union business
Fergus Finlay of Bernardos and IMPACT leader Peter McLoone discuss educational disadvantage.
Photo: Conor Healy.
NEWS IN BRIEF... T&S hit
“For the most disadvantaged people education provides the only real, tangible route out of social disadvantage, poverty and exclusion. You have heard a good deal of talk about ‘sharing the load’ when it comes to devising economic solutions. Sharing the load means protecting the most vulnerable,” he said.
IMPACT HAS lodged a claim with the Civil Service to review travel and subsistence rates after the Government’s imposition of revised rates, which cut payments by 25% across the board. The cut, which is effective from 5th March 2009, was opposed by the union. Separate circulars are expected to issue for local government and health, where the HSE has been seeking to cut the amount of travel as part of its efforts to find savings this year. IMPACT has said that important front-line services will be reduced by limits on travel.
Barnardos chief Fergus Finlay told delegates that educational performance was linked to poverty. “The education system has a huge role to play, not just in dealing with the causes of poverty among children, but also in ending childhood poverty,” he said.
Oppose violence
EDUCATION
IMPACT education seminar VULNERABLE CHILDREN must have decent educational opportunities despite the recession, according to IMPACT general secretary Peter McLoone. Speaking at the union’s recent education seminar he said protecting the “precious resource” of education was essential to economic recovery.
HEALTH
AN ONLINE petition has been set up to allow people to register their opposition to recent violence in the north. The Northern Ireland Peace Rallies Petition was established, after the Irish Congress of Trade unions (ICTU) organised silent vigils across the North in protest at renewed terrorist killings, to allow others to register their protest. You can sign at www.petitiononline.com/ peaceni/petition.html.
Health cuts continue
Palestine friends
Delegates included members from the union’s education branches, who now represent over 6,000 workers, and guests from the teaching unions and other education organisations. Dr. Paul Downes of the Centre for Educational Disadvantage told them that current educational investment should not be the high water mark of commitment to overcoming educational disadvantage. “Unions have been a driving force in developing initiatives and there needs to be a renewed commitment on behalf of unions to lobby for a holistic strategy to move beyond educational disadvantage,” he said.
DESPITE REVISING down its expected budget deficit for 2009, the HSE is still seeking at least €700 million in cuts this year. The €700 million is made up of €530 million in savings already identified, plus at least €205 million extra identified in March. But more cuts seem likely. It was reported in March that the Department of Health would find another €200 million worth of savings. But none of these figures takes into account any additional cuts in the April mini-budget or the recommendations of the ‘special group,’ which will propose public service reallocation and rationalisation measures to the Government at the end of June.
IMPACT, SIPTU and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) are among the organisations supporting the recentlylaunched Trade Union Friends of Palestine (TUFP). The support group was launched in the Republic following the Israeli attacks on Gaza at the end of last year. You can get more details and a membership form from tufp@ dublin.ie.
The HSE told journalists it would target cuts in temporary and agency staff and close some hospital beds to achieve the savings. In a circular to branches, IMPACT national secretary Kevin Callinan said the HSE was considering options like cutting “non-core” pay such as overtime, premia and allowances, and cutting services and temporary posts. It is also believed that a ‘hit list’ of hospital closures exists, and that other radical cuts in community services are being considered.
IMPACT members get news quicker
IMPACT has called on the Government to provide extra funds to cover the growing cost of services associated with growing unemployment, like medical cards and drugs. It has also called for an end to the costly and wasteful hospital ‘dual location’ programme and other State subsidies to private health providers.
IMPACT members can sign up for full access to our website – plus a monthly emailed news bulletin – via www.impact.ie.
Work & Life: The Magazine for IMPACT Members
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