Meet the candidates: Barry Campion, Sinn Féin (Longford Westmeath)

Here is our Q&A with Barry Campion, candidate for Sinn Féin in the Longford Westmeath constituency. He has lived in Longford for 11 years and prior to that he spent several years in Westmeath. He ran in the local elections earlier this year for Granard Municipal District.

How would Sinn Féin solve the issue of affordable housing in the area if elected in the Dáil?

Sinn Féin aims to build affordable homes across the country. As we set out in great detail in A Home Of Your Own, these homes will be for sale at prices from €250,000 and will target people on gross incomes ranging from €50,000 and €90,000, with the income eligibility reviewed annually. The purchaser will legally own the home and be able to do what they want with it subject to normal planning rules. They will also be able to pass it on to their children and grandchildren with no hidden equity charges and no inheritance tax.

Sinn Féin would amend Section 34 of the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants greater security of tenure. We would introduce a three-year emergency ban on rent increases for all existing and new tenancies.

Sinn Féin would introduce a mandatory certification system for landlords similar to BER certs. Landlords would be required to have their properties independently inspected by the Local Authority every five years.

Why should people have confidence in Sinn Féin to solve the housing crisis when the party has never been in power before in the Dáil?

The reason people need to be confident that Sinn Féin can and will solve the housing is simple. Fianna Fail and Fine Gael have had between them one hundred years in Government, they have been in Coalition for the last four and a half and a confidence and supply arrangement before that.

Together they have demonstrated that they lack the courage or energy to make the big decisions to tackle the housing crisis. Their idea of solving the housing and homeless crisis is to give more power to vulture funds and companies who have only one purpose in property and that is turning huge profits.

Sinn Féin’s housing plan will deliver 300,000 new homes – private, public, affordable and to rent homes as well as enabling people to build homes in their own communities. This is a comprehensive costed plan, the scale and ambition of which has never been set out by any other party.

What other party or parties would Sinn Féin be prepared to form a coalition Government with?

The best outcome of the election would be a government without Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but our party leader who is always the grown-up in the room has said she will talk to anybody. The best result would be a Sinn Féin-led left coalition.