Mairéad Tóibín has Been Selected as Aontú Candidate in the Dublin Bay South Bye-election
The Aontú Ard Chomhairle has selected Mairéad Tóibín has the party’s candidate in the Dublin Bay South Byelection.
Mairéad has worked as a pharmacist in Addiction and Mental Health services in Dublin Bay South for 15 years. She also worked as an Inspector of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland and has a deep understanding of the Health Service in Ireland. She has seen first-hand the many challenges that patients seeking treatment in the health service suffer. She has also witnessed the incredible pressure that the Health Service came under during the Covid Crisis. Mairéad stated;
“Dublin Bay South Bye-election is in many ways a referendum on how this government mismanaged the Covid Crisis. The majority of people who died with Covid caught Covid in a Hospital or a Nursing Home, two locations run or regulated by the Government. This is an incredible situation. The most vulnerable were the most exposed. We in Aontú were the first to call for a full investigation into the manner in which the government mismanaged this crisis. This mismanagement is not over. Many seriously ill patients with life threatening diseases are still not getting the treatment they need due to the fact that the health services are not fully open”.
Previously Mairéad Tóibín owned and managed two community pharmacy businesses. She has an acute understanding of the crisis many small business are going through.
Mairéad;
“Instead of protecting the most vulnerable FF & FG produced the longest and most severe workplace restrictions in Europe. This hammered small businesses and workers. Aontú is the only party in the Dáil that stood up for the hardest hit sectors. It will be lost on none of the workers in pubs and restaurants in Dublin Bay South that Fine Gael timed this election after the reopening of the hospitality services. Denmark and Finland are two countries with similar Covid impacts in terms of ill health and mortality. Yet both countries opened up their restaurants and pubs weeks ago. The group think that exists between the government and most of the opposition is a sight to behold. They have selected, to the massive detriment of society a path in terms of restriction severity that places Ireland as a radical outlier in the EU. The Zero Covid opposition wanted to postpone reopening until the daily Covid cases are less than 10. That could take another year. Aontú is alone in all the political parties in supporting the hospitality sector’s calls for all hospitality to open together under the same science and regulation”.
“Ireland was practically alone in the EU in fully closing building sites for the first 4 months of this year. 10,000 houses were not built in the midst of a national Housing crisis. Yet just after Easter, with no hint of irony, the whole political establishment announced that housing was their 1st priority. Both FF & FG have been ideologically allergic to building social housing for the last 20 years. Their mirror image SF, Lab, the Soc Dems & PbP have blocked the building of thousands of homes become of their narrow ideology. Aontú understands that rents & the housing crisis will not be solved unless both the social & private sector are working at full tilt. Aontú seek to inject practical Common-Sense into the Dáil in order to break the political cartel that runs this country.
Mairéad is also a community activist and is a volunteer at her local school and clubs. She is a founding member of Ireland’s newest political movement, Aontú. Mairéad has a real backbone and is not afraid to challenge the group think of the political establishment and stand up for her community.
