Preas Ráitheas / Press Release
6ú Feabhra / February

“The 26-County election has been dominated by calls for political change. Since the economic collapse of a decade ago the dominance of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil has been steadily eroded. It is obvious that people are seeking an alternative to a political system that has failed them. There is real anger at a state that has failed the most vulnerable in society, resulting in children sleeping on the streets of our towns and cities and our elderly left for days on hospital trolleys. People are seeking desperately for alternatives in the other political parties and independents.

Provisonal Sinn Féin appear to be benefiting from this clamour for change. We would say to people to beware of those who promise change within the existing partitionist system. One only has to look at the record of the Provisonals in the Six Counties to see that behind all the populist rhetoric they were more than willing to impose British Tory austerity on working class communities across the Six Counties in areas such as health, social protection and education. The lesson is that real change can never come from Leinster House or Stormont.

What is required is an end to the partitionist system imposed on the Irish people a century ago. Real change can only come by ending partition and the creation of a New Ireland. Traditional Irish Republicanism must lead the demand for such a New Ireland. We can only do that by engaging with the bread and butter issues that affect people such as the right to a home, access to health care at the point of need and the development of an economy that serves the needs of the Irish people and not the demands of the EU banking system. This will require real leadership within republicanism and a willingness to interact with those committed to genuine political and economic change.

We believe that Éire Nua is a credible programme for such a New Ireland. It provides for real participatory democracy, reversing the centralisation of power and decision making and handing it back to communities. This can be our contribution to the necessary debate about a new Ireland that must take place with every section of the Irish people, including the unionist community, who once more have found themselves abandoned by the British Tory establishment. Éire Nua provides for an Ireland that truly “cherishes all the children of the national equally”. An Ireland that would be based firmly on the principles of political, social and economic justice.

We call on people not to be mislead by the false calls for change that come from those whose only agenda is to seek political office within Leinster House and Stormont.  They offer only empty promises that will be shelved once the election is over.  Even if they were sincere in making such promises, locked as they are within the partitionist system they are incapable of delivering on any of them.

It is time to demand real change and seek a New Ireland for all of the Irish people.

Críoch/Ends

– Sinn Féin Poblachtach, 223 Sráid Pharnell, BÁC 1, Éire.

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