assets and Liabilities. The Department of Finance Press brief’s opening sentence seemed innocuous enough, stating that the... More
Privatisation of VHI as discredited as that of Telecom Eireann and Team Aer Lingus
The announcement yesterday by Minister Harney and the Taoiseach that VHI will be privatised over the next two years is a further installment in this government’s destruction of the very idea of a public Health Service. It is callously throwing hundreds of thousands of people, especially the old and the sick, to the mercy of... More
Deputy Kenny’s statement exposes either ignorance or deception on Lisbon Treaty
The Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny, claimed in the Dail yesterday that the interference of the EU Commission and Council of Ministers in the budgetary affairs of Member States was “completely contrary to the Lisbon Treaty.” Deputy Kenny boasted to his EPP colleagues in April 2009 in Warsaw, regarding the Lisbon Treaty,... More
EU Commission’s debt proposals confirm argument of anti-Lisbon Treaty campaigners
During the Lisbon Treaty debate, I strenuously drew attention to the Growth and Stability Pact element of the Treaty and specifically, the powers with which the EU Commission sought to equip itself in order to re-enforce its neo-liberal agenda in member states providing for savage cuts in public spending and living standards. We... More
Oppose the NBRU’s collusion with Dublin Bus management to sack trade unionists
The sacking of shop steward Eugene McDonagh by Dublin Bus management and the simultaneous suspension of him by his union, the NBRU, from the executive to which he was democratically elected represents a joint management/union bureaucracy drive to destroy effective representation for bus workers in Harristown garage. It comes on... More
GUE/NGL Press Release – Relentless EU dismantling of postal services will hit both workers and customers
Opening today’s GUE/NGL group conference on the liberalisation of postal services, Irish MEP Joe Higgins said citizens were being hit hard by the Commission’s ongoing drive to privatise Europe’s postal services. “This relentless process of liberalisation totally ignores the impact on workers and customers... More
Joe Higgins: After Lisbon Yes result – what does it mean?
The Irish people were showered with promises of economic recovery, investment and jobs if they voted ‘Yes’ to the Lisbon Treaty. These lavish promises will come back to haunt the current Government in particular. However, it wasn’t just the government – whose survival depended on the outcome of the vote –... More
