A picture tells a thousand words-See the pledge videos here

The Labour Party has really adapted to this whole blogging stuff, and here you see how we're now using Youtube to spread our message. This is my first venture into putting video clips on my site, so here goes. The point of these two video clips is to higlight two of Pat Rabbitte and my pledges to you on the key things we will deliver if you elect us as part of the Government for change. To those of you without broadband in Kilkenny, my apologies if you can't access these.

Marking Seamus Pattison's Retirement

In the coming week, we will see the dissolution of the government and an election called. For many of us this means the campaign to win a seat in the next Dáil, enters it final stages. However in Carlow / Kilkenny we are also marking the retirement after 46 years of Seamus Pattison.

Seamus has served both the Labour Party and people of Carlow / Kilkenny with great honour and dignity over these years. It is a credit to him that he was elected continually over many elections and through good and bad times for the Labour Party. I am proud to have worked on many of his campaigns and we had many long nights waiting for results to come in, but no matter what Seamus always pulled through.

It is only fitting that we thank Seamus and I personally am proud to be running as part of a strong team on behalf of the Labour Party to retain Seamus' seat and work for the people of Carlow / Kilkenny as he has done for many years.

It is popular now for varying vested interests to say that the people in each county should only vote and transfer to candidates living within their own counties. However Seamus is proof, if proof is needed, that it is the calibre of the person elected and not where they live that is important.

Seamus, thanks for the good years and I am grateful to you for the help and advice you have given so far in my campaign.

Call the Day Bertie

We had Pat Rabbitte down to visit last Friday and I would like to thank everyone who we met on the canvas trial. It is always nice to get a warn sunny day to get out and meet people, however the question on every ones limps was when will the big day be.

So come on Bertie call the election and come out and face the voters.

Extend the Line

As a former employee of Irish Rail, I have a great love and interest in railways and am fully supportive of the further development of the rail network in Ireland. However in South Kilkenny we have a situation of timber freight being transported into Waterford train station. It is then off loaded onto trucks and transported by road to the timber processing plant five miles away, near the Bellview Port. What makes this crazy is that the rail line passes within a mile of the timber plant and also when the timber is transported by road it passes through Ferrybank, which is a built up residential area.

It is time that Coillte, Irish Rail and Waterford Port Company to put their heads together and resolve this situation. The solution is so simple; all is needed is a small rail spur to be built directly into the plant. This would eliminate the need for the timber lorries to travel through Ferrybank. The Irish Exporters Association estimate that "One freight train takes 50 40-foot heavy good vehicles off the road, which results in a whole load of savings to the economy in the form of reduced road congestion, pollution and road accidents”

This should be a win win situation for everyone, the people of South Kilkenny get less lorries on the road and there is no need to pay the cost of transporting the timber by road from Waterford Station to the timber plant. Once again all that is lacking is the will and determination to make it happen.

Billboards every where

Just a quick foot note on the last blog entry. I am now told that the guys putting up the posters made another mistake. One of our billboard's with Jim and myself was put up in Cork City about two week's ago.

Goes to show you that we get our message around.

Any way Pat Rabbitte is visiting us tomorrow and I will blog an update over the weekend

Election Bill Board's

Thanks to the people who have complimented us on our bill boards. They have been very effective in raising our profiles across both counties. The fact that the person putting up the posters for our ad agency made a mistake and put one of my bill boards up in Carlow and one of Jim's bill boards up in Kilkenny has been fun as well. It is amazing the conspiracy theories that this has caused. I have enjoyed listening to people explain to me that they had it on "good information" that this was a secret Labour Party strategy to show favour for one candidate over another. One of the local newspaper reporters was printing this as fact this week. I now know what the expression savaged by a dead sheep feels like.

If we had known the mistake the guys made was going to cause so much fun, we would have had all the bill broads put up in the wrong places. Just goes to show that the truth should never stand in the way of a good story.