Time for a decent bus service to Cork-Join the campaign

Since my wife began working in Cork last year and a number of students have contacted me, I have been looking at the public bus service to Cork from Kilkenny and vice versa. Putting it mildly, the service is poor. As a supporter of public transport, I believe it is crazy for our national bus company to effectively make it more difficult to travel by public transport than by car.

Because of our mad radial train service where all lines radiate from Dublin and there are no connections in between, getting from Kilkenny to anywhere except Waterford and Dublin and points in between is not an option. To get to Cork or Kerry for instance you have to find your way to Thurles to the nearest train connection.

Back to the bus service which is the only option to Cork, the timetable is extraordinary. From Monday to Saturday, the fastest bus journey is 2 hours and 50 minutes, and that's only once a day in the morning. It arrives in Cork at 9.50 am, too late for work or for any half-conscienscious students. The other three journeys take between 3 hours and 5 minutes and an extraordinary 3 hours and 50 minutes.

At the weekend it's worse with the fastest journey taking 3 hours and 5 minutes, this the Sunday evening service most likely to be used by students. The reason for much of this is the decision to route the journey through rural South Tipperary. Putting it bluntly, the service is used to provide the people of Clogheen and Ballyporeen with a service. As a long-time rural activist I always support the provision of rural services, but surely it makes no sense to divert what should be an inter-city bus route through a rural hinterland, thus losing business in the process.

The campaign to change this begins now. I have just launched an online petition campaign to support a motion I have placed before Kilkenny Borough Council, calling on Bus Éireann to substantially improve the service. Please sign the petition here, and encourage your friends to do so also. If you're a UCC student, or a CIT student or you travel to work in Cork or from Cork to Kilkenny, please support the campaign. You could take up a petition in your college or workplace. I will begin campaigning amongst existing bus users this weekend. Please spread the word today

Disgraceful Double dealing and insulting decent people

I promised last night that I would come here today and give the reasons I was angry then. I hoped that my fury would have decreased by now but instead it's got ten times worse.

The front page of our local paper the Kilkenny People carries the story today, and the national papers will follow suit tomorrow with the fact that kilkenny Borough Council, my council and that of the 20,000 people of the city of Kilkenny, have failed to award the Freedom of Kilkenny to Séamus Pattison, the longest-serving parliamentarian in Europe, who retired in June of this year after forty six years continuous membership of Dáil Éireann. He also served for decades on our council and Kilkenny County Council, serving as mayor of Kilkenny and Chairperson of Kilkenny County Council.

His record as a public representative is utterly without blemish, and Séamus was famous for the service he gave to the ordinary people of this city, regardless of political persuasion, colour, class or creed. Even the most begrudging of opponents would admit this. How then could this most noble of honours this city can convey be refused him?

Put simply, the decision to bestow the freedom of the city is taken by the unanaimous vote of all twelve members of the council in secret ballot, after the Mayor of the day has been assured that such a vote will be unanimous. So it was this Monday that our Mayor was assured privately by all members that this would be the case. Between then and the vote a matter of hours later, a number of councillors broke their word!

The upshot is the public humiliation of the Mayor, my colleague Cllr. Joe Cody who proposed the motion in the first place, and of couse Séamus himself. I may be accused of bias because all of the above are my party colleagues, but I find it hard to work out which of these fine people deserves the humiliation least.

What it does mean however is the cheapening of the political process, and all for what? To score a cheap political point while hiding behind the denial and the cover of the secrecy of the ballot? One thing is for sure, those of us who believe in honesty and decency in how we deal with people will not take this one lying down. We will fight to have this process changed so that decent people like these can never again be humitiated in this fashion.

For me, my conscience is clear. My 'Tá' or Yes vote was seen by another councillor, and I would not have dreamed of doing anything else, either for Séamus, of for somebody in any other party whose service to Kilkenny came even close to his. Let my colleagues consciences be equally clear, or those responsible at least have the decency to be ashamed!!

An Baile is fearr-We are the greatest

Kilkenny is the greatest town in Britain and Ireland and it's official. On Friday last the 19th. of November, the Academy of Urbanism, an international organisation of planners, architects and academics involved in planning cities and towns gave us the huge honour of naming us as the Great town of these four countries. In the process we beat St. Andrew's of Scotland, and Winchester of England to claim the title for the first time that an Irish town has claimed this prestigious title. For those that are jumping up and down at the thought of us being called a mere 'town', Winchester were also happy to be nominated for this award despite also being a city, and indeed a former capital city of England. We accepted the award in London's Dorchester Hotel, the one you know from the Bond movies, and celebrated long into the night. Hopefully the peole of Kilkenny will appreciate the importance of this award, and we will celebrate in style in the coming weeks.

We put a huge amount of work into wining this award, and the judges who visited us in August again commented on Friday about the huge effort put in by us as Councillors and our officials to show Kilkenny in its best light. For now though, we're just as proud as punch, and know that Kilkenny and its great people more than deserve this prize.

A good choice made and time to chose the best Deputy Leader-Why I'm backing Jan

Today is a historic day for the Labour Party as we select our tenth leader. At what I consider is a relatively young age, I'm now looking forward to meeting my fourth party leader in person when he attends the members hustings for the South East in Kilkenny on Tuesday week, the 18th. of September. For what it's worth I believe that Pat Rabbitte stepped down too early, a view I have related directly to him. This is the second such occasion, with Ruairi Quinn having left too early also in my view. That said, both men had very good reasons for doing so, and it's now up to us to get on with the task of rebuilding our party back to where we were in 1992, and to our ultimate aim which is to become the main opposition party in Ireland. In that context I think we have chosen the best leader available to us, and I now believe we should chose Jan O' Sullivan as the best positioned person to carry out the Deputy Leader's job.

I warmly welcome the election of Deputy Eamon Gilmore as the tenth leader of the Labour Party. I have been a long-time friend of Eamon, who like myself, is a former national student leader. His work as a Junior Minister in the last Government in which we were involved was hugely admired, but it has been as our spokesperson on local Government and the Environment that he has made a huge impact, articulating a vision for the development of local Government and arguing for core Labour values like the necessity for building badly needed social housing for the 100,000 plus people in need of a roof over their heads.

Eamon’s ambition for the party has already been clearly outlined, and I welcome his commitment to win at least thirty seats in the next General election. I believe that regaining a Labour seat in Carlow/Kilkenny must be a key target in this strategy, and I intend to work strongly with our new leader to ensure this happens.

My decision to support Jan O’ Sullivan, and to call on party members in the constituency to support her is based on a strong belief that we need to have a balanced representation in the party leadership. It is crucial that the party continues to be seen as one for all the people of Ireland, urban and rural.

Jan comes from the proud Kemmy tradition of Limerick socialism, and has been an ardent defender of the values of equality, fairness and opportunity for all which summed Kemmy up. She has been a superb party spokesperson on education, my own professional field, and has formulated a forward-looking position on education, committing Labour to a substantial investment in education at all levels, particularly in reducing class sizes in our primary schools, a position the Government has singularly failed to introduce.

While I have great regard for Joan Burton TD, who has been a superb spokesperson on finance, and a hard-working TD, I believe Jan has the necessary conviction and commitment to be the best available support to Eamon as our new leader.

Now it's up to you-Get out and Make the change

Like most political activists in the country I'm wrecked. The demands of holding down a day job, rushing to the canvass most evenings from school and doing the other bits and pieces that being an election agent and part-time campaign press officer bring has taken its toll. There are some benefits however. Ths suit jacket that was embarrassingly tight two months ago fits today, and reasonably well. There's also the suntanned face but not much else of the body! And of course the genuine joy of meeting the people of the city who elected me, and of course those who didn't but might the next time.

The downside is the overload of cholesterol in the sysyem from the snack-boxes and burgers which have fuelled the campaign, and the full file of representations picked up on the doorstep which will take weeks of future work between the initial letter, the follow-up phone calls, and the final yeah or nay to the constituent.

Mostly it's been fun though. Now it's time for decisions-and that's up to you. The last five days, since the Leaders debate have been frustrating. I know I'm biased but I'm fed up of RTÉ presenters allowing the two Aherns, and finally Cowen to shout everybody into submission. How I long for the return of Olivia O' Leary, who would have told all the aforementioned to shut up while the other person was speaking, although not in those words.

I still believe that there's a mood for change out there. The thought of leaving this bumbling bunch of arrogant, aggressive ineffective and most importantly heartless leadership in place for another five years is unthinkable. If you feel the same get out and vote, and persuade everybody you can to get rid of this shower.

In Kilkenny please get out and give Michael O' Brien your Number One. Of all the people I have known in twenty years of politics, Michael is one of the straightest, most honest, most decent people I have encountered. He deserves your vote, and I ask you to get out and give it to him. Give your number two to Jim Townsend, and your 3,4 and 5 to Hogan, Phelan and Browne in order of your choice-they will play their part in getting Bertie out.

Fear ann féin-The passing of Michael Meaney

Today is a sad day for the Labour Party in Carlow/Kilkenny, with the passing of our most senior councillor in the constituency. Michael Meaney from beautiful Borris on the Carlow/Kilkenny border passed away yesterday morning. We were due to have the Graignamanagh A.G.M. of the party yesterday afternoon, always one of the highlights of the year as it is one of the strongest and liveliest branches we have. Instead, the meeting paid tribute to Michael in a very fulsome way. Michael did after all represent the other side of the river Barrow, across the bridge in Tinnahinch, and many of the older members like John Bolger and Ned Fenlon remembered him bursting onto the scene in the early 70's.

Michael was known as a phenomenally hard worker, who built up an incredibly loyal support, topping the poll on all but one of the five or six local elections he contested. He also carried the banner for the party in the 1982 General election, polling almost 2,000 votes. He was never a boring figure, well able to win the headlines with sound-bites before they became a fashionable part of politics. He also had great wit, and took no prisoners in debate. He will be sorely missed by us all, and when his coffin is draped in the blue and white 'starry plough' flag of our party, he will have done more to earn that right than many others.

Time to clean up the Breagagh

I was delighted that my motion calling for the clean-up of the River Breagagh was passed at last week's Borough Council meeting. The situation on the Breagagh has occupied me since I was elected, and I succeeded in having the Council staff do a substantial clean-up in the area near the Watergate and Blackmill Street Bridge. The Breagagh is an important feeder tributary for the River Nore and contributes fish life to the larger river. Unfortunately it is being neglected in many areas, and its wildlife is being choked. My friend and colleague Ian Coulter and his wife Daphne whose backyard almost reaches the riverbank, brought my attention to the disgraceful state of the river near their home in Rosehill Court. The ownership of the riverbank is one of the problems, and City Engineer, Kieran Fitzgerald is to examine the ownership for the residents on my behalf. He also promised me that he would ensure that the development of the area will be a central part of the roads plan of the Western Environs, which are being developed on the other side of the Breagagh. I will continue to pursue this matter and will work to defend the Breagagh for the future.