Controversial Councillors Makes More Controversial Claims

Have you seen the front page of this week’s Dungarvan Leader. The main headline for an article written by Journalist Kevin Kirrane makes shocking reading, well it does for me anyway, I don’t know about you.

In case you have not seen it, maybe you have not picked up your copy of this week’s paper yet, or got the chance to have a look at it, or maybe you live in an area where the Dungarvan Leader is not sold or is hard to get, the headline reads ‘O’Donnell Warns Of Spiralling Costs Of New Bus Stop’.

Let me say here it is not Kevin that shocked me, nor is it Colm Nagle the paper’s Editor or any of the staff within the paper. Kevin is a brilliant journalist who does great work with the paper.

Maybe I should not be shocked as the O’Donnell referred to in the article is Councillor Seamus O’Donnell, who let’s face it, since he was elected to Waterford City and County Council in the local elections in 2014 has proven to be a very controversial person.

I am sure for those of you who do not know Councillor O’Donnell if you live in the Waterford area and don’t know him you will have heard him speak on WLRfm’s Current Affairs Programme – Deise Today presented by Eamon Keane and before that on Deise AM presented by the late Billy McCarthy a number of times speaking on a number of matters and has views that well let’s say that are not shared by the majority of people in 2018.

In many of his interviews on local radio since he became a Councillor, Councillor Seamus O’Donnell has made it know that he is a Catholic, and for whatever reason he does not always like ‘them sort of people’ you know the people that the Catholic Church in the past spoke out about, and some within it continues to speak out against, even if in 2013 when the then recently elected Pope Francis on his way back from a trip to Brazil (I think) was asked his views on homosexual people, he responded by saying ‘Who am I to judge’, something I am sure that the assembled journalists would have been shocked to hear as I am sure some were hoping for headlines for their newspapers from the mouth of the newly elected pontiff.

Well in this week’s Dungarvan Leader there appears to be another group of people that Councillor O’Donnell doesn’t like. If you have not read the paper maybe you are wondering before I go on is it black people, is it Chinese people, is it Hispania people, is it women, is it men, is it children, is it young people, is it old people, is it non-catholic people.

Ok in case you have not read the piece and want to know, it appears the latest people that Councillor O’Donnell does not like is wait for it, Disabled people.

If you have not been to Dungarvan with a while, you might like to know that within the town, close to the Civic Offices a new Bus Stop is being constructed with some weeks now. But Councillor O’Donnell has a major problem with this.

In the article which is brilliantly written by Kevin Kirrane, Councillor O’Donnell questioned the need for the bus stop “to be shifted around” when cost was taken in consideration, and compared the work being done outside the civic offices as “something like the Square, where we will run over budget, we’ll be running a couple of million over budget”.

As a disabled person and someone that has used the busses that travel between Waterford and Cork, stopping in Dungarvan, I for one welcome the new bus stop in Dungarvan. For those that don’t know me, or maybe who have never seen me, I was born with Spina Bifida and get around using crutches. But I am one of the lucky ones. When I have reason to use a bus to get to Waterford, Dublin or Cork as I have in the past and will in the future from Dungarvan, I am one of the lucky disabled people who can climb on and off the bus by myself, but not all disabled people are able to do this.

If a person in a wheelchair wants to travel from Dungarvan on one of the busses which stops off every hour wants to use it, at present it is almost impossible for them to do so, unless they are able to climb out of their chair and onto the bus be it by themselves or with help and to have their chair put into the hold under the floor of the bus.

I ask Councillor O’Donnell and anyone that might agree with him, that the work that is taking place in Dungarvan is a waste of money and not necessary, is it right that Disabled people in 2018 are not allowed to use public transport operating in and out of Dungarvan. For what it is worth, I think every disabled person should have the same rights as able bodied people, and I am sure that almost everybody, but clearly not everybody would think so as well.

I hope that good Catholic’s who support the likes of Councillor O’Donnell and his often controversial views go down on their knees first think every morning and last thing every night and thank the God that they claim to believe in for giving them two fine legs and two fine hands which work. I hope they give thanks to the God that they believe in for being able to sit behind the wheel of a car which will take them wherever they want to go, because not everybody as the use of their legs, hands and able to drive wherever they want to go.

I don’t know what the new Bus Stops in Dungarvan is costing the state, and I don’t care to be honest if the overall cost was to exceed ten million euro above the expected cost, or if it comes in under the expected cost, every cent spent on the stop is going to be well worth it if it allows just one disabled or one elderly person who wants to use public transport in or out of Dungarvan to do so.