Cllr Lisa bids for FF nomination
WEXFORD solicitor and councillor Lisa McDonald is putting her name forward to Fianna Fail’s mandarins for consideration as a candidate in the next general election.
She said major change was needed in both county and country and the best place to effect change was in Dail Eireann and that was why putting her name forward.
Cllr McDonald, who launched her Dáil bid at the Whitford House Hotel on Friday night, said it appalled her that County Wexford so frequently appears in national surveys and reports as a blackspot under many headings, including education, jobs and infrastructure.
‘ There is a widening gap developing, not only between Dublin and the rest of the country but in society in general. The few solutions that are being offered by the current government are urban-based and do not have resonance in rural Ireland,’ she told this newspaper.
From a well-known political family, Ms McDonald was first elected to Wexford County Council in the 2004 local elections and unsuccessfully stood as a candidate in the 2007 general election. She was subsequently appointed to the senate where she served until 2011.
‘After the elections of 2011, I decided to concentrate totally on building up my fledgling Legal Practice in Wexford town and along with my husband rearing our young family.
‘I started my business from scratch in the teeth of a major economic worldwide downturn. It has grown from then thanks in no small way to the wonderful staff that was equally resolute that the venture would succeed.
‘ Together we built a business, literally from the ground.’ She said that as time moved on, ‘I found I was still interested in political matters. I was having “arguments” with myself on the political issues and how I would navigate the issues of the day.
‘In particular, issues such as lack of secondary school places, pressures on pre-school providers and the relentless pressures on the self-employed were constantly in my mind and I eventually decided that I would seek a nomination for the next local elections in 2019.’
However, the sad death of Cllr Fergie Kehoe changed all that she was co-opted on to the county council in his place.
She said that since then, she had been viewing the national political scene from a distance, watching what was happening throughout the recession, the austerity measures that were imposed and how people’s lives were being affected.
‘Emigration and job loss was rampant. The banks, which the taxpayer had bailed out, are being very dishonest and unfair to customers. Homelessness became the overriding issue of the modern era, not to mention the crisis in our health service. Instead of being solution focused – this government is obsessed with image,’ she said.
‘No amount of spin or photo opportunities can mask the urgent work that needs to be done in providing affordable and social housing for our people, shortening the hospital waiting lists, dependable jobs, and the provision of second-level school places for our sixth class pupils, access to third level, modern broadband infrastructure for areas outside our major cities and accelerated investment in our transport infrastructure, tourism, farming and fisheries,’ she said.
‘County Wexford qualifies under all these headings for prompt attention. It can’t all be achieved overnight, but we need to make a start to ensure that Wexford gets its fair share of the available resources.