French declaration of independence to have ripple effect in Trim

Electorate: 27,281

Seats: 6

Sitting Councillors

Aisling Dempsey (FF), Joe Fox (FG), Noel French (IND), Trevor Golden (IND), Ronan Moore (Soc Dem) Niamh Souhan (FG) (All running again).

Candidates: Dave Boyne (Aontú), Padraig Coffey (FF) Aoife Drew (SF), Luba Healy (FG) Daithi McEvoy (SF), Tracy McElhinney (Lab).

WITH just 12 candidates in the fray for the six seats on offer, Trim Municipal District has the smallest field of the six electoral areas in Meath County Council.

Stretching from the outskirts of Navan, down to Castlejordan at the Offaly border, while also skirting counties Kildare and Westmeath, it covers a large rural area as well as the big population centres of Trim and Enfield and the smaller villages of Summerhill, Ballivor, Longwood, Clonard and Kildalkey.

All six sitting councillors are putting themselves forward for re-election but while Noel French ran for the Fine Gael party last time round and was the clear poll topper, this time he is running as an independent. With a strong personal vote behind him, he is tipped to retain his seat but it will be interesting to see how his decision to go independent impacts the result and what way his transfers go if he polls anywhere near as well as the last outing when he got almost double the quota to achieve the highest vote ever in a Meath County Council election in 2019. He was returned on the first count along with Joe Fox and Fine Gael managed to get a third candidate elected in Niamh Souhan from Enfield.

With French gone from the fold, it is unlikely that the party will hold onto its three seats though the general feeling is that Fox a long term Fine Gael member should be safe. The party is also running Luba Healy, a Ukrainian national who has lived in Trim for over 20 years and is married to local businessman Eugene Healy of Trimfold. Luba has been a strong advocate for Ukrainians and undertook a number of missions delivering aid to the war-torn country. As well as being well known in Trim, she should benefit from the migrant vote but has acknowledged herself that a lot of Ukrainians she spoke to while canvassing hadn't yet registered to vote.

Fianna Fail currently has just one sitting councillor in the Trim MD- Aisling Dempsey daughter of former minister Noel Dempsey who held a seat in the constituency from 1987 until he stepped down from politics in 2011.

With the Dempsey vote behind her and a strong presence in the community as well as online, she is expected to hold onto the seat she first won in 2019.

The party's second candidate is Padraig Coffey, a butcher from Enfield. Padraig is a well-known businessman in Enfield and will be well aware of the issues facing business in the district. Also running from Enfield is Sinn Féin candidate Aoife Drew (pictured), who is also the youngest candidate putting herself forward for election having turned 18 in April.

Since the days of Willie Carey, Enfield has always elected a councillor but whether Coffey or Drew can usurp Niamh Souhan from that Enfield seat remains to be seen. While Souhan generally doesn't contribute at the MD meetings she has a strong online presence particularly in recent weeks as campaigning has ramped up.

The question of the importance of a social media presence in the modern world of politics is an interesting one and sitting Independent Trevor Golden has opted to stay out of the social media fray, a risky strategy some would say. However, he is the most experienced councillor seeking re-election, having been first elected to Trim Town Council in 2004 and then to Meath County Council in 2014 after the aboliiton of town councils and was re-elected in 2019. If French achieves a big first preference vote, Golden should also do well out of his transfers as the only other independent.

The 2019 elections were a disaster for Sinn Féin when the party lost a swathe of councillors including Caroline Lynch in Trim who had topped the poll in 2014. This time round the party is expected to take back a seat in Trim MD and is running two candidates who are both young candidates- Aoife Drew (pictured left) who is 18 and a member of Ógra Sinn Féin and Daithi McEvoy, from Trim town has got some experience on the ground working in the Trim office.

Ronan Moore is the only candidate for the Social Democrats in Meath and is very involved in Trim Tidy Towns and has also done a lot of work in Enfield on the Town Centre First team. He would have benefitted from the swing against Sinn Fein last time out so if Sinn Fein polls well this could affect his vote though he has five years experience as a councillor behind him which will stand to him.

Tracey McElhinney from Ballivor is running for the Labour Party, one of just three going forward in Meath for Labour and with the party's fortunes still on the wane and having only recently declared, she will have a hard task ahead. The Aontu candidate is Dave Boyne, an engineer from Trim, who is running for the first time. In 2019, the party's candidate polled a respectable 603 votes, the same as Golden.

The issues for the electorate in Trim MD range from transport, commuting, cost of living, and housing to access to GP services, and childcare.

Justyna Doherty Co-ordinator with Trim Family Resource Centre which works with families in Trim and across South Meath said transport and cost of living are big issues for people. For those living in rural areas, the new Enfield to Navan service is welcome but is a limited service and she said it is difficult for people in these areas to get to appointments and for some of her staff using Bus Eireann services to get to works, reliability of services is a problem and they have to take an earlier service to be guarnteed to be on time. There are also regular complaints of unreliability of services for commuters working in Dublin.

Trim FRC runs a food bank and there is huge demand for food packages with calls also coming from other areas such as Navan and Dunshaughlin. They don't currently operate in these areas but Justyna said they may have to review this and see if they can provide additional capacity to other areas such is the demand. Lack of access to HSE services for children is another concern. "Where staff are available they are fantastic but where there are posts not filled there are gaps and there are long waiting lists to get access to services for children with additional needs which is then impacting on the family situation at home".

Lack of accommodation or suitable accommodation is another major issues and Justyna said any houses that become available are snapped up. Access to GP services also regularly comes up with many doctors no longer taking on new patients as their books are full.

Enfield is a large growth area in the Trim MD and is destined to grow further with new houses coming on stream. For voters there, transport, commuting and traffic are a big issue according to Angela Smith of Enfield Development Group. She said many of the issues had come up during the Town Centre First consultations and that a transport study is needed before many of them can be addressed. Delivering the new secondary school building, childcare and access to GP services are also high on the agenda.

"People understand the need for new housing and obviously there are a lot of new houses coming Enfield's way but there doesn't seem to be anything about all the cars that come with it, or services like GPs, people say doctors surgeries are not taking in new patients.

A lot of work has been put into the town centre first plan and Anglea says they now want to see the actions implemented and this is subject to funding. For commuters issues like the price of fares, and access to commuter parking are also issues.

"There is a massive car park that is underutilised at the train station but it is too far away from the bus stop. It would be ideal for a transport hub. There is plenty of parking in Enfield but it is not in the right places to line up with where the buses are stopping. People want to be able to use public transport but there is no joined up thinking."