Carthy to kick off campaign at major event in Dundalk this Saturday

Matt Carthy MEP will officially launch his re-election campaign this Saturday the 27^th at a special event in Dundalk, Co Louth.

The campaign Launch will take place in An Táin Arts Centre at 2pm on Saturday. Sinn Féin Party Leader Mary Lou MacDonald, former party leader Gerry Adams and TD Pearse Doherty will be in attendance.

Ahead of the event Carthy said “I am extremely proud of my record as a representative in the European Parliament, as part of a team of Sinn Féin MEPs, over the past five years.  We have delivered on all the issues that matter, including Brexit.  I look forward to going before the electorate on the basis of our record of work and on the Sinn Féin policy platform.  We have a vision for a better, fairer united Ireland in a radically reformed EU.  I am asking voters across this vast constituency to endorse that vision.

“Saturday’s launch is a public event!  I have already been to every corner of my constituency on a regular basis since my election in 2014.  I look forward to returning to every town, village and parish between now and May 24^th.  This election will be a tough one but we’re up for it.  I hope to see a large turnout at our launch so that we can set out our intention to maintain a Sinn Féin MEP for the Midlands North West who will continue to fight for Ireland.”

ENDS

Reports of deceased lying on hospital trolleys ‘is distressing and unacceptable’ – Carthy

Sinn Féin MEP for Midlands North West Matt Carthy has expressed true shock at the news today that dead bodies were lying and decomposing on hospital trolleys in corridors in Waterford.

Carthy said: “Every week there is some new scandal outlining the total crisis and chaos in our healthcare service across the country.  People are becoming more and more concerned about the deterioration we are seeing in the level of healthcare provision, including scandals, inequality, scarcity and long waiting lists.

“But bodies decomposing on trolleys in corridors, leaking bodily fluids and making closed-coffin burials necessary? The pathologists’ letter puts it best when they write: ‘The trauma imposed on the bereaved is almost unspeakable.’

“The HSE was informed in 2004 that this mortuary was unfit for purpose, and the letter outlines deep concerns by practitioners about the poor and antiquated state of mortuary and post-mortem services at UHW. But nothing was done. How is that possible? How is it possible that a full 15 years after this issue was raised, cadavers are decomposing on trolleys, possibly in front of their loved ones and other patients?

“This is a desperately sad situation for the bereaved family members, and for the staff who have been forced to work in these shocking conditions. Health Minister Simon Harris needs to apologise for these devastating events; make a commitment to investigate the causes behind the situation; and implement a swift and effective plan to ensure the situation is resolved immediately. This includes ensuring that if similar problems are raised in other facilities across the state, they must be swiftly resolved also.

“The Irish people are losing confidence each week in our health service. The massive public support for the nurses’ strike in recent months was a public acknowledgement that the system is broken and cannot go on as it is. The nurses were fighting for all of us to access healthcare with basic dignity.

“We have had more than a decade of ‘crisis’ headlines and scandals in our health system. Despite this, the fact that the health service has deteriorated even further in recent years is a true indictment of Fine Gael and its useless appendage, Fianna Fáil.

“Our health system has been in a level of crisis for many years due to cuts, chronic underinvestment and deliberate outsourcing and privatisation by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil-led governments. Well, a scorched-earth approach leaves you with a dysfunctional disaster.

“Sinn Féin is committed to ending this two-tier system and ensuring all people have ready and affordable access to the best-quality, dignified care –  instead of this chaos and abominable treatment of human beings.”

ENDS

Matt Carthy speech at Drumboe Easter Commemoration

Sinn Féin Midlands North West MEP Matt Carthy has extended condolences to the family of Lyra McKee at today’s Easter Commemoration at Drumboe, County Donegal.

In a speech delivered at the Drumboe Easter Commemoration this afternoon Carthy addressed the issues of Brexit, Irish reunification and the housing crisis.

Full speech follows:

1916 Easter Rising Commemoration, Drumboe, Co. Donegal – Easter Sunday 2019, Matt Carthy

I want to begin today by paying tribute to the life of the talented young writer Lyra McKee, shot dead in Derry this week.  We extend our deepest condolences to her grieving partner, family and friends.

The large vigils that have taken place across Ireland to honour Lyra were an outpouring of grief – for the pointless loss of this bright young woman’s life. But they were also a demonstration of our fierce and united determination to never return to the dark days of the tragic conflict that has scarred our island and its people.

That is the true spirit of republicanism: one built on the foundations of unity, solidarity, community, equality, inclusiveness – and fearlessness.

Ireland – a country that fought an empire

A chairde, this weekend Republicans across Ireland and around the world are gathering as we do each Easter to remember those who gave their lives in pursuit of Irish freedom in the 1916 Rising and at other periods of our history.

Here today we remember especially the Drumboe Martyrs: Charlie Daly, Seán Larkin, Tim O’Sullivan and Dan Enright; Irish freedom fighters who were executed by freestate forces on 14th March 1923 during the tragic civil war which marked a pivotal point in the counter-revolution that followed the tan war.

In 1916, Ireland was the little country that fought the most powerful empire in the world.  On that Easter Monday, just 1200 men and women set out to bring an end to British rule in Ireland – in their words, to “strike a blow for freedom”.  The leaders, including the seven signatories to the Proclamation, were all executed by the British in the weeks that followed.

We remember the ultimate sacrifice they made just as we remember the ultimate sacrifice paid by republicans since.

Of course, we do not just remember the individuals who led the Easter Rising, but also their vision and the ideals they died for. These ideals were best articulated by James Connolly, Pádaric Pearse and the other signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic – of national sovereignty, equality, social justice, and democratic rights for all.

A decade of centenaries 

Over the past few years we have been marking a of a decade of centenaries of pivotal events in Ireland’s struggle for independence.

In 2013 we marked the Centenary of the Great Lockout when the bosses of Dublin declared war on the workers and their families.

The choice presented to the workers was stark. They could obey the bosses, resign from their union and go back to their tenement slums and their poverty with their heads down. Or they could resist. Thousands chose resistance.

Through the summer and autumn and winter of 1913 and 1914 they faced police brutality, press vilification, Church condemnation and starvation. They seemed defeated, but out of their struggle arose a revived trade union movement and a proud working class.

Again and again, in the decades since the Lockout, those whom Wolfe Tone called the people of no property were offered that same choice – resign or resist.

They were told to resign themselves to their fate when Ireland was partitioned and a sectarian Orange state established in the Six Counties. But the followers of Tone and Connolly again resisted, and stood by the Proclamation of the Republic.

Half a century after the Proclamation, the Civil Rights movement stepped forward and was met with the same choice – resign yourselves to the reality of the one-party sectarian state or resist.

They chose resistance. RUC brutality was resisted. Internment was resisted. The British Army was resisted. Criminalisation in the H-Blocks and Armagh was resisted. Collusion and censorship and the demonisation of whole communities were resisted.

The massive Irish and international commemoration of the centenary of the Rising in 2016 showed the clarion call of the Proclamation has echoed down for a full century – and continues to enthuse and motivate us today in our struggle for the unfinished freedom of our country, and for the unfinished equality of our people.

In 2018, we marked the centenary of the General Election, which saw republicans win 73 of the 105 Irish seats available – a resounding roar from the Irish people that they chose a united, independent, egalitarian republic.

That year the vote was extended to men above 21 without restriction; women had won limited franchise and could vote if they were over 30 and owned some level of property. The extension of the vote to large sections of the working class was decisive in returning the republican TDs.

As they had committed to, and were given a resounding mandate to do, the TDs abstained from the British Parliament and established an all-Ireland parliament – An Chéad Dáil Éireann.

Democratic Programme

During the first session of that Dáil, 100 years ago, TDs adopted the Democratic Programme – a document less well known than the Proclamation but even more significant in terms of it visionary content of the social and economic transformation Ireland required a century ago, and continues to require today.

One short paragraph from the Democratic Programme read:

“It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children, to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter, but that all shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as Citizens of a Free and Gaelic Ireland.”

Compare those words to the brutal, cold reality of Ireland today.

Reality of housing crisis

Last month the United Nations wrote a scathingletter to the Irish government, pointing out that homelessness has increased exponentially in the Irish state between 2015 and 2018 – increasing by nearly 96% among adults and by 228% among children over the same period.

They called the denial of the right to a home an ‘egregious and damaging violation’, which is known to be devastating to the lives and wellbeing of children in particular,including to their physical and mental development.

The UN report does not limit its critique to the government’s failure to provide shelter for those experiencing homelessness. It outlines exactly how this crisis has developed and identifies the precise government policies that have caused it.

It points to cuts to the public housing budget, and land hoarding by speculators who deliberately restrict supply in order to inflate rent and prices, and most importantly, the policies that have caused the financialisation of housing in Ireland.

The First Dáil couldn’t deliver on its promises because it was immediately driven underground and  the Irish people were subjected to the terror of the Black and Tans, Civil War, counter revolution and Partition.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed

But in this state, we’ve now had a century of two-party rule by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and the state they have created is simply a paradise for the bankers, the American vulture funds, international finance and domestic gombeens.

Ireland is now the favourite spot for the Silicon Valley billionaires to shelter their profits from tax, but we leave our own population homeless on the streets at record levels while families, even those with two incomes, struggle to meet crippling rents and have almost no hope of ever owning their own home.

While Ireland has one of the largest and most dangerous shadow banking sectors in the world we are also home to a health service in chaos where the service one receives depends on how much money is in your bank account and in which part of the country you happen to live.  It is a place where those on the frontline such as our nurses have to take to the streets to fight for better healthcare for us all while private corporations make a killing on the back of our two-tier system.

This is the price for a century of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in power.

So, it is time that we choose resistance again – united, determined and fearless – and stand together to fight for a future where people’s lives and the environment are considered more important than corporate profits.

Local elections campaign

We need to do this through every means we available to us – at the local elections, at the European elections, in trade union struggles, and in progressive community campaigns.

This May, Sinn Féin will be running in election campaigns in local councils across the North and South promoting our message of radical republicanism.

Sinn Féin councillors are delivering real change for communities across Ireland.  They are working hard for the people and the communities we represent, delivering social and affordable housing, community infrastructure and facilities. They are making cities, towns and village better places to live.

Today I want to especially commend the mighty team of Sinn Féin members on Donegal County Council – Gary Doherty, Liam Doherty, Marie Therese Gallagher, Gerry McMonagle, Albert Doherty, Noel Jordon, Jack Murray, John Seamais Ó Fearraigh & Aidy Glacin and to wish them and our new candidates Maria Doherty, Brian Carr, Terry Crossan and Michael McMahon all the best on 24thMay.

With every additional Sinn Féin councillor elected, the stronger is our ability to create progressive change.  It’s hard work but we can take pride in the fact that we literally improve people’s lives and our local communities every single day.

EU elections 

I said earlier that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed us for a century – but this is nowhere made more clear than in the EU.  Some voters may think the EU elections are not important.  But the alarming fact is that these parties are consistently selling us short in Europe.

I have been fighting hard for Ireland as an MEP on issues such as getting the best possible deal for farmers in rural Ireland under the revision of the Common Agricultural Policy.

We have been fighting the EU tooth and nail on a new proposal that aims to give even more free rein to vulture funds and debt collectors while there hasn’t been a whimper from the other parties.

Just last week, through my work in the European Parliament, we exposed that the ECB had made profits –yes, profits! – of €73 billion from the so-called aid programmes they granted during the economic crisis.  Not a single Irish media outlet has reported this huge story.

Sinn Féin MEPs are working hard, all day every day, to fight for a radical change in the economic governance of the EU’s economic structures; for social and labour rights for workers; for rights for women and the LGBT community.  We are fighting for real action on climate change, such as forcing the ECB to divest the billions it hands over to the biggest polluters– instead of imposing punitive carbon taxes on the people who have done the least to cause the climate crisis.

We will resist the efforts of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to impose additional charges on working families in the guise of carbon tax hikes.

This EU election will be an all-Ireland election. It’s another opportunity to return an all-Ireland Sinn Féin team to Brussels to fight for Ireland’s interests, to oppose any hard border in Ireland, to oppose the neoliberal agenda, federalisation and the creation of an EU army.

Sinn Féin has extreme problems with the nature and direction of the EU – but having one part of our country dragged out of the EU against the expressed wishes of the people is a recipe for disaster.

Fighting for Ireland

A lot has been said about Brexit in the past two years.

And, Ireland has been, of course, central to the Brexit story.  There’s a reason for that.

Actually, it’s four reasons.  It was the Sinn Féin team in Brussels that brought the Irish concerns, particular concerns regarding the border and the need to protect the Good Friday Agreement, to the heart of Brexit deliberations.  While others accused us of being naïve when we first raised the notion of special status for the north, our efforts ensured that that became, essentially, the position of the Irish government and subsequently the EU.

Our work is not done, so let me make this promise,every day Sinn Féin has representation in Brussels will be a day spent working to ensure that Irish interests, the rights of Irish citizens, and particularly the border regions, are protected.

Ireland did not vote for Brexit.  We do not consent to a hard border.  We believe that the ‘backstop’ contained within the Withdrawal Agreement is a vital insurance policy to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and must be upheld.  It is the absolute bare minimum that is required.

Brexit is clearly causing people to question the constitutional future of the North and encouraging support for an all-island economic, political and social framework.

The debate on Irish Unity is now mainstream.

Opinion polls must always be taken with a pinch of salt but the overwhelming trend of those carried out in the past two years is clear. The results reflect three important trends. First, there has been a consistent rise in the proportion of people who say they would vote for a united Ireland.

Second, this trend is most pronounced among young people.

And thirdly, these trends reflect the continuing major influence of the Brexit debacle on shaping attitudes on this issue in the North.

Now is the time for all of us who believe a united Ireland will provide a better future – parties, community groups, trade unions, businesses and individuals – to work together to seize this historic opportunity.

We need to build popular support for the demand for a referendum while also working patiently to convince those who disagree that their voices will be heard and respected.

The British and Irish governments need to acknowledge theses changing attitudes and agree to hold a poll so the people can have their say.

We have the right to a referendum on reunification under the Good Friday Agreement and we will not be denied that right.

Our message to those other political parties that sometimes espouse support for Irish unity?  The work must begin now!

So, to Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the SDLP and others we say – join us now in framing the conversation; let us take the conversation to the next level, let’s include all stakeholders and communities and let us map out how we can secure a referendum on unity, win it and make a united Ireland a success for all the people of our country.

We’re up for it.  We’re up for working together to achieve the goal of Connolly and Pearse and the Drumboe Martyrs – it’s time for others to let it be known who is with us.

A chairde, as we leave this spot today be assured that we’re on the road towards a united Ireland.  It will take a lot of work but it is going to happen sooner, I suspect, than many people realise.  So concurrently we need to work to ensure that the united Ireland we deliver is one that allows us to reach our full potential as a nation, that it becomes a Republic worthy of it’s name, one that delivers on the promise of Proclamation and the Democratic Programme.

That will be the most fitting commemoration we can give to all those we honour here today.

Ar aghaidh linn le chéile. ENDS

Carthy: Fine Gael complicity for EU army is a betrayal of Irish people that will cost us millions

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has slammed the Irish government for its continued complicity in the relentless EU drive to create an EU army.  The Midlands North West MEP was speaking following the final voting session of this parliamentary mandate, in which MEPs voted to establish a European Defence Fund and finance it with €13billion of taxpayers’ money.  One Fine Gael MEP voted in favour and while others abstained on this dangerous proposal.

Carthy said: “We often hear that the European Union’s greatest achievement is that it has been a successful ‘project of peace’.  Peace projects don’t need armies!

“It is astonishing that EU elected representatives would sign up to providing €13billion to set up a new European Defence Fund, a key staging post in the development of an EU army.  That they would do so while simultaneously reducing funding to key funding programmes such as CAP and the Cohesion programme and at a time when public services are at breaking point is mind-boggling.

“All the while Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are complicit in this aggressive militarisation drive.

“Despite Sinn Féin MEPs warning for years of the dangers of this agenda, and the threat it poses to Irish military neutrality, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have remained, at best silent, and often openly complicit.  The fact the Fine Gael MEPs have either voted for or abstained on this latest proposal is truly a disgrace and a betrayal of the Irish people and our constitution.

“Europe is still exporting weapons of war on a mass scale to Saudi Arabia, responsible for the ongoing starvation of the people of Yemen. Britain and France top the export list among EU states but many other EU member states, including Ireland, are also selling weapons or dual-use items to arm Saudi Arabia – despite the European Parliament’s repeated demands for an EU arms embargo on this pariah state.

“Sinn Féin’s group in the European Parliament, GUE/NGL, tabled a minority report completely rejecting the proposal – on the grounds that it advocates the rapid further militarisation of the EU and Member States; promotes an arms race; and subsidises investments in defence and military research and development, in spite of the social crisis and environmental impact of these activities.

“I have raised the illegality of the EDF directly with the Commission, as it breaches Article 41(2) of the Treaty, which clearly prohibits defence-related funding measures being taken from the general budget of the EU. I based these questions on an important legal study carried out by the University of Bremen, which concluded that EU funding of such an instrument breaches EU law.

“In the Orwellian double-speak of the Commission, it responded to me by claiming ‘the EDF would foster the competitiveness and innovativeness of the Union’s defence technological and industrial base by supporting defence-oriented research and development activities, without providing any funding to operations having military or defence implications’.

“This is pure nonsense. The establishment of the EDF, and its funding by the general EU budget is illegal.  Full stop.

“The election of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil MEPs next month will accelerate the drive to an EU army, with all of the costs, risks and dangers that this entails for the Irish people.

“Sinn Féin representatives are needed at European level to demand that our country does not contribute increased sums to an EU budget that prioritises military expansion ahead of delivering public services, creating sustainable jobs and securing EU funding where it is needed most.”

ENDS

Carthy forces ECB to reveal it profited by 73 billion from eurozone misery

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has welcomed the increased transparency at the ECB that he was instrumental in achieving, but condemned the organisation for making massive profits from the peripheral economies during the darkest days of the Eurozone crisis.

Carthy successfully amended a European Parliament report responding to the ECB’s Annual Report 2017, demanding the the ECB “disclose the full amounts of profits made by the Eurosystem through ANFAs and SMP from 2010 until the full expiration of he programme, with a specific breakdown per countries which have been subject to SMP purchases (Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy)”. He tabled the amendment jointly with Belgian Green MEP Philippe Lamberts.

Speaking today, Friday, Carthy said: “After years of fighting in the European Parliament for increased transparency over ECB decisions and policies, strongly supported by civil society organisations – particularly Positive Money – we now have access to the figures the ECB previously kept secret.

“What was long suspected – that the ECB has been profiting from the Securities Market Programme (SMP) it used to purchase 218 billion euros of bonds from the peripheral economies at the height of the sovereign debt crisis – has now been confirmed.

“The shocking figures in the new data from the ECB reveal that from 2010, the ECB has made 73 billions euros in profits on debt lent to Spain, Ireland, Italy, Ireland and Greece at the height of the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis – a crisis that the ECB in fact played a major role in creating.

“This includes the ECB making profits of almost 6 billion euros from Ireland under the SMP. The supposed ‘rescue mission’ of the ECB in purchasing country’s bonds turned into a massive profit-making venture.

“The ECB was bound to provide this data under its obligation to provide ‘feedback’ to the European Parliament’s annual report on the ECB. I welcome the fact that the majority of MEPs backed my amendment demanding the release of this information, and that the ECB actually provided it.

“But it is the totally unaccountable Eurogroup, which does not even have any basis in EU law, that makes decisions on any refunds to Member States of these funds. The Eurogroup is notorious for its point-blank refusal to be subjected to any form of public scrutiny and has refused to provide any information on this whatsoever.

“I and other progressive MEPs have been backing the WeMoveEU and Eurodad campaign – supported by almost 150,000 EU citizens – demanding the full return of the profits made out of the SMP and ANFA programmes to Greece, after its fiscal waterboarding by the Troika.

“Every cent of profit that the ECB has sucked from the countries worst affected by the crisis, in their hour of need, must be returned to those countries in full and without delay.” ENDS

Note to editors: 

The ECB’s feedback document is here: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/ecb.20190401_feedback_on_the_input_provided_by_the_european_parliament~4bb38cfab0.en.pdf?8a3e7a59fb072f5f3c6d4054cf8372fc

Cancelled vote on vulture Directive makes Sinn Féin MEPs’ presence in Parliament more necessary than ever – Carthy

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has welcomed the fact that the vote on the EU’s Directive on non-performing loans scheduled for the final plenary session in Strasbourg this week has been cancelled. This means that the vote will not be voted on by the European Parliament during this mandate and will need to be revisited by the incoming Parliament. Carthy explained that his actions significantly contributed to the delay of the vote.

He said: “Sinn Féin have led the way in opposing the EU’s proposed Directive on non-performing loans, which will give free rein to vulture funds and debt collectors across the EU.

“There are two key reasons why this vote has been postponed and will now be dealt with by the incoming Parliament. The first is the fact that I initiated the one limited procedural mechanism available to me, and was supported in this by the Greens, in forcing the postponement of the vote and inter-institutional negotiations on the Regulation part of this package in December. This meant the adoption of the Regulation was postponed by several months and the whole process was delayed.

“The second reason the vote on the Directive is being postponed is because the social-democrats clearly fear the verdict of their constituents in the European elections if they endorse such an appalling piece of legislation before the vote.

“It is my firm view that this proposed Directive needs to be withdrawn. It was proposed on the basis of an impact assessment that took absolutely no regard of the rights of EU citizens such as the right to housing assistance under the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

“It will lead to more evictions, more harassment of homeowners by debt collectors, and more housing stress and homelessness.  It is grossly unfair because it puts the blame and the punishment for the 2008 crisis on the shoulders of ordinary families and homeowners instead of the financial institutions that caused the crisis.

“The process by which this package – the Regulation and Directive – have been dealt with in the Economic and Monetary Affairs committee has been extremely disappointing, with the two largest groups, the EPP and S&D, colluding to prevent the smaller groups from having a meaningful say in shaping the reports. It has been an appalling and anti-democratic approach to such a crucial proposal – another reason why I welcome the cancellation of the vote.

“Now that the Parliament cannot adopt its position on this file until the incoming mandate, I will continue to work with consumer protection groups and housing campaigners in the coming months to call for the total withdrawal of this extremely damaging proposal.

“This makes the return of the strongest team of Sinn Féin MEPs to the European Parliament in the elections in May all the more important for the Irish people.” ENDS

ECB must disinvest from fossil fuel firms immediately – Carthy

Sinn Féin MEP for Midlands North West Matt Carthy has said the European Central Bank (ECB) and European Investment Bank (EIB) are among the worst climate polluters through their corporate sector purchasing programmes and investment decisions respectively. Carthy was speaking from Strasbourg where the GUE/NGL group launched a ‘Climate Emergency Manifesto’ today, spearheaded by his Sinn Féin colleague, Dublin MEP Lynn Boylan.

Carthy said: “For several years now I have been campaigning for full transparency of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme, and in particular its corporate sector purchasing programme (CSPP). Under the CSPP, the ECB has granted handouts of no-interest money to a range of major corporations across the EU – but the programme had happened in virtual secrecy, with the public left uninformed about which corporations are receiving these benefits, how much and under what selection criteria.

“Finally giving into public pressure in 2017 the ECB began publishing some limited information about its corporate bond purchases, revealing that some of its biggest recipients were among the worst polluters in the world, including Shell, Total and Repsol. Fossil fuel bond purchases made up as much as 68 per cent of some national central bank investments. Research has shown that the overall majority of beneficiaries of the CSPP are large and carbon-intensive multinational corporations.

“We know that Ryanair has been a major recipient of the corporate bond-purchasing programme over several years, in spite of its appalling anti-labour practices. This is also despite the fact that just last week it was named as one of the top 10 polluters in the EU – the only corporation that wasn’t a coal plant to make the top 10 list.

“The ECB has announced the end of its quantitative easing programme – but that is a deceptive description because the maturing bonds from the trillions it has spent in recent years are to be reinvested.

“As an official EU institution, the ECB is bound by the Paris Climate Agreement, and it is legally required to act in accordance with meeting its carbon emission reduction targets. It is currently blatantly violating this commitment, to the massive detriment of our environment.

“We need full transparency over the ECB’s decision-making process when reinvesting in both corporate and government bonds. This must include the immediate development of transparent and standardised criteria for the selection of beneficiaries for its programmes. Most importantly, the ECB must act now to meet its Paris agreement obligations by immediately divesting from carbon-intensive sectors and firms.” ENDS

Matt Carthy MEP to host “Stop the Vultures!” public meeting in Cavan this Thursday

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy will host a “Stop the Vultures! Time to Protect Homes” public meeting in the Hotel Kilmore in Cavan this Thursday the 18^th of April at 8pm.

The Midlands Northwest MEP has been central to the campaign against the EU directive on non-performing loans which he says will strengthen the free rein giving to the banks and vulture funds and will force more families out of their homes. Ahead of the event in Cavan town Carthy spoke of the government’s lack of action on Ireland’s housing crisis.

“Sinn Féin is standing with communities and campaigning for policies that will benefit the Irish people and not the banks and vultures at the local, state and EU level.

“I’ve seen first-hand how this has affected families in the Cavan / Monaghan area. In Brussels we are fighting tooth and nail against a new proposal on mortgage loans, which would allow the banks to throw their customers to the wolves and give further free rein to the debt vultures across the EU.  I encourage the people of County Cavan to join us this Thursday to hear our analysis on how we can resolve this issues and also to share their own views as to how we can deliver a change in housing policy at an EU and national level.”

Local Sinn Féin representatives Noel Connell and Geraldine Harten will also address the meeting.

ENDS

Broadband fiasco exposes Fine Gael’s utter disregard for rural Ireland – Carthy

Sinn Féin MEP Matt Carthy has said Fine Gael’s mismanagement of the National Broadband Plan exposes Fine Gael’s utter disregard for people in rural Ireland.

Matt Carthy said:

“Leo Varadkar has stated that the cost of broadband rollout will now be many multiples of the original estimate.

“His government’s mismanagement of provision of a vital infrastructure for rural Ireland, once again exposes Fine Gael’s utter disregard for people living in rural areas.

“The entire approach to broadband rollout has been chaotic and farcical and the government has now left itself and taxpayers at the mercy of one private company, bidding for the contract to provide this service.

“The government needs to explain to half a million households across the state why they are still without broadband and when they will get it.

“Taxpayers also need to be given clarity on the final cost of this project.

They also need to be told what the government’s Plan B is, in the event of it abandoning the current process.

“This Fine Gael Government needs to stop treating the people of rural Ireland as second class citizens.”

ENDS

Carthy: EU misses opportunity to rein in dangerous banking practices

Sinn Féin MEP for Midlands North West Matt Carthy has welcomed the agreement between the EU institutions to impose tougher new capital requirements on systemically important EU banks. However, he said the measures are largely superficial and will do little to actually reduce the likelihood of further taxpayer-funded bailouts being implemented in the future.

Addressing MEPs in the plenary session of the European Parliament this evening, Monday, in Strasbourg, Carthy said: “I welcome many of the important developments in the capital requirements package, such as the introduction of binding minimum capital requirements banks must hold in future; new anti-money laundering provisions; and restrictions on pay and dividends for breaches of the capital requirements.

“The introduction of binding TLAC requirements (total loss absorbing capacity) at EU level is being hailed by some as a sufficient solution to solve the problem of too-big-to-fail banks. But I don’t believe this is possible without Bank Structural Reform and a larger, binding leverage ratio. The Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive has already been proven to be ineffective at preventing taxpayer-funded bailouts.

“I support the view of many leading economists that a leverage ratio is a far superior measurement of a bank’s position than its risk-weighted assets. While there has been some progress in reducing the massive variability in measuring risk-weighted assets, they remains a subjective and totally unreliable indicator. A leverage ratio also an easier measure for banks to use and regulators to monitor.

“So I fully support of making the leverage ratio a binding Pillar 1 requirement – but it needs to be higher than 3 per cent, particularly for systemically important banks.

“From the beginning of the process of negotiating this package, I have expressed serious concerns over the capital leverage ratio being set at just 3 per cent. Let’s not forget that the OECD and US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation recommend a leverage ratio of at least 5 per cent for institutions that are systemically important. We are allowing EU banks’ desire to compete with their American counterparts to put financial stability at risk.

“Finally, we will never be able to separate the too-big-to-fail problem from Bank Structural Reform, which was withdrawn in 2017 due to opposition from conservatives and the finance lobby. The most effective way to achieve the objective of risk reduction is to separate retail from investment banking. The fact that a decade after the financial crisis legislators have failed to achieve this is an absolute indictment of all of the EU institutions, and a total failure to meet the expectations European citizens have placed in us.” ENDS