SINN FÉIN HAS unveiled a pre-general election billboard on the subject of water charges.

Speaking outside Leinster House, the party’s deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said:

There is no doubt that the issue of water charges will be a very significant one in the course of the election campaign.

McDonald said Sinn Féin has “set out our stall repeatedly”, reiterating that the party would abolish water charges if elected to give relief to “families who have suffered now for many years under the Fine Gael Labour government”.

“Despite all this talk of recovery, families the length and breadth of the country still struggle just to get by.”

She encouraged people to attend Right2Water rallies scheduled to take place on Saturday.

Órla Ryan / TheJournal.ie Órla Ryan / TheJournal.ie / TheJournal.ie

The party’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty said Sinn Féin’s plan to abolish water charges was fully costed in its pre-Budget submission. The government has previously said Sinn Féin has greatly underestimated the cost of taking such action.

In terms of the election, McDonald said she is hoping for a Sinn Féin majority government but not expecting such an outcome this time around.

“We will not prop up a Fine Gael or a Fianna Fáil-led government,” she stated.

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