Local elections

Nevyn

Just had a car with a speaker hanging out of it come around the estate reminding people to go vote, it was like being a kids again listening to it.

We didn't have any canvassers to the door here at all never mind candidates.

Zaph

Denis Keane called to the door and one FF canvasser. That's two more than I remember at the last elections.

athtrasna

Got a flier from one FG candidate and all the FF candidates in Mulhuddart despite the fact that our area is in Castleknock -doh!

Grudaire

Hmmmm.....

http://www.rte.ie/news/elections/local/l0902.html
http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=2009L&cons=35&sort=first

athtrasna

Last seat in Castleknock between O'Gorman & Murray. Fingers crossed a Green bucks the national trend!

Wonder who Higgins' council seat will go to if he gets the Euro seat tomorrow? The SP get to select a replacement.

Interesting result in Mulhuddart too.

Pineapple stu

If Higgins get a euro seat then it would be very unfair for another SP candidate to get his place in fingal. It would mean that Higgins only stood for fingal to secure a seat for someone else which shouldnt be allowed.

Zaph

I'm assuming it would go to Denis Keane, who was the second SP candidate in Mulhuddart. That said, I agree that it would be a pretty shabby way of getting an extra seat.

Pineapple stu

It would be a kick in the wotists for the one who missed out on the last seat in castlenock.

athtrasna

cymro wrote: »

If Higgins get a euro seat then it would be very unfair for another SP candidate to get his place in fingal. It would mean that Higgins only stood for fingal to secure a seat for someone else which shouldnt be allowed.

It may be unfair but that's how it goes. If someone is elected and can't take the seat or retires then their party selects the successor. Eithne Loftus flagged this early in the campaign and over 3,000 electors in Castleknock decided this was ok :rolleyes:

Pineapple stu

Not being able to take the seat for genuine reasons is fair enough but to win it for someone else knowing there was a good chance that you wouldnt take it is wrong and shouldnt have been allowed.

How did 3000 electors in castlenock say this was ok? Who asked them and when? With the boundary changes i am now in the castleknock ward and nobody asked me if it was ok. Or did they just ask the FG crowd and if they were happy then so be it?

athtrasna

3000+ people voted for Higgins in the locals despite it being obvious he was also running for Europe. I didn't because I didn't want anyone who considered the council as a fall back position to represent me. Socialism me a&$e!

PauloMN

Surprised at the results in Mulhuddart. We've gone from 4 to 5 seats, yet sitting councillor Sinn Féin's Paul Donnelly failed to hold onto his seat.

Also I thought one of the black candidates in the area would be elected to take the new seat, but I think the fact that three black candidates stood for election in the area diluted the vote. Adeola Ogunsina did well with almost 1000 first preference votes - I wonder had Iggy Okafor and Idowu Olafimihan not been running would he have been elected?

Patrick Nulty took the most first preference votes which was unexpected imo given he was relatively unknown before this. O'Donovan and Coppinger were certs as far as I was concerned, I expected Donnelly to hold his seat. I got a couple of surprises but overall am happy with the results.

Pineapple stu

athtrasna wrote: »

3000+ people voted for Higgins in the locals despite it being obvious he was also running for Europe. I didn't because I didn't want anyone who considered the council as a fall back position to represent me. Socialism me a&$e!

I see where you get the 300 from now

I dont follow any party and in turn wouldnt vote for any candidate just because of what party they were with. I hadnt a clue who i was voting for this time due to the boundary change but found out that Mags had done loads of good work in the area so she got my number 1 for that reason. Peggy got my 2 for the same reason.
Paul Donelly does a lot in the area as well and it was a shame that he didnt get back in from the mulhuddart area.

athtrasna

cymro wrote: »

I see where you get the 300 from now

I dont follow any party and in turn wouldnt vote for any candidate just because of what party they were with. I hadnt a clue who i was voting for this time due to the boundary change but found out that Mags had done loads of good work in the area so she got my number 1 for that reason. Peggy got my 2 for the same reason.
a.

:eek: Mags and work in the same sentence???? Emailed her as sec of a community group and it bounced back cos her inbox was full. Mailed her again the next week and she never replied.

Hamill was marginally better but Loftus was the fastest and most helpful to reply, followed swiftly by Coppinger even though it wasn't even her area.

Am gutted that Murray got re-elected, even more so than Higgins taking the seat.

Pineapple stu

She was active around here from what i was told by an active member of a few D15 groups.
One chap that is getting slaughtered at the moment who has done loads for my area and will always get my vote and respect is Brian Lenihan. He may be costing me a few quid but he is a man of his word.

Would i be right in saying that the D15 community group/council lean towards FG? I went to 2 meetings and it was the impression i got and it was like if they didnt want to know the council estate groups.

athtrasna

Don't know I'm afraid. You must be in a different part of Castleknock as neither of the two you've mentioned have been the slightest help to us. Lenihan is gone at the next election, not helped by his talk yesterday of the next budget, doubling the income levies again!

Pineapple stu

I live nowhere near castleknock yet we are in the castlenock ward ???????

I dont like the levies either but something has to be done to get us out of this mess. Its no good lowering taxes or raising pensions etc. FG and Labour have said they have plans to get us out of the recession but havent said how. I feel its all talk just to get into goverment and they wouldnt do much better if they did get in. Maybe it should be the better the devil you know so to speak cos at the moment its a case of FF being in a no win situation. If they lowered taxes then they would be called unresponsible given the financial crisis and when they introduce levies and other cost cutting measures then people are calling for their heads.
Im no fan of FF but the previous goverment left them this mess so lets see if they can get us out of it and if not then people can make themselves heard at the next election again. FF before the last election was in poor form yet people still voted them in then so its their own fault.

Gaspode

cymro wrote: »

I live nowhere near castleknock yet we are in the castlenock ward ???????

Tell me about it, we've been designated as being in the finglas area, havent a clue who any of the reps over there are, and still get all the bumph from the Castleknock Ward candidates in the post. I'd love to find the f**ker who made that decision, and give him/her a good earful. I live in Castleknock, my kids go to school in Castleknock and Blanchardstown, and I do all my business in this area, so why the hell would I want to vote in Finglas. These divisions make no sense at all.

(Not that there is anything specifically wrong with Finglas mind, I'm not knocking the place. It's just that I'm never up there, other than the odd trip to Tesco. Local issues there mean nothing to me.)

athtrasna

cymro wrote: »

I live nowhere near castleknock yet we are in the castlenock ward ???????

Im no fan of FF but the previous goverment left them this mess so lets see if they can get us out of it and if not then people can make themselves heard at the next election again. FF before the last election was in poor form yet people still voted them in then so its their own fault.

Sorry but what planet are you on? FF have been in government for the past 12 years, this crisis is of their making! They took over from the rainbow government in 1997 when over 1000 jobs were being created a month and we had a national surplus year on year, not a 10 billion deficit like we currently have.

On the boundaries, a local election comission was set up to investigate and redraw the boundaries based on things like population shift. Anyone can make a submission if they have issues with their boundary. Happens after every election so one due in the near future.

Pineapple stu

Do you honestly think FG and Labour can create jobs? What needs to be done is for FF to have the backbone and halt the economic migrants. Reports says that thousands more are on the dole due to the recession but the vast majority of these are non irish who are only here to claim the dole so the figures are misleading. It all went tits up after EU members were allowed to work freely in other member states and with Ireland only being a small island it couldnt cope with the vast amounts who came here. Also FF should have clamped down on the dodgey employers who let go local workers in favour of cheaper foreign workers. Labour and FG are in favour of the foreign works and say nothing about local workers being let go to accomadate them.
FG wont halt any of the expenses they are getting or cut taxes or give more money to the working man on the street but will ony say that it wasnt them that done it that they ony inherited the mess. Brian Lenihan is the only one who cut the wages of the TD's as no other Treasurer had the balls to do it.
What i would say is that if FF got us into this mess then they should get us out of it now that the eye is on them as they are fighting for their political lifes.

( On the foreign workers issue, im all in favour of workers from any country getting employment in Ireland if they get the proper rate of pay for their skill and no local workers lose their jobs just so the employer can get cheaper labour)

Gaspode

As members of the EU, we allow for free movement of workers between member countries; we cant take the good part of this, and then blame 'foreigners' when things do, as you say, go tits up.
To do so is disingenuous at the least and racist at worst. I am not sure you intended to be racist, but some would interpret your remarks that way, so be careful how you word things!

Pineapple stu

I worded it fine. If others thinks its sounds racist then its them that has the problem.
I didnt blame the foreign workers just the failure of the government to put a limit on how many this country could cope with given than many would have no intention of working but just avail of the benefits through health care and the dole money and the failure to act on employers who made local workers redundant just so they can employ cheaper migrant workers which is illegal.

Labour spoke out against deportations even though it was failed asylum seekers that was being deported. If they had their way then anyone from any country would be free to come here and avail of our health care and social security which on paper its sounds good and fair but our economy wouldnt cope.

To back on topic and what i am trying to say is that although FF are doing bad, is there any party that would genuinley do any better? Most i hear is just all talk just to gain power but would FG do any better? I know they couldnt do worse but would we back to square one in a few years and people giving out about how FG are doing?

If the TD in your area is FF and he has worked hard in your area is it wise or fair to vote against them just because his party is doing bad? Why punish the TD if he has done ok in your area and elect somone you havent had dealings with just to get back at the government?

Zaph

To be fair, there were unemployed people before we had an influx of migrants availing of all the new jobs. I know some of them couldn't work for various reasons, but I object more to the lazy Irish slobs who were let get away with signing on for years even though they never had any intention of working.

Gaspode

I'm not a fan of blaming foreigners for our woes Cymro, its just totally unfair to do so.

Anyway, all that aside this is a thread about the local elections - lets stick to that for the moment please. If it drifts off that topic and into other political hot potatoes I'll have to boot it over to the utter madness that is the politics forum!

Pineapple stu

Im not blaming the workers themselves im blaming the government for not monitering it better.

Pat Dunne

cymro wrote: »

One chap that is getting slaughtered at the moment who has done loads for my area and will always get my vote and respect is Brian Lenihan. He may be costing me a few quid but he is a man of his word.

Can you actually list what he has "done loads" of for your area.

Pineapple stu

I could.

He has helped many groups in this area

PauloMN

See how your neighbours voted - Community Voice are running their detailed results breakdown again:
http://www.communityvoice.ie/pages/CV139/CV139n06.htm

athtrasna

Those figures are VERY interesting!

Pat Dunne

cymro wrote: »

I could.

He has helped many groups in this area

I am asking a genuine question here. What exactly has Brian Lenihan "done loads" of in your area?

Because I am really at a lose to understand how such a national political figure can preside over an area were shortages of school places at both Primary and Post Primary levels are the norm. Where poor roads and traffic snarl up are a daily reality. And where poor planning decisions and shoddy building standards are brushed under the carpet.