Dr Martin Daly to run for Seanad

Dr Daly (53) is a former President of the IMO. He has been involved in numerous health and community causes over the past two decades including the Management Board of Roscommon County Hospital, the Suicide Task Force of the Western Health Board and as Medical Doctor for the Roscommon GAA Senior Football and Hurling teams.

Speaking today, Dr Daly said he decided to run after being approached by people from a range of different areas and interests in recent weeks.

“I think the Dáil and Senate are going to become much more important in this new political set up that is emerging after the recent election. I want to represent the views of a new generation of hard-working people in the public and private sectors, who demand properly-resourced public services, a health service that is fit for purpose and that meets the needs of patients and proper support for communities across the country, be they in rural Ireland or in the neglected parts of our cities and towns.”

Dr Daly said the issue of properly-resourced and supported public services would be particularly important for him. “Our public services are in disarray and close to collapse after years of neglect and austerity. We have young doctors choosing to emigrate rather than work here. We have professions where colleagues are receiving different pay for doing the same job and we’ve rural communities starved of basic infrastructure like broadband. I believe my experience echoes the experiences of many people of my age and I want to stand up and be counted now and contribute to the debate about how we fix our broken country.”