Speeches
Selection Convention Speech
Speech by Fiona O'Malley TD as she is chosen to contest the next general election for the Progressive Democrats in Dun laoghaire
Selection Convention Speech 14th September 2005
Tánaiste, Minister, colleagues. I am delighted to stand before you as the first outgoing TD to be selected for the party to contest the next general election.
I would like to thank and acknowledge the support of the constituency for honouring me once again with the privilege of representing the party locally. Thanks to Mary and Donal for nominating and seconding me.
I am glad to be selected this far out from an election, as most of you know it took two years of hard work to become an overnight success last time.
I would like to thank all of you who worked so hard on my behalf and on behalf of the party to achieve that success. There were many who didn’t offer me a chance, but I never doubted our chances. Never underestimate where hard work can get you!
In many ways the task facing us this time is even harder. Fine Gael are likely to win a seat. If they don’t do it here, they won’t do it anywhere, so one of the incumbents will lose out. I ‘ll tell you one thing it won’t be me. I will have to work harder, longer and better than ever before to retain the seat.
But I will also need help. Success will not be ours if we don’t work together and focus on the goal: to win.
It has truly been a pleasure and an honour to represent the people of the Dun Laoghaire. To be a voice for their concerns on better transport, proper planning and a clean and safe environment: to have served on the local council, the very heart of civic life in the constituency: to have worked to deliver resources in education and enhanced sporting and recreational facilities. I am glad to be given the opportunity to seek another term to continue to serve the people
I am in politics and a Progressive Democrat, because I am a liberal and I am eager for reform. Being a liberal means I have faith in people. I believe people themselves are best qualified to decide how to run their own lives. How to spend their own money. That is not the government’s job. People should be trusted to use their freedom and their money as they see fit, within the law. This is what being liberal is about.
Parties of the left continuously claim a monopoly on social justice. We in the Progressive democrats believe that the best defender against social injustice and poverty quite simply is a job. It is the responsibility of government to provide a climate where economic progress is possible, where people are given the opportunity to create their own wealth. And determine their own futures. The more jobs we create, the more revenue is generated to develop public services and assist the vulnerable in our society. That is our idea of social justice.
The Progressive Democrats are defined by our focus on action and delivery. When we are in Government, change happens. Over the first twenty years of our existence, policy was dominated by the reforms to recover our economy and then later to consolidate it. Because that was what was needed then. While we can’t afford to become complacent, we have certainly set the agenda in economic policy. So much so that our policies have been adopted by most of our political opponents. But can they be trusted to stick with them?
At the beginning of the next phase of our existence the Party is focusing on the social infrastructure of the country. Because this is where reform is necessary now. For possibly the first time ever, the health service is being led by a minister who requested the job. Mary Harney’s courage and capacity to drive change is legendary. That is why there was universal approval for her appointment as Minister for Health and Children last year. If there is one person capable of reforming the health service it is Mary Harney. It’s not going to be easy and it will be slow, but it will happen because it must.
The Progressive Democrats are unique in their willingness to take on vested interests. Even today Fine Gael have displayed their capacity to shirk from the challenge in their response to the Groceries Order, which is an unworkable fudge. So eager for office are they that they will paralyse themselves with indecision rather than take a firm stand lest they offend somebody.
As we in this constituency know, a comprehensive policy on childcare is badly needed. One which reflects and facilitates the many and varied options parents choose for the care of their children. We must use the time left in government to deliver this. It is what people expect of us.
With rising oil and gas prices, our over reliance on imported fuels and our environmental commitments to Europe and Kyoto, now more than ever is it necessary for government to have a sound energy policy. It is over 20 years since government last produced an energy policy. Des O’Malley was the author of that policy, and I hope to continue that tradition with the policy paper the party will be publishing soon. Ireland has some of the best potential for producing renewable energy, be it wind, wave or biomass. Our policy paper will be focusing on using that potential. New thinking and new cleaner solutions will be offered.
We as a party, and as a society, face another fight. The fight to protect our democracy. We, above all other parties and groups have been leading that fight. The price of peace on this island must not be the emergence of a mafia. Of course we hail the progress that has been made in recent years, particularly the Good Friday Agreement, but the fall-out of this must not be that Ireland becomes some kind of “Sicily without the sunshine”.
There are those who seek your trust, your support, your vote, who associate with people who threaten our society. They disregard the law, beat up teenagers, shoot their opponents, gut people in bars. They use ruthless methods to promote and protect their interests. Criminal business interests. Sinn Féin seem to have limitless financial resources. Aren’t we entitled to ask how that is?
Ireland at peace is entitled to public representatives who unequivocally and truthfully renounce criminality. We as a party must at every turn, challenge credentials and bona fides of their representatives. The party is as pernicious as it is mysteriously resourced.
Defending our democratic system is one of the major challenges this country faces in the next election. I will be looking for support as a member of a party at the forefront of protecting the system we have chosen: a system of accountable governance, not shadowy, violent, lawlessness.
I have never yet stood for re election and I am grateful for the opportunity to defend my seat. I relish a challenge the contest brings and I promise you I will bring you success. Thank you.