Sinn Fein is confident the continuing search for the bodies of the so-called disappeared will not cost it votes in the European and local elections, Mr Sean Crowe, a candidate in both, said yesterday.
Mr Crowe, who is contesting the European elections in Dublin and the county council elections in Tallaght South, said the search had been raised by voters on a number of occasions, "but it is not an election issue. People are naturally concerned about the plight of the families. We have tried to explain that we do not believe the information given about the location of the bodies was deliberately wrong. I do not believe it will damage our vote."
At a press conference in Dublin to introduce the party's local government manifesto, Mr Crowe said there was no local democracy in the State. "We have an outmoded system of local administration and an elected tier with little or no real power. Our structures are based on a framework laid down 100 years ago. It was inadequate then and it has deteriorated over time."
Unelected officials had been given virtually dictatorial powers in every county and borough, he said. Sinn Fein believed that local authorities must be given the powers to retain and spend locally a proportion of income tax. "Local government must be financed and empowered in the context of fundamental tax reform, including a specific tax on the financial sector."
Mr Daithi Doolan, a Dublin candidate in the south-east inner city, said housing was the major issue. "There are 20,000 people on housing lists in the State, with over 8,000 of them in Dublin. There has been a huge increase in homelessness in Dublin, which is a disgrace at a time when the economy is generating unprecedented wealth."
The Sinn Fein manifesto calls for the introduction of stringent codes of conduct for councillors to curb corruption in local government. It also advocates the transfer of control of health, education and social services to local government, and the abolition of "unelected quangos", whereby people are appointed to various bodies.
