Press Photo Release - Looney in Tune at Labour Conference

Labour's Dermot Looney, a candidate for next year's local elections in the Tallaght Central Ward which includes Greenhills, Templeogue and Tallaght, leads delegates in singing "The Red Flag" at the Labour Party Conference in Kilkenny on November 30th.

"The Red Flag," written by Jim Connell from County Meath, is an international socialist standard and was adopted as the official anthem of the Irish Labour Party on Looney's proposal in 2007.

Looney, who is an avid folk musician and singer and whose influences include Christy Moore, Luke Kelly and Billy Bragg, was featured on RTÉ's 6.1 News leading the thousand delegates in closing the Conference.

Picture by Shauneen Armstrong.

Press Release - Local Unemployed Abandoned by Heartless Government - Labour candidate Looney

Labour Party local election candidate Dermot Looney has said that the government has abandoned unemployed people and those in danger of losing their jobs with the latest local Live Register figures making for grim reading.

Figures made available to Looney from local Labour TD Pat Rabbitte show that the numbers signing on in Tallaght have jumped by almost 2,000 in the last 18 months, with 5,526 unemployed in October 2008 compared with 5,577 in May 2007 - a 54.5% increase. Nationally, there are now more than a quarter of a million people unemployed, including more than 100,000 newly signing on in the last 12 months.

Looney, who is standing in the Tallaght Central Ward which covers Greenhills, Templeogue and much of Dublin 24, noted that "not one positive measure to curb unemployment or to assist those out of work was presented in the recent budget. Scandalously, the only action brought forward by the Government was to actually make it more difficult to qualify for jobseekers allowance and restrict the period over which it is paid."

"Labour has proposed a series of measures to combat the unemployment problem that have been totally ignored by the Government. In terms of the thousands of workers involved in construction we have proposed a major school building programme to take 40,000 children out of pre-fabs and put them into proper classrooms. We have also put forward a national insulation scheme to make our housing stock more energy efficient, reducing carbon emissions and reducing household fuel bills as well as allowing people to work. We want to see more and better retraining initiatives across the sectors and to ensure a jobs policy and an economy which meet the needs of society - not the other way around."

"Yet again, the Government have shown a nasty, uncaring attitude to working class communities and those who are most vulnerable in our society. For Tallaght Central, now's the time for a real alternative," Looney concluded.

ENDS

Press Release - Tallaght’s Youth Saying “Yes We Can” to Change: Labour candidate Looney

Tallaght's Youth Saying "Yes We Can" to Change: Labour candidate Looney

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate in Tallaght Central for next year's local election, has said that Barack Obama's victory in the US Presidential election has given a huge boost to local young people who are demanding real political change. Looney, who worked on the Obama campaign in Virginia, was speaking after accepting a donation from Labour Youth at their annual conference in Limerick on November 8th.

Looney, the youngest candidate in the county yet declared at 26, has been a leading light in various student and youth campaigns over a number of years and has led the rejuvenation of Labour Youth in Dublin South West since joining the party in 2003.

A former Development Officer of UCD Students' Union, Looney is now working with students in Tallaght IT and young people across Tallaght, Greenhills and Templeogue in building a local Labour Youth organisation to campaign for what he has termed 'the real alternative' for the local area.

One of the key tools in their campaign is the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, a method used to great success in the recent US election, which has already attracted 250 local people to Looney's campaign group.

"I was lucky enough to spend a few days working on the Obama campaign in Virginia just prior to the election," Looney told the conference. "The inspiration and ideas generated by that campaign have resonated across the world, including the huge support and goodwill shown towards Obama by young people here at home."

"The model promoted by the Obama campaign can't be copied in an entirely different political landscape. But young people across Ireland who are desperate for real change have been inspired by the message of hope shining through in dark times."

"As well as being fired up by the idealism within the Obama campaign, young people are also looking for the change we need here at home – the change we need to break the politics of a long-gone Civil War, and the change we need in the issues which matter most to young people – jobs, education, health and housing."

Looney received a donation of €1,000 towards his campaign from Labour Youth's fundraising efforts at the Limerick conference, and asked the delegates to be positive about the change Labour's new generation can affect across Ireland. "Yes we can change Ireland and change the world. But the change we need begins here at home, and here in Tallaght Central we want to build on our success as the youngest election campaign in Ireland by growing our organisation and winning for ordinary people across the generations."

Looney, who will speak at an anti-fees meeting organised by IT Tallaght Labour in early December, has encouraged secondary school and college students, young workers and all local people under 26 to join with Labour Youth, which has seen its numbers boosted considerably in the recent economic and political tumult.

Press Release - Labour candidate Looney lashes Budget attacks on children & students

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate in Tallaght Central for next year’s local election, has said that the Government’s budget, announced on October 14^th, is a “vicious right-wing assault on children and young people, and on the promise of the 1916 Proclamation to ‘cherish all the children of the nation equally.’”

Speaking at the AGM of the Willie Cremins Limekiln-Greenhills Branch of the Labour Party, Looney, a 26 year-old national schoolteacher, said that while the budget was rife with attacks on working people and the elderly, attacks on education were among the most despicable of all.

“I am lucky enough to teach in a fantastic school in Tallaght, but to ask teachers like myself to implement the new Curriculum with more than 30 pupils in class in this day and age is ludicrous,” said Looney.

“That the Government would make a u-turn on years of promises to cut class sizes, and instead decide to increase them, beggars belief. We will now have the largest class size out of the 27 EU countries. The 100,000 children in classes of 30 or more who are destined to years of underfunded, under-resourced education – and their parents and families - deserve so much better than Fianna Fáil and their cronies.”

“It is particularly sickening that children who need the most support are the targets of government. Gone are equipment and resource grants for resource teachers. Gone is €2.1 million from school libraries which promote literacy amongst children. Gone is an astonishing €4.3 million designated for supporting Traveller children. And gone is the implementation of the EPSEN Act, the 2004 promise to support special needs children both legally and with Special Needs assistants and teachers.”

Looney, who attended Greenhills College VEC and was a student campaigner in UCD and nationally, also noted the government’s cutbacks in second and third level. “The increase in class size at second level is similarly baffling, while the decision to lash third-level students in Tallaght IT and elsewhere with a massive €1500 registration fee is a regressive nonsense.”

“Students from working class backgrounds have been helped by Labour’s free fees initiative – I should know, as I was one of them. Instead we have pseudo-left arguments from Fianna Fáil, the same party who bail out bankers and speculators but target the vulnerable time and time again.”

“Labour stands for a different approach to education; publicly-funded, universal and the best in the world. And Tallaght Central deserves a Councillor who will stand up for education of all our children and young people.”

Medical Card Crisis for Pensioners

It is nothing short of a national disgrace that the Government is hitting our old age pensioners to cut their budget losses with the abolition of the automatic entitlement of over 70s to medical cards.

For a long time the government’s right wing agenda has meant we have had a two-tier health service. But this decision will effectively give our pensioners a four-tier health system. Some will have medical cards, others will have GP cards, some will receive their €400 in cash, while others will have nothing at all.

There is genuine fear, anger and utter confusion among retired people over the treatment meted out to them by Fianna Fáil in this week’s budget. The removal of the medical card from over-70s will have a serious impact not just on people’s finances, but on their health.

While considerable attention has been drawn to the adverse financial implications that the government’s removal of the medical card will have, the implications for the state of their health are as bad if not worse.

We know for example that the medical consultation rate for people who became eligible for these cards jumped by 73%. This removal of the requirement to pay has meant more people going to the doctor for a check-up, a flu vaccine or for a routine visit and as a result, illnesses that can be identified at an early stage are being caught. This means that people are being treated before their condition becomes chronic, when they would invariably end up as a patient in hospital.

We also know from census data that the percentage of people over 70 who had a disability dropped appreciably between 2002 and 2006. It’s not unreasonable to conclude that this is as a result of better access to primary care and improved management of existing health conditions.

GP services and prescriptions are not the only services that will be out of bounds for those losing their medical cards. This ill-thought-out plan means they will not be able to get access to flu vaccine, home help packages, incontinence wear, dressings, nor to community physiotherapy and occupational therapy services.

Simply put, this decision must be reversed immediately.

This stingy Government targeted old people, workers and young families instead of their own developer buddies and the super rich. They’ll bail out bankers and speculators but not elderly people who have worked and contributed to society for all their lives. Labour is committed to a different kind of politics and a different kind of economics – truly putting people before profit.

Notes: WITHDRAWAL OF MEDICAL CARD FOR OVER 70s PROTEST
ORGANISED BY THE SENIOR CITIZEN’S PARLIAMENT

DATE: Wednesday October 22nd

TIME: 12:30 to 1.30pm

VENUE: Outside Dail Eireann, Kildare Street

WITHDRAWAL OF MEDICAL CARD FOR OVER 70s PUBLIC MEETING
ORGANISED BY AGE ACTION IRELAND

DATE: Tuesday October 21st

TIME: 11:00am

VENUE: O’Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Fenian Street, Off Merrion Square, Dublin 2 (beside the Eircom Building / Gingerman Pub)