Tag Archives: McNamara

THE Oireachtas Special Committee on Covid-19 Response, which is chaired by Clare TD Michael McNamara, has sought changes to the current testing and contact tracing system. In its interim testing and tracing report, it made 22 recommendations including temperature screening of all entrants to the State from overseas and regular testing of healthcare workers, aimed at identifying asymptomatic carriers of the virus. Chairman of the Committee, Deputy Michael McNamara, said: “The Committee understands that the system that was put in place in March was done in a hurry and a lot of contingency measures had to be taken given the risk of a pandemic sweeping the State. Because of the efforts of all our people, those measures were not needed, but what became clear to the Committee is that another lockdown would be unsustainable. Testing and contact tracing will allow the State to live with and treat outbreaks of Covid as they arise.” The Committee report welcomes the work of …

IT is no longer appropriate to treat the whole country as just one zone for the purposes of fighting Covid-19, according to Clare TD and Chairman of the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee, Michael McNamara. He believes that Ireland is not too small to divide into different zones, while he said official reluctance to do so reflects a tendency to focus on the needs of Dublin solely. “Ireland is small, but it’s not that small. It’s not Luxembourg. It’s big enough to break it into sections if they wanted to, but the tendency in Ireland, increasingly, is what’s good for Dublin is good for the rest of the country and what’s bad for the rest of the country doesn’t really matter.” He said that it would be possible to introduce different restrictions for different counties. “It would depend on the medical advice but I would have thought counties (are zones that could have different regulations from each other). I mean if you …

WHILE it had been expected, it was only this week that former TD Michael McNamara confirmed that he will be standing in the General Election. Having started his political career as a European election candidate, he stood for Labour in the 2011 General Election and won a seat. With Labour taking a hammering in 2016, he failed to hold the seat, despite putting up a credible display and winning 4,472 first preferences. He had sought Labour’s nomination to run in the Ireland South constituency in the European election, but has now left the party and will be running in the General Election as an independent. His chances will have been boosted by this week’s announcement by Dr Michael Harty that he will not be in the race. There is a feeling in local political circles that there is a strong possibility of one candidate from beyond Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael being elected, and the departure of Harty from the …

FORMER Clare TD Michael McNamara’s bid to run for Labour in the upcoming European Elections ended in Cork last weekend, when the party selected Sheila Nunan. Reflecting on Wednesday, Mr McNamara said there had been signs that his bid would fall short. “It was disappointing but maybe not entirely surprising. It became apparent to me that I didn’t enjoy the support of parts of the party during the campaign. The chairman of the party, Jack O’Connor, is running in Wicklow, Brendan Howlin is obviously from Wexford and both of those counties are in the huge constituency that is Ireland South and they were there in numbers on the day. “There was also a good crowd from Cork. It was held in Cork and I don’t think I enjoyed the support of Cork either, frankly. But I was very appreciative of those who travelled from Clare, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary to support me and also, the Clare Labour party for the …

FOLLOWING the 11th count Michael McNamara has sought and been granted a full recount with less than 100 votes between himself and Michael McDonagh. Speaking about the decision to seek a recount, Mr McNamara said “It’s now half three in the morning. The gap was around 85 between myself and Michael McDonagh out of around 13,000 votes, less than 1% of the total number of votes that we both have, and McDonagh and McNamara are quite close to each other alphabetically.” He acknowledged he was disappointed with his showing. “Of course. I had a lot of work done, my constituency secretary Edel Carroll did a huge amount of work. There was a lot of talk about new politics in advance of the last election and for a few weeks afterwards. I did my best in that regard.”

THREE candidates to contest next year’s local election in the Ennis area were selected by Fianna Fáil on Monday evening. The convention also saw some heated exchanges, with delegates in the Auburn Lodge Hotel criticising the direction from the national executive’s constituencies committee that only three candidates would be selected in Clare on the night. Councillor Brian Meaney, who left the Green Party earlier this year and joined Fianna Fail, failed in his bid to be selected. Sitting Clare County Councillors Pat Daly and Tom McNamara were selected by the delegates, along with former county councillor Bernard Hanrahan, who lost his seat on the county council in 2009. Following the announcement of the result, Councillor Meaney said he was aware when entering the process that it would be an “uphill task”. He expressed disappointment at coming “bottom of the heap” adding, “I have spent 25 years operating in politics in Clare and I have worked hard on behalf of the …