'Things were niggling me': Cork local election candidate wants to be change maker

HARRIET Burgess from Inniscarra in mid Cork is one of the first-time candidates in the race to be elected to Cork County Council in the Macroom Municipal District. 

A barrister and member of the Green Party, what prompted Ms Burgess to run, among other issues, was the fact that the buses were not running on time or frequently enough.

“My motivation for running is I felt like I wasn’t seeing the change myself that I really wanted to see at home; things like the bus never arriving on time, like there being no adequate footpaths, things like that were niggling me,” said Ms Burgess as she explained why she wanted to get involved in local politics.

“You have to start local with a lot of these issues and I just felt that the Greens are really spot on when it comes to local politics.”

She pointed to the fact that 49 Green Party councillors were elected in the State in 2019 as the basis of her claim that “Irish people know that the Green Party are good at this kind of stuff”.

“A part of me was really frustrated at the make-up of the local councils, including my own one,” she adds.

She said there was a better gender balance on Macroom’s council (four men and two women) than most others. “I was taken aback by the lack of political diversity,” she said.

“It’s three Fine Gael councillors, two Fianna Fáil and one Independent. When I saw that as a relatively young person who likes to think I’m very passionate about green issues, that for me wasn’t reflective of Irish politics in general.

“In 2023, there’s a need for more political diversity in terms of who is actually representing us on local councils. That’s why I put my name forward.”

Speaking to The Echo, Ms Burgess said that she had had a brilliant reception on the doors and said that she had no inkling to suggest that rural Ireland was, as some suggest, anti-Green.

“That couldn’t be further from the truth from my own experience anyway,” she said.

“Everyone I’m meeting really cares about green issues and are very frustrated at the lack of adequate services in terms of public transport.

“What’s particularly interesting about Cork North West and the Macroom electoral area is the scale of development in the area,” she said.

“I was out in Cloughduv at the weekend and I was in an estate where people had moved into 80 new houses in June. The scale of the housing development isn’t being matched in terms of local authority development and adequate services. There isn’t adequate public transport service between Cloughduv and Cork city, which is only eight miles away. People were raising that with me, people are really worried about their kids playing near a busy road. It’s basically a road-safety issue, and I think the Greens are really good on this.

“We want to make sure kids can walk to school safely, we want to make sure children can cycle bikes, we want to make sure there’s adequate footpaths and we definitely want to make sure there’s adequate public transport from commuter towns into Cork City.

“I’m putting myself forward for all those reasons. I don’t think the status quo parties on the council are doing enough on these issues, and I really do think I have good ideas and I’d love to implement them on a council level.”