By Cillian Sherlock, PA
Sinn Féin would create a minister for reunification and abolish the means test for the carer’s allowance, Mary Lou McDonald has told her party conference.
Ms McDonald used her leader’s address at Sinn Féin’s ardfheis to present an optimistic vision for the party and appeal to voters’ concerns in the areas of housing, childcare and migration.
With eyes on the upcoming general election, Ms McDonald appealed to the public to give Sinn Féin “a chance” to lead a government.
She warned that workers and families “cannot afford” another five years of Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil in power.
A key announcement in the speech was a new pledge to abolish the carer’s allowance means test, with Ms McDonald saying too many carers receive no recognition from the State.
In 2023, the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated the cost of abolishing the means test at approximately €400 million per year.
Ms McDonald said: “We choose to back people with disabilities to live full lives as equal citizens with access to work, education, services, and independent living.”
She added that the party’s budget, which included relaxing the means test but not abolishing it, provided the “most substantial package of support for carers ever presented in a single budget”.
Sinn Féin is also seeking to position itself as the party that will “get childcare right” for parents and providers.
In her speech in Athlone on Saturday evening, Ms McDonald told the audience that she was “once that parent juggling work with two small children”.
She said Sinn Féin will deliver fair pay to early years’ educations and childcare professionals for their “crucial role” in society.
Meanwhile, she said the party – if elected – would cap childcare at €10 per day per child by September next year.
Its policy platform includes a plan to build capacity and extend parental leave to 52 weeks along with “crucial steps towards public provision”, she added.
Ms McDonald told the ardfheis, which the party said was attended by more than 1,000 people, that Sinn Féin would establish a minister for reunification at the Department of the Taoiseach.
She said a new Irish government should be “clear-cut” in committing to holding referendums on unity.
She said: “We can unify Ireland. We need a mature, respectful conversation about constitutional change.
“Be in no doubt – unity referendums are coming. By end of this decade, people north and south must have their say.”
She said the Irish and UK governments cannot “continue to tread water” and must instead plan and prepare for the polls.
Ms McDonald said a green paper on Irish unity should be prepared and a Citizens Assembly established.
With the Government delivering a budget on Tuesday, Ms McDonald also pledged to cut the Universal Social Charge (USC) for every worker, abolishing the tax on the first €45,000 of income – a move she said would mean average workers pay nothing.
The Sinn Féin leader also placed a significant emphasis on the housing crisis, saying the party will deliver the “largest housing programme in the history of the State”.
This includes 300,000 homes, 50,000 of which would be affordable homes at prices from €250,000.
Sinn Féin also plans to deliver 75,000 social houses.
She said the party would cut rents and “stop rip-off increases”.
In healthcare, Ms McDonald said the overcrowding pressures at University Hospital Limerick “shows a Government unable to fix what’s broken”.
She pledged to deliver a second emergency department for the midwest while introducing free GP care, additional medical cards and cutting healthcare costs more generally.
She said: “We are the party to deliver universal healthcare within a decade, providing the right care, in the right place, at the right time.”
On the subject of migration, Ms McDonald said Ireland is a welcoming country and “repulsive” racism must be faced down.
Ms McDonald reiterated party policy that accommodation centres for international-protection applicants must not be located in working-class communities “struggling to survive”.
She described Sinn Féin’s approach as based on community, fairness and common sense.
Having publicly acknowledged that the party performed well below its own expectations in the local and European elections earlier this year, Ms McDonald stressed that Sinn Féin is now “more determined than ever” to deliver on its ambitions, adding: “We are not giving up.”
