Ballincollig Sinn Féin News
com
Ballincollig Unemployment Protest
Ballincollig Sinn Féin activists,
Jimmy McCrossan and Joe Lynch taking part in the protest.
Unemployment Campaign
Sinn Féin activists across the State
were out in support of their fellow
citizens recently. As part of a
campaign to highlight
unemployment street protests were
organised during March/April.
Ballincollig was no exception and
hundreds of postcards were
distributed to passersby on Main
Street here as part of the campaign.
People were asked to sign their
names to these cards so that the
Government could be made aware
of the dept of feeling on this issue.
Thousands of postcards have so far
been collected for delivery to
Government Buildings.
Youth Unemployment
One in four young people are now
unemployed. That means there are
85,000 people under 25 on the
Live Register. Young men are
worst affected with one in three
men under the age of 25 being out
of work. It is also estimated that
60,000 young people emigrated
last year. We are proposing to set
up a youth jobs fund to create
20,000 new jobs at a cost of €500
Million. To see and download our
proposals go to the Sinn Fein
website at www.sinnfein.ie
then click on Campaigns/Youth
Unemployment. If you wish to
join us in the fight for Equality or
if you wish to acquire further
i n f o r ma t i o n p l e a s e p h o n e
0862409049.
Visit us on the web at www.ballincolligsinnfein.
Walter Leo
Des O Grady,
Sinn Féin says —
‘Open a Social Welfare Office in Ballincollig’
Ballincollig Sinn Féin
Representative Des O Grady has
written to the new Minister for
Social Protection Eamon O Cuiv
requesting the opening of a full
time Social Welfare Office in
Ballincollig.
Stressing that there are thousands of
people from the area signing on for
unemployment payments at the Cork
Office and that there are many more
locals dealing with the Minister’s
Department on other Social Welfare
issues Des O Grady said, “Talks are
taking place at present between
management and Community
Welfare Officers (CWOs) in the
HSE about the Government proposal
to transfer the Community Welfare
Service from the HSE to the Dept of
Social Protection (the new name for
Social Welfare).
When these talks conclude it is
Join Sinn Féin
Text Join followed by your
name and address to 51500.
Or Apply online
At: www.sinnfein.ie
Or Phone 0862409049.
If you are aged between 16
and 25 you can join Ógra
Shinn Féin online at:
Ógra Shinn Fein.ie
Do you have a problem
or an issue you need
help with?
For an immediate
response and full
support call
Des O Grady
At 0862409049
Sinn Féin - the party
that cares about you.
expected that the local CWOs will
come under the remit of the Dept of
Social Protection. We expect that the
office used by the present CWO in
Ballincollig will no longer be used for
this purpose and that a new office will
be opened by the Dept of Social
Protection. This will be a golden
opportunity for the setting up of a
proper integrated full time Social
Welfare system for Ballincollig and
the surrounding area. We are therefore
calling on the Government to open a
fully comprehensive Social Welfare
Office in Ballincollig where local
people can sign on for Job Seekers
Benefit and Allowances etc. with
dignity. When we raised this issue
previously with the former Minister
Mary Hanafin our request was turned
. down. At the moment Ballincollig
Social Welfare recipients have to deal
with the Cork Office in Hanover
Street. For those signing on it means
they have the extra cost and
inconvenience of travelling into Cork
to stand in the open air for hours, in all
kinds of weather, waiting to be served.
Many towns with populations smaller
than Ballincollig have their own Social
Welfare Office. It’s well beyond time
that people in Ballincollig were looked
after properly by the State. We are
now calling on the Government to
open a full time Social Welfare Office
to serve the people of Ballincollig.”
The Voice of Ballincollig Sinn Féin
Ballincollig ews
May 2010
Community Hospital Shock
Pathetic Response from Mary Harney.
The New Ballincollig Community Hospital.
The recent announcement by the
HSE, at an event attended by
Enterprise Minister Batt O Keeffe,
that the new Ballincollig
Community Hospital is being put
out to tender as a private (for
profit) hospital is a disgrace.
Praise for NAMA while Ballincollig Declines
In a recent front page article on the
Evening Echo Michael O Flynn
praised 0AMA as being very good
for the country. We profoundly
disagree with him as we consider 0AMA
is going to be a millstone around the
neck of ordinary people for years to
come as ‘crony capitalism’, in the form
of greedy developers, are bailed out by
their friends in the Fianna Fáil /Green
Party Government. However we also
feel that if Mr O Flynn is so concerned
about the country and more specifically
Ballincollig, then there are things he can do
to help out immediately.
We are calling on Mr O Flynn,
through Ballincollig Shopping Centre, to
immediately lower rents on all units in the
Volume 1 Issue 7
Contact Ballincollig Sinn Féin at 0862409049
announced it is about to hand over
this hospital, built with taxpayers
money, to one or other of their
cronies after the usual farce of a
t ender proces s . T he H SE
will then use taxpayers money to
fund the equipment and operation
Empty Units in Ballincolligof
Shopping Centre.
the Hospital while the private
operators make a handsome profit
on the backs of workers. It now
seems as if these capitalists, who
can’t make a bob selling
overpriced houses and their friends
in the banks, are being afforded
another opportunity to make
Twelve Community Hospitals of money at taxpayers expense by
this type are being built across the this appalling Government.
state at a cost of €112 Million Sinn Féin believes that healthcare
giving an average cost of over €9 is a fundamental right, not a
M i l l i o n e a c h . U s i n g t h e luxurious privilege to be enjoyed
G o v e r n m e n t e m b a r g o o n only by those who can afford to
recruitment as an excuse, the HSE pay. (Continued Page 2.)
shopping centre to help guarantee the decisive year. It would also help to
future of the present businesses generate a sense of wellbeing in the
located there. We feel this would be a shopping centre generally, as nothing
looks more depressing than walking into
practical way forward for Ballincollig.
the centre and being faced by a line of
We are constantly hearing
from IBEC how inflation is falling, empty units (soon to be joined by Halifax).
yet time and time again, this is not We know that another shopping centre in
Cork is reputed to have given its tenants
reflected in their dealings with small
their first year rent free to encourage them
and medium sized business. We
to start up in the said centre. We now call
further call on Mr O Flynn to make
on Michael O Flynn to be imaginative and
the many empty units in Ballincollig
shopping centre available free or at a “think outside the box” as they say, which
has never been the hallmark of Irish
nominal rent to new start up
capitalists, who look constantly for the fast
businesses. This would have a
multiple affect on Ballincollig life. buck while ignoring the long term
. It would help to create jobs for consequences of their actions.
“Remember it’s what you can do for
unemployed people in Ballincollig and
give indigenous companies your country, not what you can do your
country for.”
a helping hand in their first and most
 (Continued from page 1)
This stealth privatisation of our
healthcare system under the guise
of co-location, tender, or any other
misleading tag line is removing our
health system from the security of
public accountability and placing it
directly into the hands of privateer-
capitalists. Citizens should be well
aware that no incentive exists for
these people to operate a
preventative and corrective health
service as they are in the health care
business only to make profits. This
creeping privatisation of the public
health system in Ireland is also part
Who made the decision to Privatise ?
The following 3 questions were
put to Health Minister Mary
Harney by Caoimhghín O
Caoiléan, Sinn Féin
spokesperson for health, at the
request of Ballincollig activist
Des O Grady. Her replies are
given here and are typical of
this detestable Government.
Minister Harney who has spent
years hiding behind the HSE is
no w hi di n g b ehi n d an
industrial dispute. Does she
seriously think that people
believe she cannot find out
what is happening in her own
De p ar t m e nt ? On se c o nd
thoughts maybe she is inept
and she doesn’t know that the
HSE are making policy
decisions about privatisation
behind her back.
QUESTIO0 0O: 153
To ask the Minister for Health and
Children the cost of building the
new Health Service Executive
community nursing hospital in
B al li ncol li g, Count y Cork,
including the purchase of the site;
when she expects it will be fully
equipped; and the anticipated cost
of the equipment?………………….
Page 2
of the Government campaign
against public service workers and is
becoming the norm as Minister for
Health Mary Harney and her private
health connections hide behind the
super-quango that is the HSE. This
new hospital in Ballincollig had all
the hallmarks of a worthwhile
project; better healthcare for patients
in need of post-hospital care, public
monies providing a tangible return to
the locality and increased
employment in the area - both
directly and indirectly. You can rest
assured that staffing at the new
hospital will be cut to the minimum.
REPLY. .….…………..
I regret that due to industrial action I
am not in a position to provide a
substantive response to your
Parliamentary Question. If this matter
remains of continuing concern to you,
however, I would invite you to raise it
with me again in due course.
QUESTIO0 0O: 154
To ask the Minister for Health and
Children if it is the case that the
new Health Service Executive
community nursing hospital in
Ballincollig, County Cork, which
was built with public funds, is to be
put out to tender to be run by a
private operator as a profit-making
business; and if so, when she
anticipates that this will happen?
REPLY. ..….…...
I regret that due to industrial action I
am not in a position to provide a
substantive response to your
Parliamentary Question. If this matter
remains of continuing concern to you,
I would invite you to raise it with me
again in due course.
QUESTIO0 0O: 155
To ask the Minister for Health
and Children if she has adopted a
general policy that hospitals built
with public money will be handed
over to private operators or if this
practice will cease when the public
service recruitment embargo is
lifted?
Ballincollig Sinn Féin News
Pay rates will be set at the
minimum wage level and every
single cost, from the care of
patients to the acquisition of food
supplies and waste disposal will be
minimised to line the pockets of
the operators. Have no doubt it will
function not as a community
hospital, as intended, but like any
other business - where the need to
turn a profit will outweigh all
others. . saying that each household will be
Private capital, no matter how
worthy the cause never comes
free - there is always a price to
be paid; let it not be the welfare
of our loved ones.
REPLY. ..….…...
I have no plans to introduce a general
policy of the type referred to by the
Deputy. If he wishes to raise a
particular issue or service in this
regard I will respond further to him.
Mary Harney is not the only
Government Minister who
seems to have been
disingenuous on this issue.
Enterprise Minister Batt O
Keeffe has issued several
statements on the community
hospital over the years and in
a newsletter issued before
Christmas he announced that
the community hospital in
Ballincollig would be opened
this summer; he only recently
announced that it would be
privatised having waited until
the Hospital was built before
letting the cat out of the bag.
By his silence he is obviously
in favour of this deal.
Sinn Féin will not be
giving up on this one. We will
continue to press for answers
and oppose the privatisation of
our health service by wealthy
people and their political
cronies who can afford to buy
private health care when they
need it.
Ballincollig News. The Voice of Sinn Féin.
The Green Route or The Road to Hell ?
The proposed new junction at the West Village. The Roundabout
will be removed and the access road to Innishmore closed. The
New Junction layout will be controlled by Traffic Lights.
As the Green Route creeps ever
westward the next phase of the
planned route will undoubtedly be
the most controversial. (A) The
roundabout outside Muskerry Estate
is going to replaced with Traffic
Lights. (B) The roundabout at the
West Village near the White Horse
Inn is set to be replaced by traffic
lights and (C) The link road from
this roundabout into Innishmore is
going to be closed off. There is no
doubt but that traffic lights at the site
of the roundabout in the West
Village will cause major traffic
congestion leading to tail backs
towards the Inniscarra Bridge, on the
road west towards Classis and most
likely back towards the village itself.
Can you imagine what this area will
be like at morning and evening rush
hour as people try to get to and from
work and get their kids to and from
school? You can be sure it will be a
hell of a lot worse than it is at
present. Secondly leaving only the
old entrance/exit road just above the
present pedestrian lights in use for
the whole of Innishmore will be
disastrous for those trying to enter or
exit the area at busy times. The link
road from the roundabout into
Innishmore was opened in the first
place to ease traffic congestion
because the original entrance and
exit road alone could not cope with
Volume 1, Issue 7
the volume of traffic using it. To
close a route into an area that has a
large number of residents, three
schools, a church, a number of
industrial units and business
premises, the County Council area
office, a large shopping premises and
health and welfare facilities, just
doesn’t make sense. The County
Council say that the new road from
the Old Quarter (The Barracks
development) will alleviate the
problem once it is opened. However
there is no timescale for the opening
of this road and it is doubtful if the
developer and residents would ever
want this road opened in any case. A
huge flow of traffic, on this proposed
road, would inhibit house sales in the
development and present residents of
both Innishmore and Old Quarter
have no wish to see their quality of
life reduced even further by a huge
increase in traffic flow outside their
front doors. . the thin end of the wedge and will lead
Now while the improvements to the
Ballincollig main drainage system,
which is part of this scheme, and the
jobs provided in the locality are
welcome, we feel that this money
could have been better spent on
constructing the Community, Civic
and Youth Facilities which were
originally denied to the people of
Ballincollig in the barracks
development.
Ballincollig Sinn Féin News
Water Charges
Another Green Party Tax
Sinn Féin representative Des O Grady
has described Green Party Minister
John Gormley’s decision to introduce
domestic water charges by 2012, as yet
another crushing tax on ordinary
families who are struggling to make
ends meet. “The Greens are putting a
favourable spin on this new tax by
allowed a certain amount of free water
and only charged for water used above
this limit. However every householder
who has water supplied by a Local
Authority at present will have a water
meter installed at the householders
expense. This will be paid for by a
standing charge — just like your
electricity bill, and is expected to come
to €400 a year. It won’t matter if you
don’t use any water you will still have
to pay for the rent of the meter.
We in Sinn Féin support water
conservation but we believe there is a
better way to do it. Current surveys
have shown that up to 58% of treated,
clean water is wasted due to leaking
pipes and similar loss before it even
reaches the consumer. Therefore the
cost of producing over half of all
usable domestic water is being wasted.
The answer is not to place
another charge on already over-
burdened households, but to replace
our antiquated water system. Savings
made in sorting out this loss would
negate the need to impose domestic
water charges and could also be used
to create badly needed jobs in
replacing crumbling infrastructure. It
is also a matter of huge concern that
Minister Gormley intends to apply the
German model of water charges here
as German citizens pay among the
highest charges for water in the world.
Water charges and water metering are
to privatisation and ever increasing
costs for the consumer.
Sinn Féin is opposed to
domestic water charges and will be
actively campaigning against their
introduction. Minister Gormley and
the Green Party should stick to
tinkering around with electric cars and
stop driving up the cost of living for
over-burdened families struggling to
make ends meet.”
Page 3