Social democrats to run at least ten candidates in Cork in upcoming local elections

The Social Democrats party is to run at least ten candidates in Cork city and county in the upcoming local elections.

Party leader, Cork South West TD Holly Cairns told The Echo that the Social Democrats has so far confirmed four candidates for Cork City Council and six candidates for Cork County Council, among them sitting county councillors Chris Heinhold in West Cork and former Green Party councillor Liam Quaide in East Cork.

Selected to run for the Social Democrats in the Cork City Council elections are Ciarán McCarthy in Cork City South West, Saoirse Mackin in Cork City North West, Pádraig Rice in Cork City South Central, and Susan Doyle in Cork City South East.

Hoping to join sitting councillors Heinhold and Quaide in County Hall will be Isobel Towse in West Cork, Richard Terry in Carrigaline, Andrew Ring in Kanturk/Mallow , and Ann Bambury in Bandon/Kinsale.

The local and European elections will take place in June, and Ms Cairns said she was “very ambitious” for them.

Deputy Cairns became leader of the Social Democrats last March, and, as Cork’s only female Oireachtas member, she joked that “there are actually six times more Michaels representing Cork than there are women”.

With a general election also due at some point over the next 14 months, Ms Cairns refused to be drawn on how many candidates she hoped her party would have elected across the three elections.

“I think we just have huge potential to grow. The last local election was our first local election and we got 21 councillors. So yeah, I feel really ambitious, really excited.”

It is understood the Social Democrats are actively engaging with potential candidates in other local election areas across the county and expect to make further announcements in the coming weeks.