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Former Limerick Mayor not running in General Election

Former Limerick Mayor Daniel Butler announces he won't be putting his name forward for the next General Election.

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Duration:: 8m
Broadcast on:: 06 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

'Your views, your news, your limerick today, with Jonet on Live 95' Earlier in this hour, you heard from Ivan Yates about the path to power podcast and the live show that's taking place at the Opera House in Cork with Matt Cooper a little bit later this month and he was making his predictions for the general election, including in the two Limerick constituencies. Well, Councillor Daniel Butler has announced he won't be putting his name forward for consideration as a Finnegal candidate in the next general election. He comes as a surprise to some after his strong performance in the recent local elections and also his run for directly elected Mayor of Limerick, but he's with me now to explain his thinking. Good morning to you. Were you yourself considering a run for the doll or was it something that others were asking you to consider? Well, I suppose in life, you should always keep your options open. I suppose when it was floating there in the background and while there was conversations been had by people with me and about me, I suppose eventually it came to the conclusion that, you know, after due consideration, that for now, right now, at least for me in my current reality, it's not the right time for me anyway. Right, so why have you ruled it out exactly? Well, look, there's a couple of situations you have to look at the political reality, Joe as well. In Limerick, we have Minister Minister Donald who's sitting TD and, you know, it's imperative that we as a party put forward a balanced ticket so that we have a female candidate ideally to go with Minister Donald and I think, I think, you know, I couldn't stand in the way of that happening because we need more women in politics and even at that, you know, even within the reality of political parties, you know, the chances of me even getting elected, you know, it might even have been challenging for me to get selected and win the party itself. And then beyond that, Joe, I have to have family considerations as well of a young family and while I feel the voice of families like my own that work hard, pay their bills and get up in the morning and do all that and need to be represented more in politics, I also have to think about that family, but that myself and as you know, Joe, as you covered during the mere elections, there was a threat against my home and that definitely played in my mind and my own wife, she has her own career that I need to get behind support. She sacrificed a lot to support me. So it's, I need to think about supporting her and giving more time to my two young children. Yeah. Is indeed the funding for political parties linked to gender balance on tickets too? Yeah, there's a lot of pressure to be able to do that. There's a financial imperative as well that's been introduced by Finneh Gayle actually. And I think it's the right thing to do. I know that in Cork, for example, there's a real struggle to identify field mechanics. I think out of the possible 13 or so that has been discussed as possible candidates when they wanted to miss female. So there is a huge challenger as well as attracting people to politics full stop and it is going to become an issue in the coming years. But in particular, there's a particular challenge in attracting, engaging women in politics. And I think that's something that we need to really work hard on as opposed to the duty on me as a male and politician as well to play my part as well. No. And the Limerick City constituency Finneh Gayle selection convention, it is coming up this month, isn't it? It's next week, Joe. So we have a convention next week and it's going to be contested. We've three candidates going forward, which are very good candidates. And I think it's very exciting options that are going to become available for the people in Limerick, wherever we select. And there is a sense that we are competitive. There's a real energy by Finneh Gayle at the moment that we are competitive to pick up a second season, Limerick. And I think that's what the convention will be about next week is selecting the best two that we believe can do that. And do you think the change of leader Simon Harris as leader of Finneh Gayle has helped that? Absolutely. I think Simon has bought her real new energy to the party, marine invigoration. It's going to change the personality. We've seen some people now step away from politics as well to create an opportunity for new candidates to step forward. So it's really exciting to see what emerges after the general election. And I suppose we're starting to see delivery as well on some of the key issues, you know, like housing. Now we're starting to see some real progress in particular in that area. And I think it's not playing well. But yeah, I think Simon in particular has provided a real strong, youthful energy and a vision for a new future that we really need is that reinvigoration. But just for Finneh Gayle as a party before us as a country has been of huge importance. Right. We're talking to Finneh Gayle Councillor Daniel Butler is explaining his reasons for not putting his name forward for consideration at a selection convention by Finneh Gayle, which is upcoming in the Limerick City constituency for the general election. Now the t-shirt and the leader of Finneh Gayle Simon Harris is saying the election won't take place until the spring. The Toronto is saying the same thing. But does anyone actually believe that Daniel? Joe, I think we could predict that. Now we'll be doing well, but since we're the best kept secret of the look, I think, you know, I suppose you can see by your center convention next week, we're preparing, we're trying to get ahead of whatever's going to be announced. It is either going to be an election and probably in around November 8th or we will be waiting till the spring and when we don't know what way that will go because political realities can change very rapidly. And just like for us, when we had a change leader, all of a sudden, and we had a local election, a European elections head into it was a chaotic period. And we could ever have predicted that. But we just got to be prepared. I think the party is just going about their business really well in a moment. No, you were elected as a Councillor. You also stood for directly elected Mayor and John Mourn is that Mayor and there's a lot going on now about his draft five-year program, which we have reported on a lot on the day and live 95 news. So the special meeting on the mayoral strategy, the one that was deferred, have Councillors organised those workshops yet? And is there a date for the deferred meeting to happen? Well, I suppose it was not the job of the Councillors. It was the mayor has to organise this and, you know, around his diary, it has not been arranged. Despite Councillors offering to meet the day after that, that meeting that it has the estimates that the mayor has now decided to push on in engaging with the national government, using the document as its current state and has decided that we can wait on these workshops. And that also that he is unlikely to be attending those workshops as well, which is disappointing because I think it's important that he takes the opportunity to build a relationship with the Councillors. So that's because he's going to be need to be working with them to deliver on this mayor program. But look, I suppose Mayor Morn has no real experience in this was in local government and in particular within the council level of aspect of it. So we have to give him a bit of time to try and learn. But hopefully he will he will he will learn as he progresses like any of us doing a new role that he does need to work better with Councillors than he has been up until now. From my view point, what I'm very much willing to give him the space and the opportunity to do that because we need to see Mayor Morn succeeding because if he succeeds, then the limit succeeds. Okay, and just to be very clear, then the deferred meeting, there's no news of that happening either. No, yeah, there's no news from the mayor's office in relation to that either. Again, which is disappointing job because, to be fair, you know, I thought I didn't really see a need for deferral of the meeting because I was familiar to the mayor campaign of his manifesto. But I think I was willing to let orders for the orders the opportunity because there was a real desire to engage in the process. So it's kind of disappointing given that Councillors I felt did engage, wanted to meet the next day if necessary, that it didn't happen. Well, we've already discussed it a lot. We're going to discuss it more with people relevant like yourself. And indeed, we'll be hearing from the directly elected Mayor John Morn as well in the not too distant future. But thank you very much for talking to us this morning. Finnegane, Councillor Daniel Butler. Your views, your news, your limerick today with Jonas on live 95.