Connacht Tribune
Fianna Fáil candidate spent €285 on election Creme Eggs!
Galway East Fianna Fáil TD, Anne Rabbitte, tried to sweeten voters during the General Election campaign last Spring – by spending €285 on Cadbury’s Creme Eggs!
In her Election Expenses Statement, the Portumna-based Deputy Rabbitte, a first time general election candidate, confirmed she spent €95 and €190 on the chocolate eggs for “promotional” purposes.
She also spent some €140 on ‘good luck cards’ for Abbeyknockmoy footballers and Sarsfields hurlers, who were competing in important championship matches during the election campaign.
In total, according to the statement, Deputy Rabbitte spent some €14,446 on her campaign, in which she saw off the challenge of the sitting FF TD, Colm Keaveney, to hold the part’s seat in the three-seater.
Former Minister of State, Fine Gael’s Ciaran Cannon spent just €12,456 on his successful re-election campaign.
Independent Dáil Deputy Séan Canney, who is now Minister of State at OPW, spent some €18,718.
Included in the election expenditure of the former County Councillor, who topped the poll, was €125 for car flags and some €342 for flash lamps and batteries for canvassing in the dark.
In the Galway/Roscommon constituency, Michael Fitzmaurice abides by the principle that an army marches on its stomach, and so his election expenses included two trips to Supermac’s totalling about €60, for food for his campaign workers.
A member of the Independent Alliance, he also declared some €91.20 for 1/25th of the cost of the development and maintenance of the alliance’s website. In total, Deputy Fitzmaurice declared some €11,603.
Minister Denis Naughten, the former Fine Gael now Independent, spent more than €17,500 on his re-election. The third TD in the constituency, Fianna Fáil’s Eugene Murphy spent some €8,900 on his campaign.
This included some €378 for a new television for his office.
TD had to rent car to secure her seat
Meanwhile, in Galway West, Catherine Connolly had to hire a car for two weeks during the General Election last spring – because her own motor broke down!
The Independent Dáil Deputy’s favoured mode of transport is usually a bicycle but she spent €387 hiring a car to canvas during the 2016 election campaign, in which she succeeded in winning one of the five seats in the constituency.
In her Election Expenses Statement, Claddagh-based Deputy Connolly confirmed “rental of car for two weeks because own car broke down”.
In total, Deputy Connolly, a former Galway City Councillor, spent some €14,856 on her election campaign.
The ‘big spender’ of the five candidates, who won a seat in the Galway West five-seat, which includes Galway city, its hinterlands, Connemara and part of South Mayo, was Noel Grealish.
Independent Deputy Grealish spent some €26,315 on his successful re-election campaign, which included posters, advertising leaflets and so on.
Éamon Ó Cuív, who topped the poll after the first count, had the least financial outlay of all of the five TDs, who won a seat in Galway West.
The former Fianna Fáil government minister spent some €10,711 on his campaign. This included some €120 for ferries to Inishbofin and some €500 on Aer Arann flights to the Aran Islands.
Seán Kyne, the Moycullen-based Galway West TD representing Fine Gael – and who was promoted to Minister of State upon his re-election – spent some €22,821 on his campaign.
His party colleague, former city mayor Hildegarde Naughton, who retained a second Fine Gael seat for the party, spent some €16,257 on her successful election campaign.
Unusually, all three Fine Gael candidates in Galway West – including former Galway football manager John O’Mahony, who lost his seat following the boundary redraw – claimed an expense from Applegreen, which amounted to €13.33 each.
General election candidates are obliged to submit records of their election expenses to SIPO, the Standards in Public Office Commission.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
