Tag Archives: Timmy Dooley

Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) has outlined his commitments as Co-President of the ALDE Party as one of the reasons why he finished third from the bottom in a Seanad league table for the number of votes he cast for the first six months of the year. The Fianna Fáil Senator voted nine times, compared to 17 for Senator Roisín Garvey and 33 for Senator Martin Conway after 36 ballots, which were held in the Seanad this year. Senator Dooley pointed out a vote is not held every day in the Seanad where ten votes could be held one day, there may be no vote for three or four weeks, there could be two votes before a long break with seven or eight held on another day. “You could be off site attending another meeting. You always have the permission of the whip to be absent. For the past two and a half to three years, I have been Co-President of …

ANXIETY levels for young families usually rise as the summer ends and school returns, but an already stressful time has been worsened in many homes this week as a number of school bus services around Clare have been cancelled. With full employment the retention of bus drivers is now far more difficult than it was just a few years ago and a number of services had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour. Parents who had expected their children to use the services have been left to scramble, in many cases having to take time off work or look to family members for help with drop offs and collections. This week East Clare based Senator Timmy Dooley found himself trying to act as a recruiter, as he posted on social media asking people licensed to drive buses to get in touch with him. On Wednesday he told the Clare Champion that the school bus service crisis is quite widespread. “There’s …

Irish companies can play a major role in the rebuilding of Ukraine, despite the ongoing war with Russia. That’s according to Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) who has returned to Clare after visiting Ukraine for the third time as part of a European political delegation. At the 2022 ALDE Annual Congress in Dublin, the Mountshannon native was elected as the Co-President of the grouping of liberal European political parties. Senator Dooley was invited as Co-President of the ALDE party to meet various parliamentarians and political leaders in Ukraine. He met President Zelensky, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and a number of government ministers. This is his third visit, having previously travelled to Ukraine in February and April 2022. The Mountshannon native said the Ukraine Minister for Reconstruction is anxious to bring construction expertise for other countries including Ireland via companies with good engineering and design skills to reinstate roads and bridges and other essential infrastructure that has been targeted. Despite the fact …

A CABINET meeting earlier today saw approval granted for a funding package that is set to see Clare County Council take over responsibility for Shannon Heritage attractions in the county. It is understood that the Council will receive €6 million in funding this year. They will also receive a ‘letter of comfort’ promising further support in 2024 and 2025. Clare County Council are set to discuss the offer in the coming days and are likely to accept it, which would end a long running saga around the future of the sites. In a statement this afternoon Clare TD Cathal Crowe welcomed the development. “Today the Cabinet met and approved a funding package which will now go to Clare County Council to be ratified. “This funding package secures the future of the iconic sites in our region including Bunratty Castle and brings certainty to the workers of these sites who, for far too long, have been left wondering what the future …

IRISH aviation policy needs to change, new Shannon Group chairman Conal Henry told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications last week, but acknowledged that it would be difficult to make the changes required and that he didn’t have all the answers to what needs to be done. He warned that if there isn’t an effective policy solution a meeting like the one he was attending will “take place over and over again” with people speaking about imbalance. In general he said that one outlet having 87% of the market is something that would need to be adjusted. “If we were a private business and 87% of the widgets were being made in one factory and 13% in another four we would re-evaluate our strategy.” At the meeting Timmy Dooley claimed that in previous years Shannon Group had not been focused enough on aviation, which he said is by far the most important aspect of its operations. He claimed …

CLARE Senator Timmy Dooley travelled to Kyiv earlier this week, where he met political leaders including Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna, while he was brought to the sites of the atrocities close to the city. “We travelled out to Irpin and Buca, to see at first hand what the occupiers did while they were there. There is utter devastation, homes completely demolished, attacks on civilians, you can see where people were shot in their cars as they tried to escape,” he said. Senator Dooley said there were appalling attacks on civilians and there are strong indications of war crimes. “We were taken to a churchyard where people had been buried temporarily by the priest and the local community, just necessary for a sanitary point of view. In some cases they were able to get body bags to bury them and in other cases they had to buried in mass graves without any body bag. Now that they have pushed the …

DUBLIN Airport acted as a predator feasting on Shannon, but is now seeing the results of its own greed, Fianna Fáil’s Timmy Dooley has claimed in the Senate. Senator Dooley referenced a Tweet from the Dublin Airport Authority Twitter account effectively telling customers that if they are travelling at peak times they should expect delays of approximately three and a half hours. “An addendum advised that if people happened to be bringing a car, they should add another half an hour. For the premier airport in the State to find itself in that situation is appalling, and there is a reason for it finding itself there. “It has engaged in predatory practices in attracting airlines and passengers to dominate the entire sector. Airports such as Shannon have been left to wither on the vine,” he said. The East Clare based senator added, “There was massive growth in passenger traffic prior to 2019. Dublin got the bulk of it and Cork, …

THE Russian ambassador to Ireland Yuri Filatov should be sent home, Senator Timmy Dooley believes, having been part of a campaign of misinformation in the build-up to his country’s invasion of Ukraine.  “I’m very slow to say things like that, I’m not given to that kind of carry-on, calling for people to be expelled, but I just think it has reached a threshold beyond which general diplomacy isn’t relevant. He has told lies all the way through. What purpose does it serve any of us having an actor in place who is not telling the truth?  “We’ve often had countries like that, but the ambassador would shut his mouth, he’d stay back from the front line and would remain behind the scenes and act as a back channel to the jurisdiction. “Of course they’d represent their country, but if they couldn’t tell you the truth they’d say nothing. This fella’s actions and his utterances were absolutely part of the campaign …