Cowen's sacking 'a huge missed opportunity for the Midlands'

Fianna Fáil councillors in Offaly have voiced their dismay at the sacking of Barry Cowen as Minister for Agriculture, with one local respresentative describing it as "a huge missed opportunity" for the Laois/Offaly constituency and the Midlands in general.

Cllr Eddie Fitzpatrick (pictured above, left) told the Offaly Independent he was "hugely disappointed" with the Taoiseach's decision to relieve Deputy Cowen of his seat at the cabinet table.

"I think this is a huge missed opportunity for the constituency and the Midlands in general," said Cllr Fitzpatrick, a member of the county council in the Edenderry electoral area.

"We're in a difficult time here at the moment in relation to Bord na Mona, Just Transition, the development of the Midlands and trying to create jobs. From that perspective, as Minister for Agriculture he would have had a good portfolio in dealing with those issues.

"There's a lot of people in the Midland region who have come from small farms and would have worked for Bord na Mona. Now they no longer have that support, of an off-farm job. I think it's a huge loss. I'm very disappointed over the whole thing."

He said the story of Deputy Cowen's drink driving offence in 2016 "grew legs" in recent days.

"I don't know what source - or where this is coming from - but it's continued to drag on and it's grown legs over the last 10 days to two weeks," he said.

Cllr Fitzpatrick said some Fianna Fáil members had told him they were considering quitting the party over the way the matter was handled.

"Some people have been talking about withdrawing their membership from Fianna Fáil, but that's not the answer either. Barry is still a TD, he's going to be a backbench TD, so he's still representing our constituency and I think we have to work together as an organisation now, within county Offaly, to support that."

Cllr Peter Ormond (pictured above, left) said he was "shocked" to receive a call from Deputy Cowen on Tuesday evening to pass on the news of his sacking.

"(Barry) was disappointed but he took it in a very professional manner, and he passed on the news to us. We are disappointed as an organisation because we waited a long time for (his appointment as a Minister) to happen," said Cllr Ormond.

* For more reaction, see this Friday's edition of the Offaly Independent