Fitzmaurice warning on future of rural Ireland

Victorious Galway/ Roscommon Independent candidate Michael Fitzmaurice – re-elected to Dail Éireann for the second time in 14 months – has insisted that if smaller towns in rural Ireland are not given “a leg up” then the country is going to lose part of its rural tradition and way of life.

Mr. Fitzmaurice has been one of the strongest campaigners for rural Ireland in recent years and this certainly was not lost on the voters of the hybrid Galway/Roscommon constituency as they bestowed a first preference vote of 9,750 on the Glinsk man.

Indeed, with other Independents around the country securing similar tallies, including Denis Naughten who topped the poll in the Galway/Roscommon constituency with 13,936, Mr. Fitzmaurice believed the message from rural Ireland was very clear.

“Health is obviously a huge issue – be it mental health and general health – but the revival of rural Ireland and providing jobs is another,” said Mr. Fitzmaurice at the count centre in Hyde Park Roscommon.

“I have a document ready to go that I have done on rural Ireland and the revival of it. If we don’t get broadband, if we don’t have banking infrastructure and if we don’t basically give a leg up to the smaller towns, then we are going to lose part of our rural tradition and way of life.

“So, these things have to be done. If we don’t have regional development there will be more of a magnet going to Dublin which causes its own problems. It has to happen and Governments for too long are talking about it and not delivering on the principles we stand for.”

Mr. Fitzmaurice, elected on the sixth count last Saturday, stressed it was time for those in power to listen to the people and begin to embrace the proposals put forward by Independents such as himself with a view to reinvigorating rural communities.

“Our proposals are not revolutionary or anything. They are pretty straightforward stuff. A lot of politicians will agree with it but none of them have delivered on it for the past 20 or 30 years.

“Everyone touches on all these things but the one thing we want to do in a programme for Government is make sure they are pushing it and make sure they are adhered to.”

He hoped though that he and other Independents would now be in a position to push for measures to improve the plight of people in rural Ireland. “Our hand will be getting stronger. There are other Independents I have spoken to today in different parts of the country and there is a responsibility on us to work together and make sure we deliver for the people.

“If the opportunity comes that we are given the opportunity to be in Government or put together a programme for Government we have to make sure that is right for the people.

“If it doesn’t happen, and the two big bedfellows (Fine Gael and Fianna Fail) go together, then there is also a need for an opposition that makes the Government accountable. I think there are equally opportunities coming if the two big parties come together. We can be the largest opposition (group).”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.