THE PEOPLE Before Profit Alliance has announced that councillor Bríd Smith will contest the election for a Dublin mayor which is due to take place in the autumn.
Ms Smith, who represents the Ballyfermot/Drimnagh area on Dublin City Council, intends to campaign against water charges and incineration in the Dublin region.
“The People Before Profit Alliance believes this election provides an opportunity to the people of Dublin to show their opposition to the current policies of our Government which are leading to chronic unemployment in the city, growing numbers of families on the housing list, the implementation of water charges and cutbacks in local services,” the organisation said in a statement.
It said that Ms Smith would advocate the creation of a public works scheme with directly employed labour.
This would involve upgrading all water infrastructure to prevent massive waste through leakage, a city-wide home insulation programme to conserve energy and to protect all water piping from erosion and leakages and installation of water conservation methods such as dual-flush toilets and grey water bins.
Her programme also advocates increased recycling of waste to prevent land-fill usage, the introduction of mechanical biological treatment plants to prevent incineration and the maintenance and restoration of all the public housing stock to ensure no houses are left empty and families are taken off the housing waiting lists.
“Double taxation such as bin charges and water charges penalise the lower paid and the poor disproportionately and Bríd will campaign to restore all waivers on bin charges for all Dublin citizens dependent on social welfare,” the group’s statement said.
“Bríd will be actively supporting a mass campaign of opposition to water charges.”
It continued that billions of euros of taxpayers’ money had been used to bail out the banks while thousands of young people had had their homes repossessed by the banks.
“Job creation must be a priority for our capital city and Bríd will be promoting the engagement of direct labour by the local authorities to build, maintain and repair public facilities such as libraries, swimming pools, youth and family resource centres, playgrounds and creches.”
