Berry decides not to contest

Athlone Town Councillor Austin Berry (Ind) has announced this week that he no longer plans to contest the local election on June 5. He said this week he will be stepping down in June and while he would never focus on people"s ages as it"s what you do with life that counts, he is in his 79th year and feels it is time to step down. 'I would always like to give 100% of time and work to it and I just feel that I would be 84 when the next council comes to a conclusion and I would prefer to give it 100% or nothing,' he said. 'I"d like to think I have many more miles on the clock and I want to enjoy it.' Cllr Berry added that it was a difficult decision, but one he reached with the help of his family, who felt that he had contributed enough to the political scene in Athlone and felt it was his time to step down. 'I will miss it very much. I"ve enjoyed the last ten years. There were a lot of ups and downs in my personal life, with family bereavements and my heart attack and I think it was a great thing to be on the council at the time, it gave me a focus and allowed me to think of something other than myself,' he said. 'There were unhappy moments, the death of my son in 1999 just months after being elected, that was a big blow, it tore me to pieces. I had a bypass the year later. In 2001 my sister died, in 2002 my wife died and in 2003 two of my brothers died within the space of four weeks. The same year my great granddaughter died. I was torn to pieces at the time. My family was great, but if I didn"t have the council and work to do and ONET and Comhaltas.... they were wonderful organisations to be involved in. If I didn"t have that I don"t know where I"d be today. It"s very hard to take it all over a period of four or five years, but you also have to have a positive view of life. There is nothing whatsoever you can do about the past, you have to step over that line and move on,' he said. He added that politically he had a great life. Speaking about the highlight of his career, it wasn"t what most would have expected. Cllr Berry explained that while many anticipated the highlight of his career would have been when he was elected Mayor in 2004, in fact the highlight for him was being re-elected in the 2004 election. 'I thought that being elected Mayor was the highlight, but it wasn"t, being re-elected was. It was like getting the seal of approval. To be Mayor of Athlone and being there for the opening of the new civic offices - I also got great satisfaction out of that,' he said. He added that seeing the Athlone Towncentre being officially opened was also marvellous as it was a positive thing for Athlone. Cllr Berry said he was proud of what he had done for his constituents over the years and said: 'The other thing I have a great feeling about is that I"ve never gotten nasty calls or been given out to on the doorsteps or on the street. I"ve always gotten great respect from people and have had great respect for people.' He explained that he had come to politics quite late in life but even before being elected he had done a lot of work for people on the ground and had great success. 'I had as much work done as any councillor before I was elected. Your CV has to be pretty good, particularly for independents,' he said. He added that he never had a big team out canvassing, nor had he spent a lot of money on elections and this made him even more proud of his achievement in being elected to Athlone Town Council twice. Cllr Berry added that he thought the present council had achieved a lot for the town. 'Regardless of what people say or think about the council, the ten years I have been there have been some of the greatest in moving the town forward. There have been some huge changes, the civic centre, the new Towncentre and the way Connaught Street has been developed. With the downturn in the economy it"ll be a while before major developments will be able to roll again, but there"s whisperings now of the Texas Centre. It"s going to be a brilliant town in ten or 20 years time. People should have a positive view and not be negative about the council, they do as much as they can, if they don"t have the funding they can"t do it,' said Cllr Berry. Reflecting on the last ten years he said he had no regrets. 'When you"re on the council you have to be able to give and take, if someone has a go at you, you either respond or remain silent. I"ve never remained silent, I"ve always fought my corner and wasn"t afraid of anyone. I could stand up for myself and that"s something that got me through. I went in there and did my business and had no animosity towards anyone in the council. It"s politics, but that"s the way it is,' he said. 'What matters to me is that on June 7 I can still walk out the town and be proud of what I did and hold my head up.' Speaking about the election itself on June 5, he said: 'It"s going to be an extraordinary election. Looking at the field and looking at the way the country is now if someone was to make a judgement on how Fianna Fáil will survive, they"ll have a tough time.' He said while some people are predicting that Fianna Fáil will only return three candidates to Athlone Town Council he can"t really see this happening, but he also thinks five is a big ask, so his own prediction is that the party will take four seats. 'Fine Gael has four running, they have the greatest chance of their life. They have a great opportunity and I believe they"ll get three,' said Cllr Berry. He also predicts Sinn Féin"s Paul Hogan will be returned to the council, which would see Labour"s Cllr Ray Lennon and Jim Henson battling it out with independents Sheila Buckley Byrne and Marie Reddin for the final seat. 'I think it will be a toss up between Labour and an independent. Ray Lennon is a decent, hardworking, good councillor and Jim is well known on the doorsteps as well. There"s a possibility Ray will be elected again, which will rule out independents,' he said, adding that the last time out 1,118 first preference votes went to independent candidates, but he queried if the independent candidates who had declared their intentions to run and those who are rumoured to be throwing their names in the hat are in fact truly independent. He said he was confident that if he had decided to run again he would have gotten back in. He added, however, that if there was room for an independent councillor in the chamber, he felt Sheila Buckley Byrne would be the one to make it. 'She"s the strongest. She has been a hard worker for Fianna Fáil and ran twice and missed out narrowly.' Cllr Berry added that there was a huge hatred for Fianna Fáil at the moment, due to the decisions being taken by the Government, but said based on past election results during difficult times, this may not affect Athlone to a major extent. He said the Government was making attacks on the most vulnerable people and criticised them for taking pay increases themselves, while planning to make cuts in social welfare and children"s allowances in the emergency budget planned for April 7. He appealed to people to get out and vote in June, pointing out that only 52% of those eligible to vote last time went to the polls. Cllr Berry also encouraged more young people to get involved in politics and said they were the future. 'They are the future of this country. If they are not happy with the system they should get involved, get out there and change it,' he said.