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The Leader Interview..with John Sheahan, Fine Gael
THE new leader of Fine Gael in Limerick, Glin's John Sheahan, will offer himself for selection to run for Fine Gael in the next general election in the new Kerry North / West Limerick constituency.
The 44-year-old insurance advisor and part-time farmer accepts, however, that the chances of one of the three seats going to the West Limerick area are not high because not enough Limerick votes were transferred to Kerry to enable them to elect one of the three TDs.
"I have ambition and the people who twice elected me to council expect me to have ambition on their behalf," he said.
Cllr Sheahan dislikes the new configuration of the Dail constituencies, describing the breaching of the Limerick-Kerry boundary as "completely ludicrous" and said that the more logical arrangement would have been to make Kerry a single five-seat constituency.
He sees merit in there being a Limerick City constituency, stretching, as it does, from Castleconnell to Mungret, but believes that the rest of Limerick county should have remained as a unit.
He said that he expects that the people transferred to Kerry will vote for whatever Limerick candidates are on offer, regardless of party, before voting for Kerry-based candidates, and that would have the effect of splitting the political loyalties, making the election of a member from the far west of County Limerick improbable.
Jimmy Deenihan had done very well at the last election, he said, but that was when there was no Spring on the ballot paper, whereas there probably will be next time, and that would reduce the chance of Fine Gael getting a second seat in the revised constituency.
John Sheahan became leader-in-council of Fine Gael during the life of the last council when Cllr Patrick O'Donovan stepped down for professional reasons.
In last month's local elections, Sheahan headed the poll in the Rathkeale electoral area, being just 26 votes short of the quota on the first count, and contributed to Fine Gael achieving an unprecedented three seats from four and thus giving Fine Gael a majority in the overall council for the first time ever.
The job of majority leader is to arrange the business of the council and also to influence policy. Sheahan has many thoughts on administrative structure and policy.
Accepting that money is tight, he still wants a small budget so that the elected councillors can obtain independent legal advice on contentious matters where, at present, councillors have to follow the advice obtained by the county manager or face possible individual surcharge.
"It often depends on how you pose a question. We're out among the people and we represent the consumer's point of view. The manager and his staff are looking at it differently. Independent advice would be helpful," he said. "We're not professionals and I feel that we should have access to independent legal advice."
Cllr Sheahan said that it would be a matter of discussion between the political parties as to when and on what issues such advice would be sought.
He has strong views on how government works at local, regional and national level.
At local level he is disappointed that much of the county remains under planning constraint while route options of the Abbeyfeale, Newcastle West and Adare bypasses and a possible further bypass of Rathkeale are being considered.
"There should be relaxation in relation to planning for one-off rural housing, for example. Planning is often refused for simple reasons of design."
He said that the county development plan will be the bible for planning into the future and he urged that everyone should make a submission to be taken into consideration. Regional development planning was also important.
Cllr Sheahan's most radical suggestion, however, was the regionalisation of the entire public administration and government system.
He said that a single authority for Limerick would not suit the county, partly because the result would be to concentrate most resources in and towards the city.
While maximum co-operation should take place in terms of planning and the provision of services, he said that the best outcome would be in a regional system of government, relatively autonomous of the present centralised system and, as far as possible, self financing.
He said that he envisaged county and city councils having nominees on the regional assemblies which would assume authority for many functions now directed from Dublin. Local revenue raising would replace monies currently being channelled through Dublin, he said.
The current regional authority for Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary, headquartered in Nenagh, does not have power to act as a regional government, he said.
Cllr Sheahan said that it would be a matter for political decision as to whether some form of subsidy would be allocated to the poorest region or regions to bring them up to the national average. He envisaged that Dublin would constitute one region, with three or four others.
"We're talking about simple co-operation. For example, we in County Limerick put in bus lanes at Dooradoyle and on the Ennis Road with a view to easing the journey to the city centre and taking car traffic off the roads, but they end at the city boundary and go no further because the City Council didn't co-ordinate with us."
Cllr Sheahan said that Ireland doesn't need 166 TDs and that that number exists only because clientelism means that many constituents often use TDs as the first port of call if they have any problem - problems which have to do with local authority matters.
"We got rid of the dual mandate so that TDs are no longer also councillors, but people still go to them and expect them to act as councillors. With regional government, we could reduce the number of TDs at a national level. He said that he does not like the situation whereby the county council collects revenue, but is dependent on central government as to how much and on what is spent."
One annoyance to him is that the amount of development levy contributions paid to Limerick County Council, which have risen to a nest egg of €26 million since 2003, is frozen and the council is allowed to spend only what it will raise in the current year.
"Development is almost at a standstill and that money is being used by central government as a capital asset to put in the books," he said. He undertook to pressurise the county manager to seek the release of the money.
Now that Fine Gael has a majority in council, it will seek to lead, he said.
"I do not believe in cop-out politics," he said. "If unpopular decisions which affect the whole county have to be taken, the gift has been given to us to take that responsibility.
He referred to issues of forward planning as examples where councillors should lead.
Cllr Sheahan agreed that local authority money is tight but said that he believed that there are leaks and inefficiencies from which savings could be made without affecting services.
He said that one such waste, which had been avoidable, was the €400,000 spent on route selection for the Adare bypass, only to have the entire scheme torn up and the bypass is now to be a connection to the proposed M20 motorway from Limerick to Cork.
"This will take another €400,000 to design," he said.
The County Council has an underused function as a job promotion agency, said Cllr Sheahan, and he hopes to encourage the County Enterprise Board to promote small industrial enterprise.
But John Sheahan is an Estuary man, never having lived away from his home parish. He says that the Shannon Estuary is an unrecognised asset, underutilised and underdeveloped.
"I'd like to see the N69 developed as a tourism route and as a main gateway into Kerry and on to Tralee and Killarney. There are many attractions, such as Glin Castle here, the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, Askeaton, and visitor gardens as well as the scenery of the Estuary itself."
Cllr Sheahan was born into a farming family at Ballyguiltenane, Glin, where the family was staunchy Fine Gael and were friends with the late TDs Denis Jones and Willie O'Brien.
The young John attended Ballyguiltenane school and Tarbert Comprehensive, before going on to third level. Ironically, one of his teachers at Tarbert was a young Jimmy Deenihan, the current TD for Kerry North with whom Cllr Sheahan hopes to share the Fine Gael ticket at the next election.
Married to Mary Stack, the couple have two daughters, Nicola and Claire.
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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