GE 24 meet the candidates: Barry Campion (Sinn Féin)
Meet the candidates GE 24
My name is Barry Campion, I live in Moyne in rural north Longford with my husband Ciarán. I have lived in County Longford for 10 years and previously in the Kinnegad/Killucan area. I am originally from Kildare.
Why should people have confidence in Sinn Féin to solve the housing crisis when the party have never been in power before in the Dáil?
The reason people need to be confident that Sinn Féin can and will solve the housing is simple. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have had between them one hundred years in government, they have been in coalition for the last four and a half years and in a confidence and supply arrangement before that.
In this last decade that they have governed together, they have demonstrated that they lack the courage or indeed energy to make the big decisions to tackle the housing crisis. Their idea of solving the housing and homeless crisis is to give more power to vulture funds and companies, who have only one purpose, and that is turning huge profits. Sinn Féin’s housing plan will deliver 300,000 new homes – private, public, affordable and to rent homes – as well as enabling people to build homes in their own communities. This is a comprehensive costed plan, the scale and ambition of which has never been set out by any other party. We are ready to start delivering this plan from day one in government.
What other party or parties would Sinn Féin be prepared to form a coalition government with?
The best outcome of the election would be a government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but our party leader, who is always the grown up in the room, has said she will talk to anybody. The best result would be a Sinn Féin-led left coalition.
If you were marking the performance of the current government out of 10 what would you give it?
I would rank the current government 3/10.
What one issue would be your top priority if you are elected to the Dáil?
Housing is a huge issue across the whole constituency and would be my first priority.