Sinn Féin Deputy First Minster Martin McGuinness discussed a wide range of issues with business, trade union and community leaders during a visit to Kilkenny and the South-east on Saturday last.Mr McGuinness was on a whistlestop tour of Waterford City, Carlow and Kilkenny City.
Greeted in Kilkenny by Sinn Fein Councillor Kathleen Funchion Mr McGuinness then gave a keynote address at an election fundraising dinner hosted at the Springhill Court Hotel during which he said the whole of Europe faces challenging times due to a world wide recession compounded in this state by spiralling unemployment figures.
“I am delighted to be here in Kilkenny on the invitation of Cllr Kathleen Funchion. The last time I visited Kilkenny in 2005 Sinn Féin had no representatives in Carlow and Kilkenny. All of that changed in last year’s local elections with the election of Kathleen Funchion to Kilkenny Borough Council and John Cassin to Carlow Town Council.
“However this has not been the only change. This Government has walked us into the worst recession in the states history. 460,000 people nationally are out of work. The standardised unemployment rate for the south-east is over 16 per cent higher than the national average. The Government’s response to this crisis has been to bail out the banks. Our priority is to bail out working people, the unemployed and those living in poverty.
“The Government and the main opposition parties will have you believe that these problems cannot be solved. I have a can do attitude. In my first meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair he told me that he did not believe a deal between Sinn Féin and the DUP was possible. I told him it was. It was possible because we made it happen. We had a plan. We had a strategy on how to get there. Sinn Féin has a jobs plan. We have a strategy on getting Ireland back to work.
“The next general election provides the people of Carlow and Kilkenny with an opportunity to vote for real change. We can turn things around by making the right political choices and I hope the electorate of Carlow and Kilkenny endorse the Sinn Féin candidate.”
