Michael D goes international

What can you say Michael D takes his campaign to France. For some unknown reason, a Michael D poster has appeared in bus stop in Brittany. Good old Michael D always looking for the international angle.

Any way we are down to one day to go, I have been on the campaign trail for 16 months now and it all comes down to one day.

I spent this afternoon in Thomastown and the evening with a large canvas team in Kilkenny City. Seamus Pattison joined me on the canvas again this evening.

The Kilkenny Voice has tipped Labour to be battling for the last seat, so get out an vote we need every number 1 possible.

Over 3,000 and thanks

The hits on my blog have really taken off over the last few weeks, at the last count tonight 3,017 hits have come onto my site since I started. Over 60 so far today alone. Thanks to everyone for visiting and I hope it gives you a small idea of what goes on behind the scenes of a campaign.

You will hear it said that Irish people are not interested in politics, however come election time we Irish like to talk about nothing else. Thanks to everyone who have greeted me at the door and promised the No.1. (I just hope enough people follow through with their promise).

Also thanks to my many canvas teams across Kilkenny. Tonight we had seven different canvas team knocking on doors ranging for Glemore to Castlecomer.

Thanks to my poster team who were out again yesterday and finally to my back off team for organising. With out the back off guys the campaign would not happen.

We are in a dog fight for that last seat, so come Thursday lets get out the vote

Hope everyone is enjoying the campaign and just over two days to go, lets keep it up.

The final days

We are now down to the final days of the campaign. Friday was spent in North Kilkenny in and around Casltecomer with the local branch. On Saturday I spent the day with one of the Canvas teams covering the City area. I have included a few of the guys who were canvasing with me to the end on Saturday. Sorry for not including everyone, however some of the guys had to head off early. On Sunday, I joined the guys in South Kilkenny canvasing FerryBank.

Pat's statement when visiting the A&E in Kilkenny

Labour’s plan for ending the chaos in A&E, which we are highlighting today, sets out a comprehensive and deliverable set of measures to improve conditions in A&E and across the health service. In drawing up our plan, we taken on board many of the lessons learned in St Lukes Hospital in Kilkenny. St Lukes is known throughout the health service as a hospital that works, and which has avoided the worst problems experienced in A&E units across the country. As I have seen on my previous visits to Kilkenny, there are a number of elements in making A&E departments function effectively, that we need to replicate.
As I have repeatedly emphasised, bed capacity is critical, both in terms of acute in-patient beds, and in respect of step-down facilities. That is why Labour is committed to building 2300 hospital beds and 1500 step-down beds.
We also need better organisation of A&E units and better liaison with local medical practitioners. A particular feature of St Luke’s is its Medical Assessment Unit, where patients can be seen, assessed and if necessary admitted to hospital without having to spend hours in A&E. Equally, it is important to have strong relationships with local GPs, to speed up admission to hospital based on a diagnosis made in the GP’s surgery. Too many people are spending too much time sitting in A&E, waiting to be seen by a less experienced doctor, when their GP has already assessed their condition.
Of course, we cannot exactly replicate the St Luke’s model in every hospital in every particular, but we can learn the lessons. Labour’s A&E plan sets out a series of measures to be put in place in A&E units across the country. These include medical assessment units, separate queues to treat minor injuries, better liaison with GPs and better facilities for GPs to diagnose problems before people go into hospital in the first instance.
We also need rigorous enforcement of cleaning protocols to end the phenomenon of dirty hospitals.
With these changes, and with the team-work approach which is so evident in St Luke’s, we can make a real difference to the A&E situation.

Labours Battle Bus visit's Carlow Kilkenny

Pat Rabbitte and the Labour Battle Bus will be visiting Thomastown and Kilkenny City on Monday morning. So if you around on Monday look out for us and call over to us for a quick chat.

http://www.labour.ie/manifesto/

Mr Tayto

http://www.mrtayto.ie/


Taking a small break this morning from my campaign, I am across Mr Tayto and his election campaign. Great to see Tayto Crips bring a bit of fun to the campaign and we all look forward to Mr Tayto visiting Carlow / Kilkenny. Now to call and see if they are interested in talking about a vote transfer agreement.

Mobile O'Brien

A Photo of my mobile advertising trailer. A nice idea that my campaign team thought up.




Behind this fencing is the sewage tank for a housing scheme in Gowran in Kilkenny. The developer is using a 40ft container to take the sewage for a new development in the village. This is not the only time this has happened in Kilkenny.

Any way we are off, a busy week canvasing, spent the week across Kilkenny.

Sunday was out with my poster teams getting the posters up. In most places we were the first party and in Kilkenny City it was ourselves and FF.

Monday was in Kilkenny with the City guys knocking doors.

Tuesday was in Thomastown and Graignamanagh, with Wednesday in Ferrybank in South Kilkenny.

Thursday was back into the City and Friday we covered Clogh and Moonenroe. I formally registered as a candidate on Friday as well.

Today it was back into the City with the City branch canvassing. Overall a very busy week getting out early and back to base very late at night. However the party members all over the county have been great turning out in force to help with the canvasing teams. A special thanks to my posters team who worked all day Sunday to make sure we got our posters out and up well before the other parties.

INTO meeting

I attended an INTO organised meeting last night to highlight the governments failure to address the issue of class sizes. Great credit to the organising committee and it was great to see such a huge turn out of teachers and parents. The meeting was organised in the NewPark Hotel in Kilkenny and attracted about 800 people.

The latest figures for Kilkenny showed that, 58% of children are in classes of between 20 and 29 pupils and 30% are in classes with over 30 children. Education is so important and to have teachers trying to teach in classes of 30 and more is madness. Any child that needs a little extra attention will struggle in such an environment.

I am glad to say Labour have being trying to address this matter in the Dáil, however we have not being getting the support of the government. Needless to say that did not stop the government TD’s turning up last night and express their support for INTO demand to reduce class sizes.

When you think that the government is willing to spend €600 million to buy out a toll bridge and not willing to fully address the need to invest across the education system you can see where their priorities are.

Another mortgage rate increase

The ECB increase of another .25% certainly was food for thought and came up on the door steps on this weeks canvas. For many young people around Kilkenny the increases are starting to hit home.With the latest reports from daft.ie for 2006 showing the average price for a three bedroom house in County Kilkenny reaching €277,000 the rate rises are being felt. The increases over the last year and a half have added €270 euro per month to a 30 year mortgage.

The total failure of Part 5 to provide social housing has left many young people with no option but to take on a huge amount of debt. More and more of my political representations are on housing.

As a country we need to take a long look at our housing policy and help young people hard pressed to make the monthly repayments. Merely hoping the market will somehow work itself out is not an option. Being in public life and knocking on doors you get a good feel for the mood on the ground. I can tell you the mood has changed, over the last year. The talk of buying property oversea's and multiple foregin holidays has being over taken by talk of repayments and when the rate increases will end.

Time to remember Elderly Irish living in the UK.

The plight of our former emigrants was again brought home to me when I accompanied President McAleese to the Good Shepherd Centre, sheltered housing project in Kilkenny City. We had the privilege of meeting some residents, of whom many are returned emigrants from the UK. During our visit I discovered that President McAleese's husband and I both worked in Walls Ice Cream factory, while we both lived in London. The factory was situated in Acton in London and gave employment to many young Irish like myself, who had to travel to the UK looking to make a living.

During the dark days of economic depression in Ireland many young people like myself had no choice but to emigrate. For most of us emigration was a fact of life and was seen as such. Between the years 1939 and 1969 alone, 800,000 young Irish were forced by economic necessity to leave. We mainly left with what few processions we could fit in our suitcases and headed for the major cities across Britain. However we did not forget the families and loved ones left behind. For many of us that was the hardest part, being away from your family, particularly at Christmas. Each week many of us sent a few pound home to help out the family left in Ireland. An estimated €3.5 billion was sent back to support those at home, which for many families put the food on the table. Many of my generation were lucky, we either made it back home or have made a good life of it in the UK. However not all were so lucky, some have fallen on hard times. As recent RTE documentaries have shown they are living in very poor accommodation and are suffering with poor health. It is now only fair that we repay the debt and help support these communities. A delegation from the Labour Party recently went to London and found that 60% of the homeless in that City were Irish and mostly elderly.

It is time that we pay back the debt we owe these good people, the least we can do is make sure the support services they need are fully funded. Also, nationally we should be looking at setting aside accommodation to allow those who want to come back to return with dignity and pride. My fellow Labour colleague Emmet Stagg TD, has been at the forefront of the campaign to get free travel passes extended to the elderly Irish in the UK. If you have elderly Irish relatives living in the UK, I would ask you to make contact with them. See how they are doing and just check in with them, reaching out will mean a lot. They were there when Ireland needed them, now it is Ireland’s turn to return the favour.

Are you happy

I have included links to Pat's webcast explaining our commitments to the voters, log on a see for yourself on what Labour in government are committed to delivering.

http://www.makeachange.ie/index3.html Pat video
http://www.makeachange.ie/commit1.html Labour commitments

Busy Weekend

Another very busy weekend, Saturday was spent in Glenmore and Rosbercon on the canvas trail, while one of my leaflet dropping teams were in action in Kilkenny City. With all the rain on Saturday, a lot of time was actually spent drinking tea in Labour supporters houses. Thank you all for your welcome and the tea was most appreciated. Thanks to the team who braved the elements in the City to drop a few hundred health surveys.

Sunday was spent in Kilmanagh canvasing and catching up with some of the Labour Party supporters as well. While the weather is cold this time of year, I am delighted with the warn welcome on the door steps. Kilmanagh like other rural areas, is crying out of rural transport and one householders quite rightly commented that rural Ireland needs a bus service during the day and not just at night to bring people to and from pubs, as put forward by some government Ministers. It is time for our government TD's to obtain funding to expand Ring a Link to the whole of Carlow / Kilkenny

Officially Launched

Yet another busy week on the election trail, with Pat’s visit on Monday and my work as a local Councillor, I did not get much canvassing done this week. The weather and dark nights makes it hard to get to as many doors as you can during the summer.

Anyway the main news of this week was Pat Rabbitte officially launching my blog while in Kilkenny City. The blog is turning out to be a real success and I am getting a good reaction with voters able to keep up to date with my campaign.

As for next week, keep on canvassing and look for a new pair of shoes. You would be surprised how quick you can get through shoes on the canvass trail.