MARY LOU MCDONALD has come out swinging in response to criticism from Fianna Fáil’s Jack Chambers, with McDonald saying the Finance Minister would do well to remember that it was his party who “crashed the economy”.

McDonald was responding to comments made by Chambers earlier today on RTÉ Radio 1′s Today with Claire Byrne programme. 

Chambers said Sinn Féin’s housing proposals were an effort by the party to “control every aspect of people’s lives” because its affordable housing policy proposal would see people own their home, but not the land it is built on. 

Chambers added that a Sinn Féin government would “blow our economy, risk our future and wreck our enterprise and industrial policy”. 

When these comments were put to Mary Lou McDonald at Sinn Féin’s think-in in Dublin this morning, McDonald said the Finance Minister ought to be reminded of the “actual damage” his party did in government as opposed to “speculating” on the damage a Sinn Féin government might do. 

“Jack would do well to remember that Fianna Fáil crashed this economy, shattered this economy. Wrecked businesses, wrecked people’s lives. There’s people now living on the far side of the globe who may never get the opportunity to come back home and live here, and they’re there because of Jack Chamber’s government,” McDonald said. 

She said her party would be strong in “advancing a productive, enterprising economy and also an equal society.”

“Maybe that doesn’t add up for Fianna Fáil but I’ll tell you for most people, most Irish people across communities, that adds up. Good jobs, decent work, proper terms and conditions,” McDonald said.