Labour senator to run in 2016 general election

Laois based Labour Senator John Whelan will be officially selected as the Labour Party’s first candidate for the 2016 General Election in Portlaoise tonight.

The selection convention in O Loughlin’s Hotel, Portlaoise will be chaired by Lorraine Mulligan, the national Chairperson of the Labour Party. Also in attendance will be the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Deputy Jack Wall, and a number of John Whelan’s Senate colleagues including Senators Denis Landy and Lorraine Higgins.

The selection convention for the new three-seat constituency of Laois will take place at the end of a day-long constituency wide visit by Minister of State, Kevin Humphreys to assess the effectiveness of labour market activation, training and community employment schemes on the ground in Kildare town, Athy, Monasterevin, Durrow and Abbeyleix.

Senator Whelan said “I am particularly delighted that Minister Humphreys is in a position to visit the new constituency which overlaps with Laois and south Kildare at this time. We will be calling to Monasterevin where my late father Paddy Whelan was a CE Scheme supervisor on projects such as the Riverside Park, after he had retired from the army. My father was a particularly involved community activist - a founder member of the St Evin’s Park Residents Association, Community Games, Ros Glas GAA Club as well as the action group that successfully campaigned for the re-opening of the Monasterevin train station.”

He stated “Monasterevin, where I grew up and where my mother, Anne, still lives in St Evin’s, is very important to me. I am enthusiastic that we are on the verge of securing two badly-needed new schools for the town as I have been working closely on this and other important issues with my mentor Deputy Jack Wall and local authority colleagues Cllrs Aoife Breslin and Mark Wall.

Senator Whelan said “Carlsberg don’t do boundary reviews, but if they did, they would have included this large swathe of south Kildare, incorporating over 7,000 voters from Nurney, Kildanagan, Harristown, Churchtown and Monasterevin, where I grew up in the new Laois electoral area for the first time. This is a lucky bounce for me and I intend to capitalise on it by working hard for this community in the tradition of Jack Wall, Emmett Stagg and the late TD Joe Bermingham before them.”

“I am under no illusion that next year’s general election will not be a tough challenge for myself and the Labour Party. But the election also poses a big challenge for the electorate to choose between the positive politics of Tanaiste Joan Burton and the protest of Gerry Adams and in this new constituency between myself and Sinn Fein’s Brian Stanley. This will be the first ever election in this constituency and it will be historic in every sense,” Senator Whelan remarked.

“The 2016 general election will have similar pivotal importance as to the future direction and prosperity of our country that the defining events of 1916 some one hundred years ago did. The outcome of the 2016 election will both define and determine our society for future generations and for decades to come,” he remarked. 

“In this new constituency I will be offering a real choice between my style of critically constructive campaigning and coherent credible representation on behalf of citizens and communities in contrast with Sinn Fein’s politics of protest without solutions; propagating a culture of entitlement to everything and the flawed fantasy economics where everyone can have better services but no one has to pay for anything,” added Senator Whelan.