Majority of Grants Delayed Until December

Majority of Grants Delayed Until December

Cork City Council has yet to make a single payment under the Higher Education Grant Scheme this year, with the majority of claimants waiting until December or even later for their first instalment. In response to a question from Sinn Fein Councillor Fiona Kerins, the City Manager also revealed that of 574 new applications received this year, only 208 have been approved.

Commenting on the delay, Cllr Kerins said:

“The Manager’s response shows that not a single payment has been made to date under the Higher Education Grant scheme by Cork City Council. The first payment to both new applicants who have been approved and renewals will not be dispatched until the 5th November.”

“What is truly shocking is that of 574 new applications received under the 2010/2011 scheme, only 208 have been awarded the grant. Of the remainder, 60 applicants have been deemed ineligible, but 201 applications have been returned seeking further information. These and the 127 applications deemed “late” will receive no payment until December. The Higher Education Grant process is a bureaucratic nightmare and the majority of these applications have been stalled simply as a result of some minor technicality.”

“Students in receipt of the Higher Education Grant are by definition on low incomes. In the current climate, many of them will be mature students returning to education in order to upskill themselves and improve their prospects of gaining employment. Without the grant, some of these will be forced to drop out of college. I am calling on the city council to temporarily reassign staff from other duties to the Higher Education Grant Section in order to process the backlog and ensure payment of the grant as early as possible.”

For further information contact Cllr Fiona Kerins @ 085-1091758

Council Must Show Stronger Commitment to Elderly Tenants

Council Must Show Stronger Commitment to Elderly Tenants


Cllr Henry Cremin last night expressed his disappointment at the Council’s failure to give a firm commitment to servicing the boilers of its elderly tenants this winter.

In response to a question from the Sinn Féin representative, council management stated they would arrange the servicing of gas central heating boilers for council tenants “subject to funding” and give priority to the elderly “as far as practical and within available resources”.

Commenting, Cllr Cremin said:

“While it is welcome that the council has agreed to look at the issue of servicing the boilers of elderly tenants this winter, I am disappointed that management have no been able to give me a firmer commitment.”

“Several elderly constituents have approached me in the past few weeks, anxious to find out whether their heating systems will be overhauled before the cold months ahead. Most of them are on small incomes and depend on the council to carry out this work. While I understand the financial constraints on the local authority in the current climate, this is an area that should be given priority. Hundreds of elderly people die from a combination of fuel poverty and cold in Ireland every winter. The work I am looking to have carried out for elderly tenants could literally save lives.”

For further information or comment contact Cllr Henry Cremin @ 086-2662874

New Policy May Leave People Homeless- O'Leary

New Policy May Leave People Homeless – O’Leary

Cllr Chris O’Leary has hit out at Cork City Council’s new policy of informing Community Welfare Officers after housing applicants have refused two offers of housing. The applicants then face the possibility of having Rent Allowance withdrawn, leaving some vulnerable to becoming homeless.

Cllr O’Leary was speaking after the City Manager confirmed the Council was implementing the new policy at the behest of the Department of the Environment.

He said:

“There are an unknown number of people on the housing list because they need Rent Allowance to pay for accommodation and must be on the list in order to claim it. Under the new policy, these face having their benefit withdrawn if they turn down two offers of council housing.”

“There are others who genuinely want to be housed by the council, but the offers they receive may be unsuitable for a number of reasons – because the accommodation is in an area away from their families or is being targeted by anti-social elements. These people are also being penalised by the council’s policy, facing not just withdrawal of benefits but being taken off the housing list for twelve months.”

“What this amounts to is yet another example of the government attempting to save money by penalising the least well-off in our society, while it shovels billions into the zombie banks that have brought the country to its knees. This policy risks tipping hundreds of individuals and families into crisis and causing increased homelessness.”

For further information contact Cllr Chris O’Leary @ 087-2794307

Sinn Féin Selection Convention for Cork South Central

Sinn Féin Selection Convention for Cork South Central

Sinn Féin is to hold its selection convention for Cork South Central this Thursday at 8pm in Ballyphehane Community Centre.

The occasion will be presided over by a member of the party’s Ard Comhairle, and all members of Sinn Féin in Cork City are entitled to attend and vote. Cork South East councillor Chris O’Leary has already signalled his intention to contest the nomination.

The party has three city councillors and one town councillor in Cork South Central, and polled over 4,200 first preferences across the constituency at the 2009 local election.

For further information of comment contact Cllr Jonathan O'Brien @ 085-2133907

8,081 on Council List

8,081 on Council Housing List

A report presented to Cork City Council last night showed that there were now 8,081 eligible applicants on the social housing list, with hundreds more waiting approval.

Commenting on the report, Sinn Féin Cllr Jonathan O’Brien said it proved the council’s housing policy was failing.

“If no new applicants come on the housing list, it would still take more than twenty years to clear it at the current rate. Instead, hundreds more applicants are coming onto the list every month. This is a failure by any account.”

“We now have two contradictory classes of people on the housing list – those who are desperately hoping for an offer, often left waiting for years, and those hoping not to receive an offer because if they refuse it they will lose their rent allowance. This simply underlines the incoherence of our housing policy.”

“Cork Sinn Féin put forward a comprehensive housing policy to Cork City Council last July, and has consistently called for action on this accelerating crisis since. Today’s figures again show the urgency of the situation. We will continue to campaign on this issue until the council’s housing policy is thoroughly reformed.”


For further information contact Cllr Jonathan O’Brien @ 085-2133907

Terence MacSwiney & Joe Murphy Commemorated

A commemoration to mark the 90th anniversaries of Terence MacSwiney and Joe Murphy took place on Sunday at Pouladuff Road and the republican plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery. Both men died on hunger strike on 25th October 1920. The event was organised by the Phoenix Historical Society.

The commemoration began outside the family home of Joe Murphy on Pouladuff Road. From there it proceeded to the republican plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery, led by the newly-formed MacSwiney/MacCurtain Republican Flute Band.


Ceremonies at the plot were chaired by Cllr Henry Cremin. He noted that while today marked the 90th anniversary of the deaths of Terence MacSwiney and Joe Murphy, Volunteers Michael Fitzgerald, Andy O’Sullivan, and Donnacha de Barra, who likewise died on hunger strike during the years 1920-23, also deserved to be remembered. Cllr Cremin concluded by commending the band, which although formed less than six months before has grown swiftly and had a strong turnout on the day.

Wreathes were laid on the graves of Terence MacSwiney, Donnacha DeBarra, Joe Murphy, and at the monument to all republican hunger-strikers.

The main oration was given by Cllr Chris O’Leary, who spoke of the courage and self-sacrifice shown by men like Terence MacSwiney and Joe Murphy in the most difficult of times. “When Terence MacSwiney became Lord Mayor of Cork in March 1920 his predecessor and close friend Tomás MacCurtain had just been murdered. Cork was under nightly curfew, and looting and shootings by the British army and the Black and Tans were a daily occurrence. Terence MacSwiney gave the city leadership at a time when Britain was doing its utmost to break the Irish people’s resistance, and his death on hunger strike resonated around the world.”

“Patriots like those we are commemorating today would be spinning in their graves at the actions of the political and business elite running the country. Corruption and mismanagement have not merely pushed Ireland into the worst recession in its history, but imperilled the sovereignty for which men like Joe Murphy and Terence McSwiney died. The price for the government’s disastrous economic policies is being paid by ordinary citizens, while €50 billion has been spent bailing out bankers who brought the country to its knees.”

Cllr O’Leary concluded by calling for a new spirit of patriotism and a new generation of political leadership in the country which would draw inspiration from the lives of men like Terence McSwiney and Joe Murphy and finally bring their vision of a free and independent 32-county republic to fruition.

The commemoration concluded with the playing of Amhráin na bFhiann.


Biographical Note

Joe Murphy, from Pouladuff Road in Ballyphehane, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917 and took place in numerous actions during the War of Independence. He was arrested in July 1920 and imprisoned in Cork Jail. He subsequently went on hunger strike with a large group of prisoners included Lord Mayor of Cork Terence McSwiney. Joe Murphy died after 76 days without food on 25th October 1920 – the same day as Terence McSwiney – aged 25 years. He is buried in the republican plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery.

For further information contact Cllr Thomas Gould @ 087/3021551

Cork Sinn Fein to Protest at Visit by Brian Cowen

Cork Sinn Féin to Protest at Cowen Visit

Cork Sinn Féin will hold a picket today as Brian Cowen visits Cork University Hospital, to protest against the proposed €1 billion in health cutbacks and highlight the fact that there is an alternative to the consensus for cuts.

Speaking this morning, the party’s general election candidate for Cork North Central, Jonathan O'Brien, said: "It is deeply ironic that Brian Cowan is coming to Cork today on a visit which will include both CUH and CIT, given that his government is currently finalising a budget which will cut up to €1 billion from frontline health services and slash spending on education." "Sinn Féin rejects the political consensus that cuts in pay and services are the way to restart the economy. Taking another €5 billion out of the economy this December will only lead to further jobs losses and kill any prospect of growth.

This analysis is now supported by the ERSI as well as many in the trade union movement and the community and voluntary sector. The fact is Fianna Fail are deciding economic policy not in the interests of the Irish economy, but at the behest of the financial markets and the EU.” "Sinn Féin wants a longer time-frame for reducing the deficit, and a budget where the focus is on taxing those who can pay, rather than cutting services for those most in need. We are the only party to reflect the growing chorus of voices in civil society rejecting the consensus for cuts. Today’s protest is to highlight the possibility of an alternative budget and is part of the build up to our national protest against cutbacks in Dublin on December 4th.” For further information or comment contact Jonathan O’Brien @ 085-2133907