This article is from page 6 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
SINN Féin in the county was in jubi- lant mood this week, despite losing the local battle on Lisbon.
While the referendum was narrow- ly accepted in the Banner County, an overall “‘No’ throughout the country gave the party much reason to cel- Ce) elkon
Sinn Féin’s county spokesperson Cathy McCafferty thanked the par- ty’s members and supporters.
Ms McCafferty said, “We are de- lighted with this result. The people
have spoken and their views must be respected. Our activists in Clare and throughout the State have put in an enormous amount of work in recent months to secure this result and I would like to thank them all on be- half of all the party in Clare.
“In addition, our supporters who helped with canvassing, pestering, did a wonderful job and deserve to be commended.
“It would have been the icing on the cake of this win if we had won in Clare as well, but given the size and resources of the larger parties,
it was a major achievement to have come so close to securing a ‘No’ in Clare,” she said.
‘Politicians are duty-bound to both provide leadership and to reflect the wishes and opinions of the electorate and it now falls to the Government to address the concerns of the peo- ple instead of trying to push through proposals which are not in the peo- ple’s interests.
“This result has shown that the electorate share our concerns over the direction of Europe and also that they agree with us that our place in
Europe is secure and will continue to be. The Government now has a clear and strong mandate to renegotiate this treaty.
‘They need to use the opportunity to get back around the table with our EU partners and secure a better deal,” she added.
“Throughout this referendum cam- paign, three key issues came up over and over again – Ireland’s loss of power in Europe, neutrality and the lack of information.
‘People were also concerned at the race to the bottom in wages and con-
ditions and the opening of key public services to competition. The Govern- ment now have a huge responsibility to secure a better deal which will ad- dress these areas of concern.
“We believe that a better deal is possible and Sinn Féin will give any assistance we can to Government as they undertake this task and we will also be engaging with the trade union movement, farmers, business and civic society to encourage them to use their influence to ensure that the Government secures the best deal possible.”