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Statements by Our Candidates in the 2005 Elections

Davy McAuley (Waterside) and Liam Friel (Cityside)

SDLP andSinn Fein are "colluding" with arms trade

Thursday 21st April 2005

Shaun Gallagher and Gerry Ó hEára have some serious explaining to do regarding Raytheon.

Cllr. Gallagher privately apologised to Raytheon for a council policy which his party had publicly supported.

What's the attitude of the SDLP council group towards this? How can Cllr. Gallagher remain an official candidate after making rubbish of his colleagues?

Mayor Ó hEára had discussions with Raytheon about the company's refusal to meet a delegation including members of FEIC. But he kept these discussions secret from FEIC.

Who else knew about the Ó hEára-Raytheon talks? The SF council group ? Or was it kept from them, too? If they knew about it, how is it that not one of them thought to tell FEIC?

How does SF council leader Maeve McLaughlin square this behaviour with her talk during the week about openness, transparency, accountability?

What lies behind this episode is that both the SDLP and Sinn Fein know full well that the Raytheon plant is producing military technology. They can't defend this morally. But they are terrified of being thought "anti-business." So they resort to all sorts of manoeuvres to keep in with the company and at the same time present themselves as opponents of the arms  trade. They collude with Raytheon and at the same time try to keep FEIC sweet.

Derry City Council urgently needs a block of councillors who won't say one thing publicly and do another privately, and who will straightforwardly oppose the presence of these merchants of death in our town. 





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