Labour is expected to name a candidate to contest the general election in the constituency next week, but the debate continues over how many candidates there should be.
Graiguenamanagh councillor Ann Phelan and Cllr William Quinn from Borris in Carlow are the nominated candidates ahead of a selection convention in Leighlinbridge on Monday night.
But where a candidate from each county contested the last general election in 2007, party officials have decided to put forward just one candidate for the constituency this time around.
The seat is seen as a key area for Labour in the election after they lost it last time around having held it for 46 years through Seamus Pattison.
“We really need to get the seat back. The Carlow/Kilkenny seat will be seen as a thermometer for how we do in the rest of the country,” Cllr Phelan told the Advertiser.
“Every election is different,” she said of the party’s decision to put one candidate forward.
“If something doesn’t work in one election you are nearly obliged to try something different to see if it works better this time around. It didn’t happen for us the last time.”
However, Cllr Quinn said there was a strong feeling among Carlow councillors that the county needed a candidate if Labour were to win back the Pattison seat.
While councillors of the two counties traditionally nominated the party’s candidates, this year party officials held interviews to determine the nominees.
“These people (party officials ) don’t know exactly what is happening on the ground,” Cllr Quinn said.
“If we want to win back the Pattison seat, which would be our number one priority, we have to have a candidate from both counties. They are both big areas.
“We have the deputy leader of the Green Party, who is now a junior minister, which makes it all the more difficult. Don’t mind the papers, Fianna Faíl will be Fianna Faíl and Fine Gael have their gander up and will be strong.”
Whatever the outcome on Monday night, Cllr Phelan is confident Labour can look forward to an election with confidence.
“We were economy stupid the last time around. Basically three years later we are living in a completely different country the way things have changed with the banking crisis and people out of jobs.
“There is huge despair for a lot of people whose lives have been turned upside down. If the country is to pick itself back up it needs Labour in government with the core values of equality and fairness.
“I believe we can do it. This is an opportunity to right everything that has gone wrong over the last number of years.”
