News
Walsh tops local Dáil register of interests
Outgoing Galway West TD Brian Walsh will be retiring from politics to an extensive property portfolio which includes apartments, retail and industrial premises, according to the latest Dáil Register of Interests.
Mr Walsh – who announced his resignation as a TD on health grounds last January – has listed his occupation as being income derived from rental properties.
The Register – published last week – lists occupations; share ownership; directorships; land ownership (including property); gifts; property supplied or lent or services supplied; travel facilities; remunerated positions and contracts.
Mr Walsh owns a house in Mervue, as well as apartments in Wellpark, the Docks, in Sligo, and one at Foley Street in Dublin. He also owns a retail unit and two apartments at Briarhill Shopping Centre in Galway and a 5% share in an adjacent site.
He has a 10% share in industrial premises at Parkmore and Mervue Industrial Estates and a one-quarter share of a commercial property in Briarhill Business Park. He also owns a quarter-acre site in Merlin Park and a half-acre site in Roscam which is intended for family use. There is planning permission for one house on each site.
Mr Walsh is listed as a director, in a voluntary capacity, as a non-executive director of Mervue Community Childcare Group Ltd and Mervue Creche Ltd, both non-profit childcare groups. He is also a voluntary director of Galway Premier Car Sales Ltd, with an address at the Tuam Road Retail Centre. Mr Walsh is also a director of BTW Mortgages and Investments Ltd., which is dissolved.
His former party colleague, Ciarán Cannon, is the only Galway TD who owns a holiday home. The property is in the small village of Banyuls-dels-Aspres in the Languedoc-Rousillon region in the south of France, which is close to the border with Spain.
He is an executive director of Gate Lodge Properties Ltd in Carrabane Athenry (which operates the Gate Lodge pub) and is listed as an executive director of the Carrabane Community Development Company Ltd.
Independent Deputy Noel Grealish has declared a house in Cregmore, Claregalway and an apartment in Dublin, which are rented, as well as 15 acres of farmland in Carnmore. He also owns an unoccupied 8,800 square foot unit in Briarhill Business Park. He also owns 100% of GCC Galway Glass Centre Ltd, which has been in liquidation since 2012.
Seán Kyne (FG) has declared his wife’s home in Athlone which is currently rented out, while his father’s company in Moycullen has contracts to supply sand and gravel to the City and County Councils, Inland Fisheries, NUI Galway and Údaras na Gaeltachta.
Fine Gael’s John O’Mahony – who failed to win a seat in Galway West – owns an apartment on the Sean Mulvoy Road in the city for rent or family use. He also owns a non-habitable house and two hectares at Magheraboy, Mayo which is not used; a two-bed bungalow in Ballaghaderreen and a quarter-share of a shop in Claremorris which is rented.
He receives an income as a landlord, a Department of Education pension and from writing newspaper columns.
Paul Connaughton Jnr (FG) – who lost his seat in Galway East – declared farmland in Mountbellew.
Retiring Galway East Fianna Fáil TD Micheál Kitt declared 630 shares in Irish Life & Permanent and 131 shares in Vodafone. He is a retired teacher, but was not in receipt of a teacher’s pension when the Register was compiled. Michael Fitzmaurice, the Independent TD in the new Roscommon-Galway constituency, has listed his occupation as agricultural contractor, plant hire, turf contracting and farming.
He has one share worth one euro in the Kilcolm Co-op Water Scheme (a voluntary group water scheme where he is also chairman) and is Chair of the Turf Cutters and Contractors’ Association representative group.
“Although we set out our stall to Government, this is a voluntary representative group. The position is not paid nor expenses. There is no financial reward, in fact it costs me money,” Deputy Fitzmaurice noted in his filings.
He owns farm land at Strangeforth, Keelogues and Curragh in Williamstown.
Deputy Fitzmaurice also noted that he borrowed water pumps, a dumper and a digger to help save houses from flooding in his constituency.
His Independent colleague in the new constituency, Denis Naughten, has declared his constituency office on Abbey Street, Roscommon, as well as a one-acre site at Drum in Roscommon.
TDs from outside the Galway constituencies with interests here include Eamon Gilmore, who is joint owner of 37 acres and his former family home in Caltra; Sean Kenny (Dublin North-East), who owns a rented property at Willow park in Ballinasloe and Michelle Mulherin (Mayo) who owns a rented apartment at Cúirt Seoige in Bohermore in the city.
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.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
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.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
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
