Thank you!

A huge thank you to those of you who voted for me, and especially for everyone who put in so much hard work over the campaign. I'm delighted to be back on Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown CC for another five years.The first council meeting was last Friday. Labour have agreed a five-year programme for the council with FG, and I'll be posting it here.

Dundrum Main Street Closure

Dundrum Main Street will be closed between 1 and 5 pm on Sunday, 28 June. It's for the Dundrum Festival céili and street entertainment.

The alternative route will be via Dundrum By-Pass, Wyckham Way and the Sandyford Road and vice versa. A Traffic Plan will be in operation and diversions will be signposted.

Hoping for your No. 1 vote on 5 June.

I've noticed that traffic to this website has increased a fair bit in recent weeks. For those coming to find out more about what I stand for and who I am, this post should provide you with some of my ideas.

By way of introduction, I'm from Churchtown and now live with my wife Aimee and three children in Meadow Grove in Dundrum. I'm 38, and outside politics, I've worked as a freelance editor for most of the past ten years. Before that, I worked in publishing. I went to school in De La Salle Churchtown and UCD. Sport is my main interest after politics, and I help out coaching in GAA and rugby at weekends.

For a general overview of my political outlook, you can see two pieces here and here .

Good planning is something I care deeply about, and some of my comments on planning in the area are here, here and here. Transport is obviously also a concern, and I have various pieces on Dublin Bus cutbacks and the need for extra buses. You can find pieces on education, special needs, and local government finance, and lots more. If you cannot find anything on a question that interests you, please don't hesitate to email. There's lots more on the site, and I've just flagged up some of the more general issues here. Have a look around.

Having lived in the area all my life, and with my children now growing up here, I passionately care that it succeeds and that we continue to improve it. I hope I can count on your No. 1 vote.

Three really useful pieces of information for canvassers

Found this on the canvass this evening.

Sandyford Busway not needed.

Have had some concern on the canvass about the return of the dreaded Sandyford Link Road, the road originally planned to run across the back of the Airfield estate. I have commented before on this madness here, here and here. I should probably explain where this is coming from. In his initial draft, the county manager proposed a dedicated busway alongside the Luas. I proposed a motion deleting this on the grounds that (1) it made no sense to connect two Luas stations by bus; (2) this was along the line of the Sandyford Link Road that was unacceptable to the council in the past; (3) the Airfield estate would lose some more land.

The rationale for this proposal was to provide a bus link between UCD and Dundrum. That's fine, but it is daft for it to go along the proposed alignment, so it was agreed that feasibility studies could be undertaken on linking Dundrum to the Drummartin Link Road. That is now in the draft development plan, and it is only the draft. You can make submission on this or any other proposal in the draft plan before 3 July. Details are here.

New Gaelcholaiste needed

You would think that with all that's talked about supporting the Irish language that a group of dedicated parents, a vacant school site, and demonstrably strong demand for a new secondary school would be met with open arms by the Department of Education. But you'd be wrong.

Since 2004, this committee has been campaigning for a new secondary school in the south Dublin area. I was happy to pass on the suggestion made by a constituent that the recently vacated Dundrum College would make an ideal, ready-made site at minimal cost.

I was delighted therefore to go along to give some support to the parents and children last week as they try to make their voices heard. Go raibh maith agaibh.

Time to focus on the big picture

With the latest shocking forecasts from the ESRI, it really is time that we all, political parties especially faced up to the full extent of the problems facing the country. It is really time that we got over the small stuff. Getting rid of a few junior ministers, or trimming expenses is meaningless in the context of the issues we face. It might make us all feel a little bit better, but it's going nowhere in terms of the bigger picture. That picture looks an awful lot worse today than it did yesterday.

This article is quite uncanny when you read it in an Irish context. There's too much good stuff in it, so rather than trying to summarise it - read it yourself here.

New Pool opens Monday

Delighted to report that the new swimming pool at Meadowbrook, Dundrum opens on Monday. I visited it already, and it's a fantastic facility for the whole community.

As well as the pool (25m) and learner pool, the facility has a fully equipped gym, 2 astro pitches, 2 squash courts, tennis court, basketball court, aerobics room and meeting room. There's also a coffee dock and seating area.

You can email the centre here, or their website is here. The phone number is 2984654.

The facility is of course long overdue, but it took a lot of work by many people to ensure it happened. I'm happy to have played my part, but full credit must also go to those who campaigned so hard for the past number of years. It is also time to salute the founders of the old DFRC in 1970s, who, when times were hard stumped up their own money to build the old pool.

It's a new beginning, and one of the best days in my time representing Dundrum.