An open forum on finding practical solutions to the financial crisis is expected to draw an enthusiastic audience to Cois na hAbhna, Gort Road, Ennis on Thursday, October 27, at 8pm.
The forum is being facilitated by the Clare-based organisation Reform and will be addressed by a number of individuals with a range of experiences in socio-political affairs and employment at local and national level.
Reform is a non-political party platform that advocates the reform of economic policy and government structures.
Among the speakers lined-up for next week’s forum is Ennis-born Thomas C Barrett, director responsible for the European Investment Bank’s Structured Finance and Advisory Activities throughout the European Union.
He is currently also the director of the EIB’s centres of expertise on Trans-European Networks (TENs) and Public Private Partnerships (PPPs); on energy and environment and on the knowledge economy/Lisbon agenda.
Mr Barrett was previously EIB director for North Western Europe before which he was responsible for project financing of the aerospace, oil and gas and satellite telecommunication sectors.
He was also, among other things, a member of TENs policy groups led by Commissioners Van Miert, Christophersen, Kinnock and De Palacio. He was chairman of European Industry PPP Task Force on the Galileo GPS satellite navigation project and also a member of the UK government’s Steering Group on Partnerships UK (PUK/PFI).
Michael McNamara is a Clare-based farmer and practising barrister. A candidate in the last European Parliament elections, he has studied at University College Cork, the Catholic University of Louvain, Teagasc, and the King’s Inns, Dublin. He has worked for RTÉ, the OSCE and the UN and has also worked as a consultant on EU democratisation programmes in the Middle East and South Asia.
He has been called to the Bar of Ireland and Northern Ireland and is a member of the Irish Maritime Law Association and the Irish Society of International Law, as well as the Irish Farmers’ Association.
Peadar McNamara is a former president of Clare Council of Trade Unions, chairman of the Ennis Congress Information and Opportunity Centre and chairman of the Ennis General Hospital Development Committee. Peadar is a retired teacher with 40 years service in labour, trade union, health, educational, cultural and historical activities in Clare.
Other speakers include Holger Osterieder, first secretary political/press affairs at the German Embassy in Dublin and Richard Bennett, a local parents’ advocate, farmer and telecommunications technician.
Reform say it is now time to abandon the civil war politics and theoretical left-right debate of the last century in favour of economic policies that provide employment opportunities for the huge numbers of unemployed in the county, if necessary through State schemes.
“We all have the right to the dignity of work. Any other policy will shrink the economy further than that required to reduce the fiscal deficit, thereby hitting demand for goods and services and further adding to the dole queues. This in turn will make our increasing national debt unserviceable, leading inexorably to a default and IMF or ESF intervention.
“New politics and governmental structures to ensure greater accountability and a reduction in waste at all levels of Government are long overdue.
“While strongly advocating that Ireland remains at the core of Europe, which has offered, and continues to offer, the Irish people unprecedented opportunities as well as responsibilities, the grouping believes that the EU is a supra-national governmental structure that lacks the democratic accountability necessary to govern our people,” a spokesperson for the organisation said.
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