Ring staying at home

Ring staying at home


Westport TD rules out bid for European glory as Higgins eyes second term

Michael Duffy   

THE rumour has been rumbling now for more than a year, but yesterday (Monday) Westport Fine Gael deputy Michael Ring finally made it clear that his future lies in local and national politics – and not as a member of the European Parliament.
At the start of 2008, Deputy Ring told The Mayo News that ‘there has been a lot of pressure on me to put my name forward for Europe’ by supporters and strategists within Fine Gael.
But yesterday, the 54-year-old former breadman said the public acrimony towards the current Government and the ‘real chance’ of Fine Gael forming a government ‘in the near future’ was one of the main reasons he decided to stay put.
“I’m not going to put my name forward for the European elections. I think the time came last week for me to draw a line in the sand and make my position clear and now my main attention will be continuing to put pressure on this sham of a Government, and make sure Fine Gael goes on to make its mark in the local elections – as long as we don’t have a general election before that,” said Deputy Ring, who reiterated his support for current Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, and his renewed hunger to become a minister in the next Government.
“At the end of the day I had to consider the requests from people to run in Europe and there is no doubt that it would have been a huge challenge as the North-west constituency is a huge area. But at the moment I have to focus my energies on making sure Fine Gael are part of the next government. Enda Kenny has to be the next Taoiseach, and I want to be a minister is his cabinet when that time comes,” added Deputy Ring, who said the battle for the seats in the North-west constituency will be intense.
“No one is guaranteed a seat in a constituency of this size and if Declan Ganley [Libertas leader] and Dana [former Independent MEP] were to run then it would take a brave man to say he would definitely be elected. I am confident I would have secured a seat but at this point in my life I didn’t think the timing was right.”
Deputy Ring’s decision leaves the way clear for sitting MEP Jim Higgins to be nominated unopposed for next year’s European election and also avoids what would most likely have been an acrimonious showdown between two highly-respected members of Fine Gael.
Mr Higgins, who spoke to The Mayo News from Brussels last night, said he never paid much attention to the rumours surrounding Deputy Ring and Europe and that he was ‘100 per cent confident’ he would have beaten ‘any candidate’ in a vote at a party convention.
“I believe it has always been quite clear the party wanted me as their candidate in next year’s election and to be honest I never paid much attention to any rumours I heard. I have worked extremely hard in my four years and four months as MEP for the North-west constituency and hope to continue to do so until 2014,” said Mr Higgins, who also revealed that the Fine Gael selection convention will be held in either Sligo or Claremorris in the second half of January.
The Fine Gael European strategists are currently weighing up the pros and cons of running a second candidate in the constituency and most believe that candidate will be Dr John Barton from Ballinasloe, a senior consultant at Portiuncula Hospital who received nearly 5,000 votes in the Galway East constituency in last General Election.
However, Mr Higgins refused to be drawn on who, if anyone, will join him on the Fine Gael ticket.