Online tool to help Limerick voters decide on directly elected mayor

A WEBSITE developed by a senior lecturer in University of Limerick (UL) aims to make deciding who to vote for and in what preference, in the wide open directly elected mayor vote, a bit easier. 

The whichcandidate.ie website is run by the Department of Politics in UL and for both the European election and the directly elected mayor, it acts as a valuable resource for voters. 

The online tool allows people to anonymously indicate their views on a variety of issues and then the website will tally the responses with those of the candidates letting people see how closely their views align with those running. 

Dr Rory Costello explains to Limerick Live how it all works. 

“The candidates have answered the same set of questions that you have, so the results are based on how your answers compare.

“We are hoping that the site will reach people who would like to vote but have not been following the campaign all that closely. Many people are overwhelmed by the barrage of information coming from candidates (posters, leaflets, social media), and simply tune out. “This is especially true in an election like this where there may be (depending on your area) well over 50 candidates to choose from, across three different elections. A candidate-comparison tool such as this is an information shortcut that can help voters get up to speed.”

What issues divide the candidates for Mayor?

Comparing candidates on policy can be tricky, because there is a tendency for politicians to say they will deliver more of everything. But politics is about trade-offs.

For example, it isn’t possible to both cut local taxes and at the same time increase spending on local services. The questions that we put to the candidates for mayor can help to clarify the policy differences between them.

We asked the 15 mayoral candidates whether they agree or disagree with a set of statements on issues including housing, transport, the environment, health, and anti-social behaviour. All of their answers can be found on the website WhichCandidate.ie. On the basis of our survey, it is clear that there are sharp differences between the candidates on many issues.

A few examples will illustrate this. One question we asked was whether candidates agreed with the statement that ‘Too many one-off rural houses are being built in Limerick’. Three candidates (Brian Leddin, Laura Keyes and Ruairí Fahy) agreed, citing the need for more compact development. Six candidates disagreed (Frankie Daly, Maurice Quinlivan, Daniel Butler, Dee Ryan, Sarah Beasley, and Gerben Uunk) on the grounds that people need to be able to build next to their family. The remaining candidates took an intermediate position on this issue, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

A second example is the question of how to tackle hospital overcrowding. Although not strictly within the remit of the mayor, whoever occupies the position will be an important advocate on the issue. We asked candidates whether they agreed with the statement that ‘It is better to expand capacity in the UHL emergency department than to re-open other emergency departments in the region’. Three candidates agreed with this (Maurice Quinlivan, Brian Leddin and Sarah Beasley), arguing that emergency departments need to be located where specialised medical care can be provided. Seven candidates disagreed (Frankie Daly, Elisa O’Donovan, Ruairí Fahy, Caitríona Ní Chatháin, Conor Sheehan, John Moran and Gerben Uunk), saying that emergency departments in Ennis, Nenagh and St Joseph’s should be re-opened.

The other candidates neither agreed nor disagreed, saying that both expanding UHL and re-opening other emergency departments are needed at the same time.

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A final example that highlights some of the differences between the candidates relates to anti-social behaviour. We asked whether they agreed with the statement that ‘The council should be more willing to evict local authority tenants who engage

in anti-social behaviour’. Five candidates agreed with this, arguing that neighbours of such tenants can’t be allowed to suffer (Frankie Daly, Daniel Butler, John Moran, Maurice Quinlivan, Gerben Uunk). Three candidates neither agreed nor disagreed (Helen O’Donnell, Ruairí Fahy, Dee Ryan), while six disagreed on the grounds that it would lead to evicted tenants becoming homeless (Elisa O’Donovan, Laura Keyes, Caitríona Ní Chatháin, Conor Sheehan, Brian Leddin, Sarah Beasley).

There are many other issues where clear differences emerge between candidates, and these differences do not always fall along predictable left-right lines. This highlights the need to look beyond party labels when assessing the policies of candidates for mayor, or indeed candidates for the other two elections being held on Friday.

Check out the website here.