Carthy launches comprehensive Sinn Féin proposals to tackle youth unemployment

(Cllr. Kathleen Funcion, Kilkenny; Senator Pearse Doherty, Donegal; Cllr. Matt Carthy, Monaghan and Cllr. Cathal King, Dublin at the launch of Sinn Féin's proposals to tackle youth unemployment)

South Monaghan Sinn Féin Councillor, Matt Carthy, has, in the past week, launched a comprehensive party policy document which he claims the government should implement if it has any desire to tackle youth unemployment. At the launch, held in Buswells hotel in Dublin, Cllr. Carthy was joined by Sinn Féin Senator Pearse Doherty and other Councillors who, together with other young party activists and officials, have drafted and developed the document entitled: “No Job? No Future? No Way!” Speaking at the launch Cllr. Carthy said that, if implemented, Sinn Féin’s proposals would get 50,000 people under the age of twenty-five off the dole immediately and create many more jobs in the years ahead. The proposals include a specific youth jobs fund, measures to facilitate self employment and a specific focus on growth sectors such as digital media, tourism, green jobs and agri-food.

Cllr. Carthy said:

“If action is not taken to tackle Ireland’s soaring youth unemployment, and soon, there will be huge implications for the economy and for society into the future. But the government has no strategy to keep young people in Ireland and to use their skills to rebuild the economy. It has no vision for the future. They are hoping that emigration will hide the true extent of unemployment amongst the young. It is clear that the Government’s decision to cut youth dole payments was done to encourage young people to leave Ireland.

“The fact is that there are many measures that the government could be implementing to tackle youth unemployment. Sinn Féin is presenting these solutions and we are determined to campaign for their implementation.

“We cannot sit on our hands and see the best minds of this generation of young people wasted or exported. If we are to rebuild a sustainable and vibrant economy these are the people who will do it. The young unemployed must be given the opportunity to work and to use their skills and education.

“Investing in tackling youth unemployment now will pay dividends well into the future. In my own county of Monaghan we already know the negative impact in having a significant proportion of our youth population living and working outside of the county as this was the case even during the years of the so-called Celtic Tiger. We simply cannot afford for it to be exacerbated by a Fianna Fáil government who has so little concern for young people in general and County Monaghan in particular” he said.

Sinn Féin’s proposals include:

• A youth jobs fund to create 20,000 new jobs at a cost of €500 million;
• An individual plan for the long term prospects of every person under 25 who is on the live register;
• 2,000 places on a ‘One More Language Scheme’ to give the young unemployed a chance to learn an extra foreign language at a cost of €20million;
• 5,000 free ECDL advanced places at a cost of €25 million;
• 10,000 new CE places at a cost of €168 million;
• 1,000 places on conversion courses at third level to help graduates convert their skills to potential growth sectors at a cost of €15 million;
• 8 measures to treble the number of under 25’s who are self employed including a national entrepreneurship programme, access to credit and greater support for high potential start ups;
• Create a publicly owned green tech firm for Ireland and initiate a major drive to attract FDI in renewable energy at a cost of €100 million;
• Make Ireland a digital media leader through support for skills, infrastructure and entrepreneurship;
• A ‘National Development Scheme’ to employ people directly on public works projects employing 2,000 workers at a cost of approx €100 million;
• Lift the suspension on the early farm retirement scheme to make farming an option for younger people.

Cllr. Carthy continued: “Our proposals show that it is possible to beat youth unemployment with imaginative thinking and a political commitment. This has been completely absent from the Government’s approach to the jobs crisis.”

The full details of the Sinn Féin plan to tackle youth unemployment can be accessed at the party’s website at www.sinnfein.ie or by contacting the Monaghan constituency office at 047-82917.

Sinn Féin reps call on An Bord Pleanála to reject EirGrid application

In an impressive sign of party unity Sinn Féin elected representatives, from across the region impacted by the EirGrid proposals to erect massive 400kv power lines and pylons, submitted a joint submission to An Bord Pleanála last week.

In a submission that states clearly the party’s opposition to the EirGrid plans the Sinn Féin representatives also articulate their view that the project can and should proceed, but only via the alternative underground method favoured by local communities.

Prior to the submission being delivered to An Bord Pleanála Sinn Féin representatives from Counties Monaghan, Cavan and Meath came together and again reaffirmed the party’s determination to stand in full support of the community opposition to the current proposal. A similar submission has been made by the party to the planning authorities in the six counties. Among those at the meeting last week were Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin TD and Monaghan County Councillors Matt Carthy, Noel Keelan and Jackie Crowe.

In their submission the Sinn Féin representatives record their outright opposition “to the stated intent of Eirgrid to introduce an overhead pylon-supported 400kv interconnector through our countryside, across the lands of our neighbours and friends and dangerously close to homes, schools and other facilities frequently used by people and fields and facilities constantly in use by farm animals and those who tend to them”.

The submission contends that Eirgrid have continuously refused to consider the underground alternative stating that this “was best exemplified in their stated options, all three being overground pylon-supported routes. Their rigid dismissal of the validly-held concerns of citizens, and the wholly sustainable arguments against an overground approach, places their so-called consultation process outside the acceptable parameters of such an exercise”.

The Sinn Féin submission strongly objects to the proposals contained in Eirgrid’s application, now due for consideration by An Bord Pleanála, and it provides 6 key reasons for its refusal. They are:

1) There are real causes of concern for human and animal health arising from the nearby presence of overground cables.
• This is a view supported by several expert reports.
• Electromagnetic fields now have a reported danger level greater than has heretofore been realised.
• A significant body of research points to young children being most at risk.

2) The overwhelming number of affected landowners, most of whom are actively involved in farming, are opposed to what will prove to be a major intrusion, not just for those currently working the land but generationally into the future. Land will be closed to many activities and values will drop accordingly. The very presence of the pylons, and their load carriage, will be a turn-off for potential clients/investors in these farms in the future.

a. There will be significant curtailments of current farming practices by the presence of these pylons.
b. Livestock, and those who tend to them, will be placed at risk from emissions.

3) Residences, be they those of farmers or standalone rural dwellings of those not involved in agriculture, will face a downturn in value.

a. Sites, and possible sites, for domestic purposes will no longer attract the same interest.
b. Other attractions, business, social, leisure and cultural will be negatively affected.

4) The threat to schoolchildren and teachers and to those in nearby employments has already sparked serious anxiety, threatening the very fabric and future of our communities.

a. Our potential for development, for new and innovative business and community initiatives will be seriously curtailed.

5) The visual impact is certainly off-putting and arguably prohibitive and dramatically alters the environment and the natural presentation of our, to date, unspoiled countryside.

a. A recent report highlighted Cavan and Monaghan as a tourist destination because these counties can boast an unspoilt landscape.
b. Our drumlin topography is rich in sites of interest with known and as yet unresearched archaeologically important sites atop many of our countless hills.

6) The cost to each of us, the consumer, will be greater over the lifetime of the interconnector if the overground approach is to proceed.

a. While the ‘on paper’ initial outlay would appear to favour the overground method on economic grounds, the length of time involved in its physical construction as against the acceptable underground approach, the anticipated difficulties that will present from landowners and threatened families and communities, the greater maintenance cost of overground systems and the known greater outage rates of same, all place the underground cabling approach well ahead in cost terms over an anticipated forty year lifecycle.


Ó Caoláin remarks:

Speaking following the presentation of the Sinn Féin submission to An Bord Pleanála Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin stated that he hoped that their would be united political opposition to this project. Outlining the reasons why his party presented a united and joint submission to the bord Deputy Ó Caoláin stated: “As an all-Ireland party with elected representatives in all five counties affected by both the EirGrid and NIE plans we wanted to state clearly our view that this project can only proceed on the basis of the underground alternative. We also wished the record to show that we are not only voices in opposition to Eirgrid’s plans. We are voices that support absolutely the objective of putting in place an interconnector north-south and the creation of an all-Ireland electricity market. And we are wholly convinced that that goal will be best achieved by the underground cable method and for the reasons we clearly articulated.

“We have appealed, in the strongest possible terms, to An Bord Pleanála to reject the Eirgrid application and to find in favour of the undergrounding alternative that is steadily proving to be not only the popular choice of communities but the first choice of better-informed, more community-aware and far-sighted companies and systems installers globally.

“Faoi thalamh an bealach is fearr” he concluded.