Families call on Minister For Health to intervene
On Thursday 22nd July the Save Cherry Orchard Hospital Campaign took their protest to the HSE main offices beside Heuston Station.

Management in Cherry Orchard have told family and community representatives that they intend permanently closing an 18 bed unit which houses patients with althziemers and dementia.

Families of current patients in the Laurel Unit have bitterly complained and protested that shifting their loved ones out of the environment that they have become familiar with will cause immense distress and upset. The families are also concerned that this will not be the last move that will be forced upon them.

The hospital have a staffing crisis every Summer and hide behind the recruitment embargo to force through cuts to the service. This time engaging four new nursing and care staff would resolve the staffing crisis in this unit and would ensure it could remain open.

Marie Dodrill whose husband lives in the Laurel Unit said "No way will I give the hospital permission to move my husband. This has become his home and is one of the best units in the hospital. We will fight to keep the Laurel Unit open and to keep every bed in Cherry Orchard Hospital. The families are calling on the Mary Hraney to get involved in sorting this problem out. This is not a big problem but it is having a huge impact on all the families involved."

Families and supporters of the Cherry Orchard Hospital campaign today escalated their protest action tomorrow by placing pickets on the hospital from 10am to 1pm. Further pickets will be placed on Thursday from 10am to 1pm. The action is being taken to focus attention on serious cuts to bed numbers in the Hospital. Cherry Orchard management intend to close down a unit which has 18 beds for patients in the West Dublin area who are suffering from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Following meetings with management and families and also involving local councillors, no resolution to the dispute has been found. The campaign calls on the HSE to lift the recruitment embargo and employ the four nurses and four care workers required to deliver the service to keep this very important service running.

For more information contact Councillor Brid Smith 087 9090166

A little over 300 people took part in a lively and colourful demonstration  in Ballyfermot  today, 1^st July, to protest  against ward closures in Cherry Orchard Hospital.
 

Families and carers were joined by community activists, local political representatives and the wider community in a show of solidarity with patients suffering from althzeimers and dementia. The Laurel Unit in Cherry Orchard hospital which provides 18 beds for such patients is due to be closed down.
 People marched through Ballyfermot to the hospital  where family members whose loved ones are affected by the proposed cuts handed in a local petition to hospital management.
 

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

Annual Fundraising Pub Quiz on Saturday May 15th from 8.30pm to late. Location: Laurence Lounge Ballyfermot Rd, near Markievicz Park. On the 78A Bus Route It is to raise money for People Before Profit Ballyfermot and for Brid's Mayoral Campaign. It is also chance for us together and have some fun. Hope you all can make it. It should be a fun night!

People Before Profit candidate for Mayor, Councillor Brid Smith condemns Dublin Bus’ decision to cut a 150 jobs and attack bus services by taking a further 90 buses off the road. These cuts, on top of the 120 buses that were cut from the fleet last year, will mean that Dublin Bus is operating at levels close to the 1980s. There are now just 970 buses on the road compared to 960 buses operating in 1989.

Brid Smith said:
“This is only the start of the attacks on jobs and services in Dublin Bus. While management claims these cuts will result in a more efficient service, the reality is that these cuts can only lead to poorer service and traffic chaos. Last year when they cut the buses they reduced the running time to squeeze in extra journeys, putting drivers under pressure to make the faster travel times. This led to journeys being dropped.

“These cuts are just the most recent in a long series of attacks on services and jobs in Dublin Bus. The real agenda of the company is to privatise this essential public service and allow private companies to cherry pick the most profitable routes and do away with concept provision to all.

“Just like last year it will be working class areas that will suffer the most as those who depend most on these services will again find that the axe will fall heaviest on their communities.

“The worse thing about these cuts is that they make absolutely no sense. Given the high levels of unemployment in Dublin it is ridiculous to impose these massive job cuts, voluntary or otherwise, on workers who operate such a valuable public service.

At the Finance SPC in Dublin City Council on the 18th March, the issue of the work-to-rule by council workers was raised in a discussion with the personnel manager.

IMPACT trade union have notified the council that their members will not work with any TD or Councillor from today as an escalation of the work-to-rule.

Cllr Paddy Bourke complained that “the unions are going a step too far” and that the staff are going “the extra mile”. Paddy and his fellow Labour Councillors Dermot Lacey and Kevin Humphries all opposed this escalation as it hurts the public since they are representing the public and those that elected them by dealing with queries to the Council.

Never let it be said that all three have been trade unionists all their lives but this is a step too far by the unions. One of them proposed we meet the unions to put the case to them.

People Before Profit Councillor Brid Smith reminded all councillors that it is less than two months when we democratically passed a motion at the council monthly meeting by a significant majority which indicated support for the work-to-rule and acknowledged that any inconvenience resulting from the workers’ action would be the fault of the Fianna Fail/Green Party government and not of the workers or their unions. So any complaints about this escalation must be directed at the Government and not at the workers or their trade unions. It would be a major contribution to the battle for a “Fairer Way” if Dublin City Councillors would look for a meeting with Minister John Gormley and lay the blame squarely at the door where it belongs.

In a statement today Cllr Brid Smith of the People Before Profit Alliance welcomed the decision to keep Cedar House Homeless Unit open.

Following a motion passed at the March meeting of Dublin City Council it has been agreed that  Cedar House Homeless Unit will not be closing until there is solid proof that replacement services are in place.

The motion proposed by Cllr Smith said “This Council condemns the proposed closure of Cedar House Homeless  Hostel in accordance with the strategy of the Homeless Agency,  “Pathway to Home”. We demand that this unit remains fully open and  continues the provision of services to homeless people in our city  until such time as alternative and adequate housing alternatives are  put in place. An essential 20 bed dormitory is due for closure by 30th  March 2010 and no adequate alternative has yet been identified and communicated. 30 individual rooms and all other services are due for  cessation by 30th September 2010.”

Cedar House provides services for up to 50 men per night and up to 50  men and women per day.  Services provided include: emergency accommodation, counselling, methadone maintenance programmes, personal development programmes,  educational programmes, doctor/nurse access, life skills programmes,  key workers, day drop in centre providing shower facilities, clean  clothing, bedding and  food.

2009 will be a year to remember for all the wrong reasons.
The Fianna Fail/Green Government, with the collaboration of Labour/FG and the union leaders, attacked the poorest and most vulnerable in society, drove down wages & watched while half a million workers joined the dole queue.
Alongside this they bailed out developers and bankers with their NAMA deal and ensured that the tax loopholes that keep the super-wealthy in their mansions and yachts remained untouched.
So far the banks have been directly given over €12 billion of our money and are coming back for more next month.

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