Reforming the Broken Political System | Athchóiriú ar an gCóras Polaitiúil Briste:

Stormont is broken and not working for the people. Stormont – with the DUP, UUP, SDLP, Sinn Féin and Alliance all in situ – has presided over a time of spiralling costs and rapidly rising economic inequality. In a 10-year period, the Stormont parties cut over 880 beds from the health service – devastating the healthcare system before Covid struck. More than 650,000 people in the North live in either relative or absolute poverty. There has been a 326+% increase in gas prices from December 2020 to December 2021. A 22% increase alone from November to December, with December gas prices hitting a record high. House Prices up £25,000 in little over a year! Electricity prices up more than 21%. Across the North, there are over 43,000 people on social housing waiting lists but over two thirds of those on waiting lists are statutorily in housing distress. Meanwhile, over 4,200 people are homeless on our streets. Amnesty for British crimes against innocent people during the Troubles. An extreme abortion regimen being imposed on the North. The list goes on.

The Good Friday Agreement has been gutted.

The Executive has been collapsed. The North South Ministerial Council is not functioning. The DUP refuse to commit to the position of Deputy First Minister if a Nationalist party gets more votes. The DUP say that even after your democratic vote on May the 5th, there will be no Executive, until they get their way. The DUP are proving, without a shadow of a doubt that Stormont is not working for Nationalists. Increasingly, many Unionists now feel the same way.

Reform of the Political Institutions.

Aontú is only party contesting these elections looking to reform the democratic institutions, to make them work for the people. MLAs should not get paid a wage, if they won’t do their job. Would any other citizen of this state be paid if they downed tools and refused to work?

Under Aontú reforms, neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP would be allowed tear down the democratic intuitions again. We seek cross community protections so that one party cannot collapse the democratic institutions again.

The absence of a real opposition in Stormont is also a major weakness. Oppositions are necessary to challenge and hold Ministers to account. This is not currently happening. When the five party Executive removed 800 beds from the Hospital Service there was no one to shout stop.

Justice for Noah Donohue:

Noah Donohue was a bright happy 14-year-old, boy with a loving mother. He went missing on the 21st of June, 2020. Shockingly and tragically, he was found dead in a storm drain in Belfast some days later. Since that time, his family has had no answers about the circumstances surrounding his death. The PSNI have actively sought to withhold information surrounding his death and seek a Public Interest Immunity certificate. These certificates have traditionally been used by the authorities to protect the identity of informants in Paramilitaries. It is time to release the files and get justice for Noah. His mother, his family, his loved ones, should not have to fight the police for answers.

Aontú pledge a consistent challenge against the ongoing process of a PII being used to withhold information in Noah Donohue’s Inquest.

As priority, in the name of safety for all our children, the consistent requesting for a new and proper investigation into the death of Noah Donohue

The Irish political system is radically broken

In Ireland the vast majority of elected representatives put a finger in the air to check which way the political wind is blowing. They have one eye on their leaders – seeking brownie points – and another eye keeping their seat safe. If elected reps shut up and do as they’re told, they are promoted; if they stand up for what they believe in, they are demoted. No wonder we have the political class we have. No wonder one point one billion euro is being buried in a hole under the National Children’s Hospital and that Stormont is in stalemate.

Throughout Ireland, many people are now afraid to say what they feel, many are afraid to respectfully engage on a range of different topics. Many feel there is a new censorship and a new political correctness in Ireland, that opposition to the establishment is being deleted.

Respectful opposition is not the enemy. Respectful opposition is a critical element of a functional democracy. Aontú will have the backbone to stand up, without fear, for you.