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news report
 Tuesday January 21, 2003 18:39 by Cathy Flanagan - Labour Party head_office at labour dot ie 17 Ely Place, Dublin 2 6784700
 An article in Monday's Evening Herald claims that 'the Government has taken two key steps to curtail rent increases in the private sector'. This is totally misleading. Labour's spokesperson on Housing explains... GOVERNMENT IS LYING ABOUT RENTS Deputy Eamon Gilmore has accused the Government of lying to the public over rents in the private rented housing sector. An article in yesterday's Evening Herald claims that 'the Government has taken two key steps to curtail rent increases in the private sector'. The article states that Minister Mary Coughlan has placed a 'cap on rents' and that the Private Rented Tenancies Board will have 'the power to adjudicate to ensure that rent increases are kept in line with market rates'. Deputy Gilmore said that both of these claims are false. "Firstly, the Government has not put a cap on rents. I wish they would! They have put a cap on the amount of rent allowance which a health board can pay to tenants on low incomes. This means that the tenants will in some cases have to bear the full brunt of rent increases, and in other cases they will be denied rent allowance altogether". "The Government is suggesting that by capping the rent allowance, tenants will be forced to 'shop around for better value'. This shows how out of touch this Government is with the reality of life for poor tenants. It is now very difficult to get a landlord who will accept tenants on rent allowance or indeed tenants with children. To suggest that by capping rent allowance, rents will come down is as ludicrous as trying to argue that if the Government capped the Old Age Pension, the price of the pint would come down", he said. "The Private Rented Tenancies Board has to date been given no real power at all, because the Government has failed to introduce legislation which would establish it on a statutory basis. The long promised Housing (Private Rented Sector) Bill has still not been published ? two and a half years after the Report of the Commission on the Private Rented Sector", he added.
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Comments (7 of 7)
Jump To Comment: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1when i see labour put up postings in indymedia i get sick. they are a capitalist party and they've embraced the market. they support nice treaty, coalitions, partnership, bin tax and war.
labour members, who are nothing but careerists, are only trying to ease their conscience. they have sold out the ideas of the founders of the labour party, they think that they are left wing by just going on indymedia! it makes me ill.
There is no rule against press releases per se; of course if some person or organisation is flooding the newswire they'll first be asked by email or by appended comment to slow down a bit. If this doesn't work posts are then hidden as a last resort.
The Indymedia site is a resource for all who care to use it; I think the line between politics and activism is hardly a clearly defined one and we certainly never have and never will try to exclude contributions as "too political".
As regards 'Labour just discovering Indymedia', myself and other Labour members have been involved in Indymedia for a long time. I don't post anything on behalf of Labour, cause I don't think I'd have much credibility as an editor if I was doing that, but certainly there have been comments and articles from the Labour point of view. Certainly the press releases are new, but the site is becoming more popular - the IRSP, Workers Party etc. have joined the community of contributors recently. If you even look at the front page today, you'll see a story about the Galway trees based on material from a relatively new contributor.
Indymedia draws its strength from the community that uses the site and more people and organisations 'discovering' it is a good thing. As long as no-one abuses the openness and freedom of the newswire the increase in content can only be a useful resource for activists, politicians, and anyone who wants to challenge the notion that information comes solely from filtered, edited, corporate, compromised and opaque newspapers and broadcasters.
no section 31 for anyone on IMC
casas sin gente
gente sin casas
At least up until now indymedia has been a forum for genuine activists and granted more than its fair share of nutters. But now we have to put up with the Press Release gang of careerist politicians. By the way whats indymedias policy on press releases? Are they news?
Nice to see Cathys got a job with Labour, long way from the promise of the new radical red-green party that was DL once upon a time.
well done bren, very constructive. I take it you have all the answers then? What 'I'd' like to see from 'alternative' activists/political groups is a bit less cliqueyness, and a willingness to take sense from whatever source (even those you don't like. Partisan politics is far too familiar to all of us. cheers.
Has labour just found out that indymedia exists?
I do hope that they don't turn this forum into a medium for their own press releases and statemenst (as they have done today)
Labours horrible deals with FF in the Dail, the techinical group sheningans and lasts weeks bin charges serpentisms, are just the visible icing on the cake.
On a related point, Labour should not be allowed to hijack the anti-war debate. Remember they are now controlled by the experts on entryism, workers party.
Brendan Mc G