BYELECTION:CANDIDATES HAVE made their final appeals to the 62,000 voters in the Dublin Central byelection.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Maurice Ahern said “the economic recovery started 20 years ago when his brother, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, opened the Cert offices and Financial Services Centre”.
Another recovery was now starting with the DIT. He said Taoiseach Brian Cowen would shortly announce the Government would, over the next 10 years, finance the creation of a single DIT campus at Grangegorman, using current college buildings as collateral.
Fine Gael Senator Paschal Donohoe said “a win for Fine Gael will send shock waves from St Luke’s to Clara”. It would send the “strongest possible message that people aren’t happy with the Government”. If voters wanted to get rid of Fianna Fáil, “we are the only party who can do that”.
Labour Senator Ivana Bacik said the election “is a referendum on the Government” and “people want real change, not just cosmetic change – the politics of ‘tweedledum and tweedledumer’ ”. Labour offered a strong alternative voice at community and national level, she said.
Independent Maureen O’Sullivan, backed by the late Tony Gregory’s organisation, asked all who said the parties were not worth voting for “to come out and exercise their democratic franchise”. Dublin Central “has been an independent community seat for the last 30 years” and many wanted to keep that, she said.
Sinn Féin Cllr Christy Burke said: “I do what it says on the can . . . I’m dedicated. I was unemployed and reared four on my own. I know what it’s like to lose the Christmas bonus, and have my late mother and father wait on a trolley for a hospital bed.”
Green Party candidate David Geary is “offering a Green vision for Dublin, to make it the greenest city in Europe”, creating technology to employ thousands.
Martin Steenson of the Workers’ Party said unemployment was the main issue “particularly in this constituency, which never achieved full employment”.
Cutbacks in Community Education schemes mean working class people who are early school leavers and who lack education will not be able to take up the jobs in a recovery, he said.
Independent Patrick Talbot said he was a voice for those concerned with mass immigration. “The politicians are doing nothing about immigration” and it was a chance “for people to have their say”.
Christian Solidarity Party candidate Paul O’Loughlin could not be reached yesterday.
