Reflections on Mullingar-Another conference of action

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Last weekend saw another successful chapter in our campaign to become the third party in a three party sytem and to break the mould of silly civil war politics. Another excellently received leader's speech by Eamon Gilmore meant that we weren't too disappointed by the poll setback on Sunday morning. Anyway, if we end up with between 17 and 20% in the elections on June 5th. I for one will be very happy.

The heart of the weekend's action for me was my campaign for re-election to the party's National Executive Committee. I was at a major disadvantage because of a difficulty getting local members to travel, but my friends elsewhere ensured I had enough number ones to see me home eventually. Thanks a million to Gary, Sadie and other party members for their support and to everybody who supported me with their preference votes. I look forward to representing my own local members and the views of other members at National level in what is sure to be an exciting time in politics.

As you'll see above I also got a chance to speak on Friday night on a motion on the Irish language and the Gaeltacht. Súil agam go n-aontaionn tú leis an méid a bhi le rá agam.

Straight Talking-Eamon calls it on the pension levy while civil servants decide to take action

Here is Eamon Gilmore's speech last night proposing the Labour Party's motion calling for the rejection of the Government's proposed levy on public servants. Our case has never been that public servants shouldn't contribute to the recovery of our economy, despite the fact that they had precious little to do with the mess we now find ourselves in. It is the total unfairness of the Government's remedy that Eamon highlights here.

This unfairness is why I will join the thousands of other civil servants, gárdai, nurses, prison officers and others on Saturday at the national demonstration in Dublin. We hope that many private sector workers will join us on the basis that they will be next. We must not allow this rotten Government to row back on the working conditions that our trade unions have fought for for generations.

Reflections on a crazy week- Let's fight to make it different

Tonight I watched Brian Lenihan who's supposed to know what's going on in our country and economy and Eamon Gilmore on the Week in Politics programme and I saw why the people I've met on the street are really connecting with the Labour Party and its leader. Putting it simply, Eamon wiped the floor with Lenihan in a calm, rational and yet really passionate way. In that he has been joined by Joan Burton, who's now coming across as the only really knowledgeable voice on the economic front. It took her questioning to discover during the week that the pension levy would be tax deductible and therefore would bring in far less than the Government pretended.

Put simply this has been a week which typifies all that is rotten about this Government. The politics of the soft touch has seen people like myself and others on far lower rates of pay than mine scapegoated by this Government.

Of course our local Junior Minister John McGuinness started the softening up process months ago with his mean-spirited attack on public servants. The media has fallen for this spin hook, line and sinker, making it so easy to attack us this week. The unfairness of it all was brilliantly described by SIPTU's Jack O' Connor on Wednesday when he said that a public servant on €40,000 would now pay an extra 7% of their salary effectively in tax, while a self-employed hospital consultant in a private hospital would pay an extra 2% on a salary of €250,000 a year. Worse still the property developers and the bankers who brought us to this mess get off scot-free.

I for one hope that my colleagues across the public service now revolt. We don't mind paying our share in a difficult situation but let's see others bear the pain also.

For now it's time for us to organise to get this shower out. This month Labour are asking you to get involved. If you're in Kilkenny please contact me to join the Labour Party and get involved. If you're anywhere else click here to sign up. The time for talking and criticising is over-the time for action is now and you can play your part.

Bí linn agus is féidir linn

Nationalising the banks comrades- Sure tis a great thing altogether now!

In the bad old days the biggest insult you could throw at the Labour Party was that they wanted to 'Nationalise the Banks'. The implication was that the horrible old socialists would rob all your money and take it out of your life savings account and throw it all away on nasty things like school classrooms and hospital beds.

Now take a look at the smiling man here and reflect! The face of 'Ireland Inc.', the epitome of all that was great in Irish life in the Celtic Tiger period was Mr. Fitzpatrick, when all of us who warned that our ten-year party was based on what David McWilliams called the greatest pyramid selling scheme in the history of capitalism were dismissed as pessimists who were 'talking down the economy'. And what was he up to all along-why feathering his own nest of course, along with a whole lot of other chancers. And what must we do now? Well Cowen and Lenihan first ask us to shell out a fortune to bail out the nice lads at Anglo, and then, sure we might as well buy it altogether sure!

Ten years ago you'd have been sent off to the Celtic Tiger gulag for unsound and unpatriotic people for suggesting nationalising anything-'give it to Michael O' leary-he'll show you how to do it' was the refrain. Remember now when Labour opposed the sell-off of Trustee Savings Bank from the state: 'Sure what would the state be doing running a bank?!!', the sneering fatcats chortled. Well how's about to put manners on a few people and to have a bit of financial ethics around the place as an answer?

Now is the time for this Government to get off its complacent backside and to engage in a real public debate about where we go next. I believe that what my party is proposing is the way to go. Let's stimulate the economy just as Obama and Brown are doing. Let's get building and creating, and if we have to borrow to give people hope and dignity back, let's do so. Staying stuck in the same old Thatcherite slash and burn policies of the 80's will plunge us deeper into darkness and will set our recovery back year.

Who do you trust more on this choice- Obama, Brown and Gilmore or Cowen, Lenihan and indeed Kenny?

Is Féidir Linn

Sin na focail a d'úsáid ceannaire mo pháirtí, Eamon Gilmore ag deireadh a aitheasc i gCill Chainnigh an Satharn seo chaite. Las sé tine faoi bhaill an pháirtí agus más aon comhartha an méid atáim ag clos ó cháirde agus an pobal, faoin dtír ar fad chomh maith.

We've just finished the historic first ever national conference of the Labour Party in Kilkenny and whar a weekend it was. For me, the most memorable conference speech was that of our last hugely successful leader Dick Spring at the famour 'Bread and Roses' caonference in Tralee in 1989. That was pure theatre with its opera and poetry and its sheer novelty. Saturday's sppech was all about content however, right from the start. The first sentence was 'I want to talk to you about solutions', and that was what he did. You can watch the speech below or read it here.

For my own part, I got to speak in the live RTÉ television debate on Saturday morning and you can see the speech here from the party's very forward looking presence on UStream. I also made the main RTÉ news for my comments regarding Fine Gael's attacks on the public service, and was also delighted to make it onto Saturday View, my favourite RTÉ radio programme, and had the privilege of being interviewed by John Bowman. The soundbite was small for all of us but we were there regardless. The coverage continued today as my comments were covered in two pieces in the Irish Times, one on FG and one on class sizes. and the Irish Daily Mail. More importantly of course on a local level I got to do a good piece with Tom Dowling on the afternoon news show on KCLR FM, our local radio station.

Two highlights of the weekend were the long service awards to Carlow/Kilkenny party members. Two of my favourite Labour women got recognition they deserved. Sadie Kelly was my predecessor on the party's National Executive and played a major part in bringing this conference to Kilkenny, work which I was delighted to continue, while the ever youthful Peggy Kerwick was unfortunately absent but her award was collected by my neighbour and great community activist, Seán. The others were Graiguenamanagh man John Bolger, Borris man Willie Hayes, and the unbelieveably fresh looking Paddy Dowd of Coon in North Kilkenny a 93 year old lifelong activist. All got their awards from one of my heroes, party President Michael D. Higgins TD.

He had previously presented the Jim Larkin justice award to Conor MacLiam, husband of the late Susie Long who inspired us so much in her life and her passing. Conor reminded us that Susie was a great socialist and a huge admirer of Larkin, and of course challenged us to keep alive the issues which tragically led to her death.

Well done to health marchers-Only the start

I couldn't make it to the Health service demonstration on Saturday in Dublin due to family commitments but hats off to those who took part. The Health Service Unions represent those who work at the coal face of Irish health every day. They took the initiative on Saturday, and were joined in strength by the Labour Party and others on the left.

The highlight of the day I believe was the speech by Kilkenny resident Conor MacLiam, husband of the late Susie Long whose tragic death brought so much of the injustice and inequlaity of the health servie to the fore. Conor gave a fantastic interview on the Sue Nunn show on KCLR local radio this morning, and made it clear that he believes that this campaign should continue. I hope to be there next time, and we owe that to Susie and all those who have suffered at the hands of this unjust system.

Labour Leader Eamon Gilmore also joined the ongoing weekly picket at the Mater Hospital in my old constituency of Dublin Central. Most importantly, the picket highlights the apalling conditions in the A&E department in the hospital. My late brother in law Gregg Flannery passed away in that unit three years ago, and if ever I needed a clear example of the disgrace of the system, it was the sight of his family members sitting on plastic chairs in the hospital yard in the time of their greatest distress because there was nowhere for them inside.

A good choice made and time to chose the best Deputy Leader-Why I'm backing Jan

Today is a historic day for the Labour Party as we select our tenth leader. At what I consider is a relatively young age, I'm now looking forward to meeting my fourth party leader in person when he attends the members hustings for the South East in Kilkenny on Tuesday week, the 18th. of September. For what it's worth I believe that Pat Rabbitte stepped down too early, a view I have related directly to him. This is the second such occasion, with Ruairi Quinn having left too early also in my view. That said, both men had very good reasons for doing so, and it's now up to us to get on with the task of rebuilding our party back to where we were in 1992, and to our ultimate aim which is to become the main opposition party in Ireland. In that context I think we have chosen the best leader available to us, and I now believe we should chose Jan O' Sullivan as the best positioned person to carry out the Deputy Leader's job.

I warmly welcome the election of Deputy Eamon Gilmore as the tenth leader of the Labour Party. I have been a long-time friend of Eamon, who like myself, is a former national student leader. His work as a Junior Minister in the last Government in which we were involved was hugely admired, but it has been as our spokesperson on local Government and the Environment that he has made a huge impact, articulating a vision for the development of local Government and arguing for core Labour values like the necessity for building badly needed social housing for the 100,000 plus people in need of a roof over their heads.

Eamon’s ambition for the party has already been clearly outlined, and I welcome his commitment to win at least thirty seats in the next General election. I believe that regaining a Labour seat in Carlow/Kilkenny must be a key target in this strategy, and I intend to work strongly with our new leader to ensure this happens.

My decision to support Jan O’ Sullivan, and to call on party members in the constituency to support her is based on a strong belief that we need to have a balanced representation in the party leadership. It is crucial that the party continues to be seen as one for all the people of Ireland, urban and rural.

Jan comes from the proud Kemmy tradition of Limerick socialism, and has been an ardent defender of the values of equality, fairness and opportunity for all which summed Kemmy up. She has been a superb party spokesperson on education, my own professional field, and has formulated a forward-looking position on education, committing Labour to a substantial investment in education at all levels, particularly in reducing class sizes in our primary schools, a position the Government has singularly failed to introduce.

While I have great regard for Joan Burton TD, who has been a superb spokesperson on finance, and a hard-working TD, I believe Jan has the necessary conviction and commitment to be the best available support to Eamon as our new leader.