*Matthew Moroney with Cathal Crowe.
SUCKLER farmer, Matthew Moroney (IND) has announced he is bidding to win a seat in Dáil Éireann and will be contesting the upcoming General Election.
No date has yet been set for the General Election but speculation is mounting that the people of Ireland will be heading to the polls on either November 15th or November 22nd.
Clare’s ballot paper has a new addition to it with confirmation that Broadford native Moroney is throwing his name in the ring. He confirmed his candidacy to The Clare Echo, “I may be from East Clare but I intend to represent the entire county if I am elected as a Clare TD”.
Matthew who works in Arrabawn Co-op in Bridgetown contested the local elections as an Independent Ireland where he polled 860 first preference votes before he was eliminated on the sixth and final count in the Killaloe Municipal District, he was the closest of the challengers to the sitting five of Cllr Joe Cooney (FG), Cllr Pat Hayes (FF), Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF), Cllr Pat Burke (FG) and Cllr Tony O’Brien (FF) who were elected to serve East Clare together for the third successive term.
Health services is a big focus for Moroney. “I’ve been seeing how things are going for the last couple of years in health and our hospitals but nothing has been done about it and there is no end in sight for the ongoing chaos at University Hospital Limerick. There are groups doing a lot of good work for Ennis Hospital but there doesn’t seem to be any real enthusiasm from Government to do anything so I want to see if I can make a difference”. He said he will “fight vigorously” for a model-three hospital in Ennis plus a new hospital for the Mid-West to be located in Clare.
He has listed mental health awareness, cost of living supports, supports for businesses, delivery of more social and affordable homes, supports for the farming sector, increased services for Shannon Airport and greater assistance for the elderly, disabled and carers as part of his campaign manifesto. “I believe that common sense solutions will improve our county services and if elected I will fight tooth and nail to ensure we get the funding and services we deserve”.
In the 2020 General Election of the four TDs elected in Clare, Joe Carey (FG) received the lowest first preference with 5,684. On what he believes how he can grow his first preference of 860 in the local elections to a figure in excess of 5,000, Matthew said, “the local election was always going to be tricky because I was running against five sitting councillors who have been there a long time with fifteen to twenty five years between them so it was always going to be hard to win a seat but I thought I gave it a good shot. For a finish, I was 232 votes off a seat and I think I gave people a shock with how I finished, from there people started to talk to me and were encouraging to give them another chance to vote for me”.
He confirmed that he spoke with Independent Ireland before declaring as a fully Independent candidate for the General Election. “There was conversations but I was always going to be a fully Independent candidate. Every Independent Ireland candidate for the local elections still had to fund their entire campaign unlike other political parties, we were ambassadors for them and their logo and I think I am better off to be on my own as a fully Independent candidate”.
Matthew told The Clare Echo, “any Independent candidate is putting their money where their mouth is. It is a serious thing to go forward as an Independent”.
Moroney is a former member of Fianna Fáil and attempted to get the party’s nomination to contest the 2024 local elections. He said he has not fallen out with any members since leaving the party. He said that he is friendly with three of the candidates he will be facing off with, Cathal Crowe TD (FF), Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) and Eddie Punch (II). “People deserve a choice, they have been the same thing at every election on what will be done”.
For the local elections, Matthew did not participate in election debates organised by The Clare Echo and Clare FM. He committed to partake in equivalent events if they proceed this time round. “I will be on the debates, every sector gets a busy time in the year and unfortunately the agri-sector was very busy then, some interviews were not catered to people working full-time and it was easier for people who are self-employed or retired”.
He confirmed that he will be taking time off work at the Co-op to campaign in the General Election and that his brother will look after his farming commitments. “The Government have been spoofing on when the election will be. An election in the short-term means there will be houses that I cannot get to, it would be music to my ears if the election was in March but it is looking like early November”.
