Waterford election hub

Mary Buter is worse than awful as a TD . Its sad really to hear her on WLR with Mr Tiernan perpetually trying to defend the indefensible as per attached spread sheet from SEPAG.

You can keep and eye on it via this google sheets doc

tinyurl.com/WaterfordLE24

WLR’s live stream is interesting to watch: https://www.youtube.com/live/TaO9SiN-mLY?si=oYSBaVNJldDtdzJc

…the people have spoken, and theyre just happy with the way things are!

I would agree with this. You might be against X party, locally a member of X party helps you out or has some positive impact in your area with issues, chances are you vote for that person even though you won't give X party a vote in the GE.

I don't read into LE's ahead of GE's, like it could be looked at that SF have done poorly based on the last GE, but most of their candidates I have never heard of or possibly never even seen involved in anything locally hence why some of them are way down the votes.

Does anyone know what delayed the Waterford council count yesterday? Seems like we were very late on count 1.

If you have paid any attention to what has gone on in Waterford over the past 13 years, then how you could default to FG is an absolute mystery to me, unless of course your name is Cummins!

Not one green party candidate elected to Waterford council. Eamon Ryan did serious damage to them locally due to the airport.

While I do believe local is local and people vote for the person and not the party it's still hard to believe FG will be the largest party in the council.

Greens will suffer big time over the airport issue but FG have been in power 13 years and could have delivered the airport at any stage, although most of the FG support seems to be in the west of the county.

8 seats, 3 from the city/Tramore and 5 from the county

gonna be an extremely interesting few months, very concerning though to see this rise of the extremes, and the move back towards ffg, very concerning!

he’s definetly gone . Definite 1 sf , 1 FF , 1 FG and a dogfight for last seat

I think Butler will get in as she will poll strong in the west/rural of the county. Only one I see not returning is our Green TD which is no loss!

With these national numbers both FF and FG will be under pressure to run two candidates each. FG strong out west, but Cummins main appeal is in the city, slightly less pressure on him to have a 2nd running mate. But FF have a junior minister, and so unlikely she will have the FF ticket to herself. To run one candidate at 20-25% is a massive sign of underconfidence for a party of power.

Interesting observation by Fionnan Sheehan on last night's primetime- basically asking why FG threw away a 2nd EU seat with Mullins such a Cork boyo, and not to reach out with a strong SE candidate. Of course there are no obvious internal ones with all FG seats having walked since 2011- but they could have found a quiet sportsperson a lá Kelly and Carberry.

Under-delivery by Govt (airport, hospital, 24/7, roads, NQ -late and smaller- university buildings and new courses), against massive spending (basically Shanahan's line) will be in the dock in the GE. A number of FG and FF candidates emphasised their personal standing over the party brand.

So as Damian Tiernan said- the GE is going to be interesting. The last 3 (2011,16,20) all kicked the incubment Government, not a huge sign this will change.

The way SF have run there last two campaigns I wouldn’t be betting on 2 Sf for Waterford , definitely one 1 FG and one 1 ff

He'll find it tough but he'll get a certain amount of votes by just being a Green. The fact none of the other TDs has done anything of note in 4-5 years as well wont do him much harm