2016 Census - Carlow

Laois_Man

So according to the new census results, Carlow now has a population of 54,612, with slightly more men than women

Per the Irish constitution, each constituency has to have 1 TD per no more than 30,000 population

The Carlow/Kilkenny constituency now has a population of over 152,000

This means Kilkenny is now entitled to be a 4-seat constituency of its own and Carlow (with the old Wicklow part brought back in) would be a 2 seat constituency - very close to a 3 seat constituency in fact - certainly would be by the time the next census is done

They will bluff their way out of it for now by redrawing constituency boundaries to bring more of Kilkenny into Waterford and more of Carlow into Wicklow and/or Kidare South or more likely, Laois but they can't get away with that much longer either given all those counties are close to going over their numbers too.

Time coming close for Carlow to finally get some representation?

road_high

They'll never haemorrhage co Kilkenny as there'd be war.
Honestly can't see anything changing. If Rathvilly etc is brought back in to the 5 seater I think the constituency is even less represented per head of population. I think they'll increase the number of TDs personally.
The quality of candidate from Carlow is the real problem I think. If there's was two strong, good household names they'd get elected and get lots of votes in Kilkenny too. Kilkenny is bad but they're Defo even worse from Carlow.

Agent Coulson

There isn't any politician in Carlow worth a vote that's the major issue I would say a lot of people only voted for Deering to make sure Carlow had someone elected who might be up to something is called upon.

road_high

Agent Coulson wrote: »

There isn't any politician in Carlow worth a vote that's the major issue I would say a lot of people only voted for Deering to make sure Carlow had someone elected who might be up to something is called upon.

Very few candidates from Carlow even put themselves forward to run. There was Deering, Murnane and a few protest misery/welfare junkies. Lack of any talent, ability or vision for the area is the real issue indeed.

Owryan

Definitely appears to be a deficit of political talent in Carlow. Deering is rarely seen or heard from. Jennifer Murnane is decent enough but is ff and much of her support comes from across the bridge so can't vote for her.

Hard to see who would get a third seat if Carlow was split from Kilkenny. Most of the other Carlow candidates seem to be the anti everything mob.

Wait for the uproar from the rent a mob if the census means more not less td's. Would there be an appetite for a referendum to change the ratio?

Laois_Man

I wouldn't assume a referendum to change the ratio would pass anyway. They will have to increase the number of TDs eventually but they'll get around it for a while by fiddling with constituency boundaries. That's constituency boundaries, not county boundaries

You'd laugh at all this talk about political talent in Carlow - as if all the candidates in Kilkenny are highly talented. Party's select more candidates from Kilkenny because the population is nearly twice the size!

road_high

Laois_Man wrote: »

I wouldn't assume a referendum to change the ratio would pass anyway. They will have to increase the number of TDs eventually but they'll get around it for a while by fiddling with constituency boundaries. That's constituency boundaries, not county boundaries

You'd laugh at all this talk about political talent in Carlow - as if all the candidates in Kilkenny are highly talented. Party's select more candidates from Kilkenny because the population is nearly twice the size!

Laugh away but they are noticeably much worse...JP Phelan, John McGuinness and even ex TD Ann Phelan are very accomplished politicians, with some national profile...who from Carlow is there again? I'm sure everyone has their own opinions but they are better than either Deering or Murnane which are not the brightest individuals or polished, intelligent speakers...and that's being generous.
Even if Carlow was put with Kildare or Wicklow you'd have the exact same problem as the talent is just not there, and that's why Carlow often doesn't get 2 TDs.
Both areas have quite accomplished national profile players, Carlow wouldn't get a look in. It'll never happen but part of Kilkenny and Carlow as a 3 seater?
Then the rest of Kilkenny as a 3 seater. Something similar happened Meath/ Westmeath I think.

Stopitwillya

Who is this road high, who likes to go onto other counties pages and tell us all how great and superior Kilkenny is to their county. The last Kilkenny minister was Phil Hogan and of course you can be really proud of big Phil.

Mod Note: People are entitled to their opinion, attack the post, not the poster!

Owryan

road_high wrote: »

Laugh away but they are noticeably much worse...JP Phelan, John McGuinness and even ex TD Ann Phelan are very accomplished politicians, with some national profile...who from Carlow is there again? I'm sure everyone has their own opinions but they are better than either Deering or Murnane which are not the brightest individuals or polished, intelligent speakers...and that's being generous.
Even if Carlow was put with Kildare or Wicklow you'd have the exact same problem as the talent is just not there, and that's why Carlow often doesn't get 2 TDs.
Both areas have quite accomplished national profile players, Carlow wouldn't get a look in. It'll never happen but part of Kilkenny and Carlow as a 3 seater?
Then the rest of Kilkenny as a 3 seater. Something similar happened Meath/ Westmeath I think.

True, as much as i might despise mssrs McGuiness and alyward they are head and shoulders above anyone from Carlow.

I thought Anne Phelan was doing well until she had that hissy fit on radio during the last general election.

Carlow will never get close to having 2 td's so long as Carlow people keep voting for Kilkenny based candidates

road_high

Stopitwillya wrote: »

Who is this road high, who likes to go onto other counties pages and tell us all how great and superior Kilkenny is to their county. The last Kilkenny minister was Phil Hogan and of course you can be really proud of big Phil.

PMSL at this- what are you talking about we are talking about TD's-they are people not counties...who cares about Phil Hogan, he's the past, deal with the topic at hand or else why bother comment. It's boards.ie, people are free to comment on any page they want. If you don't like they it works, just logoff and go away.
Carlow politicians are rubbish, this is not "superiority", it's fact!

road_high

Owryan wrote: »

True, as much as i might despise mssrs McGuiness and alyward they are head and shoulders above anyone from Carlow.

I thought Anne Phelan was doing well until she had that hissy fit on radio during the last general election.

Carlow will never get close to having 2 td's so long as Carlow people keep voting for Kilkenny based candidates

They have little choice as the candidates are so bad, good candidates will nearly always pull in the votes.

road_high

Owryan wrote: »

True, as much as i might despise mssrs McGuiness and alyward they are head and shoulders above anyone from Carlow.

I thought Anne Phelan was doing well until she had that hissy fit on radio during the last general election.

Carlow will never get close to having 2 td's so long as Carlow people keep voting for Kilkenny based candidates

Bobby Alyward is awful but gets elected (including on 1000s of Carlow votes).
I'd love to see a few young, educated, dynamic Carlow based TD's come on stream apart from the few anarchy based or lightweights currently...there's a few good young people in the Council in Carlow like that Phelan guy. I think 2 is entirely possible with good candidates.
Ann Phelan was good and in fairness did work in Carlow too (Graiguenamanagh based) but like a lot of Labour woman was very unfairly targeted, bullied in a very sinister way in my opinion. The last election was just vicious in that regard.

Laois_Man

Carlow's portion of the census report getting wider national attention due to a clever headline in The Carlow People