An Bord Snip Nua recommends Armagedon for Ireland!!
Issued : Sunday 19 July, 2009
The devastating report that An Bord Snip Nua has recommended for Ireland is nothing short of Armagedon for our country.
From the reading the report, it is very clean and plain to see that the Bord have absolutely no respect or indeed regard for the hard working decent citizens of our island.
I strongly believe that every single person, man, woman or child will be severely affected by these cuts, through services and employment.
Our children’s future will be wiped away with the loss of over 7,000 teaching posts and the amalgamation of primary schools, driving class sizes way up and literally putting teachers at breaking point.
Above all it is the less fortunate in our society that will be most affected by these recommendations, the proposal to cut one of the best programme that ever came to the town of Clonmel, the RAPID programme, the Bord have recommended the discontinuation of the programme and an end to funding the coordinators to local authorities. This will absolutely have devastating effects on the under resourced areas of our town. As the Chairperson of the Clonmel RAPID programme I have no doubt that the effects this will have will be detrimental to the fantastic work that has been carried out in our est\ates, we have seen the installation of a children’s playground, a multi use games area and now an outdoor gym in Elm Park, as well as the installation and funding of the extremely popular and successful Youth Project in the estate, Project for Rapid Youth and the successful closure of troublesome laneways. In the other estates we have seen
Fantastic work also carried out, replacing of footpaths, roads resurfaced, speed ramps installed to name just a few.
The Bord are also recommending take out over 2000 Special Needs Assistants from the education system, this is the lowest of the low!! Main stream and Special schools are already under severe pressure and to have them lose vital staff to allow our children receive a decent education is a disgrace.
The proposal to reduce the number of local authorities is an absolute insult to the democracy of our country. Local Authorities are now the one and only way this country has of assisting our citizens, if we are to depend on national parliament to respond to the needs of our constituents we will have an awful long wait given that the present Government are more interested in protecting the bankers that robbed the country and the fat cats that crammed into the Galway tent to rub shoulders with our Ministers.
Already some of our rural villages and towns lands are been plagued with crime and anti social behaviour, at a time when we need more Gardai the Bord is now proposing to cut in half the number of Garda stations in the country.
The recommendations in relation to proposed cuts in certain Social Welfare payments is an insult, now our Elderly are going to be taxed for their free allowances, the people who kept our country going and built it to where we are today are now the ones been targeted. A 5% cut in payment for some of the people in receipt of Social Welfare payments, will I have no doubt in my mind, mean the choice between a mother or father been fed or their children.
I am calling on the Fianna Fail TD’s in our constituency to reject this report in its entirety and call on their government colleagues to follow suit.
