Canvassing Connemara last weekend, local election independent hopeful Ronan Garvey says he met many people who share his dissatisfaction with the lack of accountability in the country.
According to the Connemara candidate, one of the key factors in Garvey’s decision to seek election is that it seems only independents are trying to address the accountability crisis that is a cancer in public life in Ireland. ‘The price of incompetence in Fas,’ Garvey maintains, ‘was a big pay-off with a golden handshake from public funds; the price of
failures in banking regulation were big lump sums and big fat pensions for life to the officials responsible. Most recently we have seen the same thing in the charity sector.’
Garvey has formed the message of his campaign around what he claims is the waste and junketeering endemic at local authority levels for years beneath the radar that does not even make the headlines.
Garvey went on to say that ‘Taxpayers and small business ratepayers are constantly expected to pick up the tab for any amount of excess, waste, or incompetence.Local officials can make any number of expensive mistakes and there is no way of holding them to account.’
The one thing Garvey emphatically claims he can guarantee is that if he is elected these things will not happen on Galway County Council.
If elected he says he will be a voice against waste, inefficiency and secrecy – and to expose it where he sees it.
His promises if elected include:
• Acting as a voice for small business on the Council and voting against any increases in rates to small businesses through the term.
• Promoting Connemara as a place for tourism, for foreign direct investment, for indigenous Irish business and for lifestyle. Garvey has consistently said that he will strive to bring Connemara small business right up the agenda within the Galway Chamber.
• Bringing a ‘ can-do’ approach and 10 plus years of practical small business experience to the council.
• Setting up a constituency office which will act as an accessible hub for all Council related enquiries as well as a hub for small businesses to have regular talks, networking events, guest speakers and general forums for sharing of advice and ideas.
Ronan Garvey is 46 years of age and has been active in the community for several years. He claims that running a small business in this country in recent years is tough – and it toughens you up. If elected he promises he will be well able to call people out on waste, cronyism and incompetence and shout ‘ Stop’.
