A local councillor says she was ‘insulted’ by a reply to a request for a tweak to the name of the North Tipperary constituency that now incorporates 6,500 North West Kilkenny voters.
The electoral boundary was changed earlier this year and will see those in Urlingford, Johnstown, Freshford, Tullaroan and surrounding areas vote in their neighbouring county.
Concerns have been raised that the move will halt some in the impacted area from voting, while others may spoil their ballot paper.
In September councillors of the Castlecomer Municipal District wrote to the Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, Carlow Kilkenny TD Malcolm Noonan, asking for the Tipperary constituency to be renamed to reflect the towns and villages added and Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh has been telling KCLR News they weren’t too impressed by what they got back, noting; “The letter we got back was, to say insulting would put it mildly, I found it insulting, because it said, they referred to our further correspondence regarding proposed constituency boundary changes but we accept the change is going to be there for the next General Election, it may go back after that, we accept that but what I don’t accept is that the words ‘north west Kilkenny’ or just ‘Kilkenny, north Tipperary’ is not enshrined in the name of the constituency”.
Stay tuned – Cllr Cavanagh will be discussing this further on The KCLR Daily after 10am.
