Voters should look North before considering Sinn Féin at the ballot box – Currie

People should consider Sinn Féin’s track record of governance in the North before casting their vote on Saturday, a Fine Gael election candidate has said.

Emer Currie, the daughter of Civil Rights leader and SDLP founder Austin Currie, urged people to look North for demonstrable evidence of Sinn Féin’s record in power.

The Dublin West candidate, who has lived north and south of the border, said: “It’s 20 years since the Good Friday Agreement. The North should be well on the road to reconciliation, but Sinn Fein has consistently put politics before progress.

“20,000 people are homeless, suicide rates are three times higher, an education system in crisis and the worst healthcare and waiting lists in the UK: Sinn Fein say they care about people’s suffering but it took 15,000 nurses to strike for the first time to get them back to work after three years.

“I am firmly committed to a peaceful, fair and united Ireland but a deadline on a border poll is not the way to deliver this. We don’t have to look very far to see the impact of a narrow victory. With the recent death of Seamus Mallon, we should be reminded that Irish unity doesn’t work by numbers alone. We need all communities to feel the solution belongs to them – foisting a border poll will divide, not unite us. It is a short-sighted gamble with the safety of this island,” Currie added.

She questioned why it has taken 13 years for Sinn Féin’s leaders to admit they were wrong to label Paul Quinn a criminal and put the family of the murdered young man through further heartache.

Currie added: “I have listened to the heart-breaking accounts of Breege Quinn. This mother and many others have waited for answers for years. Mothers like Vera McVeigh from Donaghmore in Tyrone, who died in 2007 still searching for her son Columba. One of ‘The Disappeared’, he was 19 years old when he was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1975.

“The electorate needs to question whether Sinn Fein is the party to deliver meaningful change. On law and order, health, housing and education, look north to see if Sinn Fein have practised what they are preaching to us now. We are all agreed on one thing – Ireland needs change. Fine Gael has been laying important foundations to help bring that about.

“By all means, judge political parties on their record of leadership – that should include SF.”