PBP aims to be 'significant' force

People Before Profit candidates will “lead a huge struggle against major tax hikes” both in the Dáil and outside if they are elected, the party said at its campaign launch this morning.

“We will lead a PAYE revolt against the unfair tax system in this country and we’ll bring the war to the rich in this country, because outside or inside the Dáil the rich have to listen to the people of this country,” said Cllr Gino Kenny, who is a candidate in the Dublin Mid-West constituency.

“There’s an unbelievable amount of anger out there. The IMF deal is a declaration of war against working people who have to pay this new universal social charge of up to 7 per cent which penalises ordinary workers.”

The party, which is part of the United Left Alliance, is fielding nine candidates, five men and four women, in Dublin Cork and Wexford. While it is aiming for “upwards of five” seats, just three of its candidates hold political office as councillors.

Director of elections Bríd Smith said the candidates were "a key component of a new and exciting political force in the country that is going to offer a genuine alternative to people during this dreadful and unprecedented crisis”.

Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett, who came close to a seat in 2007 in Dún Laoghaire, said people face a straightforward choice of whether or not to “sacrifice the economic future of this country and the livelihoods and living standards of the majority of people – the least well off, the vulnerable, the old - to satisfy the greed of bankers, speculators and bondholders who caused this economic crisis in the first place”.

He said the Government’s austerity package in the past two years had failed. “When you listen carefully to the detail of what Fine Gael and Labour say it is clear they have no intention of reversing this agenda whatsoever. They have signed up to the IMF-EU austerity package."

Cllr Joan Collins, who is standing in Dublin South Central, said the election should have been a referendum on the Finance Bill. "People are very, very angry that that didn’t happen," she said. "We are calling for the tearing up of the EU-IMF deal, ending the bill of taxpayers’ money into the banks and burning the bondholders.”

The nine People Before Profit candidates in the general election are: Cllr Richard Boyd Barrett - Dún Laoghaire, Cllr Joan Collins - Dublin South Central, Cllr Gino Kenny - Dublin Mid-West, John Lyons - Dublin North Central, Nicola Curry - Dublin South, Annette Mooney - Dublin South-East, Andrew Keegan - Dublin North-West, Seamus O'Brien - Wexford, Ann Foley - Cork North West.