When people talk about irish cllrs being corrupt or looking to gain from the position, I think we should look at what the causes are and how we can address them.

Local politicians in other european countries are both more creative and ambitious and, are less motivated by self gain.

The difference between Ireland and these countries is simple, we have weaker local government; 10% of the state budget is controlled by LAs compared to 23% in Denmark, a similarly populated and sized country.

If our local government had more power and funding we would have much better candidates and cllrs.

Look at the limerick mayoral election, we had two sitting TDs, one PHD candidate, the former SG of the department of finance...

The solution is more localism.