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Fine Gael TD Noel Coonan today contacted Minister for Communications Pat Carey TD, asking him to further clarify the situation regarding Lisheen Mines.
 Lisheen Mine, Moyne, Co Tipperary Newspaper reports suggest that owners, Anglo American are putting huge pressure on Minister Pat Carey to finally approve the mining company’s planned sale of Lisheen Mines, before the dissolution of the Dail tomorrow.
Anglo has indicated that it plans to sell the zinc mine to Indian company Vedanta for €308m. However, Deputy Coonan said there have been widespread concerns about Vedanta’s poor environmental and human rights record.
The Tipperary North / South Offaly TD said: “I contacted Minister Carey and the Secretary General of the Department of Communications and Natural Resources to convey my concern about the sale of Lisheen Mines. Serious questions have been raised at the highest political level about Vedanta’s record in other countries. My fear is that the musical chairs in Cabinet at the moment could put at risk not only the future of the mines, which employs around 370 people, but also the future of the local environment.”
Deputy Coonan further stated: “The Department has informed me this afternoon that any sale will be ‘conditional on the new owners continuing to ensure strict compliance with the terms of the State Mining Lease and all other statutory permits and enactments, including the planning permission and Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Licence (IPPCL), not only during the remaining life of the mine but also in its closure, restoration and aftercare.’
The future of Lisheen Mines is something which I have campaigned on throughout my political career. It is vital that this is not put in jeopardy, by the current political paralysis in Government. Lisheen mines must to be safeguarded.“
 Deputy Noel Coonan In 2011, the Department of Social Protection is to undertake a review of the current redundancy claims processing procedures as part of their development of a new computer system, which will be integrated into the Department’s service delivery modernisation programme.
Local North Tipperary Fine Gael Deputy Noel Coonan said this is a welcome move and if necessary, staff must also be re-allocated, to lessen waiting times.
Deputy Coonan speaking to Thurles Information today stated: “This Government is ‘punishing’ people who have lost their jobs by making them wait more than half a year for their redundancy payment. Redundancy claims dating from June 2010 are currently being processed. It is shameful that this Government has consistently failed to tackle the excessive backlog. I am calling on the Government to redeploy staff to the redundancy section to reduce the burden; for example the plethora of inspectors based in the Department of Agriculture would be better placed, speeding up the time it takes to issue redundancy payments. At the end of 2010, there was a shocking 25,167 claims waiting to be processed nationally. Claims dating from June 2010 are currently being processed and this backlog is hugely unacceptable at a time when people who have lost their jobs are struggling to get by on a weekly basis. People are suffering unduly because this inefficient Government, and those who support it in North Tipperary, continue to run our country into the ground. I am aware that in some instances the processing of claims can be delayed until necessary supporting documentation are provided, but these extensive waiting times have been an ongoing problem over the last year, if not longer, and this defunct Government has yet to resolve the issue despite promises to do so. This backlog is also unacceptable bearing in mind the Universal Social Charge which was introduced in last month’s Budget.”
The USC flat-rate tax replaced the old health and income levies and is designed to bring more lower income earners into the tax net. Most taxpayers pay 2pc USC on the first €10,036 of income, 4pc on the next €5,980 and 7pc on everything over that. This new universal charge is designed to hits people on the minimum wage, even if they are outside the tax net.
 Irish Fuel Prices The word boycott is not a new word to any patriotic Irishman. Indeed it entered the English language during the Irish “Land War” and is derived from the name of Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott, the land agent of an absentee landlord, Lord Erne, who lived in Lough Mask House, in County Mayo, Ireland and who was subject to social ostracism organized by the Irish Land League in 1880.
Thurles.Info receive lots of suggestions each week from its ‘Netizens‘ with regards to matters in and around Tipperary which they feel we could or should be highlighting. One particular suggestion received to-day was regarding increasing vehicle fuel prices and suggests, with some merit, that we ‘boycott‘ major oil companies.
We are now almost hitting €1.45 a litre for unleaded petrol and €1.38 for Diesel. Soon, if we are to believe the “Informed Prophets of Doom,” we will be faced with paying € 1.50 plus per litre in the coming months. One of our many discerning readers (My thanks ML) has put forward, what I believe is a rather good idea.
This idea makes much more sense than the ‘Don’t buy petrol on a certain day campaign ‘ that got started in America and was going around last year. Oil companies just laughed, knowingly, because they knew we couldn’t continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol, and anyway it became more of an inconvenience to us the consumer, than it hurt the major Oil Companies.
However, whoever thought of this idea, has now come up with a plan that could really work.
Boycott And Give Unleaded Petrol Power To The people
Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us into believing that the cost of the present litre of fuel is cheap, (well compared to bottled water), we need to take aggressive action to teach oil companies that consumers and not wholesalers control the oil market. Then of course there is Facebook, Twitter etc, etc.,sure we could tell everyone in this green and pleasant land in an hour.
With the price of petrol going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of petrol come down is if we hit someone very hard in the pocket, by not purchasing their petrol product. Yes, we can do that without hurting ourselves and here is how.
1. For the rest of this year DON”T purchase ANY petrol from one of the biggest oil companies presently operating. We know who they are, so pick one, but do make sure we all pick the same one. Ouch!
2. If they are not selling any petrol, they will be encouraged to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. See it as real laissez-faire economics at work, but to have an impact we need to reach literally millions of Irish petrol consumers to organise.
So how do you reach these consumers you now ask? Well it’s really so simple in this modern communications era.
Now, don’t switch off on me at this point… keep reading and I’ll explain how simple it is to reach those millions of people!
Thurles.Info are sending this information out to between 700 and 1000 daily readers. If all of these readers ‘Email This Post‘, by ordinary mail or using the Tag shown at the end of this post, to at least ten more people (700 x 10 = 7,000)….and those 7,000 send it to at least ten other people (7000 x 10 = 70,000) … and so on… now do you get my drift? Then of course there is Facebook, Twitter etc etc etc, sure the world and his mother would know in less than an hour.
Don’t know what you think of this idea, but oil companies are blackmailing us and between them and government taxes, essentials like motor fuel and motor vehicles are slowly being turned into luxury items, and very soon they will be only available to the very rich or NAMA clients.
Maybe we need to gain the support, influence and muscle of The Irish Farmers Association( IFA ) together with the Irish Road Haulage Association they could lead us in such a campaign, they would know better who and when to hit and I am sure that the low paid worker with the 2003 car, who is forced to drives ten miles, for his daily bread every morning, would be more than happy to give their full support.
Organise Brothers, Organise!
There have been calls for further investigation in to the Company which is set to take over Lisheen Mines, near Moyne, Thurles, Co Tipperary.
Ministerial approval is currently being sought by Anglo American and Hindustan Zinc Ltd, a division of the Indian mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources plc.for the transfer of the mining leases.
However, locals as well as some of the workers at the Lisheen mines have expressed grave concern about the companies previous operational behaviour, which, last Feburary 2010, was criticised by Amnesty International, for its safety and environmental record in India, as well as its treatment of indigenous people.
Indian owners of the Vedanta Resources Division, earlier last year, purchased the Tipperary zinc mine along with other bigger mines in South Africa and Namibia from previous owners Anglo American Zinc as part of a €1.34bn deal, latter which estimated Lisheen’s value at €242m. Vedanta won out in a bidding war with the Anglo-Swiss mining group Xstrata and China Metallurgical. However, London analysts are speculating that the FTSE listed Vedanta could seek to sell on Lisheen quickly, with one possible buyer being discussed, rival Xstrata which Verdanta outbid, which has a joint lead and zinc venture with Minco at Pallasgreen, on the border between counties Limerick and Tipperary.
A number of Lisheen’s 370 workers have aired genuine concerns regarding the eco-sensitive nature of the Lisheen Mines site.
Concerned workers state: “We would like it confirmed that our new owners have plans to protect the local environment, the life of this mine is finite and the plan is to continue mining here at Lisheen only until 2013, before we begin closure. Lisheen is presently one of Ireland’s most eco-sensitive mining sites”
The environmental fears of Lisheen workers have been aggravated by the Vedanta chairman, Anil Agarwal, who told reporters at a press conference in London recently that the company is looking at “debottlenecking” or removing obstacles that are presently preventing the mining process from being more efficient or workable, at the Anglo American Lisheen Zinc mine.
Amnesty International have claimed people living near the Lanjigarh refinery in Orissa breathed polluted air and were afraid to drink from or bathe in local rivers. Last year it called on Vedanta Resources not to expand the refinery or mine for bauxite nearby, before resolving the problems.
Kate Allen the UK Director of Amnesty International stated “People have a right to water and to a healthy environment but Vedanta has failed to respect these rights in Orissa”
The Church of England last February sold its shares in the blue-chip Indian mining company Vedanta, in protest over a controversial Indian bauxite mining project that activists say was destroying the livelihoods and spirituality of a mountain tribe. The officially established Christian Church in England said that it had sold £3.8m ($5.9m) of shares in Vedanta after a six-month dialogue with its management and a visit in the previous November by the church’s ethical investment advisers, to project sites in the east Indian state of Orissa.
There have been claims of homes being illegally seized in the Niyamgiri hills, without consent, while hired goons, police and other administration beat up those locals who protested.
A firm managing pensions for more than two million people in the Netherlands has sold its €13million (US$ 16million) stake in the mining conglomerate. The investment firm of PGGM made ‘intensive efforts‘ to engage with the British company Vedanta, over its plan to mine the sacred mountain of India’s Dongria Kondh tribe for aluminium ore. But according to PGGM, Vedanta refused to participate in a roundtable discussion on the issue.
Note: Vedanta has consistently rejected all allegations against it and the Vedanta offices in London and Bombay have yet to comment regarding the Lisheen workers concerns.
 Nenagh Hospital to be further downgraded The already downgraded Nenagh General Hospital here in North Tipperary could lose its intensive care unit as early as next month, the Nenagh Hospital Action Group now claims.
At the end of 2009, the Health Service Executive (HSE) confirmed plans to close the ICUs at Nenagh and Ennis hospitals, stating the units would be centralised at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick, as part of their reconfiguration of health services in the mid-west.
The HSE would not confirm a time frame when contacted, but action group secretary M/s Noreen Kennedy said staff at the hospital have been informed that the ICU will definitely close in March or possibly as early as February.
There are currently five intensive and coronary care beds at Nenagh hospital and six at Ennis.
Last November, construction began on a critical care unit at Dooradoyle, that will contain a 12-bed ICU, a 14-bed high-dependency unit and a 16-bed coronary care unit, among other features. The HSE expects the development to be completed by the end of this year.
M/s Kennedy said the action group is concerned about what system will be put in place after Nenagh loses its ICUand expressed concerns that Nenagh will also lose its emergency department.
The group called on opposition party candidates contesting the General Election to publicise their proposals for the future of north Tipperary’s health services and intend to lobby and question strongly all prospective candidates in the coming days.
North Tipperary supporters of Nenagh Hospital, claim that it would appear that a Gaming Casino has taken precedence over any Health Service protection for North Tipperary residents and all outgoing candidates seeking re-election, who made promises, must now pay the political price for failure.
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