Top Issue 1-2024

3 March 2013

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Fianna Fáil – Not fit for government

Another View

• Fianna Fáil and Mícheál Martin were unfit for government then and they are still unfit for government today

In the coming weeks, when people get their Property Tax bill in the post, they should not forget that it was Fianna Fáil who negotiated this charge on the family home with the Troika in 2010

SO MÍCHEÁL MARTIN, flush with his recent opinion poll numbers, says he won’t form a coalition with Sinn Féin. Is he having a laugh?

Does he really think that Sinn Féin is interested in participating in a government led by his party?

The last thing anyone needs is a Fianna Fáil government. Fine Gael and Labour implementing Fianna Fáil policies is bad enough.

The prospect of Mícheál Martin and Willie O’Dea back in Cabinet should send shivers down the spines of all level-headed people.

The bottom line is this: Fianna Fáil are not fit for Government, especially a Fianna Fáil led by Mícheál Martin.

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• Fianna Fáil and Mícheál Martin were unfit for government then and they are still unfit for government today

His legacy and that of his party is felt every single day by hundreds of thousands of people across the state.

Every person out of work, every person forced to emigrate, and every family in mortgage distress is paying the price for the role played by Fianna Fáil in the last government.

In the coming weeks, when people get their Property Tax bill in the post, they should not forget that it was Fianna Fáil who negotiated this charge on the family home with the Troika in 2010. 

They included it in their 2011 election manifesto, and again in their 2012 pre-budget submission – their first in opposition.

But, ever the opportunists, once they saw the strength of public opposition to the tax they changed their tune.

Likewise the bail-out of Anglo Irish Bank. The promissory note was a Fianna Fáil invention. Mícheál Martin was in the Cabinet that signed off on the decision to impose this €30billion toxic banking debt on the shoulders of the people.

Yet Fianna Fáil finance spokesperson Michael McGrath had the temerity to criticise Fine Gael and Labour when they made it clear that the public would be made to pay this Fianna Fáil debt in full.

And the list of cynical and opportunistic Fianna Fáil posturing does not stop there.

Mícheál Martin was demanding that the Government apologise to the Magdalene Laundries women despite Fianna Fáil in office having denied any state involvement in the laundries and refusing to apologise or compensate the women.

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• Fianna Fáil and Mícheál Martin were unfit for government then and they are still unfit for government today

They are criticising the closure of Garda stations even though they agreed with the Troika in 2010 to cut Garda numbers by 10%, from 14,500 to 13,000 in 2014.

And the list goes on, and on, and on.

Fianna Fáil did untold damage to our economy and society when last in government. Mícheál Martin was at the heart of that rotten administration. Michael McGrath, Billy Kelleher and Thomas Byrne were its eager cheerleaders.

The very last thing we need is for any of these people to be back in power.

Fianna Fáil was unfit for government then and they are still unfit for government today.

Let us not repeat the mistakes of our recent past, even as farce. Instead, let us bring about an end to the failed policies of crippling austerity and unlimited bank bail-outs initiated by Fianna Fáil and continued by Fine Gael and Labour.

The best way of doing this is to campaign for a different kind of government – one that does not involve Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

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