Cork City Labour Party representatives should stop supporting our ‘Tory’ Government – O’Shea.

Cork City Labour Party representatives should stop supporting our ‘Tory’ Government – O’Shea. Sinn Fein representative and local election candidate, Shane O’Shea, has called on Labour Party representatives in Cork city to stop propping up a Fine Gael Government implementing Fianna Fáil designed austerity policies. Mr. O’Shea (29) who will be the running-mate of Cllr.Chris O’Leary in the South-East ward believes that the current arrangement is not what ordinary Labour supporters want or what they voted for. Mr.O Shea said: “The Labour Party should now pull out of that dysfunctional coalition. Let Fine Gael go into government with Fianna Fáil if they wish and they can implement their failed economic model together. I don’t accept that all Labour representatives in Cork are happy with the direction that their party has taken since 2011. They should stop supporting what is effectively a Tory government in Leinster House.” “Before the last general election, the Labour leadership spoke of equality and radical reform and were given a mandate, on this basis, by the people of this state. That message was relayed to the people of Cork by Kathleen Lynch & Ciaran Lynch. Unfortunately, since they entered Government they have abandoned all left-wing principles and they have become subservient to conservative economic agenda of Fine Gael.” “A genuine Labour Party, the one envisaged by Connolly and Larkin, would never stand over the cruel and regressive measures taken by the Government. Margaret Thatcher may be dead but Thatcherism lives on in the policies of this coalition." " I am calling on Kathleen Lynch & Ciaran Lynch along with all the Labour Councillors in Cork to now recognise how far their party have moved from core Labour policy. The rejection of Croke Park II, by the trade union movement, should be a serious wake-up call for them. They should tell their party leadership to leave the Fine Gael Coalition or they will withdraw their support. "

Mary Lou McDonald welcomes Cork City Council’s call for Government apology to Bethany Home survivors

Mary Lou McDonald welcomes Cork City Council’s call for Government apology to Bethany Home survivors Sinn Féin Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald TD today welcomed Cork City Council’s decision to pass a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Government to provide a full apology to the surviving women and men of Bethany Home and to immediately put in place a mechanism of redress. Deputy McDonald said: “A motion calling for an apology and redress for Bethany Home survivors put forward by Sinn Féin Councillors Chris O’Leary and Fiona Kerin’s was successfully passed at last night’s Cork City Council meeting. “Cork City Council’s support for the survivors of Bethany Home is welcome and hopefully other Councils will follow. “State inspections of Bethany under the Registration of Maternity Homes Act record the horrendous neglect of children in the home. “Some 219 Bethany children died in this small institution between 1922 and 1949 and lay buried in unmarked graves in Mount Jerome Cemetery. “Neglect in Bethany Home was in some instances barbaric and in others wilfully negligent. Labour and Fine Gael cannot continue to ignore their responsibility on behalf of the state to the surviving women and men.” ENDS