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S. E. A. Statements

Oppose Airport Evictions

Wednesday 28th June 2006

It is ironic that Derry City Council should begin the process of evicting local families from the Donnybrewer Road on the first anniversary of the imprisonment of the Rossport 5.

In both cases, families who aspire only to live where they are in the way that they want are being tossed aside in the interests of "economic development."

In each case, the main politicians and parties insist that what's good for multinational companies is automatically good for the local region. Ordinary people are told that if they stand in the way they'll be crushed.

Councillors and officials have been briefing local media to the effect that most of the families have withdrawn objections to the demolition of their homes. What they mean is that they hope their bullying tactics have worn people down. One resident has told the SEA that the family feels it has been the target of "long-term psychological warfare."

There's something repugnant about councillors and officials celebrating the claim that they have beaten ordinary people into submission.

The SEA has repeatedly asked for an assurance that the airport will not be sold off to private interests once public money has been pumped in to make it viable. Are we going to wake up one day soon and discover that a few individuals---perhaps including council officials or members of the airport management---have become millionaires overnight and are now the private owners of an asset built up by the taxes and rates of the Derry public?

The SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP all say that the airport extension is necessary for the economic well-being of the region. But when a local newspaper asked last year for the data on which this claim was based, the council refused to divulge it.

Last February, a Freedom of Information order was issued in London telling the council to give the newspaper, and therefore the Derry public, access to this information. The reaction of the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP was to vote to spend even more public money on a High Court appeal against the Freedom of Information ruling.

In other words, they are using the public's money in an attempt to deny the public knowledge of how and why public money has been spent.

One of the reasons given by the council for refusing to come clean with the Derry public is that this would damage Ryanair. But when asked by the Information Commissioner to explain this, the council, again, refused. This issue, too, is going to the High Court. So rate-payers' money is to be spent on legal fees to keep Ryanair's reasoning secret from the rate-payers.

If the issues weren't so serious this would be laughable.

We call again for all the facts and figure relating to the council's role at the airport to be made public. Tell the people the whole truth and let the people then decide.

The SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP say that they represent the great majority of local voters. So they do. But they didn't win their mandates on the basis of their policies towards the airport. They have no mandate for keeping people in the dark.

Shell, with Fianna Fail, the PDs and Fine Gael behind them, thought they could ride roughshod over the Rossport people. Similarly, Ryanair and the airport management, with the SDLP, Sinn Fein and the DUP behind them, think they can treat the people of Donnybrewer Road with contempt.

We shall see. This story has a long way to run yet.





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