Connolly 'a person of courage and integrity' says SF leader

“I don’t believe they [government parties] should be rewarded for failure by having their woman walk into the Áras,” said Mary Lou McDonald, TD, when for Catherine Connolly in the presidential election, in Mullingar on Friday evening.

Asked why the people of Mullingar and Westmeath should vote for Catherine Connolly, Deputy McDonald said: “Because she will be, I hope, when elected an Uachtarán that will be independent of mind. I think she will be brave and gracious. I think she will represent and speak for what’s best about Ireland. I think she’ll listen very carefully and engage with people all across the island.

“She’s a person of courage and integrity. She’s a thoughtful person and a kind person, and I think she is exactly the person that we would want in the Áras at this time. She is, by far and away the stronger candidate on the ticket.

“And then secondly, because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael delivered a budget of £9.4 billion and they’ve left people worse off. They’ve been a big fail, fail, fail in government.

“And I, frankly, don’t believe that they should be rewarded for failure by having their woman walk into the Áras.”

Deputy McDonald and the Sinn Féin team had been canvassing in Longford and were going to Navan after Mullingar. She received a warm reception from those she spoke to between the Fair Green and the Market Square, and speaking to the local newspapers before she headed off, she responded to queries on transport and health.

Sorca Clarke, TD, and Cllr Julie McCourt were among the SF group, and the former joined Deputy McDonald for the questions. Asked if there was anything they could do to make sure the MRI scanner at the local hospital is better utilised, and having been filled in by Deputy Clarke, she said: “I will raise that with the minister. That’s not unique, but that does not make it any less disgraceful that it’s happening here.”

Addressing a query on transport, the SF party leader said: “You’ll have heard a lot of talk about infrastructure, and investment in infrastructure, and one of the critical pieces is rail. I’m conscious that there are parts of the island that are particularly neglected the further west you go, and here of course in the midlands. So anything that improves connectivity is a win, not alone for the climate and the environment, which we have to pay attention to, but also because the population is growing and because we want to give opportunities for investment and for jobs in places like Mullingar. We also want for those who commute and who go to the bigger cities that they don’t endure the kind of nightmare journey that I know a lot of people are making on a daily basis. So the investment needs to happen for it to happen effectively and efficiently.”

Moving to education and school bus transport, Ms McDonald said the failure to plan ahead “baffles” her. “It’s as though the system isn’t counting how many children there are at various stages of education and development, and then the system gets surprised when there are shortfalls.”

Asked what Sinn Féin would do, she responded: “This is a matter of resourcing and planning – planning and resourcing. It is not complicated to understand that children need to be transported to school and that you need an adequate fleet, you need properly qualified drivers. So it is about numbers.

“The government tell us repeatedly it’s not about money and there’s plenty of money, which needs to be used smartly and not wasted. So if it’s not about money, then it clearly is about two other things, prioritisation and actually caring enough to get things sorted out, and also planning for delivery.”

It’s not that the Dept of Education don’t have the figures, projections show the highest number of students that are currently in primary school are going to make their way into post-primary school over the next very short number of years.”

Deputy Clarke added: “When you look at a town like Mullingar, the obvious question to the department should be not do we need a secondary school, it’s where we’re going to put the secondary school. If this town needs another school, then this is something that as a collective we need to sit down and to pinpoint a site now for the applications to begin to go in.”