Jack O’Connor selected as Labour’s election candidate
TRADE Unionist Jack O’Connor was selected as the Labour candidate for Wicklow at the party’s selection convention last Wednesday evening in the Glenview Hotel.
Following his selection as the party’s General Election candidate, Mr O’Connor said that ‘investment in high quality public services and the provision of decent secure long term jobs’ were ‘ the key to a better, fairer future.’
‘Instead of returning to the cynical practice of buying peoples votes with their own money, we should be deploying the revenues of the most rapidly growing economy in Europe towards housing our people and rebuilding our public health, education and childcare services as well as restoring pension provision to our senior citizens and abolishing lower entry rates in the public service.
Mr O’Connor said that Ireland can’t afford to be putting hundreds of millions of euro aside in a rainy day fund when ‘its bucketing down on our public housing, healthcare, education and childcare services’ right now.
‘Parallel with this we must prioritise decent secure long term jobs instead of the growing phenomenon of insecure precarious work, by increasing public investment in scientific research, supporting new companies subject to a quality employment standard, focussing on continuous re-skilling of our workforce for the age of digitalisation and legislating for the right to representation at work for all who wish to avail of it,’ he said.
‘ The economic recovery, which is due to the sacrifices the people have made, affords us the unique opportunity to make dramatic progress, without increasing taxation, while simultaneously meeting our commitments under the Paris accords on climate change.
‘ The housing waiting list increased by a shocking 39% here last year as against 9% nationally and 32% in Dublin,’ he said. ‘Meanwhile there is no plan for major development of the strategically important ports of Rosslare, Arklow or Wicklow even in the light of the imminence of Brexit.’
Jack O’Connor has been active in the Trade Union and Labour movement all his working life and currently sits on the Executive Council of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). He represents Ireland on the Executive Committee of the European Trade Union Confederation, and on the General Council of the International Trade Union Confederation.
From 2003 until recently, he was President of the country’s largest trade union, SIPTU.