PBP EU Candidate called to “evict FF & FG from power”
People Before Profit will be holding a public meeting in Nenagh on Monday, with the party’s MEP candidate Cian Prendivile as the guest speaker. The meeting takes place on Monday (April 22nd) at 7pm in the Hibernian Inn, and will discuss a wide variety of issues, including the fight to re-open Nenagh A&E, the housing crisis and the parties call on Sinn Fein, independents and others to fight for a left government to “evict FF & FG from power”
Mr Prendiville has long campaigned against the centralisation of A&E services in the Mid-West, having organised protests to defend emergency services in Nenagh and elsewhere is far back as 2008. Now he argues that the warnings of campaigners back then have been borne out, and the “centralisation experiment” should be reversed.
“We warned over 15 years ago that shutting the local A&Es and cramming everyone into UHL would be a disaster. But the Fianna Fail and Green government of the time ignored the warnings, and the Fine Gael and Labour government after them continued with this wreckless plan. The result has been a disaster, with the numbers on trolleys skyrocketing. As an MEP a key priority of mine will be to help build the grassroots movement to demand the re-opening of these local A&Es to take pressure off UHL, and push all parties to make that pledge in their manifestos for the coming general election.”
The meeting will also discuss the housing crisis, which has seen the average rent in Tipperary more than double in the last 10 years. The former Councillor went on to say:
“The government has manufactured a housing crisis. By limiting the supply of social housing for over a decade, bringing in vulture funds and lifting restrictions on evictions they have created a perfect environment for corporate landlords to drive up the rents and increase their profits. Neoliberal EU rules have encouraged this, restricting spending on public housing and pushing for so-called ‘globalisation’ of the housing market by bringing in massive multinationals who are squeezing out ordinary families.”
Mr Prendiville concluded by saying the European elections were a chance to ‘send a message’ about the kind of change people want to see.
“The polls show we have an historic chance for change in the next 12 months - a chance to evict FF and FG from power for the first time in history. To seize this opportunity, we need to send a message to the independents, Sinn Fein and others that we do not want them going into coalition with FF or FG. People Before Profit has given that pledge, and we are encouraging others to join us in ruling out doing a deal with the devil. Instead we want to build a campaign for a left government, which will push for real socialist change. We should use these elections to send that message, and help build the momentum for real change.”
