SINN Féin’s Aisling Reilly took over as MLA for West Belfast back in October, replacing the longstanding Fra McCann.
 
Now facing into her first ever election, sitting down with the Andersonstown News the former world handball champion described how she sees this as an opportunity to give back to the community that she loves.

Just last month Aisling successfully introduced legislation in the Assembly to scrap hospital car parking charges. Something which she is particularly proud of.
 
“In a previous life I’ve been an athlete and fully supported by the people of West Belfast and although I'm still playing, I feel like this is kind of my time to give back to the people who have given so much to me in terms of that support,” she said.
 
Her immediate vision for West Belfast, she added, and particularly in the Upper Springfield area, is to see a state-of-the-art, fit for purpose leisure centre built at the top of the Whiterock Road.
 
"We see that in Brook Leisure Centre, in Andersonstown and the Falls. I think we need something similar here – it would be a flagship, especially with the new houses being developed at the top of the Monagh Bypass.
 
"We in Sinn Féin are about building houses, building communities where people can really grow and families can raise their children in safe communities and bring back what I see when I go into Turf Lodge and Dermott Hill where they still have strong, tight-knit communities and where we also have seen proposals for the access into the hills, where we will really be opening up the Black Mountain.
 
"My vision is for a West Belfast that people are proud of, and are proud to come from, proud to visit, proud to raise their families and proud to say that they are from West Belfast because I'm certainly proud of West Belfast.”
 
While Sinn Féin have been the dominant party within West Belfast for more than 20 years, the historic levels of child poverty and the housing waiting list remain some of the highest on these islands. When asked how her party plan on tackling that, Aisling said that they are going into this election to win as many seats as possible and hopefully return as the largest party so to effect change.
 
“We want to go back and we want the lead in the Assembly and we want to work with other parties as well.
 
“Of course, we want to have more ministers and we want to prioritise health, which we want to invest an extra billion into. We want to create more jobs, more doctors, more nurses.

“We want to tackle unemployment by bringing in more jobs to the area and we have seen that recently with Ortus bringing more jobs to this area. We also want to see more businesses opening in the area and more shops which will bring in more footfall.
 
“Yes we want to lead, but we don’t take anything for granted and the final result of the election is up to the people.”
 
Aisling added that since being co-opted in October, she has learnt a lot from the legislation that has been passed.
 
“I have personally seen what we can do when parties come together and work together. We seen that with the passing of Daíthí’s Law.
 
“Bringing forward the piece of legislation to scrap hospital car parking fees and taking that on from Fra [McCann] was a big learning curve for me.
 
“But it also demonstrated to me that what goes into making legislation, and if elected I hope to bring forward more pieces of legislation to enhance people's lives.”
 
On the issue of the quality of the social housing stock available, Aisling pointed to the record of Sinn Féin Communities Minister, Dierdre Hargey who announced an overhall of the sector.
 
“Dierdre Hargey and Carál [Ní Chuilín] before her, made a commitment to bring in the biggest overhaul of the Housing Executive in 50 years.
 
“There are now schemes in place to help making the housing stock more livable and keep heat in.
 
“We need homes for people that are comfortable but also we want to be building more homes for people to tackle those waiting lists.”
 
The election for the 2022 Assembly election will take place on 5 May. People have until midnight tonight (Thursday) to register to vote.