This article is from page 14 of the 2005-11-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
A REGROUPED, reorgan- ised and much more con- fident Fine Gael arrived in Cork at the weekend for its annual conference.
Among the upbeat group were hundreds of members from Clare, who are now looking to a second Dail seat in the constituency. In the af- termath of the de Valera re- tirement, the Fine Gael Party
was hoping to maximise its Ennis vote.
During the conference, party members and follow- ers cheered as their leader promised free GP services to under fives, €650 million in pre-school care and the es- tablishment of a new “super food authority”.
In a clear message to possi- ble coalition partners Labour, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny was adamant there would be
no increase in personal, cor- poration or capital taxes.
In what could be construed as a hand of friendship to an- other possible coalition part- ner, the party’s environment spokesperson said vehicles using energy-efficient fuels would be charged a lower Fede
Despite such suggestions, a possible alliance with the Green Party divided del- er ene
Controversy also arose when the party leader spelt out his vision for reform in the teaching of Irish.
The Mayo man controver- sially proposed to end com- pulsory Irish education for Leaving Cert students.
‘‘As one who speaks Irish, I believe we must acknowl- edge that our language is in trouble. Even though our young people receive, on average, 1,500 hours of
education in Irish, many are leaving school without any reasonable command of the language.
“Despite the fact that they teach Irish all through their schooling, only three out of 10 students of Irish attempt the honours paper in the Leaving Certificate. Worse still, thousands of them don’t even turn up for the exam every year,’ said Deputy oath