Press Release: Ben Gilroy to Stand in Meath By-Election

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Ben Gilroy
Direct Democracy Ireland (DDI) wish to announce that Ben Gilroy will be running as our candidate in the up-coming by-election in Meath East. He is currently the party leader and presided at the official launch of DDI as a new national political party in November 2012, thus changing our status from a political organisation that supported independent candidates at the last election.

Ben is a long time resident of Navan with a young family, and for many years ran his own business in the town until the policies of the establishment political parties caused such a huge loss of trade and ultimately his business.

Since then though Ben has been very busy helping families and businesses the length and breadth of the country to defend their homes against banks and receivers. He was instrumental in setting up the group ‘People for Economic Justice’ and is renowned for his constitutional stands against county sheriffs, the videos of which have become viral on the internet. Many families and businesses remain in their property today because of Ben and this group fighting for the rights of the people against vested financial interests.

This despite all government efforts to make it easier for the banks’ to repossess.

For Ben, after so many years contributing to the economy as a self employed businessman and then finding he was not entitled to any assistance, the subsequent worry for his family’s future brought into focus that the country is very sick and something radical is needed to fix it.

In the last five years we have seen the establishment political parties saddle the country and the sovereign people with an odious debt, which is probably illegal under international law. Subsequently we have seen austerity measures imposed including pay cuts, cuts to welfare, pensions and carers allowances, massive job losses, tax and levy increases, as well as huge increases in fuel costs that are causing people to literally die of cold. The desperation around the country is so apparent that from official figures
alone two people every week are taking their own life, however the figures if properly recorded would show a much bigger tragedy.

This scandal has been swept under the carpet by the establishment parties to their shame. We also have the return of the scourge of mass emigration seeing the best and brightest talent leaving in their hundreds of thousands. It may massage the unemployment
figures for the government but it is dire for the country’s future prospects as the skilled workforce is depleted in a way not seen since the 1950s.

Governments seem completely detached from the reality of life in this country, and the new stealth taxes on water, homes, and waste are the straw that has finally broken the camel’s back. People just have no more to give and are having to choose between paying bills or feeding their children, yet government threatens them with force, fines and even prison if they refuse. It has never been more clear that the established political system in Ireland is broken and will always be broken unless we radically change it now.

Standing as an Independent TD was an option but was not going to be effectual if the ‘them and us’ culture of Irish politics is ever going to be changed. So DDI grew into a fully fledged political party so that we could gain the strength and numbers to make the change the political system needs. However rather than a ‘party’, DDI prefer to be called a ‘political service’ because our core principles are to empower the people in the running of their country.

We want to attack the root causes of the problems and hardship and bring the real lives of people back into focus. Issues like negative equity and untenable arrears are strangling the economy and need a radical solution that will include debt write down. Similarly business rents, rates and charges that are preventing homegrown business from growing or forcing them out of business need positive action instead of empty government promises.

Most importantly we intend to challenge under international law the imposition of this odious bank debt on the sovereign people and the payment of bondholders, as this is the root cause of the financial and social crisis facing us. We also intend to challenge the legality of any contracts made by the government in the sale of our sovereign assets to private interests.

This country per capita is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, yet our natural resources from fishing, mining, forestry, oil and gas, are being given away by successive governments, sending all revenues overseas. There is no reason why we cannot challenge these contracts and make Ireland self sufficient in both energy and food, and it is about time we had politicians with a will to do it.

In DDI we hope to change the face of politics in Ireland by returning the power enshrined in our original constitution whereby the people had equal right to call referendums and act as a counter balance on government. This power was unlawfully taken away by the governments of the day without reference to the people. We wish to return this power as well as the power to recall TDs and Senators who are not performing as true representatives of the people.

This provision for Direct Democracy was given to us by our founders and if it were in place five years ago the infamous bank guarantee would never have been allowed happen because whatever unscrupulous acts the European bankers asked the government to do in the dead of night would have been met with the response ‘Well we could do what you ask but our political system means that within the week the people will call a referendum and nullify it, so you had better come up with a better idea’ We want to move away from the system that masquerades as democracy in this country.

It is a system run only by the few that sit at the cabinet table and it uses the party whip to completely nullify the views of all the other TDs and those they purport to represent. In effect voting for anyone under a party whip system is a wasted vote because these TDs do as they are told by the most influential handful of members at the top of the cabinet table.

What we actually have is a quasi dictatorship with no accountability and no recourse for the people during the government’s tenure. Hence any corporate or geopolitical body who can exert influence on those top three or four at the cabinet table therefore dictate Irish national policy. This is wrong and at DDI we plan to end the whip system.

Ireland has for too long been ruled by family dynasties in the three main parties, keeping control of the country in the hands of a close nit political class. The lure of the gravy train of high salaries, expenses, pensions and ‘jobs for the boys’ makes for career politicians who may not be in it for the right reasons. This is not a monarchy or a royal court. We are supposed to be a Sovereign Republic and DDI believe this situation must be changed to attract people into politics who are in it for the good of the country and future generations and not for themselves.

For too long now we have seen the results of the concentration of power in the hands of a few in the Dail and the terrible effects of their unaccountability, and now they wish to remove the only counterbalance left against their power by abolishing the Senate. The current political class has failed again and again and the cycle can only be broken when people stop voting for the failed policies and broken promises of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour and their junior partners, and start to vote for a radical change that ousts these dinosaurs of political thinking. It is time to insist on the power returning to the people with direct democracy as the founders of this state always intended to be. Only then will we have an honest, stable government and economic and environmental policies that shift the balance in favour of the people and the country’s future.

Direct Democracy Ireland
www.DirectDemocracy.ie

All correspondence to:
National Office:
D House
Finnegans Way,
Trim,
Co. Meath
Ireland.

015240547