'Special needs' the biggest issue in next Government for Laois TD Sean Fleming
Laois Fianna Fáil candidate set for reelection and looking ahead to future
Sean Fleming is going to retain his Laois seat for Fianna Fáil, scooping 8,123 first preference votes, waiting for several more counts to reach the required quota of 9,570. He won the second highest number ones, over 1,000 behind the new Fine Gael Laois TD Willie Aird.
The outgoing Minister of State and TD spoke to the Leinster Express / Laois Live at the General Election count centre in Portlaoise on Saturday evening, November 30.
“I’m very happy with the vote here, over 8,000 which is a good vote. The Laois constituency is back as a single county again and it’s really good that Portarlington and the Ballybrittas and Rath areas are back with the rest of the county for this election. They were part of the Kildare constituency. When we were canvassing over there we got a very good reaction because they were happy to be back in Laois.
I think the message that the people of Laois sent to Dáil Éireann is that of the three seats of Laois, two are members of the party who formed the last Government hopefully will be the backbone of the next Government.
It looks as if the people of Laois are saying ‘we want the arrangement we had to be in the next Government' and that is their decision.
Asked if he hopes to again get a ministerial job, he said “I’ve no idea at all”.
“The first thing is to form the new Government. There might be three or four parties in the Government because you can’t have a Government without a working majority. Taht will only come up after that. I’m pleased to represent the people of Laois and that’s my first priority.
“Of course I’d love to get an appointment at senior level, but we’ll wait and see.
“Laois had a very effective minister. We doubled the number of special education classes, €30 million has gone into the three hospitals and that is more than has happened in my entire lifetime. We’ve delivered in that and also possibly IDA jobs in Laois. That’s always been a blackspot in Laois. I’ve got the IDA and they’ve purchased a 45 acre site in Portlaoise with a view to attracting some jobs into Laois from foreign countries.
He agrees there are lessons to be learned to address in the next Government.
“The biggest thing I’m taking away is special education. Every day I met generally a young mother on the door with a child with Autism or special needs. Sometimes adults in the house with Autism or special needs with elderly parents who are trying to mind them as best they could and are getting older themselves.
“I would say the difficulty for families of a child or adult with special needs, on a human level, as the most important thing to bring to the next Government.
“There are lots of other issues,housing, schools, roads, the number of people on the housing list is a big issue on the ground everywhere,” he said.
He does not mind coming second to Willie Aird in Laois first preference votes.
"That’s fine. Willie will be a good TD, he will be a good representative for Laois. We’ve already spoken I look forward to working togetherfor the people of Laois and delivering to Laois. Willie has been on the council for decades now. He’s a household name in Laois, based in Portlaoise but being a farmer he’s well known in rural areas so there’s no surprise Willie did well,” he said.