People Before Profit have selected Joe Daly as their candidate to run in the upcoming Dáil election. Mr Daly is a secondary school teacher in Castlebar and ran for the party in the local elections 2019.
Mr Daly stated: "I have a proven track record over the last ten years as a serious campaigner, fighting cuts in education, against water privatisation, for a woman’s right to choose, against corruption, for public homes on public land, exposing the insurance rip off, for a universal health service and for serious action to mitigate climate disaster.
"For us this election is not a Varadkar versus Martin show, it is about offering a real alternative to Fianna Fail and Fine Gael who have ruled this country for nearly eighty years and they are trying to narrow this election to a choice between them. But their policies are almost exactly the same. We give a cast iron guarantee – a vote for People Before Profit will never be used to put one of the conservative parties into power.
"Today, Fine Gael presides over a health system that has the longest waiting lists in Europe – but when they were in office Fianna Fail cut 2,000 beds from the health service. Both oppose proper rent controls and regulation of the price of building land because they are devotees of the ‘free market’.
"Our aim is to make a start on breaking the cycle of FF and FG rule. The days of the two and a half party system are over. Today both FF and FG command just over half the votes of the electorate whereas in the past they had over 80%.
"We are advocating policies that promote greater equality, radical climate action and high quality public services. We want to shift the tax burden from PAYE worker and place it more firmly on the shoulders of the wealthy and the big corporations by closing off their tax loopholes.
"Google, for example, has just declared €15 billion in profits – and has not paid us a cent in tax. Apple owe us €13 billion in back taxes – but the two conservative parties are spending millions of our money to ensure we don’t get it.
"I’m asking the people of Mayo to vote for me as a genuine left socialist candidate in this constituency. People Before Profit would put an immediate embargo on the sell-off of public land – and use it for social and affordable houses. We will bring in a law for proper rent controls that will allow for rent reduction in many cases. We will massively increase the bus fleet and move to free public transport to tackle climate change.
"We can continue to change Irish society for the better – but first let’s break the cycle of FF and FG rule."
