New Tipperary TD is determined to repay those that gave him their trust

Not long after celebrating taking the third seat in the Tipperary North constituency, newly minted TD, Ryan O’Meara, 29, spoke to the Tipperary Star about how he was feeling as well as his plans for the future.

“It’s a huge privilege. It’s been a whirlwind.

“The last month, we had 26 days to campaign from when I got onto the ticket for the convention. 26 days to plan, organise and execute a campaign. So everything has happened so fast.

“There wasn’t even a chance to think about this moment until this very moment, and to sit there and look at thousands and thousands of people who have put their trust in me is breathtaking.

“It’s a huge privilege that there’s pressure in the campaign to do as much right and to get as much work done as possible, but the real pressure is now to actually repay those people and convince them that they were right to place their trust in me.”
When asked about his supporters and in particular his family, O’Meara said: “They’re incredible.

“I’ll try not get emotional now, but my mom and my dad are two of my best canvassers. My brothers are brilliant, my sister-in-laws and my nieces and nephews and Maggie, my very, very patient and amazing girlfriend, who has gone through two elections with me in one year.

“It takes such an effort from a family, the sacrifice people make is... until you see it you can’t believe it.

“There were days where they did as much canvassing as I did, my family members were each doing as much and more and that’s grueling on the body at times, especially my parents, for them, with the hours they did.

“Then the campaign team, there’s so many of them around us here. They gave up their free time, they took days off work at their own expense and went out there because they believe in someone that much.

“It’s hard to understand how so many people will come together and believe in one person but it’s so humbling, I don’t know what else to say.

“What a year.”

When asked was it always his intention to run in a General Election, Ryan said: “It was but it depended on so many things. It depended on getting into the council in June, this wouldn’t have happened without that.

“Timing is everything. The timing was far from perfect for me, being so new to the council and wanting to spend time there building up, but then at the same time, the opportunity was there.

“There was a chance for a new voice and a new face, and I could see that the public really wanted that. So I wasn’t going to shy back from that opportunity.

“You have to be brave in this job. You have to have a bit of a backbone and to go put your name forward and fight in an election with fourteen candidates takes a bit of bravery and I wasn’t going to shy back.”
Speaking about his age and if that was ever something that concerned him when it came to getting votes, he said: “No, my age never come into it. Other factors did like personal factors in life and making this commitment. You know, when you get elected to politics in general, your life is not your own anymore. It changes things fundamentally. So that was a consideration, but not my age.

“I said it a few times during the campaign, in 1969 when Michael Smith senior was elected, he was 29 years of age, the same year Michael O’Kennedy was elected at 33 years of age. So young politicians aren’t a new thing. I know of definitely five TDs elected this weekend that are under the age of 30. Jack Chambers is a full cabinet member born in 1990 the first to be born in that decade. He’s a few years older than me.

“So experience, I guess, comes in a lot of different ways. I’ve spoken about my experience as a parliamentary assistant, what I studied in college, and my experience briefly as a councillor, but also my experience as a young person in the country. That is an experience that very few candidates were able to offer anywhere nationally.

“Parliament is supposed to be representative of our society and that includes younger politicians being there.” Ryan O’Meara now joins Alan Kelly as the second TD in Nenagh, the first time that has been the case since 1982 when Michael O’Kennedy and John Ryan were in Government together.

Speaking about what he’s looking forward to working on specifically in Nenagh, Ryan said: “There have been some funding streams that haven’t come through, particularly for the historic and cultural quarter around Bamba Square and I think a serious look needs to be given to the military barracks at the top of Summer Hill. It’s disgraceful what’s going on there. That’s not the council’s fault either, it’s owned by the Department of Defence, and nobody seems to want to take it over or have anything to do with it. There’s also talks a lot of the time about a link road from Lisbunny industrial estate over to the Birr Road which I plan to look into further.

Nenagh is a fantastic town, it’s a thriving town, but that takes a lot of work and takes hard working public representatives as part of that to make sure we continue to build. It’s the same with the town centre, it has the lowest dereliction or vacancy rates in Tipperary, that’s great, but that doesn’t happen by chance. We need to make sure we’re supporting our businesses and enhancing the town centre, all of those things. A lot of that will take Government funding, either urban regenerative development funding or rural regenerative development funding. Same with the Martyr’s Road project, the Government has delivered the 10 million euro needed for that. So it will happen, but it’s to make sure it happens soon. The Rialto site as well, there’s funding potentially there for it, but again, it’s to try and be that voice, to actually be able to get that.

But outside of those Nenagh issues, and the one I didn’t mention yet is housing, because it’s not just a Nenagh issue, it’s everywhere. Nenagh, Thurles and Roscrea, I believe, need affordable housing schemes. They’re working in Dublin, they’re working in Limerick. I think they’ve even worked in Kilkenny city, but they haven’t worked yet in our smaller rural towns, not that they’re necessarily very small towns, but we need to find a scheme that will work there because while we’re waiting for the private market to continue increasing capacity, there has to be more state intervention in social and affordable housing.

“Outside of Nenagh, I’ve committed to being a TD for all of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny. I’ll be keeping two constituency offices, one in Nenagh and one in Thurles, where I’ve been working for the last five years. It’s where Jackie Cahill has put in a huge amount of work and I want to reassure people that I will be accessible as a politician, whether it’s doing clinics in areas or running offices. It would be fantastic to have an office in every town and village, but it’s not possible. Two is manageable and I want to make sure that I am available to all corners of north Tipperary and north-west Kilkenny.
Finally, asked about leaving a vacant seat in the council and the transition from council member to TD O’Meara said: “It will be a learning experience, definitely but I’m not afraid to say what I believe we need in the area. I didn’t get that many meetings to really get into it, but there were always points I wanted to raise in every meeting and target issues and I did raise them.

“I guess, having worked with Jackie Cahill for so many years, I know how it all works. I know how much time you get for a speech, how impactful you need to be in a contribution in a speech and I will do just that and I hope even more forcibly if I’m given the chance, and if I’m not given the chance, I’ll take it anyway.”

When asked who his replacement in the Nenagh Municipal District might be, he said: “I don’t have an answer, because there was no second to consider that from the campaign. That decision will probably have to be made within the coming weeks, I would say in the next two or three weeks, but I’ve never been through the process myself before. I’m sure it’ll be a popular place to be for someone. We want to continue growing Fianna Fáil in the area, particularly in the Nenagh-Borrisokane area. I put a lot of work into doing that over the past five years, and part of that was regaining the seats and rebuilding the membership, the same in the Newport area, we want to continue to build there.

“We have strong pockets of Fianna Fáil membership and I want to see that our organisation continues to grow and thrive. One of Jackie Cahill’s great legacies within the party is how strong the membership is, how united it is, and how much of a ground force we have when it comes to a campaign. So, it’s my duty and responsibility now to continue to grow that and hopefully attract new people into the party, maybe as a fresher, younger candidate that might help people say they would give Fianna Fáil a chance.”