“E-A-R-L-Y” – we all know how to spell that word Enda!

It was suggested by Enda Kenny in last week’s national news that the 2016 General Election would be held in early spring and, just to emphasise the point, the Taoiseach actually spelled the word for us just to make it easier to understand, “Early in the Spring. E-A-R-L-Y.” he stated whilst at an event in Madrid.

Anyone would think he was a school teacher – oh wait a minute, he is!

At least now we know that the country is on General Election footing and have no doubt that ALL the political parties and independent TDs are gathering their troops and starting to plan their election campaigns. And this will give an opportunity to all of us, who have registered to vote, to plan our own questions for those putting their names forward for the 2016 General Election.

For those who have not registered to vote, there is still time to make sure that you can have your say and let me be very clear that everyone should register to vote and then everyone will be allowed to have their say and ultimately influence the result next year. There will no doubt be many sitting TDs hoping and praying that new voters do not appear on the register and, in fact, I am sure that many of these TDs are in fact quite happy at the very poor levels of political engagement seen across this country. This means that they will yet again rely on diehard traditional voters to come out and vote. Thus, returning the same average number of electoral votes we are now used to seeing year after year after year.

Coming back for 2016!

Now, just for one minute, imagine that the whole of Ireland were to become enthused with politics over the next six months and then just imagine how much effort and engagement our political representatives would be forced to make with every single voter. We would all feel the better for increased levels of engagement and therefore we would all be able to grill and demand a better performance from our representatives. You only have to look across the Channel to see what difference higher levels of public engagement has made to the political map in Scotland and in the UK in general. And only when higher levels of public engagement are made can we really hold our representatives accountable to us the V-O-T-E-R.

If we are to make changes for the better in Irish Politics then we, the V-O-T-E-R, must be more vocal, more interactive and we need to benchmark just how our representatives are performing.

We have heard over the last few weeks promises of this funding and that funding for Waterford City and County when, in reality, once you read the very small print, many of these headline grabbers are in fact “pipedreams!” If these are not pipedreams then the promise of funding and game changer investments must be delivered and delivered now. If they cannot be delivered prior to the next Election then Government’s promised investment in our City and County must be ring fenced and we need our existing TDs to “SHOW US THE MONEY!” before E-Day in 2016.

 

I fear that, as we move ever closer to an “E-A-R-L-Y” spring election, we will start to read and hear more and more spin about what has been delivered and what can be delivered in the future.

However, if we are really to see our representatives making a R-E-A-L difference to Waterford, then we, the electorate, must once and for all engage with everyone who puts their name forward for the 2016 Election. We must tell them what we want and let them know that we will be monitoring their performance, their promises and we will ultimately judge their honesty.

What we cannot do in the 2016 General Election is revert back to our old “traditional voting preferences” as that is just what we are expected to do.

Let us “C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E” the mediocrity in 2016!