{"id":782,"date":"2019-06-22T15:47:01","date_gmt":"2019-06-22T14:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fine-gael-failing-people-who-feel-their-ordinary-aspirations-are-a-pipe-dream\/"},"modified":"2024-01-26T10:59:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T10:59:20","slug":"fine-gael-failing-people-who-feel-their-ordinary-aspirations-are-a-pipe-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/fine-gael-failing-people-who-feel-their-ordinary-aspirations-are-a-pipe-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Fine Gael failing people who feel their ordinary aspirations are a pipe-dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Social Democrats today castigate the Fine Gael government for paying lip service to a so-called squeezed middle while failing ordinary working people and putting no squeeze on those at the very top.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cPeople are increasingly asking the question \u2013 where is Fine Gael taking us and is it really where we want to go?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Social Democrats co-leaders R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall TD and Catherine Murphy TD today castigate the Fine Gael government for paying lip service to a so-called squeezed middle while failing ordinary working people and putting no squeeze on those at the very top.<\/p>\n

The party is holding its 3rd National Conference in Dublin fresh from its success in last month\u2019s local elections which saw the number of Social Democrats councillors treble to 19, including ten women.<\/p>\n

In their joint keynote speech this afternoon, the co-leaders will tell delegates of the frustration felt by people working hard to stand still who feel their ordinary aspirations are a pipe dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are increasingly asking the question \u2013 where is Fine Gael taking us and is it really where we want to go?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had many doorstep conversations at last months\u2019 local elections about overspends on the Children\u2019s Hospital and the National Broadband plan and people were dismayed at the laissez-faire attitude of Fine Gael to such colossal cost overruns while basic services are starved of critical investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are seeing, more clearly than ever, the disparity between the politics of privilege and the lives of ordinary working people. The flath\u00faleach approach of the spin-perfect glossy privilege of Fine Gael is at odds with the daily lives of those working to stand still.
\u201cFine Gael pay lip-service to a so-called squeezed middle but they never put any squeeze on those at the very top of the tree. And, for most people who are not at the top of that tree, the current government has failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The joint leaders will say that good government is about more than simply balancing the books, although the budget overruns with the National Children\u2019s Hospital and the Broadband Plan have shown that Fine Gael can\u2019t even manage that aspect of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood government is about creating a society and economy in which everyone can flourish. But it is impossible for everyone to flourish when so many of our citizens are denied access to basic healthcare.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for all the Minister\u2019s talk about Sl\u00e1intecare he has yet to provide the level of funding to make its reforms a reality. The current crisis in healthcare where over 6,000 vulnerable older people are denied essential homecare services to enable them to remain in their own homes, in spite of being approved for them, typifies all that is wrong with how health services are delivered in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the issue of climate and the environment, the leaders said we cannot allow the capitalist model to proceed unchecked as it selfishly consumes scarce natural resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat requires a social democratic approach in much the same way that social democracy provided the solutions to previous historical crises. In this case it is absolutely clear that green solutions cannot proceed without a social democratic underpinning. We need conversations about industry regulation, industrial policy, public investment and taxation policy if we are to truly tackle the climate issues of our time and indeed future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Social Democrats\u2019 Parental Leave Act, which was signed into law last month, the party has stepped up the important conversation about work-life balance and overall quality of live.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked people to think outside the box and have a conversation about whether there\u2019s an opportunity to work towards the option of a four-day week. This is a conversation we think it is worth pursuing for so many reasons but chief among them being the recognition that people are far more than simply economic units slogging incessantly in a rat-race and wondering if this is as good as it gets.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasingly we are watching politics develop into something that is essentially turning people\u2019s lives into a form of commodity with the continued commodification of basic services. Increasingly, an economic prism is the only prism through which most major decisions are made.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo often the Market is seen as the answer but more often than not, relying on the market has been the problem. We see this in health, housing, transport, childcare and many other areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Social Democrats, our single biggest aim is to improve public services. It is public services that drive equality, promote sustainability, reduce costs for businesses and families, and provide a fair chance for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

22nd June 2019<\/p>\n

Leaders Speech for download (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Social Democrats today castigate the Fine Gael government for paying lip service to a so-called squeezed middle while failing ordinary working people and putting no squeeze on those at the very top. \u201cPeople are increasingly asking the question \u2013 where is Fine Gael taking us and is it really where we want to go?” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[182,7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catherine-murphy","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFine Gael failing people who feel their ordinary aspirations are a pipe-dream - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/fine-gael-failing-people-who-feel-their-ordinary-aspirations-are-a-pipe-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fine Gael failing people who feel their ordinary aspirations are a pipe-dream - 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