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Updated at 17:30
INDEPENDENT PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL David Norris was dealt a blow this evening as he failed to secure the support of South Dublin County Council.
Norris had earlier secured the backing of Laois County Council, added to his nomination by Fingal County Council last week and was expected to gain the support of South Dublin County Council this evening but failed to do so.
The motion to nominate Norris, which was the only item on the agenda, failed by one vote – 12-11 against – with three abstentions.
It leaves Norris with two county council nominations so far. A candidate needs four in order to be on the ballot for the 27 October election.
Meanwhile, fellow independent candidate Dana Rosemary Scallon has secured the formal support of two local authorities today, meaning she needs two more.
Carlow County Council was the first to give her its backing this morning with Roscommon County Council also voting to back Dana this afternoon.
RTÉ Radio One reports that Carlow initially voted on a proposal to support Norris, but was tied on the motion. The deciding vote cast by the council chairperson was against backing Norris. The council then voted on the proposal to support Dana and approved the motion.
Roscommon followed suit this afternoon as had been expected.
This morning, Laois gave its backing to Norris whose mother was from that county. He had been widely expected to secure the backing of South Dublin County Council but failed to do so this evening.
Norris had also sought to get on the ballot through the backing of 20 Oireachtas members, but that effort came to an end last night after Independent TD Mattie McGrath announced he would not sign Norris’ nomination papers.
McGrath held a meeting last night with his Tipperary constituents and staff and said the majority voted against his backing Norris.
There are not enough Oireachtas members left who have not already assigned their support or ruled themselves out of the nomination process for Norris to get a nomination through that route.
In total, around a dozen councils are meeting early this week to decide on their potential nominations. Tomorrow, seven local authorities are set to meet.
Donegal County Council will meet at 10am to debate a Fianna Fail-proposed motion to nominate Scallon. Cork County Council will meet at 11am to consider a motion to nominate Norris.
At lunchtime, Waterford City Council is to meet to debate motions to nominate either Norris or Scallon.
Longford County Council is to meet at 4pm to debate a motion to nominate Scallon. Westmeath County Council will also meet on Tuesday to debate a motion to nominate Scallon.
On Tuesday evening, Dublin City Council will meet just before 7pm to discuss a motion to nominate Norris while at 7pm Cavan County Council will debate a Fianna Fáil-proposed motion to nominate Scallon.
Finally, on Wednesday morning, Kilkenny County Council is to meet at 8.30am to debate motions to nominate either Norris or Scallon.
The deadline for nominations to be delivered to the returning officer is 12 noon that day.
- additional reporting from Hugh O’Connell
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they did this in the uk over 20 yrs ago – the only difference it made was that response time were slower and ‘smaller’ crimes went un-investigated due to a lack of manpower at local level ,instead of getting an officer at your door to deal with an incident ,you got a ‘crime number ‘ from someone in a call centre , it was up to YOU to ‘check up’ on the ‘progress’ of the case, al that happened was that people stopped reporting ‘minor’ incidents like shed break-ins, car thefts ,street robberies etc , and those in charge of the police force were able to say that ”reported crime numbers were down ” and so deemed the move to regional offices a success . in reality -crime numbers were rising but no one was reporting them as they new it would be a waste of time doing so . what is needed is MORE gardai at local level -not fewer !
@Eric Davies: I thought the whole idea of the restructuring was to increase the number of garda and Sargents as there would be less admin and the reduction in high level salaries would be reinvested in local level gardai, hence the number of local gardai would increase, would it not?
@Eric Davies: and that’s when the Tony martin incident took place!!
@Eric Davies: yes I got a crime number in Cardiff Wales and that was that
@Vocal Outrage: It didn’t work when the divisions in England/Wales were reduced, there are 20,000 fewer officers now,the divisions in England/Wales rank 27 out of 31 in an International survey of the number of police officers per 100,000 population
@Honeybee: you are right. And guess what, we are ranked even lower.
@Vocal Outrage: thats how it was sold to people -but its not how it turned out – stations that were 20 or so miles apart were ‘amalgamated’ into one – some where even in different counties (lancashire and cheshire for instance) leaving one of the communities without proper cover – when shift changes took place officers had to be at the station for their ‘sign on’ briefing – by the time that was done it meant no officers being available in the non stationed town for over an hour sometimes 2 – also any incidents reported in the town where there was a station would get priority with regard to manpower as they were closer to the station … i know former police officers who were serving at the time and it messed up the entire system .
Also a list of where Krispy Kreme donut outlets will be opening up soon.
@WoodlandBard: hilarious
@Mark Spain: they’re shite donuts.
our fine ruc
@Kieran Cronin: yawn
@Kieran Cronin: Your stone must have needed cleaning that’s fine. Now crawl back under that stone. Stay their clown.
@Kieran Cronin: Muppet
@Kieran Cronin: I, for one, believe the Chief Constable is doing a fine job.
The Cities of Galway, Cork and Dublin are Regional HQs – Kilkenny is upgraded to include its very own ‘Regional Chief Superintendent’ while both the Cities of Limerick and Waterford are ignored? By most accounts both Limerick and Waterford have a higher inner-city crime rate then the entire County of Kilkenny. Something politically amiss here even though I think Commissioner Drew Harris is a breath of fresh air in the corp and the right person to lead the organisation.
@Conor Nolan:
because there is an eastern region covering from meath to waterford. Kilkenny would be in the middle of that. seems logical to me.
@Tim Pot: it does seem strange that. the regional HQ for the Eastern Region is in Kilkenny, I can understand the geography of that one, but the divisional HQ that covers Kilkenny itself will be in Waterford
@Vocal Outrage:
Its the same for the others, example the western region the regional hq is galway, the superintendant monaghan yet the monaghan division hq in drogheda. Its just about finding the right balance between local and central governance. I see no issue.
@Tim Pot: I guess so, I don’t think the army have their overall HQ is the same location as the HQ for the region it’s in, so perhaps that’s a better practice to avoid undue interference from the regional chief super or something
Wenger out
Anyone else see the ad for the fine transit there boss
Joke simple as
As kildare and meath have the lowest number of guards per population this is not good news. We need kildare meath wicklow and louth to be a region on their own. This will lead to these regions losing more guards to other regions. This is not a good idea.
have your say