Search Results for 'Socialist parties'

Wednesday September 17 saw an historic and crucial meeting of the Galway City Council take place with regard to the Local Property Tax. Irish democracy had a great outing and Insider was there to see and report on it.

Where did it all go wrong is what the Fine Gael party faithful will be trying to figure out over the next few weeks as they saw their seats in the county town drop from four to two over the weekend. One man who won’t be asking that question is Independent Cllr Michael Kilcoyne who topped the poll with an amazing 2,921 votes, a massive 1,210 first preference votes over the quota of 1,711. From not long after the boxes were opened and spilled across the counting tables in the Royal Theatre in Castlebar early on Saturday morning, there was never any doubt that Kilcoyne was going to top the poll, it was only a matter of by how much. When he was elected on the first count, he was the first councillor in Ireland elected in this year’s local elections, but he had to wait until the early hours of Tuesday morning for the official declaration of election after the recount of the Castlebar papers had been concluded. More on that below.

With three weeks to go to polling, there is much to play for across each of the three Galway city electoral wards. Poster campaigns are now in full flow and candidates are falling over each other for the affections of voters on the doorsteps.

John Mulholland and Keith Finnegan recently discussed the bookmaker’s odds for all the local election candidates across the city on Galway Bay FM.

One of our great national traits is the knowledge that we could all do the other fellow’s job so much better, be it politicians, teachers, referees, whatever, we all know better. Some of us keep this to ourselves but others have no difficulty letting the whole world know.

With around two years to go before the next local elections, political parties will already be focusing on their representative candidates and their prospects of success in what is likely to be a highly formative election.

Sinn Féin general election candidate, Thérèse Ruane, has accused both Fine Gael and Labour of engaging in political fraud after they agreed to facilitate the passage of the Finance Bill through the Dáil this week despite claiming to be opposed to the Bill.

The UNITE trade union, the second largest union in the Republic of Ireland, has called on all working people to vote for a left wing government in the general election likely to be held in March.

Commenting on the Taoiseach’s meeting this week with Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore, Sinn Féin councillor Thérèse Ruane has said that her party would not be part of a consensus for cuts and was joining with trade unionists, community and voluntary organisations, and other progressive voices in calling for an alternative way forward.