Boyd Barrett urges Siptu to end Labour affiliation

People Before Profit TD says union should decide on party support on a case by case basis

Richard Boyd Barrett said Labour has ‘imposed crushing austerity on working people’. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill / The Irish Times

Richard Boyd Barrett said Labour has ‘imposed crushing austerity on working people’. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill / The Irish Times

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has urged Siptu delegates to end their traditional affiliation with the Labour Party.

The four-day Siptu biennial national delegate conference begins in Cork today. A resolution to disaffiliate from the Labour Party will be debated on Wednesday.

“Labour have abandoned some of their key pledges to their own voters and have imposed crushing austerity on working people,” Mr Boyd-Barrett told The Irish Times on Monday.

“It’s hard to understand how Sitpu would maintain an affiliation with a party that has done all that. We think the affiliation should be broken.”

The Dún Laoghaire TD said the Union should provide financial support to political figures in a “democratic” way.

He said members of the Union should decide which candidates or political parties they wanted to support on a case by case basis every time there was an election.

A Labour Party spokesman said the issue was a matter for Siptu.

Siptu president Jack O’Connor, speaking to Newstalk this morning, confirmed he would vote Labour in the upcoming general election.

“I will be voting for the Labour Party. I’m a member of the Labour Party. I’ve never considered leaving it or threatened to leave it and I never will,” Mr O’Connor said.

“But I do recognise that we have to build alliances on the Left. We have to build alliances with groups on the Independent Left and people in the other parties that believe they’re on the Left.

“My only concern is that that work is not sufficiently progressed enough to offer a cohesive alternative to the people in the forthcoming election.”

The motion at the Siptu conference will be proposed by Kieran Allen, chairman of the UCD section committee.

Mr Allen wants to see all unions adopt an “open door” strategy to promoting their policies within political structures.

“This could mean backing a variety of Left candidates from different parties, provided they agreed to promote union policies,” he said.

Minister for the Environment and deputy leader of the Labour Party Alan Kelly expressed confidence at the weekend that the affiliation between the country’s largest union and his party would remain in place.

He was speaking on RTE’s Week in Politics programme on Sunday.

Original article by Mary Minihan Irish Times Oct 5, 2015

Buncrana Together

Siptu general secretary and former Labour Party councillor Joe O'Flynn sits on Irish Water board and receives over €15,700 per year for doing so.  See 'Irish Water board unveiled amid claims of hypocrisy',  Irish Independent 21/1/2015 '.  

Also SIPTU represents all local county council water workers who now operate under the Service Level Agreement and are contracted to Irish Water through the County Councils.

Three in court over Waterford water protest

Three people have appeared in court in connection with a water charge protest in Waterford city.

Derek Palmer, 22, from Cathal Brugha Place, Dungarvan, Francesa Veronica Dambra, 39, of Central Avenue, Lisduggan in Waterford city and 68-year-old Patrick Rochford from Ponds Fields, New Ross were before Waterford District Court.

Mr Palmer and Ms Dambra were granted bail on their own bonds of €300, with a condition attached that neither unlawfully interfere with waterworks or related installation in Waterford city and/or county.

Solicitor Hilary Delahunty, who represented all three, said Mr Rochford would not agree to undertake the same bail conditions as he said he had not actually been protesting but became embroiled in a debate with gardaí.

He was given bail under other conditions.

Legal aid was granted with respect to the three people and the matter was adjourned to 20 October.

Eleven people in total were arrested this morning on public order offences as contractors from Irish Water attempt to install water metres in a housing estate in the city.

The arrests took place at Laurel Park in the Cherrymount housing estate in Waterford city.

Eight people were questioned at Waterford and Tramore Garda stations and files are being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Article RTE Thurs 24 Sept, 2015

Scenes from Waterford protest taken from Suzanne Ryan facebook page.

Quote from Suzanne on her facebook page
"Out of the barracks now after being arrested under section 12 of the water services act.11 people in total arrested here in Waterford today.I will post pics in a few mins and you can see what IW were doing in Cherrymount.Taken to the barracks,stripsearched,fingerprinted and mugshot taken and put in a cell.One of the protestors was alone in the cell with one of the bullies..think you can probably guess who by now..this so called guard produced a knife and cut the belt from our friends trousers..this is what we're dealing with here."

Irish Water discards guidance on cast iron meter housing

Utility says department’s guidelines ‘not binding’ for them and intended for builders

Workers install water meters in houses in the Fortlawn Estate near Blanchardstown, west Dublin. File photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin

Workers install water meters in houses in the Fortlawn Estate near Blanchardstown, west Dublin. File photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins Dublin

Irish Water has acknowledged installing plastic water meter boxes in place of cast iron boxes which are specified for use in driveways where cars may park on the lids of the meter housing.

The utility said it chose to disregard the Department of Environment guidance on water meter housing which specified a typically cast iron water meter box in places where a heavy load such as a car might park on the meter housing.

Head of asset management at Irish Water Jerry Grant told TDs and Senators 645,000 water meters had been installed since the current programme began and just 14 had been reported broken. In fact, he said, just 500 of the installed boxes were the specified ’grade B’, typically cast iron, boxes.

The overwhelming majority were ’grade C’ boxes made of plastic, which he said were perfectly safe and sturdy.

Mr Grant said the Department of Environment guidance was intended for builders and local authorities and was “not binding on Irish Water”.

He said tests carried out by the contractors employed by Irish Water had shown that the plastic boxes more than met the strength required to withstand the weight of a car.

He told the politicians at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions that a particular test was carried out in which a stone was placed on a plastic lid and a vehicle manoeuvred so that its wheel was on top of the stone. Mr Grant said the plastic lid did not crack but the test had to be abandoned for fear that the vehicle’s tyre “would explode”.

A Department of Environment spokesman confirmed that the specification did not carry the force of law, and was provided for guidance only.

Mr Grant said a company such as Irish Water with strong engineering capability could carry out its own analysis and tests and chose a preferred option other then that which was specified in guidelines.

However, Michael Healy-Rae TD produced two examples of the meter housing, a cast iron type B, and a plastic type C.

Plain to see

He said it was plain to see that that type B was stronger than type C. The cast iron boxes would not break, and it was equally plain to see the plastic boxes would break, he said.

Mr Healy-Rae also said it was the case that the radio signal which allowed the meters to be read from a passing van, could not penetrate the cast iron and he suggested this was a factor in Irish Water’s thinking.

Mr Healy-Rae TD also took issue with Irish Water’s contention that just 14 meter boxes had been reported broken, and many of these had related to issues of workmanship on installation. “Do you really believe that yourselves,” he asked.

Irish Water said the signal would pass through a cast iron cover, “the question would be what distance could the signal travel”.

Noel Harrington TD complained the plastic boxes and covers were made in Wales while a supplier of cast iron products from Co Offaly was prevented from securing the business.

At this point chairman of the committee Pádraig MacLochlainn TD ruled that all reference to the tendering for the meter boxes was out of order, as a legal case was being taken in relation to such matters. “It is subject to a court process,” he said.

Mr MacLochlainn said it was questionable that local authorities would have been expected to comply with guidance from the Department of Environment, but that Irish Water could be exempt.

He said members could submit more questions to Irish Water which the utility would consider over the course of the next week, reverting to the committee with answers.

Original Article Irish Times Wed 23 Sept, 2015