Bryce Evans is the People Before Profit Alliance

Local Election Candidate for the Rathmines ward.

Read more about Bryce Evans and his campaign at:
www.bryceevans.org

Rory Hearne, who recently completed a PhD on PPPs in Trinity College Dublin and who is a candidate for the People Before Profit Alliance in the upcoming local elections in Dublin South East, has criticised the decision to develop another bundle of schools through the PPP mechanism.

Rory Hearne, a PPP expert said: “Minister Batt O Keefe claims today that one of the main advantages PPP schools have is that the principal is not involved on a daily basis in maintenance and caretaking issues as these become the responsibility of the PPP operator for the period of the contract. However, the research that I undertook over three years into PPP schools in Ireland and the UK found that in fact the workload of principals did not automatically lessen. In some of the Irish PPP schools the workload of principals INCREASED due to the private operator trying to cut costs and the complex nature of contract monitoring.”

“Furthermore the existing two bundle of PPP schools in Ireland were awarded to large multinational service and equity providers e.g. Hochtief, Jarvis and the Macquarie Group. These companies now control key aspects
of the schools. The evidence to date suggests that these companies are more interested in their bottom line than providing quality, education and community based services.”

“The evidence that I have gathered in my PhD points to the need for Irish Government Departments and local authorities to take a much more cautionary approach to the adoption of PPPs, particularly in areas where the public service or infrastructure being provided primarily serves a social equality function.”

A number of salient points should be highlighted:
1. PPPs are not necessarily cheaper than the direct public route. The Comptroller and Auditor General found that schools provided under the PPP route cost between 8 to 13% higher than the traditional route. In fact the introduction of the ‘for-profit’ private sector adds the EXTRA cost of the requirement of a profitable return to the private partner. This cost has in other PPP schools been borne by the students and schools through cheaper, and, therefore, lower quality services and equipment provided.

2. PPPs that depend on private sector providing funding are subject to market fluctuations. The recent collapse of the PPP projects in social housing regeneration in Dublin highlight this clearly. This means that if the private sector cannot identify the required profitability in a project then projects simply will not happen. It is reported that there has been some delay in the other PPP schools because the private sector has not been able to source finance.
There is a previously un-reported level of concern on the part of some of the principals and teachers in the 5 existing PPP schools in Ireland regarding aspects of poor design, maintenance, management, poor monitoring of contract fulfilment by the Department of Education, poor consultation, the commercialisation of schools and a reduction in the community use of the schools.

4. There was also evidence of the worsening of of those workers (e.g. caretakers, cleaners, canteen staff) who transferred from the DOES/VEC (public) to the private-for profit partners.

Overall then, in a tighter economic climate PPPs will become even more deceptively attractive. However there is increasing evidence both in Ireland and internationally that is critical of the extended use of PPPs. It is important, therefore, that a rigorous debate and informed analysis be undertaken of the effectiveness and appropriateness, from both a value for money and social perspective, of PPPs in the delivery and management of public services and infrastructure.

For further information contact:
Rory Hearne
086 152 3542
pbp_dse@yahoo.ie

Rory Hearne, People Before Profit Alliance Dublin South East, local resident and active campaigner with the Combined Residents Against the Incinerator speaking on the EPA decision said:

“Local residents of Ringsend, Irishtown and Sandymount are once more devasated and dissapointed by a state body’s decision in relation to the incinerator. I was one of the hundred or so local residents that attended the EPA’s Oral Hearing and made statements to it outlining the impact on the health of the community if the incinerator was to ahead. However just as with An Bord Pleanala the EPA has ruled in favour of an anti-community, illogical and unsustainable monster incinerator. It is a PPP and therefore will be operated to maximise profits for the private company which will result in maximising waste production rather than minimsing and reclying waste.

John Gormley, Minister for Environment has failed to use his power to stop this incinerator. He should respect the wishes of his constituents and tender his resignation. Despite this decision, however, the community remains resolute to fight this on every level, legally, and on the streets. The message will be heard clear- the residents will not allow an incinerator be built on the Poolbeg.”

Public Meeting: Stand Up Against The Cuts

Tuesday December 2nd 7.30pm
Ringsend Community Centre, Thorncastle St.

Speakers:
Rory Hearne, (People Before Profit Alliance)
Bernard Lynch, (Local Secondary School Teacher)
Janette Byrne, (Patients Together)

Organised by People Before Profit Alliance
Contact: 086-1523542/086-8288303

The cuts include:
Supports for children with special needs, health services, cancer screening, community crèches, community workers and services, disability services; cuts in language support; access to free school books, increased class sizes, and more. We believe children, workers and the most marginalised of our community should not pay for government mismanagement.

During last year’s election John Gormley promised that he supported the reduction of class sizes and opposed private co-located hospitals, yet he has voted for them in Government this year. For John Gormley and the Green Party being in Government appears to be more important than the commitments they made to the people that elected them. We must raise our voices like the pensioners and oppose the other cut backs in education, health,
community crèches, and other areas.
Find out more about what you can do at the meeting on the 2nd in Ringsend.
The People Before Profit Alliance is campaigning against the cut backs, for more investment in public services and for decent wage increases for workers to cover cost of living increases.

Last week the government decided to:

1.  Increase class sizes in primary schools
2.  Abolish substitute cover for teachers
3.  Increase school transport charges
4.  Axe English language teachers
5.  Reduce funding to special needs children
6.  Slash Traveller education funding
7.  Cut teacher numbers by at least 1,000
8.  Eliminate the free book scheme
9.  Stop books for school libraries
10. Halt the Education for Persons with Special Needs Act
11. Abandon funding for school computers
12. Cut funding for primary school building by 5%

Protest

Gather outside the DAIL next WEDNESDAY, 29th OCTOBER at 6.30pm to show government you want these cuts reversed.

See: www.into.ie

Check out the Irish Times article on the event here

PANA supported by CAECU is holding a “mock” funeral on the Lisbon Treaty on Wednesday 15th of October 2008 at 6.00pm outside Government Buildings to coincide with EU Council of Ministers meeting who will be meeting to discuss what to do with the Irish people.

As far as PANA and CAECU are concerned the treaty is dead and should be given a decent burial.

www.pana.ie

The People Before Profit Alliance today condemned the government bail-out of Irish banks.  Its spokesperson Richard Boyd Barrett said  

‘The decision of the Irish government to bail-out all the Irish banks is a shocking example of corporate welfare for the super rich. The government’s actions stand in stark contrast to its failure to bail-out our crumbling health service or address escalating levels of unemployment. Ordinary people will be shocked to learn that this government, and most of the political parties, place the greatest priority on the needs of wealthy bankers and speculators ahead of their right to a decent health service’.

Poor people who rely on public services have been told that there is no money to prevent severe cuts. Young people who work for the government and have huge mortgages will suffer because their employer says it cannot pay them any wage increase for the next 11 months, as  ‘there is no money’ in the coffers. Yet at the stroke of a pen, the Irish taxpayer has been exposed to a huge risk of the order of €400 -€500 billion to save banks. Such a level of risk is more than twice the value of the whole Irish economy.

Mr Boyd Barrett said that, ‘the government have effectively rewarded corporate greed’. 

‘The policies of lending institutions in recent years have encouraged an unsustainable speculative boom, particularly in property.  In their desire to make ever more profits, and generate ever-bigger bonuses for their executives, the banks recklessly handed out money to developers creating a property bubble, an inevitable crash and now a mountain of bad debt.

Incredibly, the government are using taxpayer’s money to guarantee the future of these banks but doing nothing to ensure that the same thing does not happen again. As it stands, these same banks will simply move on now to repossess the homes of ordinary people who are being crucified by the economic crisis created by those same banks and heir develop friends.   

Instead of bailing out the banks, the state should have nationalised them in order to put an end to an orgy of greed that now threatens catastrophe’.

Mr Boyd Barrett  says this whole debacle ‘confirms, yet again, the need for a new political movement to represent ordinary working people, the poor and the marginalized. The public must demand a fundamental re-appraisal of economic priorities and develop a political movement that has the courage to stand up to bankers, developers and a greed-driven corporate elite.’

For more information: Eddie Conlon 087 6775468

Leading member of People Before Profit Richard Boyd Barrett speaking on Dunphy Radio Show.

Click here to listen to the interview.

Download the leaflet for the march below and distribute to others

dctu_health_campaign

National Protest March & Rally

Dublin Saturday 11th October 2008

Contact: Public Health Service Campaign,

44 Lower Gardiner St., Dublin 1.
dctuhealth@gmail.com; 087 6229686