Tag Archives: Joe Carey

TO hold the two seats it has will be the objective for Fine Gael in this county in the next general election. While Pat Breen and Joe Carey have worked the oracle three times in a row (2007, 2011 and 2016), there is no doubt that holding both seats will not be easy in 2020. In 1992, 1997 and 2002, the party had to be content with just a single seat in Clare, during what was a fairly glum time for Fine Gael overall, as it held power for just two and a half years, after Labour ditched Fianna Fáil in the mid nineties. Following a mauling in the 2002 election the party’s long term existence was in doubt, before a dramatic resurgence. Narrowly denied power in 2007, the party still won back a second seat in Clare, and avoiding going into government proved a blessing in disguise as the Irish economy was about to be cruelly exposed. The Breen …

ALMOST €3 million in roads funding has been allocated to Clare for the coming year, Fine Gael TD Joe Carey has confirmed. Deputy Carey said that €2,932, 040  has been made available to Clare County Council to upgrade and maintain the county’s roads network as a result of funding secured in Budget 2020. “The allocation, which has been confirmed by Transport Infrastructure Ireland, includes €1 million for the provision of a pavement linking Lissycasey to Caherea. “I am also delighted that €350,000 has been set aside for work at Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon and €250,000 for the N19 Shannon Airport access road,” he added.

ANNOYANCE around the Mid- West was very apparent online late last week, following two provocative tweets from Dublin Airport. The first tweet from the capital’s airport said, “We look forward to being the key gateway for overseas visitors attending #RyderCup 2026, which will take place @TheAdareManor in Limerick”. Claiming to be the key gateway was a cheeky comment from an airport 222km away from Adare, compared to just 43km from Shannon and it wasn’t long before people from Clare and Limerick were responding unfavourably to the display of Dublin arrogance. However, Dublin Airport wasn’t in conciliatory mode and quickly doubled down on the earlier tweet, in response to one man asking was Shannon not the key gateway for the event. “We’ll welcome more overseas visitors for the event, as we’re a much larger airport with much greater connectivity to Britain, the US and continental Europe. Overseas visitors using Dublin Airport go to all 32 counties on the island.” After this, …

THE Civil Defence unit in Clare is among the most active in the country, with members taking part in 32 different activities in the first three months of the year. Civil Defence volunteers are on standby to assist in a range of activities – from missing person searches to manning sporting events. In fact, one of the roles played by the Clare Civil Defence this year related to a search for a missing person in Clarecastle on January 30. The overall figures were confirmed just days after all of the country’s response agencies were honoured at Dublin Castle for their response to Storm Emma and Storm Ophelia. Among the workers present at the event on Tuesday were staff from Clare County Council, the Defence Forces, Civil Defence, National Ambulance Service, Irish Water, the Coastguard, An Garda Síochána, the HSE, the ESB, the fire service and other volunteer groups. It was confirmed at the event that the first Saturday of September will now be known …

THE expected return of Dr John Hillery as a possible candidate for the next general election is adding spice to the political manoeuvrings that have stepped up a gear across all parties. Although the resignation of Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald on Tuesday prevented a Christmas snap election, which no politician or voter wanted, all prospective candidates are now firmly in general election mode. The extraordinary political events of the past week suggest that, unless Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin add new safeguards to their confidence and supply agreement, which was severely dented over the Department of Justice emails debacle, a general election could be called early next year. Fine Gael, which leads the beleaguered, minority-led Government, moved quickly to select its two outgoing Clare deputies, Minister of State Pat Breen and Joe Carey, at its selection convention on Monday night. While Senator Martin Conway, who was one of the three nominations, withdrew at the last minute to …

CLARE’S newly elected Oireachtas members are to be invited to the next meeting of Clare County Council, where councillors will put funding for the county’s roads “on the shopping list”. The council is also set to write to the Government seeking funding of €1.6 million towards maintaining the roads. This comes after councillors last month sought to raise a loan of the same amount from the Department of the Environment, with the council currently awaiting a decision. At this week’s council meeting, Councillor Christy Curtin urged that they request the Government to reactivate local road grant allocations. He commented that in the wake of the withdrawal of funding allocations for the Local Road Improvement Scheme and the suspension of the Community Involvement Scheme, people in rural Ireland “aren’t getting the benefits of other citizens”. Figures released by the council show that the Local Improvement Scheme funding dropped from €906,000 in 2009 and 2010 to €302,000 in 2011, the last time …

It’s going to be another big day at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon for the General Election 2016 Clare Constituency count. The Clare Champion captures the atmosphere in photos by John Kelly   DAY 2 IN PHOTOS:   DAY 1 IN PHOTOS:    

ENNIS Councillor Mary Howard has joined the race to receive the Fine Gael nomination at the party’s convention to decide its general election candidates, saying, “I’ve proved myself”. The councillor joins sitting TDs Joe Carey and Pat Breen and Senators Tony Mulcahy and Martin Conway in seeking the party’s nomination on September 11. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Councillor Howard said the decision to seek nomination is something that she has been thinking over for some time. “I’ve been mulling it over in my mind, I love what I do and I see my future within Fine Gael. I absolutely love my job within Clare County Council but I thought now is the time to put my hat in the ring. “I believe that I’ve proved myself over the last six years. I’ve worked hard and I have been very involved in my community. A lot of people have asked me would I go forward and when you hear that …