Not the bookiesÕ favourite Ð but Fahey Ôon walkaboutÕ shows battle underway

If you went to the bookies at Galway Races this week and wanted to take a punt on the West Galway results in the next General Election, chances are you’d get quite a fancy price on FF’s Frank Fahey holding his Dail seat.

But, I’m not writing off the experienced Fahey just yet – a gig on Prime Time last week in which he more than held his own against Labour’s Pat Rabbitte, and Fahey doing ‘walkabouts’ in areas like Knocknacarra and Oranmore in recent weeks, show that his main FF rival, Mayor Michael John Crowe, will have a battle on his hands – that’s assuming FF can hold two seats in the five-seater constituency!Fahey on Prime Time had the advantage that Pat Rabbitte looked tired and almost disinterested, rather than the fearsome performer who has such a TV reputation. In fact, any pressure on Fahey on the economy and the banks issue came from the programme anchorman who cornered Fahey on the eventual price of the banks bailout.

Of course, Frank Fahey is not the only one on ‘walkabout.’ For instance, Cllr Colm Keaveney, from Tuam, has been out on the doorsteps for weeks with Labour activists in Galway East. All politicians are now conscious that, if you limit your appearances on the doorstep to the weeks of an election campaign, then the voters are likely to tell you ‘we only see you guys at election time.’

So, repeated literature announcing new clinics from Fine Gael’s Senator Fidelma Healy-Eames, a recent raft of literature from Padraic McCormack TD, hopeful FG Councillor Padraig Conneely battering away on the health cuts, and the occasional knock at the door, are not uncommon these summer evenings, even in rural areas. Frank Fahey has developed a new variation – bringing a petition door-to-door in the city in areas like Knocknacarra, and asking people to sign-up in support of the proposed Galway Outer Bypass, a vital piece of infrastructure which it is estimated could take a huge amount of traffic off gridlocked city streets.

Fahey has been campaigning for a long time for the Bypass to proceed – indeed at Christmas 2008, four of the Galway West TDs, FF’s Minister Eamon Ó Cuív and Frank Fahey, FG’s Padraic McCormack and Noel Grealish (Independent) joined forces to unanimously back the Bypass.However, the Bypass has been bogged-down

in court hearings and planning objections. Fahey played a key role in the pressure at government level for recent special legislation which had the effect of extending the life of a Compulsory Purchase Order for land for the road. However, environmentalists are expected to launch an all-out attempt at European level to scuttle the Outer Bypass plans.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.