Looney publishes expenses and remuneration for 2013

Independent Cllr Dermot Looney, a candidate in the Templeogue-Terenure electoral area in the upcoming local elections, has welcomed the imminent publication of Councillor expenses for the County for 2013. In 2011, Looney won a long campaign to secure the publication of all Cllr expenses. The publication of the “S142 Register” giving these details is due on the Council website in the coming days.

“I am again happy that this important information is being made accessible to the public,” noted Looney. “Following my election in 2009, I campaigned to have this information made readily available online in the interests of transparency and accountability. As well as releasing a full list of my Council pay and expenses since 2009, I am also the only Councillor to publish my expenses as a member of the ETB (formerly the VEC) and four of its subcommittees.”

“My election as Mayor half-way through 2013 means that I have taken leave from my job as a teacher and taken a full-time wage from the Council. My first decision as Mayor was to cut my pay by €7,000 - €3,500 of the Mayoral Allowance for 2013 went into the Mayor’s Fund for community groups, and a further €3,500 has been cut for 2014.”

“In nearly five years on the Council I have refused to attend ‘conferences’ at home or abroad. Instead, over €20,000 foregone by me has gone to providing homeless accommodation, assisting Council tenants in need of window and door replacement, and funding mobility grants for the elderly and those who are disabled.”

“It is disappointing that almost €122,000 has been spent on these ‘conferences’ over the last five years, mainly by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Councillors. If I am re-elected in May, I will continue my pledge not to claim money for ‘conferences’ and to continue to oppose the junket culture.”

Cllr Dermot Looney – Remuneration and Expenses 2013
2013: Representational Payment €16,657.72; Mayor Allowance €17,900.02 (includes deduction for Mayor’s Fund) – total salary €34,557.74
Expenses €6,486.87; Home Conferences €0; International Travel €0; Phone, Broadband and Mayor Travel €4,727.14; VEC/ETB Expenses €1,053.82 (covered 2012-13); Other Expenses €0. Total Expenses: €12,267.83

Cllr Dermot Looney – Remuneration and Expenses 2009-2011
2009 (June-Dec): Representational Payment €9,731.10
Expenses €3,587.47; Home Conferences €0; International Travel €0; Phone & Broadband €300; VEC Expenses €283.64; Other Expenses €0. Total Expenses: €4171.11

2010: Representational Payment €16,797.26;
Expenses €6,306.65; Home Conferences €0; International Travel €0; Phone & Broadband €829.35; VEC Expenses €810.40; Other Expenses €0. Total Expenses: €7,946.40

2011: Representational Payment €16,723.92;
Expenses €6,486.87; Home Conferences €0; International Travel €0; Phone & Broadband €985.72; VEC Expenses €769.88; Other Expenses €0. Total Expenses: €8,242,47

2012: Representational Payment €16,723.92;
Expenses €6,486.87; Home Conferences €0; International Travel €0; Phone & Broadband €650.62; VEC Expenses €567.28; Other Expenses €0. Total Expenses: €7,704.77

Notes:
 
The “Representational Payment” is, in essence, a Councillor’s ‘salary;’ it is fixed at one-quarter of a Senator’s salary and is dependent on attendance at meetings. As it is subject to PAYE, PRSI, USC and other deductions. I receive approximately €8,000 per annum nett. The Mayoral Allowance in 2013 was paid in the six months from July-December. It is also subject to these deductions.

The main “expenses” figure – formerly the “annual allowance” refers to travel, subsistence and other expenses incurred in carrying out the duties of a Cllr. “Phone and Broadband” refers to the payments made for mobile phone and broadband usage. A travel allowance is provided to the Mayor in lieu of a car. “VEC expenses” are €40.52 for every meeting of the VEC or its Subcommittees that incurs more than 3 hours work. Expenses do not apply to Community School boards or meetings which take less than 3 hours.

Full details of attendance and expenses for all SDCC Cllrs are available at http://www.sdcc.ie/the-council/council-meetings/s142-register

Looney appeals to Archbishop - defer plans to merge Greenhills schools to consult parents, staff and community

Cllr Dermot Looney, Mayor of South Dublin County Council and the only public representative based in the Greenhills area, has called on the Archbishop of Dublin to defer plans to merge three local primary schools, and to take more time to consult with parents, staff and the wider community.

Principals in St Peter’s Boys NS, St Paul’s Junior Girls NS and St Paul’s Senior Girls NS were informed by phone last Friday that the Archdiocese would be closing all three schools and reopening two new schools on the site of St Paul’s this coming September. Parents were informed of this on Monday and there has been considerable anxiety with regard to the speed of the proposed changes and the lack of consultation.

Cllr Looney, a past pupil of St Peter’s, in which he also trained to be a teacher, stated that he and his family have a long involvement in the schools. “My three brothers and two sisters also attended St Peter’s and St Paul’s, while my mother served on both Boards of Management and Parents’ Associations in the schools. I chair the Board of Management of Greenhills College, to where many of the boys from St Peter’s move. As a teacher myself, as well as a local resident, I am deeply familiar with the issues faced by the schools in terms of demographic shifts, changes in parental choice and relationships with other schools locally.”

“No-one who is aware of the history and current status of primary education in the Greenhills area will be particularly surprised with proposals to merge the schools. I am a supporter of co-education and would welcome the long-term security given to children and their parents in Greenhills from a combined approach.”

“However, having spoken with staff and parents from all three schools, I am deeply concerned with the nature of the announcement and with the intention to proceed with a merger in a few months time.”

“I have been informed that parents and staff have had no say in the nature of the amalgamation and were informed by phone call last Friday that the Archdiocese intends pressing ahead with the new schools this September. This runs counter to the inclusive approach which is championed in all three schools and has resulted in significant anger locally. People in Greenhills and nearby areas have a long and proud history with these three schools and such a rushed approach would be disrespectful to the community as a whole.”

“There are a variety of crucial issues on which parents and staff – and in some cases the community at large - should have their say; whether the new school/s are vertical or split into junior and senior, issues of accommodation such as classrooms and toilets, the future of the St Peter’s site, the names of the new school/s, the formation of Boards of Management, etc.”

“In the circumstances, I believe it would be prudent to delay the proposed changes until the beginning of the 2015-16 academic year, giving the relevant Boards of Management and the Archdiocese itself the time and space to engage in genuine, binding consultation and planning with parents, staff and the wider community.”

Cllr Looney has written to the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, to the Director of the Diocesan Education Secretariat, Anne McDonagh, and to Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to call for the deferral of the amalgamation plans.

Statement from Cllr Dermot Looney

I am announcing today my decision to leave the Labour Party with immediate effect.

On a personal level, this has been a difficult decision. I have been an active member of the party for most of my adult life and given more than ten years service as an activist, officer and, most recently, public representative. In that time I recruited and worked closely with a large number of new members, some of whom have left the party, and others of whom I will leave behind. I have worked in a progressive Labour group on South Dublin County Council and have enjoyed campaigning with many decent activists and representatives over the years.

However, on a political level, it has been clear to me for some time that the Labour Party is no longer for me, nor am I for the Labour Party. Over the last ten years I have done my best to advocate for policies and ideas rooted in the values of the left which brought me into politics. Over the last three, I have been dismayed at the failure of Labour in Government to advance these values and ideas, and am equally concerned at the long-term outlook for these politics in the party.

There is no one individual policy on which I am making a stand; there have been dozens over the lifetime of the Government with which I fundamentally disagree. Labour has kowtowed to Fine Gael’s economic agenda, presided over cuts across the public sector which worst affect those who are vulnerable, and implemented a series of demonstrably regressive budgets.

I have spoken with many local people who voted for me in 2009, or for Labour in the general election, who feel utterly sickened by Labour’s implementation of the austerity agenda. Their views match my own.  I stand diametrically opposed to government policy – and by extension that of the Labour Party – in areas as diverse as healthcare, local democracy, housing, state assets and taxation.

I believe that Labour has abandoned even the most basic of social democratic concerns in Government, and my decision to leave is based as much on the direction in which the party is headed as on its record in Government.

While I and others have argued for a change in direction, it is clear these arguments – even when made successfully via structures such as party conference – have had little effect. In my experience, Labour is controlled in effect by a democratic centralism which ensures power in the party is concentrated in the hands of a small few.

One can only rail against the inevitable for so long; in my own case, I have no distance left to run in the Party. Instead, I will be looking to continue a track record as a principled and hard-working Councillor by seeking election in May as an independent candidate in the “Templeogue-Terenure” Local Electoral Area. I will not be joining any other parties or groupings but hope in the future to play a constructive role in working with others on the left at local and national level. 

50 community groups to benefit from Mayor's paycut

Following my election Mayor in late June, one of the first decisions I made was to take a paycut and to divert that money instead into a fund for community groups. My colleague, Deputy Mayor Eamon Tuffy, joined me in this and together we launched the "Mayors Fund" back in September. In total, we have allocated €10,000 for this fund. The fund was to be administered by the Community Department in South Dublin County Council and was aimed towards the three priorities I have outlined for my term as Mayor - youth and sport, older persons and the environment.

We expected to be able to make grants of up to €500 when we launched the fund, as we expected that 20 or 30 groups would apply. Instead, we have been overwhelmed with the level of applications which arrived in. In total, almost 75 separate applications were made to the fund. In consultation with the Community Department, myself and the Deputy Mayor have decided to make grants of €200 to 50 groups to ensure that as many groups as possible were helped out with a small, but significant amount of money. The groups come from all five electoral areas in South Dublin County and are across the three priorities listed above.

Thanks to all who have helped in setting up the Mayors Fund and in spreading the word. Congratulations to the 50 groups who will receive cheques worth €200 in the New Year. Commiserations to the groups who did not receive funding this time - we are writing to these groups to advise of alternative funding sources. In no particular order, the successful groups are;

1 Youth Horizons
2 Perrystown Manor Estate Active Retirement (based in Perrystown Community Centre)
3 Tallaght Mens Shed
4 Kingswood Kilnamanagh Active Age Club Men
5 Bawnogue Youth & Community Centre
6 Sruleen Community Development Association
7 St. Aengus Active Retirement
8 Boden Park Residents Association
9 Brookfield Environmental Group
10 65th Greenhills Scout Group, Celebrating 40 Years
11 Retired Active Mens Shed (RAMS)
12 Dominics Community Centre
13 Dodder Park Residents Association
14 Whitecastle Girl Guides
15 St. Kevins Family Resource Centre
16 Cherryfield Residents Association
17 Willbrook & Willbrook Downs Res Associ
18 Greenhills Boys Greenhills Afc
19 Old County Pitch & Putt Club
20 Tallaght Festival Band
21 Mojo Mens Shed
22 Brittas Community Association
23 Limekiln Temple Manor Community Games Limekiln Communitygames 
24 Greenhills School Completion Programme
25 Holy Rosary Primary School
26 Ballyboden Family Resource Centre
27 Lucan Community College (Coderdojo)
28 Citywise Education
29 Swan FSO
30 Clondalkin Shotokan Academy
31 Perrystown Performers Society
32 Key Project
33 Bawnogue Unemployed Group Ltd.,
34 CARP- Killinarden
35 St. Peters BNS
36 Greenhills College Basketball Club (Greenhills Colleage)
37 The Web Project
38 Gaelscoil Na Camoige
39 North Clondalkin CDP
40 Quarryvale Community & Leisure Centre
41 The Stay Project
42 The Four District Day Care Company
43 St Andrew’s Centre for Senior Citizens
44 CAP Allotments Project
45 Clondalkin Equine Club
46 Trustus We Care
47 Greenhills Ladies Club (based in Greenhills Community Centre)
48 Finnstown Abbey Residents Association
49 Active Age Group, St Jude’s
50 Manortown United F.C

A Directly-Elected Mayor for Dublin? Have Your Say!

Next May, as well as voting in local and European elections, voters across Dublin are set to be faced with another ballot paper, asking if they want a directly-elected Mayor for Dublin or not.

Directly-elected Mayors exist across Europe and in other political systems, but not in Ireland. Dublin currently has four people fulfilling Mayoral roles; the Lord Mayor of Dublin City, myself as Mayor of South Dublin, the Mayor of Fingal, and the Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. All of us were elected by the Councillors on each of our Councils, but the vote next May will ask Dubliners if they would like a straight vote to elect a Mayor for all of Dublin.

I am working with the other Mayors and Councillors from across Dublin, including our own County Council, to come up with a proposal for Dubliners to vote on next May. While nothing is set in stone, some elements of the new proposals have broad agreement:

- The new Mayor would serve for a 5 year term;
- The new Mayor would represent all of Dublin, county and city;
- The existing 4 local authorities (the City Council and three County Councils) would be retained.

There are a number of key issues, though, on which we are looking for comments and advice from Dubliners, including:

- What powers would the new Mayor have?
- To whom would the Mayor be answerable/accountable?
- Would the Mayor be able to appoint her/his own “Cabinet?”
- What would happen to the existing offices of Mayor/Lord Mayor/Cathaoirleach?
- How would all this be funded?

It is vital that people in South Dublin and across the Dublin region have their say during the public consultation phase which lasts until October 12th. Let us know the kind of directly-elected Mayor you would like to see, or if you don’t wish to see one at all. Anyone interested can take a survey or make a written submission online, as well as finding out more information on the process, at www.mayor4dublin.ie. Hard copies of this are also available in County Hall, Tallaght and in Council libraries and facilities across South Dublin.

I will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting on the issue of a Directly-Elected Mayor next Wednesday, October 9th from 7.15pm-9pm in County Hall, Tallaght for members of the public to find out more and have their say. I look forward to seeing you there.