Fine Gael’s good fortune

FINE Gael’s fortunes are certainly in the ascendancy in County Clare. With Tony Mulcahy and Martin Conway’s election to the Seanad, the party’s county representation in the Houses of the Oireachtas now stands at a record four.

A new political order has been established in Clare and salt has been rubbed into the wounds of a bruised and battered Fianna Fáil camp, which like the organisation countrywide, is trying to regroup and rebuild under new leader, Micheál Martin.
Clare’s new senators have been very influential figures for Fine Gael on the local authority scene in recent years and so have an in-depth knowledge of the issues that are of greatest concern to this constituency and the Mid-West.
Senator Mulcahy was selected by Clare Fine Gael to contest the Seanad election on the Labour Panel and received the endorsement of party leader, Enda Kenny.
His success means he will unquestionably make a third attempt to win a Dáil seat. His doubling of votes to 6,829 in the recent General Election was quite a milestone in his quest to engage in parliamentary politics.
Senator Conway, who has been quite vociferous about Fine Gael’s decision not to add him to the ticket for the recent General Election, will also have to be given his chance next time round. His route to the Upper House was by way of nomination from People with Disabilities Ireland on the Administrative Panel. While he is visually impaired, this has not hampered Mr Conway in any way in the execution of his duties as a councillor.
A former Mayor of Clare, Tony Mulcahy had to step down immediately as Mayor of Shannon when his election to the Seanad was confirmed. His seat on both local authorities will have to be filled and in accordance with custom and practice, it will fall to Fine Gael party members. As two people will replace Senator Mulcahy, it will result in an overall gain of one in Clare for the party.
Senator Conway has also had to resign his county council seat and a member of Fine Gael will be co-opted.
The co-options give Clare Fine Gael the opportunity to infuse new blood into the party’s public representative line-up ahead of the local elections in two years.
This election will be a mid-term barometer on the performance of the Fine Gael/Labour Government, so Fine Gael’s four Oireachtas members and town and county councillors cannot rest on their laurels if they want to consolidate their electoral superiority. Having been on the back foot for so long, Fine Gael will be extremely careful not to cede any advantage to its age-old nemesis.
The Clare Labour Party, with Deputy Michael McNamara as its new talisman, should also have a brighter future and will, no doubt, be well prepared for the local elections.
It will be very interesting to observe over the term of the current Dáil what Clare’s five Government Oireachtas members can achieve for the county. Hopefully, the sole Opposition voice of Deputy Timmy Dooley will not be drowned out either.

Traveller committee without Travellers
“A FANTASTIC waste of time,” was the rather bizarre comment made this week by the chairman of the Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee (LTACC), Brian Meaney, as he explained how there are currently no Travellers involved.
There are three places available for representatives of the Travelling community but despite plea after plea, nobody has come forward to join.
Speaking at a meeting of Ennis Town Council, he commented that Clare County Council have “bent over backwards” to try and facilitate Traveller engagement with the committee, which the local authority is legally obliged to establish.
Councillor Meaney said unless there is Traveller engagement with the committee, he believes there is “no point in continuing with it, we are talking to ourselves”.
“Fundamentally wrong” was how Councillor Paul O’Shea described the situation of having a Traveller committee without representation from that community.
According to the LTACC annual report for 2010, Ennis Community Development Project (CDP), in association with the Irish Traveller Movement, worked to secure Traveller nominees to the LTACC. At the time, there were two Travellers who were “interim members”. It was proposed by the CDP that increasing the number of Travellers to three might encourage participation and could provide geographical Traveller representation from Shannon, Ennis and Ennistymon. This was brought to Clare County Council as a recommendation and the council, at its June 2010 meeting, agreed to increase the number of Travellers on the committee to three. However, no other Travellers approached the committee.
One has to ask, where did the committee cast its net in seeking Traveller involvement? How hard did the group try to get somebody on board?
On Wednesday, The Clare Champion contacted Travellers at the St Joseph’s Education Centre in Ennis to see why they are not being represented on the committee.
Ennis Traveller John Mongan stated that he would be interested in joining the committee. Others at the centre, who work with Travellers, have also expressed an interest.
According to Mr Mongan, many Travellers are hesitant to be seen as speaking for the entire community and the needs of Travellers in relation to accommodation are complex.
“Every Traveller has their own way of life and dealing with accommodation is not simple; some want to live outside of town, while others want to live in houses in estates. I am surprised that there is nobody involved with the committee, as many Travellers are involved with the council in different ways. I would definitely be interested in attending the next meeting of the group. I do think it’s very important that Travellers are involved,” he commented.
Brian Crossan, director of St Joseph’s Education Centre, believes one of the reasons Travellers have not got involved is that many are not comfortable with the terminology used at meetings. He added that the issue of Traveller accommodation is “complex, one size does not fit all”. He confirmed that there has been some interest in joining the committee from members of the Travelling community in St Joseph’s.
If The Clare Champion can quite easily find Travellers who are willing to join the accommodation committee, it must be worth another attempt on the part of Councillor Meaney to try to get things back on track. It’s in everybody’s interest.