JoeConway09Tramore’s Independent poll-topper Joe Conway has confirmed his intention to contest the pending by-election arising from Minister Martin Cullen’s resignation from the Dáil.
Waterford’s only Independent County Councillor, he has made it known to his supporters for some time that he would contest the next Dáil elections, whenever they came around. But now he has been unexpectedly presented with the opportunity and, while sorry to see Mr Cullen go, he intends taking it.
Of the latter’s departure he said: “The loss of a Minister in Waterford is a serious reverse for both county and city. It takes our local voice out of Cabinet and will once again consign us to a political backwater. Minister Cullen had his critics but even the more churlish among us would have to concede that many infrastructural benefits accrued to us on his watch. I would instance the Tramore Coastguard Station, the Transport 21 Initiative, and the Waterford-Dublin motorway as three of the more significant”.
He said that he liked Mr Cullen personally. “As well as being an ambitious and driven politician, there was always a bit of craic and levity in him. It is no overstatement to say he leaves a gaping vacuum in Waterford’s political landscape.”
Cllr Conway maintained the election of “yet another backbench Party TD” would not help Waterford or its people one bit. He argued: “The only hope that this constituency has is to elect a well-placed Independent TD who can use his support for either a FF-led or FG-led administration, to extract maximum benefit for the City and County. That is the only – and the absolute only – way that we can redress the loss of a Minister.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full story.