Kehoe rises like Lazarus and holds his seat
DEPUTY Paul Kehoe summed up the story of his election campaign in exemplary fashion when he addressed the count centre attendees on Monday afternoon and quoted the bible, saying: ‘The dead arose and spoke to many’.
His words elicited an immediate response from the crowd and were received with warm applause.
For a while it appeared like this election might be just one too far for the Enniscorthy deputy, however, when his Fine Gael party colleague, Michael D’Arcy was eliminated the distribution of his second preference votes saw Kehoe receive a whopping 4,049.
It was enough to enable him leapfrog Fianna Fail’s, Malcolm Byrne, and earn him his fifth consecutive, successful election.
Speaking to this newspaper Deputy Kehoe said he was honoured and privileged to be elected to represent the people of the county again and pledge to do so to the best of his ability.
‘I want to thank the people of county Wexford for once again placing their trust in me,’ he said.
‘It’s an absolute honour to be elected to Dail Eireann,’ he added.
‘To be able to have a record of winning and getting through five General Elections is something I am extremely proud of.’
He went on to compliment the people of the county and his election team without whom, he said, he would never have been successful.
The rise of Sinn Fein has been the story of this election and Minister Kehoe has said that he will not go into Government with Sinn Fein and despite the election result and the meteoric rise of Sinn Fein he said he will not go back on his word.
‘The people have spoken and I have spoken privately and within the party that people were looking for change,’ he said.
‘I never knew what that change was but now I know exactly what that change is,’ he said.
‘People have voted for change by putting Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein as the two largest parties and I think it’s incumbent on them now to start a conversation,’ he added.
‘Sinn Fein got the largest percentage vote as far as I understand but they are wanting to bring this country on a different journey to the journey we are bringing it on.’
Minister Kehoe went on to express his view that Fine Gael has done a really good job in Government.
‘We had some very difficult, tough decisions to make and we made them,’ he said.
‘Some people thanked us for making those decisions and other people didn’t in the 2016 General Election,’ he added.
He also said there were some other difficult decisions that were made and that at times things weren’t easy during the last term in Government.
‘People have changed their mind and now think that other parties and other groupings can do a better job in Government than we have done.’ he said.
However, he was resolute in his view that he would not go into Government with Sinn Fein.
‘No, absolutely not,’ he said. ‘I have stated this publicly and when I knocked on doors people asked me would I be willing to do business with Sinn Fein and I said absolutely under no circumstances,’ he added.
‘I am not going to go back on my word and I am not going to be part of a Fine Gael Government with Sinn Fein because I don’t think it would serve the country well and I think the policies that Sinn Fein have wold not be in agreement with the policies we have and the journey they want to bring this country on is totally different to the journey Fine Gael want to bring it on.’
Minister Kehoe went on comment: ‘It just would not work together but I have given that commitment to the people of Wexford and I have given it nationally.’
‘I steadfastly still hold that opinion and that will not change.’
Minister Kehoe was critical of the misuse of social media during this campaign.
He was targeted consistently over a number of months and said that some of the people involved in that smear campaign went as far as protesting outside his home.
‘I have been really attacked on social media and they followed me around while canvassing but I have to put that to one side,’ he said.
‘I had an election to run and I had a huge team of people around me and we fought a hard, tough campaign and I knew it was always going down to the wire.,’ he added.