Donnelly and Casey to contest General Election
DEPUTY Pat Casey and Deputy Stephen Donnelly have been selected as Fianna Fáil’s candidates in the next General Election.
The selection convention took place last Wednesday evening at the Grand Hotel in Wicklow town. Arklow auctioneer Ray Gaffney had withdrawn from the process.
In his address, Deputy Casey tackled the issue of the housing crisis, asserting the need for a social clause which should include rural housing. Describing Fine Gael as being too long in government, Deputy Casey claimed that Fine Gael ‘only cared about middle class Dublin’ at the expense of rural Ireland and had ‘lost touch with ordinary people.’
Referring specifically to Wicklow, he welcomed the partial upgrade of the N11 but said more was needed and that the N81 was not being mentioned at all in any plans. After having no Fianna Fáil TDs in 2011, Deputy Casey congratulated his party on now holding two Dail seats in the county.
Speaking to the membership, Deputy Donnelly spoke of Fine Gael’s record in creating, what he described as, a less equal society, Fine Gael’s inexperience in government despite seven years in power and explained why he believed that Fianna Fáil must lead the next government. He said that, in the context of Brexit, we ‘must have no border with the six counties but that Fine Gael cannot get things done on the ground.’ Deputy Donnelly claimed that the homelessness crisis would never have been allowed to happen under a Fianna Fáil government.
Before the meeting ended, the cathaoirleach thanked Convention Runaí Kathleen Kelleher and led the observation of a moment’s silence for the late master uilleann piper Liam O’Flynn, who had passed away earlier that day.