Des Dalton to contest Athy Town Council election

kildare | politics / elections | press release Saturday January 10, 2009 00:32 by Des Dalton - Republican Sinn Fein saoirse at iol dot ie 223 Parnell St, Dublin 1 01 8729747

Republican Sinn Fein Vice President Des Dalton is to contest the election to Athy Town Council in this years 26-County local elections.

At a recent convention Kildare Republican Sinn Féin selected the Vice President of Republican Sinn Féin Des Dalton to contest the election to Athy Town Council this year. Des contested the 2004 local elections when he narrowly failed to win a seat on Athy Town Council. He has been a member of Republican Sinn Féin for 20 years and has served as Vice President since 2003. He played a leading role in organising Republican Sinn Féin’s campaign against the Lisbon Treaty in 2008.
He is also an active member of SIPTU serving as a Shop Steward.

Setting out what he intends to achieve in winning a seat on Athy Town Council Des Dalton said:
“In 2004 I contested on a platform of delivering change to Athy Town Council; unfortunately the people of Athy chose not to change the council in any meaningful way, merely swapping between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Four years later the need for real and radical change has never been more evident. In a time when savage cuts in public spending and allocation of resources can be expected the people of Athy need public representatives who have no vested interest in the political establishment and are willing to fight for our town.

“Politics is about empowering people, giving them a voice within the council chamber, and within the system. I am under no illusions, I know the limitations of what a local councillor can do but I feel that strong independent voices are needed now more that ever to shake up a lazy and complacent local political establishment. Issues high on my agenda will be the provision of proper infrastructure to meet the needs of our growing population. Dealing with the traffic chaos which plagues Athy has to be a priority. Over the years we have seen Athy grow in terms of housing and population without a parallel growth in the necessary services and infrastructure. The infrastructure required to meet the needs of a bigger population will have to be central to the agenda of the new Town Council.

Local democracy in Ireland has been eroded over the past decades to a point where once we had local government we now have only local authorities. Republican Sinn Féin believes in real local democracy as set out in our proposals for a Federal Ireland EIRE NUA which proposes maximum decentralisation of power and decision making from national right down to provincial, regional and local or community level. That is the agenda myself and the other Republican Sinn Féin candidates will be fighting for