Waterford election hub

he’s definetly gone . Definite 1 sf , 1 FF , 1 FG and a dogfight for last seat

I think Butler will get in as she will poll strong in the west/rural of the county. Only one I see not returning is our Green TD which is no loss!

With these national numbers both FF and FG will be under pressure to run two candidates each. FG strong out west, but Cummins main appeal is in the city, slightly less pressure on him to have a 2nd running mate. But FF have a junior minister, and so unlikely she will have the FF ticket to herself. To run one candidate at 20-25% is a massive sign of underconfidence for a party of power.

Interesting observation by Fionnan Sheehan on last night's primetime- basically asking why FG threw away a 2nd EU seat with Mullins such a Cork boyo, and not to reach out with a strong SE candidate. Of course there are no obvious internal ones with all FG seats having walked since 2011- but they could have found a quiet sportsperson a lá Kelly and Carberry.

Under-delivery by Govt (airport, hospital, 24/7, roads, NQ -late and smaller- university buildings and new courses), against massive spending (basically Shanahan's line) will be in the dock in the GE. A number of FG and FF candidates emphasised their personal standing over the party brand.

So as Damian Tiernan said- the GE is going to be interesting. The last 3 (2011,16,20) all kicked the incubment Government, not a huge sign this will change.

The way SF have run there last two campaigns I wouldn’t be betting on 2 Sf for Waterford , definitely one 1 FG and one 1 ff

He'll get a big vote from the west. He's been spending a lot of time in the west of the county to build his profile there.

Local elections show the support for FG in the west of the county.

FG are also only running one candidate, they know he'll suffer a bit in the city but by only having one candidate he'll get all the FG votes and that will be enough to see him through.

Butler could be under a bit of pressure but again if FF are clever and just run 1 candidate she'll get all the FF vote. She'll suffer from the POV due to her junior minister position and not having 24/7 delivered (but yet the anger probably won't be taken out on FG who have been in power 13 years and failed to deliver it)

I suspect we'll see 1FG, 1FF, 1SF and a fight for the last seat, surely some independent gets a seat.

Unless SF can run a good candidate in the west which would attract a large vote, then we could possibly see, 2SF, I independent, and FF/FG battling for the last seat.

The annoying thing is SF are only worth the vote if they actually form a government as we should have a full minister then.

If we have a government with FF or FG I can't see any of their candidates here becoming a full minister, maybe Cummins gets a junior minister, but without a full minister, the next 4 years will be the same as the past 13 years for waterford

well am sticking to my prediction . Sf Ff FG and a dart throw for fourth seat not named Green Party .

Am I reading that wrong, did Cummins not get 2500ish transfers from Geoghegan?

can anyone explain and give a good solid reason for voting for shahahan or any other independent. Unless an independent or group of them hold the ‘balance of power’ (as has been the case in the past with the Healy-Rea’s, Michael Lowry, Tony Gregory when they propped up / supported FF minority governments ) what can they achieve for their voters. Asking the government ministers ‘awkward’ questions during ‘leaders question time’ is about all that comes to mind and that’s also limited as an independent will only get a short period of time allocated to them during each session….getting elected as an independent is definitely an achievement but they are effectively powerless unless they propping up a minority ‘gubbermint’

This is probably a stupid question, so forgive my ignorance, but how would it work if we got another seat, would a seat be taken from elsewhere, or can I assume the number of seats grows as the population does?

If you can't translate that into political events over the past decade in Waterford, then you should stop posting on this page until you can.

I'll presume he means, government haven't been great for Waterford and with limited options you end up voting for an independent as they rarely form any part of a government so they are not the bad egg

Waterford city is not Sligo, Longford or Laois and your posts are borderline trolling? Glass half empty, my ass. 15 years waiting for investment in WIT and its not jumping out at you? Are you paying attention at all?

I'd agree it's not an anti south east conspiracy, it's a lack of political power in Waterford and the in house fighting politically in the South East.

A lot of what the poster mentioned was delivered by Martin Cullen a senior minister, that just shows the power a senior minister can have.

Cullen was 1 vote away from having a stand alone University, since then we haven't seen one new teaching building built, not one capital project take plane at WIT, and have since seen WIT merged with IT Carlow despite WIT performing to TU level since 2014 on its own.

The Greenway the council were left short of funding of FG wouldn't step in, bilberry was left idle for years, I'd imagine the greens were helpful in getting that project finished.

The NQs is largely down to Paudie Coffeey, he did serious work in getting that site as an SDZ. Government funding has been slow in delivery, new pedestrian bridges in Galway and Athlone as examples have been delivered well before our new sustainable transport bridge.

The hospital we won't even go there.

The airport, we are still talking about it. With SETU we had all politicians from across the SE united and stating how important it was largely because Carlow, Wexford and KK all wanted their slice, outside of Waterford we are not hearing a word of the airport.

Everyone in the South East is out for their own slice which is doing serious damage and has done serious damage, had a stand alone Uni had the same support as SETU the SE could possibly have a stand alone Uni in Waterford and a TU in Carlow but no, politicians are in South East out their own parish ahead of what the SE actually needs to be successful and the college was a prime example of this. The hospital is in the same boat as is lack of support for the airport as it's not delivering infrastructure in neighbouring counties.

So it's not anti south east conspiracy, it's pure lack of strong political representation in Waterford and the in house issues in the SE.

Please note that it is you who has raised the conspiracy notion. I dont subscribe to it. We are simply subject to political decisions made by powerful ministers. 914 has mentioned above that WIT, now SETU has not seen a new teaching building in years (since the Humanities building of 1998). A new engineering building is on the stocks since 2009. A photo attached from SEPAG of a PQ response gives some inkling of how UHW is faring.

Maybe you might comment on either of thes ethree items instead of that "gubber-mint" thing you always mention?

I actually couldn't get over Cynthia Ní Mhurchú doing videos outside the airport saying it is top of her list, a business proposal sits with the government for the past 26 weeks which her party is apart of, you actually couldn't make it up.

Grace O Sullivan has been an MEP for the last stint, if it is possible to deliver airport investment in Europe it would have been delivered.

Airport is solely down to national politics, seeing her talk about the airport is like seeing local councillors taking about changing government policies.

While we are on the subject of Simon Convey and political decisions.

During the campaign of 24/7 cardiac care, minister of health Simon Harris said there is no way that the government could go against the result of the independent report, as what would be the point in independent reports.

Boundary commission supported Waterford extending its boundary, ignored by government as Convey had his eye on becoming party leader then and wanted the KK vote.

The extra Dail seat, based on the figures from the independent report one would have suspected Waterford to obtain an extra seat but due to political pressure from neighbouring counties that wasn't the case.

Two independent reports recommending Waterford go it alone for university status again ignored despite having two senior South East politician's in Hogan and Howlin as they wanted to ensure they got something for their own patch hence SETU.

When WIT were being told they had no choice and only the TU route and a merger was on offer, they wanted to proceed with Cork IT as at the time they had a very close relationship and completed a lot of research projects together and howlin was quoted somewhere as saying "WIT joining with CIT would be disastrous for Wexford" yet fast forward a few years he was nearly in tears on WLR about SETU not becoming the first TU, had he have backed Waterford we would have had a stand alone Uni or at worst a TU a good 5-6 years prior to SETUs establishment.

Again the above just highlights personal political interest effecting Waterford's growth, so it's not a conspiracy that everyonr is out to get Waterford, it's more everyone is out for themselves and due to our political weakness we suffer from it.

Grace O'Sullivan also losing her seat in Europe. I'm no fan of the greens but I would definately have preferred someone from Waterford in the EU rather than someone else.

I'm not sure what EU representatives can deliver but surely some benefit is having access to EU funded projects or being able to tell local councils where and what type of funding they could apply for.

Grace will have a long holiday and Marc will also when the GE comes. They can thank Ryan and his airport failures!

FG don’t have a TD in Waterford due to the above reasons. People vote differently in local elections compared to general elections. I will never vote for FG in my life after what they have done to Waterford.

FG destroyed hundreds of years of tradition of amalgamating the city & and counties.