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Wolfe Tone Society News Update
Sinn Fein The Week in Review 9-16 December 2009
Budget of cuts will devastate communities
On 11 December speaking in Dublin at a press conference of the United Alliance Against Cuts (UAAC) Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald said the consequences of the Irish government’s planned budget would be `absolutely devastating’ and said the Government had `lost the plot and must be replaced’. Ms McDonald said the Government was `attacking people who are currently only just threading water in terms of trying to survive’ and would have `devastating’ consequences for the economy as a whole. She said the challenge was `not only to fix the economy and the public finances but also to protect society’. Instead, she added, a `recipe for despair and division, further unemployment and a strategy that is fundamentally about driving people into poverty and debt’ was being proposed. She condemned the government who `think it is politically and ethically ok to target the weak, the vulnerable and those who have least’, and added `that to me is a Government that is not only past its sell-by-date it is a Government that is deeply dangerous for the country.’
Emergency Bill must be opposed
Later on 16 December Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Arthur Morgan urged government backbenchers to vote against the Finance Emergency Measures Bill and reverse the decision to implement cuts on public sector workers across all grades. Deputy Morgan said the cuts would hit low and middle income earners in the public sector disproportionately and that the government should reduce the pay of the highest earners and introduce a new third rate of tax for those earning over €100,000. Deputy Morgan said the cuts were regressive and added `a 5% cut to someone on €25,000 is a far greater hit than an 8% cut for someone on €125,000.’ He said the government should reduce the salaries of those earning over €100,000 and introduce a new third rate of tax of 48% for income earned in excess of that amount. The government continued, he added `to take the easy option in its approach to this Budget and to the public finances in general. It is too easy to hit the lowest paid, and this government believes it is the path of the least electoral pain.’ He said that as well as `pushing people into poverty’, the measures would be detrimental to the economy, and that cutting pay would `take money out of the real economy’. He urged the government backbenchers `to vote against the Finance Emergency Measures Bill and reverse the decision to implement cuts on public sector workers across all grades.’ On 15 December, on a private members motion on Social Welfare cuts in the Dail Sinn Féin spokesperson Aengus Ó Snodaigh accused Fine Gael of playing political football with the issue of social welfare. Deputy Ó Snodaigh said Fine Gael also proposed social welfare cuts in its pre-budget proposals. Earlier on December 11, he had led a protest at Leinster House which aimed to highlight which TDs are set to vote in favour of cuts to dole payments later that evening. Deputy Ó Snodaigh criticised the Government for rushing through the Social Welfare Bill describing it as the behaviour of a worried Government running scared from the electorate.
Gerry Adams calls for alternative progressive budget as a way out of economic recession
Earlier in the month, speaking in County Wicklow, Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said that the Government’s solution to the economic crisis, based on cutting public services and social welfare, would further depress the Irish economy. He said that now more than ever Ireland needed political leadership based on the republican values of fariness, decency and equality. Gerry Adams said the `solutions’ of the Fianna Fáil/Green Government to the economic crisis was to bail out the developers and the banks `with tens of billions of taxpayers’ money through NAMA’, adding `they are cutting health and education services again and they are about to cut social welfare’. This would in fact `depress the economy further, target the most vulnerable and put future generations in massive debt’. Sinn Féin’s alternative, put forward in their Pre-Budget 2010 proposals showed `that it is possible to raise the finance needed to maintain frontline public services, protect those in need, reduce the deficit in state finances and provide an economic stimulus package to create jobs.’ He added `All this year people have been on the streets campaigning for a fairer, better way out of the economic recession. Sinn Féin’s task is to show an increasingly politicised population that the way forward does not lie with a conservative Fine Gael government propped up by Labour any more than it lies with a conservative Fianna Fáil government propped up by the Greens. We need a new type of politics based on community, on solidarity and on the republican values of fairness and equality.’
Putting Irish unity on the agenda – London conference announced 20 February 2010
A new website has been launched to publicise and give details of the forthcoming London conference on 20 February, at the TUC Congress house in central London, hosted by Sinn Fein `Putting Irish Unity on the agenda’. Organisers point out that the event will take place in the context of the overwhelmingly positive impact of the peace process – which has `positively transformed the relationship between Britain and Ireland’. The `far reaching’ progress in the Good Friday Agreement `ensuring equality, rights and parity of esteem’, the agreement also `enshrines the principle of self-determination, including the provision for a possible constitutional route to a united Ireland’, which, organisers point out, sees `for the first time ever the British government signed up to such a commitment, should a majority in Ireland wish it’. The conference will look at this and the economic, demographic, social and political trends, which point strongly to a `realistic and feasible objective’ of Irish reunification, `within a meaningful timescale’. The conference will seek to therefore begin a serious discussion around these issues, `involving a wide range of people, including the Irish community in Britain, the political sphere, from business, the trade unions, academia, the media, arts and culture and others’. Different strands of society and opinion, it is hoped, will come together to identify key issues and develop the debate, dealing with diverse areas of life affected, inlcuing the economy, tourism, culture, social justice, equality and inclusion, policing, international policy, constitutional mechanisms, the media and the specific concerns of the Irish in Britain reaching back over many generations. Papers for the conference will contribute to the debate, including on the economic arguments for Irish unity and other issues. Contributions to the debate are welcome. Initial speakers include Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, Prof Lord Paul Bew, Jarlath Burns of the GAA, academics and writers such as Mary Hickman, Christine Kineally and Andy Pollak, Jimmy Kelly head of Unite in Ireland and London Unite Regional Secretary Steve Hart, Patrica McKeown from Unison in northern Ireland and MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott. Birmingham community leader and councillor Salma Yaqoob, former Ireland minister Lord Alf Dubs, Kevin McNamara, Jon Myles and economist Mick Burke will also speak. Sessions will include Prospects for Irish unity – opening the debate, Ireland’s economy – from crisis to reunification, Ireland future – constitutional and political, the rise and role of the Irish in Britain, Building and Ireland of equals – creating a dialogue with unionism, and the next steps.
Full details at www.londonirishunityconference.org or to register write to London Irish Unity Conference, PO Box 65845, London EC1P 1LS. Advance registration: £8 waged; £4 unwaged. Stalls are available on application. Volunteers to help on the day and publicise the event are also welcome. For details please email irishunityconference@yahoo.com
DUP continue to stall on policing and justice powers transfer
Sinn Fein have continued to press for a date for transfer of powers on justice and policing, after earlier this month, Deputy first Minister Martin McGuinness expressed the view that Stormont faces a `full-blown crisis’ if this is not resolved. In a BBC interview, Martin McGuinness said: `My approach to every difficult situation is to find a resolution, not to look for destruct buttons. I have to say that if we don't get a date for transfer of power of policing and justice before Christmas to be effective in the new year, I do think we are in an unsustainable position. We would then be moving from what is a very serious situation into a full-blown crisis.’ Later on 14 December Martin McGuinness pointed out that agreements previously made with the DUP had not contained `preconditions’ for powers transfer.
De Brun urges meaningful action on climate change
On December 15, approaching the start of the high level segment of the Copenhagen climate talks, Irish GUE/NGL MEP for the Six Counties Bairbre de Brún has stressed the importance of getting ambitious and clear figures both on emissions reductions and financing.
Speaking from Copenhagen, Ms de Brun said: `We need to know what real emissions reductions will be made and to know that the necessary financing will be made available to fund the actions to tackle climate change and its effects’. She added `The developed world must agree ambitious targets that reflect the latest science. Science tells us that industrialised countries should reduce emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80-95% by 2050”. Developing world engagement with adequate finance from rich countries is also essential.’
She added `On the issue of short term finance for immediate action for the most vulnerable countries – such action needs to begin now, at the end of this week, not in six months or a year” she said, “those vulnerable countries facing drought or those requiring flood and storm protections simply cannot wait’. Ms de Brún was speaking after the European Parliament delegation to the Copenhagen summit met with Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC. At the climate talks, Mr. de Boer emphasised the need for considerable short-term financing in the next three years and a stable and predictable stream of financing after that. Week in Review is circulated by Sinn Fein MPs. Email fisher@parliament.uk or visit www.sinnnfein.ie
Latest News - 1 December, 2009
- McGuinness tops popularity poll
- McGuinness calls for date to be agreed for transfer of policing and justice powers
- Arrest and charge those complicit in child abuse cover up - McDonald
- 'Bill must contain strengthened socio-economic rights for all' - SF
- Best place to organise for Irish Freedom is within Sinn Féin - Kearney
- Debate on MLA pay increases dropped
- Transport Minister Conor Murphy opens £14.6million Newry Railway Station
McGuinness tops popularity poll
The North’s Deputy First Minister, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness, has topped a cross-community poll measuring support for ministers in the power-sharing government.
Mr McGuinness was voted the minister who had most impressed the public and secured 27% support, while DUP leader and First Minister Peter Robinson was backed by only 7% of those polled.
The Poll, conducted by the Belfast Telegraph and Inform Communications Organisers, of 500 people was published to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the first efforts to establish power-sharing government on December, 1999. It also coincided with the announcement by the Slugger O’Toole political blog site that Mr McGuinness had been voted Politician of the Year.
The survey results come as the current Stormont administration led by First Minister Peter Robinson and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness faces a potential crisis over the devolution of policing and justice powers.
Mr McGuinness topped the poll, and when support was broken down into the two main communities, he was backed by 45% of nationalists, but also 11% of unionists surveyed. Mr Robinson secured 7%, but when his standing was broken-down into the two communities he received 13% support from unionists, but no nationalist support.
The Managing Director of Inform Communications Linda Beers said: "While Martin McGuinness' approval rating is significant, his level of cross community endorsement with 11% of Protestants polled having cited him as the Minister who has impressed them the most, makes it even more so."
McGuinness calls for date to be agreed for transfer of policing and justice powers
clear example of the failure on the part of the DUP to embrace the equality, partnership and power sharing arrangements which lie at the heart of these agreements.“It disappoints me to say that Peter Robinson has thus far been found wanting in terms of the proactive leadership being called out for by our people. What we all want to see now is the necessary leadership to be shown by Peter and for him to step up to the mark and to get this job done.”
Meanwhile speaking at a republican commemoration in Antrim over the weekend the Sinn Féin chairperson, Mr. Declan Kearney accused the Democratic Unionist Party of having no intention to support the transfer of policing and justice powers and that political consequences would be inevitable as a result. He said, “Absolutely nothing suggests this position will change. Their continued intransigence is a serious political mistake. It is a train wreck political strategy and political consequences will be inevitable.”
He went on to say that political institutions which fail to protect and deliver equality for all citizens are of no political value to anyone.
“And here’s a reality check,” he said. “Equality and partnership isn’t negotiable. A future without either is not an option. These generations of nationalists aren’t prepared to sit at the back of the bus again.”
Arrest and charge those complicit in child abuse cover up - McDonald
Commenting on the report on clerical sexual abuse of children in the Dublin Diocese Sinn Féin Vice President Mary Lou McDonald said anyone found to have covered up the abuse of children should be arrested and face the full rigours of the law.
Ms. McDonald described the State’s child protection services as a disgrace and said sadly the abuse of children continues today.
Ms. McDonald said:
“The report on clerical sexual abuse of children in Dublin exposes how the most powerful men in the Catholic Church in the Dublin Diocese conspired to protect abusers of children. It was a gross betrayal of generations of children.
“It is especially damning that the State authorities facilitated the cover-up and allowed the Church to be beyond the reach of the law. Senior Gardai, up to and including the level of Commissioner, repeatedly turned a blind eye to crimes of clerical sexual abuse.
“Anyone, including Gardaí, found to be complicit in the cover up of child abuse must be arrested and made to face the full rigours of the law.”
'Bill must contain strengthened socio-economic rights for all' - SF
Any new Bill of Rights for the six counties must contain economic and social rights protections, Sinn Féin’s equality and human rights spokesperson Martin Anderson MLA has declared.
Speaking after the British government published its consultation paper on a Bill of Rights, Ms Anderson said:
“It must be remembered that the promise of a new Bill of Rights is one of the British government’s key unfulfilled commitments arising from the Good Friday Agreement eleven years ago.
“The Bill of Rights Forum and Human Rights Commission have both said that economic and social rights must be part of any new Bill of Rights. The British government – through this NIO consultation – has ignored that view.
“Structural socio-economic discriminations and inequalities were contributing factors to the conflict here, not least on issues such as employment and housing.
“The British government oversaw that regime, and has systematically failed to tackle the structural inequalities at the heart of the six counties.
“The institutional resistance over the last decade to the equality and human rights elements of the Good Friday Agreement make it even more necessary that fully justiciable economic and social rights – which go above and beyond the current threshold - are enshrined in any new Bill of Rights.
“While Sinn Féin is demanding even more rights-based protections for all citizens, we will not tolerate – under any circumstances – any move which undermines the existing provisions on the promotion of equality.”
Best place to organise for Irish Freedom is within Sinn Féin - Kearney
Speaking at the 25th Annivesrary commemoration of IRA volunteers Henry Hogan And Declan Martin in Antrim at the weekend Sinn Féin chairperson Declan Kearney said “Armed struggles is only an option of last resort.” He described recent armed actions as “futile” and as playing “in to the hands of those in the British military system who would wish to remilitarise the North.”
He said, “In Ireland of the 1980’s just as in 1919, no viable political alternatives were available to nationalist and republican people. Armed struggle was the only means available to resist injustice and inequality and to effect political change.
“As a direct result of the sacrifice of Henry and Declan and many others; and of the commitment of a risen people, today republicanism has never been bigger, stronger and more powerful since the Tan War.
“The IRA leadership said in 2005 new modes and strategies of political struggle are now available to nationalists and republicans.
Referring to Henry and Declan and their peers he said, “a war was fought by these generations of republicans. And the IRA fought that war to a conclusion. There is no other IRA today. Nor is there an armed struggle to be finished. Those who choose to masquerade otherwise should disarm and disband.
“The best place to organise and campaign for Irish freedom is within Sinn Féin.”Debate on MLA pay increases dropped
Stormont politicians were expected to pass a report by the Assembly Commission recommending initial increases of £5,000 in two years' time, plus extra money for MLAs who hold ministerial posts or other special office. However, the report was unexpectedly pulled from the Agenda.
Sinn Fein had already said it would oppose the wage increase, but as other parties, including the SDLP and the DUP, raised concerns over the report's contents with the Speaker, it was unexpectedly pulled from the Agenda of Monday's Assembly sitting.
Speaking from the Assembly this afternoon Ms Ní Chuilín said;
“This is a welcome move and one which Sinn Féin fully endorses; our party was the only party who continually highlighted our objections to the proposed pay-increase. We submitted an amendment to the original motion calling for the removal of those recommendations contained in the report which proposed that increase.
“Any pay rise for MLA’s must be left to an independent body, MLA’s should not be voting for their own pay-increase, this goes against the very fundamentals of accountability and transparency.”
Transport Minister Conor Murphy opens £14.6million Newry Railway Station
Transport Minister, Conor Murphy last week officially opened the new £14.6million Newry Railway Station.
The Minister said: "This new station will provide a modern, attractive facility for passengers with many new amenities, including the provision for 300 parking spaces for the use of rail passengers.
"The new station, with its state of the art passenger building and concourse, is in stark contrast to the facilities previously provided. Reliability, comfort and accessibility are important factors in attracting people to public transport and I hope passengers will quickly see the benefits arising from the investment in this new station for Newry.
On the recent re-opening of the line at Malahide, the Minister said: "This new facility is an important development in enhancing the Enterprise services between Dublin and Belfast, which is of key economic importance to the island of Ireland. I hope that the re-introduction of full services, in conjunction with the opening of this new station, will quickly attract passengers back to the Enterprise service.
"The line from Newry to Belfast accounts for more passenger journeys than any of the other local lines, with 3.2 million on services last year. This new facility should encourage further growth, particularly for those commuting from South Down and South Armagh."
Some of the stations new facilities include: a landscaped 300 space Park & Ride site with 14 disabled bays; new link road to the station easing congestion; an integrated bus terminus and turning facility; lifts to access both platforms; bi-lingual signage, a platform canopy; heated passenger waiting area and electronic passenger information.