Ballyfermot PBP branch meeting
8pm 2nd July in the PBP office, 4 Sarsfield Terrace, Ballyfermot

Drimnagh PBP meeting: 'Why Ireland is a tax haven' by Kieran Allen, UCD lecturer
8pm Monday 24 June, The Bosco Centre, Davitt Road, Drimnagh

PBP meeting with Cllr Brid Smith 'Where now after the property tax' 8pm PBP office 4 Sarsfield Tce, D10

Irelands Natural Resources with the emphasis on the success of Save our Forests Campaign, introduced by Cllr Melissa Halpin
Details Venue - Bosco Centre at 8 pm

The Rowan Unit in Cherry Orchard Hospital in Ballyfermot is to close its doors to HIV/AIDS sufferers after over 25 years of respite service provision to clients from all over Ireland.
As a Respite Unit for AIDS patients, the Rowan Unit is unique in this country and provides essential care and recovery for dozens of AIDS sufferers, including three long stay patients.

Last year the HSE indicated that the closure of Rowan Ward was imminent, in a cost cutting plan. But they were forced by public opposition and opposition of patients and staff to conduct a full review of the service provided in Cherry Orchard to this group of clients. The Review recently published has been approved by Minister Roisin Shortall and involves moving the Respite Care of HIV/AIDS into the Homeless Services.

Plans are being implemented to shift the service to Simon in Ushers Island in the City. It is reported that eight respite beds will be provided  and that  the three long stay patients in Cherry Orchard will be moved to other wards in that hospital.

But the patients themselves who depend on the respite provided in Cherry Orchard have had no formal communications,  have not been consulted about their needs and have persistently requested meetings about this issue. They have received no response from the HSE and hospital management. They have been told that the Rowan Unit will close in a couple of weeks but are not given a date. They have been told by management in Simon that building work is being carried out on providing them with an alternative unit for respite but nobody is willing or able to meet with the group to offer assurance that their health needs will be fully met in the Homeless Services. These patients can often become chronically ill and need a hospital environment to have their health needs met fully.

Some but not all of the patients are homeless and yet all are being moved into the Homeless Services. 

Councillor Brid Smith, People Before Profit has condemned ‘the legalised extortion’ of a €100 standing charge being imposed by Greyhound for waste collection in the Dublin City Council area.

On Friday Dublin Corporation binmen collected the city's waste for the last time as The Greyhound Company takes over the service from today.

Cllr Brid Smith has expressed grave concerns over three aspects of the new arrangement:

1. Information on the exact financial arrangement between Dublin City Council and Greyhound are being withheld from elected representatives. Under the guise of ‘commercial sensitivity’ an insidious form of censorship has been imposed. But the people of Dublin have every right to scrutinise arrangements made with private companies. What right do unelected city managers have to do deals without public transparency’

2. Dublin City Council has given Greyhound the right to pursue people who owe the council money for waste charges. No information has been provided on how much money will go back to the council or what cut Greyhound will get. Instead a private company has been given the right to harass people who are already stressed out by huge bills.

3. The workers of Dublin City Council – who have given loyal service over the years have been treated in a disgraceful manner. They have been given no guarantees about their earnings – but have been told to turn up each morning this week like ‘spailpin fanachs” to find out where they will be working. This is no way to treat workers in the 21st century.

At the Monday November 7th meeting of Dublin City Council, Cllr Brid Smith of the People Before Profit Alliance moved the following resolution:
‘In light of the clear anti democratic Executive function afforded to management to privatise the bin collection service, despite three majority votes of the elected members to maintain the service in public hands, this Council calls on the current Government to repeal Section 4 of the Waste Management (Amendment) Act 2001 which provides that the making of a waste management plan will become an executive (management) function, a change from the Waste Management Act 1996, where the power was a reserved (elected member) function.’

A protest took place outside the council and was addressed by People Before Profit's Cllr Brid Smith, Cllr Pat Dunne and Joan Collins TD.

PROTEST AT CITY COUNCIL MEETING 6PM CITY HALL MONDAY 7 NOVEMBER

Refuse collection and waste management was established in Dublin in late 1800's to stop spread of diseases like cholera. Since then it has been a publicly run service. But now Dublin City Council are withdrawing this service from December 5th.
Under Section 4 of the Waste Management Act 2001, the city manager can over rule elected councillors on matters to do with waste.
He has decided to invoke these powers and withdraw a public bin services from the people of Dublin. His aim is to hand it over to private contractors who will eventually being in even higher charges.

In South Dublin Council, one private contractor, Thornton’s, is charging people €60 extra just to enter their service. They are also increasing the cost of each lift. Once the system is privatised, the waiver system for the poorest section of the population will be removed. Waivers only exist in three councils in the country at the moment – and one of them is Dublin City Council.
When the poor cannot afford to pay for waste collection, illegal dumping will increasing, causing a new health hazard.
On three occasions, Dublin City councillors have voted to reject the manager's decision and three times they have been told by management that he is going ahead regardless.

It gives me great pleasure to tell the people of Lower Ballyfermot that we have secured agreement with Irish Rail to erect noise barriers around the work sheds in the Inchicore Works.

For years the local people have had to put up with noise from the Inchicore Works where maintenance is carried out on locomotives and often in the early hours of the night and morning. Nobody minds the sound of passing trains but it is the engines idling on the tracks that cause major interruption for local residents.

So as your local People Before Profit Councillor I am delighted to tell you that after two years of negotiations, monitoring of train movement by local residents, petitioning and lobbying of both Irish Rail and Dublin City Council we have agreement for the erection of an double sided 8 metre high noise barrier around the maintenance works.

We want to thank Irish Rail Management for this outcome and we owe our gratitude to Joe Dunne and Christy Saul of Landen Roadfor sticking with this issue over the years and becoming expert “Train Spotters”. They have been relentless and determined and have worked hard with me to achieve this outcome.

We look forward to the improvements that this noise reduction will bring to the whole area. It should be completed within the next 8 weeks.

Well done everyone and if you want to get involved with other campaigning work in Ballyfermot, if you need help with issues or information, please do contact me.

I will be opening a centre in the Ranch for People Before Profit in the next month and will send out details to each home.

All the best for now

Councillor Brid Smith