O'Brien 'humbled and honoured' to be selected by FG to contest local elections

A 26-year-old recruitment consultant has been selected by Fine Gael to contest the next local elections for the Cork City South East Ward.

Barry O’Brien said on Friday that he was “so humbled and honoured” to have been selected.

“Thank you to all my supporters and friends, I am looking forward to repaying the faith shown in me. I plan on hitting the ground running, working hard and meeting all my constituents over the next 12 months.”

A peace commissioner and UCC graduate, Mr O’Brien told The Echo that he hoped he could appeal to the younger demographic.

“I have would a strong enough chance I would hope,” he said. “I’m in that generation. I’m still living at home with my parents. I would be able to associate with a lot of the problems that people of my generation would have.

“It’s very easy for them to say that we don’t relate to them. Because I am affected by all those issues, I would be a good voice for them in a way and would be able to offer different views and alternatives to councillors who have been there for a while.”

Mr O’Brien said he has four priorities: Housing, law and order, transport, and litter.

“The amount of people that have had to turn down great jobs in Cork due to housing,” he said. 

“I wouldn’t be a serial objector to any housing, I’m pro-housing.”

In Cork and his own area of Douglas, more incidents of crime recently have highlighted the need for more services around drug and alcohol addiction, said Mr O’Brien.

“I would love to be a new candidate that would be able to associate with people who have those addiction problems.”

Mr O’Brien said he hoped people of his generation would see him as someone they could speak to about finding solutions. “I want Cork to be a safe, diverse, and vibrant city.”

He highlighted the lack of bins on the way from Grange Heights to Douglas, a distance of 1.2km. “It shouldn’t be up to volunteers to keep the streets clean,” said Mr O’Brien, who is involved with the local tidy towns group. He added there are are “massive issues” around public transport and traffic in Douglas. “There has to be a longer-term plan put in place. Douglas is only getting bigger, and issues are only going to get worse, so I’d love to make the case for that over the next few years too.”