18 October 2001 Edition

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Mayo councillor joins Sinn Féin

BY ROISIN DE ROSA ([email protected])


Vincent Wood, Sinn Féin representative in Mayo, announced this week that Councillor Gerry Murray from Charlestown, County Mayo, who resigned from Fianna Fáil last month, becoming an Independent, has now joined Sinn Féin.

"It is a significant development for Sinn Féin and for the ongoing development of the party in the county," said Wood. "We are very pleased to welcome Gerry Murray to Sinn Féin and believe that it represents an important step in the rejuvenation and growth of Sinn Féin in this area."

Murray had been a member of the party before in the late 1970s but drifted away because of the then weakness of the Sinn Féin organisation in Mayo.

In an interview with An Phoblacht, Gerry Murray spoke of a wide range of reasons why he has severed his links with Fianna Fáil and why he feels Sinn Féin is the only party that can genuinely present a vision to young people who are disaffected with current political parties.

"The problem with Fianna Fáil, as I see it," he said, "is that most have sold out their idealism, the idealism which once inspired republicans, for corporatism. They have forsaken the ideals and interests of the small farmers, the people of Western seaboard, and instead become slaves to the corporate sector of big business.

"They are selling off state assets to private profit making companies. It is a disastrous policy for us in the West of Ireland. Deregulation can never bring equality of opportunity to our people here in Mayo. With deregulation, investment decisions are based on profit, whereas we need a government commitment of state funds precisely because, with the lack of infrastructure in this region, it isn't profitable for private companies to invest in our local social economy.

"Privatisation can never break the cycle of underdevelopment. Profitable investment opportunities are on the Eastern seaboard, where there is the infrastructure. Lack of investment is quickly followed by population movement to the East in search of employment. With declining populations and declining opportunities, there is yet less potential profit to be made through investment in the West. It is a vicious spiral of underdevelopment which the corporations perpetuate.

"If we are to move towards equality of opportunity, if we are serious about the development of the West, about raising the standards of living here, and providing employment so people can stay in the West of Ireland, then we must move from policies of deregulation in favour of government injection of capital in the provision of infrastructure.

"Yet Fianna Fáil is committed to deregulation. They are committed through GATT and the IMF to the neo-liberal agenda of privatisation and fostering private companies to provide the spur to economic growth. They have sold out to this neo-liberal agenda, which is entirely alien to the development of the West and alien to our whole social cultural development in this country.

"Deregulation, where private companies are given the monopoly interest in the provision of essential services to the people, is anathema to the republican ideals of a democratic socialist republic, where equality of opportunity and diversity of cultures is what we have ever striven for.

"A case in point is the broadband telecommunications system. For two years, we have fought to get broadband, which is an essential part of infrastructure if we are to draw investment to this area. Neither ESAT nor Eircom will put in the cable simply because it is not worth their while - there isn't a profit for them. The state must take on its responsibilities, instead of selling off our national assets to the big corporations and leaving our region without the investment we need.

"In the last five years, the Fianna Fáil-led coalition government has had a greater budget surplus than ever in our history, yet what have they done with it? They have not taken seriously the development of the West. Once the Celtic Tiger slows down, it will be the people again for the road, just as it was in my youth, where we all left for England to get work, leaving the West economically and culturally decimated.

"Vincent Wood and I have often shared platforms in the past - on the closure of local post office, the issue of gas and how to preserve the interests not only of local people, but also of the nation to claim its own resources and develop them.

"Together we have fought long and hard to bring democracy into the discussion of how we are to dispose of our waste. The present government is set on the course of allowing big corporations to built incinerators around the country, even at the cost of stripping local authorities of the power to decide on a waste management policy.

"But the people who live here need to have a say in this question which will affect our lives for generations to come. How we are going to get rid of our waste in such a way as to preserve not only the magic beauty of this part of Ireland, but in a way which preserves the future quality of life and the environment in which farmers have to operate. Corporatism is not the answer. We don't need incinerators, but this government is wedded to corporatism and determined to hand over to big private interests the monopoly control of this essential service to our communities. The government is oblivious to the destruction of our environment or the enormous costs which the people will have to bear in paying corporations to build incinerators we don't want.

"But in the culture of Fianna Fáil, strong loyalty to party and to power overrides all discussion of policy. Individual party members are unable to challenge the policies of corporatism and deregulation

"Instead of preserving the ideals of the Republic, Fianna Fáil has based its political support on creating a culture of dependency. This is the basis of political power of the establishment. The culture of "leave it to me, I'll get that fixed for you". I don't think that the young people of today, people who have avoided emigration, people who are educated and well able to grasp the broad political issues, are going to fall for the culture of dependency any longer. They are not waiting to be told by government what is best for them: they want to tell government how best to implement the republican ideals we all share.

"I was first drawn to republicanism at an early age, in school, when the tragic deaths of Michael Gaughan and Frank Stagg were discussed in every classroom. This brought me to an interest in the Six Counties, and I began to see, like many others at the time, the suffering that the people there were forced to endure, and I joined Sinn Féin.

"But I see all this now as a whole: it is all about democracy and empowering the people to bring equality of opportunity into their region.

"Sinn Féin is the only party that offers a serious commitment to development in the West, because it has not sold out to corporatism, consumerism and government to serve the interests of big business."

An Phoblacht
44 Parnell Sq.
Dublin 1
Ireland