3 December 2009 Edition

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Munster Sinn Féin holds successful pre-Budget conference

Toiréasa Ferris addresses the Munster conference

Toiréasa Ferris addresses the Munster conference

MORE than 60 Sinn Féin activists and elected representatives from across Munster attended a regional pre-budget conference in Charleville last Saturday to discuss the economic crisis and Sinn Féin’s alternative.
Opening the conference, Chairperson of Sinn Féin’s Munster Cuige Ken O’Connell said the fact members from across the region were coming together to discuss economic policy showed how far the party had come.
“A charge that used be constantly thrown at us was that Sinn Féin are economically illiterate; that we can’t be trusted to manage the economy. The reality is that we consistently warned against many of the policies that led to the current crisis. The real economic illiterates were sitting around the cabinet table in government buildings.”
Paul O’Connor set the scene for the rest of the conference with a presentation outlining the rise and fall of the so-called ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy and the roots of the current crisis. He described how financial deregulation, excessively pro-market policies, and political cronyism blew up housing and asset bubbles in Ireland and internationally and saw the fruits of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ flung away. A particularly striking figure was the €50 billion invested by Irish speculators on commercial property overseas between 2001 and 2007, compared to only €1 billion invested in indigenous businesses creating jobs in Ireland in the same period.
Next Tom O’Connor, lecturer in economics and social care at CIT, addressed the conference on the need for an economic stimulus package and the dangers of rising unemployment. He stressed that unemployment decreases more slowly than it rises, and alluded to the risk of a “jobless recovery” - the possibility that the economy may return to low levels of growth in 2011, but without making any dent in the unemployment figures. This is why it must be a government priority to stop the rise in unemployment now.
A question and answer session followed, with some lively contributions from the audience.

SINN FÉIN ALTERNATIVE
After a short break, Toiréasa Ferris and David Cullinane outlined Sinn Féin’s economic alterative. Toiréasa took delegates through the party’s job creation document, outlining a range of measures Sinn Féin is proposing to create and save jobs. She stressed that Sinn Féin is the only political party to put job creation centre stage in this way.
David Cullinane briefed the conference on Sinn Féin's alternative budget proposals, including a wealth tax on those with assets over €1 million, and a third rate of income tax for those with incomes in excess of €100,000.
The conference was closed by Martin Ferris TD, who described the upcoming budget as an attack by the political establishment on ordinary people, and urged delegates to provide leadership in their communities and resist the government’s policies in every way. He underlined the fact that Sinn Féin had positive alternative proposals and said it was the task of every member to promote them.

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