Aspiring councillors be warned: local politics is a job of long hours and little thanks, writes MARIE O'HALLORAN
FORMER FIANNA Fáil councillor Garry Keegan cautions aspiring local election candidates: “It’s a very tough lifestyle. You can only do it for so long and you’re sacrificing family life.”
It is a warning for first-time contestants who make up a significant proportion of the 1,844 candidates battling it out for 883 county and city council seats on June 5th.
After the cut-and-thrust of the election campaign and the heady buzz of victory comes the work – long hours, meetings, endless bureaucracy and phone calls at all hours of the day and night.
Keegan was co-opted to Dublin city council’s south-east inner city ward in 1999, to replace Eoin Ryan who had been appointed a minister of state. He held the seat at the next local elections in 2004, but resigned two years later.
“The work rate was too intense,” says the self-employed PR consultant. “I was after getting married and we had a child.”
As a lifestyle it wasn’t for him any longer. “Most councillors have a regular job. I was working full-time as well as most evenings, every weekend. I gave my mobile phone number to everyone. People were ringing all the time, even on Sunday.”
He was involved in local politics for 20 years, served as a councillor for six and “I wanted to move up the ladder” and become a TD. But the “opportunity wasn’t there”.
He did not want to spend another five or even 10 years at local level, holding on “in the hope, maybe, that I might get to run for the Dáil”.
That intense work rate and disruptive lifestyle is something former Sinn Féin councillor Felix Gallagher knows only too well. He lives in Co Meath but represented the Mulhuddart area on Fingal County Council.
He was co-opted to the council following the controversial resignation of Martin Christie a week after the 2004 elections, and he served for three years. But in 2007, after standing in the general election in Dublin West, he decided he had had enough.
His advice to aspiring candidates? “Don’t do it,” he says bluntly. But if you do “try and get more than one elected. I was the only Sinn Féin councillor in Fingal” so he was dealing with issues in Balbriggan, Skerries and Swords, “in places where people couldn’t vote for me, which as a politician, can’t be sensible”.
He, too, was working full-time, then going to council, community and planning meetings. And the phone was always ringing.
“I’d be getting calls at all hours,” sometimes at two o’clock in the morning, about anti-social behaviour.
When he started as a councillor he had one child, but by the time he finished there were three children, and political life had a huge impact on time with his family.
“I was working full-time, then going home. I would see my family briefly and then I had to go out again . . . for meetings”.
The community development project manager found it a very stressful lifestyle, with long hours and a lot of commuting. He was eating on the go and as a result he put on a lot of weight.
His advice to putative councillors – “Mind yourself. Quite often. . . you have to be all things to all men. But saying no on certain issues is a better idea.”
The workload was a major factor as well for Miriam McGillycuddy, a Labour party member of Tralee town council. Serving for 14 years, the law lecturer at the Institute of Technology in Tralee is retiring at this local election.
She says “it was just impossible” to combine the council with her day jobs. She points out that “the council is definitely family unfriendly, with meetings in the evening. It would ideally suit a woman or man who is retired”.
Garry Keegan sums it up: “It’s nice to go home at five o’clock and see your family.”
How much councillors are paid
City and county councillors earn a basic annual salary of €17,604, which is subject to income tax. Salaries in borough and town councils range from €4,400 to €8,215.
City and county councillors are entitled to a maximum yearly tax-free expenses allowance of €8,406.72 or €700.56 a month. The limit for borough and town councillors is €1,100-€3,300. Councillors must attend 80 per cent of meetings to get the full allowance, which is reduced in line with lower attendance.
A maximum of €500 in phone costs can be recouped annually, or €300-€400 for borough and town councillors.
The chair of a strategic policy committee, or city or county development board, is entitled to an annual tax-free allowance of €6,000. Chairs of borough or town council committees receive €500-€1,000.
Dublin's Lord Mayor receives €63,000, 10 per cent of which is tax free; the deputy lord mayor is paid €5,000.
Councillors who serve two or more years are entitled to a "gratuity" when they retire, resign or lose their seat. The payment is made once they reach 50 years. For city and county councillors the maximum payment is four years' salary, payable after 20 years' service. Each year's service is worth approximately €3,520.