Directly Elected Mayor

But it won't solve the problem better than doubling the size and staff of UHL. It looks good because "now we have 2 hospitals not 1" but it's not the reality.

Ennis and Nenagh is different because that's a geographical issue.

And when you say there used to be 3. Hospitals used to do a lot less back then and you didn't have all the various pathways behind the A&E triage and assessment area.

Something else I've noticed since the plethora of posters went up over the past 36 hours (or maybe earlier) is that only those for B Leddin, C ní Catháin, D Butler, D Ryan and M Quinlivan seem to indicate that they are standing for the mayoralty.

B Leddin's posters state "for Mayor" in large font whilst only some of D Butler's do, the other three candidates' posters seem to have the word "Mayor" in much smaller font.

E O'Donovan just has her mugshot and a "1": it is not immediately obvious what post she is running for.

There is similar (perhaps unforeseen) ambiguity with other posters on the north side, including with those posters erected on behalf of those running for a Council seat and the European elections.

I think that this is going to add to the confusion, perhaps apathy too.

It's probably of little interest to the rest of the island but there probably needs to be a televised debate to help inform the electorate of Limerick City and Co. Limerick.

I imagine that we'll have some sort of explanatory Council literature dropped through our letter flaps in the meantime. I am out and about a lot and nobody seems to bring the mayoral election up in conversation so I am guessing that there is no real enthusiasm out there. I myself, am curious but not excited: more worried that the person elected will not be up to the task.

Are we going to hear comments like "the campaign never really took off" and "the public were confused" in four weeks' time?

At this rate, probably, yes.

It's hearsay but I've been told that D Ryan (in addition to passing unflattering comments about her party leader in the not so distant past) passed some uncomplimentary remarks about Council staff in a café at the Crescent SC while she was on walkabout with her party leader.

My source who works in the Council told me that she should have realised that mid-morning, there is a high probability that Council staff will be well within earshot at any of the cafe's in the SC as they have a large office building next door. Ah well!

More hearsay from the same source but it would also appear that far-right individuals have been defacing SF posters in Moyross over the past two nights.

I am not anti-democratic but I think that some sort of eligibility criteria should have been stipulated and I think that political parties should have been excluded from running candidates.

As we all know, any narcissist can run for the Dáil or Stormont, get elected and pontificate without ever taking executive power but this job requires competence.

As of now, out of the fourteen, I can only rate two positively!

Feel free to comment critically!

I would think some posters are recycled from previous elections hence no mention of Mayor on them.

yeah some weird obsevations /hearsay there no political parties would be daft , but I do welcome having some stronger independent candidates that are interested even if they are somewhat politically alligned.

Hadn't noticed many poster in Moyross either never mind defaced ones , and odd that a passing conversation gets picked up on an unfavorable comments ,how convenient, I reckon a bit of dirt politics at play maybe.

What I have noticed is it leaves some candidates with an odd predicament on their posters as CM says, they don't want to lose there council seat ,but need to try and get a vote for mayor as well , to me none of them seem to have mastered that poster yet, from what I've seen.

Haven't seen any posters for at least 2/3 candidates myself , northside, E'od and Ho'd and John Moran I'm sure they are about. Moran though has been noticable from an online /papers perspective at least.

Seems der is a public debate at least. Just registered

https://limerickchamber.ie/limerick-mayoral-debate/

As nominations closed on Saturday, below is the list of candidates. I've added what I know about them running for council seats also. Should a candidate win the mayoral election, their council seat will become vacant, and their seat will be filled in the form of a co-option

• Brian Leddin TD - Green Party
  
• Gerben Uunk - Animal Welfare Party (also standing in Newcastle West)
• Dee Ryan - Fianna Fail
• Colm O’Morain - Independent
• Helen O’Donnell - Independent
• Maurice Quinlivan TD - Sinn Fein
• Ruairi Fahy - People before Profit (Also standing in Limerick City North)
• Cllr Elisa O’Donovan - Social Democrats (Also standing in Limerick City West)
• Sarah Beasley - Aontu (Also standing in Limerick City North)
• Cllr Frankie Daly - Independent (Also standing in Limerick City North)
• Cllr Conor Sheehan - Labour (Also standing in Limerick City North)
• Dr Laura Keyes - Rabharta Glass – Green Left (Also standing in Limerick City North)
• Cllr Daniel Butler - Fine Gael (Also standing in Limerick City North)
• Caitríona Ní Chatháin - Socialist Party
• John Moran - Independent

The brief interviews on RTE Six One last night ( Monday 20th) were interesting, but too short to get any real points across - Moran & Maurice Q came across well, Frankie Daly seemed very nervous. Rest perfomed okay I must say, can't help thinking most of them are still in ''I'm standing for Councillor'' mode ( as many of them confusingly are) rather than mayor, which is a whole other ballgame.

Definitely. would expect general Election runs from all of the above next time round.

Impossible to officially say Moran is better than the other independents. As far as I'm aware there is no poll for RTE to go off.

We know he is better than the other independents but the impartial choice is all the candidates or the main party ones.

Iat the debate tonight and there are 10 candidates so Limerick Post obviously a little braver than RTE.

Mr Moran is hardly independent under the skin. As a local Limerick lad, he was picked from obscurity from his restaurant in France by Fine Gael ( Michael Noonan, who I think was from Limerick). He did exactly what he was told to do and then they kicked him out after 18 months. He moved around alot. I'd say he'll take the Limerick job but will move upto Dublin for the Dublin Mayor next year.

I don't think it is easy to accommodate all the candidates. But this is RTE with a remit to be politically neutral (try not to laugh at that point) but this is blatant. They have excluded candidates that are most likely to be in the top 2 or 3 who are not party affiliated. That is plain wrong. We would actually be better off if RTE ignored this election.

I felt starting off that RTE would pull some kind of stroke here, as they have form in that regard, I didn't think it would be this blatant mind.

Funny you posted that a few minutes after Frankie came off the stage 🤣

Moran done very well I thought. Quinlivan the only other one who looked competent.

O'Donnell wants to create a city designed by the people who never come to the city. Rural people and the middle aged middle class people who and say "I would come to the city but" even though they never will. Who think the city is dead cause you can't park outside every shop but will walk all over the Crescent or spend all day driving to Kildare village over walking for 5 minutes in town from a parking space.

Really annoyed nobody challenged her on her claim Limerick is dangerous and filthy.

Quinlivan and Daly offered little in terms of detailed proposals or ideas to improve Limerick but could both be the biggest vote catchers. Frankie has the kind of homespun folksiness that appeals to a certain cohort of voters who once would have voted Labour but dislike FF, FG and Sinn Fein.

In the second half, Leddin stood head and shoulders above the rest.