ISN local election candidate John O'Neill urges support for Joe Higgins in Dublin Euro race

dublin | politics / elections | press release

Monday May 11, 2009 15:25

by Irish Socialist Network

Irish Socialist Network candidate John O'Neill gives his backing to Joe Higgins.

Finglas / Ballymun local election candidate John O’Neill urged voters in north Dublin to support Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party in the race for Dublin’s Euro seat.

“Joe Higgins would be an excellent choice to represent the people of Dublin,” said O’Neill. “Joe is the only candidate in the race who will offer a radical voice for working-class Dubliners. We need people who will challenge the right-wing consensus in Irish politics, and we can depend on Joe Higgins to do just that.”

O’Neill recalled that the establishment parties have ignored the democratic decision of the Irish people to reject the Lisbon Treaty.

“Supporters of the EU project are always telling us they want people to be more engaged with the European Union,” said O’Neill. “But it’s clear now what they mean: they want people to support their ideas without thinking. If the people of Ireland or other countries like France and the Netherlands reject their agenda, they look immediately for a way to ignore those democratic decisions. All of the establishment parties in Ireland – including the Labour Party – have been complicit in this denial of democracy. They can’t be allowed to represent our views in Europe. A vote for a radical candidate like Joe Higgins will send a message to the EU elites that they can’t ignore our voice.”

Joe Higgins did an excellent job as a socialist TD between 1997 and 2007, O’Neill reminded voters.

“We were lucky to have Joe Higgins in the Dáil for Dublin West,” said O’Neill. “He gave a voice to working-class people who had been excluded from the benefits of the Celtic Tiger. His campaign in support of the Gama workers showed what can be done by socialists who enter the Dáil without joining the cosy political establishment. Now that the Celtic Tiger has been and gone, we need people like Joe who aren’t in politics to feather their own nests.”

John O’Neill is running in the local elections as the candidate of the Irish Socialist Network

You can contact John at 087 6367175 or [email protected]