Offaly Fine Gael TD says spoiled votes 'cause for concern'

OFFALY Fine Gael TD John Clendennen has congratulated Catherine Connolly on her presidential election victory and expressed his concern about the large number of spoiled votes.

Speaking after tallies indicated that his party colleague Heather Humphreys would be well beaten in Offaly and across the entire country Deputy Clendennen said: “Heather was a good candidate. Obviously we had Mairead McGuinness lined up and for different reasons she couldn't partake in the election.

“Heather stepped in and she served the party well but her experience and the service she has given to the country in the past didn't come through in the votes day for whatever reason.”

He added that not only the spoiled votes, but the “messaging” on some of them, was a “cause for concern”.

Some ballot papers in Offaly had the words “Deport Africans”, “Deport Indians” and “Conor McGregor No 1” written on them, plus an insulting remark about the Roma community.

“You can call it anger, disgruntlement, you can call it whatever you like but we need to get an understanding as to why people are engaging in such a way because there are people who have essentially fought for democracy and lost their lives for democracy and up to decades ago women couldn't even vote,” said the TD.

“We need to have an understanding of just how precious a vote is, how precious democracy is and respect it when there is a ballot paper, that we vote accordingly. We have a body of work now to try and determine how we can engage the electorate in a way that they understand the importance of actually voting.”

He pointed to how Irish people had relied on emigrating to other countries such as America where they built lives, families, businesses and wealth.

In return, he argued, Ireland benefitted from foreign direct investment. He also said immigrants were especially important in the health service workforce.

“So I think we need to be very careful that a message doesn't go out from here that we're anti international individuals coming here, anti in any way. At the end of the day there are people living in our local communities and I want to make sure that they feel safe and secure and certain that living in Offaly is a safe place.”

He recognised people had issues with asylum seekers but said: “We have adopted a fair but firm system. We have been dealing with an emergency over the last few years.”

He said revisions of the system have been made and more are “in the pipeline”. He said it is fair that there be a debate on it so that “individuals from across the world who are living here in Ireland feel welcome, feel secure and can continue to call Ireland home while at the same time ensure we have a robust system for asylum seekers.”

Cllr Peter Ormond, Fianna Fail, said he was not surprised by the result. “There was a very good movement behind Catherine Connolly. I could hear it on the ground, she resonated with the people out there and Fianna Fail hadn't a candidate in the race. Jim [Gavin] withdrew but he was still on the ballot paper and might only get six or 7% and I think there was a bit of an anti-Government vote there as well,” said Cllr Ormond.

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“I think Catherine Connolly had a very good movement out there and she had a lot of parties backing her and what I was hearing from talking to people is that the choice was very limited with only two active candidates in the race and I felt that Catherine Connolly had all the momentum in the last couple of weeks.”

The councillor said it should not be presumed that the presidential poll result will be reflected in other elections, pointing out that “left” candidate had won three of the last four races for the Aras.

“I think when it comes to government people think a bit different. All those [left] parties will be fragmented come the local and general election and European election and they will all have their [own] candidates back in the field so it will be a completely different race. I think the presidential election is more about personalities and how you interact with people on the ground and that's where Catherine Connolly did well.”