Minister hails 'great result' for Fianna Fail in Laois
'When all is said and done and the mouthing and the shouting stops, the people who go out to vote are fairly reasonably satisfied'
Laois Fianna Fail Minister Sean Fleming described his party’s performance in the local election as “a great” result.
Speaking in the Laois Count Centre in Portlaoise on Monday, the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs said he was “very pleased with the outcome so far. We had six outgoing councillors and we expect all six to return and across the board I think the two main parties are doing well.”
Despite his confidence in his party, Minister Fleming believes the government shouldn’t call an early General Election.
“We should run the full term, the full five years,” he insisted.
He believes the Fianna Fail Councillors in Laois are being rewarded for their work over the last five years.
“Most of the councillors have been returned in Laois, practically them all, so that does say to me that when all is said and done and the mouthing and the shouting stops, the people who go out to vote are fairly reasonably satisfied by the work done by their local public representatives. That’s good.
I know it is not easy for new people to break through especially when the sitting councillors are doing their work as they seem to be. There won’t be much change in Laois and that’s a tribute to one, the work of the councillors and two, the people seeing them do that work,” said Minister Fleming.
Although the counting was still underway, Minister Fleming didn’t envisage his party gaining an extra seat on the council and he said the vote was marginally down on the last local elections.
“We will have extra votes left over and above our six seats which is good. I think we are down a fraction, a tiny percent, but that’s fine because we were over the last time too. Overall it is a great result for the party in county Laois and I again say, for the work of the councillors in the meantime. We had some great new candidates who will be elected the next time out but not this time,” he concluded.