Newly elected Sinn Féin TD for Dublin Mid-West Mark Ward joined his Sinn Féin colleagues in Leinster House earlier today for his first official day as a Teachta Dála.

Deputy Ward said;

“I am delighted to be joining my Sinn Féin colleagues here in Leinster House today.

“I am here with a mandate from the people of Dublin Mid-West to tell the government that its policies are not working for workers and families and my first act as a TD will be to vote no confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy.

“This election was dominated by the housing crisis and the complete and utter failure of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to address it.

“The public want a return to public housing delivered by councils and measures to deal with out of control rents.

“These are the solutions that Sinn Féin is putting forward.

“The vast majority of families and workers have less money in their pockets than when Fine Gael, supported by Fianna Fáil, came into government. This is despite the economic growth of recent years.

“The cost of rents, childcare, going to the doctor, the insurance rip off – these are all things that are taking the last penny out of peoples’ pockets and it is Sinn Féin that is putting forward real solutions to these issues.

“Significantly, the issue of Irish Unity and the need for a government that will begin to plan for this eventuality came up on the doors in this election with people seeing the potential to secure the economy and Ireland’s future.

“These are the issues that the people sent me here to work on and these will be my priorities going forward.”