A General Election campaign isn’t for the faint-hearted but you could certainly never accuse Aisling Moran of that.
The Independent candidate, who has been a councillor in Laois since 2019, ran a very vibrant campaign since declaring she would run over a month ago but ultimately looks set to fall short, having polled under 3,000 first preference votes.
The Killeen woman said she had ‘a brilliant team, a really, really brilliant team and I have to thank the three boys, the three councillors (Ben Brennan, James Kelly and Tommy Mulligan) who supported her through the campaign.
“I have to thank Gavin Dearing, Charlie O’Mara for the work that they put in, Sinead Quinn, Ashling Keightley and John Whelan, what a brilliant job that he did. And then so many people. Fiona, my wife, did an amazing job.
“She took most of the stress off me, I have to say. This election I wasn’t as stressed as I was, even for the locals, but everybody, the team I had, took the complete stress away from me and they did everything, really.”
Having twice been successful in the Local Elections in the Graiguecullen-Portarlington Municipal District, how did she find the experience of travelling all across the county in search of votes?
“I love people, so I kind of, I love the banter on the doors and sometimes the little debates and stuff that went on.
“I just, I enjoy it and I kind of knew a lot of people around that area as well, but I’ve done work for people, even in the council. A lot of the councillors were saying, ‘why were you doing work for them over there so you can’t get any votes out of it?’
“But I don’t do it for votes. I do it because I want to be able to help and if I’m in a position to help somebody, I will do it. But I have to say I really enjoyed it.
“I enjoyed the campaign and whilst I’m disappointed, I’m disappointed for the fact that we have no change and we’re going back to the same old, same old again.
“And, you know, if you don’t vote for change, you’re not going to get it.”
Another thing that Moran touched on was the advantage sitting TDs have when it comes to unofficially campaigning before an election is called and getting around the spending rules.
“They say that €36,000 is your maximum spend once the election is called. Bigger parties that are spending a lot more than €36,000 and they put the main spend in before the election.
“And something has to be done about that because it’s stopping independents like myself that are funded by themselves. It’s not a level playing field. It’s not a level playing field.
“How can you compete with someone with a thousand posters if you’ve 160? You know, how can you compete with, you know, that sort of stuff?
“So, with flyers, with that sort of stuff, like I had the manpower behind me as in the people that really wanted to make a change. And I had such support. I’m actually blown away by the support that I have.”
Would she consider going as a Dáil candidate again?
“I do think we need change and I think people need to see that, you know, Independents can make a change.
“You look at the council, you look at the Independent group at the moment, the technical group. We are the ones that are holding everybody to account in there.
“There’s from the far left to the far right. You know, I’m in the centre and I think I’m in it for the right reasons and that’s the most important thing. So, maybe I probably will give it another go.”
SEE ALSO – Check out all our 2024 General Election coverage here
