Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald expresses dissatisfaction with the current regime. She says the new government is the most chaotic and dysfunctional government she’s ever seen.
In the months since the February election, Sinn Féin has been voted the most popular party in the country several times. However, Miss MacDonald says she is not happy to be in the opposition.
If there wasn’t COVID-19 pandemic and if the conditions were different, for a public health emergency, we’d call for an election, said Mary Lou MacDonald.
She made it clear that she was not happy with the failure and that she was just as frustrated as anyone else with how badly this government was doing.
Ms. Mary Lou said that she felt that the statement that everyone should stand together to ensure stability and determination was a complete irony.
She pointed out that Sinn Féin had taken over several officials and made significant strides since the successful election in February. When Fingal TD Louise O’Reilly was transferred from the health portfolio to the business and enterprise and replaced by David Cullinane, other parties were shocked, Ms. McDonald said.
“Louise is the type of TD that I could put to use in any brief and she would perform,” said Ms McDonald.
More than 100 days after the government was formed, the problems that have arisen in the election have worsened. Ms. McDonald said there are still no rent restrictions or proper protection for renters. She added that unemployment is a huge problem and it will mostly affect the youth.
Ms. McDonald criticized the government for still pursuing the madness of coexistence and for not realizing it even when the COVID pandemic came.
During the election, the party was blamed for treating Paul Quinn’s family after MLA Conor Murphy accused the murder victim of being involved in crime. After that, the party continued to be blamed for social media trolls pretending to be affiliated with or supporters of Sinn Féin.
A member had to resign this year after it was discovered that an anonymous account had been used to abuse people online. But Ms. McDonald noted that you can have a political debate without being abusive and that she was upset with those who do so.
She said there are people in the party who abuse social media platforms, but behave in that way and no one should think that they are doing it on behalf of the Sinn Féin party.
“I don’t think anybody could reasonably expect any political leader to be accountable for the hundreds of thousands of people who voted for you, that’s not a reasonable ask,” Ms. McDonald said.
Yet she made it clear that people deserve to be helped whether they feel threatened or harassed, or if they need to go to the authorities.