The north of Ireland is in the middle of a major political and economic crisis. Families are being hammered by the ever-increasing cost of living. 480,000 are on hospital waiting lists. Hospitals are shedding key life and death services.
Maternity services in Causeway Hospital, A&E in Enniskillen and Emergency Surgery in Daisy Hill are all threatened. The five Stormont parties who signed up to hospital service centralisation are now standing idly by.
300,000 people are living in poverty, 45,000 people are on housing waiting lists and key public servants are forced to strike for decent pay. On top of this, the British government is threatening an austerity budget that could cut 20 per cent off the already depleted budgets.
In the face of this impending disaster, we are all being held to ransom by the Democratic Unionist Party. This is being allowed to happen by the British and Irish governments not doing their job and not guaranteeing the Good Friday Agreement.
One of the only political actions the Stormont parties have taken in the last year is to hike up rates in councils across the land. That in the jaws of a cost of living crisis, while not turning up for work and taking £4 million in wages, that these parties would drastically hike up rates on struggling families is shocking. Aontú condemns the increases in the rates and commits to no increase in rates during the cost of living crisis.
Aontú is a party of reform. We seek to reform Stormont to stop the DUP, SF or any other party crashing it. Aontú seeks to stop the wages of MLAs who won’t do their job. No other country would pay elected reps who refused to do their job. Aontú seek to devolve tax powers from London to this part of Ireland so we can grow the economy, create well paid jobs, and invest in hospitals, schools and public transport.
Aontú is a party of Irish Unity. We have tabled a bill in the Dáil which would allow northern MPs to sit and speak in the Dáil. Aontú is a party of justice. We have introduced a bill in the Dáil which would create a commission of investigation into British collusion. It would take evidence in Ireland north and south and from abroad and would help provide the truth to many families.
We have also introduced a bill to mandate the Irish government to bring the British government to the European Court of Human Rights if they proceed with the Legacy Bill.
Aontú is a party of life. We are the only nationalist party that support the right to life for everyone. We are a common-sense activist movement, invested in our communities, to the fore in hospital, housing and education campaigns.
If we want the north to change, we have to change the way we vote. If we continuously vote to keep the other side out, we end up keeping everyone out. Many people think Aontú, but vote for other parties out of habit or misplaced loyalty, parties who are actually damaging their values. If you think Aontú, vote Aontú.
