The decline of family run businesses in Galway city, the housing crisis, and the less women elected to Galway City Council than in the last Local Election; for Independent councillor Catherine Connolly there is a lot to be concerned about.
Being elected to Galway City West on the first count, with a first preference vote of 1,513, was a nice way for Catherine Connolly to mark her fifteenth year as a councillor.
“It’s a privilege, I’m humbled by it,” she told the Galway Advertiser. “I’m blunt, I’m to the point, I don’t set out to court favour. It shows people want a straight talking councillor.”
However Cllr Connolly also describes the victory as “bittersweet” as her sister Colette Connolly, standing for Labour in Galway City Central, lost her seat.
Colette’s loss means that of the five female councillors who stood for election on May 23, three lost their seat. The new council will see three/four, but to a bigger chamber of 18 members.
“We had one-third female representation,” says Cllr Connollly, “but no matter what happens in the next counts, we are coming back with less women on the council. It’s democracy, I accept that, but I think women of all ages need to reflect on what this vote means.
“We need gender equality and more women to engage in politics. Young women need to have role models who can show them that they can go forward and that they can speak out.”
However Cllr Connolly was delighted to see the election of Sinn Féin’s Mairead Farrell and on Sunday the two posed for photographs for friends, with Cllr Connolly declaring: “The new power!”
“I think she is a strong female candidate, full of integrity,” she says. “Women in the council give a different perspective. They are more eager to get to the point, and they don’t have wives at home to cook for them!”
When Catherine entered politics in 1999, her first public speech was on the housing crisis. It situation remains a crisis today.
“I despair at what has happened,” she says. “This crisis has been allowed develop and it’s unnecessary! In my time at the council, we have got the officials to issue us with quarterly reports on the housing situation, and we were working towards solutions. We had land zoned, areas set aside for the construction of social housing and then, in 2011/2012, the current Government, which Labour is part of, suspended all construction of social housing. And no all quarterly reports come back with those words - ‘construction of social housing suspended’. What they have done is rely on the market, ‘Let the market take care of it,’ they say, but we are talking about homes, not the will of the market!”
Another major concern for Cllr Connolly is the the number of family businesses in Galway city that have had to close in recent times.
“An urgent task force is needed to look at this,” she says. “Foreign Direct Investment is important, but we also need to look at protecting and developing indigenous business and industry.”
