Taoiseach still confident of Clare support

THE day the news rang out that support for An Taoiseach Brian Cowen dropped to 21%, he told the media in Clare he was still confident that the Fianna Fáil party remained an “excellent” force in the county.
Having spent a day in the sunshine in East Clare launching a host of tourist initiatives, Mr Cowen met with party members and the local media in the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis.
Answering questions relating to the sustainability of the party in Government, Mr Cowen refused to acknowledge that an election was on the way and rather indicated that in two years’ time, he “would expect our two TDs will be returned”.
“We have an excellent organisation in Clare at local and national level. I have every confidence in Tony Killeen and Timmy Dooley’s ability,” he said.
While in the county, the Taoiseach launched a range of tourism projects and so was addressed on direct investment in the county in this area.
He encouraged communities to get together to market their own areas and that this was being done through local festivals and initiatives organised at local level across the country to help boost local business.
“It is up to us to market our areas as a place to locate to. Our first and overall requirement is having an economy that is competitive for international investment. I would suggest that adding on and getting expansion in our existing manufacturing and industrial base located in this area is just as important and should not be of any less value than the prospect of new investment. There is a foreign policy position by the IDA for investment beyond the city regions. At the moment, we can’t determine where that investment will choose to locate, that’s for themselves. I think what we have seen is the economy contracted, we saw drop in living standards and the only way back for us is to make the private sector see net investment,” he outlined.
However, he said, for now the Government had to look at putting the public finances in order, making our economy more competitive and fixing the banking system. 
Addressing the drop in the polls, Mr Cowen stated, “Yes, it has impacted on our support. Our job is to continue to do our job. There is agreement that we have got the big calls right. It is clear that we would face a catastrophic situation if we hadn’t. I don’t suggest that we got everything right. Clearly, we did not get everything right; no-one was projecting the prospect of an international financial and economic crisis of this magnitude. Issues have arisen and I have to take my share of the responsibility. I’m here as a public representative to be publicly accountable for all that,” he said.
Concerns were put to Mr Cowen about the future of Shannon Airport and the possibility of scrapping the travel tax. He answered that there was no formal proposal before Government to scrap the tax but he did not rule it out. 
Speaking about the future of Shannon Airport, he concluded, “There are challenges. Let’s be under no illusions. The aviation industry has been going through a very serious consolidation phase. I’m aware of the views locally. There is a review taking place and we want to make sure that Shannon continues to serve the region it serves,” he said.