A new candidate has been chosen to run for the Labour Party in the Callan electoral area for Kilkenny County Council.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore was in Kilkenny last night for a two-day constituency visit when he announced that Brian Harris of Dansfort is to run on the Labour Party ticket for the Callan electoral area.
Deputy Gilmore attended the selection convention for the Thomastown and Callan electoral areas last night which was followed by a reception hosted by the leader at Hotel Kilkenny.
It was a well-known fact that Labour was desperately seeking a candidate from the Callan area, so much so that Thomastown candidate and sitting councillor Michael O’ Brien was considering running in the Callan area.
Brian Harris is an employee of the HSE in Community Care based in Waterford and is married with two children.
He has been the chairman of the Carlow Kilkenny Constituency Council for the past eight years and is the chairman of the Charlie Smith branch of the Labour Party in the city.
Speaking to the Kilkenny Advertiser he said, “the prospect of entering politics on this level both terrifies and excites me. But I firmly believe that the people of Callan should be given the opportunity to vote Labour. There is a recent groundswell of support for our party in recent times and Labour needs to declare its hand. I hope to do the simple things well - the people’s issues are my issues. There is great difficulty with housing at the moment, both in accessing it and then keeping it paid for. We need to find innovative ways of dealing with these problems,” he said.
Cllr Michael O’ Brien who had been charged with sourcing a candidate for the Callan area said that the party could not have chosen a better candidate.
“I am very glad that Brian has opted to go forward for election as it offers the people of Callan a very high calibre candidate from the Labour Party. There was some talk of myself running for Callan but I am delighted that I will be running for my own area in Thomastown where I have been working for many years. Brian Harris is a fine candidate for Callan and I am confident he will do extremely well in the local elections.
The Labour leader also announced the candidates for the Labour Party for Thomastown last night. Sitting councillor Ann Phelan from Graiguenamanagh will join Michael O’ Brien from Thomastown in this year’s Labour Party campaign.
Competition for seats will be rife this year as Thomastown which was once a five-seater constituency has lost a seat to Callan which was one a three-seater. Now the five Thomastown councillors are battling it out for just four seats while Callan councillors will have an extra chance, with four seats to fight for this year.
