Finglas / Ballymun local election candidate John O’Neill welcomed the call from the Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) for voters to support candidates who will prioritise the common good and defend the welfare state against cutbacks.

“This is an important contribution to the debate from CORI,” said O’Neill. “For the last few months, the media has been dominated by right-wing economists and spokesmen for IBEC, telling us that we have to slash public services and welfare payments. Those arguments are based on false claims that we spend too much on our welfare system. Now CORI have told us the truth: Ireland doesn’t have a ‘generous’ welfare state, in fact we have some of the lowest social welfare payments in Europe.”

O’Neill pointed out that the real responsibility for Ireland’s economic crisis lies with the banks and the property developers.

“We all know why the economy is in such a terrible state,” said the Socialist candidate. “The banks gambled billions on the property boom, and now that the bubble has burst, their greed has dragged down the whole economy. As Fr Seán Healy of CORI points out, we are paying the price for a philosophy that promoted individual greed and denied the importance of community. We need a radical break with that agenda and we can start on June 5th.”

The Finglas / Ballymun candidate urged people not to be conned by bogus arguments bandied about in the media.

“Just because you hear something repeated half-a-dozen times every day, doesn’t mean it’s true,” said O’Neill. “CORI deserves credit for challenging the lies of right-wing economists who are on the payroll of the big banks. We don’t spend too much on public services, our welfare system is not too generous, and we will only dig ourselves deeper into the hole by attacking the living standards of working-class people. It’s time for workers to start fighting back.”


John O’Neill is running in the local elections as the candidate of the Irish Socialist Network

You can contact John at 087 6367175 or votejohnoneill@yahoo.ie

www.bebo.com/John4finglasballymun

Finglas / Ballymun local election candidate John O’Neill urged voters in north Dublin to support Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party in the race for Dublin’s Euro seat.
“Joe Higgins would be an excellent choice to represent the people of Dublin,” said O’Neill. “Joe is the only candidate in the race who will offer a radical voice for working-class Dubliners. We need people who will challenge the right-wing consensus in Irish politics, and we can depend on Joe Higgins to do just that.”

O’Neill recalled that the establishment parties have ignored the democratic decision of the Irish people to reject the Lisbon Treaty.

“Supporters of the EU project are always telling us they want people to be more engaged with the European Union,” said O’Neill. “But it’s clear now what they mean: they want people to support their ideas without thinking. If the people of Ireland or other countries like France and the Netherlands reject their agenda, they look immediately for a way to ignore those democratic decisions. All of the establishment parties in Ireland – including the Labour Party – have been complicit in this denial of democracy. They can’t be allowed to represent our views in Europe. A vote for a radical candidate like Joe Higgins will send a message to the EU elites that they can’t ignore our voice.”

Joe Higgins did an excellent job as a socialist TD between 1997 and 2007, O’Neill reminded voters.

“We were lucky to have Joe Higgins in the Dáil for Dublin West,” said O’Neill. “He gave a voice to working-class people who had been excluded from the benefits of the Celtic Tiger. His campaign in support of the Gama workers showed what can be done by socialists who enter the Dáil without joining the cosy political establishment. Now that the Celtic Tiger has been and gone, we need people like Joe who aren’t in politics to feather their own nests.”

John O’Neill is running in the local elections as the candidate of the Irish Socialist Network

You can contact John at 087 6367175 or votejohnoneill@yahoo.ie

www.bebo.com/John4finglasballymun

Finglas / Ballymun election candidate John O’Neill called for a major programme of house construction to create employment and provide social housing for working-class people.

“Thousands of jobs are being lost in construction every month,” said O’Neill. “There are countless workers in Dublin and other parts of the country with the skills to build high-quality houses and apartments for local authority housing schemes. Instead of letting those valuable skills go to waste, we should be employing the workers laid off by the building industry on a public housing programme.”

O’Neill pointed out that the property bust which has knocked a hole in the Irish economy was ultimately caused by the decline of social housing construction.

“The run-down of public housing is one of the main causes of our current economic mess,” said O’Neill. “With local authorities failing to build new homes, the field was left clear to private developers, who controlled 94% of the market by 2000. They took advantage of their monopoly position to drive up the price of houses to crazy levels. Now that the bubble has burst, they’ve dragged down the banking system and the rest of the economy with them.”

The crisis of the banks has provided an opportunity for the revival of social housing, pointed out O’Neill.

“Huge land banks will come into public ownership over the next few months,” said the Socialist candidate. “These should be given to local authorities, along with the resources needed to employ construction workers on a major house-building programme. That money would be better spent giving work to people on the dole than bailing out the banks once again.”

The revival of social housing must go hand-in-hand with the creation of real local democracy, O’Neill argued.

“The builders could never have cornered the market they way they did without the help of corrupt local politicians,” said O’Neill. “We all know that the planning system was based on sleazy back-handers and envelopes stuffed with banknotes. Decisions about planning must be opened up to democratic control by local communities - you might be able to bribe a councillor, but you can’t corrupt a whole community. If elected to Dublin City Council, I will fight against the undemocratic system of local government in Ireland.”



John O’Neill is running in the local elections as the candidate of the Irish Socialist Network

You can contact John at 087 6367175 or votejohnoneill@yahoo.ie

www.bebo.com/John4finglasballymun