CITY COUNCIL PROFILE: LIMERICK:FEARS OVER recent incidents of gangland violence and plans for the country's largest ever regeneration plan are among the key issues facing candidates on the doorsteps of the local election campaign in Limerick city.
Ahead of the nominations deadline on Monday, 46 candidates have declared their intention to run for one of the 17 seats on Limerick City Council. Candidates face an additional challenge following a redrawing of electoral boundaries after the city council’s administrative boundary was extended last year. The constituency is now made up of three new electoral areas.
Only six of the candidates confirmed so far are female, and three of these are sitting councillors. Fianna Fáil, with just two seats on the city council, has selected Polish woman Ana Banko to run for the party in the Limerick City South area, where the party has no elected representative.
Another newcomer, Orla McLoughlin, is running for Labour in the same area, while her father, former Irish rugby player councillor Gerry McLoughlin is also running for Labour in Limerick city east.
By far the most competitive is the new seven-seat Limerick City South electoral area, which combines the two four-seat wards previously known as ward three and ward four. Already 19 candidates, including five former mayors and eight sitting councillors, are battling it out for seven seats.
Three of the councillors seeking re-election in this area have all held the mayoralty since the last local elections, while Independent councillor James Houlihan, who was a Labour member when he last contested the local elections, could take some support from his former party.
Fianna Fáil is also running two other candidates in Limerick city south, but could lose some of its support to former mayor Jack Bourke who decided to run as an Independent after he failed to get the party’s nomination.
Mr Bourke, who is 80, caused a stir late last year when he confirmed that he would be seeking to regain a seat on the council.
The next biggest field is in the six-seat Limerick City North, with 17 candidates confirmed to date. There is now an extra seat in this electoral area and it could go to Fine Gael councillor and retired garda Cormac Hurley, who until now was a member of Limerick County Council.
Moyross is also a key political battleground in Limerick city north, where for the first time all of the northside estate including Craeval Park, Pineview Gardens and Delmege Park, are included in the six-seat electoral area.
Previously, people living in these areas voted for candidates running for the county council.
Sinn Féin could win a seat on the city council for the first time in decades if Maurice Quinlivan who is running for the party and campaigning in Moyross is successful.
Limerick City North will also be a battleground for three of the existing councillors running for re-election who all live in the same area on the North Circular Road. Transfers could also prove crucial in Limerick City North, where at the last local elections three of the five candidates elected failed to reach a quota.
Fine Gael, which has six seats on the city council, is hoping to make a gain in the four-seat Limerick City East area, the only electoral area where the party has no representative.
Limericks mayor and Independent councillor John Gilligan is a strong contender to top the poll in this area, given his publicised stance on reclaiming Limerick from gangland criminals.