The Kilkenny city branch of the Labour Party has selected local Labour activist Sean Butler to run as part of the Labour team for both the Kilkenny County Council and Borough Council on Monday coming.
Mr Butler will be joined on the Labour County Council ticket by Councillors Marie Fitzpatrick and Seán Ó hArgáin, while Cllr Noel Frawley will be the the fourth member of the Labour ticket for the borough council
In a statement to the Kilkenny Advertiser, Mr Butler said, “I am delighted to be nominated to run as a Labour candidate, the Labour Party has a proud history of representing the hard-working people of Kilkenny in a positive and progressive manner.
“Seamus Pattison and the Pattison family have worked tirelessly to serve the people for almost three-quarters of a century.
“To follow in the footsteps of someone like Seamus Pattison is an honour and something I am proud to be able to do.”
As a young 26-year-old in 1999, Mr Butler came very close to winning a seat in the European Parliament and since then has acted as director of elections for the last two Labour Party general election campaigns in Kilkenny.
Recently he worked as the full-time national coordinator of the Labour Party's Lisbon Reform Treaty campaign.
Outlining the task ahead, he stated that the Labour Party intends to win an extra seat on both the county council and borough council.
“The coming years in Kilkenny will be a challenging time. We will see the closure of Smithwick's brewery, an icon in the Kilkenny landscape.
“As a city we need to make sure that any development replacing the brewery complements the city’s history and enhances our tourism business.
“Personally, I believe we should look to complete the outer ring road and take traffic out of the city centre. The inner relief road is a mistake in my view and will only lead to increased traffic flow and congestion within the city.
“The provision of a public long stay care unit within the city is a matter of priority. It cannot be left solely to the private and for-profit-sector to meet the long term care needs of our elderly citizens.”
The new candidate summed up by warning that “with the changed economic climate there will be pressure from central government to increase local service charges as a means of increasing revenues.
“This type of hidden tax increase cannot be accepted. It merely allows central government to wrongly claim we are a country of low personal taxation, while increasing stealth taxes at every opportunity.”
