Friday 13 December 2013

Sale of Bord Gais Energy is an act of treason



 The proposed sale of Bord Gais Energy by the government has been described by Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan as an act of treason.

Cllr. Tynan said the decision was a total capitulation by the Labour Party to Fine Gael’s Thatcherite economic policies and showed that Labour had abandoned any pretence of public ownership of Ireland’s State companies.

“It is interesting”, said Cllr. Tynan  “that Minister Pat Rabbitte, who was during the 1970s a leading member of the Resources Protection Campaign, is now the minister who will deliver Bord Gais Energy into the hands of UK based Centrica, a company with a reputation for regularly hiking energy prices in order to make huge profits.

Councillor Tynan said the government’s claim that some of the money earned from the sale would be used for job creation only added insult to injury.   “Up to now”, he said , “the main form of "job creation" that the coalition has engaged in has been handing over subsidies to gombeen men to take people on such mickey mouse schemes as Job Bridge. These schemes do not create real jobs, but merely massage the unemployment figures to make them look better than they really are”.

He said the decision confirmed the Worker's Party's worst fears in regard to the future of Irish  Water which is owned by Bord Gais. “It can only be a matter of time before the new water company too is privatised and Irish citizens will become "customers" of yet another multinational to buy back natural resources which they themselves own but have been robbed of  by the treachery of the present government". said Cllr. Tynan.

Friday 6 December 2013

Tynan pays tribute to Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela (1918 - 2013)
Cork Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has paid tribute to former South African President Nelson Mandela, saying that he and his comrades in the African National Congress had been an inspiration for many decades to all those involved in people’s struggles in Ireland and around the world.

Cllr. Tynan said he will support the posthumous granting of the Freedom of Cork to Mr. Mandela, saying it was an appropriate, if belated, bestowing of proper recognition on behalf of the people of Cork.

Cllr Tynan said, “As usual the majority of the Irish citizens were way ahead of their elected representatives when it came to supporting demands for the freedom of Nelson Mandela and for an end to apartheid in South Africa.  When the Workers’ Party proposed that Mandela be given the Freedom of the City of Cork in 1987 the motion was defeated by some of those who are now loudest in their praises for Mandela.  They have very short memories”.

The Workers Party councillor said that without the brave stand taken by the Dunnes Stores workers and others at home and around the world it is likely that Nelson Mandela would have died in prison.    “It was the acts of solidarity worldwide and the struggles of the ANC within South Africa which defeated apartheid, not the worlds’ political elite now claiming credit”, he said


Cllr. Tynan continued, “With a few notable exceptions most of the world’s governments had to be shamed by their citizens into joining the fight against apartheid.   It is fitting too”,  he concluded, “that we do not forget the many who did not live to see the end of apartheid, from those who led the struggle to the many victims of the murder and repression of the apartheid state.  For their sakes and for all peoples it is essential that the struggle continues against the class and economic apartheid that continues to exist in Africa, Ireland and throughout the world”.

Thursday 7 November 2013

Tynan condemns proposed rent hike for Cork City tenants

Boarded up council house in Cork City
500 empty housing units in Cork City alone


Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has hit out at proposals by Cork City Council to increase housing rents in order to cover the council’s Property Tax bill.  He described the 2014 estimates proposals as “death by a thousand cuts” for council services.

Cllr. Tynan also questioned a report leaked to RTE which showed 3,500 vacant council homes in the state.  He pointed out that there were 500 such units in Cork City alone.

“The proposal to pass on property tax to council tenants exposes the true nature of this tax”, said Cllr. Tynan”, “Firstly that this is not a property tax but rather a tax on the family home since non property owners are now expected to pay.  Secondly it demolishes the government’s claim that the Property Tax is about funding local government.  This is ludicrous when local government itself is levied with this tax and seeks to pass the charge on to its tenants.”

“Once again Cork City Council is being left seriously short of government funding.  The result will undoubtedly be massive additional cuts in council services, especially in the area of housing maintenance.    The council is unable to renovate the 500 empty dwellings it owns and offer them to some of those on the housing list.  To make things worse it has emerged that funding under the RAPID scheme for five Community Safety Wardens on council estates is not going to be paid next year meaning the probable loss of these key workers who play a vital role in combating anti-social behaviour, illegal dumping and other issues.”

Cllr. Tynan said there will be strong opposition to any attempt to increase rent, especially to levy the property tax onto tenants.  “Once again local government services in Cork are being decimated by an unholy alliance government, the city hall pact parties and management, Cork’s very own Troika of destruction.”, said Cllr. Tynan.


Wednesday 16 October 2013

Budget a recipe for exploitation and pain says Tynan

Workers Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that Tuesday's Budget is a recipe for exploitation and pain which is completely loaded in favour of the wealthy and contemptuous of the young, the old and the vulnerable.

Cllr. Tynan said that the cuts in the budget were some of the meanest yet and would heap misery on hardship for families and those whose needs were greatest.  He said the 66% increase in  prescription charges for medical card holders, the scrapping of the free telephone allowance for the elderly and of the once-off bereavement grant were amongst the most vicious cuts but he felt that many more hidden cuts would emerge over the next few days.

“This is far from being a jobs budget” said Cllr Tynan, “in fact the budget is devoid of a job creation strategy.  Instead the coalition’s plan is to starve the unemployed and particularly the young into emigrating or taking up underpaid and grossly exploitative work under the worst possible terms and conditions.  In this centenary year of the 1913 Lockout employers are rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of cowed workers and a silenced trade union movement”


Councillor Tynan concluded by singling out the Labour Party for a stinging rebuke. “Yesterday the Labour Party threw its own 2011 election manifesto into the bonfire. Gone is the commitment to fairness, gone is their promise of a universal insurance-based health system and gone is their last shred of credibility.  If they have any remaining self-respect then they too should depart the scene sooner rather than later”, said Cllr. Tynan.

Friday 4 October 2013

Primary school class sizes already too high


Councillor Ted Tynan has said that government cuts which will mean a further increase in the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools are a direct attack on children’s futures which will affect them for the rest of their lives.
The Mayfield based Workers' Party councillor spoke after attending a public meeting called by teacher and parent representatives at primary level in Cork this week.   There he pledged strong support for the fight against the proposed increase in class sizes due to forthcoming budget cuts.
“The idea of increasing class sizes is outrageous”, said Cllr. Tynan. “We already have the 2nd highest primary class sizes in Europe. We are 2nd only to the UK. At present 120,000 Irish primary school children are in classes of 30 pupils or more. For any government to propose making it higher is an obscenity”.
“It has been proven by numerous studies that the higher the class sizes the less individual attention children can receive. This has severe implications for children with special needs - both academic and emotional needs - particularly when one considers that schools in recent years have lost a range of teachers including traveller teachers, English language teachers, special class teachers, enhanced disadvantaged staffing as well as a 10% cut in Resource hours”.
Cllr. Tynan said that debate on the budget was being reduced to a phoney battle between Fine Gael and Labour over how cuts were going to be implemented. “There is a more important issue here”, he said, “it is whether the demands of the banking elites and the illusion of economic stability are more important than our children’s futures.  The decisions made today will affect this country in decades to come and more importantly will decide whether some children are left behind permanently due to the demands of government, big business and the EU”.

“For over half a decade now budgets have been callously slashed and the needs of  ordinary people swept aside to bail out the banking and capital elites. It is time to shout Stop and talk about human beings instead of billions, otherwise we are storing up real problems and will not be forgiven by future generations for the damage done today”, said Councillor Tynan.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Tynan welcomes Boherboy / Ashmount traffic plans

Councillor Ted Tynan has welcomed plans by Cork City Council for traffic calming and road safety measures at Boherboy Road and at its junction with Ashmount estate.

Cllr. Tynan, who has being calling for these measures for several years, said that the plan would greatly contribute to road safety in the area but said that drivers had a responsibility also to slow down and take care in what is a residential area.

Boherboy / Ashmount traffic plans
“The plans drawn up by the Roads Design Division at City Council include the installation of round-top ramps at two points on Boherboy Road – one up from the Silversprings Road end entrance and the other at the junction with Ashmount.  The plan will also involve the re-alignment of the road near Ashmount to improve driver visibility”.

Councillor Tynan has also called on the council to take a look at Silverheights Road with a view to making it safer.

Meanwhile Cllr. Tynan has also called on Cork City Council to develop an enclosed green area at Ashmount, Mayfield and turn it into a children's play area.
 
The Workers Party councillor called on Cork City Council to take charge of the enclosed green area known locally as “the cage” and to develop it into a children’s playground.  “This large enclosure, which was the location of the site office during the building of Ashmount, has been handed over to the council in trust for the local community by the former developer, it should now be developed to provide suitable play area for the children of the area", said Cllr. Tynan.

 "This is an ideal location for a playground in an area where it is needed and I have submitted a motion to Cork City council calling for this to be done as soon as possible”,  said Cllr. Tynan

Saturday 10 August 2013

Government will face tougher battle on Water Charges

Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan has said that the political campaign against the property tax will continue but that the main focus now must necessarily move to defeating the Water Tax, a battle which, he said, is likely to include non-violent civil disobedience.
Councillor Tynan



Councillor Tynan said that while the mass non-payment campaign in relation to the Local Property Tax had been stymied by the involvement of Revenue, the political campaign would continue.  “The vast majority of people who have paid the Property Tax, whether directly or through the intervention of Revenue, have done so under duress.  Hundreds of thousands of people are seething with anger at this and the issue will not go away”, he said.

“The real battle ahead”, said Cllr. Tynan, “is against the Water Charges which, regardless of what the government says, is a prelude to privatisation and ever higher charges.  The collection of water charges presents the government with a whole minefield of hurdles which did not exist in relation to the Property Tax.  Behind each of those hurdles will be people resisting the water charges.  The first hurdle will be the installation of water meters and that battle is about to begin. It may have got off to a quiet start in Maynooth but I predict it will not stay quiet for long”.


“Water must never be turned into a commodity to be bought and sold for profit.  It is fundamental to human life and essential to human hygiene and public health. It is the last frontier and while the government may be smug about the Property Tax they will soon learn that the anger of the people has not gone away.  This battle isn’t over, it has merely entered into a new phase”, said Cllr. Tynan

Saturday 22 June 2013

Tynan opposes Pact nominee for Lord Mayor


Speech by Councillor Ted Tynan (Workers’ Party) opposing election of Cllr. Catherine Clancy as Lord Mayor of Cork, Friday, 21st June 2013.

 

 
"Lord Mayor, Councillors, City Manager

 
I will be brief, as I know some of you have celebrations to go to tonight, celebrations of another foregone conclusion which the members of the pact here call an election.  You see the outcome of tonight’s mayoral election was decided more or less four years ago.  The person who will become Lord Mayor tonight was able to book her celebratory party many months ago; 12 months or more according to some sources.   Most of the seating in the public gallery has been reserved for the supporters of Councillor Clancy even though there is going to be more than one candidate here tonight.  What an awful inconvenience it must be for Cllr. Clancy and her Labour Party friends to have to go through the motions of an election and have to listen to democratically elected members who are not prepared to accept an appointment by acclamation.

 
Democracy, it would seem, is an inconvenience for the establishment parties here tonight.  They would prefer the pomp and circumstance of a changing of the guard.

 
The Workers’ Party in Cork has made the decision to support a challenge in tonight’s election.  I intend to second the nomination of Councillor Henry Cremin so that a vote can be forced tonight.  There are many differences of policy between the Workers’ Party and Cllr. Cremin’s party, Sinn Féin.  Yet I recognise that Cllr. Cremin is a hard-working and active councillor who has as much claim to the mayoralty as the candidate of the Pact.  He is much more in touch with ordinary people and has a solid record of working with them and on their behalf. 

 
I would urge the media here not to regard this challenge tonight as mere theatre or a sideshow, a bit of colour-writing to put at the end of a lengthy eulogy for the new Lord Mayor.  It is a serious choice for the councillors, whether they are prepared to sustain an undemocratic pact which has lasted more than a third of a century.

 
This is not simply about the pact however; it is about the policies of all three of these parties of the monied establishment.  Over the past number of years they have, between them, imposed appalling hardship through their support for austerity at local, national and international level.  Nationally Fianna Fáil imposed the bank bailouts and the Troika on ordinary working people with devastating consequences.  Fine Gael and Labour rubber stamped the same situation with a few cosmetic tweaks here and there, but the result has been the same. As we wait here for the crowning of a new Lord Mayor, thousands of parents of special needs children worry about the effects of the latest cuts in funding, while local authority tenants wonder what happened to the council’s housing maintenance scheme and those on the housing list must be in despair.  They must be bewildered by this circus here tonight, and they would be right to seethe with anger.

 
Before I conclude I refer to the €106,000 per annum salary of the office of Lord Mayor.  This is almost three times the average industrial salary.  It is ten times what an old-age pensioner receives.  On a daily basis here councillors, including those intending to support the Pact candidate, are told there is no money for one important service or another, be it replacement of street lighting, broken footpaths or whatever.  Some of them make a meal out of sending out leaflets to their constituents telling them how hard they fought to get something fixed but that there were no funds.  They don’t state the reason, that those funds have been cut by their own parties in order to bailout zombie banks.  This is the height of hypocrisy and shows how totally insincere these councillors are.

 
So go to your celebrations tonight. Pat one another on the back on getting another one up on the smaller parties and independents, the begrudgers as you would have it; because in a little under 12 months it won’t be the parties in here you’ll be worrying about, but the voters out there. You will be not be judged on your glossy leaflets or smug posters, but on your record and tonight you are adding another black mark to that appalling report card."

 

Thank You,

 
Councillor Ted Tynan

 

 

Friday 29 March 2013

Tynan condemns graffiti attack on Republican Plot

Cork's Republican Plot
Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has condemned as “disgusting” a wholesale graffiti attack on headstones and other monuments at the Republican Plot at Cork's St. Finbarr’s Cemetery over the past few days.

Cllr. Tynan said that the attack was sickening, particularly coming just 48 hours or so before commemorations there of the Easter 1916 Rising. A large number of graves in the plot and a number of headstones of republicans outside the plot were found to be covered in graffiti including swastikas.

“This weekend, the 97th anniversary of the 1916 Rising will be remembered with pride and respect. To think that the men and women who sacrificed their lives for this country could be treated with such utter contempt is disgusting. The fact that only the graves in the Republican plot and of prominent republicans buried nearby have been covered with graffiti suggest that they were deliberately targeted”, said Cllr. Tynan.

He said that it was hoped the graffiti could be removed before Sunday’s Easter events which include the Workers’ Party commemoration at the Republican Plot which takes place at 12 noon.

Tuesday 29 January 2013

When the people are ignored, they are right to protest



Workers’ Party Councillor Ted Tynan has said that last night’s (Jan 28th) protest by anti-household charge and property tax protesters was completely justified because councillors from the major parties have consistently supported austerity and the imposition of unfair charges on working people and their families.

Cllr. Tynan, who called for a referendum on the banking bailout,  said that those councillors who had been most outspoken in condemning last night’s protest were bandying about words such as democracy and mandates when in fact they were supporting policies which were totally anti-democratic.
 


“It is grossly hypocritical for councillors from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party to lecture others about democracy when they have collectively imposed and maintained the strictures of the Troika in order to bail out insolvent banks and prop up the EU and the Euro project”, he said.
Cllr. Tynan has said that he intends to put the commitment of establishment councillors to the test by putting down a motion to the council demanding a referendum, even at this late stage on the banking bailout which had never been put to the people.

“The ordinary people of this country have been too quiet.   Councillors and others are getting all hot and bothered because people are standing up for once and making their voices heard.   They expect people to sit like spectators at a tennis match as councillors vote for more cuts in services, rent increases and make decisions which impact on people’s lives.  Democracy is not just a word, it means ‘rule of the people’ and if the people are consistently ignored then they must reassert that democracy”, said Cllr. Tynan