Portiuncula Consultant Dr John Barton is Maura Hopkins’s Director of Elections

Ballinasloe’s Dr John Barton will lead Fine Gael candidate Maura Hopkins’s campaign for a Dáil seat as her Director of Elections for the upcoming general election campaign.

Dr Barton, who is a Consultant Physician Cardiologist at Portiuncula Hospital Ballinasloe, says he’s leading Maura Hopkins’s campaign because she’s an outstanding candidate, and because he believes that Ireland and the western region will be best served by a Fine Gael government being returned to office.

Dr Barton is not a newcomer to politics. He was a candidate in the 2007 general election, when he came within 49 votes of winning a Dáil seat. Ballinasloe Town hasn’t elected a TD since the 1960s €“ Dr Barton has come closer to succeeding than any other candidate in the past 50 years.

Commenting, Dr John Barton said:

 “It is enormously encouraging for me as a person in my 60s living in the west of Ireland to see a young person of Maura Hopkins’s calibre emerging as a political candidate and offering herself to people in this region as a TD for the new Roscommon-Galway constituency.

 “Maura Hopkins is a very impressive young woman. She is someone who cares deeply about her country and her community. Like myself, she is a healthcare professional. She has the courage, diligence and ability to be an outstanding Roscommon-Galway TD.

“Fine Gael is very ambitious for Ireland and for this region. As a Ballinasloe resident and as a former Galway-East general election candidate for Fine Gael, I am attuned to the issues that matter in this area. Through my work as a Consultant Physician at Portiuncula Hospital, I have spent 25 years of my working life working with hundreds and hundreds of patients from across Roscommon and Galway.

 “I have accepted Maura’s invitation for me to lead her general election campaign because Maura Hopkins is an outstanding candidate, and because I believe that this country will be best served by a Fine Gael-led government being returned to office. In order for Fine Gael to win the general election nationally, the Party needs to win a seat in Roscommon-Galway. We will be campaigning vigorously and we will be promoting Maura Hopkins as a capable new voice who offers fresh thinking and real results.

 “I look forward to leading a positive campaign that will engage voters from Ahascragh to Arigna and everywhere in between”.