LIMERICK’S youngest councillor is passionate about rural areas of the county and endeavours to make them an attractive place to live and work for his generation, writes Alan Jacques. The Limerick Post political reporter caught up with the newly-elected Independent Ireland councillor.
23-YEAR-OLD Tommy Hartigan, a first time representative for the Adare-Rathkeale district, counts supporting local businesses and preserving local traditions as among his key aims, he tells me.
The young Pallaskenry native has recently seen scores of his own friends emigrate to Australia for lack of opportunity on home soil, and it is that same sense of frustration and hopelessness felt by his contemporaries that pushed him into politics.
“No person 19 or 20 expects to be in their own house at this stage,” he tells me. “There’s people getting great jobs, jobs that years ago you would have said ‘that’s them sorted now’, but the money isn’t getting people anywhere.”
The youngest elected member of Limerick City and County Council says that “school and college wasn’t for me”.
“I went working in hospitality, so by the time I was 20 I was in a job taking home €650 a week. That wouldn’t get you anywhere these days in terms of renting or trying to buy, but you maintain a car, pay for food, bills, and live a little,” he said.
However watching friends secure jobs “that were seen as great jobs five or 10 years ago” and still not make enough to make ends meet and plan for the future at the same time, Tommy says he realised “the current climate just isn’t getting people anywhere and they don’t feel there’s any hope or support”.
The same traffic signs spelled wrong for 15 years
The Independent Ireland council member says that while out canvassing for the recent local elections, he was hearing the same recurring issues coming on the doorsteps in his constituency.
“Things like immigration, housing, the worsening healthcare crisis, down to the basics like hedges out on the road to a pothole at the top of the town and missing traffic signs. In one village, the issue that kept coming up was that all the signs leading into it have been spelled wrong for the last 15 years,” he explains.
“Change is definitely needed. I’m a firm believer from being involved in committees and groups that change is needed every five years. We need fresh ideas. I’m not saying I have the answers, I don’t, but I’m willing to put the answers I have out there. And being Independent gives me the ability to work with anyone.”
Many other issues coming up on the doorstep, Cllr Hartigan says, were outside the jurisdiction of Limerick City and County Council.
When then happens, Tommy explains, “you just have to say: ‘Look, I agree with you. I’ll take it on board, and if I ever happen to be in a room with Joe Biden, I will pass it on’.”
‘We have reached breaking point’
Immigration, Tommy admits, was an issue that often raised its ugly head.
“You know that old saying, ‘charity starts at home’? The Irish have always been known to be very charitable,” he starts.
“I think we were okay during the boom, and afterwards we weren’t giving out a whole lot (to people) but we were giving out something. Now people feel like we’re giving out more outside of the Irish than we can give.
“I don’t believe it’s that the Irish people don’t want them (immigrants) here. If the people didn’t know four families homeless at the moment, living with nana and grandad or in a hotel, they would have no problem with setting other people up in houses,” the Independent Ireland councillor claims.
“We have reached breaking point, you have to take the pulse of the people as well. I’m all for looking after our own and then if we have something left over …. A country basically is like a big family.
“In a family home, you make sure you have the lights paid and all that. At the end of the day, if you have something to put into the charity box, you do. I find it hard meeting people and they’re saying, ‘I’m 32 and I have a very well paid job and myself and my kids have to live with my parents’. I feel the Government in Dublin has lost contact with people.”
‘I am very excited about the opportunity I have’
Hartigan has previously served as chairman of the Askeaton Ballysteen Youth Club and the Pallaskenry Kilcornan Ballysteen Gun Club, as well as club manager of Ballysteen AFC.
He is also the secretary and founding member of the Duck on the Shannon River Project and chairman and founder of the West Limerick Grey Partridge Conservation Project.
So while being active in the community is somewhat in his blood, the young councillor feels he ran for Independent Ireland in the June 7 local elections as someone without much previous experience.
“Trying to break into politics was quite difficult with no background in that area. With Richard O’Donoghue’s (Limerick TD and Independent Ireland co-founder) help I had the experience of a TD and I had access to his office, they were brilliant at delivering for me even before I was elected.”
He feels too that he is now in a position to impact change for those who need it.
“As I got older I got more and more involved in my community and I started looking at the system. I am now very excited about the opportunity I have and I would like to see more Gardaí in rural areas, better access to public transport, and to see houses being built and renovated. I want to see those houses filled.
“I want to see people who want to live here and I want to see life coming back. Small businesses need to be encouraged and life needs to be brought back into these areas because they are amazing places,” he says.
“People have said, ‘won’t he be a great voice for young people’, but I want to be a voice for everyone. I want to be a friendly face that you can see in the shop or see outside mass or in the pub or see at the match. I might roll my eyes, but that’s because you are the tenth person to come up to me today, but I will listen to what you have to say, I’ll get an answer, and I will come back to you.”
