Election interview: Sadhbh O'Neill

The Labour Party last won a seat in Waterford in 2011. After two election cycles, Sadbh O’Neill is asking voters to put their trust in Labour in Waterford once again.

The environmental activist, lecturer and columnist believes that there is “an appetite for a fresh voice” in politics and says that “there is a sense of Waterford needing stronger representation.” 

“There's definitely a clear sense at the doorstep that Waterford is being left behind,” says O’Neill, who cited “a litany of examples where people are losing trust with the government parties”.

“Basic things,” she says show that Waterford is being left behind by the government, “the lack of footpath repairs, inadequate appointments at GPs and dentists. The fact that Waterford airport hasn't been given what is really a very modest amount of state funding.” 

She says that the government parties “have promised, over the years, to deliver services and infrastructure to Waterford, but it hasn’t materialised.”

The environmental activist unsurprisingly chose climate issues as one of her three top priorities, along with housing and childcare. Her track record on the issue goes back to her time in Trinity College Dublin in 1991 when she was elected as a Dublin City Councillor for the Green Party.

A lot has changed since then, “local authority members had a lot more power, more executive powers than councillors have now; they have very little power to change local authorities,” she says, “local representatives are not able to represent us properly. The way that local government and local democracy has been whittled away is really quite striking.”

Another thing which has changed is her party affiliation.

O’Neill explained that she recently found her way back to the Labour Party following a “long detour”! 

O’Neill met the current party leader, Ivana Bacik MEP, in university and was inspired by her decision to publish abortion information in a student handbook in spite of legal restrictions. “I can see Ivana becoming Taoiseach one day. She’s a great inspiration.”

While O’Neill originally got involved with the Green Party due to their environmental policies, she says that “the challenges facing our environment are absolutely catastrophic but they are not an issue for one party.”

“The Labour Party has always been championing these issues as well. In fact, Ivana [Bacik) introduced a climate bill back in 2010, way before the Greens introduced their own legislation!”

The candidate equated “environmental justice and social justice” which she says “go hand in hand” and believes that the historical strength of her party on social issues bodes well for their handling of climate concerns.

“The Labour Party is the same party it always was,” O’Neill says, "I think it’s recovering its stride.”

Given her strong concerns for the environment, it might seem inevitable that O’Neill would object to the development of Waterford Airport, however, she says she doesn’t believe there is “any argument against Waterford Airport on environmental grounds”.

She admitted that “aviation is a small but very significant contributor to climate change” but that the problem is Dublin Airport, not Waterford.

As Dublin airport collides with the passenger cap – which O’Neill says is a “really important” rule – now is the time to invest in the country’s regional airports. 

“It makes sense to me that we look to develop our regional airport,” she says, “Why not redistribute [flights] to Waterford Airport?”

“I did a small calculation!” she said, arguing that the carbon contributions of Waterford Airport would be minimal. Even reaching the theoretical maximum passenger projections submitted by the airport in their business plan, she said that would amount to less than 7% of emissions at Dublin Airport.

“So, we don’t see that there is any argument against Waterford Airport on environmental grounds.”

WATCH FULL INTERVIEW here