Spring election gives Government more time for ‘promises’ – Calleary

Spring now the most likely time for General Election

Áine Ryan

WHILE welcoming the Taoiseach’s clarification over the weekend about the date for the General Election, Fianna FΡil’s Dara Calleary said yesterday (Monday) the only real difference it made was it now gave the coalition government more time to make ‘pre-election promises’.
“Whether it is November or spring it won’t hide Fine Gael’s dismal record of delivery to Mayo since 2011. The only difference is that there is more time for pre-election promises. I would ask people to compare the coming five months of announcements to the previous four and a half years of under-performance,” Mr Calleary said.
He was responding to the fact that after a week of intense speculation suggesting the Taoiseach would call a snap election after today’s (Tuesday) annual Budget, Mr Kenny confirmed on RTE’s The Week in Politics, on Sunday, that it was still his intention to hold the election in the spring. The Mayo News understands that Mr Kenny was disposed to holding the election in November but bowed to pressure from the junior coalition party.    

Budget spend
FOR the first time since the economic crash, Budget 2015 promises a certain reprieve from  austerity economics with a €1.5bn cache of money to be distributed.  
Apparently unperturbed by the timing of the upcoming election, his Ballina-based DΡil colleague, Fine Gael’s Michelle Mulherin, told The Mayo News yesterday she was ‘ready’ whenever the Taoiseach called it. Questioned about her delivery to the north Mayo capital, she said she had ‘ensured unprecedented delivery to Ballina and north and east Mayo’ in her first term as a DΡil deputy. Ms Mulherin cited a litany of developments she had championed and delivered including the ‘rescuing [of] the N26 from the scrap heap it was thrown upon by the last government led by Fianna FΡil and putting it back on track for delivery’.
As well as securing funding for roads, water and sewage infrastructure, she noted that she had ‘battled for funding for health services to be strengthened and expanded’.
“This has resulted in the refurbishment and extension for the provision of hospice suites at Ballina District Hospital, all 60 beds in the hospital are now open with ten additional permanent health staff recruited compared to 50 beds open in 2011; refurbishment of Old Day Hospital to house newly appointed Psychiatry of Older Age team with six staff working alongside a 16-strong Adult Mental Health Services Team; a new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team with ten staff including a consultant psychiatrist and two psychologists and €500,000 for St Augustine’s Community Nursing Home to meet HIQA standards and secure its future,” she said.

Distraction
MEANWHILE, Sinn Féin’s Erris-based General Election candidate, Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh also welcomed the end to the media speculation.
“It was a distraction from all the serious issues people are faced with every day on the ground. While I am ready whenever the election is called, the fact that I have been made redundant from my job at Iorrais Le Chéile means I will now have an opportunity to canvas full-time on my campaign for a DΡil seat,” Ms Conway-Walsh said.     
Commenting on today’s Budget 2015, she said she hoped the Government had taken onboard her party’s ‘pre-Budget submissions which show clear choices for alleviating the suffering of those most affected by austerity’.
Castlebar-based Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne said there would be ‘very little for Mayo that hasn’t been announced already’.
“The road development (N5) to Westport has been announced already at least five or six times. I do welcomed the phasing out of the USC (Universal Service Charge) but then it is the most hated tax ever introduced,” Kilcoyne said.
Cllr Kilcoyne also welcomed the fact that the election would still be in the spring, citing the fact that the Banking Inquiry would have collapsed if it had been held in November.