Darragh's Soapbox: 2024 Local Elections in Waterford
Rose Matthews, Jackie Phelan and Patricia O'Donavan
The ballots have been cast and counted and the results are now in, with the fate of our council for the next five years firmly cemented in place.
As the dust settled, we turned this week to members of the Waterford public to gauge their reaction and feelings about the results of the recent elections.
In gauging the pulse of the town, we found that most notably this year discussion around the Greens is prevalent, with the party losing their two existing seats and failing to elect any new faces.
Others on the streets of Waterford discussed the lack of female representation on the new council, with five women elected this year, an increase on 2019 where just two women were returned by the electorate.
said, “The thing that stood out to me was Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil did very well, so people are clearly sticking with the same old parties, there were no big changes and I was disappointed to see that. Those parties are so embedded in the Irish psyche, that people will vote them in whether they do a good job or a bad job."
agreed that they were shocked to see little change at local level, adding that the Green Party losing seats was the biggest upset. The group said, “Apart from the Green Party having zero people elected and losing two seats it has remained the same council. I would have expected the younger people to vote more for the Greens. It's something they are interested in and it's their future."
added, “I think unfortunately a lot of local politicians are very self-promoting. It's important to have Waterford representation on a national level though. When Martin Cullen for example went to Dublin he brought Waterford with him and accomplished so much for the city and county.
"But I think the local council are not doing enough for the city no matter who gets elected."
