Elect a campaigner with an unrivalled record
Clare Daly, as a councillor on Fingal County Council and shop steward in Dublin Airport, has an unrivalled record of representing working people
in Dublin North. She has campaigned tirelessly for over ten years
on many issues such as water charges, the bin tax, workers’ rights
in Dublin airport and beyond, and sustainable planning.
Many candidates in this election are knocking on your door laden down with
promises but have absolutely no record on any issue. These candidates are
representing parties that have caused the problems we face.
Dublin North needs a campaigner in the Dail who has a proven record not
lists of false promises. The difference between the Socialist Party and the rest
of the so-called opposition is that we don’t abandon people to the mercy of
the government or the council - we organise to effect change.
Councillor Clare Daly has stood along side residents in every part of the constituency
on the key issues in the community from Traffic Management Plans
against mobile phone masts, the new parallel runway and the monstrous sewerage
plant in Donabate.
She spearheaded the debate on
the council and in many areas
mobolised residents for sustainable
planning. From Rivervalley
and Glen Ellan in Swords to the
LAP lands in Rush, to the
Castlelands and North West
Balbriggan plans to
Hacketstown in Skerries and
Donabate to oppose an insustainable
increase in houses without infrastructure.
She has worked with residents in many areas such as against the rip off estate
management companies where residents are being forced to pay for services
which were previously provided by the council.
A Workers' Representative
Clare is a SIPTU shop-steward in Aer Lingus and has consistently campaigned
in defence of workers pay and conditions. She was the most prominent opponent
of the criminal privatisation of Aer Lingus.
This government has “given away” a majority
share-holding in a consistently profitable,
70 year old company built by the taxpayer
and the workforce, in order to line the
pockets of private investors. They have
destabilised the company with the Ryanair
intervention and paved the way for a vicious
onslaught on workers rights. The company
wants to employ staff in foreign bases on
lower pay and conditions, and existing staff
are being told to take a pay cut of over 20% in order to be “competitive” – in a
company that has over €1 billion in cash reserves!
This is the Race to the Bottom that is being actively pushed and facilitated to
by the government and the employers. We stand shoulder to shoulder with
workers in defence of quality jobs.
A proven campaigner who won’t sell you out!
Clare spent a month in prison with her
party colleague Joe Higgins TD in
September/October 2003 for protesting
against the hated bin tax and refusing to
abandon those people who elected her. The
bin tax has increased every year since then
which further vindicates her position at the
time.
If elected as a TD, Clare Daly is the only candidate who has ruled out propping Fianna Fail or Fine
Gael in government. The other so called opposition parties are prepared to
forget about people’s needs to get into power. If elected, Clare will
join her colleague Joe
Higgins TD who has been
singled out by many as "the
real opposition" in the Dail
- for beating the race to the bottom
at GAMA, being imprisoned
for his opposition to the bin
tax and being the only TD to
really put the establishment
under pressure. Elect Clare Daly and strengthen the Socialist Party’s position in the Dail as a step towards building a new
movement that really fights for working people.
Clare Daly's record in Dublin North
• Spent a month in prison with her party colleague Joe Higgins TD in September/October
2003 for protesting against the hated bin tax and refusing to abandon those people who
elected her. The bin tax has increased every year since then which further vindicates her
position at the time;
• As a SIPTU shop steward in Aer Lingus has campaigned in defense of workers pay and
conditions and was the most prominent opponent of the criminal privatisation of Aer Lingus;
• Has worked with residents in many areas against the rip off estate management companies
where residents are being forced to pay for services which should be provided by the council;
• Led the successful anti water charges campaign in north Fingal between 1994 -1997 –
water charges are once again looming large - Dublin North needs a campaigner with a proven
record on this issue;
• Stood along side residents in every part of the constituency on the key issues in the
community such as Traffic Management Plans, against mobile phone masts, the new parallel
runway and the monstrous sewerage plant in Donabate;
• Spearheaded the debate on the council and in many areas mobilised residents for
sustainable planning, from Rivervalley and Glen Ellan in Swords to the LAP lands in Rush,
to Castlelands and North West Balbriggan, Hacketstown in Skerries and Donabate.
Living on a Worker's Wage
If elected Clare Daly will live on the average working wage and donate the balance of the Dail salary to the Socialist Party and campaigns by workers and communities.
End North Dublin's traffic misery by revolutionising Public Transport
Transport gridlock is at crisis point. As a result, most Dublin
North commuters are robbed of 700 hours of our lives
every year sitting in traffic! Or we take our lives into our
hands getting squashed like lemmings onto overcrowded
trains. This is no accident It is the inevitable consequence
of two decisions. Firstly a corrupt unsustainable planning system
where Councillors from Fianna Fail, Fine
Gael and the Progressive Democrats in the main,
have facilitated a housing explosion without the
appropriate infrastructure to support it. They
make millions for the property developers who
finance their parties but at the expense of our
quality of life. Secondly, Ireland has the least subsidised public
transport system in Europe.
The only way to solve this nightmare is to declare a Traffic Crisis now –
take emergency action and make serious investment to revolutionise our
public transport system.
A real public transport system for Dublin
would be an integrated network of trains, trams and buses covering the whole city,
connected to ports and airports and fully accessible
to all.
Everyone should be within 5 minutes walking distance
of a transport point, which is serviced at least
every 5 minutes at peak travel times. Such systems
operate in many other countries and can be delivered
in Dublin. Without it congestion and pollution
will become unbearable.
5 steps that could transform the North County rail service immediately
The rail network should be the key to efficient transport in the north county with every major urban area on the rail line with
the exception of Swords and Kinsealy. However the reality is that many people can’t use the service because of massive overcrowding,
which means they can’t get a seat. Also, people can’t get to the station because there is no regular reliable bus link,
or a chronic shortage of parking, which makes the service unusable.
There has been no serious examination or radical development of the rail network since the 1890s. With a serious approach
and investment the service could be dramatically altered to transform the situation in a relatively short period of time, even within
the existing network.
• It is the size of the platforms that restricts capacity, despite relatively recent expansions the platforms can
only accommodate 8 carriages. This is insufficient for the size of the population. We demand the immediate
doubling of capacity. With serious investment and decisive action this could be done within 6
months. In 1979, it took four weeks to build a temporary station at Ashtown to accommodate 16 carriage
trains for the Pope’s visit. This could be done at every station, linked to increasing the number of
carriages to 16 at peak hours.
• End the system of same start and end point journeys. Have some trains starting at Balbriggan, or Skerries,
or Rush/Lusk, and so on, to ensure that commuters from those locations get a seat.
• Suburban trains have restricted access to the network because of the priority awarded to express mainline
trains on the two-line system. Develop a third line at three or four locations on the northside and
southside, where there is land available to enable suburban trains to keep moving while an express train
passes by.
• Every town in the north county should have a regular feeder bus from the main housing areas to the
train station at peak hours, combined with an extension of car-parking facilities. Where there are physical
limits to available parking at train stations, or in areas like Swords, where there is currently no rail link, a
PARK & RIDE area should be provided linked by a regular feeder bus to the nearest station.
• The development of a rail link from Swords to Malahide along the estuary as the shortest and most expedient
method of connecting Swords, and ultimately the METRO to the main rail line. This link could be
developed in advance of METRO and linked to a PARK & RIDE station at the Estuary industrial estate.
More bus services needed
• End the meandering routes around towns.
Swords is the equivalent size of Waterford city
and yet every bus must tour around the whole
area before leaving Swords to go into the city!
Imagine if the Waterford buses did that? Direct
services from Rivervalley, Swords Manor, Glen
Ellan, and Kinsealy into the city centre at regular
intervals, particularly at peak hours.
• A local Feeder Bus system around all major towns and shopping centres and
serving local train stations. • Quality Bus Corridors (QBCs) should be prioritised in tandem with a radical
increase in the numbers of buses.
• Over €111 million is spent annually on school transport services. However very little of this money is spent in Dublin as it is only available to children who live between 2 and 3 miles from the nearest school.
• Integrated ticketing on all public transport services.
No Privatisation of Public Transport
The Government claims that giving bus routes to
private operators will improve the situation. Along
with the gift of a licence they are going to give at
least 100 new buses for free and 15% of bus routes
in Dublin. They were equally generous to Veolia
(Connex) who operate LUAS. The owner of Aircoach "bought" the licence for the very profitable airport
route for €6 and sold the company for millions!
There are no reasons why democratically controlled
public companies could not build and operate
the public transport services we need more efficiently
and cheaper, while guaranteeing decent pay
and conditions for transport employees. Fianna Fail
and the PDs won’t implement this obvious policy
because they want business, including major multinationals
to profit at our expense.
A Public Transport system should be a service. The investment
will be repaid many times over socially, economically and environmentally.
However if the service is privatised then profit
comes first. The level of service and conditions of the workforce
are sacrificed.
