Community activist Emmett Smith joins Dail race

Cavan community activist Emmett Smith will contest the general election as an independent Right 2 Change candidate.

Up to 100 other candidates nationwide will also run under the Right 2 Change banner, making it one of the largest blocs contesting the election.

The Right 2 Change policy platform grew out of the significant national movement against water charges and austerity.

Emmett has been centrally involved in organizing anti-water charges and anti-austerity events in Cavan. He was the first to call for a boycott of the water charges in the county. He was also the Cavan delegate when community, trades unions and political groups came together to develop a common set of policies to put before the people. These policies, and a list of almost 100 candidates nationwide, are available at right2change.ie.

'There is a real appetite for change out there. There has never been such a wave of protests in Ireland on the basic ‘bread and butter issues’ that affect people’s lives. People feel completely let down by the mainstream parties that both caused and implemented the austerity agenda.

'Labour and Fine Gael have let us down badly; they completely reneged on their promises of ‘democratic revolution’ and ‘not one more red cent’ to the rotten banks. The coalition just implemented the disastrous policies of Fianna Fail and the IMF, and try to pass them off as their own; and it’s not working.

'Let’s face it, nothing has really changed since the crash. The same neo-liberal ‘markets’ agenda is still dominating Irish life, to the detriment of our communities and social services. These same disastrous market policies have, yet again, driven hundreds of thousands of our young, well-educated people into emigration. We are driving all of our young doctors and nurses away.

'It’s is not an exaggeration to call this a social disaster. Enda Kenny’s talk of bringing them home is an absolute fantasy.

'People have no confidence that we are not just setting ourselves up for a repeat of the boom and bust that has decimated families, communities, and the important public services that people rely on when the ‘markets’ fail.

'The government is pushing the idea that they have achieved ‘stability’ and that they will keep the so-called recovery going; is 100,000 families on housing lists stability? Is increasing numbers of children living in hotels stability? Is a youth mental health crisis stability? Or a growing drugs epidemic? We need to start seeing through the PR lies and spin. Fine Gael’s stability is only for the rich; the rest of us must make do with a hollowed out society. It’s just not good enough,' he said.