The Industrial Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland stands in full solidarity with public service workers striking over pay and declining living standards. The government allowed the previous agreement to expire without obtaining a credible successor and must now make substantive movement. Workers are right to reject any settlement that leaves them poorer in real terms. The objective should be clear: real pay increase for members, protecting workers and their families against inflation, honouring unmet commitments, and preventing pay negotiations from becoming a blank cheque for the Government on labour deployment, restructuring and change. Industrial action is justified, and additional escalation should remain available where Government refuses to move. But militancy should not be measured by strike length or ever-larger demands. Measure it by whether industrial action strengthens workers’ bargaining power, secures concrete gains, and builds confidence and collective power for the long battles ahead. Communists reject any artificial separation between industrial and political struggle. The fight over wages and working conditions is the central arena of class conflict. Our task is to give that struggle a clear political voice whilst supporting disciplined, hard-headed bargaining aimed at winning the strongest achievable settlement for workers. ### Share this: * Share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Share on X (Opens in new window) X * Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * ### _Related_

Call Meetings in Your Job on Monday: "Union leaders have called off the action for next Wednesday, but they cannot deliver on the basis of what the Government has put on the table. Pressure must be sustained to ensure workers get at least 10% and get it now. The money is there to pay for it."

As EU governments increasingly invoke threats of reinstating military service, the event recalled that the right to conscientious objection is explicitly recognised under Article 10(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and must be defended as such.

**SIPTU members’ industrial action has brought the Government and trade unions to the table, with work-to-rule action to continue as efforts begin to establish a basis for formal negotiations.** The ICTU Public Services Committee (PSC) has agreed to defer the strike action scheduled for next Wednesday, following discussions between Government and trade union representatives over the last 24 hours. A Taoiseach-led initiative aimed at breaking the current impasse has been agreed, with independent Chair Kevin Foley appointed to conduct an intensive and focused process to establish a basis for formal negotiations at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC). Mr Foley will be assisted by one trade union nominee and one employer nominee. The process is due to begin tomorrow (Saturday, 17th October), with the parties working towards a short document, for approval by both sides, setting out the basis on which formal negotiations can proceed. While next Wednesday’s strike action has been deferred, work-to-rule action will remain in place where operational. SIPTU Deputy General Secretary Adrian Kane said the development represented an important step forward but stressed that the Government must now demonstrate its commitment to reaching a fair agreement. “This week, more than 300,000 civil and public servants stood together and spoke with one voice. Through their organised and democratic action, workers sent a clear message that the cost-of-living crisis is stretching working people to their limits. “Our collective action has brought the parties to the table. We must now ensure that this process delivers a fair outcome for public service workers. “There remains a pressing need to rebuild trust and confidence in public service industrial relations. The Government must demonstrate in practice that it has listened to workers and is serious about reaching a resolution.” Kane thanked SIPTU members and staff for their dedication and determination throughout the dispute, and the public for their continued support. “I want to thank all our members and staff for their outstanding commitment and solidarity, and the public for the support they have shown to workers throughout this dispute. “The decision to defer next Wednesday’s strike action provides an opportunity to make progress, but the work is far from finished. We will keep members informed as the process develops. “The work continues.” Share on Social Media xfacebookemailwhatsapp

SIPTU General Secretary John King has described Budget 2027 as “a chaotic budget providing little relief for workers” and not the “workers’ budget” promised by Minister for Finance, Simon Harris. John King said: “Workers can have no confidence that the Government’s chaotic budget strategy is going to provide meaningful measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis that is eroding the value of their pay. The Government is hollowing out the tax base with giveaways to high-income groups, chasing high prices with temporary subsidies, and squeezing public services while becoming ever more dependent on a handful of multinationals and their windfall corporate tax receipts. “When temporary measures are withdrawn, workers will be left with the burden of meeting the high cost of living. We are still unsure whether the Government, despite accepting the Low Pay Commission’s proposed 79 cent increase in the Minimum Wage, will again postpone the target date for their own Living Wage beyond 2029. “The increase in tax bands and credits falls short of restoring their value to workers after the real cuts, after inflation, they suffered in last year’s budget. This contrasts with the €400 million in tax breaks for capital, business and high-end investments. The Government’s new savings scheme will subsidise people who can already afford to save. “Squeezing public services will undermine the state’s ability to reduce people’s high living costs. Baseline spending on public services will effectively flatline out to 2030. Increases in public transport fares will cancel out a significant proportion of tax cuts for many commuters. Failure to build adequate levels of affordable housing will continue to impose unacceptable costs on households. High levels of GP and generic medicine costs, along with escalating back-to-school costs, are all exacting a heavy toll on households, especially those with children. “The cuts in childcare costs are welcome. However, low pay continues to drive a recruitment and retention crisis which is imposing higher costs on childcare provision. It is a lack of supply that is limiting places for children and parents, which will only worsen without immediate action. To achieve affordable, high-quality childcare that offers value for money, the Government must reform the current system so that the needs of children and families are at its core, rather than foreign and private equity funds. “Cuts in fuel duties are regressive. A targeted approach would have been to subsidise low- and average-income households who own a car. The Government failed to intervene in the energy market by imposing price and profit-margin controls as other EU countries have. Rather than just subsidising rising prices, the Government should have looked at ways of reshaping the market. He added: “The Government’s chaotic approach to budgetary planning means that Irish public finances are dangerously reliant on a handful of multinationals. Even the Department of Finance accepts this is highly risky. It’s 2006 all over again with spending increases and tax cuts reliant on a volatile source of revenue. The Government is essentially doubling down on a high-risk dependency on multinationals.” Share on Social Media xfacebookemailwhatsapp

Investigation found 11 seriously sanctioned UK doctors still registered in Ireland

TDs and reps will be at Buswells Hotel at 11am

C&AG; report finds the proposed 486-home scheme was significantly more expensive than two previous social housing PPPs

Former Ireland Men’s spin-bowling all-rounder Simi Singh has today confirmed his retirement from professional cricket.

Cricket Ireland name former international Ed Joyce as the new High Performance batting coach, with a focus on the the men's senior squad and male talent pathway.

Double-agent Alexander Eberlin is assigned by the British to hunt out a Russian spy, known to them as Krasnevin. Only Eberlin knows that Krasnevin is none other than himself! Accompanying him on his mission is a ruthless partner, who gradually discovers his secret as Eberlin tries to maneuver himself out of a desperate situation.

Trump’s warmongering and support for Israel causing death and destruction in the Middle East and severe economic hardship for ordinary people in Ireland and across the world, says Deputy Boyd Barrett

Even a version which made no direct reference to Trump and removed his image, and simply read: “No welcome for warmongers” was turned down.

Sanctions on settlements are welcome and historic but long-overdue... - The next step is to end the North's role in arming Israel. Gerry Carroll: "Full sanctions on the Israeli state and a full arms embargo needed."

The undemocratic attack on Irish neutrality by the Government has reached a fever pitch. As a neutral country we should be using the EU Presidency to promote peace and dialogue to end conflicts and to encourage the EU to pull back from increasing militarisation. In effect, quite the opposite is happening. The Irish EU presidency is barely two months in and it is being fully utilised to undermine and assault our tradition of neutrality that goes back beyond the formation of the Irish state, to Connolly and Wolfe Tone before him. The EU leadership, the Government and the media worked in tandem to drum up inflation of threats, the new Red Scare, and talk of Ireland as the weak link in EU defence. The result? New military spending commitments, high level talks with Britain about joining a North Atlantic naval alliance, and talk of joining an EU-led military mission in Lebanon. Much of this was discussed at an informal meeting of EU defence ministers at the Druids Glen hotel on Tuesday September 1st. Roads were closed, airspace restrictions were in place and a maritime exclusion zone was imposed. While a Royal Navy ship and a helicopter searching for submarines patrolled Irish waters, government ministers were challenged by a pliant media gallery about the low level of military spending in Ireland. Minister McEntee responded by giving an assurance that Irish military spending “will continue to increase.” McEntee also said Ireland was committed to increasing military cooperation with European neighbours in the realm of maritime security and military technology. Advancing the programme laid out in the National Maritime Security Strategy published in February, the media blitz on neutrality this week included reports on the start of high level talks to have Ireland included in the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). The JEF is a 10-nation military alliance led by Britain that has as its main aim to harass Russian commercial shipping in international waters. As a neutral country, and a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea there is no rationale for the Irish government to even entertain participation in this piracy and provocation against a nuclear armed power. There is no UN mandate for this military mission. The “sanctions” this mission aims to enforce are not sanctions. They are unilateral coercive measures with no mandate from the UN. Under the terms of the Triple Lock which requires a UN mandate for defence forces deployments, Ireland cannot take part in this insanity. Even more audacious was the announcement on September 1 that Ireland was working with other EU countries towards an EU-led mission in Lebanon that will replace the UNIFIL mission whose UN mandate expires in December. The government is saying that it would be a humanitarian crisis if there is not a replacement force to step in after the UN mission leaves. What they are omitting is the fact that any EU-led force in Lebanon would not be a peacekeeping force, only the UN has the authority to mandate one. Since 2**** March, over 4000 Lebanese have been killed by Israel and over a million displaced. Entire villages have been systematically detonated and wiped off the map in the South of Lebanon and the land occupied by Israel. Israel says that it will not leave this “security zone” until Hezbollah is disarmed. The EU proposal is for a 3 year mission that will train and strengthen the Lebanese armed forces under the presidency of the pro-Western Joseph Aoun. What is most likely is that this EU-led force will serve to counter Hezbollah and provide cover as Israel cements its encroachments on Lebanese territory. At worst, this will see the EU taking sides in what may amount to a civil war. European powers have colluded in genocide carried out against the Palestinians by the zionist state by providing arms, or allowing their territory and airspace to be used to aid in the commission of genocide. The EU tells us that Russia is a menace that must be countered by all means necessary – hundreds of billions of Euros to keep the war going in Ukraine, endless sanctions that have only backfired to create a cost of living and fuel crisis. Yet the EU stands with Israel up to and past the point of genocide. The EU won’t even halt the EU-Israel association agreement that has an explicit article that states the partnership is conditional on Israel’s respect for human rights. Are these the forces that should be trusted to be a good faith broker in Lebanon? Micheal Martin is using this ill-defined mission as an example of why he wants to get rid of the Triple Lock. He says Ireland can’t help Lebanon because of the straight-jacket imposed by this protection on our neutrality. In their rush to please the military hawks in the EU and NATO the government keeps exposing the types of missions we would get involved in once the triple lock is gone. We had the government lamenting the end of the UN mandate for Operation Irini earlier this year, when neither they nor the media were honest about the fact that the reason the UN mandate was not pursued by the EU was that the mission was being repurposed to hunt Russian commercial vessels in the Mediterranean. It has since boarded at least six vessels in a highly escalatory move by the EU. And now the Irish government is in talks to join the British-led version of this in the North seas? These cases are proof positive we need the Triple Lock. The government cannot even tell the truth about what the missions are about. No one knows what the Lebanon one will look like but the signs do not bode well and they are gung ho for it. These people cannot be trusted to make these decisions. They are talking about sending our working class sons and daughters off to give their lives in EU and NATO orchestrated missions for the interests of Western imperialism as global conflict ratchets up. The Defence (Amendment) Bill 2026 that will replace the Triple Lock if it goes will allow the Government ministers to send up to 100 defence forces to any illegal war-fighting mission in the world without even a vote on the floor of the Dáil. There is more democracy and transparency in the UN Security Council voting system than the mechanism FF/FG want to establish. But what do these middle-managers of capitalist business affairs care about democracy? There is no democratic mandate to scrap the Triple Lock, there is only an order from their masters in Washington, London, and Brussels. The stakes could not be higher. If the Triple Lock is scrapped we are one step closer to Ireland becoming a 32 county NATO outpost. People of military age in Ireland will be sent to fight and die in imperialist wars for the axis of genocide. Our public services and infrastructure gutted to meet NATOs 5% military spending demand. We must fight to save the Triple Lock, to save the last protection stopping us becoming fully integrated into the US-led imperialist war machine. We must organise to take back power from the capitalist class whose interest is advanced at every turn by the immiseration and early death of the working people of Ireland. ### Share this: * Share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Share on X (Opens in new window) X * Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * ### _Related_

SIPTU General Secretary John King has called on the Government to reject employers’ demands to reduce the increase in the National Minimum Wage. Following media reports that the Low Pay Commission has proposed a 79-cent increase in the hourly minimum wage, employers are demanding the Government ignore the recommendation and introduce a smaller increase. King said: “Profits are rising faster than wages across low-paid sectors, particularly hospitality and retail. Employers’ demands to suppress minimum-wage increases are nothing but a crude profit grab in sectors where profits are already outpacing wages. “While employers plead inability to pay, official surveys show a different picture. The Department of Finance’s annual business survey shows that the overwhelming majority of SMEs, including small businesses, turned a profit. Employers’ organisations make several claims but never back them up with evidence. That’s because there is little evidence to support their claims. “What is particularly outrageous is that employers in the hospitality and hairdressing sectors received a massive public subsidy through VAT cuts. These cuts are equivalent to up to €4,000 per employee. Employers want to keep that subsidy for themselves even though employees are earning below the living wage.” He added: “The Government had originally intended to raise the minimum wage to the living wage level this year. However, following employer lobbying, this target date was postponed to 2029. Now employers are demanding that the target date be postponed again. The fact is that employers reject the concept of a living wage and are campaigning to ensure it is never introduced. “The Government must reject employers’ demands to ignore the Low Pay Commission’s recommendation. Amid the cost-of-living crisis, low-paid workers are already struggling to make ends meet.” Share on Social Media xfacebookemailwhatsapp

Attendances are plummeting, and figuring out who is paying to go is trickier still.

**_Government must make meaningful offer or face winter strikes_** Trade union Unite, which represents members across the public sector, has announced that members have returned an overwhelming mandate for industrial action, if the government fails to make a ‘meaningful offer’ on pay following the expiry of the 2024-2026 Public Services Agreement. Unite is a member of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions’ Public Services Committee, which earlier in the summer advised that they do not believe there is a viable basis for opening formal negotiations, in the absence of the government setting out a sufficiently credible approach to public sector workers’ pay and living standards at the outset. Unite will now consult with its shop stewards on the nature and timing of industrial action. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: **_“The government needs to recognise reality. Public sector pay is being undermined by inflation and workers are facing a sustained cost-of-living crisis. Our members have Unite’s full support as they prepare to defend their living standards.”_** While the absence of a public sector agreement means there is currently no framework governing pay, it also means that unions are not constrained by agreed industrial relations procedures. Unite’s deputy regional secretary Tom Fitzgerald said: **_“If the government wants to avoid a winter of strikes, it must stop hiding its head in the sand, come to the table and make public sector workers a meaningful offer which ensures that workers’ pay packets, at the very least, keep pace with spiralling inflation”._** ### Share this: * Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Share on X (Opens in new window) X * Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Print (Opens in new window) Print * ### Like this: Like Loading… ### _Related_

A new **‘Stop the Game’**banner has been raised on SIPTU’s Liberty Hall in Dublin. SIPTU Deputy General Secretary Greg Ennis said: “There are much more important things in life than six points from two UEFA Nations League matches against Israel. The IDF is responsible for the deliberate targeting and killing of children. The Israeli football team is made up of veteran and reservist IDF soldiers. The Israeli government is responsible for the deaths of at least 74,000 Palestinians, 21,000 of whom were children, through the actions of the IDF. “The Irish football team must not facilitate Israel in the sportswashing of its monstrous and genocidal crimes against humanity. Football in Ireland will still go on if our team refuses to take to the field to play Israel. “While it is disgraceful that the Irish Government and the FAI have put players in this invidious position, I believe the Irish players have a conscience, will not find themselves on the wrong side of history and won’t play ball with genocide.” Share on Social Media xfacebookemailwhatsapp

The cost-of-living crisis has not disappeared and is set to get worse over the coming year. Prices are far above their 2021 level and the next pressure is likely to come again through essentials: energy, food, clothing, transport, heating and housing. These basics are already up multiples of wage increases and every worker now feels the pain during the weekly shop. The return to school is getting harder and harder for families every year. In the Republic, inflation is estimated at around 3.4% currently, with energy prices up 6.5% over the year. In the North, inflation rose to 2.9% in July, driven by household energy costs. The European Central Bank has warned that inflation could hit 5% in 2027 with basic food items rising significantly. It is important that inflation is not just commented upon and accepted as some kind of natural event but actually understood as a result of the dynamics of capitalism and imperialism. The war, launched by the US and Israel in the Middle East, has raised oil and gas prices resulting in persistently higher energy and food prices. Speculation, gambling and betting, on commodity markets by investors has exacerbated this trend. While some get rich off of this the rest suffer the consequence in every weekly shop. War, sanctions, shipping disruption and oil-market instability feed into bills and food prices. That is why peace is a working-class issue. Another real political issue causing our bills to go up is climate change. The summer’s heatwaves and droughts damaged crop yields resulting in ongoing rises in food prices. Damaged fodder and feed production is rising costs for farmers and eating into both their money savings and their stored produce. Added to higher energy costs this is resulting in higher prices in the supermarket. Imperialism and capitalist-made climate change are not abstract talking points or topics for social media reels. They are hitting workers in the pocket every week. The labour movement must stand up for workers by identifying these systemic causes and combating them. We must stand up for peace, negotiated settlement of conflicts, and an end to imperialist wars. This matters to your pocket. We must also demand the root causes of climate change be addressed and a just transition for workers that does not make workers pay for the pollution of big business. And finally, in the most immediate pay bargaining facing the trade union movement we must insist on three basic points. First, pay claims must protect workers against the actual cost of living, not just the headline inflation rate. Second, public policy must reduce essential costs through housing, childcare, transport, energy and public service price caps. Third, the State must invest seriously in energy security and public planning, rather than leaving households exposed to international oil and gas markets. Working people need to move beyond passively seeing war and climate change as issues to be left to the political class and technocrats; they should be mobilised industrially and politically as best they can for a better society. ### Share this: * Share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Share on X (Opens in new window) X * Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * ### _Related_

Rahmanullah Gurbaz's 71 helps Afghanistan to victory over Ireland at Stormont to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match one-day international series.

The wizardry of Rashid Khan helped Afghanistan claim a 92-run victory over Ireland in Bready to move 1-0 up in the five-match ODI series.

We are all obligated to do what we can to prevent a genocide. The activists should not face punitive action and punishment by the state. The state should end its punitive actions. The charges against Palestine solidarity activists seeking to disrupt genocide should be dropped.

A former British spy stumbles into in a plot to overthrow Communism with the help of a supercomputer. But who is working for whom?