Councillor Conor D. McGuinness has said that proposals for a fair and sustainable economic recovery made by the Unite trade union demand serious consideration. The Sinn Féin representative made the comments following Unite’s publication of Hope or Austerity, a discussion document outlining a road map for economic recovery post Covid-19.
McGuinness said:
“Our economy has entered a recession and there is a growing sense amongst economists that the world may enter a global depression of a scale not seen since the 1930s. There is a real and immediate need for us to discuss how we emerge from this crisis and begin to rebuild our economy over the coming months and years.
“The response to the economic crash in 2008 was to impose a decade of crushing austerity. We saw public services decimated and workers and SMEs bore the brunt of both the crash and the recovery.
“Over recent weeks our society has re-calibrated its values to a certain extent. We see the real value of solidarity in our communities and across the state. The very people who were forced out on strike time and time again over the past decade, nurses, paramedics, retail workers and hospital staff, are now our heroes and central to keeping the show on the road through this crisis.
“Unite’s discussion document outlines sensible measures that must underpin economic recovery if it is to be fair and sustainable. Public services music be protected, taxation policy must be fair and proportionate, there needs to be a massive state-funded public housing programme to address the housing crisis and kick-start the economy, and we need to see a green new deal to reboot the economy sustainably.
Recovery that results in greater levels of poverty and deprivation, worse pay and conditions for workers, and an intractable housing crisis is no recovery at all. We need to do better this time and Unite’s document is an important opening salvo in the discussion on where we go from here.”
Conor McGuinness is a member of the Dungarvan Branch of Unite the Union. The discussion document entitled Hope or Austerity is available online here.
Cllr. Conor D. McGuinness 