Conway-Walsh says ‘appetite for change’ still exists despite poor Sinn Féin local election performance

MAYO Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway-Walsh has insisted that there is ‘still an appetite for change’ despite a poor showing from SInn Féin at the local elections.

Speaking to The Mayo News following the announcement of a full recount of the Swinford Local Electoral Area, Deputy Conway-Walsh denied that the party ran too many candidates in the local elections.

As it stands (Monday morning, June 10), the party is highly likely to see sitting councillor Gerry Murray re-elected in the Swinford Local Electoral Area recount while John Sheahan is set for a four-way battle with sitting councillors Cllr Neil Cruise (Fine Gael), Cllr Adrian Forkan and Cllr John Caulfield (Fianna Fáil) for the remaining three seats. 

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has admitted that her party had ‘ran too many’ candidates in the 2024 local elections. The party made marginal gains nationwide following a drop in the opinion polls in recent months.

Deputy Conway-Walsh said that it was ‘very challenging’ to unseat sitting councillors on a local authority and said the party’s new candidates needed ‘time to be profiled’.

“I think there was a number of factors in it in that regard, and we always knew that coming up to the election but what we wanted to do in Mayo was to give everybody an opportunity to vote for a Sinn Féin candidate,” she said.

The Erris native said there was ‘still an appetite for change’ in the country despite the party’s disappointing showing at the local elections.

She also insisted that the party was ‘very ready to fight a general election if it was tomorrow morning’.

When asked about if the party would run two candidates in the next general election, Deputy Conway-Walsh said it was ‘too soon to say’.

The former Mayo County Councillor was elected on the first count when she stood in the 2020 general elections.

“Obviously we have reflecting to do in terms of this election but we always do that. We did that in 2019 after the local elections and then we came back in 2020 and obviously had really good success in that but we want to be in government, i think that’s the main thing,” she said.

“We want to deliver a programme for government that’s supposed to deliver for the people. From my point of view I want a programme for government that delivers for the people of Mayo.”