Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The citizens of this constituency deserve better representation than they have had in the past. They deserve a Deputy who will stand up for their rights and defend them against the austerity policies of this Government.

There remain serious and unanswered questions around Phil Hogan's decision shortly after the 2011 election to scrap five inquiries, originally established by the previous Minister for the Environment, into serious allegations of irregularities in local authorities. One of the local authorities affected by this decision was Carlow. The termination of those investigations ran directly counter to one of the principle recommendations of the Mahon tribunal, namely, that an independent planning regulator should be set up.

Then there was Phil Hogan’s chief debacle of Irish Water. Mr. Hogan did not tell the Dáil of the expenditure involved in the establishment of Irish Water, including the eye-watering amounts spent on consultants. The Government gave €86 million to consultants while slashing funding for the housing adaptation grant scheme for elderly and disabled citizens. Later, we were to discover there were no records and no minutes of Phil Hogan's meetings with the chairwoman of Bord Gáis, meetings which led to the establishment of Irish Water. Mr. Hogan’s decision to put vital Leader rural development funds under local authority control undermined the years of experience and expertise built up in our local development companies. It also removed the genuine bottom-up approach central to the success of the Leader programme.

I will not be joining in the collective congratulations opposite for Mr. Hogan. The notion that the future of the entire Continent of Europe can rest in the hands of Phil Hogan fills me with a feeling of dread. I get the impression that if the Minister, Deputy James Reilly, and the Minister of State, Deputy Ann Phelan, could have their way, they would change the anthem for Europe from “Ode to Joy” to “Ode to Phil”. That is a sentiment not shared, not just in Carlow and Kilkenny but across the country.

The Government promised a new way of doing politics, a democratic revolution. Whatever might be said of Phil Hogan, he certainly was not a democratic revolutionary. Instead, the Government, along with Phil Hogan, compounded the worst excesses of its Fianna Fáil predecessors. This Fine Gael-Labour Government, like the Fianna Fáil one before it, has been responsible for significant cuts to public services, including health and education. It has forced thousands out of work or into low-paid employment while driving hundreds of thousands of others to emigrate. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil took the €26 billion of banking debt, which was the responsibility of 22 men, and turned it into the people’s debt, saddling the citizens of Carlow-Kilkenny and across the State with a €64 billion euro bill that will pass from one generation to the next.

The Carlow-Kilkenny by-election provides an opportunity for the electorate of that constituency to pass judgment on this Government and its policies. It also gives voters an opportunity to vote for positive change. Sinn Féin will stand in this by-election firmly opposed to austerity and for a fair recovery. Our candidate, Kathleen Funchion, is a strong young woman, a mother, a trade union official and a political activist. She will make an excellent candidate and first class Deputy for this constituency. Sinn Féin looks forward to the contest and may the best woman win.

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