Dublin People - Crowe mounts political comeback

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Crowe mounts political comeback

Thursday, 28 August 2008

A former high profile TD has made the first step to recovering his political career by filling a soon to be vacant seat on South Dublin County Council.
The failure of Sean Crowe to be returned in last year’s general election as a Sinn Fein TD was one of the biggest election shocks in the Dublin area.
Crowe was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 2002 along with four other new TDs including Caoimghin O'Caolain, Martin Ferris, Arthur Morgan and Aengus O'Snodaigh, on a wave of support for the party during the peace process.
But he was the only Sinn Fein deputy to lose his seat last year in an election in which the party also failed to realise their high hopes for other Dublin candidates including Mary Lou McDonald, Larry O’Toole and Dessie Ellis.
However, Crowe is now about to take the first serious step in mounting his political comeback and looks set to replace party colleague Cllr Mark Daly (SF) who will relinquish his seat at next month’s council meeting.
He spoke to Southside People about some of the important issues he intends to address as a councillor.
“One of the issues that hasn’t gone away since I was a TD is housing,” he said. “The housing list has got longer in South Dublin for those who are looking for affordable and social housing.
Swamped
“You are talking about people waiting for at least five years before they can get social housing. Tallaght is swamped with accommodation but you talk to young people who are in rented accommodation and they say the situation is getting worse.”
As a TD, Crowe was outspoken in his criticism of the HSE for the cutbacks imposed on Tallaght Hospital. He declared that the improvement of health services in the area would be one of the main policy platforms he will adopt as a councillor.
“I was involved in the Tallaght Hospital Action Group when I was a TD,” he explained. “There are issues that can be raised in relation to not only the hospital itself but services in the area.”
He added: “There is a question over the future of the hospital and the downgrading of services and cutbacks in staff due to funding shortages.
“All the frontline staff right across the board have been affected by HSE cutbacks. The hospital has been downgraded on the basis that they do not have enough staff to carry out operations or to see patients.”
Mr Crowe said he remains hopeful about the fate of his own party, which many political commentators believe will never revisit the electoral success they enjoyed in 2002.
And on a personal level he believes his failure to be re-elected as a TD last year was partly due to the intense media focus on Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil during the election.
“It [his failure to be re-elected] was a surprise to everyone,” he said. “I think the election itself was run in a presidential style. It was down to two blocks and smaller parties like ourselves suffered.
“People were also scared about what was coming down the track in terms of the recession and they opted for the bigger parties.”
Asked if he thought the current economic climate could work to Sinn Fein’s advantage, he responded: “I don’t equate that the worse the country gets economically that it will necessarily help Sinn Fein but we want to see better use of resources.
“When things go wrong they (the electorate) look for answers. Maybe they will look to Sinn Féin to resolve some of the issues that need to be resolved whether it is access to education or jobs.
Traditional
“There is huge potential for the party to grow,” he added. “In recent years people said traditional support for Sinn Fein was around the border counties but clearly my own election broke the mould in that way.
“The fact that Mary Lou did so well in the Europeans frightened the life out of all the major parties. I would say the potential of the party is extremely promising in the future.”
And on the question of the future for Sinn Fein he offered: “What we hope to do in Dublin is to hold and enhance the support that we actually have. That means holding onto the seats we have at council level and to hold on to Mary Lou’s seat in Dublin.”

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