Election Rundown
May 30th, 2007
Things are getting back to normal here after last week’s General Election. We got a great result here in Donegal North East; Dr James McDaid was returned as a Dáil deputy, and Niall Blaney was re-elected to give Fianna Fail two of the three seats, on 50.4% of the vote. Cecilia Keaveney lost her seat, but I’m sure we haven’t heard the last from her in politics, either on a local or national level.
Joe McHugh pulled a fantastic result for Fine Gael. Many people had tipped him to take a seat, but everyone was taken by surprise when he polled so strongly to become the first deputy returned in Donegal NE. Congratulations to Joe and his team for running a fantastic campaign which resulted in a large vote in every part of the constituency.
This campaign was hard fought. I’ve never seen a campaign that has been so active, so divisive or so hard to predict. In the end, I’m happy with the result, both on a local and a national level. The count last Friday was quite surreal; we were overjoyed throughout the day with the results coming in from across the Country, but it wasn’t until after midnight that it became clear that Dr McDaid was going to be returned.
I really enjoyed working on this campaign. Dr McDaid had a fantastic campaign team, under the direction of Terry McEniff with help from a variety of people including Enda Nicholls, Ciaran Brogan, Peter Coyle, Laurence Blake,Hughie McDaid and Noel McGinley. Charlie Harvey, Colm, Sheila and Nikki ran the office on the Main Street, giving us a very active focal point in a busy part of town. I’d love to name all the canvassers, but we had up to fifty people out every night in various teams, so I’d be typing all night. I’ll just repeat what Dr McDaid has said; without such an active team, we would not have got the result that we did.
During the campaign I’ve met, spoken to and worked with a number of Fianna Fail candidates throughout the Country. I’d like to congratulate the succesful candidates - Pat the Cope, Mary Coughlan, Thomas Byrne, Dara Calleary, Darragh O’Brien, Michael McGrath, Michael Moynihan - and to offer my commiserations to Cllr Michael Crowe and Cllr Siobhan Ambrose, both of whom will return to fight another day.
The election result has been a fantastic boost for Fianna Fail across the Country. People responded to our platform, and to what has happened here over the last ten years. This is no time for complacency; we only have to look across the water to see that long terms in Government can be followed by extended terms in opposition. Fianna Fail now have an opportunity to show the people of Ireland what we can achieve with the fruits of ten years of prosperity. In Donegal, our biggest priority is Healthcare, the same as everywhere else in the Country. We need to see continued increases in investment in this field.
In Donegal North East, we’ve come through a very turbulent period for the Fianna Fail party. Now is the time to re-build the bridges, to bring the organisation together and to start working towards the next campaign - 2009’s local elections. That won’t be the easiest task, given everything that has happened over the decades, but I do believe it is possible.