Mary Lou McDonald’s pledge to the Irish people – Sinn Féin Ard Fheis

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

Environment Minister Phil Hogan claims he has no knowledge of how Irish Water spent €85million of taxpayers’ money. “Phil Hogan – the Bart Simpson of Irish politics with his constant refrain of ‘It wasn’t me’.”

MARY LOU McDONALD told the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in Wexford that Fine Gael and Labour are no better than Fianna Fáil. Scandal is the hallmark of their government and they put themselves and their friends first, the Dublin TD and party deputy leader said as she made “our pledge” to the Irish people:

“Sinn Féin is in nobody’s pocket.

“We are not afraid to ask the hard questions.

“We are not afraid to stand up.

“There is no TD, no minister, no Taoiseach, no state board director, no public servant and no state-funded bank manager who is not accountable to the citizens of this state.

“It is time for a change in direction.

“It is time for a Government that stands up for its citizens, at home and abroad.

“It is time to put Ireland first and Sinn Féin is the party who will do that.”

She said that rarely a day goes by without a member of this government congratulating itself on the success of what it had hailed as its reform agenda but the root and branch reform promised by Labour and Fine Gael in the last general election has not been delivered.

“Their revolutionary commitment to democratic reform ended once the votes were counted – but then that’s what happens in elections according to Minister Pat Rabbitte.”

Some are still more equal than others, the Dublin Dáil deputy said.

“Public sector pay cuts unless you are a Government special adviser.

“A ban on recruitment for public and services set aside for public relations personnel in the Department of the Taoiseach.

“Government ministers are special (in their own minds at any rate) and the rules that apply to others can be set aside.

“It’s that same sense of entitlement that defined the actions of a small few senior executives and the board of the Central Remedial Clinic as the CEO sailed off into the sunset with a package worth almost three quarters of a million euro. He was special too.

“And yet, despite the public outcry, the ‘reforming’ government voted down a Sinn Féin motion calling for full activation and enforcement of the 2009 legislation on charity regulation. Figure that one out!”

This Government doesn’t challenge wrongdoing, Mary Lou McDonald said.

“This Government, like so many before, has to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing the right thing – whether it is apologising to Louise O’Keefe or  to the women of the Magdalene Laundries – it is always an international  judgement or a public outcry that is too loud to ignore that forces the Government’s hand.

“They haven’t yet felt the need to acknowledge the survivors of the Bethany Home, or those who went through the Mother and Baby homes, or those who were illegally adopted.

“They haven’t acknowledged these citizens because they haven’t yet been forced to.

“Not yet.”

She highlighted debacles over Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s handling of the Garda penalty points scandal and Health Minister James Reilly influencing where primary health care centres will be built.

And Environment Minister Phil Hogan claims he has no knowledge of how Irish Water spent €85million of taxpayers’ money. “Phil Hogan – the Bart Simpson of Irish politics with his constant refrain of  ‘It wasn’t me’.”

This Government has decimated its own election promises and failed the Irish people at home and abroad, the Sinn Féin deputy leader said.

“Remember Enda Kenny, a simpering Enda with an international audience in Davos, telling all the world that the economy crashed because ‘we all went mad borrowing’?

Or Eamon Gilmore, telling us he was going to Europe to bring back a bank deal for Ireland? No sign of that materialising.

“I wonder have the lads put it up to the Eurocrats in the same way the put it up to the old, the sick and the vulnerable here at home?”

Good governments, she said, stand up for their citizens – at home and abroad.

“Our government is on its knees before it leaves Dublin Airport.”

She ended:

“Fine Gael and Labour are no better than Fianna Fáil. They put themselves and their friends first.

“Our theme at this year’s Ard Fheis – ‘Putting Ireland First’ – neatly summarises the challenge for Irish politics and politics and politicians at this time.”