A difficult few months for the United Left Alliance was made significantly more difficult by the recent withdrawal of Seamus Healy TD and the Workers & Unemployed Action Group in Tipperary from the alliance. The ULA is at a crossroads and its future uncertain.
REFLECTING THE scale of the economic crisis the government is to introduce a second budget that will contain €4.5 billion of new taxes and spending cuts. The latest exchequer figures show a potential tax shortfall of a further €3 billion and a shortfall in funding for government departments of up to €1.5 billion. If anything these projections will be an underestimation of the decline in the governments finances.
FINGAL COUNCIL’S 2009 Capital Programme could be cut by .55 million following a financial directive from the Department of the Environment that prohibits the Council from using its full reserve fund of developers’ levies. This insane advice from the government directs that “expenditure is funded from income received or due within the year” and would mean that only existing works which have contracts can go ahead.
Having cut the Council’s funding already by 7%, the government is now preventing Fingal from spending money contributed by people when they bought their houses during the development boom.
A group of protestors staged a symbolic protest in Limerick this morning, occupying King John's Castle and dropping ag giant banner saying "Limerick Says No to IMF Dictatorship" in response to the ongoing IMF visit to Ireland and last nights downgrading of Irish bonds to Junk status. They are calling on people to come out on Saturday and join a larger public rally outside Penney's at 2pm which has been organsied by various groups and individuals. Today's protest was organised by Socialist Youth to "send a clear message to our new Kings in the IMF and international banks: the people of Limerick will not stand for this new rule. People can't take the cuts in SNAs, health, education and welfare that they are demanding."