Green Party Chairman Dan Boyle says he can understand why John Gormley no longer wants to be the leader of the party.

Labour's Derek Nolan is leading the poll after the first count in the Galway West constituency.

THE Green Party initiative towards political consensus was not a “blunderbuss act of political desperation”, as stated by your political correspondent Shaun Connolly (October 19).

HEALTH Service Executive staff in Galway have been given leave to attend the Galway Races despite reductions in staffing levels and cutbacks in frontline services across the organisation.

FOUR out of five senators are double-jobbing or have extra incomes on top of the €70,000-plus paid to them by the State for working just three days a week, 34 weeks a year in the Upper House.

ON the same day that they lost a minister, the Greens gained a senator.

COUNCILLORS who lost their seats in last week’s elections will be entitled to golden handshakes of up to €51,000 amounting to a bill of €6 million for the taxpayer.

ENDA KENNY has ruled out cutting a deal with Greens and independents ahead of a crisis Dáil motion on the future of the Government.

THE Green Party insists it is not facing the same fate as the Progressive Democrats after suffering a wipeout in the weekend elections.

The Greens are determined to stay in Government despite a collapse of their vote in the local elections, minister Eamon Ryan said today.

GALWAY is throwing a party like only it can this week and local election candidates are capitalising on the good mood across town hosting the Volvo Ocean Race.

GREEN leaders moved to head off a row with grassroots activists last night by insisting it was a question of when Bertie Ahern quits as taoiseach, not if he goes.

A prominent Green Party councillor is reportedly questioning his party's ongoing support for the Taoiseach in the wake of the latest revelations from the Mahon Tribunal.

The famous Fianna Fáil fundraising tent at the week-long Galway Races represents what is worst about the unregulated culture of political donations in Ireland, the Greens said today.

DEFEATED Green Party leadership contender Patricia McKenna came sixth in a ballot of Green Party councillors on who should obtain a Seanad nomination, it emerged yesterday.

The Garda Ombudsman today launched an investigation into the death of a pedestrian struck by a car driven by an off-duty garda during a day of carnage on the roads.

A Cork general election candidate has today spoken of the experience of being followed by a documentary film crew on the campaign trail.

NIALL Ó BROLCHÁIN is confident, exceedingly so.

The Green Party Mayor of Galway City, Cllr Niall Ó Brolcháin, today dismissed speculation that a quick-fix solution had been ignored.

ANGLERS are, arguably, the best watchdogs you can have regarding water quality. They are the first to take note when things go wrong, but all too often the powers-that-be do not listen to them.

The Green Party Mayor of Galway City Cllr Niall Ó Brolcháin today said that Minister Roche cannot avoid blame over the fiasco that has left 90,000 Galway residents without a clean water supply for almost a month.

A NEW opinion poll for Mayo suggests Enda Kenny’s profile as Fine Gael leader may not be enough to secure the party three seats in the constituency.

TREVOR SARGENT rallied his eco-warriors with a defiant cry that they were about to go into Government by breaking through the glass ceiling — unfortunately he was speaking in a conservatory at the time.

MANY powerful people are, at long last, waking up to the real threat being posed to the world by global warming and consequent climate change. No matter how serious a situation is, human nature remains the same — we don’t start to act until a crisis arises.

FIANNA FÁIL yesterday moved to bring an end to a bitter row over selection policy in Galway West by announcing Councillor Michael Crowe would be the party’s third candidate in the general election next year.

THE next lord mayor of Cork, who takes up office next week, will be paid more than the Polish prime minister.

Galway city could lose one of its greatest landmarks through the sale of the Great Southern Hotels, it was claimed today.

The ESB should start developing local power in Connemara rather than littering it with pylons, it was claimed today.

The Green Party may block a proposed outer ring road for Galway if it includes toll barriers.

THE Green Party yesterday claimed the Government has inexplicably delayed announcing the allocation of money raised in the past year from the plastic bag tax.

DANA was given a slim hope of making it to a presidential election when Galway City Council backed her yesterday after the three Fine Gael members broke ranks to vote for her.

Former MEP Dana Rosemary Scallon’s bid for the presidency received a boost tonight as she secured the backing of Galway City Council, marking one down but still three to go.

GALWAY CITY is unusual. There are the PDs riding high in the national polls with a vertigo-inducing 3% or 4%.

THE redevelopment of Galway’s central park has begun amid continuing controversy over the felling of trees.

AS a systems analyst and election candidate who participated in the longest count of the last general election in Galway West, I would like to add my voice to the growing dissent about electronic voting.

On the subject of Teflon frying pans, it has been my experience that nothing sticks to them at first.