PEOPLE BEFORE PROFIT ALLIANCE

launch candidate KIRAN EMRICH, Galway Central Ward.

Saturday January 25th 2014 4pm

Richardson’s upstairs meeting room, Eyre Square, Galway City.

with PBPA Cllr. HUGH LEWIS (Dun Laoghaire).

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Open Community Meeting to address WATER CHARGES.

In 2014, for the first time PBPA will be running a candidate in Galway in the local elections. Kiran Emrich will be one of 50 candidates from around the country running on behalf of the PBPA.
Kiran Emrich has been a political activist for over 10 years.  He was elected onto the first Donegal Youth Council at the age of 16. He was involved in setting up Amach! LGBT Galway Ltd. which succeeded in having the LGBT Resource Centre included in the Galway City Development Plan. 

Concerned about lack of democracy & accountability, Kiran will be holding monthly open public meetings on issues affecting our communities. If elected, these meetings will afford an opportunity for a report back by Kiran Emrich on council business to the electorate in the area, a mandate on issues, and to take up public concerns.

This year as well the government will be introducing water charges. They rammed the legislation through the Dail just before Christmas with no time for debate and now the water bills will be arriving by the end of this year.
The People Before Profit Alliance is firmly against Water Charges as we believe they are a regressive taxation that affect most those who cannot afford to pay. Water is a basic human right and need and should never be charged for.

So come along to the meeting, hear about the People Before Profit Alliance, about the candidate. And why we oppose Water Charges and how we can collectively go about challenging water charges.            

ALL WELCOME.  

Vigil at Merlin Park Addiction Treatment Centre

Around 30 people attended a vigil, in appalling weather, on Friday 20th December, at the former addiction treatment centre at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway. The centre was burnt down earlier this year, and the HSE is proposing to move the service to the psychiatric unit in University Hospital Galway (UHG).
The psychiatric unit at UHG is already overcrowded especially since the closure of mental health services in Ballinasloe and the downgrading of Roscommon Hospital. A psychiatric unit is also not a suitable location for an addiction treatment service. Most people who use the addiction treatment service would not consider their problems a psychiatric issue and would be less inclined to attend the service if it was located in the psychiatric unit. The service in Merlin Park had been there for 27 years, providing an excellent service.

People Before Profit representative Kiran Emrich said

'The HSE move is part of widespread cutbacks to services, with services being downgraded and centralised in main hospitals without increasing capacity of the main hospital. Its just going to lead to increased waiting lists, poorer services and poorer health."

Now a combination of service users, students from NUI Galway Students for a Sensible Drug Policy society and local people have come together to demand the service is retained in Merlin Park and that the centre is rebuilt. The vigil was the first event held by the campaign with a second vigil taking place on the 20th January.