A new candidate has thrown their name in the hat to contest the upcoming Local Elections, scheduled for June 7.
Kevin Drennan, from the Coolrain/Camross area, will be running as an Independent candidate in the Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick Municipal District.
Mr Drennan spent six years working with Sinn Fein in the South-Laois area, but says he left the party in 2021 because they no longer aligned with his views on rural politics.
“They weren’t going in the direction I was going in for rural Ireland,” Mr Drennan told LaoisToday.
“I didn’t see anything that was being offered by them, in regards to farming and things like rural towns – and keeping small businesses going.
“I felt rural Ireland was being left behind, and I didn’t think Sinn Féin was going to do anything about that.”
Mr Drennan is the Chairperson of Independent Farmers Of Ireland (IFOI), an organisation set up “to represent small and medium sized family farms across Ireland”.
The organisation have lobbied for these farmers with TDs, local Government, and environmental bodies to create “solutions that enable small and medium sized farms to become viable once again.”
Farming plays a huge part in Mr Drennan’s aspirations should he be elected in June.
“Farmers have been used as a scapegoat for everything that’s going on environmentally,” he said.
“They have to pay these carbon taxes, and you have the bigger companies not paying it all.
“They’re saying the farmers are polluting the water – and I can tell you they’re not.”
Mr Drennan bemoaned the inefficiency of farming grants, and the subsequent risks farmers face when waiting for grants to be paid and how that affects their ability to pay their bills.
Outside of farming, Mr Drennan says he wants to see “proper infrastructure for villages and small towns that have been left behind.”
The Independent candidate believes this must be done through community engagement, and says, if elected, he will hold meetings “twice a year in each town and village in my constituency.”
Mr Drennan said he want to “sit down with the people, listen to them, let them have their say, and really listen to what they want going forward.
“It’s a major problem, and it’s going on a Government level as well – they’ve lost touch with the people.
“From my own point-of-view, Coolrain is the only village that doesn’t have the bus link coming through here – so, there’s no means of public transport coming through.”
Housing is another area the Independent candidate feels strongly about, calling it “a big issue for young people starting a family.
“It’s gotten to the stage that most of them are on waiting lists for years, or staying with their families; on the other hand, migrants are getting modular homes built for them.”
Mr Drennan also plans to highlight the matter of turf cutting
“Why are we being condemned for cutting a bit of turf when the Germans are upping their output of coal?
“They’re importing German briquettes here to Ireland – does that make sense?
“They shut down all the plants to make peat briquettes – but it’s ok then to bring them in from Germany? They’re under the same directives as we are.”
Mr Drennan’s declaration brings the number of confirmed candidates in the Borris-in-Ossory-Mountmellick Municipal District to 15 candidates who will fight it out for six seats in the June 7 Local Elections.
All six sitting councillors in the area – Conor Bergin (Fine Gael), Paddy Bracken (Fianna Fail), Ollie Clooney (Independent), James Kelly (Independent), John King (Fine Gael) and Seamus McDonald (Fianna Fáil) – are seeking re-election.
And they are joined on the ballot sheet by Paddy Buggy (Fine Gael), Helen Campion (Sinn Féin), Bryan Corrigan (Labour), Fintan Cuddy (Fianna Fáil), Fiona Dunne (Green Party), Kevin Drennan (Independent), Declan Good (Fianna Fáil), Lorna Holohan (Sinn Féin) and Brian Phelan (Fianna Fáil).
