ISN local election candidate John O’Neill calls for politicians to feel the pinch

dublin | politics / elections | press release Wednesday April 29, 2009 11:00 by Irish Socialist Network

Finglas / Ballymun election candidate John O’Neill urged people not to be taken in by gimmicks from the Fianna Fáil-led government: If politicians really had to share the pain of the recession, they might not be so keen to put the boot into working-class people.

“We are supposed to be impressed because Brian Cowen has got rid of five junior Ministers from his government,” said O’Neill. “It just shows how out of touch our politicians are. Who cares if a few nobodies lose their job titles? We all know the country would get by fine if all the junior Ministers took a one-way trip into outer space. In fact, judging by the state of the economy, we might better off if the whole government cleared out – at least then they couldn’t make an even bigger mess of things.”

O’Neill contrasted the soft landing for junior Ministers with the experience of working-class people losing their jobs in the real world.

“The basic salary for a TD is over €100,000,” noted O’Neill. “That’s what the sacked ministers will be taking home. Thousands of people are losing their jobs every month, but they don’t have a fat salary to fall back on. The government is sharpening its knives to start cutting social welfare payments – they’ve already taken away the Christmas bonus, and that’ll just be the start of the cuts.”

The Socialist candidate demanded radical reform of the Irish political system.

“As long as our politicians live in a bubble and have no idea what it’s like to have to get by on a typical working-class salary, they will continue serving the interests of the rich minority,” warned O’Neill. “If they had to live on the average worker’s wage they might sing a different tune. You get what you pay for in life, and what we’ve got are a bunch of self-serving careerists who have no interest in serving the people. We need to slash all the perks and bring our politicians down to the same income level as everyone else – they are meant to be representing us, that means they should be living like us too.”

John O’Neill is running in the local elections as the candidate of the Irish Socialist Network

You can contact John at 087 6367175 or [email protected]