Sinn Féin’s Tipperary General Election candidate Cllr. Séamie Morris addressed the water tax protest in Clonmel Saturday. He says that the Government has misread the situation, tried to criminalise protesters, leading to the activist Right2Change movement, which will eject the right-wing Government. He further blames the Labour Party for the current housing crisis.
Cllr Morris said: “I got involved with politics through community activism. This Government has misread the whole situation and has tried to criminalise ordinary water protesters.”
“But they didn’t succeed in criminalising the water protesters. They created community activists. They created a whole band of people, young and old, who have been radicalised, and are ready to get up off their backsides and to take on this right-wing Government.”
“The housing crisis in the country at present is an example of this Government’s failure to look out for the citizens of the state. We should not think that the troubling levels of homelessness, and deeply disturbing level of families dispossessed is a failure of policy. In fact, that is the policy of the state under this Government.”
“The Labour Ministers are to blame for this. Alan Kelly, Jan O’Sullivan and Kathleen Lynch must take the blame for creating the present levels of homelessness, based on their policy actions.”
“A significant factor in homelessness is often mental health. In Tipperary there is no out of hours service. Mental health problems don’t end at 5:30 in the evening. The policies around supports for those with such problems contribute hugely to the homeless crisis.”
This isn’t just a ‘perfect storm’ that Labour and Government inherited. In 2011 there were 249,000 empty houses in this country. Since then 300,000 of our young people have left this country, so there are now even more empty houses out there.”
“Social housing has been privatised, the same way that so many other sections and services, just like water. Which is why we’re here today, to stop water being privatised.”
“As a councillor I have never seen the level l of family homelessness that I see now. Last week I dealt with two families whose family homes are being repossessed. This is made so much easier by the Land and Conveyancing Bill, which every government TD in Tipperary voted for. That gives the banks the right to repossess homes. We should remember those TDs voted.”
“I will also be addressing these issues at my campaign launch on Friday 29th in the Park Hotel, where Martin McGuinness, Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland will be key-note speaker.”
“But there is an election coming. It’s up to everyone here to get more people to vote for parties that have signed up to the Right2Change platform. The Right2Change movement has the possibility of changing politics in this country. It’s in your hands to get this Government out..”