*Cllr Ann Norton (IND). Photograph: John O’Neill
CLLR Ann Norton (IND) has said her decision not to seek re-election to Clare County Council is influenced by the health of her family members and a desire to devote more energy to the Clare Crusaders Clinic.
Two-time Mayor of the Ennis Municipal District, Cllr Norton confirmed what was long anticipated last week that she would not be putting her name forward for the local elections in June.
She announced she was calling it quits with local politics in an interview with The Clare Champion, days after she had been asked on her position by The Clare Echo prior to the recording of the Ennis MD special of the political podcast, The Electoral Chair.
In 2014, the ballot paper in the Ennis MD was the longest in the country and Ann was the first candidate elected. Before devoting her time to disability advocacy, she had a business in Ennis from 1993 to 2003.
On her decision to leave politics, Ann admitted, “I always said I’d give it ten years, I felt that when I ran initially it was great to have got elected and I obviously had a reason and a purpose, I wanted to highlight the changes that needed to be around disability, when I ran in 2019 for me as an Independent it was really important that I went out and got re-elected which was a huge achievement”.
She added, “I really enjoyed the ten years, I’ve made a huge amount of contacts over that time, there is a lot of work that I will continue to do but I have enjoyed it, I don’t think I’ll be going away too much because of the interests I have, I have a passion for what I do”.
Co-founder and Managing Director of The Clare Crusaders Clinic, Ann revealed that her decision is also influenced by the health of her daughter Nicole who has cerebral palsy. “I have to weigh up a lot of things because of my own family circumstances, over the last five years again I focused on what I needed to do, I feel the impact I’ve made now that I need to change what I’m at and I need to focus more on what is happening on the ground around the Clare Crusaders clinic and the parents I’m working with and dealing with their issues, I really want to focus on the disability element of things, the time has been right, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs with Nicole’s health, it is having an impact on the time I have to be able to give. Weighing everything up I felt it was the right decision and I always knew that I’d have to make the decision but I wasn’t sure how difficult it was or easy it would be to finish up, when I weighed everything up I feel it is the right thing and right time, I still have a job to do but it doesn’t need to be in the County Council”.
This decision has “always been in my head since 2019,” the Barefield woman admitted. “It was something we always discussed at home, I think it was always in the back of my head, it was a decision I made because of the fact that my first port of call is always my family, unfortunately Nicole has deteriorated over the years, that was always going to be a decision I had to make and I had to put her first, she always keeps me very grounded”.
At recent meetings the amount of money contributed by Ann through the Council’s General Municipal Allocation (GMA) towards the Clare Crusaders has been flagged. She said she did not view this as a personal attack. “Clare Crusaders is a charity which was set up over 20 years ago, it provides therapy for over 450 children and we don’t get any Government funding”.
Support for the Clinic has been provided by Clare County Council “for numerous years,” she said. This year the manner in which the GMA was handled changed following a majority vote by Ennis MD councillors. “Prior to this applications were put in and we would have sat down as a group of councillors and looked at each individual application to support the application that has come into us, unfortunately this year the application system has changed, it wasn’t something I was in favour of, it wasn’t the best way of divvying up the GMPA, we had a set plan for the last nine years and there was opportunities for every organisation to put in an application, this year that didn’t happen, every community group or charity that I supported were the same for the last nine years”.
Her absence from the Chamber will likely result in less GMA funding for the Clinic but Norton insisted the seven elected councillors in Ennis MD will be lobbied to assist the Clare Crusaders. “Regardless of if I’m in situ or not, parents will be speaking up on behalf of the clinic, I’ve supported parents by speaking up for them, now I’ll have to get the parents to make the local councillors aware of the service they are getting and how invaluable it is”.
Ann is one of three members of the Ennis MD currently sitting on the Board of the Ennis 2040 DAC. When asked if she felt her departure posed a risk that the elected members of Ennis MD from June onwards will consist of a majority of councillors opposed to the strategy, she said, “To be honest I do believe that Ennis 2040 has a good strategic policy, at the beginning when it was being produced to Ennis MD councillors I was a bit apprehensive about Ennis 2040, at the time Liam Conneally who was the Director of Economic Development came in and explained the concept of Ennis 2040 and what it hopes to deliver. I’d hope that any councillor that comes into the Ennis MD gets the opportunity to get the detail behind Ennis 2040 and the reason why Ennis 2040 was set up, I do believe there is huge opportunities for Ennis as the capital town and opportunities to draw in new business, with that we get new jobs and it creates an opportunity for our younger generation to stay in their own home town, to work and live in the town where they grew up, that is hugely important”.
Serving as Mayor of the Ennis on two occasions was “a huge honour,” she reflected. “I got to do it on both terms which was fantastic, I also got to be the Deputy Cathaoirleach of Clare which was a huge honour, I got the opportunity to not only support the Ennis MD but it was also Clare County Council and I got to do a lot of conferences and different award ceremonies that Clare County Council were represented at. Overall it was making people aware of the difficulties that people had with disabilities and their families, that was always at the forefront for me, a lot of changes have been made over ten years to make things easier for people, it is great to know people listened and respected my views, changes were made which is the reason I ran for local politics”.
Norton was one of the sixteen candidates to appear on the ballot paper in the 2016 General Election. She received 2,240 first preference votes and was eliminated on the eight count, staying in the race longer than her Ennis MD colleagues Cllr Mary Howard (FG) and Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF) even though Colleran Molloy receive a higher first preference vote.
Eight years on from running for the Dáil, she is now exiting politics. “When I ran for the General Election it was looking at a different opportunity, it was to get my voice out there to get people to listen to what interests I had, at the time it was an amazing experience, I really enjoyed that whole run-up to the General Election and again I got huge opportunities meeting people and getting the opportunity to speak to people across the county. I didn’t get elected but at the time I always felt it was a great opportunity for somebody that hadn’t a huge interest in politics before 2014, it is amazing how you can get so driven and enthusiastic about something that you feel you want to get out there and make change”.
While she was the first candidate elected in the Ennis MD in 2014, she didn’t make the quota in 2019 when was elected on the tenth and final count despite increasing her first preference vote. “My first preference vote increased by a small amount but when you look at it every election is different, you have a different number of candidates, you’ve new people who might come out of the woodwork, when we look at it, your priority is to get elected, that was my priority, it didn’t bother me in what way things worked out once I got elected and I did. I was still very transfer friendly which I had been in 2014, every election is different”.
Looking ahead to the upcoming June election, she is unsure if a candidate will emerge in Barefield following her exit. “I’m not sure whether a lot of people are looking at running in a local election, there’s a huge amount of commitment to being a councillor and the amount of time that you have to give is very difficult for somebody to do a full-time job and to commit to those type of hours. When people weigh it up you need to be very flexible in your job. It’s very difficult to see anyone coming out of the woodwork at the minute but I’d love to see new and young people getting involved in politics especially if it is a stepping stone to go forward in their career”.
At this stage she will not declare her support for any particular candidate but is hopeful all Ennis MD councillors that she has served alongside for ten years will be returned, “I’d hope the councillors I’ve worked with over last ten years get re-elected”. She added, “I’d like to see another Independent run in the Ennis MD but I will support all of my colleagues to the best of my ability”.
