Running for the local elections, Sean Butler is a new candidate seeking a Labour Party seat on Kilkenny Borough Council. He has a tough job to contend with as there are already three sitting Labour Party councillors who are putting up a big fight to retain their seats.
Living in Callan with his wife and two children (one just four weeks old ), Sean is an eager candidate and his passion for politics is very evident. He is not a fan of the inner relief road, he believes Obama is bad for Ireland, he flinches at the idea of on-street parking charges, says the Lisbon Treaty was ‘unreadable’ and he dismisses the government’s plans for tackling the recession as unworkable.
A true advocate of Europe and all things European, Sean Butler is unreserved in his hopes for the future for Ireland within the EU. A self-confessed ‘federalist’, the local election candidate for the Labour Party believes in the united states of Europe.
Having run the Lisbon Treaty national campaign, he is adamant that the Government lost the vote as a direct result of Libertas and Declan Ganley.
“There were problems with Lisbon but they were exacerbated by the fact that every time there was an issue, Libertas put out a communication to the public and although there was no truth to their campaign at all — they put their own spin on things and just moved onto the next issue when it was questioned. Unfortunately Lisbon happened when Bertie Ahern had just left and Brian Cowen had just begun as Taoiseach. We were playing catch-up with the Libertas campaign and we were way behind. The Treaty itself is unreadable, by the way. Every house should have been sent a consolidated text on how the Lisbon Treaty would read after it was passed.”
Sean is also adamant that Ireland would be better off without a commissioner in Europe. He is not complimentary of Ireland’s current commissioner Charlie McCreevey, or any of his predecessors including Padraig Flynn and Ray McSharry.
“I am more interested in good commissioners as opposed to Irish commissioners,” he said.
“”If Charlie McCreevey did what he did in Ireland, in Europe we would all be screwed. None of the Irish commissioners has done the country any good.”
He also added that the issues surrounding neutrality and conscription were non-issues.
“Neutrality has to be active. If a country is engaging in genocide or if rape is being used as a weapon of war, we would be wrong as a country to stand by and watch and not do anything. We cannot be that passive about such horrendous crimes. We would have to intervene and defend innocent people against these crimes. It is our job. I don’t believe in an aggressive military but we must stop ethnic cleansing. I was very involved in the East Timor campaign when a quarter of the population was wiped out. The Indonesians only pulled out when there was intervention, having committed mass genocide.”
Barack Obama
Unconventionally Sean doesn’t particularly think that Barack Obama is going to be good for Ireland - unlike the majority of the population.
“He will certainly be good for the US but I’m not convinced that he is for Ireland. He is all about protecting blue collar jobs in the US and that is bad for us. Look at Dell pulling out of Limerick. If other American businesses move back to the States, it will have a devastating effect on our economy. Corporate nationalism will not have a positive effect on Ireland.
The economy
He is very critical of the government and its attempts at pulling the country out of the current impasse, which be believes can not be dealt with by raising taxes. He says the biggest problem the government has is the lack of consumer confidence.
“The government has provoked people into not spending in many cases as there is a worrying lack of confidence which is leading to a lack of non-essential public spending. House sales have all but stopped, car sales are down 67 per cent and holiday business has fallen through the floor. Higher taxation will just exacerbate our problems. Fianna Fail need to lay their cards on the table and tell the public what they are going to have and stop this drip-feeding of information as it doesn’t inspire confidence. People don’t know what they have and therefore they won’t spend. This is what is going to sound the death knell for our economy. I think we need to fix taxes and trade our way out of this crisis. In Kilkenny we need a freeze on business rates for three years. Car parking charges need to be scrapped at this stage as it doesn’t encourage business to the city. It is going to cost people €500 a year to park their cars at €2 a day. This is taking money out of the economy. Development charges should be halved for three years for owner-occupiers until the building industry is back up on its feet. One-off housing should be encouraged in a bid to avoid high density housing schemes. We need to incentify people to build again. This will keep jobs in Kilkenny.”
He was also a supporter of Kilkenny people shopping in the North as he says people will follow a good price and this proves that people are willing to spend if they feel they are getting value for money. He says that local business should be put in a position that they can afford to offer these prices too. “Frugality is the new fashion.”
Local elections
He is very excited about the local elections and no stranger to politics, he is hopeful that he will be elected this time around as he has already run for election to Europe. He is very fond of competition and believes that it brings out the best in people.
“If you don’t like what I’m doing, compete with me. I really want to be elected and I am spending a lot of my own money on my campaign. I want to get into the council so that I have the power to make a difference. I am also ambitious and I would consider running for the Dail in the future. I ran for Europe 10 years ago and did very well getting 3,500 votes from Kilkenny city. So people know me. I have been getting a good reception on the doorsteps and I have been canvassing since September last. To date I have dropped 27,000 leaflets which I find very effective as they promote clinic visits. The public is scared and they are looking for a way out. As we can see from the recent polls they are looking towards the Labour Party and I hope that this will transfer into votes on election day. They want a party to put forward a plan - no matter what the plan is.”
Jobs
Sean is anxious that people are back in work as soon as possible as the economy is ‘losing €20k a year’ per unemployed person in loss of tax revenue and dole payments - which we can ill-afford.
“Kilkenny needs an industry such as a call centre industry. We already have five small to medium-sized call centres in the city and all we need really is for one big centre with 500 jobs to locate to Kilkenny and our local economy would dramatically improve. We have lots of young and educated people that could fill those jobs. We could also do with a university in Kilkenny with a campus at WIT and CIT.”
