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2 October 1997 Edition

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Workers in struggle

Great expectations from docklands plan



     
Will this new plan put the needs of the community before those of property developers and speculators?
Who doesn't believe it isn't a good idea to plan ahead? Sometimes though, plans become merely the glossy cover hiding unpleasant realities.

In Dublin's inner city docklands area another plan is this month being played out. The Dublin Docklands Development Authority.(DDDA) has published the latest in a long line of proposals. This one involves a £1.6 billion development for a 1,300 acre site which will create 40,000 jobs over 15 years.

The draft master plan, as the DDDA are calling it, is on public display until next week and submissions from the public on the plan will be considered until 20 October.

Expectations of the local communities who actually live in the Docklands area have been raised. The plan proposes the establishment of a Centre for Educational Access and Community Development and involves new public amenity sites, hotels and tourist facilities as well as a new docklands bus service.

However this is not the first plan and not the first set of promises made for Dublin's Docklands. Ten years ago when the Customs House Docks Development Authority was set up, promises were made for the regeneration of this area including a forecast of 10,000 new jobs. Today there are less than 2,500 jobs at the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and almost none of the original inner city residents work there.

On both sides of the river, enterprise zones were created in 1995, while local communities produced their own area action plans in 1994 and `95. These plans outlined on both sides of the river the fundamental problems of the area. They were housing, jobs, health and education resources.

A local Sinn Féin representative in the south inner city, Daithí Doolan, told An Phoblacht that ``the action plans showed that despite the glossy promises of ten years previously the basic requirements for an adequate standard of living were not being met''.

``Will this new plan put the needs of the community before those of property developers and speculators? Residents in this area will welcome new jobs and new developments, but what they would welcome more is firm promises of housing and access to the jobs that might be created.

``25,000 new residents are planned to come into the area, but what about the families who already live here and want housing for their children and relatives? The housing shortage in the south inner city is chronic, but this is barely addressed in the plan''.

So far there have been no firm commitments from the DDDA on any of these issues, only the warning from DDDA chairperson Lar Bradshaw that ``no master plan could fully meet the demands of any one group''. It remains to be seen whether the basic demands of the docklands community will finally be dealt with or glossed over yet again.

 


£1,141 million tax write off



The figures just don't add up. This week the 26-County Comptroller and Auditor General disclosed that the Revenue Commissioners were prepared to write off £1,141 million of the £1,690 million owed in outstanding taxes in the 26 Counties. The Commissioners estimate that they will ultimately collect only £549 million of the money owed to them.

Compare this with £13.6 million in social welfare fraud detected in 1996. The hype attached to welfare fraud by the Dublin Government over the past year has far surpassed that of concern over a billion pounds of tax evasion and fraud.

The 10,560 cases of fraud or suspected social welfare fraud amount to a much lower figure than that hyped by the then social welfare minister Prionsias De Rossa or his Fine Gael and Labour cabinet colleagues. It seems now that the double standard between tax and social welfare is set to continue and £13.6 million in welfare fraud is more of an issue than £1,141 million worth of tax evasion.

 


Write off the debt



In 1962, 32 African states owed $3 billion to first world banking institutions. By 1982 this debt multiplied to $142 billion. Today it is the meagre sum of $235 billion. The debt of Latin American states is considerably higher at $650 billion.

Commercial banks, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the African Development Bank lent this money. The money was borrowed to create the infrastructure and standard of living that we in Europe often take for granted.

African and Latin American economies simply wanted access to the international markets that the raw materials from their economies were fuelling. Instead of an open door, these states found their access barred by trade restrictions, by red tape and by western corporate cartels. They also found that the prices of the basic goods they were producing were falling annually. The price of, cotton, silk, wheat corn, coffee, tea, maize has all fallen in real terms. Despite this, prices of the final goods these raw materials are used to produce are continually climbing. The African and Latin American states have been cut out of the loop.

Now the Debt and Development Coalition have initiated a petition for what they call Jubilee 2000. Their aim is simple. They are calling on the lending nations to ``write off these debts by the year 2000. The signatures they collect will be presented to leaders of the richest nations in the summer of 1999.

 


Billion dollar payoff


On the subject of billions of dollars, the staff at Workers in Struggle were in shock last week after they heard that CNN founder and media magnate Ted Turner was to give $1 billion to the UN over the next ten years. He was calling on other billionaires around the world to do likewise. At our last count there were 358 and yes we do know who you are.

Two things struck us about Turner's billion dollar gift. The first was whether any Irish millionaires would follow his lead. After all Ben Dunne's largesse is, we surmise, only the tip of the iceberg.

The second point is something both Ben and Ted have in common. They chose not to give the millions to the workers that actually created this wealth. It seems that bypassing your workers when it comes to sharing your millions is something that transcends international borders.

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland