A Bundoran councillor has slammed Queen Elizabeth’s visit as a €20 million waste of taxpayer’s cash.
Sinn Fein Cllr Sean Carty said everything is wrong about the royal visit to Ireland including the cost and the timing.
“€20 million plus. This is what the Queen’s visit will cost the Irish economy. In a time when benefits, childcare, wages, healthcare, education andjust about everything is been slashed. A time when already billions have been thrown into banks to no avail, somebody thought that it would be a good idea to waste another €20 million.
“And at the same time, while they did so, caused great offence to many of Ireland’s citizens,” he fumed.
He added that the timing of the visit this week on the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings could not have been worse.
“The timing of this visit, the anniversary of the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which many believe were carried out with the involvement of British intelligence. To date, no files, from this atrocity have been released into the public domain.
“The Queen’s visit is been presented as “leaving the past behind us” but in reality the monarchy is all about the past. It represents hierarchy, difference and inequality.
“Elizabeth Windsor claims to be monarch of part of our country. The values and ideals that she represents have no place in Ireland.
We are living in changed and changing times and steps are been taken towards a normal relationship between Britain and Ireland, however, it would be very wrong to think that this relationship already exists.
“It is not the right time to invite the queen here to visit, financially it is wrong and spits in the face of the millions of men, women & children who are struggling daily to get by,” he said.
And he added that for the people of Donegal, who witnessed their neighbours in Derry gunned down in cold blood on Bloody Sunday, it is particularly insensitive.
“Morally, it is wrong, with so many raw wounds & the massive lack of recognition, or even apology for centuries of pain, hunger, and heartbreak that have been caused by the military that this woman personifies.
“And afterall, this Queen was the Commander In Chief of the British Armed Forces that carried out the Bloody Sunday atrocity and many, many other attacks on innocent Irish people for over sixty years,” he said.
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