10 April 1997 Edition
Workers in struggle: Harney shoots off the rapids
Twenty years ago Fianna Fáil won a landslide Leinster House election victory partly on the promise to abolish domestic water rates. This week Mary Harney took a new tack in the 1997 pre-election campaign, maintaining that charges would and should be reintroduced.
The provision of and payment for water supplies is a crucial issue. The failure to tackle it effectivley over the last 20 years and the ongoing political point scoring on the issue is an indictment of Leinster House politicians.
It is now 20 years since Fianna Fáil in their now epic 1977 election campaign promised to abolish domestic water rates on the premise that changes in PAYE and other forms of taxation would make up the shortfall. Within five years, though, charges were reintroduced and so began a saga where almost every party in Leinster House participated in the levying of water charges and sanctioned the prosecution of householders for nonpayment of such charges.
Not once over the past 20 years was there a discussion on how a government would create a fair and equitable payment system for provison of water services. Why? Because that in turn raises a question about the funding of local government. This in turn creates a series of questions about the role of local democracy in the 26 Counties.
Rather than face up to any of these issues successive governments trod the path of levying an unjust charge, spending thousands of pounds in failed prosecutions. Out-of-government parties were born again in their opposition to charges but a spell back in government would soon fix that.
At the same time sucessive governments starved local authorities of money, ignoring the growth in demand for water, leaving supplies dwindling and structures with inadequate maintenance budgets. A study in April 1996 showed that 45% of Dublin's water was leaking through faulty mains.
It was only the culmination of protests and the damaging electoral consequences that led the current coalition to act, not to actually solve the problem but to call in high paid consultants to analyse the problem not only of water charges but also of all local government funding. Now we have the reports but still no solution.
What we do have is Progressive Democrat leader Mary Harney entering the fray with her call that water cannot be given away and supporting the introduction of meters. Wouldn't it great if Mary Harney could find the time to adress the forgotten issues such as an equitable payment system for local authority services and the need for a properly funded democratic system of local government.
Mary Harney's actions were driven probably by a desire to stir things up before the upcoming election. In this she is not alone. Harney is merely a product of the Leinster House environment and therefore has little desire to adresss the real issues and help change the inequitable status quo. If the PDs are really concerned about water supply they should address all the issues. Now that really would be a progressive stance.
Ireland, land of the rich - and then of course there are the rest of us. Compilations of the wealth of the rich and famous are becoming increasingly common in both television and the print media who seem to be driven by an endless curiousity with the lives of the state's monied classes.
Last weekend it was the turn of the Sunday Times to list off the 75 richest people in Ireland. Two of the top four, John Dorrance and the Dart brothers derive their Irish citizenship from the purchase of Irish passports to avoid tax payments in their former home states. They bought their Irish passports by promising to invest money in Irish companies.
It is obviously a new facet of the economic boom in Ireland that we can now import our millionaires after spending decades exporting our unemployed.
My only question is that if it takes a seven figure sum to buy the right to hold an Irish passport, does that mean we all are million punt citizens or is the case that as usual with things like this that there is one passport for the rich and another for the poor?
Church sees the light
``Unacceptably low wages , poor conditions and social exclusion'' This, according to the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, is the outcome when the market system is left to its own devices.
Unemployment and the Future of Work is the Council's new document which was published this week. It criticises the market-led economy and and regrets the decline in trade unions.
Proposals in the document include: A programme to create jobs for the long-term unemployed; A national minimum wage; Better working conditions and fairer pay bargaining.
Perhaps, though, the most interesting segment of the report is their conclusions on the trade union movement. They regret the decline in trade union power saying that ``they have been under sustained attack for nearly 20 years'', while adding that perhaps the ambitions of the movement were ``too modest''.
So the lesson is that if the part of the Christian church is rediscovering social justice maybe it is time for the trade union movement to rediscover Connolly.
Deep space strike
Devoted fans of Star Trek and its offshoot programmes Deep Space Nine and Voyager will no doubt be able to reel off the endless achievements that humanity has clocked up in the 24th century. After all, when was the last time on Star Trek you heard anybody complain about inflation, unemployment, homelessness, health cuts or educational disadvantage?
All these problems will be overcome by the 24th Century. So imagine my surprise last Sunday to find while watching Deep Space Nine that workers are still being exploited by bosses in the 24th century.
Deep Space Nine is basically a drama set around the edge of an empire garrison town, or this case space station where the nice clean-cut Federation come into contact with the rest of the galaxy.
Included in the clash of cultures are the Ferengi, a species whose sole motivation is the pursuit of profit, a trait humans seem to have eliminated. It falls to the one Irish character in Star Trek, Chief O `Brien, played by Colm Meany, to tell the disgruntled workers of the value of a union and also of his grandfather Seán O Brien, a proud union member who led a 13 month strike.
In last week's episode workers at Deep Space Nine revolt against their Ferengi bosses and form a union and begin pickets.
The biggest shock was the revelation that Clingons are strike breakers, as Worf insisted on crossing the picket. The strike ended with the workers winning their demands but agreeing to disband the union. It just shows that some things will never change.
The provision of and payment for water supplies is a crucial issue. The failure to tackle it effectivley over the last 20 years and the ongoing political point scoring on the issue is an indictment of Leinster House politicians.
It is now 20 years since Fianna Fáil in their now epic 1977 election campaign promised to abolish domestic water rates on the premise that changes in PAYE and other forms of taxation would make up the shortfall. Within five years, though, charges were reintroduced and so began a saga where almost every party in Leinster House participated in the levying of water charges and sanctioned the prosecution of householders for nonpayment of such charges.
Not once over the past 20 years was there a discussion on how a government would create a fair and equitable payment system for provison of water services. Why? Because that in turn raises a question about the funding of local government. This in turn creates a series of questions about the role of local democracy in the 26 Counties.
Rather than face up to any of these issues successive governments trod the path of levying an unjust charge, spending thousands of pounds in failed prosecutions. Out-of-government parties were born again in their opposition to charges but a spell back in government would soon fix that.
At the same time sucessive governments starved local authorities of money, ignoring the growth in demand for water, leaving supplies dwindling and structures with inadequate maintenance budgets. A study in April 1996 showed that 45% of Dublin's water was leaking through faulty mains.
It was only the culmination of protests and the damaging electoral consequences that led the current coalition to act, not to actually solve the problem but to call in high paid consultants to analyse the problem not only of water charges but also of all local government funding. Now we have the reports but still no solution.
What we do have is Progressive Democrat leader Mary Harney entering the fray with her call that water cannot be given away and supporting the introduction of meters. Wouldn't it great if Mary Harney could find the time to adress the forgotten issues such as an equitable payment system for local authority services and the need for a properly funded democratic system of local government.
Mary Harney's actions were driven probably by a desire to stir things up before the upcoming election. In this she is not alone. Harney is merely a product of the Leinster House environment and therefore has little desire to adresss the real issues and help change the inequitable status quo. If the PDs are really concerned about water supply they should address all the issues. Now that really would be a progressive stance.
Ireland of the billions
Ireland, land of the rich - and then of course there are the rest of us. Compilations of the wealth of the rich and famous are becoming increasingly common in both television and the print media who seem to be driven by an endless curiousity with the lives of the state's monied classes.
Last weekend it was the turn of the Sunday Times to list off the 75 richest people in Ireland. Two of the top four, John Dorrance and the Dart brothers derive their Irish citizenship from the purchase of Irish passports to avoid tax payments in their former home states. They bought their Irish passports by promising to invest money in Irish companies.
It is obviously a new facet of the economic boom in Ireland that we can now import our millionaires after spending decades exporting our unemployed.
My only question is that if it takes a seven figure sum to buy the right to hold an Irish passport, does that mean we all are million punt citizens or is the case that as usual with things like this that there is one passport for the rich and another for the poor?
Church sees the light
``Unacceptably low wages , poor conditions and social exclusion'' This, according to the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland, is the outcome when the market system is left to its own devices.
Unemployment and the Future of Work is the Council's new document which was published this week. It criticises the market-led economy and and regrets the decline in trade unions.
Proposals in the document include: A programme to create jobs for the long-term unemployed; A national minimum wage; Better working conditions and fairer pay bargaining.
Perhaps, though, the most interesting segment of the report is their conclusions on the trade union movement. They regret the decline in trade union power saying that ``they have been under sustained attack for nearly 20 years'', while adding that perhaps the ambitions of the movement were ``too modest''.
So the lesson is that if the part of the Christian church is rediscovering social justice maybe it is time for the trade union movement to rediscover Connolly.
Deep space strike
Devoted fans of Star Trek and its offshoot programmes Deep Space Nine and Voyager will no doubt be able to reel off the endless achievements that humanity has clocked up in the 24th century. After all, when was the last time on Star Trek you heard anybody complain about inflation, unemployment, homelessness, health cuts or educational disadvantage?
All these problems will be overcome by the 24th Century. So imagine my surprise last Sunday to find while watching Deep Space Nine that workers are still being exploited by bosses in the 24th century.
Deep Space Nine is basically a drama set around the edge of an empire garrison town, or this case space station where the nice clean-cut Federation come into contact with the rest of the galaxy.
Included in the clash of cultures are the Ferengi, a species whose sole motivation is the pursuit of profit, a trait humans seem to have eliminated. It falls to the one Irish character in Star Trek, Chief O `Brien, played by Colm Meany, to tell the disgruntled workers of the value of a union and also of his grandfather Seán O Brien, a proud union member who led a 13 month strike.
In last week's episode workers at Deep Space Nine revolt against their Ferengi bosses and form a union and begin pickets.
The biggest shock was the revelation that Clingons are strike breakers, as Worf insisted on crossing the picket. The strike ended with the workers winning their demands but agreeing to disband the union. It just shows that some things will never change.