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A chairde,

From tomorrow, I’ll be on leave for a couple of weeks so there’ll be no newsletter for a while, but I’ll get back to you with any queries once I return on January 13th.

In the meantime, hoping you’ve all had a peaceful and enjoyable festive period so far - and no better time to share some reflections on 2024 than on its final day!

Our union has enjoyed some great successes this year as well as some challenges.

We’ve enjoyed healthy recruitment of new members across the island of Ireland, with noticeable growth in areas like Galway, Louth, Belfast and Cork to name but a few. The challenge that continues to arise is in longer term retention, with lapsed memberships meaning an overall good but modest net growth.

Our regional organisers and local committees have worked incredibly hard across the board in deep organising which will play an essential role in our ability to meaningfully build confidence and trust in our communities. This is demonstrable in areas like Mayfield in Cork and in the likes of Davitt House and Ballybough in Dublin 12 and Dublin 3 respectively - again, to name a few. There are examples of great work happening all across the island, in many forms.

The national committee has been working tirelessly at managing things like our comms output and the wider structural, financial and administrative oversight of the union with regular meetings being supplemented by workshops and other focused activities all designed to build on the work of previous years and improve the workings of the union into 2025 and beyond.

From an education and training perspective, our training officer has designed and delivered key training sessions across Ireland, as well and building vital links with other organisations at home and across Europe which have been hugely beneficial.

Our staff coordinator has played a key role in developing team cohesion as well as supporting us with strategic and at times emotional support in what are enjoyable but often very demanding roles.

As referenced above, a significant challenge is the issue of lapsed memberships. From speaking with members, it can often be the case that they don’t realise their membership has lapsed. A huge help would be to check the status of your membership if you’re not sure where it’s at, which can be done HERE - if you find that it’s lapsed, and you’re in a position to resume payments, this will be massively helpful in allowing us to address our financial shortfalls. We’ll also be contacting lapsed members by phone over the coming months to check in.

Our comms team have been highlighting some key member defence wins from across the year on social media - make sure to check them out and share with your networks. Sharing our wins is a really key tool in developing confidence and supporting recruitment across the board. We’ll also have some analysis by region in a few weeks which lay out some of the wins we’ve achieved over the past 12 months in more detail.

The Rent Strike documentary continues to draw acclaim, with screenings having taken place in various locations - as well as a run in the IFI in Dublin. You can now even watch it online from HERE or HERE if you’re tuning in outside Ireland.

Our website has had a substantial upgrade - work is ongoing in loading content but you can check out the new look and feel of the site at www.catuireland.org.

As you’ll probably have seen by now, we started selling merch in recent months which has proven hugely popular - from the Slumlords Out and CATU Cat t-shirts to badges and pamphlets - and the much sought after scarves will be ready to order and shipping out to wherever you are when I get back on January 13th.

There’s plenty more to reflect on but it’s New Year’s Eve, so we won’t keep you too long - but hopefully the above is a useful review of where we’re at. We’re a member-led organisation so huge thanks to all of you for making CATU what it is - whether that’s through your monthly dues, sharing content online, local or national organising work or anything else you do to chip in.

Beir Bua, agus Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh go léir!

Naoise,
National Administrator