The prospect of Sinn Féin holding the balance of power in Mayo County Council after this June’s local election has seen the party been approached by both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to do a deal with them according to sitting Cllr Gerry Murray. Yesterday Sinn Féin launched their four candidates for the county council elections where the party hope to boost their numbers from their current solitary seat held by Cllr Murray, with Castlebar Town Cllr Therese Ruane running in the Castlebar area, Westport Town Councillor Dave Keating in the Westport area and Rose Conway Walsh who lost out on getting a seat in the last elections narrowly running again in the Belmullet area. The launch was also attend by party leader Gerry Adams and EU Election candidate Padraig MacLochlainn.
Cllr Murray speaking at the launch said, “I’m confident that were going to do very well in these local elections, and in the last few months I have received informal enquires from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors that in the event of Sinn Féin holding the balance of power would we do business with either of them.
So they’re the ones who are asking us to do business. And also across the entire country Sinn Féin Mayors have been elected by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors, so despite what Enda Kenny may say about not going to do a deal with Sinn Féin, Fine Gael councillors have done business with Sinn Féin across the country.”
Earlier at the launch Cllr Murray laid the blame for a lot of problems in Mayo at the feet of the two major parties saying “Over the last five years on Mayo County Council I have seen a cosy alliance between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, we have seen them come together on a whole number of issues and being very incompetent on some of those issues such as the sell off our waste collection is a case in point and the county development plan. There just two examples of what has happened in Mayo County Council when the two parities came to together and formed an alliance on issues of huge importance and they haven’t managed them in the interest of the people of this county. It’s time for change and we have people who can deliver change.”
The party is expecting to have large turn out of voters in the local elections according to Murray who said: “We have a long term strategy in place, but our strategy for when ever the next general election is will be determined by the outcome of the June elections. We have a very strong team, the strongest one we ever had in Mayo. We’ve had a huge influx of membership over the last six months and I certainly think we have the potential to take the seats here and then go on and take a seat at the next general election.”
Sitting Ballina Town Councillor Peter Clarke has yet to be ratified as a candidate once again by the party and with the closing date for declaring nominees this coming Tuesday May 5 the deadline is fast approaching. However Cllr Murray confirmed to the Mayo Advertiser that the issue will be sorted out over the weekend. “Cllr Clarke was nominated by the local branch for the town council elections, there were a few issues about whether we were going to run another candidate or not and they will all be fixed up before the nominations close on Tuesday.”
