This article is from page 3 of the 2006-10-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
The time is right for a winter election. That is according to Clare’s Independent TD James Breen who believes the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should go to the country in light of the Mahon Tribunal revelations.
“There is only one way to clear the air and that is an early general election,” he said.
But not all politicians are keen to embrace the crisp winter air on the hustings.Just North Clare’s Cllr Michael Kelly (FF) shared the outspoken TD’s view that the Taoiseach should call the election soon. Cllr Kelly told a reporter from The Clare Peopl e that there were people in the Fianna Fáil organisation who thought that Mr Ahern should go to the polls early, and that not to do so would be seen as a sign of weakness.
He described the money in question as “ peanuts” in the context of an economy and said Taoiseach which have “performed so well”.
In a survey carried out by reporters from The Clare People among 14 of the15 Fianna Fáil county councillors (Cllr Colm Wiley could not be contacted), just Cllr Tony O’Brien was unsure if now was a good time to call an election – the remaining 12 concluded it was definitely not a good time. The Fianna Fáil members of the council agreed unanimously however that the Taoiseach should not resign his position, a view that was shared by the Oireachtas members, with the exception of Deputy Pat Breen (FG) who had some reservations until after today’s long anticipated Dáil session.
Whether the council members would have accepted the “loan” or “gift” was not as clear.
Ten of the 14 councillors polled said they would not, but four said they did not know. Cllr Bernard Hanrahan (FF) qualified the answer by saying, “ if you found yourself in a bad situation and you had friends who could help you out, you might accept the money, but only on the condition that they would take back the money when you could repay it.”
Just three of the councillors surveyed believed that the events of the previous fortnight had tarnished the Taoiseach’s reputation.
Meanwhile the people of Clare had their say on the issue through the new Website for The Clare People. In this week’s Web-poll, almost 70 per cent of people said that they were not satisfied with the Taoiseach’s answers to date. Just over a fifth were satisfied,. Ten per cent were not bothered.