Working in the Community, Working for the Community

Category Archives: Housing

A deliberate Government Policy is ripping off Irish Mortgage Holders and Small Businesses.

 

According a survey of interest rates published by the Central Bank, variable rate new housing loans averaged 4.13%

 

Typical Eurozone mortgage rates are 2.1%-roughly half the Irish rate.

 

And interest rates for small businesses have come down everywhere in Europe except Ireland, according to retired governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan .

 

The excuse given by Government and Central Bank is that they “can’t intervene in the market”

 

This is pure deception.

 

They are intervening in the market with the effect of keeping rates artificially high! There is effectively no competition in the Irish Market

 

Fine Gael Finance Minister Michael Noonan has designated Bank of Ireland(BoI) and Allied Irish Bank (AIB) as “Pillar Banks”. This means that they cannot be allowed to fail and will be subsidised or bailed out again by government if necessary. This has frightened off foreign competition-Danske Bank and Bank of Scotland have already left.

 

This allows AIB, BoI and Permanent TSB to run a cosy cartel at the expense of householders and small businesses.

 

The Government is the owner of AIB, Permanent TSB and EBS as it holds the vast majority of the shares. It can call special general meetings of shareholders at any time and it can instruct the banks to lower the rates. All other banks would then have to lower their rates to stay in business

 

But the government will not do this. Instead it hypocritically calls in the banks from time to time “to express its concern” at the high rates.

 

The high interest rates are, in effect, a penal tax imposed by the government on householders and small businesses.

 

The balance sheets of the banks are being repaired by this tax. The banks are being “fattened up for privatisation”. When sold off the money will be used to pay back loans borrowed to bail out huge investors in the banks before they crashed.

 

There will be no compensation by government for small investors such as investors of pension and redundancy lump sums who were wiped out in the crash of bank shares.

 

Labour and Fine Gael are deliberately running this scam on the public. Fianna Fáil are just moaning about it rather than exposing this huge scandal.

 

Candidates of these parties should be forced to explain and to commit to ending the scam

 

THIS INJUSTICE TO MORTGAGE HOLDERS AND SMALL BUSINESSES MUST END.

 

Seamus Healy TD ​​​​​​​​

Tel: 087 2802199

15/2/2016


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


imageAt 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



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