De Rossa urges electorate to give the Government its walking papers

national | eu | press release

Saturday April 17, 2004 16:07

by ger - Labour

De Rossa urges electorate to give the Government its walking papers and calls for a society that cherishes every child born into this world including those born on this island, regardless of money, colour, or ethnic background.

EUROPE IS ABOUT PEOPLE.

Europe is about people and the quality of their lives.

It’s not about straight bananas; it’s about straight politics.

It’s about challenging globalisation with a new form of power sharing between states

It’s about the values and hopes that we share of ending centuries old conflicts, poverty wages, child hunger, and trafficking in women.

It’s about creating a society that cherishes every child born into this world including those born on this island, regardless of money, colour, or ethnic background.

We don’t love our Minister for Justice any less because his ancestors were Scottish mercenaries. Micheal Mac Dubhghaill, ‘the son of the black stranger’ is in my eyes as Irish as De Valera or Harney, or McCreevey, Paisley or Adams, and even De Rossa.

They are just as Irish as my kith and kin that bear names such a Khan and Siwale.

And I will defend to my last breath the richness of my heritage against those who would replace the generosity of Wolfe Tone republicanism with the wretchedness of Le Pen republicanism.

I am proud of my heritage, of its immense diversity nourished by the tens of thousands of people who arrived here over thousands of years to make a better life for themselves and who have contributed so much to who we are and what we are, warts and all. Let us have debate about those roots and the new Ireland that is emerging. But to rush that debate in the heat of an election campaign is not about nation building, it is a tawdry election stunt typical of this tawdry government.

When was the last time you heard Charlie McGreevy or Michel McDowell appeal to the better instincts of the Irish people? To their generosity, to their compassion or to their sense of fair play?

But then, this is a wretched government.

It attacks widows, and neglects the sick.

It proposes new prison cells while closing hospital beds. Visit the Mater Hospital any day and see the heroic efforts of doctors and nurses trying to make seriously sick patients comfortable sitting in chairs during the day and on trolleys at night.

The question on everyone’s lips is whether Charlie would tolerate such treatment for his beloved racehorses, and will the real criminals ever see the inside of those new prison cells, the bribe-takers and the bribe-givers.

Now that we have European levels of prosperity why don’t we have European health services or European social services or European public transport services? It’s because we allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by the gombeen politics of this wretched government that has replaced the politics of democracy with the politics of hypocrisy.

Europe has transformed this country economically and enriched it culturally.

And if I may paraphrase someone who let it be said needs a touch of revisionism, we are now not only free, but Irish as well, not only Irish but European as well.

And now it is our turn to help transform Europe, to return the generosity of our European neighbours by extending the hand of friendship and solidarity to the peoples of the ten European countries who are joining with us to shape a peaceful world with mutual respect and democracy at its core.

And increasingly, Irish people recognise as the people of Spain so graphically demonstrated following that awful atrocity in Madrid - when they committed themselves to building a more democratic inclusive Europe by rejecting the Aznar subservience to Bush.

Bush has yet to learn that bigger bombs won’t defeat terrorism, it’s bigger brains, more compassion, more solidarity, more power sharing, in short more common sense that we need.

We have good cause to be alarmed when the sole super power tears up the Charter of the UNO intended to prevent war; the Kyoto Treaty intended to ensure we can hand on a globe that is still habitable to our children; abandons the Middle East peace process which sought to end the humiliation and criminalisation of the Palestinian people.

We must say loud and clear that the Irish Government should do nothing to help the Bush re-election campaign.

I am proud to have represented Dublin in Europe for the past five years and of my record in the Parliament. Proud too of my contribution to the shaping of a new Constitution for Europe which will make it more democratic and socially inclusive.

I am looking forward to the campaign to seek re-election to continue that work.

But often in the last five years I have watched important votes lost by one or two votes because the mostly conservative politicians Ireland sends to Europe, vote against protection of the environment, against women’s rights, and against decent working hours and conditions. We need more than one Irish labour MEP in Europe for Dublin and I am particularly pleased to stand on the same ticket as Ivana Bacik a representative of a new generation of feisty women politicians of integrity and passion.

SO LETS GET STUCK INTO THIS WRETCHED GOVERNMENT AND GIVE IT ITS WALKING PAPERS.