Labour seeks new faces to put forward in election

Date Published: {J}

By Declan Tierney

The Labour Party in Galway is looking at the prospect of running a second candidate alongside Michael D. Higgins in the event of a general election being called.

While the party does not expect to make a gain, they are planning for the future and are anxious to ‘blood’ new talent from the party’s younger members.

However, the party are not ruling out the prospect of another member of the Higgins family standing for the Dail in the event of Michael D. deciding to opt out of politics. Speculation surrounds his only daughter Alice Mary Higgins as being a future successor to her father.

At the moment the Labour Party are trawling through every

constituency in the expectation of making vital gains in the next election.

While they view Galway East as a constituency where they can make a gain, they have no such hopes of this in Galway West where Michael D. Higgins has held the Labour seat for successive elections.

But they are looking at the prospect of running a second candidate as they accept that this will be the last time Deputy Higgins will fight an election.

The speculation surrounds Cllr Niall McNelis as being a running mate for Michael D. in the event of an election being called inside the next year. Councillor Derek Nolan on the East side of the city is also being groomed.

Cllr McNelis was first elected to Galway City Council last year and is well known in the business community in Galway – indeed he shares a clinic with Deputy Higgins every Saturday.

A Labour Party source said that it was very likely that they would run two candidates in Galway West next time out and was confident that Michael D. would be a candidate if an election was called within the next 12 months.

But the party spokesperson said that if the current government survives until 2012, then it was less likely that Michael D. would be a candidate but they are anxious to keep the Higgins name on the ticket.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.