'A Team' launch for Laois General Election independent candidate

Laois independent General Election candidate Aisling Moran gathered with supporters on home turf in east Laois to officially launch her bid to win a Dáil seat in the General Election.

A statement about the event pronounced the occasion in Christy Farrell's pub in Killeen as a gathering of the 'A Team' – as Cllr Moran's team says her campaign team has become known.

The pub was said to be packed with energy and enthusiasm and the message from a series of rousing speeches was that the former Fine Gael member is in the pole position to challenge for the third seat in Laois at the General Election on November 28.

The event, on November 9, was attended by family, friends, and fellow independent councillors who are backing Cllr Moran as an alternative independent voice for Laois in the Dáil. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

Cllr Moran said she didn’t expect to be back on the campaign trail so soon after the local elections.
She said she was not on a solo run and is not protest candidate.

“We are here to offer solutions, workable alternatives to the failed policies of government. The list of their failures is a long one. They are wasting your money hand over fist and yet they didn’t want to take the billions in tax from Apple, and didn’t know what to do with it, well they can start by building a bus shelter in Ballylinan, instead of that bicycle shed in Leinster House.

"They can start by recruiting more nurses and guards and by relieving the tax and cost of living burden on families and small businesses, many of which are going to the wall due to excessive rates, VAT and red tape. MORE BELOW PICTURE.

"They talk about their achievements in housing and health, well try telling that to mothers of autistic children, people with disabilities, elderly looking for home help, try getting a GP at the weekend or waiting for hours at Portlaoise hospital A&E which they had the neck to try and close, and where hard-pressed staff are run ragged, not only in the frontline but in the firing line as sick people wait for hours.

“This must stop. There is a better way. This must change, and that change starts here tonight in Christy Farrell’s in Killeen,” she said.

Independent Laois county councillors Ben Brennan, James Kelly, and Tommy Mulligan were there to endorse Cllr Moran who represents the Graigueculle Portarlington electoral area on Laois County Council.

Cllr Brennan called for people to vote for his municipal district colleague. He insisted as the IDA jobs kept passing through Laois and down the road to Carlow, Kilkenny and elsewhere.

Cllr Kelly said Cllr Moran's insistence on value for money and accountability to the taxpayer mattered as the budget overrun on projects like the Children's Hospital alone could have otherwise paid for thousands of houses or much-needed primary care health centres across the country. 

Portlaoise-based Cllr Mulligan spoke of his longstanding admiration for Aisling Moran due to her honesty, integrity and as a person of principle.

General Election Director of Elections, Charlie O’Meara, Cllr Moran's son, said he has known all his life just how kind, caring and committed his mother is to helping others, and he wants everyone else to see it now.

General Election Campaign Manager, Gavin Deering told the large attendance how Cllr Moran had always impressed him with her integrity, decency, and work rate.

"The A-Team is most definitely on the move and they’re not taking No for an answer," concluded the campaign launch statement.