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MARY LOU MCDONALD has said she is not in favour of outsourcing the processing of asylum seeker applications to other countries.
In the view of the Sinn Féin leader, Ireland should focus on better resourcing at home and enforcing rules already in place around migration.
On the rise of anti-immigration sentiment among the public – including some Sinn Féin voters – McDonald said the “weariness” is understandable.
“People are really under pressure because government has abjectly failed to have a plan in respect of dealing with immigration,” she told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“Either Sinn Féin get our chance to be in government to deliver change … or you’re looking at five more years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
“That prospect is certainly one that fills people with dread.”
McDonald dodged questions about her party’s significant slip in the polls.
The latest by Ireland Thinks/Sunday Independent has Sinn Féin on 22% – the same as Fine Gael – while Independents and Others are one point ahead at 23%.
Days out from local and European parliament elections, she insists there is still an “impatience for change”.
On the doors, the Irish Times had reported that Sinn Féin candidates were called “traitors” and “sellouts”, but McDonald says this is “not standard practice” while canvassing.
The tensions arising around migration, she says, are “on the government, not on us”.
She claims there is a “noisy minority” of people who are outright anti-immigration but that “no community is looking to veto” the housing of asylum seekers in their locality.
“I understand on a human level in those circumstances when people then see and hear lots more people coming, more pressure on the systems, a government with no plan … that causes an anxiety.”
This “genuine” concern, she says, has been “weaponised” by some.
While McDonald says her party seeks to find “appropriate” housing for people seeking protection in Ireland, she does not want to create a discussion of “person versus person”.
“We live in a situation now where people at work – nurses, people working in retail, in factories – have no real prospect of buying or affording their own home.
“There are people who earn too much to be on the social housing list and don’t qualify for a council house if there was one to be got, but equally they can’t get a mortgage to buy their home at runaway prices.”
The answer, McDonald says, is a tailored scheme for these people, which she believes is possible through the use of public land by the government, which would take on land development costs.
Houses in her proposed scheme would cost in the region of €300,000, well-below the government’s current so-called affordable housing prices of more than €400,000.
McDonald says this won’t mean €300,000 houses in the leafy suburbs of Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 however.
The cost of such a scheme would fall on taxpayers.
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The govt should have made the redundancy rules effective from midnight of the budget day.
Instead they have created a situation where businesses are financially incentivised to lay staff off, right before Christmas.
The government had to bring these changes in but their method of delivery and implementation leaves a lot to be desired.
Nonsense! Redundancies are going to happen no matter how much the cost to employers! All thats been achieved here is that employees being made redundant are far less likely to get anything more that the minimum statuary payment! Employers will pass this cost on to employees any way they can! I haven’t heard anything from the Unions on this! Maybe that’s because it’s only private sector workers who are affected by this?
Last I heard 2/3 of union members are from the private sector. And yes I know that 2/3 of the workforce(roughly) ate private sector.
Bastards. Any company that thinks it can act like this should not be in business. There should be a name and shame policy for such outlets so that the rest of us can demonstrate just what we think of businesses that have such appallingly low respect for their employees.
The bastards should be boycotted by all of us.
Companies exist to make money that is their sole purpose. Any public company has a legal responsibility to its shareholders to do so. Companies are not charities we need to realise this when we make measures that could do this- when the government suggested this they were told this would happen. The government have a responsibility to the people not companies.
One of the dreary aspects of management attitudes that i discovered when I returned to Ireland was this attitude that local managers and business people had. Word for anyone involved in business in this country, companies exist for much more than simply making money or to serve the narrow interests on their shareholders. Companies have significant responsibilities to their employees, their customs and suppliers and to the communities in which they do business. Ethical companies already understand that. I’m afraid that my experience of much domestic management in Ireland is that they cannot see beyond their own financials. They lack an ethical approach to business and an understanding of what comprises sustainable business practice.
Further proof of the so called jobs budget failing, Labour influence is destroying jobs
What’s destroying jobs is plummeting demand not wages, competitiveness or regulation. Drive workers’ wages down further and demand takes another shock. It really is time that Irish business got its collective head around the truth that if an individual company cuts wages it may benefit in the short term, but if the companies that employ that business’ customers also cuts wages it will lose and lose heavily.
It truly is astonishing to witness the self-defeating short-termism and mé féinism of much of Irish business. Such business people are failing their own businesses as well as the wider economy.
This has happened to me and I’m in complete agreement with it. If rather the company have this extra rebate to try to keep going a bit longer than giving it to a bloated inefficient government to blow.
There is always Australia and Canada, the older boys like myself we know the score ok! It’s time for this generations to realise what kind of bastards are running business in this country!
Not just those running businesses it goes for those running the country as well. Making changes without thinking them through.
Incompetent and uncaring.
Why whenever this subject is discussed is the 60% employer rebate referred to varyingly as a subsidy, government grant etc when it is exactly what it says it is A REBATE! Employers have paid this money into the Social Insurance Fund, week after week, year after year through their Employers PRSI contributions. These new measures are nothing more than theft from already hardpressed employers. The… newly reduced rebate will result in more business closures because in order to fund the redundancy of one employee the employer will now have to use money otherwise set aside for everyday operating costs. BUT by all means let the media continue with their relentless spread of misinformation. It obviously appeals to the masses.
Check out this link from the departments own website https://www.welfare.ie/EN/Schemes/RedundancyandInsolvency/redundancy/Pages/ABriefGuideToTheRedundancyPaymentsScheme.aspx#rebates
Rebates
Employers who pay the statutory redundancy entitlement and give proper notice of redundancy (at least two weeks) are entitled to a 60% Rebate from the Social Insurance Fund, into which they make regular payments themselves through P.R.S.I. contributions. The Redundancy Payments Section of the Department processes applications for these rebates
It really shows the contempt employers have for staff. They’re fodder for profits and when those profits aren’t enough, they get dumped before Christmas in order to get a bigger rebate from the government. The redundancy will probably just scrape in at statutory levels too… And employers will take their sweet time paying it, crapping all over loyal workers a second time.
Shameful.
Employers create jobs and the taxes to fund the state.
Same employers are entitled to no social welfare if their businesses fail
Yet long term social parasites continue to bleed tax payers dry!
Sorry to learn that so many are to be laid off especially at this time of year due to these changes. Most bosses are hardworking decent people so don’t paint them all with the brush of being selfish, making someone redundant is not an easy decision.
Folks as usual there are two sides to every story. Many employers will offer a redundancy package in excess of the statutory amount. The package is in part funded by the 60% that can be claimed back. Reducing the amount that can be claimed back will be reflected in the packages offered to those seeking/being made redundant Letting employees go now means that many will get a better redundancy package now than they would otherwise get in 2012.
My sympathies to anybody laid off, at any time of year let alone Christmas, but I realistically cannot fault a business who brings forward a redundancy by a few months in order to avoid additional costs. Profit margins have to be down this year because nobody is spending money since nobody has any disposable income anymore. I’m inclined to applaud any business that’s still ticking over, more specifically the small-medium enterprises who are struggling in this economic fiasco.
Don’t forget, the Govt offered a similar redundancy/retirement package to offload public servants, which has been well subscribed to simply because it made more financial sense to get out while the getting was good. Nobody criticised nurses/gardai/civil servants for taking early retirement did they? The proviso of course was that they could not be rehired in the same position.
Actually I know of two people being laid off, getting a great redundancy package & being rehired by the same Company in January so that’s another side of it!
This is the result of another bad government decision that was spun to fool people. Oh we will reduce it to stop companies moving to England. Blah blah blah. It was obvious that the reduction will be passed on to those being made redundant. The times of 6-8 weeks pay per year are now gone just when people need the cushion. The governments dishonesty is the most disappointing thing about them. Sack all these useless special advisors.
Fantasy! When did the government say that this policy change was designed to stop companies moving to England. You’re making stuff up. As for the value of redundancy payments, it is untrue to claim that it will drag down redundancy payments. Most workers who are made redundant get barely more than the statutory minimum. That includes many workers in multinational companies, such as those with TalkTalk who were treated abysmally by their employer when it upped sticks with a hefty payoff for the government in redundancy subsidies.
No other country in the EU is this generous towards companies making people redundant. This is a business subsidy that is long past it’s sell-by date.
Important to be aware that if you have been with a company for 2-5 years you are entitled to 2 weeks notice, 5-10 years = 4 weeks, 10-15 = 6 weeks, and over 15 years = 8 weeks.
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