The most consistent and angriest complaint on the door steps is of broken promises and the resultant targeting of those on low and middle incomes for cuts and new taxes.
When considering promises and announcements by Labour and Fine Gael in this General Election Campaign, voters are considering what happened to the promises they made in the last General Election Campaign.
The Public have been pointing out to me the litany of broken promises which include:
St. Michael’s Unit.
At a local level, Labour Leader Eamonn Gilmore, promised to protect South Tipperary General Hospital. Labour Minister, Kathleen Lynch, in government, closed down St Michael’s Psychiatric Unit in Clonmel and transferred it to Kilkenny.
Hospital Trolleys
We will “end the scandal of Hospital Trolleys” said Enda Kenny. The result is Trolley Chaos in our Emergency Departments, the closure of 2,000 hospital beds, the loss of 11,000 health staff and the loss of 2 million home help hours.
Water Tax
Through the 2011 General Election TESCO AD and in its election manifesto, The Labour Party promised to prevent the introduction of domestic water tax. In government they agreed to introduce this tax and Minister Alan Kelly is now implementing it.
Child Benefit
In the 2011 General Election Tesco AD, the Labour Party said it would prevent Fine Gael reducing Child Benefit. Labour leader Joan Burton, in government, did the opposite and cut Child Benefit.
FAMILY HOME TAX
Fine Gael Leader, Enda Kenny, said “ It Is Morally Wrong, Unjust and Unfair to Tax a Person’s Home”. But in Government, he introduced this unfair tax.
Lone Parents
Speaking in the Dáil on 18th April 2012, Minister Joan Burton said she would only proceed with plans to reform the One Parent Family Payment by 2014/15 if she got a “credible and bankable commitment” by the time of Budget 2013 that the Irish Government would put in place “a system of safe, affordable and accessible child care, similar to what is found in the Scandinavian countries to whose systems of social protection we aspire”.
Minister Burton went ahead with the changes without any such child care system being in place.
Crime
Enda Kenny promised to increase the Garda Force by 2,000 Gardaí. The result was 2,000 less Gardaí, 130 Garda Station closed and increased levels of rural crime.
Heating Allowances
Then there was the Labour Manifesto promise to invest in ending fuel poverty which causes unnecessary deaths of older people every winter. “However, Labour will also take immediate action to alleviate the risk of fuel poverty in the short term by reinvesting €40 million from the
carbon tax to alleviate fuel poverty, and by developing a national fuel
poverty strategy as set out in Labour’s Fuel Poverty and Energy
Conservation Bill.” Labour Party Manifesto 2011.
Instead, the heating allowances were cut by the Labour Leader
The Public are fed up of broken promises. They are taking the recent spate of promises from all the political parties with a large dose of salt.
The Door Steps say Don’t Believe Them and Don’t Let It Happen Again!
Seamus Healy TD
Tel : 087-2802199
08/02/2016
At 2pm today we march in Clonmel not just against the water charges but we march for change.
We march for the Right to:
– Have a health service which is fit for purpose.
– Education, including the restoration and increased provision of SNA’s, and an education which is truly free.
– Have gainful and decent employment which would provide dignity, respect and a living wage.
– Democratic Reform where citizens are at the heart of decision making.
– Housing, and to end homelessness and clearing of social housing waiting lists.
– Sustainable Energy, fighting climate change is not a ‘cost’ – it is a necessary strategy for human survival.
– Natural Resources. The assets of our nation were declared in the 1916 Proclamation as belonging to the citizens of Ireland, a Proclamation which
also pledged to cherish all the citizens of the state equally. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is one of the biggest threats to people’s ability to provide labour, social, and environmental protection and represents a proposed transfer of economic and political sovereignty from the Irish citizens to multi-national corporations.
– Equality, the right to equality encompasses social and economic rights which are implied and un-enumerated rights in our Constitution. These rights should be protected in legislation which will address the issues of poverty.
– Debt Justice, as past recklessness of financial speculation is imposing an intolerable burden on people’s future.
Just us at the Main Guard, Clonmel at 2pm.
Seamus Healy TD – 0872802199
If anything is troubling you, no matter how large or small the issue, the Samaritans are there to listen.
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This government is continuing to evict families from their homes.
In the Dáil last Thursday, I appealed to Minister Michael Noonan to order the banks he owns to withdraw repossession proceedings in light of the extreme housing emergency which exists.
The Minister refused. This means that the government has given the green light to the banks they own, to continue to evict families.
Court Orders for repossession of 47 primary residences were granted at Clonmel and Nenagh Circuit Courts in the first 3 quarters of 2015. A further 8 buy-to-lets which also house families were also repossessed. Banks are now seeking a further 97 repossession orders for dwellings in Tipperary, of which 32 are being sought by AIB, EBS and Permanent TSB which are owned by the Government through Michael Noonan (FG) Minister for Finance.
Minister Noonan claimed that the issue was being reasonably handled by the banks. Totally misrepresenting the situation, Mr Noonan quoted the 208 orders for repossessions for the whole country for Quarter 3,2015 as representative of the scale of the problem. COURTS ONLY SIT FOR 1 OF THE 3 MONTHS IN QUARTER 3!! The Court Service Figures for the whole country for Quarters 1 and 2 are 586 and 314 respectively.
The proposed Eviction of 97 Tipperary Families Must Be Stopped Now!
Senior Minister Alan Kelly (Lab) and Minister of State Hayes(FG) must now intervene at Cabinet to have a Housing Emergency Declared and all repossession applications withdrawn.
In particular they must force Minister Noonan to withdraw the repossession applications by the banks he owns.
This can be done by government decision and does not require legislation.
Seamus Healy T.D. 18/01/2016
Tel 087 2802199
THESE EVICTIONS MUST BE STOPPED!
MINISTERS KELLY AND HAYES MUST ACT!
Tipperary is the 7th highest county for repossessions cases after Dublin, Cork, Galway Meath, Kildare, Donegal but above Limerick and Waterford.
36 Applications for Repossession are before Clonmel Circuit Court this week alone.
On the 31 Dec, 2014, the number of civil bills for repossession in Co Tipperary which were lodged in court by lenders was 341. Of these 293 were still proceeding on Jan 1,2015. (Courts Service see below).
This makes Tipperary the 7th highest county for repossessions after Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Cork, Galway, Donegal but above Limerick and Waterford.
48 Tipperary Homes were repossessed last year according to figures for 2014 issued by the Courts Service recently. Only 8 of these were “buy to let”. The Tipperary figure of 48 orders granted and 293 orders still in process were both over 4% of the national total. But these figures are now to escalate dramatically. David Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders Association has claimed (Irish Times March 9) that 25,000 homes will be repossessed over the next 2 years. This means that over 1000 Tipperaryhomes will be repossessed over the next two years.
The increase in the price of houses is making it much more attractive for banks to repossess and sell-on homes and they are taking full advantage of government decisions.
In the Dáil last week, Labour and Fine Gael voted down a motion to remove veto power from banks in matters dealing with the family home.
In Spring 2013, the Labour/Fine Gael Government passed an amendment in the Dáil to allow banks to repossess homes after repossession orders were struck down by Justice Dunne in the High Court.
Over 38,000 Irish households in mortgage distress cannot avail of the Personal Insolvency Service because they have insufficient disposable income! They must not be evicted.
The veto given to banks by the government over the mortgage to rent scheme and other restructuring instruments must be removed immediately.
THE GOVERNMENT IS TOTALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FORTHCOMING SPATE OF EVICTIONS!!!
I am calling on Ministers Kelly and Hayes to insist that the government stops these evictions now!
Seamus Healy TD
087-2802199 seamus.healy@oireachtas.ie
Statement in the Dáil during the private members motion on Housing Affordability on 27 January 2015.
Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
There is a very significant housing crisis in this country and the figures are truly horrendous. A total of 90,000 families languish on local authority housing waiting lists throughout the country. A total of 73,000 families are on rent supplement, in many cases, condemned to live in poor, substandard, damp and insecure accommodation.
For example, in Tipperary, 3,100 people are on the local authority housing waiting list and not a single local authority house will be built in 2015. No council, including Tipperary, has been given a capital allocation for housing this year as yet. This means that the council will be lucky to build any houses in 2016 – or at the very most, it will be at the end of 2016 before they are built.
This huge housing crisis is a result of the policies pursued by the previous Fianna Fáil-Green Party Government and by this Government slashing the local authority house building programme and privatising housing. The 2020 social housing strategy is a continuation of that privatisation. At the end of that period, we will find that three quarters of the social housing will be provided by private rented accommodation, with only 5,800 new local authority builds per year. Some 40 years ago, in 1975, we were building 8,794 local authority houses. We need to repeat those figures; we need to build at least 10,000 local authority houses for people on the housing waiting list. There is no doubt that the privatisation of public housing has been an absolute disaster. No less a person than Uachtarán na hÉireann has drawn our attention to the issue. He has stated that we have to accept once and for all that people who need housing and cannot provide that from their own means should not be abandoned to the market place and the principle should be accepted that their housing should be as good as any other housing. He stated that one of the most basic deprivations a human being can suffer or fear, is that of being homeless. He further stated that it is about democracy, that one cannot leave the provision of housing to a residual feature of the market place. We have done that and homelessness is the consequence. He also stated that we have to accept that we need a great, huge increase in public rental accommodation.
The Irish Council for Social Housing said something similar when it stated that the over-reliance on the private market to meet social housing demand is unsustainable and ultimately unpredictable. Barnardos states that it is seriously concerned about the scale of the housing crisis now facing many low-income families, particularly those reliant on social welfare.
Many children experience their childhood in overcrowded, unsuitable and insecure accommodation, which affects their social, emotional and educational development. We need an emergency public house building programme, with an absolute minimum of 10,000 local authority builds every year. This programme would be self-financing and would make common sense. It would put construction workers back to work and ensure additional PAYE income for the State. It would also ensure a saving to the State in social welfare payments and it would provide additional rental income for the State. It would also support the local economy, as it would put money in people’s pockets which would ensure a huge boost for local shops and businesses in danger of closing.
What we have heard from the Minister and the Government this evening is not the real world. A total of 90,000 families are on local authority house waiting lists, which is a huge figure. These thousands of families are condemned to live in insecure, poor and substandard accommodation. This must stop.
Earlier today, 21.02.2014, Deputy Healy was interviewed by Seamus Martin on Tipp Fm.
Seamus Martin introduced the item as follows:
“During yesterdays leaders questions in the Dáil Seamus Healy Independant TD for South Tipperary accused the Labour Party of betraying James Connolly and Michael Davitt in selling off the homes of over 13,000 Irish families to vulture capitalists, the modern equivalent of rack rent landlords. He asked if this was not economic treason but Joan Burton (Minister for Social Protection) for the Government defended the sale.”
Click Here for Leaders Questions 20.02.14
