Sinn Féin mounts Dublin mayoral challenge
Sinn Féin has launched its campaign to have Councillor Nicky Kehoe elected as Mayor of Dublin on 3 July with the distribution of a full-colour manifesto and a personal appeal from Gerry Adams to 30,000 homes in the capital.
nouncing his candidature, Councillor Kehoe pointed out that Sinn Féin holds the post of mayor in Derry City and will next month hold it in Sligo. He said: ``As a Sinn Féin mayor, I would be the dynamic for change. Sinn Féin would give the establishment parties a good shaking, clear out the cobwebs and corruption, and deliver on essential services for the city.
``It is important that Sinn Féin sets out a radical republican and labour agenda for the term of the next mayor because Ruairí Quinn's Labour Party has handed the job of mayor to Fianna Fáil as part of a pact. Dublin deserves a new deal.''
As with Cathal Crumley, the new mayor of Derry, Councillor Kehoe is a former republican POW, having spent 12 years in Potlaoise jail. In 1975, he spent 35 days on hunger strike.
Kehoe was elected last year to Dublin City Council and is now a member of the council's Economic Development, Planning and European Affairs Committee.
The councillor's four-page manifesto is titled `A New Deal for Dublin' and proposes a number of measures to tackle problems affecting the capital.
To reduce the traffic gridlock, Councillor Kehoe said that he wants one overall body to implement a cohesive traffic strategy for Dublin.
``Funding for a major new social housing programme is essential to bring real practical benefits from the economic boom for the ordinary people of Dublin,'' Kehoe said. ``Calls for the control of land prices and effective penalties for property speculators have not been heeded by the government. Their failure to make any efforts to curb speculator profits suggests they have some personal gains to be made from the current situation, which they are not about to lose.''
Kehoe is also promoting a radical agenda on child care, the environment, local government, fighting corruption and combating racism.
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