Local elections Round up!

Less than 2 months to polling in the local elections, I’m out knocking doors already so what’s it all about? Well this is the first election that it is all about local issues. Five years ago, it was all about Phil Hogan, Alan Shatter and James Reilly and the disastrous decisions they made in office. Nowadays I reckon few voters can remember what they looked like let alone the chaos of the last local election.

Firstly, there’s 12 candidates in Wexford District. Fine Gael are running 3; John Hegarty, Ger Walsh and Angela Roche Reville. Fianna Fail has 2 standard bearers; Colin Murphy and Gary Laffan. Labour run 3; myself, George Lawlor and Maura Bell, Sinn Fein run Thomas Forde while Davy Hynes and Leonard Kelly will be the independent candidates. People Before Profit will run Tony Walsh.

Wexford Town and District will elect 7 councillors to represent a population of about 30,000. Most of the voters live in Wexford town inside the by pass. Castlebridge and Barntown are the 2 other major population centres in the ward.

So what are the issues? Mental Health services and local authority housing are both issues that some candidates are keen to highlight. There’s no doubting that both services in Wexford are not on a par with other counties. I’ve strong views on both. Let’s summarise them. Mental health provision and social housing rely on external funding from the state. The council will build houses if central government comes up with the cash. What are needed are the skill sets in County Hall to build.

Mental health is a diverse topic. As a parent and teacher I’d still think I’m learning something new everyday. That doesn’t give me an automatic in on how older people are affected. My experience has been that when a councillor no council avoided discussing issues on funding and service availability. But we recognised that it was a matter for the HSE or Tuasla  as the case may be. Wexford county council doesn’t deliver mental health services. A councillor may make the case for them and many candidates do that already.

So when it comes to the traditional topics that a council does, and does well, what is making Wexford voters think? Abolition of the borough council and the democratic deficit is the big issue on doors. The electorate know they have less councillors now than 5 years ago. Were it not for my colleague George Lawlor, Wexford town would be in a sorry state.

Since 2014, decisions affecting Wexford have been taken by councillors who by and large don’t live in the town and never represent the electorate there. Most Wexford town voters would be hard pushed to identify a rural based councillor from a photo or identify something the councillor has achieved for the town. That sounds harsh but it’s true. Again and again this comes up on the doorstep.

Clear blue water has opened up in the last 5 years between the local electorate and the council that takes decisions that affects it. The council often tends to focus on issues that have little bearing on the lives of town dwellers. The Wexford dividend that Brendan Howlin put in place as a minister is coming to an end. The business that were expected to open off the back of natural gas, improved road network are nowhere to be seen. Issues such as footpaths and potholes in rural parts of South Wexford dominate councillors time.

The electorate don’t expect a IFS to be built in town but they’d appreciate a vision of how things could be better for them and their children’s lives. For a few years, despite the last local elections giving us new councillors who promised a lot, little has changed. Setting out a new vision for Wexford is the task ahead of candidates in the next 8 weeks. Deciding which vision is best is the job of the electorate!

Wexford boundaries put shape on the Local Election

At long last we have the boundaries for each district in Wexford for next year’s local elections. Normally local elections evolve into a mini general election where the people use the ballot box to send a message to the government. They did this when I was elected and they did it when I was beaten.

At first glance it may well look as though the pattern may repeat itself. However think forward and perhaps that’s not the way it may turn out. We will have a Presidential election later this year. It is clear that Gerard Craughwell will get enough support among independents for a tilt at the Arás. If he runs you can rest assured that SF will not let him off on his own.

We’ll have a Presidential election this autumn. Presidential Elections are allocated a 60 day campaign. So at the start of September, we’ll know who may be nominated, by Halloween, we’ll know the result.

During that period we’ll have a budget. Could it be defeated and can a general election be constitutionally called during a presidential election campaign? So the budget will pass and then the Finance and Social Welfare Acts will give effect to the budget changes. That will take until Christmas.

But once we enter the new year, all bets are off. Fianna Fail will see themselves out of the Confidence and Supply Deal and any issue could and will trigger an election. So presuming there will be an election in March next year, bear in mind how long it can take to form a government.

Easter next year will be later than usual. Once Easter is over we are into Local and European Elections. With new ministers barely in their new jobs, there’ll be little for the electorate to give any new government a kicking over by the time the new boundaries come into play on polling day next year.

Or at least that’s what Fine Gael councillors reckon. This will be a local election which will favour incumbents for many reasons. Local elections will be about local issues. Any outgoing councillor will of course have the ear of officials and will have an enormous advantage in that election. There may well be an election weariness by the time the local elections come around so turn out may well be much lower than average.

And when you look at the boundaries it further reinforces the notion that the status quo will prevail. The decision to ring fence Wexford as one ward makes sense. However introducing Clongeen into the district makes no sense. Including the name of Kilmore in the entire district sounds peculiarly quaint.  This ward will be most hotly contested. 5 outgoing councillors will be joined by one councillor moving from New Ross district and Paul Codd, the son of the late Pat Codd, Mr Taghmon.  Something has to give.

Wexford will have 7 seats. Social media discussion of that ward will assure you that all 14 candidates will win. I’ve yet to see that happen in any election.

Gorey district has been taken apart in this redraw. The village of Ballycanew is familiar to most people from Wexford who take the direct road to Gorey. You’d hardly get back into 5^th gear having driven through the village before you decelerate once more to get onto the motorway. Bizarrely Bally canew and its hinterland are now considered part of Enniscorthy. Gorey has dropped to 6 seats which is just one seat more than Kilmore ward has been allocated.

Enniscorthy will comprise 2 wards with one centred on the town but also a coastal ward at Kilmuckridge. New Ross has also lost a seat as well as some territory to Wexford. Taghmon has returned to its rightful place in Wexford District. But the real downside for Wexford ward is that the 7 councillors it elects won't have officials ring fenced to work for the town but the 6 elected in Gorey District will have engineers and a dedicated secretariat. Why? Because Wexford will be a ward while Gorey will be a district.

So that’s the territory and the context of the redraw. What I can’t do now is predict the issues in each ward that will elect our next council. Let’s hope it as election that debates ideas and local issues. 2014 was all about candidates pretending they could reduce property charges, rates, and abolish water charges while giving a better service.  A weary public bought that populism. There’s no doubt that the electorate may not wish to punish those who won using this line, however let’s hope that some of the new councillors will hold them to account.