“Ireland needs someone with experience as President. Gay Mitchell MEP was a TD for 26 years and an MEP for seven. I believe that he has the experience and the international contacts that we need to help bring jobs to this country.

“For too long, we have forgotten what we were good at and what we do well. Agriculture is the star of this economy at the moment and a major creator of jobs. A big part of his role as President would be to help open up new markets and develop existing ones, so that more people can find work in this vital area.

“Speaking at the national launch of his presidential campaign last week, Gay Mitchell described his proposals to lead the charge in promoting mental health, especially for young people. He wants to work with voluntary groups who do important work in the area of mental health. This generation is under great pressure, and we’ve seen too many people take their own lives. It’s time for us to tackle this in a meaningful way.

“I am asking all my supporters to vote for Gay Mitchell as I believe that he is the best person to be President of Ireland.”

Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael Presidential Candidate and MEP visited Youghal today (Friday, 22nd July) as part of his presidential election campaign.  He arrived at the Clock Gate on Youghal’s Main Street at 11.30am.  David Stanton, Fine Gael TD for Cork East said he was delighted with the turnout and the very warm welcome Gay Mitchell received from the people of Youghal.  

Gay strolled along the main street where he met many of the shoppers who wished him well on the campaign. Accompanied by local Fine Gael Councillors Barbara Murray and Michael Beecher he also made brief visits to local businesses.  Gay Mitchell was selected as Fine Gael’s presidential election candidate at a recent convention of Fine Gael public representatives in Dublin.  He is currently undertaking a tour of Ireland to meet with voters as part of his election campaign. Earlier in the morning Gay Mitchell visited Midleton and following the Youghal visit travelled to Dungarvan.

 

Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank the thousands of voters from all over the constituency of Cork East, for placing your faith in me and allowing me the honour of representing you in the Dail.

This was a very hard fought campaign and one where your votes have not only determined the outcome of the contest, but will also determine how you will be represented over the coming years. The only promise I can make to you at the outset of this new Dail term, is that I and my party will work tirelessly to represent your interests, to reverse the cuts, the increased charges and hidden taxes and all the unjust measures that led to your anger before this election, and to offer the strongest possible opposition in the Dail to the conservative consensus for cuts and the squandering of €billions into zombie banks.

Over the term of this Dail, I will represent the people of all of Cork East without fear or favour and will make myself both accessible and accountable to everyone regardless of the area they belong. I will do this at a personal level and in conjunction with my party colleagues on Councils in Cobh, Midleton, Fermoy, Mallow and Youghal.
In terms of history, I am aware that I am the first ever female Sinn Féin TD to be elected to the Cork East constituency. I am also honoured to be a part of a team which will push my party’s Equality Agenda in the Dail, and to help bring about a fairer society of equals.

I would like to thank my campaign workers from all around Cork East, who recently went out knocking on doors in the dark and in the rain to help me get elected. You’re hard and tireless efforts in the promotion of our republican/socialist message have finally reaped rewards, and I share in your joy and in your pride for what we have achieved through this victory.

Finally, I would again like to thank all who voted for me. I will do all in my power to ensure your votes and trust in me will be sound political investments. I and my party are mere ambassadors for you to represent your interests in the Dail and together, I hope we will see our country a fairer and more equal and united place in which to live by the time of the next election.

Sunday 27th February 2011 at 2am latest – McLellan Elected

Labour’s Sean Sherlock took the 1st seat followed by Fine Gael’s David Stanton who took the 2nd seat. FG Tom Barry (3rdseat) and SF Sandra McLennan (4th seat) elected on seventh count at 12.50 after16hours. McLellan is the first TD from Youghal town since the late Séan Brosnan who held the seat for FF back in the 1970′s.

Sandra McLellan was first elected to Youghal Town Council in 2004 since then she has been active on a range of issues concerning the people of Youghal. Sandra is also Sinn Feins candidate for Cork County Council. A former SIPTU Shop Steward, Sandra has direct experience of traditional industries closing down and leaving towns desolate of good jobs. She believes that job creation is the biggest issue facing East Cork. Sandra is married to Liam and has three children. She is acutely aware of the pressures facing families today.

Sandra has worked at national level in developing Sinn Fein Health policy particularly around the need to provide good quality preventative cancer care.

A member of the Fairtrade Committee, Sandra was instrumental in achieving Fairtrade Status for Youghal. She is Chairperson of the New Enterprise Centre at St. Marys College and is also a member of the Community Alert and the Tidy Towns Taskforce Committees.

Sandra was the Sinn Féin candidate for the Cork East Constituency. She believes job creation is the biggest issue facing East Cork. Sandra was first elected to Youghal Town Council in 2004 and topped the poll on her re-election in 2009.

Sandra McLellan ran unsuccessfully in Cork East in the 2007 general election. She says she was privileged to be the first Sinn Féin Mayor of Youghal in 2009. In 2009 Sandra was elected to Cork County Council.

No Fianna Fail TD was elected in East Cork.

 

The last time Youghal had a TD from the town was Seán Brosnan

Seán Brosnan (21 December 1916 – 18 April 1979) was an Irish barrister and Fianna Fáil politician from County Cork. He served for 10 years in the Oireachtas, as a Teachta Dála (TD) and as a Senator.

At the 1969 general election, Brosnan was elected to the 19th Dáil as a TD for Cork North East. It was his second attempt — he had been defeated in 1965 — and he lost his seat in the 1973 general election. He was then elected to the 13th Seanad Éireann on the Administrative Panel, but he regained his Dáil seat in a by-election in November 1974 after the death of his Fianna Fáil colleague Liam Ahern.

Brosnan was re-elected in the 1977 election to the 21st Dáil, and also served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). MEPs were at that time appointed by national parliaments rather than being elected, and Brosnan was one of a 10-member delegation from the Oireachtas until the first direct elections in 1979.

After his death in 1979, the resulting by-election on 7 November was won for Fine Gael by Myra Barry.

Cork East Sinn Fein Election Candidate Cllr Sandra McLellan is calling on voters of the constituency to come out in large numbers on Friday next to vote for real and meaningful change.

Cllr McLellan said the most effective way voters can deliver such change, is by voting for her and her party.

She said no other party or candidate in Cork East is offering to if elected,

·         To abolish the Universal Social Charge.

·         Refuse to put one more cent of citizen’s money into toxic banks.

·         To introduce a new 48% Wealth Tax for those earning more than €100,000.

·         To reverse Social Welfare cuts and to reinstate the minimum wage to its former level before the 2010 Budget.

·         To Protect Public Service jobs and conditions, to cap salaries at the higher end of €100,000 and to eradicate all wastage in the services.

·         Reduce the salaries of TD’S by 30% and by 40% for Ministers and the Taoiseach.

·         To introduce a financial stimulus package for the economy and to embark on a national Construction Programme, including the building of much needed schools and hospitals.

Gerry Adams was canvassing with Sinn Fein Cork East Candidate Sandra McLellan during the week. Youghal native McLellan said she was thrilled with the response from the people of East Cork. Adams and McLellan did a walk around Midleton Main St. to meet the passers by who came out in very large numbers to greet them and wish them well on election day.

Sinn Féin will fight up until the last vote is cast.

The Cork East Sinn Féin organisation, although pleased with our candidates support in the Evening Echo’s internal poll, is not about to become complacent.

We know from the feed back of our hard working canvassers in the North, South and East of the constituency, that these support figures are close to ours.

Sinn Féin knows there is a better way in addressing all the problems that are currently facing the Irish nation, and we know too that the people of Cork East agree with us and so will give their votes to Sandra McLellan.

Click on image below to start slideshow of Gerry Adams and Sandra McLellan on the campaign trail in East Cork - Pics: www.youghalonline.com

Paul Burke, Inch, Killeagh, Independent Candidate for Cork East

The country needs change and I would like to be one of those who can help to do it.

So, who is Paul Burke? I am an Australian who moved to Ireland in 1993. I have been a partner/owner of a Land Surveying business in Cork for the last 16 years. I am married to Margaret (from Wexford) and we have 3 daughters who currently attend local schools.

Margaret went to Australia in the 80′s in the last big recession. We moved back to Ireland to raise our family, believing Ireland was the best place to do this. Decent education, a sense of community and good standard of living were all good reasons to settle here.

Like many people over the last few years, I have become very disillusioned with the ruling political parties and the way in which they have been running the country. A few too many backroom deals and not enough honesty and openness with the people.

It’s Time We Acted Responsibly

Send the political parties a message. Vote me No.1 and let them know they are only your 2nd choice.

There has been too much of the “Pothole Politician”, more concerned with their own backyard than the health of the nation as a whole. Politicians need to be acting in the national interest, not just for personal gain.

There are so many things that need to be addressed and they can’t all be done overnight. We must reduce the size of government; it is much too large and expensive. We need to take closer control of the banking sector, after all many are nationalised and belong to us. We need to get on top of wasteful spending by government departments. The list goes on and on.

Where do we start? What can you, an individual do? The old saying “a new broom sweeps clean” comes to mind. Bring in new ideas, new people. Break the hold the current political parties have over who gets what job and where.

Over the years I have served on many, and varied, committees and councils.Charitable groups such as St Vincent De Paul. At a local level, I have served as Vice Chairman of Youghal Comhaltas. At a National level, I was both Vice President and President of the Irish Institution of Surveyors. At European level, I was the Irish Delegate to CLGE, the European Committee of Surveyors.

I have run a small business for the last 16 years. In the current economic climate, things are tough all over but hopefully we have turned the corner. Now we need to do the right things to get back on track and get Ireland moving again.

Email: vote1paulburke@gmail.com

Website: http://vote1paulburke.yolasite.com/

Text: 0858825893

Sinn Féin Candidate Sandra McLellan has said there is a better, fairer way to reduce the deficit and deal with the banks. Our alternative seeks to stimulate the economy, protect and create jobs and reform the tax system.  We would target cuts at the top of society — beginning with the salaries of Government Ministers, TDs and top civil servants.

In the upcoming general election we will be presenting a real programme of recovery which will:

1.    Regenerate the economy by investing in a major job creation programme to get Ireland back to work.

2.    Reverse the savage cuts and prioritise frontline services.

3.    Burn the bondholders in Anglo and wind it up.

4.    Reduce the deficit by taxing the wealthiest and eliminating wasteful spending.

5.    Provide for a root and branch reform of the political system; including abolishing the Seanad in its current form, reforming the electoral system, and bringing forward a constitution aimed at producing a genuine republican form of Government which puts an end to political elites and empowers Irish citizens.

6.    Ensure the proper use of Ireland’s natural resources for the common good.

7.    End the two-tier health and education systems.

8.    Guarantee continued support for the Peace Process, the Good Friday Agreement and seek to enhance outreach to the unionist community.

People are looking for a new kind of politics. That is what Sinn Féin offers.

Cllr McLellan is calling on the voters of Cork east to make a stand – There is a better way

McLellan Rubbishes FF Claims on Farm Tax

The Sinn Féin candidate in Cork East, Sandra McLellan, has rubbished a claim by Fianna Fáil candidate Kevin O’Keeffe that Sinn Féin’s tax  proposals constitute a threat to farmers. She said there is no proposal to tax farm land.

McLellan said: “Councillor O’Keeffe has a hard neck attacking Sinn Féin over our policies for rural Ireland given the savage attacks which his government has implemented right across rural Ireland in order to bail out Fianna Fáil’s friends the failed banking and  property speculators.

“We have clear well thought out proposals including a comprehensive document detailing how the agriculture  food sector can become one of the  engines of growth if people reject the austerity policies of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Labour Party.

“We will also, as the only serious All Ireland party through our MEP and our Minister for Agriculture in the north Michelle Gildernew alongside a strengthened team of Sinn Féin TDs in Leinster House, be fighting for small to medium farmers during the review of the Common  Agricultural Policy.

“Councillor O’Keeffe is deliberately misleading farmers with regard to  our tax proposals. In our manifesto we propose to introduce a 1% tax on all assets of over €1 million “excluding working farmland.”    In other words we have no intention whatsoever of taxing farmers in  that way because we understand that the market value of farm land  often bears little relation to the income that farmers derive from  it.”

HEALTHCARE IN IRELAND – THERE IS A BETTER WAY’

Launching Sinn Féin’s health proposals ‘Healthcare in Ireland – there is a better way’ Sinn Féin Candidate Sandra McLellan said that the current two-tier system must be replaced with a new system based on equality of access for all based on need alone.

McLellan said:

“The healthcare system needs root and branch reform. We need a system where access to care at all levels is equitable and based on medical need alone. The two-tier system is inherently inequitable and inefficient and it has to go. Sinn Féin has comprehensive proposals to transform our healthcare services. We seek a new system based on public service and social solidarity.

“Our core proposal is for a new universal public healthcare system for Ireland that provides care to all free at the point of delivery, on the basis of need alone, and funded from general fair and progressive taxation. We would establish a Health Funding Commission to help plan the transition to the new system.

“In the short term we would abolish prescription charges for medical card patients and introduce measures to reduce the cost of drugs by tackling waste and profiteering.

“We would restore Ministerial and Departmental responsibility for public health services, remove the excessive bureaucracy of the HSE and cap salaries at 100,000 euros.

“We would enshrine the right to healthcare in the Constitution and establish a Health Ombudsman.

“The downgrading of local hospitals must be reversed. They must be allowed to play their proper role as providers of a full range of care, including emergency services.

“The State subsidising of the private for-profit healthcare sector must be ended and all public money allocated for healthcare must be spent in the public system to deliver care on the basis of need alone.”

Commenting on the health policies of the other parties, Sandra McLellan  said:

“Fianna Fáil is defending the indefensible by calling for the status quo to continue – not surprising given that their new leader is a former Minister for Health & Children who conceived the failed HSE.

“Fine Gael and Labour are advocating a health insurance model which has the potential to give insurance companies a determining role in the delivery of health services.
“There are also differences between the Fine Gael and Labour proposals and we have no idea what a hybrid Fine Gael/Labour government health policy would look like.

Irish language and Fine Gael

Sinn Fein launches Irish language proposals at Fine Gael HQ

Speaking this morning after the  launch of  Sinn Fein’s Irish language Proposals

Sinn Fein Cork East Candidate Sandra McLellan said

“In contrast to Fine Gael, Sinn Fein is committed to the protection and restoration of the Irish language. Rather than taking measures that will contribute to the dissolution of the of the Irish, we believe the state should in fact be taking constructive steps to strengthen, support and encourage it’s growth.

“Unlike Fine Gael’s proposal to de- prioritise Irish by removing it from the second level education system as compulsory, we in Sinn Fein commit ourselves 100% to its promotion.

“We have today launched a list of proposals which we believe if implemented, would further protect the Irish language. One among many of those proposed is that there should be an Aire Gaeilge agus Gaeltachta in Cabinet with responsibility to deliver on the 20 year strategy.

“Equality is an integral part of a democratic society and this, as we have stated in our party’s manifesto, includes upholding the rights of Irish -language speakers.

“We believe that the future of the Irish language depends upon thecontinuing existence of sustainable Gaeltacht communities where Irish remains the primary language of the community. These communities must be protected, supported and developed. That is why we advocate proper resourcing into the education system and are promoting the right to be educated through the Irish language.
“We also believe the right to education through Irish should be constitutionally and legally enshrined as one of the primary steps in protecting it’s existence for generations to come.”

Paul Burke from Inch, Killeagh, Independent Candidate for Cork East

The country needs change and I would like to be one of those who can help to do it.

So, who is Paul Burke? I am an Australian who moved to Ireland in 1993. I have been a partner/owner of a Land Surveying business in Cork for the last 16 years. I am married to Margaret (from Wexford) and we have 3 daughters who currently attend local schools.

Margaret went to Australia in the 80’s in the last big recession. We moved back to Ireland to raise our family, believing Ireland was the best place to do this. Decent education, a sense of community and good standard of living were all good reasons to settle here.

Like many people over the last few years, I have become very disillusioned with the ruling political parties and the way in which they have been running the country. A few too many backroom deals and not enough honesty and openness with the people.

It’s Time We Acted Responsibly

Send the political parties a message. Vote me No.1 and let them know they are only your 2nd choice.

There has been too much of the “Pothole Politician”, more concerned with their own backyard than the health of the nation as a whole. Politicians need to be acting in the national interest, not just for personal gain.

There are so many things that need to be addressed and they can’t all be done overnight. We must reduce the size of government; it is much too large and expensive. We need to take closer control of the banking sector, after all many are nationalised and belong to us. We need to get on top of wasteful spending by government departments. The list goes on and on.

Where do we start? What can you, an individual do? The old saying “a new broom sweeps clean” comes to mind. Bring in new ideas, new people. Break the hold the current political parties have over who gets what job and where.

Over the years I have served on many, and varied, committees and councils.Charitable groups such as St Vincent De Paul. At a local level, I have served as Vice Chairman of Youghal Comhaltas. At a National level, I was both Vice President and President of the Irish Institution of Surveyors. At European level, I was the Irish Delegate to CLGE, the European Committee of Surveyors.

I have run a small business for the last 16 years. In the current economic climate, things are tough all over but hopefully we have turned the corner. Now we need to do the right things to get back on track and get Ireland moving again.

Email: vote1paulburke@gmail.com

Website: http://vote1paulburke.yolasite.com/

Text: 0858825893

Sinn Féin General Election Candidate for Cork East Sandra McLellan talks to Declan Gibbons.

Click below and listen to Sinn Féin General Election Candidate for Cork East Sandra McLellan talks to Declan Gibbons on Youghal Local Radio CRY – Audio courtesy of CRY.