*Leonora Carey (FG). Photograph: John Mangan
HOPES OF the Carey clan in continuing as Clare’s political dynasty rests on the shoulders of first-time candidate Leonora Carey (FG)
Joe Carey’s (FG) retirement from politics in August 2024 paved the way for the entry into the field of his sister Leonora. A four-term TD, Joe had been on sick leave since the previous March before announcing that medical advice recommended that he not seek a return to Leinster House.
Both Leonora and Joe’s father Donal was a Clare TD from 1982 to 2002, serving as a Junior Minister on two occasions. She was for four terms on the Fine Gael Executive Council, the last year of which she was Chairperson but this will be her first time vying for public office.
One of Leonora’s first comments when setting out her stall after emerging as the only nominee at Fine Gael’s selection convention was “I’m not my brother”. She explained, “Everything I do is not my brother because if I was to do everything like my brother then I’d be a clone of my brother, I’m not that, what I’d like to be able to do is to move forward with the people of Co Clare on the issues that concern them the most, by default by doing that I’m not my brother because I’m doing things which are currently current and that are issue which pertain to me and to Co Clare”.
She did not believe there was anything that could have been done by Joe which he didn’t complete during his seventeen years in the Dáil. “I’m slightly biased as his sister. It is not for me to critique my brother or my brother’s performance, that is something which the public would do, therein I think Joe every day that he went out to work and represent the people of Co Clare whether it was as a county councillor or as a TD was to do his best for the people of Co Clare and that is what he did do”.
A member of Fine Gael and Young Fine Gael for the past thirty five years, she outlined the differences she will bring to the fold. “I’ve have twenty six years experience working in healthcare, I’ve experience working as a clinician on the ground, I continue to work as a clinician on the ground but I’ve also worked as a healthcare manager, I worked in Milford Care Centre as manager for thirteen years as the outpatient therapy manager with UL Hospitals Group for the last four years, I’ve a reasonably good knowledge of how the health system works not only in Co Clare but across the Mid-West. I’ve staff reporting to me who work in the six hospitals in the Mid-West so that is a different life experience to what Joe had, I bring that, I am a carer to my Dad who is 87, I’m a female”. She described herself as
“an articulate, determined problem solving woman who can deliver for the people of Co Clare”.
UL Hospitals Group is an organisation which doesn’t necessarily have the backing of the public given its management of UL Hospitals Group. “I think there’s certain aspects of the hospital group which don’t have the confidence of the public. When I think back on the vast majority of people, nearly everybody person I’ve met on the campaign trail so far, the biggest issue that comes to the fore for them is about getting access through the emergency department, nearly everybody says once they get in past the emergency department, they talk very highly about the experience they have had, not everybody has had a positive experience when they are in hospital but the most people that I’ve met have said they have had a positive experience when their condition has been identified, treated and they have been discharged home and they feel better for that. There are different components, a huge amount of components to the hospital group than just the emergency department”.
Leonora stressed her experience from the inside would be a benefit. “I understand what works well but also what needs to change, therefore my ability as a politician if I was elected to hold the health system within the Mid-West whether it is to account or to look creatively at how to work with them to drive things forward and improve the system, I actually have a very good understanding to be able to do that, that perhaps other politicians may not be in the same position to do that. I have as a carer of my Dad who is 87, I’ve been with him on all of his healthcare journey to date so I understand how complex it is to access the health system in the Mid-West, what I’d really like to be able to do is to work with the senior management, I’m middle management not even really, within the UL Hospitals Group to say how can we make it easier for people to be able to understand how to access the services that are there”.
A greater integration of the acute hospital system within the primary care system and more clarify on patient pathways in the Mid-West require examination, she felt. Additional beds at Ennis Hospital are urgently required, she said. “If it has additional beds then that can support the expansion of the Medical Assessment Unit to operate 24/7, for them to be properly functional there needs to be proper staffing and proper access to diagnostics. The HIQA group are reviewing the Mid-West to see if there will be a second ED and if there is a need for a model three, both of those are needs that the people of Clare would like to have, for me those are things we need to work towards over a period of time, they are not going to happen over this winter but the potential of opening the medical assessment unit 24/7 is something which could happen with the proper staffing and proper diagnostics for the winter period”.
Whether it is feasible for Ennis to be a model three hospital by the conclusion of the next Dáil is dependent on the findings of the HIQA report, Carey said. “I would be in favour of it being a model three hospital but it needs to have the beds, the staffing resources and the diagnostics. What I hear from people on the ground and out on the doorsteps everyday is about what happens in the morning for me I get sick over the winter, we need to look at that part of it first and over the next Dáil term move to a position where proper plans are in place and look at the growing population in Clare but also the growing older population we have in Clare and how we can have the right services in the right place for them”.
There is more to the health system than the hospital, the occupational therapist manager explained. “It also has to be about the community services, primary care needs to be supported so that when the patient is coming out of the hospital that they know they will have the support system from a rehabilitation perspective”.
With “a really good knowledge base about the components of the health system,” the Clarecastle woman said the ability to work with people along with sourcing funding is central to improving health services in the Mid-West. She stated, “I will have a better capacity to do is to understand and question and query in a better way why certain decisions are being made and why particular timelines are happening in ways”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo in Treacy’s West County Hotel, Leonora can quickly pinpoint the date as August 22nd when she decided to run. Specualtion first emerged in April that she would enter the fray, something she shot down at the time. “It wasn’t an issue for me back in April. I was aware at the beginning of August that Joe was more than likely not going to be signed fit to return to work from a health perspective, therefore over the course of those first few weeks of August was when I thought if this was something I’d like to do, I stayed in Dublin for fifteen years before I moved home and to be honest if I stayed in Dublin where I was very involved in Fine Gael and was the Chair in Dublin Central, I was the Director of Elections for Paschal Donohoue’s first election, Minister Donohue every now and again credits me with getting him started on his road to electoral success, if I stayed in Dublin I would probably have run for either the local or the General Elections but it wasn’t something I chose to do, I chose to come home because I wanted to live and work in Co Clare. Over the course of August, the reason I can be specific about the date is because it was post a discussion with the Taoiseach who said to me ‘Leonora I would like you to run, will you do it’ and I said yes I will”.
Following Cllr Johnny Flynn’s (IND) retirement from politics and exit from Fine Gael in February, the local elections could have been a dry-run for Leonora but this wasn’t considered, she said “because we have a wonderful local councillor called Cllr Paul Murphy”. She said there has been no criticism on the doors but only well-wishes for her brother Joe.
Fine Gael’s inability to get a replacement candidate for Flynn in Ennis for the local elections is not a sign of a dipping support for the party in the county town, she stated, “In terms of my canvass of Ennis, I’ve had a very positive response on the door in Ennis so the short answer is no. There isn’t too many candidates coming from the Mid-Clare area or from the Ennis area, I think the people of Ennis would like to have a local TD, I very much would like to be the local TD for them”.
Within the past fortnight, she has reopened Joe’s constituency office on Francis St which shut in the days after his retirement. She confirmed that the family do not own the building and that she has paid for its reopening “out of my own pocket”.
Commonly written off when it comes to elections, the Careys are noted for their ability to mount a strong canvass. In their first profile on the constituency, RTÉ predicted Leonora would take the Fine Gael seat in the county.
Leonora Carey
DOB – 13/03/74
Occupation – Occupational Therapist Manager
Party: Fine Gael
Top priority: To work towards making Clare the best place to live and work in.
