Dominic Hannigan's blog

I had the pleasure of going to a shindig in Kells on Monday night. Cllr Brian Collins had just been elected Chair of Kells and so friends, family and members of Labour Party branches from across Meath attended to celebrate the event.



Cathaoirleach of Kells, Cllr Brian Colins at his election party

We all wish Brian the very best for the coming year.

On Wednesday I raised the topic of broadband speeds in the Seanad. The Japanese have speeds of up to 30 time the speeds in Ireland. I was interested to note that some new entrants to the market are now offering significantly increased speeds and that indications are there that prices might start to come down. Let's hope this materialises.

I brought up the subject of computers for schools in the Seanad during Thursday's Order of Business. A video of this is below:



I also spoke about the proposed move to the Abbey Theatre and the new prison in North Dublin.

On Friday I travelled over to Galway for the annual Tom Johnson Summer School, which is organised by Labour Youth. I had a cracking Friday night and stayed up rather late. On Saturday morning I was up bright and early as I was the first speaker of the day. My topic was "How to build and grow in 2009". I spoke about my plans as Director of Elections for Meath. Although it was the first event of the day there were about 150 in the Hall, and there was plenty of interaction from the floor.

That evening Eamon Gilmore gave a speech in advance of presenting the Jim Kemmy Award to Mike O'Reilly. He spoke about the challenges facing us over the next year.



The Party Leader addresses the conference. Party President Michael D is in the foreground

Another late night was followed by an early start, but the sleep deprivation was well worth it. Once again, a very enjoyable event and congratulations to Paul Dillon, Cian O'Callaghan and all at Labour Youth for their efforts.