FG buoyant and ready to rule

FG buoyant and ready to rule


Ring wants election sooner rather than later as Kenny’s party sweep the boards

Anton McNulty

MAYO TD, Michael Ring has said that Fine Gael are ready to contest a General Election in the morning and bullishly predicted that the party would take four of the five seats in the county.
This year’s local election has seen Fine Gael increase its tally on Mayo County Council over Fianna Fáil by ten seats after they won 17 out of 31 seats, securing 44.4 per cent of the vote in the process.
It was a disastrous day for Fianna Fáil and five of their outgoing councillors lost their seats - with Beverley Flynn, TD, calling for the return of conventions to allow the grassroots to select their candidates. Fine Gael will have a clear majority on the Council  with five Independents and two Sinn Féin councillors making up the rest of the chamber.
An illustration of Fine Gael’s dominance in the field came in Westport where the eight candidates who ran for election in both the town and county electoral area were all comfortably elected. Deputy Ring told The Mayo News that the party had a strategy in place which all the candidates followed and he was always confident that they would return five candidates to Westport Town Council. He said there was a lot of discontent among the public and he was glad they have shown that in the ballot box.
Today (Tuesday) Fine Gael are tabling a motion of no confidence in the government and while the motion is set to be defeated, Deputy Ring said the public want an election to ‘lash out’ at the government, and they were ready to contest one.
“We are ready now [for a general election], we have the policies in place in relation to education, job creation and health. As a practising politician I have to say nobody wants to see elections but I think the people on this occasion want to have one. The people showed their anger and frustration at the government and I am sorry that good councillors lost their seats because of the government. But I canvassed in Mayo and parts of  Donegal and Sligo and the one common denominator on the doorsteps was that people were sorry it was not a general election. They wanted to get a blast at the government,” he said.
Currently Fine Gael hold three of the five Dáil seats in Mayo and Deputy Ring believes that they will comfortably take the extra seat.
“We went very close to four seats the last time and I am in no doubt that with the votes Michelle Mulherin got we will be in a strong position for four seats. If Enda Kenny is leader going into a General Election I am of no doubt that we will get four seats comfortably.”

Back to the grassroots
In contrast to Fine Gael’s results, Fianna Fáil had one of the worst elections in their history with many questions remaining unanswered. The party only returned one councillor to Castlebar Town Council and the local TD Beverely Flynn told The Mayo News that the councillors had borne the brunt of issues taken at national level and they could not ignore the democratic wish of the county.
“I feel very sorry for the councillors who lost their seats and through no fault of their own they suffered a big hit and bore the brunt of decisions taken at national level that have impacted locally. However, I feel very strongly that the result is no reflection on the excellent candidates we had running here locally. It is quite obvious that it is an anti-government thing because it has happened through out the country. If what happened was unique to Mayo you could argue that you needed to look at the organisation but it is the same all over the country.
“We have to go right back in terms reorganising ourselves in the county to cumann level and building it up from the grassroots. The respect for the grassroots has to be shown because the way candidates were selected alienated a lot of our people in the cumanns. The most important thing we have to do is respect the decision our people have taken and it is something I feel very strong about and will be one of the messages I have bring to the parliamentary meeting,” she said.

Take responsibility
Ballina based Fianna Fáil TD, Dara Calleary said he had to take responsibility for the party only taking one seat in the Ballina Electoral Area and they had to roll up their sleeves to get the party winning elections again. He also admitted the party's Dáil seats were under pressure because of the results but would take the positives out of the election as well as the negatives.
“I suppose everything went wrong, it was the perfect political storm. We had a gale blowing against us in terms of our government policy, we had a number of high profile Independents who have high recognition and a combination of other things hit us. I am gutted and disappointed for Johnnie O’Malley and Michael Loftus and as the TD for the area I have to take responsibility for it and I do. It just didn’t happen for us.
“Obviously going by the results of the weekend they [Dáil seats] will be [under pressure] and there is no point denying that but equally in my case I can point to a lot I have done in my two years. We have delivered a lot for the county, if it is enough I don’t know but I will take this result as it is. It is a kick and I will have to roll up the sleeves and deal with it and come out fighting. Members feel they have lost control of the organisation and I intend to listen to them. My primary interest is that we come out fighting for the party in Mayo and put this party to where it was in Mayo and that is in first position.”