During our trip to New Ross on Saturday morning we bumped into Jim Walsh, he was out for his daily walk in the town, Peter Mernagh spoke to him about the challenges facing country towns, like New Ross, and his thoughts on the upcoming by-election in County Wexford.

Jim was elected in 1974 to New Ross Town Council and was first elected to Wexford County Council 1979 until 2004. He served as Mayor of Wexford from 1992 to 1993, from

1997 to 2016, he was a member of the Seanad, where he was Fianna Fail spokesperson for Justice, Equality, and Law Reform between 2002 and 2007, and Communications, Energy, and Natural resources from 2007 to 2011 and Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2011 to 2016.

We sought his views on challenges facing country towns like New Ross, and his thoughts on the upcoming by-election in County Wexford.