Waterford Election 2011

dayshah

Poor Uncle Tom wrote: »

The shake up is what we need.
Coffey should get some junior portfolio and down the road when Kenny is ousted Deasy may come back into favour.
I'm delighted for Ciara Conway, and John Halligan for the City, I can't see him doing much for rural Waterford.

Halligan is likely to be Waterford's only opposition TD, so that will be a boost to his profile anyway.

Poor Uncle Tom

dayshah wrote: »

Halligan is likely to be Waterford's only opposition TD, so that will be a boost to his profile anyway.

It will boost his profile, but it will only be of benefit if he uses that fact like Healy-Rae. Being in opposition and an independant means he is likely not to ever get a portfolio.

savic04

Halligan as a TD is a waste of time .

He will have no say or power to do anything for the city.
Good luck to him and hope I'm wrong but I just can't see it.

mike65

I said a few pages back if he got in he would have to work damned hard to get re-elected so that will be what he will be mainly doing for the next 4 years.

Deise Tom

dark crystal wrote: »

Sadly not - I thought he had a real fighting chance too.

Would he be better off not standing in the next election for SF and let someone like Brendan Mansfield have a go if he was interested. How many elections has he sttod in now, as many as Declan Walters???

ziedth

Deise Tom wrote: »

Would he be better off not standing in the next election for SF and let someone like Brendan Mansfield have a go if he was interested. How many elections has he sttod in now, as many as Declan Walters???

IMHO he won't get anywhere near as good a chance as he did this time. I have always had allot of time for him to be honest. I think Admmm made a good point in that had Halligan not ran he would have surely got a seat.

tankbarry

Now lets hope the 4 elected from Waterford will actually fight for waterford.

1. University
2. Airport made bigger
3. Jobs for our people
4. Simply whatever makes it better

savic04

How many seats would FG need to have sole party gov ?

Deise Tom

tankbarry wrote: »

Now lets hope the 4 elected from Waterford will actually fight for waterford.

1. University
2. Airport made bigger
3. Jobs for our people
4. Simply whatever makes it better

Would love to know where they will come from. Isnt one of the first thing that Enda is going to do is to get rid of 30,000 nationally.

Deise Tom

savic04 wrote: »

How many seats would FG need to have sole party gov ?

83 would do you as they will be selecting the Ceann Comhraile, but to have an absolute majority 84.

STIG83

A good result!! I was talking to a guy last night who is a guard in Waterford City, he is a guard in there for 15 years and he said he never saw Brendan Kenneally in the flesh, did absolutely nothing for Waterford so good riddance!!

Only Waterford politician ive seen doing something for Waterford was Martin Cullen, he pushed for the bypass and the M9 to Dublin been a few of the main things he done, well i know he really messed up on the electronic voting machines, the less said about that the better

decies

Halligan on rte radio one ten mIns ago ' no gombeen politics' . Speaking of which the two Healy raes on now :-/

Funfair

Halligan might have more power in the next Dail then you think as Fine Gael are looking at forming the next Government with Independents.

Leaving Labour in the opposition now considering its popularity would be from a FG point of view a shrewd move and a must for the party going forward. If Kenny can’t see that he has no business being Taoiseach.

University & Airport runway extension wouldn't be a bad tradeoff for Halligan's vote considering he would have 2 FG TD’s to back him on the above issues.

Knowing Halligan though he would be more interested in getting welfare increases and a new halting site then actually making a positive contribution for the County.

STIG83

So is Ciara Conway the only woman so far to get elected to the Dail?

daaave

STIG83 wrote: »

So is Ciara Conway the only woman so far to get elected to the Dail?

i think joan burton was the first to be elected yesterday,also joan collins was in a good position last night to take a seat,not sure how it panned out for her.
mary lou mcdonald from sinn fein also got in

STIG83

daaave wrote: »

i think joan burton was the first to be elected yesterday,also joan collins was in a good position last night to take a seat,not sure how it panned out for her.
mary lou mcdonald from sinn fein also got in

Joan Burton has the worst voice, its like somebody scraping their fingernails on a blackboard.

JPA

STIG83 wrote: »

So is Ciara Conway the only woman so far to get elected to the Dail?

21 women have been elected so far.

KevIRL

STIG83 wrote: »

So is Ciara Conway the only woman so far to get elected to the Dail?

The only one in Waterford alright, but nationally there's plenty.

Ellie1984

KevIRL wrote: »

The only one in Waterford alright, but nationally there's plenty.

I wouldn't call 21/133 plenty. Parties should start putting more women forward

KevIRL

Ellie1984 wrote: »

I wouldn't call 21/133 plenty. Parties should start putting more women forward

meant to say plenty more, yep take your point

AdMMM

Knowing Halligan though he would be more interested in getting welfare increases and a new halting site then actually making a positive contribution for the County.

I don't think John is that short sighted. If he had the choice, he doesn't want to see people getting welfare increases, he wants to see people get jobs.

I think we had every right to be critical of Brendan Kenneally and what he could do for Waterford if he was elected because we had many years of him representing the Waterford constituency in the Dail to judge him on but I really don't get why people would knock John before he's had a chance to do anything?

At least leave him get up there before we start criticising him?

Ellie1984

How do you become one of the people that count the votes anyway? Can anyone put themselves forward or do you have to be a civil servant? Thanks :cool:

STIG83

Fianna Fáil have announced they are renaming their party, they will now be known as Fianna Failed.

Funfair

AdMMM wrote: »

I don't think John is that short sighted. If he had the choice, he doesn't want to see people getting welfare increases, he wants to see people get jobs.

I think we had every right to be critical of Brendan Kenneally and what he could do for Waterford if he was elected because we had many years of him representing the Waterford constituency in the Dail to judge him on but I really don't get why people would knock John before he's had a chance to do anything?

At least leave him get up there before we start criticising him?

fair enough... I sincerely hope he proves me wrong..

Deise Tom

STIG83 wrote: »

Joan Burton has the worst voice, its like somebody scraping their fingernails on a blackboard.

How she loves herself. All the fingerpointing and the pointing of a rolled up piece of paper is so annoying. And then there is the shaking and waving of her hands. Does she have shares in newstalk. When Brendan O'brien had his saturday morning show, she used to be on it about 3 saturdays out f 4.

PTH2009

Delighted for John and whole halligan family. lets hope it works out for him. also well done to the other 3 elected

Deise Tom

Ellie1984 wrote: »

How do you become one of the people that count the votes anyway? Can anyone put themselves forward or do you have to be a civil servant? Thanks :cool:

There could be a lot of need for them in the next two or three years.

deisemum

STIG83 wrote: »

Fianna Fáil have announced they are renaming their party, they will now be known as Fianna Failed.

I was in Australia during the last election and the news readers could not pronounce Fianna Fáil so kept calling them Fianna Fail.

STIG83

deisemum wrote: »

I was in Australia during the last election and the news readers could not pronounce Fianna Fáil so kept calling them Fianna Fail.

They have it right now!!

jonnyfingers

I have mixed feelings about the results in Waterford. Obviously I would have preferred Cullinane to get in, but Halligan ran a very good campaign. Being Mayor obviously raised his profile enough and as an independent he was very transfer friendly in the city.

Also happy for Conway. While I know almost nothing about her I do like to see a woman getting elected and you have to admire Labour's handling of the vote which really jumped her up the leaderboard with Ryan's elimination.

I really feel for Cullinane. This is his third failed election but he's getting closer each time. He's a nice lad, does plenty of good work for Waterford and did his best to get himself out there. He took part in debates, spoke well on the radio and also knocked on as many doors as he could. This was his best chance to get elected but I always feel the Sinn Féin team around him on the ground are just not as good or organised as the other parties at getting the support for him.

What annoys me, however, is the amount of first preference votes for Kenneally. I am glad to see he suffered with each round of transfers. But it still goes to show a core FF number of voters who were either on the moon for the last few years, or somehow benefiting from FF's disastrous policies.

And I also hate the fact that Deasy just strolls in while seemingly not even trying. I didn't hear him on radio or see him on TV once. I had none of his supporters call to my door or put any literature through my letter box. He seems to coast in on his name, and in this case his popular political party affiliation.

Overall the results are pretty much what I expected. I'm not sure how much the 4 TDs will benefit Waterford. From what I can tell Deasy is not popular with Enda Kenny. Coffey might get something. Conway might not have much to do this time around but she's young enough and might end up as a TD for the long run. I can't see Halligan playing much of a role as an independent in the near future. Even if Fine Gael decide to go into government with like minded independents I don't think he'll be considered one of them. As a independent in opposition he could be very invisible. He may try to align himself with other in opposition which might help his cause.

Whatever happens I hope the new government will do something to improve the country. I don't see any real changes coming in the immediate future as I believe Fine Gael will implement most of the same Fianna Fail policies. But if they go into coalition with Labour that might be different.

Either way it's nice to see Fianna Fail get a hammering!