Calleary defends FF despite polls predicting election wipeout

Calleary defends FF despite polls predicting election wipeout


Anton McNulty

MAYO TD and Junior Minister, Dara Calleary has defended the decisions made by the Government in recent weeks despite a series of private opinion polls which predict that Fianna FΡil may not win a DΡil seat in Mayo if there was a sudden election.
Last year, Fianna FΡil suffered a disastrous local election with only eight candidates elected to Mayo County Council and four elected to the three town councils, and this weekend, the Sunday Independent reported that those loses are to continue if a sudden General Election is called. The private opinion polls predict that a number of high ranking TD’s would lose their seat and the party faces a 2002-style Fine Gael wipeout in Dublin and the country.
Responding to the polls, Minister Calleary told The Mayo News that he has not aware of these opinion polls but understood that some of the decisions made by the Government were unpopular. He added that the party are looking to strengthen their base following the local election and was confident that they will recover.
“I know it is difficult at the moment and we are taking difficult decisions now that are not going to be popular. I will continue to work on the ground to try and deliver for the constituency. We had a bad local election and we are looking to rebuild our base where we are weak but we had our national members draw and there was a big increase in numbers compared to the same time last year. We have tough decisions to make and we will continue to make those decisions going towards 2012,” he said.
Along with Dun Laoghaire and Dublin South West, Mayo was reported as one of the constituency polls which have the party hierarchy ‘disturbed’ with Fine Gael on course to win a fourth seat and Independent councillor, Michael Kilcoyne taking the fifth seat.
Dara Calleary who was appointed as a Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and at the Department of Finance as well as keeping his existing role as Minister for Labour Affair during the recent reshuffle, is seen to be under more pressure than his party colleague Beverly Flynn.
Deputy Calleary acknowledged that his seat may be under pressure but added that he did not believe there will be a sudden election.
“Every politician fears for their seat but if they spent the whole time scheming on how to keep a hold of it they would not get any work done. I am out there working 24/7 for the constituency and in my current roles and I will continue to do that. I know it is a cliché but only one vote counts and that is still a couple of years away.”