Green Party councillor regrets slip-up

Green Party General Election candidate Brian Meaney has admitted he regrets telling hundreds of people who attended a public meeting in Ennis he wouldn’t get elected to the Dáil on February 25.

The Green Party councillor, who was one of the last speakers at a meeting organised by nurses from Ennis hospital in the West County Hotel, Ennis told the audience he had to leave early to collect his daughter from college and added “it is not as if you are going to elect me”.
Councillor Meaney told The Clare Champion he made the comment out of frustration as he felt that a lot of public representatives didn’t fully appreciate the need to reform the HSE to re-introduce political accountability that disappeared following the disbanding of the health boards.
He said he was fully committed to contesting the election campaign to try and improve the lives of Clare people.
“I am going before the people of Clare as I feel that there is a need to allow electors who share some, if not all, of the Green Party values and objectives for the future welfare of the country an opportunity to endorse them by supporting me in the ballot.
“I believe in these policies and that belief is based on reflection on past mistakes and also research and observation of other countries’ approaches to tackling these problems and obtaining successful outcomes.
“I am being told on the doorstep that the electors want politicians to get in there and put in place the structures political, legal and economic that will stop the short- term ‘boom for some and eventually bust- for all’ policies being pursued by governments in the past for electoral advantage. “People want stability to plan their lives and businesses.
“The solutions to this crisis will not be produced overnight but wil come about by putting in place the strict structures needed to ensure that this madness is never repeated,” he said.
“I humbly offer my energies and commitment to represent Clare people for the next Dáil term and I hope that I will be able to answer George Lee’s children’s question about what did I do when the country was in crisis in the early part of the century.”