ICTU spell it out to FF & the Greens

The ICTU rally in opposition to cuts in government spending in Waterford saw about 8,000 union members from the south east march in fine dry weather to let the government now exactly how they feel. Nationally almost 80,000 took to the streets to put Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan on notice that they expect the government to pursue those who made most during the boom years to pay up when it comes to finding the money to keep public services going.

It’s unfair to describe the protest as a public sector protest about avoiding pay cuts. Notable in attendance were community workers from FAB in Wexford opposed to cuts in funding to the CDP budgets.
FAB is funded under the RAPID scheme and does valuable work within estates where unemployment is high and there is a huge reliance on social welfare and funding to maintain the community. These women were there because they know that funding cuts will set them back years while those who have made a fortune in this country will still hold on to their cash oblivious of the real need in their country. But it wasn’t just about workers it was about retired workers too, some of whom I met and spoke to.
I was delighted to meet so many of my Labour colleagues from around the region, Cllrs Denis Landy, Seamus Ryan and Tomás Walsh all marched behind the Labour banner. My ASTI colleagues were out in force as were INTO, IMPACT, UNITE, TUI, INO and of course SIPTU. I was delighted to see the entire Wexford SIPTU office at the rally afterwards at The Glen. Pleased also to see Rory, fellow Wexford blogger flying the Wexford flag and the red flag from the same pole.
Led by a band from The Glen, the march went along the Quays and back via Ballybricken. There was a strong show of firemen and ambulance workers to underpin the depth of feeling in the 24/7 group of workers. As I passed the garda station at Ballybricken I thought for one moment I saw the “Super” give us the clenched fist from his 3rd floor office! There was a clear message from the platform from ICTU, Mayor Halligan of Waterford and other union speakers that ordinary workers are being put to the pin of their collar and didn’t deserve what was being done to them. Those who run Irish society were setting worker against worker.
As one speaker from TEEU said; first it was self-employed worker against employed worker, then it was private sector worker against public sector worker, after that it was worker against unemployed and recently he’d heard someone try to divide the long term unemployed against short term unemployed. What’s next; young unemployed against older unemployed? Teachers have an unpalatable choice, oppose pay cuts and the government will sack your younger teaching colleagues and your working conditions will deteriorate. Accept a pay cut and the very colleague who you feel should keep their job will find the mortgage payments a difficulty. That’s the reality, just 2 years after being told by Bertie Ahern that anyone who was sceptical about the boom should commit suicide. Some Republic!

When is a joke not a joke and when A&E is sidelined

This week’s Wexford People leads with a comment that John Browne TD made at the Rally in support of Wexford General Hospital last Sunday night. As part of his address to 1,000 people, including myself who had gathered in Whites Hotel, Deputy Browne told us that his daughter who’s in a wheelchair and is 23 asked him to oppose cutting back opening hours at Wexford’s A&E because he claimed she needed it when drunk and that she didn’t want to stop drinking.
It’s a shame that the meeting’s purpose has been diverted by such a remark because people turned out on an autumn evening to listen to politicians, a consultant, nurses, EMT’s and staff set out their concerns about the future of Accident and Emergency at Wexford General Hospital. Our deputy, Brendan Howlin had worked hard to promote the meeting for some time and has tenaciously highlighted how the hospital is being run primarily by accountants rather than doctors. His website contains a petition and if you follow the supplied link you can sign the petition and add your name to the list of those opposed to any downgrading of our generla hospital.

Lets get to the point of the meeting, Dr Colm Quigley succinctly set out what the HSE network group are looking at in terms of re-configuration of services. He set out which services had been transferred to ensure a better service to the county and what he felt he needed to ensure acute services and A&E could continue to be delivered better at Wexford General. Nobody demurred from the theme of the meeting. If anything the meeting could have gone on for longer as the chairman brought down the curtain with a motion committing to re-meet when the network report is published. I had the chance at the end of the meeting to talk with Dr Quigley and ask if the ambulance service was capable of delivering a service to Co Wexford in the context of A&E moving to Waterford and as to whether the EMT’s were available to crew ambulances. His reply was one that gave me a sense of both the betrayal and frustration that is obvious in some consultants at middle size hospitals such as Sligo or Wexford at present.
I don’t accept John Browne’s explanation of the comments as joke, no more than I think Tommy Tiernan’s Anti-Jewish remarks at Electric Picnic were funny. Both Tiernan and Browne have effectively highjacked a serious issue for the purpose of self promotion. Families of politicians are effectively off limits in the context of political attacks, but how does one respond when a politician humiliates a member of his family as a means of self-promotion. As I listened to John speak, I could barely believe what I was hearing. What John said was gormless, crass and in bad taste. It is telling that he believes most 23 year olds interaction with A&E is to deal with excessive alcohol consumption. Last year I attended a conference where Senator Phil Prendergast set out how medical staff in A&E’s feel threatened by violence from people with excessive alcohol. It’s no laughing matter, I can tell you. He doesn’t need to explain himself to the people of Wexford however and most of important of all, he needs to apologise to his daughter