Continuing our look at party plans for the local elections next year, with the abolition of town councils and new boundary areas opening up the possibility for new blood, we focus this week on the Labour Party’s plans locally.

A candidate selection board, comprising three Labour Party members independent of local branches, is currently considering options for the local elections which will be held in May 2014. When they’ve concluded their deliberations, they’ll consult with the branch chairs.

“We need to study it and see the best strategy” says regional organiser, Colin O’Connor, of the changes that have been made on foot of the boundary review. The old electoral areas of Mallow and Kanturk are being merged with six rather than nine elected representatives from now on for the estimated 47,305 population in the newly formed area.

In the 2009 local elections the party ran two candidates in the Mallow area, Ronan Sheehan and Jerry Mullally but only Sheehan was elected. Labour has four members on Mallow Town Council, Cllrs. Sheehan and Mullally, Roisin Lucey and James Kennedy. Mullally, who replaced Sean Sherlock on the county council when he was elected to the Dail in 2007, is likely to be interested in running again for the new electoral area committee. Roisin Lucey may also want to be a contender and she has the advantage of helping the party to up its female member quotient.

Notwithstanding his recent publicly stated disaffection with his party hierarchy, poll-topping sitting Councillor Noel McCarthy is expected to contest the elections in the new Fermoy electoral area for the party. It’s gaining two seats, going from four to six on the county council.

“We’ll see if we’ll run a second candidate. With Charleville going into the area we need to study it and see the best strategy to adopt”, Colin O’Connor says. If they chose to run two, a female candidate will help with their stated aim of addressing the gender quota issue. “There are plenty of women members interested in running. We’ll have to see how they fit into our strategy. The gender quota of 30% women nationally is important. It’s up to the parties to implement that in the locals,” the regional organiser said.

“We’ll be looking at Cork County Council in its entirety in that regard. I’d be pretty confident we will exceed that,” he said.

Tadhg O’Donovan, sitting on Fermoy Town Council which is facing abolition next year, said this week it was “too early yet to say” whether or not he’d seek to contest the next local elections. Closely allied to Councillor Noel McCarthy, he may well bow out of local politics rather than seek the nomination that would likely split his colleague’s vote if he was put on the ticket. Besides, it’s not at all certain his local vote could be increased sufficiently to capture a second seat in the Fermoy electoral area.

One other name that’s been spoken of in party circles locally for the Fermoy electoral area is Joe Sherlock, brother of Sean.

Presently the Labour party has members in six of the nine electoral areas in the county. The three with none are Bandon, Bantry and Kanturk. “We certainly have to take cognizance of geographical spread,” Colin O’Connor says. The plan is to hold the Cork city convention in September and follow it with the county convention in October.