MEP Matt Carthy formally selected to contest Cavan/Monaghan seat for Sinn Féin

MEP Matt Carthy has been selected to contest the Cavan/Monaghan constituency for Sinn Féin at the next General Election.

Carthy was chosen to run for the seat, which had been held by Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin since 1997, by party members at a convention in the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan this evening, Thursday.

During his acceptance speech Carthy said that Brexit remained the greatest economic challenge facing Ireland and:

“As republicans we will never, ever accept any type of border in Ireland, hard or soft.”

He said achieving a United Ireland, and addressing the other great political challenges of our time, “will require Sinn Féin in government in this state”.

He said: “This constituency is now composed of great communities from Counties Monaghan, Cavan and north Meath. But those communities have been let down.  

“They have been let down in the area of Health Services, including the dismantling, piece by piece, of services at Monaghan Hospital.  Fianna Fáil promised that they would not remove services unless and until better services were provided. Fine Gael promised they would restore services. Both lied.  

“Today our people have almost no hospital services and even access to GP care is often limited.

“Those parties have created a housing crisis that has touched every town in this constituency.

“Our people have been let down in the area of Jobs & Investment –Government Ministers are always willing to swing off the coattails of our local innovators, the real heroes of our economy, but have done nothing to attract Foreign Direct Investment here or to provide the supports necessary for new indigenous businesses and start-ups.  

“It remains the case, as it has for generations, that most young graduates from Cavan and Monaghan still have to leave their home communities to work in their field of training.  This isn’t because Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael policies aren’t working - it’s because they are working exactly as intended.

The MEP said Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had separately failed Cavan/Monaghan in every government they’ve been part of and now they were failing them together.

“Fine Gael remain in government only because Fianna Fáil are keeping them there”, he said.

He continued: “I, for one, am sick to the teeth of watching Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators seeking to claim credit and assign blame for different government actions at same time.

“The evidence is slowly showing that they are about to learn the parable of the man who tried to sit between two stools at once.

“Fianna Fáil should have the decency now, if not the integrity, to stop their political games and bring this government of the ‘boom & bust economics’ and the ‘nod & wink politics’ crashing down.”

He continued: “If you want progressive political, social or economic change, then you won’t get it from either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.  

“If we want a better, fairer Ireland, if we want a United Ireland then we need to work flat out to make Sinn Féin the biggest party in this state.

“That is an achievable objective. It will require effort and it will, of course, require winning more seats.”

Carthy said he was been proud to be a Sinn Féin representative in the community, on the council, and in the European Parliament, but he was now asking voters to allow him to bring his experience and energy to Leinster House to deliver for the great constituency of Cavan Monaghan.