New Tipperary Fianna Fail candidate wants to add a female perspective

New Fianna FaIl candidate Sandra Farrell wants to bring a female perspective to politics in the county.

She says there are five male TDs and she now feels it’s time for a female TD.

Sandra Farrell will contest the next General Election for Fianna Fáil in Tipperary. Ms Farrell, 37, is a member of the Fianna Fáil Ard Comhairle, and will join Deputy Jackie Cahill on the Fianna Fáil ticket. Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin, encouraged Ms Farrell to return to politics.

Shortly after getting elected to the Committee of 15 last year, Mr Martin asked Ms Farrell, to consider putting herself forward as an election candidate in the future. Ms Farrell, a former Mayor of her native Nenagh, is well known for her voluntary work with the vulnerable, the elderly and with early school leavers.

She recently launched a Food Bank service in Nenagh and has been asked to set up similar food banks in Roscrea and Thurles. A nursing home operator and qualified nurse, Ms Farrell is the founder of a Christmas Day Dinner service for the elderly. She has been working with the elderly since she began volunteering as a teenager 25 years ago. Improving long-term care of the elderly, and alleviating the financial and emotional strain on families with aging parents, is one of her key campaign issues. #

Ms Farrell will be looking to win a second seat for Fianna Fáil in a constituency with five male incumbents: three Independents, Mattie McGrath, Seamus Healy, and Michael Lowry; Labour’s Alan Kelly, and Farrell’s Fianna Fáil party colleague, Jackie Cahill. Ms. Farrell, is a former Labour Party Mayor of Nenagh. She was first elected to Nenagh Town Council aged 23, and later became the town’s youngest Mayor. Her great grandfather, Denis ‘Dinny’ Farrell founded the Fianna Fáil Cumann in Nenagh, so a return to Fianna Fáil was in the blood.

“On the night I was elected for Labour, we were in the pub and an old man came up to me presented me a copy of an old document with a signature “Dinny Farrell”,and said ‘your great grandfather would turn in his grave’. “My great grandfather had been one of the founding members of the Fianna Fáil Cumann in Nenagh. His name was Dinny Farrell, my father’s name. There’s been a line of Denis Farrell’s since my great grandfather. I knew all my family had been Fianna Fáil - the party ran my uncle Hughie McGrath in the same election as me in 2004 and he got a seat as well - but I didn’t know until that night that my great grandfather had played such a pivotal role in the Fianna Fáil party in Nenagh all those years ago.

“I was elected at 23, but after a couple of years on the town council I started to feel frustrated. Town Council politics didn’t allow you to effect much change at the time. I decided I could probably be more effective as a community activist in my own time. I decided not to stand for election again. “Now, I want to offer a new voice for Tipperary.

“I’m returning to politics, older but wiser. I want to offer some ideas and solutions, a female perspective as a wife, businesswoman and healthcare professional, and also as a volunteer. There is a better way of living. “Not everyone is feeling the recovery. There are families out there with both parents working, yet they are struggling, because they’re cash poor. They have set demands on their income: rent or mortgage, bills, car loans, car insurance, school, clothes, food. Some of these families are coming to our food shelter because saving money on the food, is what lets them pay the other bills.

“There are now 20,000 more children living in poverty in Ireland, than there was just two and a half years ago. There are 10,000 people homeless, including 3,000 children living in emergency accommodation. The economy might be recovering, but as a society, we’re failing. We have enough, more than enough, to help those who need help.” “I would like to see intelligent debate in the campaign about all the issues facing the people of Tipperary. I will be launching my key policy objectives on caring for the elderly, on housing, mental health, and on jobs, over the course of my campaign. I would like anyone out there who’d like to get involved and help with my campaign for A Better Way, to get in touch