Mary Lou McDonald hoping Sinn Fein will make up lost ground in ...

SINN Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald paid a visit to Birr on Thursday last where she met local supporters and visited the Alzheimer Society of Ireland Day Care Centre.

Deputy McDonald met service users, staff and held a meeting with representatives of Alzheimer's Association, who outlined their needs to the Sinn Fein leader.

She looked ahead to the forthcoming elections and said Sinn Fein will be looking to make ground in Offaly, having lost seats on the Council in the county in the 2019 elections.

Deputy McDonald had been in Limerick the previous day and stayed in Birr overnight and she had great praise for the town and its facilities and was very complimentary of her experience in Birr.

She was accompanied by local election candidate for Birr Municipal District Sean Maher, local TD Brian Stanley and MEP Chris McManus.

Greeting a group of enthusiastic supporters prior to her visit to the Alzheimer Centre she told them they had a lot of work to do before the June elections. “Anything you can do will be appreciated. We want to get all of our candidates elected and we are going to change Ireland for the better,” she told them.

On her arrival at the Alzheimer Society of Ireland Centre she greeted service users and had photographs taken with them and also met members of staff. One of the service users Annette McManus was celebrating her birthday that day and Deputy McDonald led the singing of Happy Birthday to her, first 'as Gaeilge' and then in English.

She toured the lovely garden at the Centre and she described it as “an oasis of transquility”.

Along with her colleagues she held a meeting with representatives of the Alzheimer Society where they outlined the issues that they would like to see addressed.

Elections are to the forefront of everyone's minds at the minute with local and European elections scheduled for June and a General Election due inside the next 12 months.

The 2019 local elections weren't good ones for Sinn Fein in Offaly as they lost the three seats they held on Offaly County Council and don't currently have a representative on the Council and Deputy McDonald addressed that when speaking to the 'Tribune'.

“We had a hard day out the last time around and hoping this time to make up a loss of significant ground. I think these local elections are really, really important because there are big issues affecting local communities, housing in particular is one that is affecting communities everywhere and I am very conscious that you need strong leadership, strong representation in local Councils to impact not just on local issues but also to go about the job of fixing a lot of the bigger national issues.

“We have great candidates and their mission is to work hard, work very hard and represent communities honestly and with energy and I think we are going well but having said that, I take nothing for granted, you have to go out – this is how this works – you have to go out and earn your crust and you earn your mandate,” the Sinn Fein leader said.

Brian Stanley is currently a TD for Laois Offaly but at the next General Election the two counties will be separate constituencies with Brian Stanley standing in Laois, so is it important to do well in the local elections in Offaly to establish a potential candidate for the general election in the county?

“It is, of course that's important, but what is also very important is that communities as a whole don't lose hope in the opportunity of change,” she said. “It is very important that we have momentum that we have a bit of positivity and direction amongst people, because I am very conscious, you could look at the big issues and say they can't be solved. That's not true. None of the issues in healthcare provision, childcare, housing, the cost of living, every question has an answer but you only get to the answer if you have good, efficient, cohesive Government that is prepared to do things in the collective interest and we haven't had that for a long time. So now we are pushing for change and people who are happy with the status quo are going to push back against us and you could write the script, you will be told it can't happen, it won't happen, but we are on the brink of something hugely significant in Irish political history. And that is potentially a new Government, a new Government without either Fine Gael or Fianna Fail, but a Government that is about change and about changing public policy that is different but beneficial and drives Irish society forward and I think that is really exciting. That is why I get up and go to work every day.

“Simon Harris wants to be Taoiseach, fair enough if he wants to be Taoiseach they should go to the people and let the people give their verdict and let people decide who should be in Government and who leads the Government. This is a third Taoiseach in four years, it's a bit like a circus now, it's chaotic, a bad look and it's not the way to do serious Government at a time when there are big challenges to rural and urban communities and things that aren't beyond us but we have to be organised and determined to sort them out,” Deputy McDonald said.

She was asked if an anti Government vote in the local and European elections would strengthen the call for General Election?

“I think that every vote sends out a message and I think there are people who are enthusiastic about the change that I am talking about. I think the bigger change starts with the local elections and the European elections. Chris McManus is running for us in this neck of the woods and Michelle Gildernew a bit further up, so yes are the elections important? yes they are. I am also conscious that for lots of people they don't really focus on elections until the posters go up, so we have a lot of work to do to get out and talk to people and listen to people, that is critical. I think the referendums and the results that came back in that was a bit of a wake up call for all of us to actually listen carefully to the Irish people because at the end of the day the people are our bosses. I work for them, I don't work for anyone else, I work for the Irish people.”

Local elections can often be about very local issues and results may not always be reflected on a national level.

“I guess they can. I mean I would hope that independents would stop supporting this Government. Some of them are going to march in and put Simon Harris in as Taoiseach, I think that's wrong. It's important that every candidate is across and passionate about local issues. They are not umimportant. All of us ultimately live within our communities, so the local issues really matter. In the community I live in, the local issues affect my life, I care about them deeply and likewise here in Birr and across Offaly. So all of our candidates are people who are committed to their community, have a sense of themselves as activists and who now want to be public representatives to do what is right by the community and I think as a political party more generally, that is a thing that marks us out, because community is everything for Sinn Fein. So many of us, that's where you come from, we are grassroots activists first, then we became public representatives and now who knows what we might be next,” she added.