Michael O’ Brien has been involved in politics for as long as he can remember although his interest didn’t stem from family history.
He began by getting involved in community work in his native Thomastown where he was secretary of the community council and it all took off from here.
First elected to Kilkenny County Council in 1979 as a Labour Party councillor, Michael lost his seat some 20 years later in the local elections but regained it quickly in the following election in 2004. Michael was devastated when he lost his seat and was determined to regain it. The recuperation of his coveted council seat did not come without sacrifice and ultimately led to the loss of his engraving business, as he took on a huge election campaign. But he was successful in his political endeavours and was sitting back in his council seat the following month. He is mote than hopeful that not only will he keep his council seat this year but that he has a future in Dail Eireann in coming years.
“I am quite ambitious and I have run for the Labour Party in the general elections twice to date. I haven’t been successful but I am still hopeful of what the future will bring. I was also a substitute candidate for Europe in the past. I am president of the Association of County and City Councils which represents seven cities and 29 counties and I was the leader of the National Association of Labour Councils in 2005.”
Local elections
With a proven track record for the Labour Party, Michael is also extremely hopeful that the Labour Party is going to do very well in the upcoming local election in June. He is confident that the party leader Eamon Gilmore is the man for the job and locally he says Labour has never been in such a strong position.
“I’m feeling very confident about Labour at the moment. The polls to date have been very inspiring and have instilled a great confidence in the party amongst the public and among members of our own party. This year Labour will have more representation on the local authorities than ever before. I don’t think we have ever been as well-equipped as a group facing into a local election.
“Obviously I have high hopes as to the outcome of the local elections - although politics is a fickle game. There has been huge interest in Labour locally and although we now have no Labour representative in the Oireachtas since Seamus Pattison’s retirement from his position, there is still a huge interest in Labour and a will to retrieve our national representation in the next general election. We would certainly like to have a Labour Party representative in the Dail following the next general election and I would be hoping that I would have a good chance of taking that seat,” he said.
However, it has never been harder for a Thomastown councillor to get elected, as this year Thomastown electoral area has lost a seat to Callan in the reorganisation of the electoral area boundaries last year. Thomastown now has five sitting councillors chasing just four seats and there are several new candidates also contesting the election from the Thomastown area all hopeful of election in June.
“Thomastown already has the largest Labour presence on the council with two Labour candidates in myself and my colleague Ann Phelan from Graiguenamanagh sitting councillors. There is also a one Fianna Fail, one Fine Gael and one independent councillor from our area. We will be hoping and campaigning hard to maintain the largest presence after the June elections,” said Michael.
Callan candidate
Michael was also instrumental in the sourcing of a candidate for the Callan area in the upcoming elections and he is delighted that Brian Harris of Danesfort has agreed to run for the Callan electoral area.
“ Brian is a super candidate and we are very lucky that he was interested from within the party. He has been involved in the Labour Party for many years and there is a very strong possibility that he will secure a seat for Callan. He is the chair of the Charlie Smith branch of the Labour Party in the city and is a well known person within the party since the mid-90s. If Brian hadn’t decided to run I was thinking that I myself might have to have run for Callan but thankfully that didn’t happen.”
Local govt funding
Michael is positive about the future of the economy but he also believes that lots needs to be done by the government and local authorities in a bid to assist business and inward investment. He is very concerned that a move not to support the local government fund was passes by the Oireachtas last week and he believes that this will have severe repercussions for Kilkenny Local Authorities.
“There is a severe threat to local authority services here in Kilkenny and nation-wide. Last week the government moved to abolish the statutory commitment to local government funding which means there is now no commitment to support local government funds. This may have dire consequences for services in Kilkenny. In the absence of central government funding, there may now be a need to introduce local taxation such as property tax, water rates and other taxes that would provide immediate funds to the local authority. The Labour Party would have to support this taxation but we would be looking for a waiver system for people who could not afford to pay these charges. Those who can’t afford to pay need to be protected,” he said.
Priority issue - employment
The biggest problem that needs to be tackled at the moment in the locality is unemployment, according to Michael. He believes that if this issue was tackled in a pro-active manner, that the economy could be improved dramatically.
“Unemployment is our single biggest issue. In Thomastown we were promised that with decentralisation we would benefit from the location of the Health and Safety Authority being located in the area but this never happened and has since been put on the long finger. All around the country you can see the destruction of rural towns and villages as a result of lack of employment in these areas. We need to protect our rural areas or they will just die. Already we have no post offices in Ballyhale, Paulstown or Goresbridge and we can see a marked deterioration in these areas as a result.
We seriously need to review our county retail strategy and make it more favourable towards rural areas. There is a dire need for infrastructural upgrading in rural areas and this needs to be prioritised sooner rather than later. Good infrastructure encourages business and we need to focus on encouraging business to rural areas in order to keep our rural areas sustainable,” he said.
Finally, Michael is a firm believer that Eamon Gilmore can pull the party from its position as third party of the country to the forefront of politics in the future.
“I’ve known Mr Gilmore for years and he is turning out to be an exceptional leader. He has delivered more in a short period than any of us could have hoped.
Of his own campaign Michael is adamant that politics is a tough sport however, he concluded, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust, it is not necessary to trample on people in your bid to get to where you want and I hope I will not have any enemies as a result of politics.”
