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COUNCILLOR CLAIRE BYRNE has joined the line-up of candidates in the upcoming Dublin Bay South by-election.
Byrne has been selected over Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu to contest the by-election at by party members in the constituency this evening.
In a statement, Byrne said she would put a “strong focus on climate, communities and equality” if elected.
“This is a once in a generation opportunity to set our country on a greener path that will benefit our communities, families and children and to achieve many of the goals we’ve been working towards for the past 40 years,” Byrne said.
“We’ve already seen what the Green Party in Government can achieve I look forward to having the opportunity to work with our colleagues to accomplish not only the Green commitments in the Programme for Government, but the principles that our Party was founded on,” she said.
“These principles are the very reason I am involved in politics: planning for the long-term, protecting our island’s natural beauty, and safeguarding our planet for future generations.”
Green Party Ireland / Twitter
Green Party Ireland / Twitter / Twitter
One of the constituency’s seats is currently held by party leader Eamon Ryan.
In last year’s general election, Ryan was elected on the first county with 22.4% of votes.
Other candidates confirmed to be running are Senator Lynn Boylan for Sinn Féin, Cllr. James Geoghegan for Fine Gael, Cllr. Deirdre Conroy for Fianna Fáil, and Senator Ivana Bacik for Labour, Brigid Purcell for People Before Profit and Sarah Durcan for the Social Democrats.
Peter Dooley and Cllr. Mannix Flynn are running as Independent candidates.
Ryan congratulated Byrne and said the party has a ” real opportunity to reinvent and rebuild Dublin after Covid as a greener more liveable city, that prioritises housing, high quality transport, access to public spaces and a vibrant and diverse cultural life”.
“Claire has a track record on Dublin City council, and the experience and determination to succeed. I’m looking forward to an energetic campaign where we can engage with the public on our vision for our capital as a great place to live,” Ryan said.
Byrne has sat on Dublin City Council as a Green Party Councillor for the South East Inner City since 2014.
She ran for the party’s nomination against Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu, with both politicians confirming in May that they would seek the nomination.
Chu offered congratulations to Byrne in a tweet this evening.
“Congratulations to my colleague @CByrneGreen for being selected to run in the upcoming Dublin Bay South By Election for @greenparty_ie . Best of luck Claire in your campaign,” Chu wrote.
“Thanks to all the members who voted for me in this convention & there will most certainly be a next time.”
Meanwhile, Senator Lynn Boylan was officially selected to run for Sinn Féin after becoming the de-facto candidate earlier this week.
Boylan was the only name put forward for the party when a deadline passed on Wednesday and has been formally selected by members in the constituency this evening.
In a statement, she said that it was a “great honour to be selected to contest the upcoming by-election for Sinn Féin”.
“Nowhere is the crisis in housing more evident than in Dublin Bay South. “Workers and families are saddled with out of control rents and a whole generation are locked out of home ownership. That must change,” the senator said.
“We need a new approach to tackling the crisis created by ten years of Fine Gael in government,” she said.
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Think you will find they are not. You think the public finances are bad now. They would be orders of magnitude worse off in the case of unity. Add that to the almost certainty of a civil war in the North. Thanks but no thanks.
@Dave Connolly: agreed, there would definitely be a civil war if that happens anytime soon. As much as it would be nice to have a united ireland, I’d much prefer to be separated if it ment innocent lives saved.
@Dave Connolly: David McWilliams says the exact opposite to you. He says that Ireland would thrive with unity. No disrespect to you Dave but I would take the word of a very accurate economist such as McWilliams over you any day of the week.
@Dave Connolly: “Economist and commentator David McWilliams has said Brexit has made a united Ireland far more likely, and that reunification represented a huge opportunity for the North with no downside.”
https://irishplan.net/reunification-now-more-likely-represents-a-huge-opportunity-mcwilliams/
@James Beattie: In fairness, McWilliams hasn’t been right about anything since 2008
@James Beattie: here’s another view from the experts. It appears as though opinion is heavily divided on the cost/benefit. One thing is for sure, the security budget would go through the roof. Employment would also be interesting with 1 in 3 people working in the UK public sector.
@James Beattie:
There would have to be a peaceful transition to unity to have any economic effect.
@Mickety Dee: Any examples to back up your comment? He was ignored by FF in 2008 and look what happened, the biggest crash in almost a century resulting in the taxpayers bailing out a banking system that was allowed run riot.
@Mickety Dee: I presume you are trying to wind a few up on here. McWilliams is one of the leading economists in not only ireland but Europe. He is bang on the money.
@Dave Connolly: as long as the people of the North continue to vote for the parties of conflict ( SF and the DUP) the North will always be a sectarian pit. Until the likes of the peace Wall (gas a Wall built to stop two communities from attacking each other called a peace wall) Any one who thinks a united ireland would work is mad
@James Beattie: we get it, you wear David McWilliams pyjamas to bed at night.
@John Moloney: better than wearing a Union Jack one like you kiddo
@Chris Mc: I always knew I was mad.
@James Beattie: why? have you a problem with people choosing to wear union jacks? its the small comments like this that show just how difficult any unification would be.
@alan: never said I have a problem with it. More reading and less commenting would suit you much better
FF & FG have had 100 years of power between them in Ireland, wouldn’t it be nice if they put that ‘experience’ to use by entering their own candidates into future elections in the six counties to make a difference or would they prefer to remain on the fence? Surely there are members & supporters of both parties who would prefer our island to be united rather than occupied. Just throwing it out there.
@GrumpyAulFella: Think it’s 1 in 2 up the north.
@Dave Connolly: it’s a century or two before the bigots on both sides are out of the picture, by that stage we’ll be abandoning low lying land cause of rising sea levels and taking in millions of migrants cause of unlivable areas of the planet, Irish unity won’t be a priority then survival will be.
@Pat Barry: that’s even more scary.
Good. Nor should they. We’ve enough problems with 26 counties never mind the sectarianism rife in the other 6.
Thousands of people aren’t waking up at all, thanks to the SF and Unionist murder gangs.
have your say