EUROPEAN ELECTIONS:THERE IS absolutely no doubt that Dáil expenses are being abused just as they are at Westminster, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said at the launch of the party's European election manifesto for the Northern Ireland constituency.
Urging voters in Northern Ireland to support Sinn Féin’s European candidate, the outgoing MEP Bairbre de Brún, he said yesterday that in response to the public concern over politicians’ expenses her expenses for the past four years would be put online today to illustrate that Sinn Féin was not on a “gravy train”.
Mr Adams said he wanted to challenge all the parties to do the same in relation to Westminster, the Dáil, the Assembly and the European Parliament. He said Sinn Féin politicians received the average industrial wage and were not engaged in any abuse of expenses.
Asked did he believe there was similar abuse in the Dáil, Mr Adams replied, “Absolutely. Jeepers creepers, is the Pope a Catholic?”
Mr Adams said that those opposed to the new political dispensation must not be allowed to damage powersharing politics.
In a clear reference to the Traditional Unionist Voice candidate Jim Allister he said, “We all know that there are those who want to turn the clock back: no partnership, no all-Ireland structures, no peace process, no equality. They want to undermine the progress of recent years and they cannot be allowed to succeed.” He added that there were also those “within the DUP who are not wholly wedded to the process”.
“This election provides the electorate with the opportunity to tell all those, from whatever quarter they come, who are opposed to progress, that there is no going back to the past,” said Mr Adams.
Ms de Brún said the election provided an opportunity for the electorate to state their support for the peace process, to state that they “want it to move forward, we do not want it to move back, we want to build on the progress that has been made to date.”
She added Sinn Féin would continue to make progress on Irish unity, on policing, on jobs, the economy and on “challenging those who want to drag back or slow down the process of change and progress”.
Alliance candidate Ian Parsley said his party was achieving a breakthrough at the doorstep in that more people were prepared to “go beyond the politics of Orange and Green” by voting Alliance.
Mr Parsley published an “action plan” of pledges he would carry out if elected to Europe relating to issues such as job creation.
“In recent times the public has been angry with politicians over expenses and with bankers over bonuses. I want to make Europe work more effectively for Northern Ireland . . . by leading by example in making MEPs more accountable and transparent on expenses,” he said.