Real People are the Collateral Damage of Westminster & Stormont Fiasco Factories - Tóibín
As another administration implodes in Westminster, Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín outlines the deep cost to Ireland of the chaos;
“For many on this side of the water the Westminster fiasco factory may seem like another British political farce popcorn moment. However there is an incredible human cost to this circus. The north has just emerged from the mismanaged Covid Crisis which hammered communities, closed businesses and a health service in a dire state. As soon as Covid receded we were engulfed in a wave of Cost of Living price rises which has left many working families struggling in poverty”.
“Even before this confluence of the Cost of Living Crisis, the Westminster Fiasco and the mothballed Stormont Assembly, the north of Ireland had deficits worth hundreds of millions of pounds in education, health and infrastructure spending. The financial health of this state has gone from bad to worse in large part due to dysfunction in Westminster and Stormont”.
“The cost is on real people. Many families are going hungry. Many families are struggling to keep the heat on. Warm banks are being developed to help those in need. Food banks are providing tens of thousands of food parcels for families. Children with disabilities, physical and intellectual are being denied critical supports. Tens of thousands of people are getting sicker while waiting endlessly for health treatment”.
“And through it all there is no one at the wheel. None of our well paid political representatives are taking responsibility. The minority DUP are not only denying the democratic rights of the majority but they are shutting down the democratic institutions at a life and death time for some of our citizens. All of this dysfunction is damaging real people’s lives”.
“There is an immediate and vital need for reform of the political institutions. The Irish government must snap out of its inertia and starting making the case now to whoever emerges from the Westminster wreckage”.
CRÍOCH
