Press Release - Looney Calls for Live Webcasting of Council Meetings

Cllr Dermot Looney, a Labour Party representative on South Dublin County Council (SDCC), has called for meetings of the Council to be broadcast live on the Internet.

Looney has submitted a question to September’s Council meeting requesting the County Manager to provide the facility “in the interests of democracy and transparency.” The written question also notes the “free and easy-to-use options available online” to webcast the meetings.

“Our neighbouring Councils of Fingal, Dublin City and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown all broadcast Council meetings live on their respective websites, and archive the meetings so that interested constituents can view the meetings,” noted Looney.

“Council meetings are already open to the public but are poorly-attended. Opening up Council business through the internet will further serve that democratic function as well as making it easier for interested members of the public, the media and others to view meetings. Archiving the meetings online will make sure that Councillors and officials are held to account.”

“With free to use software now available for streaming online events and archiving, I am confident that the County Manager will respond positively to my call, and that streaming may begin later in the year.”

MANDATE Press Release - WORKERS IN SPAWELL CONTINUE PROTEST AT NON PAYMENT OF WAGES

Mandate calls on Minister for Enterprise to investigate Spawell dispute

Mandate Trade Union members in the Spawell Pub and Nightclub are continuing their protest today at the Spawell complex in Templeogue. The workers were made redundant two weeks ago with no redundancy money and with approximately one month’s wages owed to each of the staff members.

CB Taverns, trading as the Spawell Licenced Premises, ceased trading on Monday, 10 August 2009 with the loss of 32 jobs. The company has still not paid staff members wages outstanding to them including over two weeks wages and holiday pay.

Mr Eddie Cassidy, Divisional Organiser for Mandate said the workers are getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of action by management in the company and are disappointed that an employer can treat its workers in this manner and get away with it for so long.

“Clearly this should be a wake up call to workers and unions and it shows that closer scrutiny of businesses is needed in order to prevent this type of incident happening again. The management in CB Taverns have been very confrontational and unhelpful during this whole debacle. They are responsible for the situation these workers find themselves in but it would appear that they are unwilling to shoulder any of that responsibility.

“Mandate will do everything in its power to ensure that these workers receive appropriate compensation and that preventative measures are taken to ensure employers behave responsibly in future. Mandate is calling on Mary Coughlan, the Minister for the Enterprise, Trade and Employment, to investigate this incident and take steps to protect workers from unscrupulous and irresponsible employers in future.”

Mr Cassidy also said that the workers have received tremendous support from members of the public and also from political representatives.

“We’ve received a lot of support from the public and politicians in the area. The workers have asked me in particular to thank Deputy Pat Rabbitte and Cllr Dermot Looney of the Labour Party, Deputy Brian Hayes of Fine Gael and Cllr Sean Crowe of Sinn Fein for their continued support,” concluded Mr Cassidy.

Sorry!

Sincere apologies for the lack of recent updates. It's been quite a busy summer of settling in on the Council, for what it's worth!

Part of the reason for the lack of updates is that we're looking to shift to a new platform for the blog. More news on that real soon!

For now, if I may be indulged...