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    • Election 2024, day 14: Joys of a winter election as candidates continue their work despite the snow warning
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    Election 2024, day 14: Joys of a winter election as candidates continue their work despite the snow warning

    Umito Posted on

    First, Mary Lou McDonald had a pre-election TV interview on Virgin Media One last night.

    Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she now feels “never more prepared” to potentially become Ireland’s first female Taoiseach when the post-election horse-trading is over and the party “runs to win “.

    The Leader of the Opposition in the 33rd Dáil also claimed that everyone earning up to €100,000 will be “better off” under a Sinn Féin-led government.

    The Irish Independent’s Senan Molony examined his results in terms of style and substance, with just over a week to go before polling day:

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    The Fine Gael video claiming Sinn Féin would break the piggy bank and steal its contents is a “blatant lie”, Ms McDonald said. It was also a cheek, considering the bike shed, spending on phone cases and the National Children’s Hospital, she added.

    Instead, she promised to double national savings and maintain a surplus in the country’s account. She missed the opportunity to highlight Fine Gael’s prolonged withdrawal from private pension funds for five years, from 2011 to 2015.

    ABILITY

    “I’ve been through a lot of it over the last year and a half,” Mary Lou said, saying she’s faced personal challenges, such as her own health and that of her husband, and as a result , she now “never felt so prepared”. » for the challenge posed by the election. Although “we (Sinn Féin) have not been in government in this part of Ireland, we have been in government in the North,” she said. She claimed SF credit for the peace process, for “making government work” in Northern Ireland and for achieving “extraordinary” changes.

    SCANDAL

    Asked about recent scandals which have rocked the party, Ms McDonald said she would not normally know if people were writing references for criminals. Those who did so acted “well beyond” their authority, she said, referring to convicted sex offender Michael McMonagle, a former Sinn Féin press secretary who received referrals after being expelled from the party. When people asked how Michelle O’Neill missed seeing him at an event when he was on hand, “the fact is she didn’t.”

    Regarding the matter of Senator Niall Ó Donnghaile, she said she regretted not being clear about why he resigned from the Seanad. Told she had made a “glowing statement” wishing him well, Ms McDonald admitted the attacker had committed grave wrong but was in a mental crisis at the time. She said she had written to the victim, through her mother, to offer a “full apology”.

    INTERNAL CONTROLS

    “I would tell you that under my leadership, things are done according to the rules,” she said. The rules were enforced without fear or favor, and the consequences are “obviously happening,” she said, without naming ousted TD Brian Stanley. She insisted: “No one tells me what to do. I make my decisions, I take my advice. She was collegial, but ultimately she was the leader of the party. “Where there is a decision to be made, I make it.” She took her responsibility very seriously. “I’m at that point in my life where I’m quite opinionated, quite impatient sometimes,” but she had extensive experience, she said.

    THE ECONOMY

    For a cash-rich country, we are service-poor, she said. The government is talking about billions available, but there are record numbers of homeless people – 14,000 – and people are struggling to get by.
    Regarding the transatlantic threat posed by Donald Trump, she said whoever leads the next government must navigate very closely. During her last administration, multinational profits had increased by 60% and Sinn Féin was not considering the departure of FDI companies, she said. It may not be wise to bring up the threat, she said.
    Those earning up to €100,000 will be “better off” thanks to the SF’s proposals for the economy, she said. “We have a fair and balanced tax package.”

    ACCOMMODATION

    The parties that created and worsened the housing crisis now have no credibility when they claim they will fix it, she said. SF’s plan would impose a rent freeze, reinstate the no-fault eviction ban, and invest in unprecedented housing construction. “It’s up to the state to do the heavy lifting in this area.”
    Ms McDonald said she found it hard to believe, but she had come across a number of small and medium-sized businesses in the construction sector who had made people redundant. She didn’t explain why.
    Regarding Sinn Féin’s plan to make homes affordable by the state owning the land they are built on, Ms McDonald insisted there was no doubt about the associated mortgages. Banks wanted confidence that their money was secure and would want to have “first lien on the ground”, she said. But a Sinn Féin government could “do more than address” the concerns of banks that would otherwise prevent lending.
    Homeownership schemes would be phased out over five years because they eventually drive up prices, but SF would remove stamp duty for these.

    IMMIGRATION

    SF is the only party that has developed a plan, she said, adding that “open borders do not exist and should not exist.” But when it was pointed out to her that there was an open border on this island, she claimed there was freedom of movement across the European Union. At first glance, this seemed contradictory.
    Two thirds of applications for international protection ultimately failed and the process had to be accelerated. She reiterated that asylum centers would be located in “tense” areas. without choosing to “arbitrarily choose in the sky” places that would welcome them in their place. Community consultation does not constitute a veto, she said. “We ensure social cohesion.”

    DUBLIN RIOTS

    The riots occurred in the heart of her constituency and she did not think they were handled well that day, nor that outgoing Justice Minister Helen McEntee acquitted herself well. “I was around…much earlier in the afternoon, and we could sense there was a real problem about to happen.” She does not blame the Gardaí, but the right interventions were not made. She said she hoped the rioters, with 99 “persons of interest” appearing on the Garda website this week, “will all face the consequences of their actions”.

    THE PAST

    It is very important to remember the past and learn from it, she said. “But we are here and now.” Since 1998, a new generation has grown up and it is time to move on, she said, while respecting everyone’s views, including those who will never vote for Sinn Féin. However, she highlighted Michelle O’Neill’s “determination to be a leader for all”.
    She hopes the new relationship between Dublin and London will be successful, she said. Colette Fitzpatrick has asked about Netflix’s impending drama about the IRA murder of mother-of-ten Jean McConville in the early years of the Troubles. Ms McDonald said what her children experienced was “absolutely horrible” and what happened to them “profoundly wrong”. The family didn’t want the series to be made, she said, “as I understand it.”

    NOT

    Ditching the green jacket she wore during the ten-party leaders’ debate on Monday night, she smiled at the viewer and promised to end the housing crisis and ease the cost of living, withdrawing the first 45,000 € of income from universal social assistance. Fees (USC). She listed other promises, including maintaining the retirement age. The only way to end 100 years of Fianna Fáil/Fine Gael rule was to vote for Sinn Féin, she insisted.

    Umito
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