AAA candidate debates against new anti-immigrant party

The suffering people of Syria stand on the brink of a precipice. Each day brings new evidence that a sectarian conflagration of terrible proportions can ensue, unless a force emerges which could hold out a realistic prospect of uniting its 22 million people through offering a new dispensation. This would be one where the wealth and stewardship of the nation would be democratically invested in them rather than be the subject of warring factions led by local elites and sponsored by cynical international interests.

Alarmist media headlines over the past week give the impression that €2,500 could easily be deducted from the wages and welfare payments of householders boycotting the registration and payment of the new household tax. In fact such legislation does not even exist at this time. Nor does any legislation allow for the tax itself to be deducted.

The comment of the Labour Party to imposing austerity as part of the next government is increasingly clear. In agreeing to the target of reducing the budget deficit to 3% by 2014, Labour is pledging to implement cutbacks and attacks similar to those of the current government.

A three hour debate in the Dail yesterday once again highlighted the awful legacy left to thousands of homeowners in this State from a blatant failure to implement proper building regulations in the construction of homes during the property bubble era. Yesterday it was the creeping destruction caused by pyrite that was in focus but much reference was made also to those homeowners, such as the residents of Priory Hall on Dublin’s north side, who are living with the agony of being forced out of their homes which are serious fire hazards because the fire safety regulations were not implemented during construction.