Cllr Anthony Connaghan has criticised the decision of the Fine Gael/Labour Governments to introduce cuts to the community and voluntary sector. “This is yet another example of them not abandoning commitments they made while in opposition. The detrimental effect that cuts to community has in the long run are obvious to all in areas like Finglas. Many vital services and good

work will be hit by these cuts in areas such as Healthcare, Meals on Wheels, drug rehabilitation schemes etc.”

“ It is totally irresponsible to remove these services from the communities that need them most. We know that the money spent in these services actually saves the State money over time and by forcing these services to cease operation it will be the State that will need to step in and provide these services anyway. In 2008 the community sector was estimated to be worth €6.8 billion to the Irish Economy, three times the amount of State investment. These schemes play a crucial role in the creation and retention of jobs beacuase of the hugely beneficial training role of CE schemes in areas such as the provision of community childcare Given the current jobs crisis, and the infrastructure that has been built up over 20 years in the area the role of the community and voluntary sector has never been so crucial.” Concluded Cllr Connaghan.

Cllr Anthony Connaghan has criticised Dublin City Council Management on the recent handover of the City’s Waste Collection Service and they must be challenged on their negotiation of this deal. “I am a member of the Environmental and Engineering Strategic Policy Committee and we weren’t aware of the finer details of the contract. Only at the last minute were we told that there would be a €100 standing charge and that accounts needed to be in credit before bins would be lifted. This caused great confusion amongst Dublin citizens, many of whom couldn’t afford the upfront charges. The DCC line was that there would be a smooth transition and basically what would happen was, that one day the bins would be collected by DCC and the next day it would be Greyhound doing the collecting and from then on in, the bills would come from Greyhound. Unfortunately this is not what happened. To this day there are still missed collections and some homes are still waiting to get tags sent to them from Greyhound”.

Cllr Connaghan thinks it hypocritical for Fianna Fail to have put motions into the Council trying to stop the privatisation of the bins when it was a Fianna Fail Minister who took the power away from the Councillors. The same could be said for the Labour Party for paying lip service to peoples troubles when they are now in Government and could have stopped this happening in the first place.

It is clear that this Government is pursuing a privatisation agenda as part of a failed Austerity strategy that is bringing misery to people in Dublin and across Ireland. Because of this we are seeing

widespread cutbacks, punitive charges, more stealth taxes and mass unemployment and emigration.

We in Sinn Féin will continue to oppose privatisation and defend public services at every opportunity.