Tags: Bernard Allen, Cork, cross border shopping, Ireland, Northern Ireland, politics

INSTEAD of castigating ordinary people for trying to save their hard earned money by shopping in Northern Ireland, the Government should concentrate on bringing prices down in the Republic according to Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen.

“I am getting sick of Fianna Fáil representatives at all levels from councillors to ministers attacking the public for heading to Northern Ireland to shop in the run up to Christmas,” said the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

“I have heard ministers says it is unpatriotic, I have heard a Cork councillor say that it is a ‘moral duty’ that people should shop at home. What these Fianna Fáil representatives fail to acknowledge is the reasons that people are flocking north in the first place.

“Even from Cork and Kerry people are heading to Northern Ireland to shop and the simple reason for it is that prices here are uncompetitive here and that is in large measure the fault of Fianna Fáil themselves. It is quite frankly insulting that those who are responsible for allowing our economy to become extremely uncompetitive during the last 10 years can then turn around and criticise people who are barely managing to survive for trying to save a few euro.

“It’s time the Government showed some patriotism themselves by tackling the gross wastage and inefficiencies they have developed in the public sector; by tackling the vested interests in the professions they have encouraged and most importantly of all by developing some sort of stimulus package to kick start the Irish economy and address the ridiculously high costs of virtually everything in this country when compared to our European neighbours.

“I want to see every cent possible spent here in the Republic to help support Irish jobs and Irish businesses but if Fianna Fáil really want to understand the reasons why the country is haemorrhaging spending north of the border they should take a long, hard look in the mirror. Before they start criticising ordinary people who are suffering as a result of Fianna Fáil’s total economic mismanagement and the savage cuts they are introducing to compensate, they would want to come up with some ideas on addressing the situation themselves.”