Local elections: Everything you need to know about the Carrigaline constituency
Election posters fight for space on lamp posts in Carrigaline. Picture: Chani Anderson
- Audrey Buckley: FF
- Ben Dalton-O'Sullivan: Ind
- Eoghan Fahy: SF
- Una McCarthy: FG
- Seamus McGrath: FF
- Chris O’Brien: Ind
- John O’Regan: Lab
- Monica Oikeh: GP
- Richard Terry: SD
- Jack White: FG
The youngest councillor in Cork County Council’s history is seeking re-election in Carrigaline alongside a far more experienced campaigner, who pundits maintain could well record the largest first-preference vote in the country.
Then there is an add to the mix: It is rather unusual that two sitting councillors from the same party are seeking election for the first time in this area, as they were both coopted following somewhat surprising resignations.
There is little doubt Fianna Fáil councillor Seamus McGrath will top the poll by a big margin. In 2019, he got more than 4,200 first-preference votes.
Having the backing of his brother, Finance Minister Michael McGrath, and his team of supporters is a huge plus for the county councillor. However, Seamus is very popular on the ground himself.
Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see how Fine Gael councillors Jack White and Una McCarthy get on.
Although both sitting councillors, they were coopted onto the council to replace party members who somewhat surprisingly resigned from the local authority.
White was co-opted to replace Liam O’Connor, while McCarthy took the seat vacated by fire officer Michael Paul Murtagh.
McCarthy, who has some well-known relatives, was born and raised in Passage West and went back to her alma mater, St Peter’s Community School, where she has taught business and accounting for the past 20 years.
She is also the school’s assistant principal and a board of management member.
She is the daughter of famous Cork senior hurler Justin McCarthy and, following in the great family tradition, coaches camogie at her school and Carrigaline GAA Club.
Her brother, Justin, works as a reporter for RTÉ.
White, who was coopted to the council in 2021, is the second youngest councillor in the county at 32.
He spent 12 years working in the local newspaper, first as a journalist and then business manager and director. He left the newspaper last year to concentrate on politics full-time.
White should know the constituency like the back of his hand as he works as a parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney.
Originally from Crosshaven, but living in Carrigaline, his key priority is the delivery of recreation and amenity projects for Carrigaline as well as the other villages across the municipal district.
Independent councillor Ben Dalton-O’Sullivan was just 19 when elected to the council in 2019. His age and the fact he ran as an independent caused a few raised eyebrows at the time.
However, he had done a lot of ‘groundwork’ from his home in Ballinhassig and has worked extensively across other communities in the Carrigaline Municipal District to build up a support network.
He graduated with a BSc Government (Hons) degree from UCC and also received an award from the Centre for Local and Regional Government in UCC for combining his studies and public representation work.
Dalton-O’Sullivan remains actively involved in a wide range of voluntary and community activities across the Ballinhassig parish and Carrigaline areas, which is bound to stand to him at the polling booths.
Post covid, with the help of others, he organised day trips for older residents across the region to encourage them to meet up again with friends and to begin socialising once more. These trips included visits to the Knock Shrine, Lisdoonvarna Matchmaking Festival, Killarney and Limerick.
One big surprise in this area was the announcement by Independent councillor Marcia D’Alton she was not going to run. The environmental engineer was popular with all her council colleagues and considered by them to be extremely able.
Fianna Fáil’s McGrath is concentrating on one thing at a time. Speculation is mounting his older brother is in line for a job as EU commissioner. If that is the case, Seamus must be the favourite to run in his place for the Dáil.
However, he is not commenting on that and instead concentrating on knocking on the doors to get back into County Hall.
Housing is a big issue in this municipal district, especially in Carrigaline, which is the largest town in the county.
It is also very much a commuter town and traffic problems are also an issue there.
“Undoubtedly, housing will be the top issue and when I say that I mean all strands of housing, social housing obviously, affordability of housing, cost rental. We want to see these kind of schemes rolled out to a greater extent. To be fair to Cork County Council, we’ve been pro-active on these schemes and we’ve achieved our social housing targets,” he said.
“It's going to be a major issue, there’s no doubt about it. We still have a very acute population crisis and people who are finding it difficult to get on the property ladder, finding it difficult to get rental accommodation and, obviously, people are in emergency accommodation as well,” McGrath added.
But there are other issues too, as both he and other councillors are hearing on the doorstep.
There is a need for more recreation and amenities in the greater Carrigaline region and many living there also want to see more gardaí.
McGrath said who would prevail in this six-seater "is hard to call", although he freely admits it is very hard to dislodge a sitting councillor.
Fianna Fáil is running just two candidates in this municipal district. The other is Crosshaven-based Audrey Buckley, who is extremely active in her community.
In 2019, in what was her first election, she needed the help of her running-mate’s huge surplus to get her over the line.
Many see it as unlikely that she will need to heavily rely on McGrath this time out. But it is a nice cushion to have, just in case.
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The married mother-of-three was born in Crosshaven but spent 20 years in the USA where she worked in IT at Levi Strauss’s San Francisco headquarters.
She said that company encouraged volunteerism in the community and that was instilled into her while working there and also by her father, who was a founder member of Crosshaven Rugby Club.
She is one of the leading lights of the local Tidy Towns organisation and of Crosshaven Development Committee.
“I’m finding that a lot of young people haven’t registered to vote and I’m encouraging them to do so. I’m also encountering a lot of foreigners to register as they think they aren’t allowed to vote. I have a QR code on my leaflets which brings them right to the site to register online. All they need is a PPS number, Eircode and email address and they can then vote,” she said.
If the Green candidate calls to your door, she will be very useful for health checks as well as political ones.
Monica Oikeh, who was born in Nigeria, moved to Ireland 20 years ago to study medicine, graduating at Trinity College Dublin, before moving to south and working in CUH, its maternity hospital and both the South Infirmary and Mercy.
She has been living in Carrigaline for six years and works as a GP there.
“Besides being a working doctor, I am passionate about health promotion, education and social justice. I have volunteered as a doctor and health and wellness educator to different organisations both in Ireland and Nigeria over the past number of years,” Oikeh said.
She was named as one of the 100 Women Changing Ireland from 2022-2024 and describes herself as “a devoted dog mum to my three-year-old Jack Russell, Maya”.
There could be a double celebration for Sinn Féin candidate Eoghan Fahy on the day of the count as it will be his son Rian’s first birthday.
The 29-year-old is a clerical officer in Cork City Council’s planning department and seems quietly confident of being elected.
There is a lot of justification for that. He has the backing of Cork South Central TD Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire, who topped the general election poll in that constituency in 2022.
Fahy lives in Passage West and Marcia D’Alton, who also lives there, is not running, meaning he is very likely to pick up votes which would otherwise have gone to her.
He has been a member of the party since he was 18 and his family have been steeped in Sinn Féin for generations.
Another plus for him in the area is that he is very involved in playing and coaching with GAA, soccer and golf clubs.
Fahy as a young father says he “understands the challenges facing families today”.
Labour is running John O’Regan, a secondary school teacher at Bandon Grammer who lives in Fountainstown.
The married father-of-three acknowledges he is facing a battle to get elected. The party is running very low in the opinion polls nationally and there has not been a Labour seat in Carrigaline since Paula Desmond retired from politics more than a decade ago.
“I know it’s an uphill fight but it’s one I’m relishing. I think Labour will get a boost because people are tiring of the coalition parties,” he said.
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