McFadden condemns Sinn Féin’s ambiguous attitude to the law

Fine Gael TD for Longford Westmeath, Gabrielle McFadden, has today (Wednesday) condemned Sinn Féin’s ambiguous attitude to the law in the wake of comments by their Environment spokesperson Brian Stanley that ‘bad laws sometimes have to be broken’.

“This morning on Midlands Radio 3, Sinn Féin Environment Spokesperson Brian Stanley said that ‘bad laws sometimes have to be broken’ while attempting to justify why he would not be paying his water charges.

“It is simply outrageous for an elected member of Dáil Éireann to hold this kind of ambiguous attitude to the law in Ireland. If you were to follow this logic you could break any law you didn’t agree with. Of course not every TD will agree with all legislation, but once voted on and passed, it becomes the law of the land. This is how democracy works and Deputy Stanley must respect that.

“As a legislator, Deputy Stanley should be leading by example but unfortunately, his comments highlight yet again Sinn Fein’s rather ambiguous relationship with the democratic functions of this State and in the North, as seen by Gerry Adams’ handling of the Maria Cahill revelations.

“It’s been a bad morning all round for Sinn Féin in terms of their radio performances. On RTÉ this morning, Gerry Adams admitted he could not explain the market corporation test which Irish Water must pass to be able to continue to borrow to invest in infrastructure, without that borrowing going onto general Government debt. He simply cannot explain how Sinn Fein would account for their mooted abolition of water charges, which would place a huge debt back onto the taxpayer.

“In relation to planned water charges, I believe the Government is listening to the concerns of people as is right and proper. A review is taking place, and as far as I am concerned, any charges must be made as fair and as affordable as possible and people must know exactly what they are paying for when they receive their bills.”