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1 May 2000
May Day Message: Hyenas of corruption laughing all the way to the bank
In its message to mark May Day, Sinn Fein said it offers ``a republican and labour alternative to the hyenas of corruption - the crooked circle of politicians and the property speculators who fed them - who have been laughing all the way to the bank at the cost of workers and their families''.
South Dublin County Councillor and Ard Chomhairle member Seán Crowe called for the naming of all politicians who took advantage of the tax amnesties. ``Public interest must come before private interest and private profit,'' he said.
Sinn Fein also repeated its call for the minimum wage to be set at £5 an hour and for the current £4.40 rate to be taken out of the tax net. Cllr Crowe said:
``The hyenas of corruption have gnawed away at people's confidence in genuine politics by their exploitation of power at the expense of communities. But Sinn Fein offers everyone a republican and labour alternative to challenge the neglect, mismanagement and corruption of the Establishment parties - parties who have held power and, if they did not have their own snouts in the trough, stood idly by while their party colleagues and others did.''
The Sinn Fein leader said that the Fianna Fáil/PD Government has failed to effectively utilise the economic boom for the public good. ``While the Government, the Stock Exchange and the corporations bask in the glow of the Celtic Tiger economy, house prices rocket, more homeless people have to sleep in doorways, student nurses struggle to make ends meet, hospital patients still wait months for vital operations and treatment, junior doctors are run off their feet, recovering addicts plead for support services, and commuters starved of a cohesive public transport system simmer in traffic jams. It may make some warped economic sense to Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy but it is not for the common good.'' ENDS
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