So, while I figure out what has happened, and where everything has gone, I’d like to say two things:

Firstly, a major thank you to everyone who helped me out on the council over the last five years. Personally, politically and professionally. Getting elected wasn’t easy in the first place; it took a great team of people to do that, and I hope I lived up to what you wanted to see in a councillor. Letterkenny Town Council has a great team of highly professional staff, who work closely with the Councillors to get things done. That’s why the Town has done so well in the last decade or so, and it’s why we have so much to show for the good years we saw here.

Secondly, I want to wish the councillors – re-elected councillors, new members Cllr Tom Crossan and Cllr Jimmy Kavanagh, and returning councillor Tadhg Culbert – the very best for the next five years. If the Council does well, Letterkenny does well. It’s hard to overstate the importance of a local authority in creating the right environment for a town as somewhere to live, work and grow up, and the input of the nine councillors will be key to achieving that.

I’ll post more of my thoughts on my time on the council, and my hopes for the next council, as soon as I can figure out what’s going on with the site here.

Update: through a combination of Google Cache and a few backups, I should be able to restore all the content. It will take a while, but I’ll get it sorted.

It’s been a busy few weeks, but a great experience. The team in Blue State are fantastic; they really know there stuff about online campaigning. In particular, they focus more on strategy than on technology, and that’s something Fianna Fáil will hopefully benefit from greatly.

Joe Rospars, one of the founding partners of the company, was in Dublin today as part of a wider trip to Europe. I pushed Fianna Fáil to organise a public event rather than a private, party only event. I put out the invite through Strawberry Media, and organised the event.  We were delighted with the turnout, about a hundred people showed up and we were able to get a good Q&A going with Joe himself afterwards.

I spoke to a number of people afterwards, the majority of whom were very positive about it. One person did mention that a few people were unhappy about the way it had been advertised, and that it hadn’t been publicised as a Fianna Fáil event, and I see messages on Twitter about it as well.

The idea to have the public event, rather than a private one, was mine, and the decision to push it from Strawberry Media was mine as well. Why? I wanted as wide an audience as possible to hear Joe’s talk, and to get the opportunity to question him directly. I felt that some people would have not wanted to attend a Fianna Fáil event, but would love to hear Joe Rospars. This wasn’t the launch of the Fianna Fáil website.

So rather than organise a glitzy launch with banners, posters, videos or the like, we had an open, free event, with a short introduction to say why Joe was in town.  Sean Dorgan, party General Secretary spoke to introduce the fact that Joe was in town in connection with his work for Fianna Fáil, and that the party wanted to have his expertise out in the open rather than tied in for the party only.

The event was 10:1 Joe Rospars to Fianna Fail; we’ll have the video online in a few days. Joe’s content wasn’t affected by us, we didn’t discuss it with him before hand, and he spoke for over 40 minutes as opposed to less than 5 from people from the party.

I’m genuinely sorry that anyone is upset about the way I handled the run up to the event; I hope that the quality of Joe’s talk, and the ability to hear first hand his impressions of Irish and European politics, in some way makes up for it.

I’m thankfully for everyone who turned up, and for all the great feedback I received on the night.

Update: (26/2/09) Here’s the text of the Press Invite (PDF) sent to members of the tech press. It features an FF logo and details of why Joe was in town. He also discussed this on RTE Radio 1 with Mary Wilson around 5pm on the day.

This post is one of a few that have been mangled recently; I’m working to restore all the comments that I possibly can. They will return here in the coming days.

This is a massive blow to Letterkenny and Lifford, and the surroundings communities. All local representatives have come out against this, and a number of meetings have taken place between local reps and senior officials and ministers. This is a terrible decision, which will impact in a number of ways, both for the people involved and their families and for the wider community of the town.

People employed at Rockhill have made a massive contribution to Letterkenny over the years. The base will be sorely missed, for economic and social reasons.

Thanks to Amy Rose Harte in the Donegal News and Donna Deeney in the Letterkenny Post for the write-ups this week, on my decision not to seek election to Donegal County Council and to step down from Letterkenny Town Council at the election on June 4th.

I made the decision not to seek a nomination for the County Council in December, when the candidate selection interviews took place. After considering my position for a long time, and consulting with family, friends and supporters, I’ve also decided not to seek re-election for the Town Council.

The articles talk about “personal and professional reasons”, which boils down to the limited number of hours in any given day. The merging of the Letterkenny and Milford electoral areas gave me a fantastic opportunity to take a seat on Donegal County Council, which would mean spending much more time on politics and less time for work, study and a personal life.  Since starting work at Strawberry Media in March, things have been great, and there is a number of things I want to do there which will require commitments of time at work, and time working with clients up an down the country.

The decision came down to figuring out how to strike the right balance, and give each element the commitment they deserve. Where I to remain on the Town Council, and do the personal, professional and academic things I intend to, something would definitely suffer. By not seeking re-election to the Town Council, I hope someone with the ability to commit full-time to the role will get the seat and continue to work for the people of the Town.

Is this the end for me and politics? Certainly not. I will be active during the campaign for Fianna Fail, both in Letterkenny and wherever else I can help. I take my position as a Councillor very seriously, and will be working on local issues right up until the end of my term. I also intend to continue supporting a number of the groups I have worked with over the last five years. I won’t rule anything in or out for the future, as circumstances will certainly change, but the decision at this stage is made. I love politics, and public service, and I hope I can be of help in the future, in whatever way.

Being a Councillor has given me an awful lot, I’ve really enjoyed the role and the interaction with people in Letterkenny, across the Country and around the world. It has even helped me professionally, particularly through this website. I’ve learned a huge amount in the last five years, from the first day of campaigning right up to today as I write this.

I have a list of people to thank as long as my arm, so I can’t really get in to it here for fear of leaving someone out. Family and friends have been key, particularly Mary who has had the key role of settling me whenever I get worked up about an issue (and stopping me saying something/doing stupid!). The Fianna Fail party, and all those who supported my campaign, made it all happen. The local media here gives great coverage to the issues, much more so than in many other towns around the country. The online community, bloggers and readers, who have contributed here and elsewhere. My fellow councillors, and the staff at Letterkenny Town Council, have  a great working relationship that moves beyond party politics and delivers for the people of the town. And certainly, the people of Letterkenny who gave me their trust and have made everything over these busy years worth it.

So, back to work, still five months to go!

If you are unlikely to be able to vote in person on Thursday 24th May (and you are already registered to vote), it is not too late to apply for a postal vote. If you are accepted as a postal voter (due to being resident in a different place to where you’re registered – i.e. a student from Cork living in Dublin during term-time for college), you must vote by post – you can’t then turn up at your polling booth in Cork.

Your application for a postal vote goes to the local authority area in which you’re already registered – Donegal County Council in this area.

This must be done by Tuesday. (An application by an elector to have his name entered in the supplement to the postal voters list received by the registration authority on or after the third day after the dissolution of the Dáil at a general election … shall not have effect in relation to that election or referendum).

If you, or anyone you know, will require a postal vote, my advice is to ring Sheila in Dr McDaid’s office on 074 916 8642. Registrations have to be in by 4pm tomorrow (Tuesday)

I’ve just signed the petition (#815). The Local Elections in 2004 took place on a Friday, with polls open from 7am until 9pm if (I remember correctly). I went to great effort to ensure as many people as possible made it back from College and work in Dublin to get their votes in, but this wasn’t possible in all cases. Thankfully, I got enough votes to see me elected, but I definitely felt that there was a large amount of younger voters who lost out on voting in their local elections; even a 10pm close of polls would have been an improvement.

I’m delighted to support the campaign for a weekend poll; part of me thinks a Sunday may even be a good option, as happens in many European countries.

We should know fairly soon what day the election will be called on. I hope Bertie will see sense and go for a suitable date.

I hope to make the opening of the new unit at the Hospital today, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to, due to a heavy work load. Indeed, I was unable to make the Taoiseach’s last visit to Donegal for the same reasons (I was out of the county).

A sure sign that there’s an election in the air is the fact that Bertie is attending 15 functions in Donegal North East, and then travels to Donegal South West for the campaign launches for Pat The Cope Gallagher and Mary Coughlan.

Clearly the biggest thing to happen was the shocking carnage on the roads in Donegal over St Patrick’s Weekend. In the past, I have not been slow to talk about issues of Road Safety. This time it’s been different. It really has taken me this long to gather my thoughts on the issue.

What happened last weekend has shown, beyond any belief, how serious the problem is in Donegal. Five people died on our roads. Most notably for me was the death, in a hit-and-run, of Laura Hegarty. I didn’t know Laura, but I know her family. What I’ve heard about the incident has really shocked me. The Hegarty family have been hit so hard; I ca’t imagine what they must be going through. Events of the last few days (a driver is understood to have come forward to admit driving the car) may have brought some closure, but the Hegarty family have been robbed of a daughter and sister and there is nothing that can change that.

There were more deaths on the roads in Donegal this weekend. Travelling back from Galway on Sunday night, I passed the scene of an accident in Co Mayo, and missed a fatal accident near Ballybofey by about twenty minutes. This is despite one of the largest Gardai presences I’ve ever seen on the road.

I don’t know the solution to all of this. Well, I do and I don’t. It all comes back to personal responsibility, making people responsibly for their (our) actions on the roads. Some accidents are destined to happen, but many are caused by behaviour that we may not consider negligent at the time (lifting the phone, shouting at the radio, reaching for something in the Glove compartment, not noticing you’ve slipped a few miles over the speed limit), but all become contributing factors in statistical reports on road deaths.

Donegal gets a lot of coverage as being the worst location in Ireland for Road Deaths. This map puts things into perspective; Donegal is terrible, but so is the rest of the Country.

I don’t know what we can do.

From what I’ve found over the last few days, the following are the Waste Collectors to provide door-to-door Bin service for the Letterkenny area. I’ve listed them alphabetically. If there are any more, please contact me or leave a comment on this post.

• DM Waste Tel (074) 915 7189
• Donegal Waste Tel (074) 912 6719
• Ferry’s Refuse Tel (074) 955 1412

As far as I’m aware, all these companies provide both a standard refuse bin, and a kerbside recycling bin.

Some of the casual traders were mounting a legal challenge to the Bye-Laws we passed last year, on a technical point of law. They sought to have the Casual Trading Bye-Laws overturned, leaving no regulations in place for the times, locations and amount of traders on the streets in the town. Their legal challenge effectively meant that there were no regulations in place, as the Gardai were unable to enforce the Bye-Laws while the challenge proceeded.

The case was dealt with during last week’s sitting of the Court in Letterkenny. The challenge was rejected, meaning the Gardai will now be able to enforce the Bye Laws and that casual trading will now be regulated in Letterkenny for the first time.

It took a long time, a lot of consulation and substantial negotiation to get the Bye Laws agreed. When they were passed, most people involved seemed fairly happy; including the Chamber of Commerce, most casual traders, and traders on the Main Street. The legal challenge came out of the blue, and has caued real problems. I’m delighted it’s now sorted, and we can now see the law enforced in the town.

We’ve been working to ensure the Polestar be properly illuminated since it was first erected back in August ‘06. Letterkenny Town Council, the ESB and the artist, Locky Morris, have been working since then to ensure the artwork was lit properly. Rather than just pointing a few floodlights at it, there are now 12 smaller lights located around the base of the Polestar which shine upwards through the monument.

I went out last night to take some photos to put up here. I’m the first to admit that I don’t really know what I’m doing with my camera. For a start, I went out to take photos at night without a tripod. That did lead to one or two, ahem, interesting photos:

In the end, a combination of the 10 second delay on the camera, and the nearby bench seating, had to do the job. I’m very happy with how the photos came out- as I say, I don’t really know my way around a good camera yet.

I’ve put five photos in total in to my Flickr account, here’s the other three. Click on any of them to see the larger image:

Click here for more info on the Polestar

One group working to raise awareness of MRSA, and to seek solutions, is MRSA and Families. The group will be hosting a major conference in the Silver Tassie in Letterkenny on March 2nd and 3rd. They have a number of speakers lined up, including Dr Kevin Kelleher, the Assistant National Director of the HSE with responsibility for Population Health Protection, and Paul Bergervoet, Infection Control Director at Debenter Hospital in Holland.

Further information on MRSA and families is available from their website at wallofsilence.ie, and more information on the conference is available from Rosemary Cassidy. To contact Rosemary, email me and I’ll send you her address.

Update: MRSA will be discussed on tonight’s Late Late Show (Jan 19). MRSA and families will be represented.

I’ve just received the draft register of electors for November 25th. For Donegal residents, this can be checked online by clicking here. A list of ways to check for other regions is available on RegisterToVote.ie.

It’s absolutely vital that voters check this list. Corrections must be submitted before November 25th at the latest. If you’re not on this list, it may be difficult to get registered before the next election.

If you’re not on the list, get in contact with me (or your local public rep, if you’re outside Donegal) and I’ll help you get on the register.

I’ve posted two updates on the RoadSafetyBlog.com site today.

First up was proposals on how to move the project forward over the coming weeks. The big date to hit is November 27th, which is the closing date for submissions to the Road Safety Authority’s Road Safety Strategy, 2007 – 2012.

Secondly, a post aimed at Bebo users. As many of you have said, we need to expand this campaign beyond just bloggers, and we all know how many young people in Ireland use Bebo. I’ve setup a page at http://roadsafety.bebo.com and sent invites to the people I know on Bebo. It’s the first time I’ve used Bebo, so if there’s anyone who can help out with this side of things please get in touch. And, of course, if you’re a bebo user, please sign up!

Comments are welcome; please post them on the original post

I’ve posted an update on the RoadSafetyBlog.com website with a plan as to how we can proceed, and to get a submission in for the Road Safety Authority’s upcoming Road Safety Strategy 2007 – 2012. I’d appreciate any comments you have on these proposals.

If you have any ideas on ways to spread this campaign, please leave a comment here.

Here’s some of the sites and blogs that have made submissions:
Twenty Major (NSFW)
Comments on Mulley.net
EastMeath.org
IrishElection.com
Gerry O’Sullivan
Branedy
Stall The Ball
Winds and Breezes
RedMum
The Community At Large
Eirepreneur
Dan Sullivan
Michele Neylon
Letters from the Idiot
Donncha O’Caoimh
Gerry Gainford
Head Rambles