"MORE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT NEEDED FOR CAVAN AS A MATTER OF PRIORITY" - Cllr Sarah O'Reilly
“Never in my life did I think I would see the day when people were told not to attend Cavan General Hospital if they needed medical care”.
Those were some of the opening remarks by Aontú Cllr Sarah O’Reilly at her party’s inaugural National Think In which took place in Cavan at the weekend(Saturday , 14th September ).Delegates from all over the country heard Cllr O’ Reilly, who is a strong contender to take a Dail seat for her Party at the upcoming General Election, said the state of our health service is just one of the examples of the “‘systematic failure’ of this Government to truly provide functioning services for the people of this constituency and country”.
Referencing a recent advisory notice from Cavan General Hospital that people should not attend, she said it is “scandalous in a rich country like Ireland and speaks to glaring Government ineptitude and lack of purpose”.
“To have 8,000 people on a hospital waiting list in Cavan General is a downright disgrace”.“I am a leading member of the Cavan Hospital Campaign group who are campaigning for better health services in Cavan. “We have sick little children waiting for much needed scoliosis, waiting in agony for long promised treatment. It now takes a week to get an appointment in our Doctors’ surgeries if you are lucky enough to have one”
“Crime, drugs and antisocial behaviour is getting out of control. I know so many people who are not reporting criminal incidents anymore because they feel there is just no point”.
“We have zero accountability; it is not a guiding principle of this government I can tell you. Public money is being spent with abandon and Aontú is the only opposition party that is consistently calling them out. A person running a household budget would have more ability that the current incumbents when it comes to the public purse. There is a massive disconnect and we urgently need well thought our regional development as this country is turning into a city state”.
“We have desperate roads in my constituency, People are hammered with heavy taxes but not rewarded with either a good road infrastructure or an adequate public transport service. 3,000 people leave Cavan for Dublin each day and have to pay two toll fees up and two back. That is crazy. The taxpayer has paid for these toll roads over and over again and the State can absolutely reduce tolls instead of hiking the prices up. It seems it will push and push the public until such time as they say stop.”
“Housing is the scandal of our times. When people can only dream about ever owning a home of their own, in a country that values home ownership, something is radically wrong. So called ‘affordable housing. is not working in Cavan. Prices have jumped and people are working to a standstill just to make ends meet. There are so many houses where three generations are living under the same roof and this is actually disguising the real desperate crisis in this country. There is a mass exodus of young, educated, skilled and talented young people leaving our country, which we will rue in years to come”.
“Farmers are being strangled by bureaucracy, they are being asked to do much more for less, schemes that are so complicated that Agri consultants are threatening strike action, nitrates derogation threats, the collapse of the TAMS scheme, all of this while they have to endure delays in payments and Government delays in the VAT rebate scheme”.
“This Government is and has mismanaged Immigration so badly. It has created division and I believe this is a deliberate ploy to distract from its own glaring incompetence. It has created ‘millionaire accommodation providers’ and cares little about either the genuine people seeking protection or local communities. Again, it is behaving in a high handed manner and is doing its best to stop people from asking legitimate questions. That is very damaging in a democracy and serves to copper fasten the view that this Government is autocratic and authoritarian.”.
“For years politicians have been outsourcing their decision-making to experts, independent’ committees, NGOs and many others. We must not get too distracted by the culture wars, but we must push back. Government has allowed activist groups and activists to greatly influence policy and, in some cases, clinical practice”.
In Sept 2022 I joined the campaign to ensure that women were not written out of the Work Life Balance Bill which reduced women to ‘persons’ in relation to maternity protections. The Bill would have removed the terms ‘women’, ‘female’ and ‘mother’ in maternity legislation. I was the first councillor in Ireland to bring this issue to a County Council meeting and was unanimously backed ensuring that women were not written out of the Bill”.
“I am proud to represent Aontú, a party that is unbowed and unwavering in its support of the ordinary person who works hard and who values and respects accountability and equity for all. No party has stood with Farmers like Aontú has for example, we were the only party that stood up again the terribly damaging Family and Care Referenda. We stood alone but we stood for what was right and we were vindicated by the public” .
