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A privatised route will have to generate income and to do so can only increase fares and / or lower wages. We have seen this for refuse collection since 2001. Taking the city as a whole, the private tendering of these ‘orbital’ routes is a testing ground for more extensive privatisation on other, more lucrative, routes in the years to come.

A private operator is not going to want to compete on one route but on many across the entire network. If a route is operated by a profit-driven company, the license to service the route will need to stipulate the regularity of the service. A route that runs at peak times only and does not operate outside of this peak defies categorisation as a social good.

Ours fears for privatisation is that there will be a focus on running a bus only on that exact slot in the schedule that will be busy. There is little assessment of the route within the system as a whole. Having operated a route for perhaps two years, private operators will be back at the minister’s office door arguing for access to these more lucrative routes.

Dr Eoin O’Mahony, Dublin City University.

Privatizing public transport from the periphery to the centre?

Map via (out of work mapper) Omar Sarhan – explore the privatised routes here

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Maria Karagianni, a member of Syriza’s youth wing, at breakfast meeting hosted by Communities Against Water Charges in North Dublin at Edenmore, Dublin on Saturday.

“What we have learnt from the campaign is, never give up, it can be done, don’t give in to those who will try to discourage you, build as many alliances as you can..

“Then what happens is the mainstream media will try to attack the movement. The mainstream media is generally controlled by the elites in society who fear genuine grassroots movements of working people. They will always try to undermine movements resisting austerity. In Greece, you could have a rally with 10,000 people and it will not be in the news.”

Maria Karagianni,  said when mainstream media failed to cover the protests, people turned to social media and covered their protests themselves. “Social media has been very important,” she said.

The anti-water charges campaign was “inspirational” to the Greek people, she said.

“It is so impressive. It is a genuinely working class movement that challenged the narrative that everything is good in Ireland and everyone is happy.”

FIGHT!

Greeks ‘inspired’ by Irish anti-water charge campaign (Kitty Holland, Irish Times)

Meanwhile…

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At the Syrzia breakfast on Saturday.

From left: Moira Murphy Community against water charges, Richard Mc Aleavey Greek solidarity, Gerard Kennark from Community against water charges, Cat Inglis from Community against water charges, Maria Karagianni and Nyoman Tzouvla Syriza acivists, Ronan Burtenshaw from Greek solidarity.

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

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And other love paraphernalia from Fabricate Designs, Dublin mother/daughter design team,  Eithne and Fiona Carey.

Fiona writes:

Each piece of our faceted jewellery range is hand carved, making it entirely unique!
If you’re planning on popping the big question this Valentine’s Day, why not do it with one of our cute and fun ‘token’ proposal Diamond Rings  (third pic)in your true love’s favourite colour? This tartan raw silk and viscose scarf (middle pic) is light but very warm – the perfect gift for your stylish gentleman!
We have a 20% off sale for the whole of February when you enter the coupon code BIGLOVE at the checkout!

Fabricate Designs (etsy.com)

Irish-Made Valentine’s Day stuff to broadsheet@broadsheet.ie marked ‘Irish-Made Valentine’s Day’. Fee free.

water

There is a strong anti-fluoridation campaign targeting city and county councillors throughout the State. This campaign seeks to have motions passed calling for the fluoridation of water to end in the area of the relevant council.

The benefits for oral health of adding fluoride to water are well established. There is no scientific evidence that fluoride, at the rate at which it is added to Irish water, is a threat to any aspect of the health of our citizens.

We are asking councillors to review the published scientific information before supporting a motion, which if implemented by Government, would damage people’s oral health for years.

The 2002 North South Survey of Children’s Oral Health showed measurable benefits in oral health among those aged five and 15 in areas with fluoridated water in the Republic of Ireland when measured against the oral health of children in Northern Ireland where the water is not fluoridated. The only negative demonstrated by the research was a slight increase in mild discolouration of teeth, which resulted in a decrease from 0.9 parts per million to 0.7 parts per million in the rate of fluoridation.

If you remove fluoride from water, even allowing for the presence of fluoride in toothpastes, our citizens will suffer from increases in tooth decay with all its associated pain and financial cost. At a time when the Government provides almost no support for the oral health of our citizens, and when the public dental service is severely strained because of cutbacks and the moratorium on recruitment, the removal of fluoride would be a retrograde step….

Dr Peter Gannon, President Irish Dental Association, Fintan Hourihan, CEO Irish Dental Association and Professor Leo Fa Stassen, Trinity College.

Fight!

irish Times letters

Broadsheet.ie