April.2014 WEISFJORD NEWS Page 8

THE FOLLOWING WILL BE A PRIORITY FOR ME ON ELECTION TO THE NEW COUNCIL:

REAL JOBS FOR THE COUNTY -- We are still an unemployment blackspot the masking by the government byschemes such as Job Bridge, some of the Internships and especially the latest Gateway to Work? ( wherepeople are forced to take up employment for €20 weekly) are not the answer and there is no doubt thesome unscrupulous employers are using these schemes exploiting the unemployed for cheaply availablelabour, so none of these schemes are a substitute for Real Jobs. While local government can't create jobsit can create the environment the helps employment and promoting local industries like fishing which hashuge potential if the restrictions place on it by the EU were removed to allow fishermen to equal access tofish stocks

HOUSING because the situation regarding the building of social housing is at it’s most critical since the for-ties and fifty ( 90,000 nationally and Wexford town 600 on the housing lists) and despite a recent promiseto build some 500 houses for the whole country ( a drop in a very large bucket) in addiction in place of along term housing strategy €500 million annually is handed over to private landlords. I am totally againstthe Property Tax as it is presently rolled out having no allowance whatsoever for household income builtin to this . What could have been a real wealth tax combining the price of the property with the incomegoing into the house and most of the money going to provide better services at last for local authorities

WATER is another area that will, if the present focus which is only concerned with bringing in money fromthis resource in the upcoming Water Charge to another unaccountable quango, with out regard to household income and added to this is the overall direction towards centralisation and in this area in particularprivatisation of this commodity seems as the ultimate goal of this government

HEALTH A health service with equal access for all should continue to be our aim and not the present situ-ation of the two tier system that we have at present where only those who can afford expensive healthinsurance can get treatment quickly

ENVIRONMENT AND HERITAGE. These continue to be our greatest resources and we should continue to strivefor excellence in the Tidy Towns and Wexford in Bloom competitions etc and continue to support these ini-tiatives. A museum for Wexford has long been a goal of mine and some years ago I put a motions forwardto have the old Jail at the Co. Hall in Wexford. Also a skate board park is promised as part of the new‘Peoples Park’ at Carcur in Wexford.