This article is from page 6 of the 2006-05-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
CLARE’S 2,300 registered Fine Gael members are focused on this Sunday’s selection convention in Ennis where five party members, including sitting TD Pat Breen, will fight it out for two nominations to run for the party at the next general election.
The other four candidates seeking selection are former TD Cllr Madeleine Taylor Quinn; Cllr Joe Carey, the son of former TD Donal Carey; Cllr John Crowe; and Cllr Tony Mulcahy.
Deputy Breen said the number of people seeking selection was a mark of the vibrancy of the party in Clare.
“Unfortunately there will be losers as well as winners at the convention but I know that everybody has their eye on the greater goal of regaining a second seat in Clare,” he said.
“I am looking forward to a dynamic convention where the party faithful in the county will get an opportunity to assess the candidates.”
With five of the better-known members of the party vying for a position on the blue team’s ticket in 2007, one Fine Gael insider has predicted, “it will be a right dog-fight.”
Fine Gael won two seats in Clare in the 1982, 1987 and 1989 elections. Deputy Breen added that it was apparent from this weekend’s Ard Fheis in Dublin that there was a new mood of optimism in the party which had built itself up and unified itself under the leadership of Enda Kenny.
“Leading the Fine Gael team going into the next election will be an honour,” he said.
“I have spent the last four years seeing at first hand what the problems and issues are for people in Clare and after nine years of the same Government, people are looking for change.”
The party selection convention is scheduled for the West County hotel in Ennis this coming Sunday.
The Fine Gael party has seen a 2,000 per cent increase in its membership in Shannon town in the past year.
Membership has increased three fold across the county.
The Shannon town branch has swollen to 21 and a half times its original size, from 24 to 516 in the run up to its election convention now pencilled in for mid-May.
Across the county the party figures have also increased to more than 2,400 members as the party prepares for its one member, one vote general election candidate selection process.