Mayo FF Chairman admits poor governance by party

Mayo FF Chairman admits poor governance by party


Edwin McGreal
edwinmcgreal@mayonews.ie

The Chairman of the Mayo Fianna FΡil Comhairle DΡil Ceantar has admitted that the party took its ‘eye off the ball’ in government.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the Comhairle DΡil Ceantar, SeΡn Staunton said that a number of factors had made life difficult for Fianna FΡil in recent years but they had a hand in their own downfall too.
“We had a local reorganisation programme that didn’t work, poor results in the last local elections, an even worse outcome in the last general election, tribunal findings that were painful for the party, and no small amount of bad luck in trying to run a country in the eye of a world recession and reckless behaviour by immoral bankers.
”Add to that, and let’s be honest about it, we as the main party in Government took our collective eye off the ball in so many areas of economic activity.”
Mr Staunton said that in the wake of the last general election the party had set up a renewal committee in Mayo, under the chairmanship of Denis Gallagher, and much progress had been made to date. He especially thanked the officers and members of the two former Cumainn in Castlebar who have merged into a single Fianna Fail cumann  to go forward with a united front.
He added that any suggestions that there was an agenda to replace some of the party’s sitting councillors was ‘mischief-making’, saying he wanted to see the same councillors ‘leading the charge’ for the party in the 2014 elections.
He said that there had been a ‘voracious quest’ by certain sections of the national media to hound Fianna Fail out of Irish political life, saying an often hostile media had willingly abandoned the concepts of impartiality and fair play in that quest.
Officers: President, Martin J O’Toole; Vice Presidents, Dr Mickie Loftus, Sean Calleary; Chairman, Sean Staunton; Vice Chairman, Peter Caulfield; Secretary, Margaret Tighe; Assistant Secretary, David Gallagher; Treasurers, Noel Mullen, Seamas O’Boyle; Membership Officer, Leonard Ryan; PR Team, Joan Geraghty, Liam Henry, John Healy.   

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