Two Donegal, anti Irish Water campaigners give an account of their experience of political interference in the county and relate this experience to what is happening in the national campaign in Ireland.
Read MoreIrish Water workers ballot for industrial action
Row centres over proposed cuts to jobs
Source: Irish Times Nov 10, 2015
Local authority workers who are providing services for Irish Water are balloting for industrial action in a dispute over proposed cuts to staffing levels.
The trade union Siptu said it was opposed to plans by management to reduce unilaterally the numbers of frontline water workers.
The union said the decision to ballot for industrial action followed on from an announcement by management that it intended “to break a service level agreement and enforce up to 1,500 job losses among frontline water service workers”.
Siptu organiser, Brendan O’Brien, said: “The company has not explained who would carry out essential work if these jobs are lost. It can only be deduced that the plan is to expand the number of private contractors working for the company which will accelerate the creeping privatisation of this public utility.”
“Our members are intent on protecting and developing the public water service which they have provided for decades to the highest standard that funding has allowed.”
Siptu said the ballot, which commenced on Monday , would be counted on Friday, November 20th.
Fallout as Siteserv inquiry 'could take eight years'
Source: independent.ie Nov 13, 2015
Denis O'Brien
Kevin Doyle
A suggestion in a draft interim report in the Commission of Investigation into IBRC that the probe could take up to eight years has been met with astonishment.
Bodies who are party to the inquiry are prohibited by law from discussing the contents of the interim report before its publication, but a well-placed source said: "Getting proper engagement from people will be impossible if it drags on for that long."
The Irish Independent revealed yesterday that Mr Justice Brian Creagan, who is the sole member of the investigation, wants Taoiseach Enda Kenny to assign a second judge to help him study 38 IBRC sales, each of which involved write-offs of more than €10m.
His interim report is also understood to say that it will take "several years" before any detailed report can be produced. The judge is believed to have given a timeframe of seven to eight years to get through the workload.
The original deadline set by the Government when the commission was set up was the end of this year.
"The investigation is looking at transactions that took a few months to complete, so it's hard to comprehend that it would take years," said a source.
Controversy surrounding the sale of contracting firm Siteserv to Denis O'Brien's Millington, with a write-down of €119m, sparked calls for the commission to be set up last summer.
However, it is understood that the interim report, which is expected to be sent to the Taoiseach next week, does not mention Siteserv specifically.