Newry & District Trades Council to hold public meeting | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Newry & District Trades Council to hold public meeting

Newry & District Trades Council will host a public meeting on Monday 25th of November at 7.30pm in Ballybot House to highlight what it describes as a ‘tirade of government failures dressed up as austerity’.

A panel of four speakers have been confirmed for the event; Alison Millar from the public service trade union NIPSA, Maria Morgan Irish Congress of Trade Unions; with MLA’s Mickey Brady and Dominic Bradley.

The topics under the spotlight include Welfare Reform, Transforming Your Care and Social Housing.

Commenting on the impending event Cara Murchan, Chairperson of Newry & District Trades Council told Newry Times, “In a recent report published by NICVA the current welfare reforms being touted by government will effectively remove £750m a year out of the North of Ireland economy.

“This is the equivalent of £650 a year for every adult of working age. Many households and individuals, particularly people in receipt of incapacity and disability benefits, will be hit the hardest by several different elements of these so-called reforms.”

Cara added, “With regards to the much lamented Transforming Your Care the Stormont Health Minister Edwin Poots did not preside over an equitable public consultation process. The general public were often unaware of meetings and the complexities of the proposals; the whole process was a complete sham.

“The Housing Executive is also under threat as part of the austerity crusade which signals devastating outcomes for tenants, prospective tenants and public service workers. The alternative is to allow the Housing Executive to borrow money, as they did during the 70s and 80s to improve existing stock and new much needed social housing.”

Cara called on local people to attend the Trades Council event. She said, “Local trade unionists have been very active in campaigning against a whole rath of cutbacks which government spin doctors have couched with the use of a single word; ‘austerity’.

“The public, trade unionists and various politicians can see through the twisted semantics in the same way they can visualise the hardship being forced upon us all by millionaires who live in a financial twilight zone.

She added, “I appeal to local people concerned by the assaults on welfare benefits and public services to come along to our meeting on Monday night in Ballybot House and be part of the campaign.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=37030

Posted by on Nov 22 2013. Filed under Community, Politics, What's On. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Leave a Reply







Find us on Facebook

Log in | Designed by Gabfire themes