‘Fresh’ first-time candidates aim to woo electorate
But some members of the politically indifferent 18-24 zone are defying the stereotype of their generation and contesting a seat in next month’s local election.
Without ever having cast a ballot in an election before, at least three 19-year-olds around the country are among the estimated 350 first-time candidates going before the electorate for a local council seat.
Niall O’Connor (FF) Adam Douglas (Green) and Tom Raine (FG) want to be local councillors, requiring the ultimate sacrifice of replacing Thursday nights in the college bar with Thursday nights discussing roads, drains, potholes and development plans at local council meetings.
“Why?” is often the first question they are asked on the doorsteps.
The initial misgivings shown by voters on the canvass that anyone so young would sign up to be corrupted by the system that most see as an old boys’ club, is indicative of the ever-increasing cynicism most people feel towards local politics.
Their expressed delight that a “fresh face” has presented itself to them and repeated gratitude for it shows how most of the country is crying out for change in Irish politics.
The change most people are looking for is obvious on the doorsteps in the reception being given to first-time potential candidates, many of them young and independents.
On the canvas in Clones, Co Monaghan, Niall O’Connor’s age seems to be an advantage as he manages to duck a lot of the anger being thrown at his more experienced colleagues.
This time last year, he was head boy of his secondary school. So how could he be responsible for the mess the county is now in as a result of his party being in power since he was six years old?
Since being selected to run for Fianna Fáil, the student of French and Law in Trinity, has returned to his old school to see what young people want.
If elected, he has promised to introduce a Youth Forum in the town, so the requirements of teenagers could be passed on to decision makers.
This, he says, is an example of the “imagination” younger candidates could bring to local councils.
“Obviously I could bring a new approach to local politics, bring new ideas to the table that maybe older people wouldn’t think of,” he said.
Niall, who turned 19 just last month, says the reason his generation are not engaged in politics, is because “they have no one their age there, representing how they feel.”
Green Party candidate, Adam Douglas, also 19 and running for Fermoy Town Council, Co Cork, agrees that many in his age group are detached from politics.
But he thinks they will be forced to care a little more when faced with problems like unemployment and emigration brought on by the economic recession.
“The boom years disassociated a lot of my age group from politics. They felt they had fewer problems and they didn’t have reason to get involved.
“But certainly the way things are changing, younger people are finding more reason tocare about politics because they are suffering in terms of jobs and they see politics as a way of solving issues,” he said.
In Waterford, Tom Raine will begin his Leaving Certificate exams just two days before polling day on June 5, contesting a seat for Fine Gael on Tramore Town Council.
Young candidates have become something of a novelty factor for political parties who are eager to show them off.
Fianna Fáil announced it would be holding interviews around the country to select younger candidates, to overcome the problem where people were often prevented from breaking through the ranks by the local cummain.
Introducing new blood is particularly important for the Labour Party, whose leader, Eamon Gilmore, has acknowledged that while they are riding high in the polls, a limiting factor for any future general election could be a shortage of candidates in all constituencies.
The party is running 68 first-time candidates out of a total of 206. Each of the party’s current Dáil deputies started out in the local councils and although the Spring Tide of 1992 might have appeared like an overnight success for the party, it came after its progress in the local elections the previous year.
While statistics from past elections show that incumbents, or those already holding a seat, have a greater chance of getting elected, it would appear that with a growing appetite for change, the public might finally embrace the first-time candidate.
