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Stop the evictions for Ryan Air's Runway

Press Statement from the Socialist Environmental Alliance

Derry City Council announced on 22nd December 2005 that it will press ahead seeking vesting orders against people living near City of Derry Airport in order to facilitate development of the runway to meet the needs of Ryanair.

Derry City Council has another think coming if it thinks it can evict the Donnybrewer Road residents without a fight.

The SEA calls on members and supporters of the main parties to speak out against this shameful threat.

Didn’t we have enough of evictions in this part of the world back in the 19th century? Then, exactly the same excuse was given by the landlords’ agents---that throwing families onto the roadside was regrettable, but their holding weren’t economic, they were standing in the way of progress.

The latter-day Lord Leitrims of the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP are acting as agents, not for landlords but for big-business profiteers---specifically, for the Dublin-based multi-national Ryanair and its boss, the anti-union right-wing extremist Michael O’Leary.

Are ordinary members of these parties content to see Mark Durkan, Mitchel McLaughlin and Gregory Campbell standing should-to-shoulder with O’Leary against local people? They may be bitterly opposed to one another when it comes to Stormontgate, On-The-Runs, Derry versus Londonderry etc. But they are in total harmony when it comes to tamely doing what Ryanair tells them.

The wider public should take note that neither these parties nor the airport management has been able to make out a convincing economic case for their plan. They seem to believe that if they just keep repeating that the future of the region depends on Ryanair getting its way, everybody will eventually accept it.

The SEA again challenges the council parties, the airport management and Ryanair---any one of them, any two of them, their own selection---to debate this issue with us in public. We will pay for the hire of a hall and the publicity. All they’ll have to do it turn up with an argument---if they can find one.

Will one of these parties step forward and defend their position in public in the New Year?

We again challenge them also to list the meetings held over the last three years with representatives of Ryanair and to tell the people of Derry what commitments were given in the people’s name to Ryanair, and what Ryanair promised in return to the council, to the airport or to individuals.





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