Unemployment and state of our roads are key issues
UNEMPLOYMENT and the state of the roads are emerging as voters' main concerns in that order of priority in North Kerry.
With major job losses in the region to industry and the services sector in recent months and the appalling state of the roads — particularly around Listowel — candidates are left in no doubt as to the main concerns of the electorate.
The roads issue is proving particularly difficult for town council members in Listowel as they seek re-election.
"Certainly the state of the roads and the spiralling nature of unemployment in North Kerry are coming up on almost every doorstep as we canvass," Fine Gael TD for North Kerry Jimmy Deenihan told The Kerryman.
"Unemployment would be the main concern, with the roads in the second order of priority for voters, as Fine Gael are seeing it. The Government is very unpopular at the moment, to the extent that voters here are picking up on every item of national political news at present; we have definitely felt a boost from last week's announcement that George Lee is to run for the party."
In an impassioned response to invective from Cllr Denis Stack at last week's meeting, Cathaoirleach of Listowel Town Council, Maria Gorman, expressed her frustration on the issue.
"I've put up with as much shit as you have; I'm getting it up to my bloody teeth on the doorsteps over the roads and it isn't Fianna Fáil or the Government who are responsible . . . I want to know who is responsible in the National Roads Authority and what they're doing about it. What you're getting on the doorstep, I'm getting it as well."
Cllr Stack had said that 2009 would go down in history as the year of Listowel's ruination. "We have a company here in Listowel with businesses throughout the world and the infrastructure outside it is an absolute disgrace."
- DÓNAL NOLAN
