Louis O'Hara, who ran for Sinn Féin in the Oranmore-Athenry ward in the local elections last year, has returned to electoral politics to stand as the party's Galway East General Election candidate.
Mr O'Hara said his campaign would focus on five issues: housing and homelessness, health, rural Ireland, inequality, and Irish unity. On housing, he said Sinn Féin had committed to building the largest public housing programme in the history of the State, and in the last Dáil "successfully brought forward a bill to freeze rents for three years".
"The housing and homelessness crisis is undoubtedly the single biggest issue facing us in this country at the moment," he said. "It is nothing short of disgraceful that we have over 10,000 people homeless in this State, many of them children."
On health, Mr O'Hara called for the HSE to be reformed into a single-tier public health service. "We believe a person's income should not determine the quality of healthcare they receive," he said. "We must also remember the healthcare workers, who work under enormous pressure, and we will support them in their campaign for fair wages."
Mr O'Hara said rural Ireland had been "completely neglected" by successive governments, resulting in "a lack of public services, high levels of emigration, and huge pressure on farm incomes". As a result, he is calling for "major investment" in roads, rail, and broadband to attract investment and create employment in rural areas.
Regarding inequality, Mr O'Hara pointed out that, while Ireland is a relatively wealthy country, there are still "significant levels of poverty", which he said was unacceptable. Regarding Irish unity, he said this was an issue all parties needed to engage in debate on what such an entity would be like. "It is clear that a unity referendum is on the way," he said. "Failing to prepare for this would be recklessly irresponsible."
