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Clare Camogie Board met with members of Clare County Council this week, where it emerged that it would cost up to €60,000 to enter into a 35-year lease/purchase arrangement with the council to develop changing facilities at their pitch in Doora.

COMMENT The negotiations are underway between Fine Gael and the Labour Party. It was an interesting election and a fascinating count but the timescale for the discussions is not in the hands of those who were elected in the democratic process of last week.  

COMMENT Green Party leader John Gormley blamed Fianna Fáil at the weekend for his party’s annihilation at the polls. Or at least he claimed that it was his party’s association with Fianna Fáil that caused them to lose all their seats. Talk about being savaged by a dead sheep!  

EDITORIAL AFTER lying dormant for almost 20 years, the Labour Party’s red rose has bloomed once again in County Clare. Michael McNamara from Scariff will take his seat in the 31st Dáil next week as one of a record number of 37 Labour Party deputies.

In total 579 votes were spoiled across the constituency and as many as 12% of these were due to the changed format of the ballot paper according to the constituency’s returning officer. In previous elections, candidates were listed alphabetically in a single row but with 16 candidates on the ballot, for the first time in the county, candidates were divided into two rows on the ballot paper.At Saturday’s count, just under 1% of the poll was deemed invalid, a jump of 0.3% on 2007 when 385 of the 56,770 poll was spoiled.This increase in the number of invalid votes from 385 to 579 is due in part to deliberate defacement of ballots by disgruntled voters but also due to confusion among the electorate faced with two rows of candidates, each with a box to the left of their name for their party logo and one to the right for indicating preference. In the case of independents, of which there were …

A SECOND North Clare name was thrown into the ring for a senate seat this week. Councillor Martin Conway has announced that he has secured a nomination to contest a seat in the Seanad. Councillor Conway hopes to be elected onto the Public Administration panel.

Returning officer Pat Wallace declared the candidates elected in the following order: Pat Breen (FG); Michael McNamara (Lab); Joe Carey (FG); and Timmy Dooley (FF).

Carey and Dooley take final seats Deputy Joe Carey from Fine Gael has taken the third seat in the Clare constituency. He got 1,528 of Deputy Pat Breen’s surplus to bring him to 12,489, exceeding the quota, on the 12th count. Fianna Fail’s Timmy Dooley took the final seat with 11,021 votes. He comfortably beat off independent James Breen who reached a final vote of 9,520.