Social Dem's select Cllr Liam Quaide for upcoming elections
Midleton’s Liam Quaide has been named as the Social Democrat’s candidate for the local elections for the East Cork Municipal District, at a convention meeting last Thursday evening.
Cllr Quaide, who has been a member of Cork County Council since 2019, said at the convention that politics, for him, is about ‘giving a voice and giving power to people in our society who feel left behind or disregarded’.
Speaking of his career as a psychologist with the Adult Mental Health Services, Cllr Quaide said that his experience had given him a strong awareness of the adversities that people face, the cumulative effects of disadvantage and ‘the remarkable capacity for change that can exist when someone is supported through difficulties’.
CLIMATE
Cllr Quaide said he was was initially drawn to politics in 2018 by the urgency of the climate and biodiversity crises, noting that 2023 was the hottest year on record ‘by an alarming margin’.
“We have seen catastrophic consequences of climate change in Midleton three months ago with floods affecting many residents and business owners throughout east Cork. I am committed to promoting a more whole-catchment approach to flood management that involves more co-ordination between agencies, such as the Department of Agriculture as well as the council and the OPW – one that incorporates natural defences and rewards farmers to change land-use practices”.
“Core to the Social Democrats is the idea that social justice and environmental action go hand in hand. We cannot expect people to have the bandwidth to fully engage with the biodiversity crisis if their basic needs for stable accommodation and healthcare are not being met by our political system’.
OWENACURRA
Since being elected in 2019, Cllr Quaide has been vocal on the closure of the Owenacurra Centre and said that on foot of that campaign, the removal of these services had been prevented and mitigated.
"Two years of sustained campaigning, involving seven Oireachtas meetings, scores of parliamentary questions, dozens of newspaper articles and several FOIs, led to a remarkably better outcome for people needing these services… the HSE have, this week, submitted a planning application for what will be a multi-million euro 10-bedroom project on the site of the Owenacurra Centre.
“We have gone from a plan to have zero 24-hour staffed residential placements in 2021 to sixteen such placements – transformational progress that has shown us the power of sustained campaigning”.
The total national figures for Local Enterprise Offices (LEO) across the country were announced on Tuesday, showing that LEOs now financially support 38,726 jobs across 7,167 companies.
In 2023 there were 6,640 new jobs created by LEO client companies with a net jobs creation figure of 2,131. This was up 6% nationally on 2022 and represents the most jobs the Local Enterprise Offices have supported nationally since their inception in 2014. Of the jobs created, 82% were outside of the Dublin region.
The LEOs also provide substantial funded supports to thousands of other small businesses across the country with programmes such as the Trading Online Voucher, Lean for Business and Green for Business along with training and mentoring.
The Local Enterprise Offices were to the fore in supporting small businesses across the country in 2023, helping thousands to pivot online or adapt their products and services through a large suite of supports. Local Enterprise Offices offer training and mentoring in a range of areas from financial skills and product innovation to starting your own business and maximising your presence online.
They also run key initiatives to foster entrepreneurship across the country, including Local Enterprise Week, National Women’s Enterprise Day, the Student Enterprise Programme and the National Enterprise Awards. The Local Enterprise Offices are also running a campaign encouraging small businesses to save time, money and energy by availing of their competitiveness and productivity supports including Green, Lean and Digital for Business - www. AllInADaysWork.ie
For more information on the Local Enterprise Offices go to www. LocalEnterprise.ie/