The Government is “clapping itself on the back” for the “so-called exit from the bailout”, but it prefers to “ignore the ‘Exit’ sign over the door as our young leave our country in droves”.
This is the view of Sinn Féin local election candidate for Connemara Tom Healy, who has been highly critical of a statement issued by Labour Galway West TD Derek Nolan, claiming that the Troika exit “creates a space to focus on the economic direction we now take”.
Mr Healy said the State has a “shocking rate of unemployment,” with 30 per cent of people under 35 out of work; 105,000 between 15 and 24 who have emigrated since 2011; and 112,000 for those aged between 25 and 44 who have emigrated in the same period.
“This is a huge indictment of the failure of austerity,” Mr Healy said, “but our subservient Government has been more than content to obey the austerity diktats of the Troika and, indeed, to go beyond them, by imposing hardship on the old and the young, the sick and the vulnerable.”
He said the impact of this can be seen first hand in rural County Galway.
“As someone living in north Connemara, an area that consists of small towns, villages, and rural areas, I know intimately the devastation being caused to our communities by the outflow of our young people,” he said. “The lifeblood is literally being drained from communities.”
Mr Healy accused the Government of operating a cynical policy of “the more young people that leave the better”. “For the Government it means less dole, less rent supplement to be paid out, and lower demand on health and education services,” he said.
Sinn Féin is running two candidates in the nine-seat Connemara ward at next May’s Local Elections - North Connemara based Tom Healy and the southern based Máirín MhicLochlainn.
The party will be hoping that each candidate can maximise the left and Republican vote in each part of the ward, as well as any ‘soft-Fianna Fáil’ votes that may in a general election go to Fianna Fáil’s Éamon Ó Cuív. The party will also be hoping to capitalise on the strong electoral performances put in by Sen Trevor Ó Clochartaigh in recent years.
