Manorhamilton forgotten in decentralisation move
leitrim |
miscellaneous |
press release
Monday January 12, 2004 19:00
by rayo
Once again Manorhamilton and the North Leitrim area have been ignored and forgotten by Government, said Labour representative Mr Gabriel McSharry when he referred to the fact that none of the proposed decentralised jobs announced by Minister McCreevey on Budget day, will go to North Leitrim
"Carrick-on-Shannon, the county town, is to be assisted and rightly so. For far too long the needs of Leitrim have been ignored. However, the Manorhamilton and North Leitrim area in general has been ravaged by unemployment and emigration over the years and the conflict in Northern Ireland further undermined the local economy. Given such a background of disadvantage it is only fair and reasonable to believe that Manorhamilton should have been considered for some of the decentralised jobs announced by the Minister", Mr. McSharry maintained.
"I have no doubt but that the local elected representatives have been making the necessary representations to Government for decentralisation. However, it would appear that they have no clout when it comes to influencing Government decisions", he added.
"If locations for decentralisation were decided upon on the basis of need and on the basis of a requirement for fair and balanced development then Manorhamilton and North Leitrim were fully deserving of consideration. However, once again this area has been relegated to second class status by this Government.
"This community is already concerned about the future of the health services in the area and in this context the announcement of decentralised jobs would have provided a significant moral boost for the people of Manorhamilton and North Leitrim. But all we received was a deafening silence from Dublin.
"How can Manorhamilton and North Leitrim hope to grow and develop when its needs are constantly ignored by Government? I believe that there must now be a unified effort across the political spectrum, to emphasise the need for genuine investment in the area, and to demand the same level of support for North Leitrim as the Government is giving to Knock and other areas in the region", said Mr McSharry.
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Comments (2 of 2)
Jump To Comment: 1 2Do you want to know who has been forgotten in this whole decentralisation fiasco - us poor civil and public servants who are being flung to the four corners of Ireland as a gift to the culchies in return for their support in the upcoming elections. Those of us who "volunteer" to remain in Dublin have been given no indication of what we will be volunteering for, what jobs we will be offered, where those jobs will be or indeed how those jobs will compare with our jobs that are being shipped down the country. It makes me so angry to hear bog warriors whinging on about unequal and unfair investment by government - Manorhamilton's greatest difficulty lies in the fact that no-one seems to want to live there - due to the high unemployment rates, poor infrastructure, the fact that is is in the middle of nowhere....etc, why then is it fair to ship public servants down to this place - even the people of Manorhamilton don't want to live there so why should we?
It is worth remembering that public servants do not operate a common pool arrangement, in the same way that civil servants do - we do not have the same transfer arrangements in place as civil servants do - we should not have been included in this decentralisation nonsense!
And to those of you who will say "I work for Dell / Intel / Microsoft or ANother corporation and if they wanted to move and I wanted to keep my job I would have to move aswell" I would answer If your employer moves to Manorhamilton or anywhere else on the planet it will be for the good of the company, to make financial savings etc - not for the good of some town that time and civilisation has forgotten and so that Councillor MacCorruption can retain his seat for the FF party - decentralisation benefits only those civil servants on transfer lists (who are lucky enough to be in an office that is to be decentralised to their area of choice), the economies of rural towns with no get up and go of their own to re-vamp their own economies and ultimately the FF / PD councillors who will claim the credit for this and use it to get themselves elected!
Let us not forget too that decentralisation is anti-family....look at a town like Edenderry - civil and public servants have jobs waiting for them when (and of course if) decentralisation takes place but what about their spouses? What about those of us who do not wish for our children to be educated in the local convent - we can't be expected to live in a town where "multi-demominational" is a dirty word! Seriously though - decentralisation looks good on paper but is really a blatant piece of electioneering on behalf of the FF / PD govt - civil and public servants are not nameless, faceless units of labour production - we are people with families, homes and lives....we deserve better than the best that rural Ireland can offer us!!
Interesting how an issue that affects so many people has attracted so little comment. Many of the staff being moved will be at the bottom rung of the civil service, low income white collar.
If they cant afford to have a car they are effectively marooned in whatever town/location gets them (and why do some locations benefit from de-centralisation?).
And for all the criticisms of the government, it does run lots of services that we use, etc etc. This de-centralisation will not help...