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/

Backing the nurses

I was delighted to support the local members of the Irish Nurses Organisation and the Psychiatric Nurses Association in their work stoppage on Wednesday outside St. Luke's Hospital. It sems ludicrous that Mary Harney, who's turning into a fine replacement for Thatcher, and the so-called negotiator we have for a Taoiseach have led us all to this mad point where virtually all the workers in our hospitals, from doctors down to ancillary staff are either engaged in or threatening industrail action. I stated plainly to the nurses that I fully support their claim for a 35 hour week, something that is long overdue. I see this evening that the Taoiseach is offering to carry out a feasibility study into providing this- nearly 20 years too late!!

What a joke that one of our most respected groups of workers are offered a study into a 20 year old demand. I also told the nurses that I support their demand for decent pay although not be easy to acieve while the nurses stay outside benchmarking. I agree with Michael D. Higgins that it is vital for bith the ICTU and the Taoiseach to get involved to ensure this dispute does not lead to long-term damage to the industrial relations climate. Hopefully we'll see Liz MacManus as the next Minister for Health to sort this out first-hand.

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.

Election debate

The Kilkenny Chamber of Commerce are hosting an election debate in Kilkenny City this evening. Sue Nunn of KCLR FM will be in the chair directing the questions.

The event starts at 8.00 so if you are around Kilkenny City this evening, pop in and take the opportunity to ask the candidates a question.

Lance Armstrong and a Kilkenny hurling stick

Getting away from politics for a minute, I came across a excellent news story during the weekend. Tony Griffin the Clare hurler is cycling 7000km to raise money for a cancer charity.

http://www.tonygriffinfoundation.com it is a charity worth supporting.

What caught my eye was the photo of Lance Armstrong getting a hurl, which was made by Dowling's of Patricks street in Kilkenny City. Shows you that even the seven times winner of the Tour de France knows class when he sees it.

Log onto Tony's site and donate. I know that I will be.

Now 2,750 hits (2,500 hits)

Just checked the hit rate on my election blog and it broke the 2,500 mark this evening.

So a quick thanks to everyone who has logged onto the blog and I hope is gives a small insight into an election campaign.

Thanks to everyone,
Mike.

Quick update the hit rate to the blog has really jumped this week. I have very good hit rate for http://www.mycandidate.ie.

Thanks to everyone for visiting

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.