FIANNA FAIL’S, Cllr. Michael Sheehan has said that New Ross town needs to be protected by the incoming County Council.
Though the overall local authority will expand to 34 members the reality is that New Ross town will go from having nine direct representatives to two and that is something that Cllr. Sheehan is acutely aware of.
The fact that the other town representative will be Cllr. Anthony Connick also makes the situation very significant for the town because it’s a well known fact there is no love lost between the Connick and Sheehan camps. However, they will invariably have to work together on a local authority comprised of many rural representatives.
Cllr. Sheehan was elected without reaching the quota but he told The Echo he wasn’t disappointed about that because it was unlikely that many candidates would get the required 1,410 votes.
In his case he received 994 first preference votes which was significant considering there were 18 candidates and in New Ross town alone there were 10 prominent candidates.
Having expressed satisfaction at the result Cllr. Sheehan said: “With the amount of candidates, and the amount that were councillors, it was unprecedented for any candidate or a returning candidate. I was up against people who had 20 years experience and people coming back into politics after 20 years experience so I am not in the slightest bit disappointed.”
“A win is a win as I see it and I think it was a very respectable result I think,” he added.
Describing the battle in New Ross as ‘the group of death’ he said he just wanted to regain his seat and that was the priority.
“There probably was the shenanigans going on of people saying as sure he’s safe give me the one,” he said.
When asked what he would like see change within how the Council operates to make it more effective Cllr. Sheehan said: “To give the councillors more authority and more of an input in all areas rather than a few areas.”
“I would also like some sort of caveat to make sure that the town is protected,” he said.
“I’m acutely aware there are two of us from the town out of eight and that is going to be difficult for the pair of us and we will have to work together for the sake of the town despite whatever political differences there may be.”
Cllr. Sheehan then said that people still regarded the election in Town Council terms and said that people who were loyal to certain candidates their entire lives didn’t change just because of the significance of this election.
“I’m not sure that people looked at this election as being different,” he said.
He also expressed surprise at the high number of transfers he received from Fine Gael’s Niamh Fitzgibbon when she was eliminated late on Sunday night.
“That was a surprise to me because I would not have expected 80 votes to come to me from Fine Gael or Niamh so there were surprises,” he said.
“I also think the independents leaned towards independents as well,” he added.
The Echo also asked Cllr. Sheehan if, having regained his seat, he will now work towards securing a nomination to run for the next General Election.
“Politics is a very competitive game and of course I would love to consider going for the Dail but right now I’m just trying to get my head around being elected to the County Council on behalf of the people of the town,” he said.
“If the opportunity presents itself well then certainly we would look at it then,” he added.
“I would welcome it and I would be interested in it but let’s just see how things work out first.”
