Siptu president urges voters to support Labour

SIPTU VIEW:SIPTU PRESIDENT Jack O'Connor has urged voters at the local and European elections not to support either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but instead give their support to the Labour Party.

Mr O’Connor said the two major centre-right parties had successfully perpetuated the “illusion of difference, when they are actually two sides of the same coin in respect of all the great issues affecting working people”.

Speaking at the annual James Connolly Commemoration at Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin yesterday, he said voting for one as an alternative to the other is the “political equivalent of leaping from the frying pan into the fire”.

Mr O’Connor said Labour was the only party to oppose the bank guarantee scheme given to the acted as a “blank cheque” for speculators and developers and had exposed the Irish people to a liability of around €430 billion.

“The consequences of this panic response, unanimously endorsed by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, is that the Irish people must now pick up the tab for rescuing the entire banking industry,” he added.

He accused Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of responding to the exchequer deficit by being prepared to cut public spending and also wages. “For them, it is as it always was through slashing pay and dismantling conditions of employment across the economy. This involves a kind of simulated devaluation in which working people and those most dependant on public services carry the burden of the adjustment,” he said.