People Before Profit

HEARTLESS COUNCIL REFUSE TO RELENT ON MOORE FAMILY EVICTION DESPITE JUDGES’ APPEAL AND OFFER OF ALMOST €7000 PAYMENT OFF ARREARS

MEANWHILE COUNCIL SPENDS THOUSANDS TO STATION PRIVATE SECURITY IN EMPTY MOORE HOUSE BUT REFUSES TO TELL ELECTED REP COSTS

In a statement, the People Before Profit Alliance has condemned Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council’s rejection of an offer of nearly €7000 euro by the Moore family from Loughlinstown, against the rent arrears on the Council home from which they were recently evicted. The Council refused the offer, despite an appeal for “common sense” from a district court Judge, hearing a civil application by the Moore’s to have the eviction set-aside in Dun Laoghaire district court last Friday.

Friends and supporters of the Moore family raised the money over recent weeks in effort to defray the rent arrears of €13,000 that had built up on the tenancy and that led the Council to evict the family in May.The offer from the Moore family was made public during the hearing in Dun Laoghaire district court last Thursday and Friday.

The District court Judge, presiding, had appealed to the Council to come to some sort of arrangement with the family, given the offer of such a lump sum payment and the efforts by the family to pay the arrears in instalment over the last eight months. However, the Council rejected the offer and the judges’ appeals, leaving the judge no option legally but to rule that the eviction was lawful.

VICTORY AT BORD PLEANLA IN BATTLE AGAINST TEK MOBILE PHONE MAST

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance has welcomed the decision of An Bord Pleanala to refuse the appeal of mobile phone company Meteor for retention planning permission for a mobile phone mast it erected in the grounds of TEK FC in Stradbrook.

The decision was confirmed in letters from Bord Pleanala, received today, by Cllr Boyd Barrett and other local residents, who had objected.

Bord Pleanala rejected the appeal of Meteor on the grounds that the mast was visually obtrusive and damaging to the residential amenity of the area, particularly to St Fintan’s Park, Villas and Deansgrange Rd , which backed onto the site where the mast was erected.

Cllr Boyd Barrett was involved in organising a local campaign of residents in nearby areas to have the mast taken down and was the only elected local representative to formally lodge an objection to both the Council and An Bord Pleanala.

Cllr Boyd Barrett welcomed the decision, saying:“This decision is a real victory for local residents and people power against the arrogance of Meteor.

Meteor deliberately and cynically put up the 18 metre mast in the middle of a residential area without planning permission or public consultation, in a flagrant abuse of the planning system.

They and other mobile phone companies are doing this all the time and their attitude seems to be to lash as many of these things up as possible in the hope that a few get through unnoticed. It’s a disgrace.

It is only because local residents were alert and that together we organised an active campaign of protests and objections that Meteor’s cynical plans were scuppered.

PBPA CALLS FOR PUBLIC BOYCOTT OF CONNOLLY SHOES IN BRAY AND ELSEWHERE

In a statement, Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) has condemned the decision of Connolly Shoes to close their Dun Laoghaire stores in the midst of a long running dispute, which has seen four of their longest serving employees on strike for more than eleven weeks.

People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) Councillor Brid Smith calls on Government to go

Major victory for pro-Palestine boycott campaign: Dublin City Council passes
anti-Veolia motion

Dr David Landy of the IPSC welcomes the vote as a significant development

The international Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement yesterday evening scored a major victory as Dublin City Council
passed a resolution calling on the City Manager not to sign or renew any contracts with French multinational Veolia[1] - the operators of the LUAS
who have also tendered for the Metro North project[2]. Veolia operate Israeli rail, bus and waste services in the illegally occupied West Bank,
making them complicit in Israel's contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Indeed, Veolia has a direct involvement in building the infrastructure of apartheid in Israel/Palestine.

Supporters and members of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign held a vigil in support of the motion outside Dublin City Hall yesterday evening as the motion was being discussed.

The resolution, tabled by Cllr Joan Collins (People Before Profit), was passed by unanimously at the sitting of Dublin City Council yesterday
evening (May 10th 2010) and is an important statement of solidarity with Palestine by the elected representatives of a European capital city. This
solidarity mirrors the deep empathy that exists throughout Irish society for the Palestinian people and the widespread revulsion at the behaviour of the
apartheid Israeli state.

Over a 1,000 people took to the streets yesterday (Tuesday, May 11th) for the Right To Work Campaign protest at Dail Eireann.

The recently established Right to Work Campaign, which is a broad coalition of community, civil society, trade unions, political groups and individuals called the demonstration to oppose the escalating bailout of Irish Banks and calling instead for the government’s priority to be focused on bailing out jobs, incomes and public services for ordinary workers and citizens. The protest was also officially sponsored by the trade union UNITE and was addressed by Fintan O’ Toole (Journalist), John Bisset (Canal Communities), John Kidd (SIPTU Firefighters), Siobhan Mc Guire (Community Workers Co-Op) & others.

“WE NEED A PEOPLE’S REBELLION”

At a press conference this morning organised by the Right to Work Campaign, the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) committed itself to mobilising across the country for a national demonstration that will take place at Dail Eireann on Tuesday May 11th at 7.30pm.

The press conference was attended by: Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett (People Before Profit Alliance), Aengus O Snodaigh TD (Sinn Fein), Joe Higgins TD (Socialist Party).

The recently established Right to Work Campaign, which is a broad coalition of community, civil society, trade unions, political groups and individuals has called the demonstration to oppose the escalating bailout of Irish Banks and calling instead for the government’s priority to be focused on bailing out jobs, incomes and public services for ordinary workers and citizens. The May 11th protest is also officially sponsored by the trade union UNITE. The May 11th protest will be addressed by Fintan O’ Toole (Journalist), John Bisset (Canal Communities), Walter Cullen (UNITE), John Kidd (SIPTU Firefighters), Siobhan Mc Guire (Community Workers Co-Op) & others.

In it’s statement the PBPA, called for a “people’s rebellion” against the current government and it’s policies, which it said were leading to a decimation of jobs, incomes and public services, while protecting the institutions and wealthy elites that were responsible for the crisis in the first place.