*Cllr Joe Cooney (FG). Photograph: John Mangan
HAVING DELIVERED poll-topping performances in the local elections, Cllr Joe Cooney (FG) is playing ‘senior hurling’ now as he prepares for his first General Election.
A u-turn at the beginning of November saw the O’Callaghans Mills man re-enter the election race, a move which certainly livened up the battle to decide who will be Clare’s four TDs in Dáil Éireann.
Strong political pressure was put on Cllr Cooney to change his mind, among those to press him were the Taoiseach, Simon Harris (FG) and ex European Commissioner, Phil Hogan (FG).
Cllr Cooney said he was not offered a Ministry or Junior Ministry as a result of coming back into the fold. “I am not a man that has to be offered anything to be able to make up my mind, I make up my mind myself and I always do it for the good of the people I’m serving and in fairness, I’ve been serving the people of the Killaloe area for the past 20 years in Clare County Council.
“I was never offered anything. I do it because I enjoy doing it, and I want to work on behalf of the people and if I do get elected on November 29th, from after this election, I’ll be there for the people of this county and to do my utmost and my best for them. But, again, both of us know you can’t guarantee anything, all you can do is go out and do your best the same as I’ve done for the past 20 years”.
No external pressure influenced his call, Joe said. “The supporters were disappointed naturally enough but again it was my own call, Fine Gael always wanted to have me on the ticket if it was at all possible and they did back a number of years ago as well, I felt at this stage, it was now or never, if I didn’t give it the opportunity at this stage, I might be disappointed in the future if I didn’t give it the opportunity so I said, yes. I’ll give it the opportunity, that’s what I’m doing, but the final call was my own call, end of story, no one else made the call for me and I am enjoying the canvassing”.
Expanding on why he opted to get back in the field, Cooney stated, “I gave it a good bit of consideration. I felt maybe earlier on in the time, would I have enough time to go ahead and do all this, I rethought about it, I did check out some different issues and concerns I had, and the most important thing is if you take on a role like this, you want to be able to deliver as much as possible for the people. We all know you’re not going to be able to deliver everything you can, I felt when I rethought about it, I could actually do something for the people of our county, and that’s why I decided to let my name back in the race again”.
In his initial call to bow out, he said had it been ten or fifteen years prior he would have jumped at the opportunity. “What I meant there was and I did outline ten and fifteen years ago, I did say we’d two very good people, two Fine Gael candidates in this county, in Joe Carey and Pat Breen, and I did say that I was asked on a number of occasions ten and fifteen years ago to know how to put my name forward, and I said no with two good men representing the county, and I was happy to support those two people, which I did and now the opportunity came, circumstances changed completely”.
Dubbed the ‘Dyson of East Clare’ on The Electoral Chair following his poll-topping performances at a local level in 2009, 2014, 2019 and 2024 where he was elected on the first count, Cooney is set to face his stiffest test to date.
With such a crowded field in East Clare, the potential of his electon alongside Cathal Crowe TD (FF) and Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) remains. “In fairness to the three of us, we’re three great workers, there’s twenty people on the ticket and we’re all going out to do our best, to see how we go, if we get elected, we’re elected to represent the people of the county, and I leave that up to the people of the county to decide their vote. I’ll do my canvassing, and as far as I’d be concerned, that’s the way it’ll be going forward and whatever the outcome at the end of the day will be the outcome, and we move on and whoever it’ll be, and they represent the people at this county in Dáil Éireann”.
His five year stint as Chairman of Clare GAA concluded in December 2020, he refuted the view that some decisions made during this spell could cost votes. ”None whatsoever. When I was chairman of Clare GAA, I was vice chairman for five years, and I was chairman for five years and I worked with every club to support the clubs to try and achieve and work and make clubs better places for the young people of this county, which is very important, and never did I have any issue with any club whatsoever. As I say, there was always issues to be dealt with, and you to deal with the issue to the best of your ability, and that you keep everyone working together. That’s what I always done, and that’s my intention to continue doing going forward, is working with the people, working together, and trying to achieve as much as possible. And I must say, the facilities we have here in this county, in all clubs in Clare GAA for the young people of this county is simply fantastic, it took hard work, time, and commitment by a big amount of volunteers for those to happen, and I must give credit to all those people and it was a pleasure working with the clubs and the people of the county when I was Chairperson of Clare GAA”.
Housing is the “major” concern in the county, the former Mayor of Clare said. “A lot of people are in a catch 22 situation, they don’t qualify for a social house because their income is too high, they don’t qualify to get a loan because their income is too low. There is a ceiling there as regards, the affordable houses, and a lot of people don’t qualify for affordable housing unfortunately so housing is a big issue at the moment, and I’m getting a lot of calls on the housing issues and housing concerns, and more so for the young people trying to get on the housing market so it’s not an easy one. Housing is something I would definitely be working on to see if something could be sorted to make it easier for people to get their own homes”.
Over twelve months ago, he stepped back from his role with East Clare Construction Ltd. On what could be done within the construction sector to accelerate housing delivery, he said, “There is a lot of things that could be done, but the big problem is the lack of infrastructure in towns and villages where you’re not allowed to build houses, unfortunately, and that is a major concern”.
Cllr Cooney continued, “Take Kilkshen alone, 60 houses were refused this time last year because of the lack of capacity in the wastewater treatment unit, with another 60 houses in Tuamgraney refused by An Bord Pleanálan with certain issues as well so when the infrastructure is not there, that’s a serious setback, and in this county alone, we’ve over 50 settlements that don’t have the proper infrastructure, and that’s very disappointing, and that’s not helping our situation here in Clare. Also, we’ve to look at the increase in the population, also the number of Ukrainians and refugees is coming into our country and our county, they go on the housing list as well after a certain amount of time, and that is putting a major pressure on, the allocation of houses throughout our county”.
Broadford is one such village without a wastewater treatment plant, its inclusion in a €50m nationwide pilot scheme has been something Cooney has fought for with elected members of the Killaloe MD. Its inclusion along with Cooraclare was confirmed in December 2023 but no shovels have appeared on the ground, the pace of the scheme’s movement has left Cooney “totally frustrated”. He said, “The pace of it is slow, too slow, and, again, it’s frustrating. We all know you have to go step by step to achieve what you have to achieve, but we have to speed this up and that’s something I’ll be working on to try and get Broadford and Cooraclaree up and running, which they deserve to be, funding had been approved from, but, again, it’s just frustrating the length of time is taken”.
Both the County Council and Uisce Éireann are working to speed things up, Cooney said. “The problem with Uisce Éireann is they have a lot of infrastructure that has to be brought up to standard. They are concentrating more and bringing that up to standard before they start to put in new wastewater treatment systems in areas that don’t have them. Frustration is unbelievable, but there is work’s going on, and all we can do is work together, keep progressing, and try and achieve the proper infrastructure for these rural areas that don’t have it and again, they are dying on their feet because of the lack of the infrastructure”.
Another bone of contention he has raised in the Chamber has been the lack of funding by the Council to improve its road network and for hedge cutting. “I can’t say whether they’d be able or not, but all I’d say is it won’t be for the want of trying and we don’t need more funding in this county, especially our road network, hedge cutting, infrastructure. A lot has been achieved but you have to keep progressing, you have to keep bringing your county’s road network up to a decent standard, that is happening, but because of the lack of funding over the last number of years, there isn’t as much happening that should be happening, so that’s something I’d be definitely taking on board as well if I do get elected”.
Fine Gael’s struggles to source candidates has not surprised Joe. “We got the same thing when we went for the local elections. We were finding it hard to get people in different areas. We have a good executive there that works hard, but, again, a lot of people with social media and whatever’s going on in the different parts of the country and the world and the county, maybe don’t want to let their name go forward to go for election, and that’s a person’s choice, in fairness, it’s up to themselves if they want to let their name go forward, and probably that don’t help the situation but, again, we had a lot of candidates here in the local elections, now we’ve three for the general election so overall we’re not faring out too badly at all, as I say we’ll see how it goes”.
‘Talk to Joe’ has become the tagline for Cooney’s own social media which has been launched in the past fortnight. “I wouldn’t be over familiar with the abuse politicians get. To be honest with you, I do share a bit of social media myself. I’m doing more now with my campaign and the whole lot but to be honest with you, I go out to work for the people, I’m not worried what’s said about me on social media, other people might be concerned what’s said about them on social media, but the most important thing is you go out and you give the commitment to work for the people”.
Approaches in canvassing have been different compared with a local election, he outlined. “The local campaign I used to love canvassing for because I’d call to people, sit down, have a chat with them, see what their concerns are and discuss issues with them. For the General Election, you’re canvassing big parts of the county, you need to get teams out there with you and you need to get around because the campaign is short, you don’t have as much time for meeting and talking with people but if I do get elected hopefully I’ll have time to get back to some of those people and have a chat with them in the future if that’s the situation”.
Joe Cooney
Occupation – Full time public representative
DOB – 20/03/57
Party – Fine Gael
Top priority – Housing
