COMMUNITY
activists and residents from Dublin 7 staged a publicity stunt of a mock
equinox sacrifice last week to voice their opposition to the payment of the
Anglo promissory notes.
The
‘sacrifice’
was made in a week when negotiations with EU authorities to avoid paying the
?¬3.1
billion cash payment at the end of this month were on-going.
The payment
relates to the State’s bill for pumping emergency funds into Anglo Irish Bank
and Irish Nationwide during the height of the financial crisis.
Community
activists are demanding that instead of honouring the promissory notes, the
Government should use the money to fund vital services locally that have borne
the brunt of crippling cutbacks.
The publicity
stunt attempted to highlight the situation through the symbolic burning of
community services, local crèches, after-school clubs, educational projects and
other community resources.
According to
Stoneybatter resident Sian Crowley, cutbacks have had a devastating effect on
the local community.
“In the
Stoneybatter area alone in the last few years, Government cuts have closed a
string of projects such as the O’Devaney Gardens Regeneration Project, the
Dublin Inner City Partnership, the Community IT project, the Local Women’s
Network and childcare services,
? she stated.
“These provided
real supports to vulnerable sections of our community. Now they are gone, and
why? So we can pay for the debt of the zombie bank Anglo Irish, a bank
currently under investigation. The effects of these cuts on children, women and
the elderly and the disabled will be incalculable.
?
Donnach O
Briain, who also spoke in Stoneybatter, was equally scathing of the promissory
note commitment, which he described as an
“odious and immoral debt
?.
“It is also
unsustainable,
? he added.
“Leading economists have argued that cancelling it
would not create contagion in the financial system, and would improve Ireland’s
chances of economic recovery enormously.
?