Dump Fine Gael/Labour and put in a progressive alternative, Gerry Adams urges voters

THE “BIG THING” about the Dáil general election is that it gives a long-suffering public the chance to dump Fine Gael and Labour out of power and elect a progressive government based on the Right2Change principles, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams has said.

“I've just spent the last three days on the road – down the West, in Cork, in Dublin – and there is a real thirst out there for change,” Gerry Adams said. “What we in Sinn Féin have to do is persuade those people out there who want change that it can be achieved – it is possible to dump this government and bring about a progressve alternative.”

Speaking at the start of the monthly meeting of the Sinn Féin Ard Chomhairle, he declined to get into speculating about hypothetical permutations about possible make-ups of governments when not one vote has been cast by the people.

Gerry Adams did reiterate the party's Ard Fheis position that it will not go into a coalition government as a junior partner to any of the conservative parties.

The difficulty for Fianna Fáil in this election, he said, is that Mícheál Martin has made his Fianna Fáil party totally irrelevant.

“He has ruled out being in government with anyone and he supports the thrust of the Fine Gael/Labour Government's social and economic policies because they are policies that were advocated by Fianna Fáil when Mícheál Martin was in Cabinet for 14 years.”

Gerry Adams added:

“I know that many Fianna Fáil people feel that Mícheál Martin has nearly morphed into Fianna Fáil's John Bruton, particularly on national issues and on the 1916 Rising commemorations as well as social issues.”