éirígí call for public report from council over St Patricks Day junkets

22/0/09

éirígí are calling on both Donegal County Council and Letterkenny Town Council to compile and publish detailed reports relating to the costs incurred by the taxpayer and the benefits supposedly obtained from the recent St Patricks day junkets abroad by Councillors and Council officials from both local authorities.

Tir Chonaill éirígí spokesperson Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig said: “This year, Councillors and Council officials headed abroad once again to celebrate St Patricks Day. Both Donegal County Council and Letterkenny Town Council sent delegations. Donegal County Council sent two councillors and their Director of Corporate Services while Letterkenny Town Council sent three councillors and the Town Engineer to represent them in the US.”

He added: “As the recession worsens and cutbacks are being made in esential services such as health and education, the county council themselves have also announced their own cutbacks including job lay-offs. Yet while they are letting workers go and services are being affected due to supposed lack of finance, they apparently have no difficulty in finding the finance to fund these trips abroad.”

He added: “I am now calling on the both Donegal County and Letterkenny Town councils to both compile and to publish a detailed report into the latest St Patricks Day junkets. The public need to be made aware of the cost of these trips to the taxpayer and see a detailed breakdown of what was spent by each individual and for what purpose. Before they travelled, what did the officials and the politicians hope to achieve on their trip and what now have they actually achieved? They need to tell us who they held meetings with and provide detail of the discussions that took place? Have they secured new employment or have they secured any benefits whatsoever for this region or the country as a whole?”

He concluded: “If they have nothing to hide and indeed secured jobs or other benefits for the country and for this region then they will produce and publish this report without delay. If on the other hand they refuse to do so, then the question needs to be asked – what are they hiding and what exactly are they spending the hard earned tax payers money on?”

éirígí slam FF-led administration over food parcel queues and increasing poverty
3/04/09
éirígí Tír Chonaill spokesperson Micheál Cholm MacGiolla Easbuig has slammed the Fianna Fáil-led administration over increasing poverty levels in the Twenty-Six County state.

MacGiolla Easbuig was speaking following revelations in the media this week of massive queues at the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin to provide meals and food parcels for those in poverty. MacGiolla Easbuig worked for a number of years as a volunteer in this day centre.

He said: “The images in the media this week of hundreds of people queuing outside the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin is an indictment of the failed policies of Brian Cowen, Mary Coughlan and the rest of the Fianna Fáil-led administration. The scenes were reminiscent of images of Dublin in the early 1900s and not something we would expect to see in this day and age. It is scandalous that, in a state where there is undoubted wealth, that so much poverty still exists. This poverty is on the increase to such an extent that more than 500 people were queuing to be fed on the streets of our capital city.”

He added: “The failure of this and successive administrations to deal with poverty in Irish society is truly shameful. They have made clear by their inaction that they do not care about the plight of the adults and children who are struggling to feed themselves on a daily basis. This poverty is not just confined to Dublin; it is also on the increase in Donegal. As jobs continue to be lost at an alarming rate in the county – there were another 173 redundancies in March alone – more and more families in Donegal are faced with an uncertain future and the prospect of having to survive below the poverty line.

“Fianna Fáil squandered the wealth generated over many years by Irish workers and allowed it be pilfered by a small elite of already wealthy people. They failed to invest in essential public services such as health, education and transport. Now, they are making working class people bear the brunt of their savage cutbacks and pay for the greed of the business class.”

He concluded: “Tinkering around the edges of the current economic system will not solve our problems. The reality is that the capitalist economy is not designed to benefit the vast majority of people. Capitalism guarantees poverty, exploitation and periodic crashes that plunge so many into despair. Unless we bring an end to the system of capitalism then the greed, profiteering and exploitation that has caused this economic crisis will continue.”