Change of role for Conway Walsh

NEW POSITION Rose Conway Walsh has been appointed spokesperson at the Department of Public Expenditure, the National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

Michael Gallagher

Mayo Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway Walsh has been assigned a new portfolio in a significant reshuffle of the Sinn Féin front bench. She has been appointed spokesperson at the Department of Public Expenditure, the National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. This department is responsible for all aspects of public spending.
Conway-Walsh has been spokesperson for further and higher education since she was elected to the DΡil is the last general election, focusing on the cost of education, student accommodation, apprenticeships and all island educational opportunities.
She said: “It Is an honour to again be chosen to be in Sinn Féin’s frontbench. I am very excited to get stuck into the new role. Public Expenditure and Reform crosses all departments in terms of public spending, overseeing the public sector workforce and infrastructure, as well as a number of stand-alone responsibilities such as lobby regulation and ethics in public office. 
“This will be an opportunity for me to combine my academic learning with my experience on Mayo County Council, EU Committee of the Regions and served on the Oireachtas Finance Committee.

‘Extremely frustrated’
“People are extremely frustrated when they see bad management of public money, when infrastructure projects lead to runaway costs such as the National Children’s Hospital. Building on the work of my colleague Mairéad Farrell I will make improving public procurement and delivering infrastructure projects a core priority.
“We are facing huge infrastructural deficits across many areas such as housing, energy, public transport and healthcare. We have underinvested in public infrastructure for too long. That needs to be changes. But where public money is spent, we need to meet the highest standards in terms of transparency and ensuring projects are delivered at a reasonable cost and timeframe.
“Coming from a rural area in Mayo I believe I will bring a different perspective in terms of how to invest public money. The last three Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform have been from Dublin and Cork City. All public expenditure needs to be rural proofed to ensure we finally turn the tide on ever increasing regional inequality.”