Peadar Tóibín says that voters can rely on his party because Aontú’s strength is to speak for them on key issues where other parties have, he believes, drifted away from a common sense approach.
With just two days left in the campaign before voting in Election2024 commences tomorrow, Tóibín has spent months criss-crossing the country to boost the campaigns of the 66 local candidates the party is running, in addition to 3 EU candidates – while Sarah Beasley, the Limerick City representative is running in the mayoral race.
The Aontú leader has surprised some of the pollsters by his relatively strong showing in recent polls ahead of the election, and he may be in with a real chance for a seat in the Ireland Midlands Northwest constituency.
While the party has risen in popularity to over 4% in some polls, Tóibín believes that some of the burgeoning Independent vote – seen as an anti-establishment vote – may also come the party’s way. “A lot of voters feel that they are unrepresented on key issues,” he says. “Aontú’s strength is that we listen to voters, and we represent their views.”
The referendums in March showed how completely out of touch the government are, he says, claiming that the Cabinet relies too much on an “NGO-bubble” in relation to deciding policies, leading to a “disconnect” with the people.
He blames government “incompetence” for the immigration crisis, and says Aontú is seeking a system based on both compassion and fairness. At the launch of Aontú’s manifesto this week he said that a single agency was required to take responsibility for the issue.
“At present there are only a few hundred Garda National Immigration Bureau and Border Management Unit staff within the dysfunctional Department of Justice,” he says. “We need a single agency that will take responsibility for processing applications, deportations and enforcement, accommodation of migrants and communication with communities. The present system is critically understaffed and under resourced.”
Tóibín contrasts that situation with other EU countries such as Lithuania who he says have a border agency with over 4,000 personnel.
“We need to turn the corner on this crisis and whilst the Government is seeking to outsource our migration law to the EU, Aontú are offering a common sense approach that will complement our proposal for an Irish Sea border for people and can bring confidence back to a system that has long been bereft of leadership,” he says.
“A new dedicated resource working in conjunction with our partners in Frontex in Europe and having a key role in the management of the Common Travel Area means all areas of migration policy in this country will fall to one accountable body.”
“This issue is too serious for those who have demonstrated that short term mitigations such as the clearing of tent towns are more important for their media image than real change based on common sense,” he continued.
He says that the party has fielded strong candidates including EU candidates Aisling Considine in Dublin and Patrick Murphy in Ireland South and that Aontú seeks not only to be the “best organised opposition to this government” but a real voice for Ireland in Europe.
“Sending Aontú candidates to Europe will send a clear message across the EU that we are serious about addressing the country’s issues, in contrast with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Green MEPs who have missed over 2,000 EU Parliamentary votes in this term alone,” he said.
He points to Patrick Murphy, known for his work with The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation as a candidate who he says will provide a “badly-needed voice for fishers in the EU” where Aontú says valuable rights and fishing grounds have been given away consistently.
“Patrick led the protest along the south coast that stopped Russian Military Naval Exercises from occurring in Irish sovereign waters off the south coast in January of 2022,” Tóibín said. “That success was repeated some few months later when our fishing community persuaded the French Military not to engage in similar exercises in those same Irish sovereign waters.”
Murphy says that Ireland has lost billions in income from fishing because of “bad deals” with the EU.
“Not one person in Ireland is unaware of the bad deal our Government negotiated in Europe on behalf of our fishing Industry as we have the smallest share of fish in our own waters for over 50 years,” he said.
‘As it stands, a whopping 85% of our fish stock in our waters is going to foreign vessels. It is absolutely scandalous but Irish fishermen are on their own. We have a minister who is not only not fighting for us, but he is also actively allowing fishers from other countries to fish our seas dry and our share is falling below 15%. He has allowed the Norwegians in, perhaps the Icelandic crews are next, it is truly beyond belief,” the Bantry-based candidate says.
‘I meet people across West Cork who are genuinely in despair at the direction this country is going in. Young people are emigrating in their droves, they have no hope of buying their own homes, and this is having a terrible societal and community effect. Rural Ireland is being hollowed out and there is now an epidemic of loneliness amongst both young and old which is heartbreaking.’
Our fisheries have been robbed from us, We could have built 20 of Fine Gael's children's hospitals with what we have lost! Do you think this is okay? pic.twitter.com/QNxgxlq3OM
— Patrick Murphy - Aontú MEP Candidate Ireland South (@PatrickMurAontu) May 27, 2024
Tóibín says one of the reasons that he believes Aontú would achieve a break through in the elections was because his party was “focused on bread and butter issues when the government and much of the opposition has been distracted by the culture wars”. His intuition will be tested on June 7th.