The Aontú Ard Fheis will kick off this Saturday the 7th of March at 9am at the Midland’s Park Hotel, Portlaoise. There will be a press conference at 11.15 am. RTE will broadcast a live section between 12noon and 1pm and the leader’s keynote speech between 6.30pm to 7pm. Hundreds of delegates from across the 32 counties will attend the Ard Fheis to debate 106 motions.
There will be three guest speakers. Úna Keightley from the Spina Bifida & Hydrocephalus Advocacy group will speak on the unfolding crisis in CHI. Paddy Cullivan will speak on a United Ireland and Pat O’Toole from the Farmers Journal will speak on the crisis in farming.
Speaking in advance of the Ard Fheis Aontú leader and Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín stated:
“When we were young, in school, our teachers used to say to us, work hard and when you get older you will get a good job. If you get a good job you will be able to buy a home, provide for your family and have a good life. This simple promise has been the basic social contract of society for generations. For hundreds of thousands of families its well and truly broken. Aontú will detail throughout Saturday how we fix this broken social contract.
Today hard-working families cannot afford to buy a house. Hundreds of thousands of young people are working, saving, enduring horrendous commutes and still end up shut out of a home, a future, and stability. Working families are now among the 17,112 people who are in homelessness today.
Its estimated that the war in Iran could send cost of filling a tank of petrol or diesel to over €150. This is an eye watering figure for most families. Fuel is not a luxury good. 300,000 families are in energy arears in Ireland. That’s 300,000 families who can’t pay for a staple of life. What is the government’s response? Amid spiking fuel costs it is the government’s plan to hike up Carbon Taxes on the 1st of May. The government is carbon tax gouging hundreds of thousands of families who are already in energy arrears.
Irish farmers produce food at the very highest regulatory level. They the undergo rigorous Bord Bia audits to be able to sell their food as Origin Green. Yet the government appointed a CEO to An Board Bia that imports Brazilian beef to Ireland that would fail the Bord Bia audit. Lower quality foreign food is allowed to masquerade as Irish food every day, confusing the consumer and undercutting Irish farmers income and reputation.
The government constructed the Triple Lock to ensure that the failed Nice Treaty would pass the second time. Every home in the country received official documentation from the state outlining that if Nice 2 was successful the Triple Lock, protecting Irish Neutrality would be put in place. Now its being binned because FF and FG are pushing Ireland into an emerging EU Defence Union.
Parents of children with scoliosis have left their children in the care of the state seeking much needed help. Not only have many of these children undergone shocking treatment but the government has so far refused to be honest with parents was to what has happed.
The government is breeching the Social Contract left, right and centre. On Saturday Aontú will show why and how the Social Contract can be fixed”.
