Cowen confident about Mayo Fianna Fáil vote

Cowen confident about Mayo FF vote in election


Anton McNulty

AS the DΡil closed down for another summer, An Taoiseach Brian Cowen reiterated his belief that the current government policies will generate jobs and that the Fianna FΡil vote in Mayo will hold up in the next general election.
An Taoiseach was speaking to media during a visit to Belmullet where he promised continued investment in infrastructure projects in the west of Ireland and pledged his support for the under-threat Belmullet District Hospital.
The last live-register figures released by the Central Statistics Office revealed that 13,514 people are unemployed in Mayo. However, An Taoiseach refused to accept that there no future for young people here.
“I don’t accept there is no future in Ireland. I heard people making the same comments in the late ’80s, and they were proved wrong because we had a government who pursued the right policies at the time.
“At the moment we have spending in excess of what is coming in and we have to bring order to our public finances … we have to pursue policies that will drive economic growth. You can’t have a job strategy without having a strategy that promotes economic growth and that is what the government is doing. We are moving in the right direction but we have to continue along the path we are going, and if we do that I have every confidence we will go back to the place we were.”
Mr Cowen also recognised the need to improve the county’s infrastructure to attract investment, and he said the government was committed to making these improvements.
“It is critically important that we improve infrastructure into the west. We have seen a lot of investment into that area and that will continue. Now we have completed the national motorway system we have to look at other major arterial improvements.”
Recent opinion polls seem to suggest that Fianna FΡil are in danger of losing more votes to Fine Gael in Mayo if a sudden election was called but when asked on the parties difficulties in the county, Mr Cowen said he was confident the Fianna FΡil vote would hold up.
“We are very confident. We have excellent [Mayo] representatives in the DΡil. Both Dara [Calleary] and Beverly [Flynn] are experienced public representatives, working very hard and delivering for the people on the ground. We will have a team of candidates put forward and what we can do after that, we will see.”
An Taoiseach went on to say that Minister Calleary and Deputy Flynn are ‘influential in what they have to say’ in shaping  party policies.
Speaking on the issue of local health facilities, Mr Cowen raised a cheer from the gathered crowd when he said there was no reason why the Belmullet District Hospital would not continue to operate into the future.
“Belmullet District Hospital serves a purpose in providing convalescent care in the area. Our own deputies and councillors have been very vocal with me in keeping services in a localised setting as far as possible, and I see no reason why Belmullet District Hospital won’t be part of that process in the future.”