PRESS RELEASE

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Sinn Féin Organizes for
Referendum To Stop Bailout

Feb. 23, 2011 (EIRNS)—Five days before Election Day, Feb. 25, Sinn Féin launched a big billboard campaign saying: "It's not too late to stop this. Vote Sinn Féin."

The so-called major parties are trying to ignore, what everybody calls the elephant in the room, by trying to dance around the question of the bailout. The newspapers and TV news, knowing full well that this is the central object of voter concern, have attempted to minimize the role of Sinn Féin, the United Left Alliance, the Christian Solidarity Party, and an unprecedented number of independent candidates, who are all calling for burning the bondholders. The Sinn Féin program includes the slogan, "Not One Red Cent for the Banks."

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams has called for a referendum on the bank bailout. According to the Irish Times, Adams said that Ireland can ill-afford to allow any more money to leave the country in senior bond debt. Instead, Sinn Féin has proposed that the EU30 billion that is intended for Irish banks later this Spring should be invested in jobs and infrastructure. Adams said that a Sinn Féin government would not renege on sovereign debt owed to lending countries. "Key to it is to separate the bad, toxic bank debt, private debt, from the sovereign debt," he said.

In huge, bright letters, the Sinn Féin election billboard shows Fine Gael, Labour, and Fianna Fáil all tied up in bailout plans. The sign then reads:

"In four weeks' time Anglo Irish and Irish Nationwide will be given another 30 billion euros of taxpayers' money. It's not too late to stop this!"

As the Guardian reported Feb. 20, the conditions in Ireland are already such, that up to 50,000 Irish citizens could leave the country this year.