Garda Stations in Small Towns and Rural Villages Simply Must be Open by Night – Hayes

South Tipperary T.D. has called on the Minister for Justice to lengthen the opening hours of rural Garda Stations.

“I am calling on Minister Dermot Ahern to lengthen the opening hours of Garda Stations in South Tipperary and across the country, particularly to cover night shifts in rural Ireland,” Tom Hayes T.D. said today in light of the news that only three Garda Stations in South Tipperary are open 24 hours a day.

“In light of recent news both across the country and specifically, in South Tipperary, of anti-social behaviour, dangerous driving, noise disturbance and the high number of robberies, I am calling on the Minister to open more rural Garda Stations in small towns during the night, and to have rotating shifts in the villages across the country to prevent crime in rural Ireland outside of daylight hours,” Tom Hayes continued.

“The effects of the recession on people’s security in their own homes are very obvious; robberies are much more frequent and people do not feel safe in their own homes. The presence of the Gardaí by night in smaller towns and in villages is one of the most effective and efficient ways to prevent this kind of crime [Read more →]

People and Businesses Wait Longer and Longer for Much-Needed Redundancy Payments – Hayes

South Tipperary T.D. Tom Hayes called on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to act on the 33,000 individuals and businesses who are waiting since the end of 2009 for payment of redundancy claims and rebates.

Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Dara Calleary, has himself acknowledged to Tom Hayes T.D. that the delays are “unacceptable” as the department is now processing claims submitted last November and December. In total, 33,713 redundancy claims were still awaiting processing at the end of June.

Minister Calleary said in reply to a Parliamentary Question from Tom Hayes: “The backlog and waiting times remain at unacceptable levels. However, improvements are evident.

“The Minister’s contention that this has improved is blatantly untrue. The situation has, in fact, deteriorated since I raised it with the Department last year. In June of 2009, businesses were waiting four months for their rebates and this now stands at a wait of seven months.” [Read more →]

Council Rates Must be Dropped to Keep Employment – Hayes
South Tipperary Tom Hayes has today called on the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government to ensure that Council rates are dropped in the coming year, as this is hampering the ability of local business to operate and will seriously affect the level of job retention across the country.

Speaking following a meeting with Cashel Chamber of Commerce this week, Tom Hayes highlighted the serious situation being created by the unmanageably high rates being charged to businesses across the country.

“In the last few months, I have come across numerous incidences of companies being pushed out of business by the arrival of the notice of rates due to urban councils. It can be the final straw for many companies, and just goes to show that this must stop. I know of incidences where the rates being charged by the Council are higher than the rent itself.”

“We simply must keep businesses in operation – it is pointless for rhetoric on job creation to go on while we are trying desperately to retain the jobs that we have – with little effect while the rates continue to make business unworkable in this country. Every kind of business is trying its level best to cut its costs, drop the cost to the end customer and boost the economy by keeping in business. But the system of local government is so starved of revenue that it has placed the burden on the businesses that still exist – this only stands to increase given the number of companies that have been forced to close over the last 12 months due to the state of the economy.”

“We must get back to brass tacks in this country – if people cannot afford to continue doing business, more jobs will be lost – the more jobs that are lost, the harder we will have to work to get the economy functioning again.” [Read more →]

Work Placement Programme Has Helped Only 14 people in South Tipperary in 16 Months – Hayes

Tom Hayes T.D. has strongly criticised the government’s work on job creation in the last two years, and in particular the Work Placement Programme, which has only created 14 placements for people in South Tipperary in the last 16 months since its creation.

“This Programme was set up to huge fanfare and the government have paraded it ever since as being one of their major job creation initiatives. In fact, it could be described as their only job creation initiative.  At this stage, 16 months after it was established, only 14 people have actually started a placement in South Tipperary.  A further 34 placements have been advertised but nobody has been appointed to those placements as yet. When I questioned the Minister about this in December 2009, only three people in South Tipperary had been placed in work experience, eight months later, only 11 more people have been helped by this measure.”

“This is an absolute fiasco from this Green/Fianna Fáil government. This Programme should be seeing a huge uptake from companies and from people who are unemployed, as it stands to hugely benefit both of them. This government started this programme off with far too many restrictions which I insisted were changed last December. They still have not managed to make this programme take off.” [Read more →]

Good News for Tipperary Town as Bypass Progresses – Hayes

South Tipperary T.D. has strongly lobbied the Minister for Transport and the NRA to push forward with the planning stages for the Tipperary bypass.

“I have pushed hard for this project to be retained as as part of future government investment in infrastructure, with both the Noel Dempsey, the Minister for Transport and with Fred Barry, the CEO of the NRA. As a result, I have received confirmation that, in a week when many other road projects are being cancelled or deferred, the Tipperary Bypass (the N24 Pallasgreen to Bansha scheme) is to be retained as a project for future investment.

“Funding has been confirmed to continue the work on Compulsory Purchase Orders and Environmental Impact Study documentation, which are both essential to the progress of this project. The documentation should be concluded by 2011, which will open the project up to moving to the next stage. [Read more →]