Press Release - "Return Home to Labour," Looney Asks Local Workers

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate in the new Tallaght Central ward has called on local trade union members to "return home" and vote Labour in June's local elections. Speaking in the wake of the ICTU National Demonstration in Dublin City Centre on February 21st, which brought 120,000 union members onto the streets, Looney pledged his support for local workers and the unemployed in the months ahead, claiming that Fianna Fáil had abandoned working people with a reckless economic policy and support for big bankers and developers.

Looney, who was part of a strong Dublin South-West Labour contingent on the march, is a primary school teacher and member of the INTO.

"Workers have been under months of vicious attack from this clueless government," said Looney. "Levies which hit even those on the minimum wage will not win our way out of the recession. Nor will the cynical attempts by Fianna Fáil and their friends in big business to divide-and-rule by driving a wedge between public and private workers."

"Local workers, public and private, will have their opportunity to continue the fightback in the months to come within their own unions. Those who are not yet members of unions can take this opportunity to unionise and be part of the campaign for a better, fairer way for Ireland. But workers can also win by making sure their vote counts this June."

"Traditionally, Ireland has been unusual in European terms because large amounts of working people tend to support Fianna Fáil rather than a Labour or socialist party. But recent poll increases and a swell in our membership shows that, ever day, more and more people are turning to Labour as the real alternative. For the workers who return home by voting Labour, I pledge this litmus test - if elected, every decision I will take on the Council will need to be in the interests of working people and those excluded by society. And other parties simply don't match up to that test."

Proud to have Stood Up - Now for the Long Walk

I'm delighted to have been part of the 120,000 + workers and their families who took to the streets yesterday to demand a better, fairer way.

You can read ICTU's ten point plan for national recovery here. It was heartening to see the labour movement take such action. The next few months will be a particularly tough fight for working people. Attempts to drive a wedge between the public and private sector continue apace. The socialist stand for a public sector at the heart of society is under threat from the divide-and-rule tactics of Fianna Fáil and their friends in big business and the media, many of whom, of course, have been to blame for the current crisis.

Yesterday, we stood up. Tomorrow, and for the foreseeable future, it'll be the long walk to victory.

Here are some pics from the demonstration. You can see more on my Facebook Group.

Comrades in Arms

I am honoured to be a Labour candidate in this election. What gives me most food for thought are the many magnificent Labour activists who have tried to get a nomination, but have not done so for various - and often unfortunate - reasons.

However, in recent days I've been particularly proud that two comrades with whom I have worked closely in the past have been chosen on Labour tickets.

Patrick Nulty, who was Chair of the Labour Youth Executive I served on in 2006-07, has been chosen as a Labour candidate in the Mulhuddart Ward of Fingal County Council. Patrick is a phenomenal inspiration to many of us in the party - a dedicated activist on issues across the board, who has worked particularly hard on behalf of homeless people. Patrick will be a superb representative and has been off to a flying start since his selection last week.

Ian McGahon is another comrade from days in Labour Youth. I spent a week in the US with Ian on the Obama campaign in Virginia last November, and have worked closely with him at national level. Ian has been selected as a candidate for Bray Town Council in Co Wicklow, and deserves all the support he can get to become another outstanding left representative.

These two are added to by Cian O'Callaghan, our candidate in the Howth-Malahide Ward on Fingal Council. Cian recruited me to the Labour Party in 2003 and his campaign for election has been fantastic in an area far from a traditional Labour stronghold.

My experience of political candidates is that they are often insular, petty and deeply selfish about making sure they are elected! But this time round, I'm proud to ask those campaigning with and for me to give whatever time and effort they can to campaigns like those of Cian, Ian and Patrick. A significant challenge for Labour is to rejuvenate the party not just with young representatives, but with those who have a record of activism and work on the left. The four of us, and the many others I haven't named here, can be part of a promising future for the party - so we need to make that future happen.

Press Release - Cynical Attacks on Special Needs Kids Should be Reversed - Looney

Cynical Attacks on Special Needs Kids Should be Reversed - Looney

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate in the new Tallaght Central ward in June's local elections, has called for special needs class cuts targeting local schools to be reversed. Greenhills-based Looney, a primary school teacher who works in Tallaght, was commenting in the wake of another savage week of cutbacks in education, with almost 120 schools hit by the effective closure of special classes and withdrawal of support for special needs children.

The schools in the Tallaght Central ward affected are:

- St Peter’s BNS, Limekiln Road, Greenhills;

- St Mary’s School, Greenhills Road, Tallaght Village;

- St Paul’s GNS (Senior), Limekiln Lane, Greenhills;

- Scoil Nmh Aengusa (Sinsear), Balrothery;

- St Mark’s Senior NS, Springfield

· each of which will lose 1 special class

- St Brigid's NS, Brookfield;

- St Aidan's NS, Brookfield;

- St Anne’s Primary School, Fettercairn

· each of which will lose 2 classes.

Looney, 26, has launched a petition locally to Minister O'Keeffe aimed at reversing the cuts.

"It is no coincidence that the majority of these are in working-class communities and areas of socio-economic disadvantage," noted Looney. "This really is the lowest of the low from this clueless government who are putting their banking buddies and developer donors ahead of the most needy. The sickening excuse that the policy is to mainstream these pupils is nothing but nonsense – mainstreaming should only take place when children are ready."

"The trend in recent years has been to accommodate children with learning disabilities in mainstream schools, with much of the old 'special school' infrastructure being dismantled. If the replacement infrastructure in mainstream schools is itself now being dismantled, that means that these children are being left high and dry. Services for kids with special needs have come under sustained attack in recent years, with many local schools already suffering from severe cutbacks in Special Needs Assistants numbers."

ENDS

Gummy Spending Limits And the Need for Ethical Cash

After months of haranguing the Minister for Environment, John Gormley TD, eventually launched the much-vaunted local election spending limits today.

You'll find the details here.

The results, predictably, are a toothless whitewash, if that metaphorical mix is permitted.

For LEA's the size of Tallaght Central, a €15,000 spending limit will apply. For members of political parties, this is automatically reduced to €13,500 because a ten per cent levy (haven't we had enough of that word) is imposed on those getting support from party head offices.

Although our ward is one of the biggest in the country, the €15,000 doesn't bother me one bit. We simply haven't a hope of raising that amount of cash to spend. Nor do I intend traipsing along to a host of banks looking for loans that we may very well struggle to pay back.

We are more ambitious, perhaps, than any other campaign in Tallaght Central and I am sure our efforts will be noticeable in the final weeks of the campaign in particular. Regardless, our expenditure will be a fraction of that figure.

The figure is too high in the first place, but that's not likely to affect the heavy spenders anyway. The 'spending limits' apply only to the last 60 days of the campaign. Anyone in fear of going over the limit can simply front-end their spending to, say, 61 days before!

Not that it particularly matters. The proposals, as usual, are toothless. There is little on the way of resourcing of investigation of how accounts have been kept, their accuracy and what has been left off. Even if dodgy dealings were uncovered, there seems to be *no* punishment for those who lie or fraud their way in election accounts.

This is a typical Green governmental sop, simple as.

We will win our campaign here in Tallaght Central not on how much we spend, nor on how much we say we haven't spent - but on actual political engagement with voters, by the promotion of our message, and by the politics and values we put forward.

Money is most certainly needed for a modern election campaign - that's why I launched a donation drive last week - but for us, donations are small and from ordinary people who support our campaign. We refuse point-blank the big business and speculator bribery which hurt our communities and corrupted the politics of this country, and continues to do so.

Fianna Fáil and their cronies will have you believing this was all in the distant past, a relic of a byegone era. But let's look at facts - as Elaine Byrne has in today's Times.

1. Treasury Holdings declared donations of €100,000 to Fianna Fáil between 1997 and 2007 - and a further €70,000 to the PD's.

2. In total, the Fianna Fáil party, including its parliamentary wing, declared donations of more than €3 million during those ten years - approaching 60% of all declared donations.

3. Of the €1.5 million donated directly to the Fianna Fáil party itself, €600,000 - about 40% - came straight from developers.

4. These are iceberg tips. As Byrne notes, "The 2008 standards commission report found that €8.8 million in political donations were not disclosed in the three-week period before the 2007 general election (never mind that spent in the previous two years!)."

It's entirely factual to say Fianna Fáil are the party most supported by, and supportive of, big developers and big bankers. It is political corruption of the highest order - whether in-your-face-blatant or only blatant (there's nothing subtle about it). And a huge part of the progressive task is to ensure that culture of closeness is purged from Irish politices in this generation.