Cobh Municipality Chairman, Cllr Padraig O'Sullivan, is the latest Fianna Fail member to declare his interest in the Cork North Central seat left vacant by MEP Billy Kelleher.

O'Sullivan, who is from Little Island but lives in Glanmire, has been a poll topper for the Party in the Cobh Municipality.

The 35 year old father of one topped the poll with 2600 first preference votes in both the 2014 and 2019 Local Elections.

The Little Island native contested the General Election in the Cork North Central Constituency in 2011 and was subsequently elected to the Council's Cobh LEA in the 2014 Local Elections.

A Secondary School teacher by profession he's committed to public life, is highly driven and involved in many community and sporting organisations.

Seen as being young, vibrant and highly educated, he has a Master’s Degree in Politics and teaches History and Irish in Coláiste an Chraoibhín Fermoy.

Heavily involved with the Little Island Community Association, Cllr O'Sullivan is also a member of Leeside A.F.C. Soccer Club and a Director of the Glanmire Area Community Association.

He currently serves on the Roads and Transport Special Processes Committee (SPC) and the Planning SPC in Cork County Council, whilst also a member of Cork ETB.

Cllr O’Sullivan said education, the environment, sustainable planning and empowering Local Authorities with greater responsibility and duties to ensure they are responsive to local needs, are among his main objectives, if elected.

He said there is a disconnect between local and national politics and he would like to work on empowering Local Authorities with greater responsibilities and duties so that local politics is truly local and responsive to local needs.

Sustainable Planning: Having grown up in Little Island and seeing, first-hand, the irresponsible development that has occurred there, and also residing in Glanmire where there is an unprecedented level of development happening, I would try to effect legislation to provide adequate amenities and infrastructure for communities experiencing such development.

Education: As teacher I see the impact of cuts in education, the low morale of teaching and SNA staff, the ongoing difficulties with catering for increasing student numbers, and failure to deliver school builds on time.

Environmental concerns: We need politicians that are going to listen to the concerns especially of our young people who have expressed dismay at Ireland's climate strategy, or lack thereof, and we need to elect people who are going to try and tackle these issues

A campaigner for Billy Kelleher in the last 3 elections he is a familiar face in the Cork North Central, with the majority of his community work in the Glanmire and North City environs for the past five years, before the local Election boundary changes.

Cllr O’Sullivan said it was an “extremely big honour” to represent East Cork and fly the flag for the Party in the absence of other representatives.”

“I have helped give the party a foothold in East Cork for others to build on, with my offices in Midleton and Cobh being very busy.”

“The election of Billy Kelleher to Europe presented the opportunity of returning to Cork North Central. Politics, by its very nature, is unpredictable and the change in circumstances led to me being approached by many grassroot members to return to Cork North Central.”

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