CRH say’s “Merry Christmas” to Irish homeless and gives the two fingers to Palestinian homeless

Stephanie Lord

What a delight it was for me to see that Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH) has decided that it will team up for the Simon Community in Ireland in a venture that will see them make an annual contribution of up to €1 million to the charity in an effort to end homelessness across the country. While it is fantastic to see any business embarking on some journey towards corporate responsibility, but there are huge problems when this is clearly only a tokenistic gesture by one company who never before gave a rats ass about human rights.

Here’s how the scheme will work; for every 3 months a branch of CRH has no accidents in the workplace a sum of money will be donated to the Simon Community operating in that region. If a branch has no accidents for a full year Simon will get an additional 25% on top of the original donation. Aside from the fact that all companies are statutorily obliged to ensure that there are no accidents in the workplace – getting company management to adhere to basic health and safety compliance requirements should be a given and not the only incentive to give to charity.

But here is where the problem lies. How is it that CRH on one hand can see the absolute tragedy of homelessness (and also the lack of homeless service provision by the government one can presume) in Ireland on one hand, and then implement all these wonderful initiatives to combat it – while on the other hand they own a 25% stake in Mashav Cement? Mashav Cement owns Neshar, the sole provider of cement in Israel – the cement that was used to build the apartheid wall through Palestine displacing thousands of Palestinians and contributing to homelessness as communities are torn apart and separated.

It is incredibly hypocritical that the likes of Donal Dempsey, a Regional Managing Director of CRH can be quoted on the Simon Community website as saying that "CRH is one of the largest building material suppliers in the world and we see an immediate connection with an organisation like Simon, who are synonymous with helping to shelter and house the most vulnerable members of our society. Every single member of our 7,000 strong workforce north and south will be involved in the success of this very worthy project". Yes Donal, it is worthy to support those who are aiding the vulnerable of our society but not while you are contributing to something as immoral and unjust as the apartheid wall in the West Bank. The International Organisation for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination have told the UN Economic and Social Council that “Israel's presence and policies in the Occupied Territories are legally and morally unacceptable. Consequently, while the ordeal of the Palestinians have been tragic, its imprint on others with a sense of justice and knowledge of history was distressing, to say the least. With the construction of a wall, creating a de facto new border fraught with a host of further predicaments, the lives of the Palestinians have become even worse.” If CRH had a shred of moral decency about them, they would immediately end their complicities in the actions of the Israelis.

The Simon Community cannot be blamed for taking the money that CRH are offering. There are literally thousands of homeless people across Ireland. There is no exact figure available because of the lack of comprehensive homeless surveys done. According to the Government, you are homeless if you live in the doorway of the Central Bank on Westmoreland St. However, if you live on a sofa in your friend’s house or a hostel you aren’t. The Simon Community do fantastic work and provide a much needed service to those who would receive nothing if they did not exist and the demands placed on them are growing daily. They are under-funded and under-resourced. Nobody could blame them for taking money from CRH when it is so terribly needed.

It is the absolute deceitfulness of CRH that is disgusting. All they are doing is paying lip-service to the idea of being charitable and what they are giving with one hand they are taking away with the other. While they might be giving the homeless of Ireland a bit of hand, they are giving the two fingers to the people of Palestine and actively contributing to the destruction of whole communities there.
The first page of CRHs Code of Business Conduct document states that they are “committed to being ethical and responsible members of the business communities in which they operate”. It is now high time that they cut the bullshit and started acting like it and stopped contributing to the blatant abuse of human rights in Israel for once and for all.

(Above: A Refugee camp in Palestine)