Local Elections 2009

Sully

I see the Kilkenny folk have begun their discussion on the 2009 local elections. Probably expect to see campaigning starting early new year from selected candidates. Recent opinion polls have seen a fair bit of damage done to the current government and rightly so. Other party's have improved or remained the same with the biggest change being Fine Gael doing very well in the polls. I am sure this will have a knock on affect when people vote in the local and European elections next year.

Who will/wont you be voting for this year and why? Do you vote for this part usually or has recent times changed your voting preference? Will issues like the boundary, retail developments (or lack thereof) etc. be a decision factor in who you will/wont be voting for?

Vote away - this discussion is for the County and Town Council

Psychedelic

i don't think I'll be voting by party anyway. i can say though i will definately not vote for any sinn fein candidate. also, if WIT hasn't been upgraded to a university by the time of the elections i will definately not vote for any FF candidate.

i will see who's running again (presumably the same councillors we have now) and what their policies are before making up my mind. i know one that i will more than likely vote for.

Sully

Voting by party? So indepedent (which is a party in a roundabout way I guess)?

Psychedelic

i meant that the party a candidate is affiliated with won't really influence my vote too much. whereas some people might just say vote for whatever candidates are FG, regardless of what the candidate stands for. i.e. some people just vote the same party every time.

CantGetNoSleep

Anyone that votes for a Green candidate this time around deserves a good kick in the teeth

Ri na hEireann

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Anyone that votes for a Green candidate this time around deserves a good kick in the teeth

Anyone who votes FF moreso

Stan Nangle

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

Anyone that votes for a Green candidate this time around deserves a good kick in the teeth

I'm standing for the Green Party in Tramore in June.

Tell me why you think people who vote for me deserve "a good kick in the teeth"?

Regards,

Stan:

Sully

Stan Nangle wrote: »

I'm standing for the Green Party in Tramore in June.

Tell me why you think people who vote for me deserve "a good kick in the teeth"?

Regards,

Stan:

When was the last time you ran for elections? You did before, didnt you?

I think the poster, as many posters are in the Politics forum, is trying to point out that the Greens in government have been a bit of a disaster along with their FF counterparts so shouldnt be given a vote as a result in further elections. Not sure if you are on of the Green party who are disapointed with their time in office?

Good to see your running though. Never voted green before but will give you one this time around as I think you are an excellent candidate.

Stan Nangle

Sully wrote: »

When was the last time you ran for elections? You did before, didnt you?

I ran in 2004, came 10th in a 9 seater.

I think the poster, as many posters are in the Politics forum, is trying to point out that the Greens in government have been a bit of a disaster along with their FF counterparts so shouldnt be given a vote as a result in further elections. Not sure if you are on of the Green party who are disapointed with their time in office?

The short version is that the Green Ministers are doing an excellent job in their respective portfolios, and this is acknowledged by most Oireachtas members.

I think we had no option but to go into Government in 2007. The alternative was to wait until 2012 and that would have been wasted time.

There is a longer response to that question, but I'm tied for time right now.

Good to see your running though. Never voted green before but will give you one this time around as I think you are an excellent candidate.

Much appreciated!

Enigm_a

Does anybody know who is running for FF in this year`s Local & European Elections (city & county)? Convention was supposed to be held last Friday in the Tower. Seems to be very hush-hush??

kano476

fine gael - mark kennedy aka the jazz barber no1!

Stan Nangle

Enigm_a wrote: »

Does anybody know who is running for FF in this year`s Local & European Elections (city & county)? Convention was supposed to be held last Friday in the Tower. Seems to be very hush-hush??

The Tramore AGM was on tonight. Still no word on who they are running.

Sully

Its in the Tower tommorw for the city candidates at least. Wasnt the FF candidates listed in the Waterford Today last week?

Stan Nangle

Dan Cowman announced tonight that he will not be running again.

Dan was first elected in 1979, and was Mayor on four occasions.

I wish him the very best in his retirement.

Psychedelic

how many are running stan? i hope it's not 8 candidates running for 8 places, it'd be a fairly pointless election if that's the case. in any case, most who run will get back in despite their incompentence and lack of attendance at council meetings.

actually i'm getting confused again between town council and county council, what way do the local elections work coz i've never actually voted in them before?

Sully

I think I have this correct.. I only know for sure the FG and Greens selection. I think the rest are correct.

For FG:
Mark Kennedy, Eleanor Hickey and outgoing Councillors Ann Marie Power and Lola O’Sullivan.

For SF:
Mr. Declan Clune

For Greens:
Stan Nangle

For FF:
Blaise Hannigan
Ben Gavin

For Labour:
O`Callaghan (not confirmed, but assumed)

Indepedent:
James Mccartan
Joe Conway

Pollythene Pam

The Green Party has dug it's own grave. Now it must lie in it.
I understand why they went into government with The Devellera Party. It was the only way to get their policy's (sometimes insane, sometimes brillant policy's.) into the mainstream, but did they not learn from every other party that went into coalition with Fianna Fail that it is a poison chalice. Power is not everything.
Shame on The Green's not only for selling their souls, but for lying for their government pals, just so they could stay in government.

Stan Nangle

Psychedelic wrote: »

how many are running stan? i hope it's not 8 candidates running for 8 places, it'd be a fairly pointless election if that's the case. in any case, most who run will get back in despite their incompentence and lack of attendance at council meetings.

actually i'm getting confused again between town council and county council, what way do the local elections work coz i've never actually voted in them before?

On Friday June 5th you will get three ballot papers if you live in Tramore Town. (Inside the 50k limit more or less - I've asked for a map, but haven't got it yet)

1) Tramore Town Council: 9 Seats. In 2004 there were 13 candidates. Of the 9 elected in 2004, one resigned (Betty Twomey) and was replaced (by James McCartan). Two are not running again (Dan Cowman and Ray Hayden).

2) Tramore Electoral Area of Waterford County Council: 7 Seats (up from 6 in 2004). 12 Candidates in 2004. Covers the area east of a line from Kilmeaden to Kilfarrassy. Includes Passage, Dunmore, Ballymacaw, Etc. Dan Cowman isn't running again.

3) European Parliament Election, Ireland South: 3 Seats. 10 Candidates in 2004. Basically Munster without County Clare.


The Town Council is quite limited in what it does because it doesn't have a big Rate base in the Town. We are a dormitory of Waterford City - lots of people sleep here, but their economic activity happens in the City. All of the services in Tramore are provided by the County Council, whereas Dungarvan, New Ross and Clonmel have certain services provided by their own staff because they are able to raise money from Rates.

The County Council looks after our water, sewage, waste collection, libraries, roads, footpaths, litter collection, planning, social housing and other similiar services. The Councillors are effectively the Non Executive Directors of the Council (from a legal perspective), and act as representatives of the public who elected them. The Councillors deal with the Council Officials on a daily basis, so they build up good working relationships with them and will basically help people get problems solved because the Councillors know who to talk to about what whereas most people don't.

There are four Electoral Areas in Waterford County: Lismore, Dungarvan, Comeragh and Tramore, with 23 Councillors altogether. Lismore and Dungarvan also have Town Councils. Comeragh is huge, running from Fenor to Clonmel. There is a map on the Electoral Area Committees Website, but it is over 3 Megs in size.

Basically, on each ballot paper you put a 1 beside your preferred candidate, a 2 beside your second favourite, a 3 beside your third favourite and so on.

The quota is the number of valid ballots cast divided by the number of seats available +1 (Tramore Town Council in 2004 was 3750 valid ballots for 9 seats +1 so the quota was 3750/10 = 375)

When the ballots are counted the number ones are allocated to each candidate. If anyone has more than 375 votes they are deemed elected.

From then on it gets complicated, but basically people at the bottom are eliminated and their second preferences get redistributed among the remaining candidates, increasing their vote until they hit 375

Here's a link to the Tramore Town Council Count in 2004. It breaks down who got what as they went through the 10 Counts.

Any questions just shout.

Stan:

Stan Nangle

Pollythene Pam wrote: »

The Green Party has dug it's own grave. Now it must lie in it.
I understand why they went into government with The Devellera Party. It was the only way to get their policy's (sometimes insane, sometimes brillant policy's.) into the mainstream, but did they not learn from every other party that went into coalition with Fianna Fail that it is a poison chalice. Power is not everything.
Shame on The Green's not only for selling their souls, but for lying for their government pals, just so they could stay in government.

I'm not aware of any Green having told a lie, and any Green who did would be P45'd pretty darn quick.

The voters decided in 2007 that they wanted Fianna Fail to lead the Government from 2007 to 2012. 46% of voters in Waterford voted for Fianna Fail - and half of them gave Martin Cullen a number 1.

The way the seats stacked up, you would either have a Fianna Fail/Green Coalition or a Fianna Fail/Labour Coalition.

From that perspective, the Green Party decided, at a members convention in the Mansion House in Dublin, to go into Government. The alternative was to sit scratching their arses on the opposition benches until 2012.

I would argue that we haven't sold our souls, although we have had to compromise on certain issues. Were these compromises worth it? I think so!

Stan:

Enigm_a

Sully wrote: »

I think I have this correct.. I only know for sure the FG and Greens selection. I think the rest are correct.

For FG:
Mark Kennedy, Eleanor Hickey and outgoing Councillors Ann Marie Power and Lola O’Sullivan.

For SF:
Mr. Declan Clune

For Greens:
Stan Nangle

For FF:
Blaise Hannigan
Ben Gavin

Indepedent:
James Mccartan

9 candidates.......9 seats........ what about Labour (O`Callaghan) and the other independent (Conway). I understood Conway was going for town and county? Do we really want a predominately FG led Council? Hopefully by running 4 candidates they will split their vote. Would personally like to see Anne Marie and Lola in as they have proven themselves but at the same time a disproportional representation on the Council would not be
best for the town. FG share many similar political philosophies as FF. Do we really want that?

Sully

Sorry, somehow I forgot Conway! I dont see the problem with any one party running the council - I believe that in the City at least FG always had the majority. I dont think it matters as much and you usually give a vote for candidates who will do their best for the town over the party (sometimes).

Not sure about O`Callaghan.

Enigm_a

I see in this weeks News & Star that former town councillor Eddie Walsh is running again..... whoo whooo.....things starting to heat up!!

Jim_Are_Great

There's also a wash of independent candidates, especially incumbents who haven't been given a nomination by their party.

fitzgm01

Enigm_a wrote: »

I see in this weeks News & Star that former town councillor Eddie Walsh is running again..... whoo whooo.....things starting to heat up!!

Do we really want to encourage eddie again. All he has ever been is a bit of a bandwagon jumper....a single issue candidate (whatever he believes to be the flavour of the month to be)...he has done very little to help any one other than himself.

Stan Nangle

Here's the latest line up as I understand it:

For FG:
Mark Kennedy,
Eleanor Hickey
Cllr Ann Marie Power
Cllr Lola O’Sullivan.

For SF:
Mr. Declan Clune

For Greens:
Stan Nangle

For FF:
Cllr Ben Gavin
Gina Hutchinson

For Labour:
Cllr O`Callaghan (not confirmed, but assumed)

Independent:
Cllr James Mccartan
Cllr Joe Conway
Cllr Blaise Hannigan (ex FF)
Pat Finnerty (ex FF)

Sully

Just to clarify the "ex FF" bit. They failed the interview for the party as I understand it, and therefore could not run as FF candidates so they decided to run as Indepdenent.

Just in case anybody thought they left the party or something!

Jim_Are_Great

They failed to secure a nomination anyway. I'm not sure about failing an interview.

Sully

Jim_Are_Great wrote: »

They failed to secure a nomination anyway. I'm not sure about failing an interview.

Maybe, I thought thats what I read in the News & Star. May have read it wrong tho.

CantGetNoSleep

Stan Nangle wrote: »

I'm not aware of any Green having told a lie, and any Green who did would be P45'd pretty darn quick.

The voters decided in 2007 that they wanted Fianna Fail to lead the Government from 2007 to 2012. 46% of voters in Waterford voted for Fianna Fail - and half of them gave Martin Cullen a number 1.

The way the seats stacked up, you would either have a Fianna Fail/Green Coalition or a Fianna Fail/Labour Coalition.

From that perspective, the Green Party decided, at a members convention in the Mansion House in Dublin, to go into Government. The alternative was to sit scratching their arses on the opposition benches until 2012.

I would argue that we haven't sold our souls, although we have had to compromise on certain issues. Were these compromises worth it? I think so!

Stan:

How do you say compromises were worth it?

What was the benefit? Getting unpopular Green policies coming into effect? Allowing Green Party to be in Government just for the sake of it?

CantGetNoSleep

Very little talk of the European Elections so far, where FF have amazingly not yet announced their second candidate (assuming there will be a second that is), which to me seems to be shocking given that potential candidates have 5 counties to canvass.

Otherwise Kathy Sinnott looks very likely to retain her seat, leaving 2 more

In my opinion, Sean Kelly will get in for FG, most likely replacing FGs Colm Burke (who wasn't elected directly last time around), however this depends on the mood in the weeks leading up to the election, as Brian Crowley who has topped the poll every time since 1994, should get back in, especially because of his important role in Europe, but FFs unpopularity could hinder this.

Other than this, Alan Kelly of Lab, Toireasa Ferris of SF, and Dan Boyle of the Greens could make this an interesting election

Which way do people think they will vote?

Stan Nangle

CantGetNoSleep wrote: »

How do you say compromises were worth it?

What was the benefit? Getting unpopular Green policies coming into effect? Allowing Green Party to be in Government just for the sake of it?

What "unpopular" Green policies?

Global Oil production has peaked. It is about to start dropping at a rate of 9% per annum. This is going to cause spot shortages (like it did in many Countries last year), and massively volatile prices.

The Green Party has a plan to reduce the impact this phenomenon will have on people's lives.

So far we have improved the insulation standards by 40% (will go to 60% next year) - something Green Councillors had been doing on a Council by Council basis, against the expressed wishes of Dick Roadstone Roche when he was Minister.

We have brought in €100 million in grants to help people make their houses more energy efficient.

We have given business major incentives to reduce their energy costs.

We have reduced electricity and gas prices.

We have introduced a 19c feed-in tariff for people with small renewable generators (which makes them cost effective).


I helped organise an Energy Show at Tramore Racecourse last weekend. We had almost 3,000 people through the doors. None of them were of the opinion that the above policies are "unpopular".

Neither will you in three or four years time.


Of course, you could vote for Fine Gael, who announced last week that they are going to ban diesel after 2015.

Now that will be VERY unpopular.