26 Counties

figures. The Twenty-Six County State was set up over 50 years ago to promote the ~ combined interests of British and Irish businessmen. Today we have ample evidence that that was the intention behind its establishment. But the clearest example of this was confirmed on Monday last with a remarkable statement by an Irish government minister.

The Coalition Minister for Sagcial Welfare, Labour Party member Frank Cluskey, was speaking at a Luncheon in Dublin given by the Dublin Junior Chamber of Commerce.

He claimed that more than 215,000 Irish children have not enough food, that 250,000 have not enough warm clothing and that more than the same number have inadequate housing.

Such a statement from a 26 Co. government minister is indeed remarkable, but we must be wary of it, for Cluskey was only announcing the figures as an added propaganda bonus for a ‘pilot scheme to combat poverty’ which he claims the government are launching. — Strange that after fifty years of governing under a constitution which claims that ‘’no child shall suffer cold or hunger or from lack of food, clothing or shelter’’ any government should have to admit these shocking That’s what holy Catholic Ireland puts down on paper as a pledge to her people and that’s the pledge successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fail governments have ruled under.

But: what do we see around us in 1974? Up to 20,000 families homeless:or living in crumbling one-room flats (in Dublin alone); a 60,000 strong average dole-queue all the year round-and the worst Social Security system in Europe.

Hardly evidence of the application of the policy of the 1st Dail which even still is law (or meant to be) in Even more pathetic is the meaning of the claim to look after the old and the unemployed, to provide a roof and sufficient food for all citizens — a single man on the assistance gets the magnificent sum Z of £6.35 a week — not even enough to provide food for a week let alone a flat and heating.

It is clear that the ‘Free’ State has not even attempted to start easing its citizen’s problems for it has not even provided homes for many even after 50 years. The admission by a Coalition government minister that 215,000 children are underfed is shocking by any standards; the admission that as many are poorly housed and underclothed is only ridiculous in a country where the difference between rich and poor is increasing daily, where there is a continuous attack on the living standards of the workers by rising prices and now the attempted lowering of wages. .

The Coalition government like its predecessors Fianna Fail have no | interest in the Irish working class. They are the representatives only of those who are interested in swelling their bank balances at the expense of their workers. &The sell-out of the 26 Co. workers by their governments is ohly equalled by the sell-out by the same governments of the struggle for freedom of the Catholic minority in the North. The success of the National struggle in Ireland and ultimately the socialist struggle, depends on unity of the working class North and South. That unity will become more and more essential in the coming months as the threat of Civil War in the North comes closer. We must work to build this unity between socialists, republicans and trade unionionists — with the Republican anti-lmperialist work*2 class of the 26 Counties.