Bernie Courtney
I describe myself, first and foremost as a mother, and as such want the best for my children, a desire I share with each man and woman in my community. As a dentist who has worked in the Public Health Services for the last 24 years and as a Parents rep on Mayo VEC since 2004, I see the importance of access to both high quality healthcare and education for each and every child as a fundamental human right and I have been active at community level in helping to bring about improvements in both.
I have campaigned for improved access to Educational Psychologists and remedial and resource teachers in schools; have assisted in the formulation of improved healthcare provision for [1]older people with my work in the Care Group For the Elderly and [2] with Traveller Groups. I have worked as part of a team to improve Orthodontic services to school children at primary care level. I have Campaigned for a sports hall for Davitt College which would transform the provision of physical education in the school and throughout the whole community.
Despite the booming economy of the last few years I have seen little if any real improvement in either healthcare or educational provision for our children. We have inadequate playground facilities, no provision for public toilets, inadequate road crossings and insufficient public seating. Local politics is dependent on politics at national level.and the changes we need to make in Castlebar, I believe, can only be fully realised within the context of the socialist policies of the Labour Party
