Elect Andrew Mannion for Ballinasloe in LE 2024
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Hi there, my name is Andrew Mannion and I'm running as a People Before Profit candidate for the Ballinasloe LEA in the local elections on the 7th of June, 2024.
I'm a 29 year old support worker for the Brothers of Charity in Ballinasloe.
Having been born and raised in this town, I've seen the steady decline of Ballinasloe as I've grown up in the area.
This has culminated in a scourge of vacant and derelict buildings left idle in the middle of the worst housing crisis the state has ever seen, homes owned by the council in a state of utter disrepair, a hollowing out of major public services, and a town left out in the cold as the only Galway town in the Roscommon-Galway constituency.
After organising workers in the local Corrib Oil and brought them out to strike for union recognition in an attempt to better our pay and conditions in the face of the soaring cost-of-living, I was approached by PBP and asked to run for the Ballinasloe area in this year's local elections.
Since joining the party's Galway branch in late 2020, I've seen the importance and effectiveness of ordinary people coming together in trade unions, tenant's union, and community groups to fight for the change they want to see and I want to continue that in Ballinasloe.
Should I get elected, I will:
- Advocate for the building of public housing on public land, along with opposing the selling off of public land to private developers
- Push for the compulsory purchase of long-standing vacant and derelict properties, to bring them back into use for the public good
- Make green spaces more abundant and more accessible to all
- Fight against the constant degradation of our public transport network and reduce the amount of our network going out to private tender
- Demand that the council address the chronic problems and issues in the public housing stock that tenants have fought on for years
- Refuse to support Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil on the council. Since the inception of the State, these 2 neo-liberal parties have been in control of local and national politics and have prioritised private profiteering over the welfare of the public, leaving us in the situation we currently find ourselves in. I will be a voice for workers and ordinary people. The profit-driven policies and ideology of the 2 establishment parties are completely antithetical to the needs of the working class and it's time that workers had a real representative in their council who will hold these parties to account.
As a socialist running for a party with no backing from business interests or wealthy donors behind us, we rely on small donations, be that €5 or €10, from ordinary people to fund our campaigns.
How will your donation be spent?
The funds would go towards printing leaflets and posters, as well as things like zip-ties that will be used during the campaign.
Organizer
Andrew Mannion
Organizer
County Galway