Ring and McCarthy to contest local elections for Social Democrats

Cork’s Social Democrats selected two candidates on Wednesday to contest the local elections next year, in the Kanturk Charleville and Cork City South West local electoral areas.

Charleville man Andrew Ring said he was honoured to have been selected by the party as a candidate for the Kanturk LEA, and congratulated his colleague Ciaran McCarthy who was selected for Cork City South West.

Mr Ring said it will be a tough battle ahead as three of the four candidates who were elected the last time, were elected on the first count. “We do feel that the tide is changing somewhat, and we will try to put our best foot forward,” he told The Echo.

Top of his agenda is getting Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Cork County Council to expedite the building of the relief road. “We’ve had two major incidents recently. It’s the big issue for us in Charleville. That’s where a lot of my focus will be,” he said.

More affordable and social housing are needed for north and west Cork, he said. “I see The Echo reported that they’re going to miss their targets by 161 units, potentially again this year. That’s not good enough. 

"We need to press harder to ensure that doesn’t happen.” 

Resources have to be put in place to ensure that the Housing for All Plan works, he added. 

An executive officer for Irish Rail who works in Mallow, Mr Ring said he will be pushing for the introduction of a leap card in Charleville, as was recently done in Mallow, along with reduced fares.

Irish Rail has introduced a morning service from Charleville to Mallow which connects to Cork. “Would we like more services there? Of course we would, we’ll keep fighting for it,” he said.

Mr Ring said farmers are facing a lot of pressure in meeting environmental targets. “We want to support rural life as much as possible. There’s a conversation to be had with farmers in incentivising them to meet their emissions targets” without penalising farmers, he said. “You can’t punish people. You need to bring them with you.” 

Barrister and lecturer Ciaran McCarthy received over 8,500 votes in the last General Election in Cork North West, showing that “there is a considerable constituency out there which is looking for a viable alternative,” he told The Echo.

“We will strive to convince those people that they were correct to vote for us the last time, and that we are the alternative that is needed to address the societal issues which are obvious at the moment,” he said.

The levels of homelessness and the lack of availability in housing in Cork and nationally are top of Mr McCarthy’s priorities.

Pressure needs to be put on the executive of Cork City Council to “somehow explain why we have such a long turnaround in the re-letting of social housing, which is having a devastating social impact on our fortunes in Cork,” he said.

“We are absolute laggards nationally in terms of the turnaround times for perfectly habitable social accommodation.
"Related to that is the housing that is left unoccupied, that is allowed to be vacant and derelict.” Basic public services have been allowed to degrade, said Mr McCarthy, pointing to the currently unmanned Ballincollig Fire Station. “It’s a state-of-the-art facility with fire engines inside. It has everything except actual Firefighters.” “This is totally capable of being redressed,” added Mr McCarthy. “This should be addressed right away, tomorrow.”