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Cllr John Halligan resigns from Workers Party

  • 20-02-2008 5:22pm
    #1
    AdMMM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,472 ✭✭✭


    Waterford City Councillor John Halligan, and party Vice-President, has resigned from the Workers Party. John Halligan was requested by registered post this week, to resign his seat on the City Council and hand it over to another member of the workers party.
    Problems arose for the Councillor when he expressed his wish to vote for local authority service charges which the Workers’ Party has long opposed as a form of double taxation. Workers Party Councillor Davy Walsh says he will continue to stand by party policy.

    The demise of the WP in Waterford has been a longtime coming with the party being in decline since the inception of the Celtic Tiger and I think that John's resignation is a bullet in the head of the final lifeline for the party. The party now has only one elected member of Council nationwide and given how Davy Walsh's vote has been slipping in recent times (he won the last seat in his ward through transfers last time around), I think that the party's presence in Waterford is soon to disappear.

    If John's resignation is a result of failing to tow the parties line then I believe his decision will be of benefit to the Waterford people as it shows his willingness to meet the demands of the people and now he has an opportunity to be more progressive (the parties policies may have been valid in the 80s, but are no longer relevant).

    Sinn Fein will obviously be very happy with this as they no longer have to contend with the Workers Party in the elections, while Labour may see this as an opportunity to bolster their presence in Waterford.

    What do you think the fallout of this will be on local politics?


Comments

  • #2
    longshanks
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,990 ✭✭✭longshanks


    any idea if he is staying involved in local politics or what his next move is?


  • #3
    AdMMM
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,472 ✭✭✭AdMMM


    He said in the Press Release that he was going to continue on representing the citizens of Waterford. From what I can gather, he was asked to relinquish his council seat to the WP who would replace him with someone of their choosing. They shouldn't hold their breath.


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