From when I was just a baby tucked into the small cabin of my father’s small boat, Cork Harbour has a constant in my life. It is the backdrop to my most vivid early childhood memories, it was my summertime playground, it was my solace during exams. In 1997, when working and earning for myself, I fell in love with a little house in Monkstown. In the heart of the village, it was nestled beside the village shop and a stone’s throw from the shores of the harbour. Here I settled, a cat moved in and soon we became a family.
I met my husband through sailing, again on Cork Harbour. The family began to grow. Ten years later, we had to admit that our 
little house was no longer big enough and we moved to Passage West, the town next-door, also on the shores of the harbour. We now have five children, two dogs, two cats and a raft of smaller four-legged and feathery friends that make our house home. The harbour has become as solid a rock in their lives as it is in mine.
What’s my professional background?
I am a qualified engineer. When I was practising as an environmental consultant, I worked alongside government departments in drawing up policies for best practice in sludge management. Sludge is the waste that is left behind after sewerage and other types of wastewater are treated. I worked with local authorities around the country preparing plans for how best they might manage sludges and slurries produced in their counties. During this time, I learned so clearly that it is vital to involve people in planning and decision making. Policies involving people will succeed only if the people are brought on board when those policies are being made. My decision to leave consultancy was driven largely by the frustration that the plans I was personally putting so much effort into drawing up seemed far too often to be tick-box exercises and not implemented on the ground.
What’s my political experience?
I have been an elected representative from the Ballincollig-Carrigaline Municipal District to Cork County Council for the past five years. For the 10 years prior to that, I was an elected member of Passage West Town Council. I stood for election 15 years ago as an independent candidate and I continue to have no party 
allegiance whatsoever. I have an ongoing concern that party politics can stand in the way of good decisions, my preference being to align myself to good ideas and sound proposals uncomplicated by political agendas. I have also found how valuable community-level government can be. Because it is part of the community, it is totally aware of the needs of that community and can respond in a way that centralised decision-making cannot.
Why am I running in the local elections?
When I ran for election to Cork County Council in 2014, I was angry that community-level government was being abolished. The government-led decision to eliminate town councils was made without consultation of any kind either with elected representatives or with the people generally. Town councils were limited in what they could achieve because of a lack of power and budget, not by a lack of passion or application. It would have been a massive opportunity to overhaul local government, devolving power and decision-making to communities. Instead, the government chose to take it away. In 2014, I hoped to get elected to Cork County Council so that I could attempt to reconnect people with local representatives, local authorities and government.
As an elected member of Cork County Council, throughout the past five years I have tried in every way possible to make that link between local government and the people stronger, whether 
through disseminating information or bringing messages and sentiment from the public back to County Hall. I have brought funding and other opportunities from national and local resources right into the centre of communities where they bring most benefit. I am running again in the local elections in 2019 because this work is by no means finished.
What is my vision for local representation?
I want to see each person within each community to feel part of that community.
I want each community to feel part of and supported by local government.
I want elected representatives of the people at local government level to feed to central government what assistance people need through funding and policy to make their lives within their communities work for them.
I want politics to be about people. Not parties, politicians’ salaries or “jobs for the boys”. Politics about people is what democracy is all about.
How do I feel about women in politics?
Since I believe sincerely that politics is about people, then I also believe it is essential that government at both local and national level includes both men and women. Society in Ireland is 49% male and 51% female. If government at any level is to represent the people, then it follows that it must include both men and women.
EDUCATION
Primary education:
Scoil Bhríde Eglantine, Ballinlough
Secondary education:
Regina Mundi College, Douglas
St. Aloysius School, Sharman Crawford Street
Third level education:
Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering (University College, Cork)
Master’s Degree in Engineering Science (University College, Cork)
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Consulting environmental engineer, self-employed (2000 – 2004)
Principal consulting engineer, Fehily Timoney & Co. (1997 – 2000)
Director, Irish National Petroleum Corporation (1997 – 2000)
Consultant, Mitchelstown Renewable Energy Co-Operative (1997)
Researcher and Project Manager, University College Cork (1995 – 1997)
POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
Elected member of Passage West Town Council (2004 – 2014)
Elected member of Cork County Council (2014 to present)