I don’t want to be represented by new gentry

CANDIDATES running for election in the Waterford electoral area are stating publicly that they have given their salary to charity in the past and intend to continue doing so if elected in June.

This is electioneering at its worst.

It is a backward step when a person who can ‘afford’ to serve the people is suggested as preferable to a person best suited to serve the people.

Many of my local councillors are hard-working people and have served the community of Dungarvan well in the past.

I am sure that they are not in it for the money, but I assume that some of them could not afford to serve on the council without the income from it.

I am not involved in politics, but I feel that I must speak out on behalf of all councillors caught up in the meanness of this gesture.

Yes, it is mean-spirited of anyone seeking public office to flaunt his or her affluence at the electoral expense of the common man.

I do not want to see a return to the bad old days when the gentry represented the community, nor do I want to feel that I am in anyway under a favour to a councillor who acts on my behalf.

The knowledge that the councillors are paid to represent me empowers me to approach them as an equal and to walk away without obligation.

Patrick O’Sullivan,

Springmarquis,

Dungarvan,

Co Waterford.