Sinn Féin launches bid for county council seat

Cllr Paul Hogan of Sinn Féin has said he is confident he can retain his position on Athlone Town Council and pick up a seat on Westmeath County Council at next year"s local authority elections. The party held its selection convention for next year"s campaign at the Shamrock Lodge Hotel last Thursday evening and it ratified Cllr Hogan"s nomination to contest the seats on the Town Council and in the Athlone Area of the county council. The 25-year-old said he was 'looking forward to the forthcoming election with relish' after he was nominated by Ronan O"Faolain and seconded by John Monaghan. Speaking to the Westmeath Independent after the event, Cllr Hogan said Sinn Féin was in a strong position locally. 'From 1999 to 2004, our electoral support in Athlone grew by 500%. Last year (at the general election), approximately 700 people from the Athlone area came out and supported our politics. Now, despite the boundary changes and the fact that the Athlone area of the county council has lost one seat, we are still very confident that we will take a seat on the county council. 'That confidence is based on the reception that we are getting in the communities. It"s going on the number of representations that I am getting per day. It"s going on our increased membership, which has seen a rapid increase even since the No to Lisbon campaign,' he said. He added that the party had carried out polls and surveys in communities around Athlone to help determine the issues it will campaign on next year. A member of Sinn Féin since the age of 16, Cllr Hogan said he had learned a lot in the four and a half years since he was elected to the town council. 'Every day in politics you"re going to learn something new,' he said. Donegal councillor and Sinn Féin candidate for the European elections in the North West, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn, addressed last Thursday"s meeting in Athlone. Cllr MacLochlainn told those in attendance that Cllr Hogan 'exemplifies all that is best about Republicans' and that Athlone was lucky to have a public representative of his calibre. He stated that the party"s performance in the 2007 general election was a disappointment but that Sinn Fein had faced tougher times in the past and would recover. Cllr MacLochlainn also attacked Fianna Fail"s description of itself as "The Republican Party," stating that the recent budget cutbacks affecting the elderly, farmers, schoolteachers and children did not exemplify Republican values. In nominating Cllr Hogan to stand again next year, Ronan O"Faolain stated that he had 'shaken up the town council' since 2004 and had raised Sinn Féin"s profile to an unprecedented level in Athlone. Cllr Hogan referred to his 2004 victory in his speech, saying: 'Let"s be clear about one thing: this isn"t Paul Hogan"s seat, this is Sinn Féin"s seat, it"s our seat. And in that respect it"s up to everyone present to ensure that after the election in 2009 we will have retained our seat on the Town Council and gained a seat on Westmeath County Council.' He outlined his party"s priorities in the area which included: Annual targets for the Town Council on the construction of social and affordable housing; the creation of a homeless centre 'where those less fortunate can be guaranteed a safe lodging'; a joint policing committee to tackle crime; a "dial to stop drug dealing" scheme; the provision of driving centres for student motorists, and the accelerated provision of the proposed primary care centre in Athlone.