Councillors in North West Kilkenny are officially calling for a renaming of the constituency they’re due to vote in for the next General Election.
6,500 people in Urlingford, Johnstown, Freshford, Tullaroan and surrounding areas fall under North Tipperary following the recent electoral boundary review.
At this morning’s meeting of the Castlecomer municipal district the public representatives hailed the move as “appalling” but the Minister has already said the recommendation cannot be changed.
In light of that, Cllr Mary Hilda Cavanagh says there needs to be a renaming that’s inclusive of the new areas, telling KCLR News what’s needed is; “To incorporate the words North West Kilkenny into it so that people might feel some ownership of their new constituency because at the moment they feel annoyed, cross, devastated and any other word of that variety that you could put on it, to expect somebody from North West Kilkenny to go vote in North Tipperary without the word Kilkenny being in the constituency is asking the impossible and the people therefore will be disenfranchised and they won’t vote”.
She adds the lack of a voter turnout “Is shocking because if you don’t vote well then you get the people you deserve, if you know what I mean, rather than the people you might like to see represent you in Dáil Éireann so I’d be encouraging everybody to vote, to turn up on the day, not to spoil their votes but to vote for somebody”.
And Cllr Cavanagh also notes; “I can see how I’ll be banging my head off a stone wall if the name is not changed like I’ll be on the road next year canvassing for the local election and I’ll be talking to people about their new constituency but I’d say it’ll be impossible to sway people to vote if the name of the constituency is not changed to North West Kilkenny / North Tipp or vice versa, we don’t mind if they want to go in first as long as the words North West Kilkenny is incorporated in the name of the constituency”.
