This article is from page 3 of the 2011-03-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
NEXT WEEK Clare will more than likely have three Government TDs as Fine Gael and Labour enter coalition talks, and the longest serving of those TDs believes the county should also have a ministry.
Speaking after he topped the poll in the General Election to be the first TD returned for the Banner Fine Gael’s Pat Breen said he believed that the county should at the very least get a junior ministry.
“We have returned three Government TDs here tonight and three Government TDs can make a difference. I would hope also that the Taoiseach would take the opportunity to give one of us in Government a ministry,” he said referring to himself, party colleague Joe Carey and Labour’s Michael McNamara.
“It would make a great difference to the county if we had a junior minister or a minister in the county it- self, and after returning three Government TDs I think Clare at least deserves that.”
The Ballynacally man was coy and evasive however when asked if that TD should be the longest serving in the county. “That would be up to the Taoiseach himself,” he said.
In the neighbouring constituency of Limerick city, where more than 4,000 Clare citizens vote, the constituents are also expecting a “full car” in the form of a senior ministry.
For the first time ever the party’s Finance spokesperson and former party leader Michael Noonan topped the poll in the constituency with more than 30 per cent of the vote.
The 67-year-old is now favourite to take the key position of Minister for Finance, even in the likelihood of the Fine Gael Labour coalition.
The constituency’s proximity to Clare makes it very unlikely that the TDs from the Banner County will also get a seat on the Government front bench.
Most political commentators say the most Clare can hope for now is a junior ministry. The last Fine Gael TD from Clare to hold such a position was Donal Carey, father of Fine Gael’s second TD in Clare Joe Carey. He was appointed Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach and Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht by then Taoiseach John Bruton in January 1995.