Aontú has selected its first female candidate in Galway West to contest the upcoming by-election.
Following a party selection convention this week, Galway city centre primary school teacher, Orla Nugent, was chosen based on her advocacy for housing, healthcare, transport and the Irish language.
Nugent replaces Aontú’s Galway chairman and previous Dáil candidate, military historian Dr Padraig Lenihan. He announced last year he would step aside to clear the way for younger activists, and that the party’s membership in Galway had grown considerably.
Lenihan received 1,233 first preferences in the 2024 general election, with transfers flowing to Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil and Independent Ireland.
The move to run a female candidate follows the party’s 2024 general election strategy, when Aontú and the Green Party were the only two organisations to run more women candidates than men. Nuala Nolan, formerly co-opted as a city councillor for Labour, ran unsuccessfully for Aontú in the 2019 local elections.
Nugent, from a farming background in Fermanagh, lives in Terryland, and works in Galway city. In her 30s, she says she understands the pressures on city renters, and also supports housing action group BÁNÚ calls to reform rigid planning laws to encourage families to remain in the Gaeltacht, thus safeguarding the Irish language
“Tá grá agam don Ghaeilge agus tá áthas orm go bhfuil an oiread sin suime sa Ghaeilge i measc an phobail i gcoitinne agus ba mhaith liom é sin a spreagadh!”
“I am renting, and probably lucky to have gotten a place to rent, but it is so hard for someone in their thirties to get a foot on the property ladder,” she says.
A daily commuter, Nugent wants new roads and public transport services for the city and county.
“Even if Bord Pleanála gave the green light tomorrow, it would be years before the bypass could be completed. Meanwhile, we must do other things… In the short term, we need more buses and more shelters and dedicated buses from the suburbs to and from city centre schools. And Park & Ride open in summer and winter in other places too - Moycullen for example.”
On healthcare, Nugent believes University Hospital Galway’s emergency department is under-resourced for the population it caters for, and as most people arrive there by car, the facility’s parking must be improved for patients and staff.
“Most days there are at least a dozen cars backed up outside the car park waiting for a car to leave and a space to be freed up. This is unacceptable. For the foreseeable future, patients and visitors will arrive by car. It is a gratuitous hardship for people to endure this uncertainty at a stressful time.”
Being a school teacher, Nugent has first-hand experience of how parents of children with special needs require more support and services. “We need to do better for these children and their families,” she says. “People want politicians who will fight for them, this is what [Aontú] will continue to do.”
