Search Results for 'Frank Durcan'

It’s not every day that Bunreacht na hÉireann makes an appearance at a local government meeting. But last Monday, Independent councillor Frank Durcan walked up to the top bench at the February meeting of Mayo County Council and left a copy of the Irish Constitution in front of county secretary John Condon, asking him where in the Constitution it refers to privacy.

Mayo County Council employs 188 technical staff which cost the council €13 million in wages in 2008, according to independent Councillor Frank Durcan. The councillor brought up the figures while the council was discussing the NRA roads’ budget and the effects the cold weather after Christmas had on the roads network in the county. Cllr Durcan was hitting out at what he saw as “bad management” by the council executive, which combined with a recent drop in funding from the Government he said was hurting the council’s finances.

Never one to shy away from a controversy or pushing for what he believed was right, Frank Durcan threw his hat back in the local political ring last week, putting himself forward for both Castlebar Town Council and Mayo County Council elections. Durcan, who stepped away from politics five years ago, is eager to get back into the to and fro of the political game and believes that politics in the county needs a serious shake up. “The country is going down the tubes, the system has been ripped off by our politicians and our bankers. In Mayo county council there are no two parties, there has been no opposition for the past five years. It's a cosy cartel, while they drew close on €1 million a year in expenses between them, which are legally entitled to them. But it’s immoral for the amount of work they do, unless you get honesty back into politics in this country it's going to only get worse and worse.”

Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin, Greens, or Independent? Does it matter?

There can be few jobs more unpalatable right now than being a Fianna Fáil election candidate - or even a Fianna Fáil canvasser - in the run up to June 5. The party is facing a drubbing at the polls. And whatever doorstep hostility has been there over the past two weeks, it will be nothing as compared to the anger when next month's pay cheque leaves Sean Citizen with a huge hole in what is available to him to pay his bills.

One more seat and three councillors retiring from politics makes the battle for the seven seats in the Castlebar electoral area one of the most interesting races in this year’s local elections. The transfers of Burriscarra, Portroyal and Roslee with their combined population of 1,327 people from the old Ballinrobe area to the Castlebar area has really thrown the race for seats in the county town wide open. There are 12 going to post on June 5 and, with only three sitting councillors going for re-election, there will be at the very least four new faces or maybe three new and one old representing the Castlebar area in the next council.

While the headlines may have been grabbed in the past few weeks with councillors urging the people of the town not to vote for a former councillor who has decided to come back for some more, the race for the nine seats in Castlebar Town Council promises to be one of the most exciting in the county.

It was independents day in Castlebar on Saturday afternoon, as both Michael Kilcoyne and Frank Durcan were elected to Castlebar Town Council on the first count. After a long morning's counting the tally's came to true, as from early on both independents looked cert. to make the quota which was set at 486, which Kilcoyne came just shy of doubling with his first preference vote of 965 votes. Kilcoyne who was first elected to the council in 1999 has steadily seen his numbers rise through the last two elections.

Total poll: 15,011

Castlebar Town Council