Ó Cuív confident Fianna Fáil will rebuild party

Ó Cuív confident Fianna FΡil will rebuild party countrywide


Anton McNulty

The General Election results were described as a ‘bloodbath’ by Eamon Ó Cuív (pictured) but he expressed his confidence that Fianna FΡil will rebuild and regain the trust of the public.
Fianna FΡil suffered their worst General Election result in their history, returning just 20 deputies, including the Ceann Comhairle, which left them the third largest party in the State.
Speaking to The Mayo News in Achill following the opening of Naíonra and Iarscoil Naomh Sheosaimh, Éamon Ó Cuív, whose grandfather Éamon DeValera founded Fianna FΡil, said it was ‘disturbing’ to see the party become known as the party of the bankers and developers.
“We will obviously have to look at the policies of the party and we have to make sure the image of the party is correct. It was very disturbing for people like me to hear allegations being made of connections between bankers, builders and Fianna FΡil. I had no connection with the bankers and builders and I always did my work for the ordinary people. That constant tarring of the party with that brush certainly did the party tremendous damage,” he said.
In Mayo Dara Calleary was re-elected but the party lost a seat with Fine Gael now holding four out of the five DΡil seats, while in Mayo County Council, Fianna FΡil has only seven seats. Deputy Ó Cuív said the public took out their anger by not voting for Fianna FΡil but is confident that they have the ability to rebuild the party in Mayo and elsewhere.
“I believe that if we continue to do what we have been doing and that is working with the people for the people, they will in time see that we are there for the good of the people. We have a huge job to do in Fianna FΡil and we will do that work. Obviously we have to refresh the party we need young people and unfortunately we are a parliamentary party with no women in it.
“Our newly elected TD’s are relatively young and as well as that some of the TD’s who survived the bloodbath are young. A lot of the old guard are gone and we will have to rebuild from there. We still have a very strong grassroots who turned out in large numbers at the election conventions and I know there is a strong support for us and we will build on that. At the end of the day, however long it takes we will rebuild the party,” he said defiantly.