She may only be on the Galway City Council for less than a year, but Fine Gael’s Hildegarde Naughton is nothing if not ambitious, and her sights are now firmly set on running in the next General Election.
The ambitious young councillor will now be vying with FG’s leader in Galway city Cllr Brian Walsh and the outspoken and controversial Cllr Pádraig McCormack for the right to run in Galway West.
Fine Gael is understood to be looking at running three candidates in Galway West in the hope of winning two seats. Sitting TD Pádraic McCormack (should he choose to run again ) will cover Connemara and the city, while Sen Fidelma Healy Eames will take care of the Oranmore-Headford region.
However the party believes it also needs a candidate based exclusively in the city. Given that Galway city is the largest population centre in the county, it will need both the presence of Dep McCormack and a second candidate to take as many potential ‘blue’ votes as possible. Hence the three city councillors all see themselves as real contenders.
Cllr Naughton, in making her case to be included on the FG ticket, argues that the party needs two candidates in the city as “the city is key to FG winning a second seat in Galway West”.
“The feedback I’m getting from people on the ground is that this potential has not been fully tapped,” she told the Galway Advertiser. “I believe I am geographically well placed to help gain a second seat for FG at the next election: I represent Galway City West Ward, I’m living on the Headford Road, I’m originally from Oranmore, and I work in the city centre.”
Cllr Naughton is currently holding discussions with FG members in order “to hear their views and to outline my reasons for running and the contribution I want to make” to Irish politics.
“The reason I entered politics was to help to restore trust and confidence in the political system,” she said. “This is at the core of everything I have done since my election to Galway City Council.”
Cllr Naughton put this idea into practice when she voted against a series of proposed rezoning motions in the Draft Galway City Development Plan, on the basis that council officials were opposed to the rezoning and also that councillors did not have enough information on the proposals.
Her stance was greeted with horror and consternation by her Fine Gael colleagues and Fianna Fáil, although she won admiration from Labour councillors.
“I took what was considered by some as an unprecedented stand on planning,” she said. “I would not support a voting tradition which supports a lack of compliance with proper planning and an oversupply of housing and commercial units in areas where we are playing catch up with regard to the roads infrastructure, schools, and recreation facilities.
“There are monuments of bad planning right around this country and Galway is no exception. I have absolutely no interest in politics if it is not about doing what is right. Last week we got advice from former minister Willie O’Dea telling us we need to think outside the box. I would like to rephrase that to: ‘We need to think outside the rot!’”
