Search Results for 'General Election'

TD Paul Murphy will be in Galway next week to address a public meeting on the issues of housing, water charges, political policing, and the “need for a political revolution” in the upcoming General Election.

I am writing about the above topic this week because recently we have had the obvious race beginning between the successors to Enda Kenny.

For many years Galway East was known as the dullest and most predicable of constituencies, reliably returning the same three TDs. Population growth and boundary changes saw the constituency gain a fourth seat in 1997, however, and this has given rise to some heated battles between the big two parties as well as seeing the emergence of Independent and Labour challenges.

I am writing about the above topic this week because recently we have had the obvious race beginning between the successors to Enda Kenny.

There are 165 vacant council units in the county boundaries of Galway, a situation that has led one general election candidate to declare that with "thousands of people on housing waiting lists", the situation is now at "emergency levels".

Tommy Roddy, who ran in last year's local elections, will stand as an Independent candidate in Galway West at the General Election, campaigning on water charges, better supports for the unemployed, and issues relating to mental health and suicide prevention.

Works to replace the footpaths on Newport Bridge will commence within the next couple of weeks, according to Mayo Sinn Féin General Election candidate Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh, who raised the question at this week’s West Mayo Municipal meeting. 

Fianna Fáil General Election candidate for Mayo Cllr Lisa Chambers has accused the Government of breaking yet another promise on broadband. As part of the Capital Investment Programme announced this week, Communications Minister Alex White pledged to spend €275m on the National Broadband Plan. However, that is significantly less than the €512m initially promised for the project.

Whether the date of the next General Election is November 20, as has been mooted recently, or comes during spring 2016, two predictions are already confidently being made - indeed they have become an article of faith for some, an incontrovertible truth for others - regarding the fate of two high profile candidates in Galway West.

The above famous line, from Sean O’Casey’s Juno and the Paycock, comes to my mind when I look at the world today, which is certainly in a state of chassis. The refugee/migrant situation is dominating the media and so rightly it should. Huge numbers of refugees from war-torn Syria and Eritrea are pouring into Europe.