Transfer-friendly Behan sees late rally but seat wasn’t to be
JOE Behan made a decision to canvass without posters for this relatively short election campaign. As an independent, he was without the resources of a political party.
Despite those factors, he earned a total of 2,988 first preference votes from constituents across County Wicklow. His best performance was in his home area of Bray West, but he more than doubled his vote again across the county on transfers.
It wasn’t until the 13th count that Joe Behan was eliminated on Sunday evening. He left a total of 6,187 votes to be distributed among the remaining candidates.
‘I did have a late rally,’ said Joe, who had expected to be excluded from the race sooner in the process.
‘I am very grateful to all of the people who supported me, those who voted as well as on the campaign,’ he said. ‘I came here today expecting to be eliminated a lot earlier.
‘I stayed in the race because of very strong transfers from other independent candidates, particularly Valerie Cox and John Snell. They were two of the recent ones that catapulted me a up a little over the others. I am really grateful to them and their supporters for the support I received.’
While disappointed with the first preference total he received, Joe said that he takes encouragement overall from the way the election turned out in Wicklow overall.
‘I can see that with the number of independents in the race, it would be like a political party running eight candidates - something you would never do. There were some very high profile national figures in the race also - government ministers, spokespersons in the opposition, people who have been around for quite a while, and new candidates. I always knew it would be a tough race.
‘As an independent you don’t have the backup a party has,’ he said. ‘I made a decision not to use election posters for environmental reasons. I made that decision at the last local elections. That probably helped my campaign in some ways. In other ways it was not a help because in other parts of the county, where people wouldn’t have known me, they may not have known much about me.’
While not successful on this occasion in terms of taking a seat as a TD, Cllr Behan remains on Wicklow County Council and has a determination to continue to address a number of issues for his constituents.
‘As a councillor, one of the issues that I spend a lot of time on is the housing issue,’ he said. ‘It was confirmed over and over again on my canvas that housing is a huge issue in this county and country.’
He threw down the gauntlet to his opponents and their colleagues all over the country.
‘Whoever forms the next government will have to do something about it and they will have to get something done very quickly, because people are losing patience,’ he said. ‘ The people who are getting into power now have been given a mandate - sort out housing and build more houses, both for people who are on the social housing list and people who are working, who want to buy a house and have been locked out of the property market.
‘Whatever government is formed, they will stand or fall based on how they actually perform in that regard, and I will be holding whoever is in government to account, on that issue and on the other promises that they have made.’