Cooney runs for Athlone Town Council seat

Athlone native Benny Cooney has confirmed that he is to run for a seat on Athlone Town Council in the upcoming local elections on June 5 next. Benny, who has put his name forward unsuccessfully on three previous occasions in local elections, is once again running as an independent and is hoping that the issues raised in his agenda will have an impact on a public reeling from the recent economic downturn. 'Fianna Fail have tried to avoid the issues of the recession and shoved it to the back burner in the hope of getting re-elected. They"re in-fighting amongst themselves rather than looking at the real issues affecting people,' he says. According to his campaign leaflet, among the main issues which Benny is campaigning for is "To fight for a rent freeze in all local authority housing for the next five years". Elaborating on the rental issue, Benny fears that an increased Property Tax will have a detrimental affect on those renting in Athlone. 'Those in rented accommodation will bear the brunt of this from landlords. Rental prices are already expensive enough and people are tired of being ripped off in this country. I would certainly be campaigning for a rent freeze in local authority housing as people are already struggling to make ends meet. Social Welfare payments must also be maintained, especially in times like these,' he says. Among his other concerns are providing and increasing current services in each of the Rapid areas, (Homework Clubs, youth activities), ensuring effective water supply for all citizens and providing adequate transport facilities to hospitals in out of hours time. 'I saw a case recently where a woman brought her seven month old baby to the hospital here in Athlone. The baby had a high fever and the woman was told that she needed to bring the child to Ballinasloe - but there was no ambulance available. That baby could have been very, very ill and the woman had no transport. Myself and a friend got in contact with a local nun who thankfully brought her and her child to Ballinasloe Hospital. If we don"t have the facilities then we should work out something like a car pool system whereby people would volunteer to make themselves available in a community for incidents such as this. Whether I"m elected or not it"s definitely something I will be looking into,' Benny adds. For the last seven years, Benny has worked with The Open Door project which was developed as a drop in centre for marginalised men. The project has developed over the years and now delivers training and one to one counselling to marginalised people in the county. The project was started by Athlone Community Taskforce and became a WCD project in November 2007 and supports, facilitates and promotes the development of marginalised clients, so that they may reach their fullest potential and thereby become valued members within their own lives homes and communities. Benny says that over the years he has seen first hand the effects of drink and drug abuse on younger people and sees this as one of his main campaign issues. 'Alcohol and drugs are seriously affecting the youth of the community and there are those that are missing the final years of school. I recently saw children as young as 11 drinking beer in Burgess Park and it shows that we need to educate children better about the dangers. A lot of younger people get depressed and disillusioned and that"s why we need a strong support network. you see what"s happening now in Limerick in terms of gang warfare and with more and more people losing their jobs because of the recession, issues such as drugs and alcohol abuse become even more prominent. Education within and outside schools is vital,' he adds.