Sinn Féin Leader Mary Lou McDonald speaking to more than 800 party members at the launch of the party’s Local Government and EU election campaigns in The Helix in Dublin this morning said “FF and FG have been in government for too long. They stagger on now, with no purpose other than holding onto power. This election is the first step in getting this failed government out of office…  We know that change is possible, we know that change is essential and, my friends, we know that change starts here.” 

Note to editor: Sinn Féin is standing 335 candidates in the Local Government elections.  This the largest number of candidates we have ever stood and for the first time we are standing candidates in every single electoral area.  46% of the candidates are female.  We are standing six candidates in the EU elections.

Check Against Delivery – full speech

Forty days to go. The countdown is on to the most important Local and European Elections for a generation.

After thirteen years of Fine Gael in government, joined at the hip by Fianna Fáil for the last eight, after a century of the cosy club passing power between them, it’s time for something new. 

When people wonder why so many things in the Ireland of 2024 don’t work, the answer’s clear. These parties have been in government for too long. They stagger on now, with no purpose other than holding onto power. They have governed for the vested interests, vulture funds, big landlords, financial speculators, for those at the top. Workers, families, communities, ordinary people – they’re not the priority.

Simon Harris represents more of the same. 

So, our people need new leadership with the right priorities and ideas to meet challenges head-on and to realise the big opportunities for Ireland. 

This election is the first step in getting this failed government out of office. You all remember after the 2020 General Election; I couldn’t walk the length of myself without being told we didn’t run enough candidates.

They stopped me in the street, at matches, at concerts, shouted it from car windows. They stopped me in the supermarket – I couldn’t buy a sliced pan without somebody saying it to me! Well, to you all, I present, Sinn Féin’s record number of candidates for the Local and European Elections. We are running our largest number of candidates and standing in every single electoral area. This is a big team effort, and I’ve asked a big man from Donegal to act as campaign director, the bold Pearse Doherty!

We know that change is possible, we know that change is essential and, my friends, we know that change starts here.  Change starts with each of you – our amazing team of candidates. Each of you has stepped forward. Each of you chooses to make a difference. Each of you has walked your own journey to this moment. And it’s the things that bind us together that drive us forward.

Those unshakable values that define who we are. We are the party that puts workers, families, and community first. We’re on the side of ordinary people – today, tomorrow, always, and forever. 

We’re the party of equality, of fairness, of social and economic justice – no one left out, no one left behind. No community or small town forgotten. We do not accept second class citizenship for anyone.

We are the party of Irish freedom. Our objective is to unite our country, to end partition, to build an Ireland that’s home to all our people. Our mission statement is the Proclamation of the Irish Republic read aloud on the steps of the GPO one hundred and eight years ago this week.  We understand the power of togetherness, the power of us.

Together, we dream the big dream and we hold tightly to it – a new Ireland of equality, opportunity, and prosperity.

My friends, we are the party of change. Change that means a roof over your head, a secure affordable home.

Change that means being able to see a doctor when you’re sick, getting the right care, in the right place, at the right time. A future where life is affordable, where a job provides a decent living, and where you can retire at sixty-five with your pension.

Change that means safe communities, strong communities built from the grassroots up, protected by resourcing An Garda Siochana fully, and by ambitiously investing in community development, in youth work, in the amazing talent and potential of our young people. 

Change means a government, a society that has the backs of ordinary people. Citizens with disabilities, those crying out for mental health care, our carers, and parents needing support for their children have to battle the system for services every single day.

All too often ordinary people don’t matter to those in power. We saw this in the injustice of The Stardust Fire. Forty-eight young people unlawfully killed. For four decades, the state and successive governments, treated their courageous families and the survivors with contempt.

We see it as children with scoliosis wait and wait in agony for life changing surgery.  We see it in the long running state of emergency at University Hospital Limerick.  A sky-high trolley count, ballooning treatment waiting lists and the cancellation of thousands of appointments. Ordinary people denied vital healthcare again and again. Precious lives lost.

A crisis that’s reflected in our hospitals right across the state. The emergency in University Hospital Limerick needs to be resolved with urgency. The government must end its dangerous recruitment embargo – deliver the staff and beds needed. Government must immediately review the re-opening of emergency departments in Ennis and Nenagh. The people of the Midwest and of Limerick deserve better.

Maurice Quinlivan is running for election as Limerick’s first directly elected Mayor. He has a proven record of championing Limerick and will work tirelessly for the city and the county that he loves. Maurice will be a mayor for all the people of Limerick.

Friends, the greatest failure of the government is housing. This is the most important Local and European elections for a generation because of housing.  Ten of thousands languishing on council housing lists, rip-off rents, a whole generation locked out of home ownership, record homelessness. Homes are out of reach because this government is out of touch.  The inability to find an affordable home, to lay down roots, and build a good life is driving so many young people out of Ireland in search for opportunity abroad. 

We say enough of that. 

It’s now time to turn the tide. We want, we need, our young people here in Ireland, our young people living abroad to have the opportunity to come back and pursue happiness at home. We want our economy to thrive, our society to blossom.

Key to this is fixing housing. That means delivering the biggest housing programme in the history of the state. A vote for Sinn Féin in this election is a vote for affordable housing, to rent or buy. A vote for Sinn Féin is a vote for more council housing. A vote for Sinn Féin is a vote to end the housing crisis.

Sinn Féin has the plan. Sinn Féin has the man – Eoin Ó Broin.

Seo iad na toghcháin áitiúla agus Eorpacha is tábhachtaí le glúin anuasmar gheall ar thithíocht. Tá vóta i gcomhair Sinn Féin sna toghcháinseo, vóta i gcomhair tithíocht ar phraghas réasúnta. Tá sé vóta igcomhair tithíocht chomhairle. Agus vóta chun deireadh a chur leis an ngéarchéim tithíochta faoi dheireadh.

Ireland is an ancient European nation. Our place is within the European Union. But friends, the European Union has moved in the wrong direction. Militarisation over peace, privatisation over public services, big corporations over ordinary citizens and communities, power over partnership. The future must be different. 

The future of Europe must be a partnership of equals, shaped by the things that matter to ordinary people – workers’ rights, economic justice, social progress, the advancement of human rights and the ending of war and poverty.

Collaboration and partnership across Europe are essential. Look no further than the Climate Emergency. 

The clock is ticking, but if we work together, we can achieve a just transition in a race we must win. 

We will back policies from Europe when they are good for Ireland and for the world. We will oppose them when they’re not.

There are key decisions that must be taken only in Ireland. Look no further than our military neutrality and the independence of our foreign policy.  The government and European Commission may seek to dismantle Ireland’s neutrality.  But we will defend it.

Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen showed her hand when she stood shoulder to shoulder with Israel as they committed slaughter and war crimes against the people of Gaza.  She did not stand for us. 

She did not speak for us. She never, ever will. It beggars’ belief that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael MEPs will line up to give her a second term in office. We will not. 

We stand with the people of Palestine in their struggle for freedom, for statehood, for peace, for the end of apartheid and an end to the occupation. 

This election presents people with a choice and opportunity, the choice and opportunity to elect Sinn Féin MEPs who will stand up for Ireland, for you and for your family. Who will work for a social Europe.

Who will drive positive change.

MEPs like Chris McManus and Michelle Gildernew in Midlands-North West.

Kahleen Funchion and Paul Gavan in Ireland South 

And Lynn Boylan and Daithí Doolan in Dublin’s fair city.

Friends, activism is everything.  Starting each morning with the determination to shake things up, to stand up for people, to make a difference. That’s what you’re now doing as a candidate. It’s inspiring, it’s energising, it’s humbling, and the best thing is we get to do it together – for our families, for our communities, for Ireland. 

Forty days to go. Forty days to make it count.  You are the frontline.You are the first wave in delivering the change that people so desperately need.  The second wave will come in the General Election whenever it’s called. And make no mistake, we are setting out to get every one of you elected.

There’s no limit to what we can achieve over the next six weeks.  Out on the canvass, people are asking – when are you getting this lot out of government? Well, the truth is if you want change, if you want to see the back of this failed government, then you have to show up, you have to vote for it.

The first step is by voting by for Sinn Féin on June 7th. Backing Sinn Féin.  We will work hard. We won’t let people down.  We’re all in this together. 

These next six weeks really matter. So, keep your shoulder to the wheel.Keep working hard in your community and standing up for people.Keep believing that we will achieve the republic and a new Ireland.

And let’s do this. Let’s get the job done, deliver real change and a better future for everyone.