Deputy Dowds throws support behind Tuffy

Dublin People 25 Sep 2015
Deputy Robert Dowds with former leader of the Labour Party, Eamon Gilmore.

THE Labour Party TD, Robert Dowds, thanked the voters who elected him in the past as he announced his decision to withdraw from the general election campaign.

Deputy Dowds said he was stepping back from the contest as he believed this was the best way to ensure that Labour would win a seat in the Dublin Mid West constituency at the next election.

“I will be working with my colleague Joanna Tuffy to ensure her re-election,” he said in a statement. “I am proud of Labour’s role in Government. We have turned the country’s economy around with more than 120,000 extra people back at work. In incredibly difficult economic circumstances Labour played a critical role in protecting unemployment benefit, raising the minimum wage, getting money put aside to tackle the housing crisis and building over 300 new schools.

“In spite of our best efforts, I realise that while the recovery is gaining momentum, not everybody has yet felt its impact.

“In announcing my retirement from politics, I want to thank the voters who elected me on four different occasions and most especially the Labour Party volunteers who canvassed with me in all weathers and conditions,” he added. “Those volunteers are unsung heroes of great courage who don’t know what will face them from door to door as they canvass. In this cynical age, they are held in the highest esteem by me.”

His party colleague Joanna Tuffy paid tribute to Deputy Dowds.

“Robert and myself have worked together as members of the Labour Party in the Dublin Mid West constituency for many years,” she said in a statement. “We were elected together as members of South Dublin County Council in 1992 and I always found him to be a great colleague and an outstanding representative. 

“He also served as Mayor for South Dublin County Council and worked extremely hard to make life better for local communities and showed great commitment and integrity during his term of office. 

“He has been a dogged campaigner and has always been a great champion at local and national level for the Clondalkin community.

“Robert has made a substantial contribution as a member of Dáil Eireann as a legislator, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee and as an advocate for his constiutents.”

Deputy Tuffy added: “I have no doubt that Robert will remain active in the Labour Party and in his community and I look forward to continuing to work with him in the future.”

Meanwhile, former TD Paul Gogarty has confirmed that he will contest the upcoming general election in the constituency of Dublin Mid West.

The Lucan/Palmerstown-based representative will run as part of the Independent Alliance of TDs, senators and councillors announced earlier in the year.

Cllr Gogarty is currently a member of South Dublin County Council and says that his experience working with other independents on that local authority has convinced him that such an alliance could work effectively at national level also.

“This model has worked at council level and it can work in the Dáil and Seanad,” he said.

“In my council area of South Dublin County Council, a group of independent councillors and the sole Green Party member have joined together to form what we call the ‘Community Alliance’.

“Our grouping is now part of a wider ‘Progressive Alliance’ that shapes the agenda on the council.

“We have no whip and make decisions largely by consensus while operating in a supportive and inclusive way.

“While we can and do occasionally disagree on specific matters, the net effect of our Community Alliance has been to enhance our individual representative clout. I have co-operated particularly closely with my Lucan/Palmerstown colleagues Cllrs Liona O’Toole and Guss O’Connell and my Clondalkin-based neighbour Cllr Francis Timmons.

“Working together we have improved the levels of service available to our constituents.”

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