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“A week is a long time in politics,” former British prime minister Harold Wilson famously said. Four years even longer and in Mayo the change was a lot more dramatic than most would have expected from the last time they stood in the count centre in the Royal Theatre for a general election count. The blue surge over the country turned into a tidal wave in Mayo, with four of the five seats going to Fine Gael. The four Fine Gael candidates took 58.96 per cent of the first preference vote in the county, which translates into 48,170 first preference votes. That is an increase of 5.13 per cent from 2007 or 9,924 votes.

By the time you read this, you may have already been to the polling station and cast your vote, or you could be deciding where to mark that number one on the ballot paper later on today. Are you going to give just one preference or are you going to go right down the ballot paper from one to 15? Will it matter who you give your number two to, or your number five to? The answer is yes it can, so if you do not want someone to get elected, do not give him or her a preference, it may be a long shot but your preference down the list could come into play and help a candidate over the line.

Despite being placed by bookmakers Paddy Powers as the fourth favourite to become the next leader of Fianna Fáil at odds of 8/1, Ballina based Minister of State Dara Calleary has not given that idea a moment’s thought, he told the Mayo Advertiser this week.

Sixteen jobs are to be lost in Castlebar early in 2011 with the closure of the multi-million euro ambulance emergency call centre in Castlebar, which will be transferred to a new centre in Ballyshannon.

Dear Editor

Fianna Fáil TD, Dep Beverly Flynn was the top expenses claimant of the seven national representatives from County Mayo over the months of March and April, it was revealed this week. From now on TDs and senators expenses will be published online on the Oireachtas website on a monthly basis. Tuesday was the first day that the expenses were published. Deputy Flynn was also the only one of the seven Mayo Oireachtas representatives to submit vouched expenses for which she received €10,091.68 for the two months or €5,045.84 each month.

It appears the cuts to the number of special needs assistants in classrooms across the country which Fine Gael TD John O’Mahony described as “shameful” will go ahead, following the defeat of a private members’ motion in the Dáil on Wednesday night. Fine Gael had brought the Bill to the floor to try to halt the cuts but it was defeated by the Government. “This was a chance for our Government TD and Minister to strike a blow for Mayo, which they didn’t do,” Deputy O’Mahony, told the Mayo Advertiser. “This all came a day after the banks were bailed out for billions of euro, while it would have taken a minuscule amount of money to sort this problem out.”

Yesterday (Thursday) a delegation from St Anthony’s Special School in Castlebar, along with a number of other special schools, met with the joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science in Leinster House to discuss the ongoing row over the axing of a number of special needs assistants jobs.