‘We deserve to be treated like humans, not statistics’
Independent candidate Eddie Finn, 41, running in the Mallow electoral area, is looking for the common man’s vote – and indeed his story is a typical one.
Made redundant in January of this year, and with a family-of-three young children under nine to support, Mr Finn maintains he will use his background in business and economics to help others.
“I will make one promise to everyone if elected I will be honest and treat everyone with the same respect, we are all human and deserve to be treated like humans not a statistic,” he said.
“I had to emigrate in the 1980s after I left college. I didn’t want to leave the country and I don’t want my kids to leave if they don’t want to.”
According to Mr Finn, Mallow and the local town lands has for the last 20 years being losing jobs in firms such as Erin foods, Nestle Chocolate Factory, Dairygold, Ballybeg quarries, and Kostel.
“Even in the boom times there was no inward investment to replace these lost jobs,” said Mr Finn.
“Our locality has much to offer we need to pull together and look for investment through the IDA, FÁS and Enterprise Ireland, otherwise the crossroads of Munster will be forgotten.”
On health services in the region, Mr Finn said he will “work night and day” to make sure that Mallow hospital retains all of its services.
He also believes something is amiss that €20 million could not be found to vaccinate children against cervical cancer.
“We had a health system 20 years ago that worked very well. Now we are spending more and it has gone down hill.”
“Politics is like building a house, you have to put the foundation in properly,” said Mr Finn.
“At this stage, everybody knows there is something radically wrong upstairs.”
