Boycott Dunnes Stores & Support Workers Tomorrow (Thurs).

Staff in Dunnes have no security or hours or pay. They have to be available on call all week while never knowing how many hours or even what days they will be working. How can a person plan their lives, get a mortgage when they may only get 15hrs of work per week?
Dunnes refuse to recognise trade unions and to allow them to represent the workers. Their treatment and exploitation of workers brings back memories of William Martin Murphy and the 1913 Lockout.

The Moriarty Tribunal exposed how Ben Dunne used his friendship with politicians to secure lucrative contract and how he along with Denis O'Brien was instrumental in corrupting the Irish political system.

During the 1980s, Dunnes sacked workers who refused to handle goods from the apartheid regime of South Africa. I was proud then to stand on the picket line with the workers at the Dunnes Stores Henry Street branch. Today I support the workers again against a company that still treats their staff with contempt

Syriza, Denis O'Brien & Irish Political Cronyism

A win for Syriza is a win for ordinary European citizens.
For far too long mainstream parties across Europe such as Pasok have handed over the sovereignty of their countries and the futures of their citizens to corporate interests and to a rich elite. They represent the interests of the millionaires at the expense of the millions. Today 1% of the world population almost own the same as the remaining 99%. This is no coincidence. Look at how in Ireland the billionaire Denis O'Brien, who was exposed by the Moriarty Tribunal as paying huge sums of monies to a government minister to secure a national mobile telephone license that helped lay the foundations of his financial empire, has not been prosecuted by the state. Furthermore the current government continues to grant him favours. It is one of his companies that got the contract for the water meters and who is allowed to build up a virtual monopoly of the 'independent' media in Ireland while operating as a tax exile. The clear message is that crime pays in Ireland and elsewhere when you have friends in high office.

Focus on Mary Harney
Let us look at just one example of how incompetent politicians can legally take our hard-earned taxes to finance a life-time of luxury.
Mary Harney retired with a package worth more than €300,000 and is entitled to an annual pension of over €120,000. She receives an annual ministerial pension of over €70,000 and a TDs pension of €50,600. She also received a pension lump sum of €160,000, a termination lump sum of about €17,000 and monthly termination payments from the Oireachtas during her first 12 months of retirement worth another €66,900, Mary then married one of the heads of FAS who found it very difficult to explain where the €1 billion (yes billion) a year they were receiving in a time of nearly full employment went. Her Husband left FAS an opened up a training agency himself. I wonder who he gets the work off? It's one big club baby, and you ain't in it, (but we will allow you to pay for it). Note: Thanks to the 'You can stock your water meters up your a...' Facebook page for this piece on Mary Harney)

Denis O'Brien - The 'Voldemort' of modern Ireland.

On December 10th I along with tens of thousands of ordinary Irish people took part in the 'No to Water Charges' protest in Dublin. It was a joy to be part of a mass demonstration of people of all ages that was more than just about the imposition of another stealth tax. Rather it represented the last straw for citizens throughout Ireland who they have finally said "Enough is Enough”.

The last two governments have implemented a string of austerity cuts to pay for the gambling debts of greedy anti-patriotic bankers and property speculators. Yet those who have bankrupt the country are allowed to get off scot free for committing the biggest crime in the history of the Irish state whilst hundreds of thousands of Irish men and women have as a result lost their jobs, their homes or have emigrated. The fabric of many families were torn apart. For some individuals it was too much to bear and they took their lives.

But the people protesting have not forgotten or forgiven those who are responsible for their pain.

It was very noticeable that coverage by the mainstream print and television media of the huge protest deliberately avoided any mention of the anger directed by demonstrators towards tax exile Denis O'Brien, the man whom the tax-payer funded (€200millions) Moriarty Tribunal found had undermined the Irish body politic. Yet it is he who owns the company that won the contract to install meters for Irish Water!

It is obvious then that because of his omnipotent power (in Newstalk, Today FM. Irish Independent, Topaz...) and his payments to politicians and political parties, the media, Fianna Fáil and the government are too afraid to condemn him. Like Voldemort in Harry Potter, he is the man Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.

The Irresponsible Few

However one noticeably dark element of the protest was the actions of a very tiny number of idiots who later on blocked O’Connell Street Bridge for hours thus inconveniencing many people working in the city and stopping thousands of protestors from leaving Dublin to get home to Galway, Waterford, Sligo and elsewhere. I myself went over to talk to them, pointed out that I too was a protestor and wished like many others to get on buses that could not move because of their actions.. A few of them gave me a tirade of abuse and threatened to physically assault me. It was obvious that all they were looking for was a confrontation with the police, which would have only damaged the No to Water Charges campaign and undermined all the positivity of the protest.

Standing Up Against Those Who are Robbing our Natural Resources & Impoverishing our People.

Yesterday, I joined the Galway march against water charges. It was exhilarating to be part of a vibrant community of people of all ages from all backgrounds who are prepared to stand up to the anti-people anti-patriotic establishment who are intent on turning our natural resources into commodities that hard-working people are now forced to purchase in order to pay off the gambling debts of greedy bankers and speculators.

Those that benefit from the water charges are those that bankrupted Ireland in 2008 and led to over 200,000 people being forced to emigrate, hundreds of thousands losing their jobs, their family homes and their families.
Those that benefit are people like the unscrupulous Denis O'Brien, who the taxpayer-funded Moriarty Tribunal stated made payments to politicians for favours and who in the process undermined our democratic institutions, but yet this Fine Gael and Labour government is too afraid to bring to justice.
By failing to initiate action against Denis O'Brien and Michael Lowry, Labour has sold out on the principles of its socialist founders.

The Sad Case of Irish Water: Robin Hood in Reverse- Stealing from the Poor to Pay the Rich.

 
Gene Kerrigan in today's Sunday Independent (Oct 19th 2014) is so perceptive in his analysis of the Irish Water debacle. Check out the article

Through the establishment of the semi-state company Irish Water, the government is starting the process of robbing a national public resource for the benefit of a small elite. The civil servants transferred to the company continue the tradition of what they were used to in the 'public' service by getting taxpayer-funded regular bonuses for doing nothing special; politically-connected consultants get millions in fees paid for once again by the taxpayer. Then at the end of it all, we will probably find a national resource taken from us & privatised for the benefit of business people who are close to the political establishment, an example of the cosy old boys network that looks after each other so well.
People like tax exile Denis O'Brien, who was found by the taxpayer funded The Sad Case of Irish Water: Robin Hood in Reverse- Stealing from the Poor to Pay the Rich.
Gene Kerrigan in today's Sunday Independent is so right. Thru Irish Water, the government is starting the process of robbing a national public resource for the benefit of a small elite. The civil servants transferred to the company continue the tradition of what they were used to in the 'public' service by getting taxpayer-funded regular bonuses for doing nothing special; politically-connected consultants get millions in fees paid for once again by the taxpayer. Then at the end of it all, we will probably find a national resource taken from us & privatised for the benefit of business people who are close to the political establishment, an example of the cosy old boys network that looks after each other so well.
People like tax exile Denis O'Brien, who was found by the taxpayer funded Moriarty Tribunal to have corrupted Irish politics, could well benefit. The Irish Water saga has shown that 'Cronyism' paid for by hard earned money taken from you and me (the little people) is alive and well in Ireland. to have corrupted Irish politics, could well benefit. The Irish Water saga has shown that 'Cronyism' paid for by hard earned money taken from you and me (the little people) is alive and well in Ireland.

Huges Casinos, racetracks & a White House replica for rural Ireland?! Has the descredited Michael Lowry No Shame?!!

Destruction of 800 acres of agricultural lands to build casinos, huge racetracks & a replica of the White House in rural Ireland?!

So pathetic!
The Board of An Bord Pleanala went against the recommendations of their own on-site inspector's recommendations to refuse planning permission. Michael Lowry, the political backer for this madcap enterprise to bring Las Vegas casinos to rural Ireland, is a discredited politician whose shenanigans were exposed and condemned by the Moriarty Tribunal.

At least he is consistent in his love for gambling. For he has a track record of gambling away taxpayers monies to look after his celebrity business backers and friends Denis O'Brien & Ben Dunne. If the new government is to show that it has broken away from the past & is no longer there to serve the interests of property speculators, it has to oppose this crazy scheme.

Casinos in places such as Atlantic City & Las Vegas have only fueled poverty, gangsterism, gambling, drug and alcoholic addiction.

There is no sustainable future going down this road.

Finally, it is time to prosecute Lowry for his abuse of public office. Click here

Prosecute Lowry, O'Brien & Dunne!

Dail Éireann (Irish parliament) should ask for criminal proceedings to be brought against Michael Lowry, Denis O'Brien and Ben Dunne for corrupting the Irish political system & undermining democracy in this republic.
Fair play for Judge Moriarity for saying in plain English how Lowry and O'Brien used money to feather their own nests.
But if legislative action is not taken against these men, the taxpayers funding of the decade-old Moriarty Tribunal & its findings was and is a waste of time.

When the 'Bloody Sunday Tribunal' issued its findings, Prime Minister David Cameron made a statement to the British Parliament and apologised for the wrongs of the British Army. Taoiseach Enda Kenny should do likewise and issue a public statement in the Dail within the next few days & apologises for the damage done to Irish democracy by self-serving greedy politicians in Fianna Fail, Fine Gael & other parties who took monies from wealthy business men in return for land re-zoning, issuing of state contracts etc. These parasites need to be kick out of politics and put in jail. Plus there needs to be immediate legislation brought in to ban political donations from businesses, which has contaminated Irish politics since the 1960s when Charles Haughey set up the old boys network known as 'Taca' to fund raise for Fianna Fail.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0322/breaking17.html