Constituency revision may signal the demise of Galway West's five-seater

It has been the source of much political speculation over the past year and there are now real indications that the days of Galway West being a five seat constituency could soon be coming to an end.

Senior Fine Gael sources say that it is inevitable and will form part of the Government's promises regarding political reform.

In fact the Constituency Commission has received three submissions recommending that a sizable portion of the Galway West constituency be lumped in with Galway East, which would certainly add to the drama in both constituencies as well as presenting dilemmas for a number of candidates in the next election.

The commission will announce their decision in the summer on the exact number of seats that they intend reducing from the current Dail but over the past week the speculation is rife that Galway West will be one of those where the axe is likely to be wielded. Already a number of sitting TDs are looking over their shoulders and wondering what lies in store for them come the next election.

There are submissions suggesting that polling booths in Clarinbridge, Maree, Oranmore, Turloughmore and Lisheenkyle be transferred from Galway West to Galway East resulting in a shift of around 6,000 voters from one constituency to the other and it will have a profound effect on at least two candidates.

It is well known at this stage in political circles that Senator Fidelma Healy Eames is increasingly anxious to contest a seat in Galway East as it is felt that she may have difficulty getting on the Fine Gael ticket in Galway West as current Mayor of Galway, Hildegarde Naughton is likely to stand again for the party along with sitting TDs Sean Kyne and Brian Walsh.

It is possible that Fine Gael would only run three candidates in a four seater Galway West constituency and this may not include Healy Eames as the party hierarchy were not particularly impressed by her ‘strop’ following her elimination in last year’s general election count and this ultimately earned outsider Sean Kyne an unexpected seat.

This defeat did not sit well with Healy Eames and many expected her to ‘throw in the towel’ and bow out of politics but to her credit she rose from the political ashes and reclaimed her seat in the Seanad and it is known that she will make another bid for Dail Eireann come 2016. But the landscape could be dramatically changed by then.

There is intense speculation that, if Galway is to lose a Dail seat, Healy Eames will throw her lot in with Galway East and will use her strong family connections with Moylough as a platform for her election bid. But even in an enlarged Galway East constituency, and even if her Oranmore and Maree base was behind her, she is unlikely to get much of a welcome for the likes of Junior Minister Ciaran Cannon in Carrabane or Deputy Paul Connaughton jnr. in Mountbellew.

But if Fine Gael enforces a gender balance rule, then it could mean that the party may have little option but to add her to the Galway East ticket but her chances of winning a seat against the might of the Cannon and Connaughton camps would seem unlikely while her vote winning capabilities would also be compromised by the likely presence of Labour’s Senator Lorraine Higgins in the field.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.