Matt CARTHY MEP

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has criticised recent comments by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar which sought to cast doubt on the as to whether a 50%-plus-one vote in the north in favour of Unity would be sufficient to secure a United Ireland.

Carthy was speaking after An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told a recent BBC Spotlight programme that he wouldn’t like to see constitutional change ‘on a 50% plus one basis’.

Matt Carthy, who chairs Sinn Féin’s United Ireland project team, said:

“Leo Varadkar is legally wrong to seek to cast doubt as to whether a 50%-plus-one vote would be sufficient to secure a United Ireland.  His comments are also politically dangerous as they pertain to the central basis on which the Good Friday Agreement was endorsed.

“This mischievous and irresponsible position was previously taken up by one of Mr. Varadkar’s predecessors, John Bruton.

“Let’s be clear here. The Good Friday Agreement is specific and unambiguous on this point that both governments will:

“recognise the legitimacy of whatever choice is freely exercised by a majority of the people of Northern Ireland with regard to its status, whether they prefer to continue to support the Union with Great Britain or a sovereign united Ireland”

“The Taoiseach cannot cherry pick the Good Friday Agreement which is legal, and internationally binding.

“Mr Varadkar’s comments have been greeted with disdain by many, many people across this island as he does not seek to apply the same criteria to maintain Partition.

“He is saying that the rights of nationalists are are less than those of those favouring the Union.

“It is clear that a 50%-plus-one vote will secure unity.

“But, let’s not have things so close. Sinn Féin certainly doesn’t want to have it that close.

“All of us who favour a united Ireland, should work together with the common objective of convincing the greatest possible number of people across Ireland that it is in their best interest.

“And let us convince those who think otherwise that they have nevertheless nothing to fear from the outcome of a referendum.

“That is what Sinn Féin is seeking to do.”

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has condemned the assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb in Malta and called for an independent investigation into her murder.

MEPs from the European Parliament’s Panama Papers inquiry held meetings with Ms Caruana Galizia in Valletta in February this year during a fact-finding mission to Malta.

Carthy, a member of the Panama Papers inquiry committee, said:

“I condemn in the strongest terms the shocking assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. I want to express my condolences to her family. This was not only an attack on one individual, but an attack against freedom of expression and anti-corruption activists everywhere.

“Ms Caruana Galizia had engaged with the European Parliament’s inquiry into the Panama Papers and met with MEPs in Valletta in February this year as part of the inquiry’s fact-finding mission to Malta. Ms Caruana Galizia’s work as an investigative journalist and blogger focused on the links of Malta’s political and government figures to offshore shell companies set up by Mossack Fonseca. These figures included Malta’s Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his wife Michelle Muscat, Minister Konrad Mizzi, and the PM’s chief of staff Keith Schembri.

“Daphne and others investigating these links suggested the offshore accounts were set up to hold the proceeds of government corruption.

“Disappointingly, some of the central figures named in the Panama Papers and other tax evasion and money-laundering scandals refused to meet with the parliamentary inquiry committee in February – namely, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Keith Schembri; the Nexia BT accountants who set up the structures named in the Panama Papers; and the former Nationalist Party Minister for Resources and Infrastructure Ninu Zammit, who had incorporated a company in the British Virgin Islands through Mossack Fonseca.

“I welcome the decision by the magistrate appointed to inquire into her murder, Consuelo Scerri Herrera, to stand down. Scerri Herrera had launched judicial proceedings against Caruana Galizia over her articles, prompting Ms Caruana Galizia’s family to object to her appointment.

“It is vital that Ms Caruana Galizia’s murder is investigated by a fully independent inquiry. Whether or not she was provided with by police after recently reporting death threats must also be investigated.”

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy, has called on the Irish Government to immediately inform the European Commission that it will not support the EU trade deal with South American, Mercosur, countries and demand that negotiations are stopped in their tracks.

Carthy noted that Irish farmers have been betrayed by Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan on this deal and that any further posturing on the part of the Irish Government will simply exacerbate that betrayal.

Matt Carthy said:

“Recently at an in-camera hearing of the European Parliament’s Agriculture & Rural Development committee we were told by a representative of the commission that ‘without the beef quota offer there will be no deal on Mercosur’.

“The Irish Government must therefore now respond emphatically – ‘No Deal!’.  They must do so now.

“The message from farmers is loud and clear.  Any agreement with Mercosur that includes offers for sensitive products such as beef and poultry cannot be tolerated.

“Commissioner Hogan has clearly betrayed these concerned farmers.

“Toying with one of the most vulnerable sectors in Ireland at the moment in this manner shows the absolute failure of the commissioner.  Just last year plans to allow 78,000tn of Mercosur beef into the EU annually were scrapped because they were deemed to be too sensitive.  Now, just over a year later this figure has barely been revised.

“It is now abundantly clear to farmers that Commissioner Hogan’s claims last May, that beef was “off the menu” in these talks, were lies.

“The latest offer shows that the European Commission is resolved to sacrifice agriculture in order to gain improved access to South American countries for the German car and pharmaceutical industries.

“It is less than 6 months since investigations uncovered schemes of bribing inspectors to keep rotten beef and poultry on the Brazilian market. Now there are plans to add to the existing 65,000 tonnes of beef agreed in the CETA deal with Canada, by a further 70,000 tonnes from Mercosur countries.

“There is no silver lining for Irish farmers in this agreement. Offers on poultry are rumoured to be up to around 78,000 tonnes, which will have the same effect in terms of depressing prices, reducing quality and driving small farmers out of the market.

“Commissioner Hogan’s betrayal will only be exacerbated unless the Irish government immediately demand that the Mercosur talks are halted.

The dangerous attitude of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael representatives regarding the Canadian CETA deal proves to farmers that these parties cannot be trusted to protect their interests at the end of negotiations.

Therefore the government must demand that the Mercosur deal is stopped in its tracks now.

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has said the Irish Government must use its veto to prevent Brexit negotiations moving ahead without dealing comprehensively with the issue of the Irish border and the safeguarding of the Good Friday Agreement.

He also said the Government must press the case for the North to be designated designated special status within the European Union

He was speaking after the EU’s Chief Negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier said insufficient progress has been made to allow Brexit negotiations move to the next phase.

Matt Carthy said:

“The Irish border and the safeguarding of the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts must be central to the Brexit negotiations.

“The British Government must be forced to face these problems head on and to deal with them. They cannot be let off the hook by parking them.

“The Irish Government needs to stand firm on this issue and make that position clear to EU leaders.

“The Government must now press the case for the North to be designated designated special status within the European Union.”

Matt Carthy has said that the Budget announced by Paschal O’Donohoe represents a return to boom and bust economics that led to the crash which caused so much devastation to Irish society.

Matt Carthy said:

“The Budget represents a return to ‘’boom and bust’ economics – a boom for Fine Gael’s privileged friends and bust for everyone else.

“This can be seen very clearly in the fact that as a result of Budget measures, a €20,000 earner will be €53 a year better off while a €70,000 will be €328 a year better off.

“Giving €330m in tax cuts demonstrates scant regard for the plight of ordinary families struggling to make ends meet.

“Our crumbling health service faces a net loss as a result of this Budget ensuring the trolley crisis continues.

“The Minister announced €685 million for Health but the service needs at least €691 million just to stand still.

“Social Welfare recipients will get just a €5 increase and will be forced to wait until the end of March to get this.

“Sinn Féin would have given all working age recipients €260 for 2018 and people with disabilities an increase of €6 as an initial recognition of the additional cost of disability or €312 for 2018.

“The Government has rejected affordable and deliverable childcare proposals from Sinn Féin, which would have helped struggling parents, childcare workers and community providers.

“Paschal Donohoe’s Budget, as Pearse Doherty clearly outlined, serves merely to tolerate and normalises mass homelessness, particularly of children.

“The decision to allocate a huge amount of available resources on tax cuts will ensure that the housing crisis will continue.

“There will be absolutely no increase in social housing targets for 2018 and there are no targets or funding to deliver affordable rental or purchase.

“The €50m announced today to meet the challenges of Brexit is pathetic, considering that Brexit could lead to up to a 7% drop in GNP.

“In our Alternative Budget, Sinn Féin proposed a Capital Plan for Brexit that would increase spending by €1.6b to prepare for Brexit.

“Meanwhile the Minister for Finance has allocated €5 million per year on the government’s propaganda unit – the equivalent of 50 resource teachers and 56 Special Needs Assistants.

“This is outrageous and demonstrates very clearly the priorities of this Fine Gael Government.

“Fundamentally this Budget peddles a lie that we can fix the health and housing crises while cutting taxes. This is simply not possible.

“Once again Fine Gael, fully supported by Fianna Fáil, have taken the side of the privileged against ordinary families and the services they need.  Worse still, they have returned to the Boom & Bust economic model which has caused so much devastation in the years since the crash.”

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has said that the Irish Government should have no “hand, act or part” in reconstructing a hard border on the island of Ireland”.

Speaking from Brussels this week, after it emerged that a report by Irish Revenue Commissioners has outlined proposals for additional customs staff and infrastructure as a result of Brexit, Matt Carthy said:

“Under no circumstances should any Irish Government have any hand, act or part in assisting the British to reimpose an unwanted, hard border on the island of Ireland.

“Any such move would be an act of sabotage against the Irish economy and a betrayal of the interests of Irish citizens.

“It would also amount to a shameful denial of the democratic rights of people on the North of Ireland to remain, as they wish, in the European Union.

“It would undermine the Irish Government’s responsibilities as a joint guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.

“In my view the Government should not accept any report from any agency which advocates Irish involvement in reconstructing a hard border on this island.”