Kilkenny Social Democrats candidate shares thoughts after making his mark on local elections

One of the talking points from the recent local elections was the impressive performance of first time candidate Martin O’Neill, who missed out on a seat by just a handful of votes.

The significant support for the teacher at St Kieran’s College may have surprised some but it shows that there is a healthy appetite among the electorate for an alternative vote.

Affable, approachable and with ample enthusiasm and ability to boot, it is easy to see why the first Social Democrats candidate in Kilkenny City fared so well.

Key issues for Mr O’Neill locally include the completion of the Ring Road and queries around why this hasn’t happened to date and raising awareness and effecting change and improving rights in the area of disability.

According to Mr O’Neill, housing is another area which needs to be addressed and he says his party has some innovative ideas in this area.

“The big thing on the doors was housing, this is a huge issue and people who have adult children living with them. We are calling for a scheme whereby if people are over 25 and working they could apply for a government funded mortgage. We would like to see being set up as a pilot scheme in Kilkenny to help address what is a national emergency.

“We are also against the discrimination fo refugees and asylum seekers and would like to see people welcomed,” he added.
Mr O’Neill say he is hard working and passionate about doing the best in can for the people of Kilkenny. He is also fervent in encouraging the large number of people who do not exercise their right to vote to come out and use their vote to effect change in politics locally.

The Kilkenny man, who lives in Tullaroan, secured 524 first preference votes and was eliminated on the 15th count with 856 votes losing out on the final seat by just 35 votes in a tightly-fought contest.

“It wasn’t a bad result, I put a lot of effort and time into it. I am quite pleased by how I did as the first candidate for the Social Democrats in Kilkenny. I made it to the 15th count and was 35 votes short of getting a seat,” he said.
The English, History and Geography teacher also confirmed that he will be staying involved in politics but did not say whether or not he will run in the upcoming General Elections but added that it is hoped to run a candidate for the Social Democrats.

Working full time as a teacher Martin O’Neill said that for many years he had ‘watched politics as a spectator’ before getting involved locally with the Social Democrats last October.

“The reasons I got involved in the Social Democrats was their attitudes towards the area of disability and also how the party leader, Holly Cairns spoke out about Gaza,” he said.

The party has approximately forty members and this members of this group went out canvassing every night from March 5 up until the local elections.

“We knocked on over 6,000 doors. We started up at the Weir on the Castlecomer Road and worked back in an arc, and I was out six or seven nights a week, it was a lot of work,” he added.

Mr O’Neill said on the doorsteps he heard a lot of people saying ‘anybody but Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael’ but ‘people obviously went back to them’.

“We would like to continue to offer people a Social Democrat candidate. I think Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael both think the same that if you are poor it is your own fault. With Kathleen Funchion and John Paul Phelan gone in the General Election there may or may not be space for a left wing candidate. We fully intend to run a candidate and would like to hold politicans to account and to see if people have the opportunity to vote for something different will they take it,” he said.

With a significant number of people still not voting Martin believes that tapping into this cahort might be the part of the way forward for the Social Democrats lot.

“If everyone came out and voted that would change the layout. We are trying to reach the people that have never voted and show them that we are different. We want to change the way people think about things.

“We have a beautiful city and we have to work to make it even better. We want the party to grow locally and we welcome next members and we meet once a month at the Hoban Hotel,” he said.

For more see socialdemocrats.ie.