'Election now', Heydon demands

The intention of the minister for finance to introduce a four-year budget strategy is 'worrying', Kildare South FG candidate Martin Heydon says, when it is obvious that it will not be him or his Government that will be tasked with implementing those four budgets.

Noting that a bank guarantee trumpeted two years ago as going to be 'the cheapest guarantee in the world' will now cost the Irish taxpayer up to €34 billion for Anglo Irish Bank alone, Cllr Heydon says now is the time for the people of the country to have their say and give a strong mandate to a new Government.

"Such a Government can take a four year view with a certainty that the majority of the people of this country want them there, and trust them to implement the cuts that are now necessary in as fair a manner as is possible," he says in his weekly letter to supporters.

"Meeting people when out and about and on the canvass I am acutely aware of the fear, anger, frustration and confusion among the general public at the way their hard earned cash is being thrown away to faceless 'bondholders' and 'marketeers' as a result of mismanagement and a lack of regulation by those who were supposed to be in charge," he says. "It is ironic that the general Irish man or woman who may not have benefited significantly from the 'Celtic Tiger' are now the ones that face the long road of paying the costs."

Cllr Heydon adds that Fine Gael is capable of bringing in the changes that are required to allow the country to begin to grow again and concentrate efforts on where that change is really needed, 'revitalising the domestic business sector where jobs should be paramount'. "We must keep the pressure on this Government," he concludes.