For those of you who haven’t got it through your letter box yet, I’ve attached a link to my Dublin West manifesto
Archive for May 15th, 2007
Just realised I hadn’t uploaded a copy of the Green Party manifesto on the site yet.
See the link below.
Press Release – Green Party pledges continued opposition to Thornton Hall prison plan – O’Gorman
Published May 15, 2007 Press Releases 3 Comments12/05/07
Green Party Dublin West candidate, Roderic O’Gorman has repeated his party’s opposition to the plan by the FF/PD Government to relocate Mountjoy Prison and the Central Mental Hospital to a green-field site in north Dublin. He was speaking at a meeting arranged by the Rolestown St Margarets Action Group held in the Coolquay Lodge on Thursday evening.
“The Green Party opposes this plan for three main reasons. We see it as bad penal policy – it is wrong to force the families of those imprisoned to make the long journey out to an isolated location like Thornton. We see it as bad mental health policy – locating the Central Mental Hospital beside a prison increases the stigmatization of mental health. Finally, we see it as a huge and unfair imposition on a small rural community like the one in the Rolestown, Killsallaghan area. For these reasons, the Green Party has stated very clearly in our Election Manifesto that we oppose the building of Thornton Hall and we oppose the relocation of the Central Mental Hospital to the site”, stated Roderic O’Gorman.
The meeting heard from a number of local candidates or their representatives about their stances on the proposed prison. It also discussed the possible impact of Part 4 of the Prisons Act on the development at Thornton.
“As the new prison will have to be developed under Part 4 of the new Prisons Act, any decision to build it will have to be passed by a draft resolution of the Dáil. I give my pledge to the residents of the area that should I be elected as a TD for the area on May 24th, I will vote against any draft resolution of the Oireachtas that proposes to endorse the current plan”, concluded Roderic O’Gorman.
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Press Release – New public dentist in Roselawn welcome, but why did it take so long? – O’Gorman
Published May 15, 2007 Press Releases Leave a Comment12/05/07
Green Party Dublin West candidate, Roderic O’Gorman has welcomed the confirmation by the HSE that they intend to appoint a new dentist at the Roselawn Road Dental Clinic. However, he has criticized the delay in taking this action, particularly in light of the number of children who have not received adequate dental care over the last school year.
“One of the three full time dentists in Roselawn has been out on long term sick leave since September 2006. The HSE has confirmed to me that this absence has meant that children in a number of local schools have not been able to receive routine treatments. The HSE estimates that one quarter of the school children in the catchment area of the Roselawn Road clinic will not be examined this year. The HSE states that the other dentists in the clinic cannot make good on this shortfall because, due to increased population numbers in the area, they too are under pressure and cannot take any extra increase in their work load”, stated Roderic O’Gorman.
This information was revealed in a reply from the HSE to a Dáil question put on behalf of Roderic O’Gorman by Green Party leader, Trevor Sargent TD. The HSE has stated that “it is with regret that this situation has developed”.
“The HSE may well regret what has happened, but not half as much as the parents I have met who have had to fork out large sums of money to get their children examined privately. There are two problems here; firstly the failure to appoint a replacement dentist quick enough, secondly, the fact that existing dentists are overbooked due to the increase in the population of children in our area. I welcome the commitment by the HSE to have a full-time replacement dentist appointed to Roselawn by July 2007, but more needs to be done. In our Election Manifesto, the Green Party is pledging to appoint a Chief Dental Officer and to increase the domestic supply of dentists, which will relieve the pressure on public dental clinics like the one at Roselawn”, concluded Roderic O’Gorman.
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