More than two decades of involvement with Tipperary County Council will come to an end next year.
Fianna Fáil’s Seamus Hanafin has announced he will not be standing in the 2024 local elections in the Thurles Local Electoral Area.
He was co-opted to Tipperary County Council in 2003 and has been successfully re-elected four times since.
Speaking on Tipp Today earlier Seamus said the time has come to focus on things like family and business among other things.
“I suppose Covid and the Covid lockdown showed me the amount of time and the amount of energy and the amount of headspace that all Councillors give to the Council. And I suppose the second thing that happened was I had one of those roundy birthdays that are not always welcome. I’ll be 62 next year and if I was to stand for election next year and if I was elected I would be there until I was 67 in 2029. And I suppose there’s a lot of quality time in that five years.”
Seamus Hanafin says the abolition of Town Councils and the amalgamation of North and South Tipperary County Councils have had a major impact on local government in the Premier county.
“Now I happen to think the abolition of Town Council’s was a terrible mistake and I think the amalgamation of North and South Tipperary County Councils was a very good thing to happen and I think we’re a much stronger county because of it. That has been a huge change certainly in Tipperary.
“And I suppose social media….I stopped engaging with social media. I see lots of discussions on social media, I think it becomes very polarised and becomes very entrenched. And to be honest with you it doesn’t always represent what people say to me when I meet them face to face.”
