Colette Finn, Green Party, Cork City Councillor, Candidate Elections 2024

 Hello again, I'm bringing you another Green candidate for Cork city council elections in 2024.

This morning I'll be chatting  to Colette Finn, a member of  the Cork City Council since  2019.

I hope you've all being      enjoying the stuff written in  these posts about upcoming  new Green Party candidates  for Cork City elections 2024 

In the last few weeks, we had a most distinguished world-class politician visit us in Ireland, that is, Joe Biden, President of the United States, and he spend a few days with us,. We're were and are  privileged indeed. 

This morning we're privileged and honoured to be talking to a first class and very experienced politician and city councillor...Colette Finn.

It's always interesting and enlightening to listen to the experienced politicians, who have a vast array of experiences working within the community.

Colette , a graduate of UCC to doctoral level in Economics, has a lot to offer in her continuing work with Cork City Council. 

Her style seems to be one of working with and in the community, so she has lots of projects and concerns ongoing. Here's hoping that she will be voted in again to continue her work in the large South-West electoral area of Cork City.

In the following chat you can checkout Colette's wishes and hopes for all of us, as she continues her work with communities in the south-west of the city, as she goes forward for re-election in 2024.

Good Morning Colette, you're welcome here to a chat mixed with tea/coffee and a little politics. I hope this blog does credit to you.

Which is your preference for a cuppa in the morning?

I prefer to have tea in the morning, which is what we always drank at home.

What memory does drinking a cup of tea conjure up for you?

It doesn't have particular memories, just reminds me of home and growing up in a happy family.

It's great to have you here for a chat. Tell us a little about yourself and what drew you into politics?

In my mid twenties, I went to Africa. While I was there, it was a surprise to me that I starting thinking about the kind of society we would want to live in. This was influenced by the systems that were in place there in Africa. So that was the first thing that drew me to politics.

Prior to that, I'd seen it as Fine Fail versus Fine Gael (parties), with Labour (party) thrown in for good measure. It hadn't really resonated with me. So after that, I started to pay more attention to it and became involved with the Cork Greens.

I was very happy to get elected in 2019.

I'd been a long time advocating that we needed more women elected into politics, because we have a different lens on the world, different to men, no better, no worse, but our experience is materially different. Without those (women's) voices in the room, I don't think we have a representative democracy.

In 2019, basically, I had to do what I was telling other women to do and that was, to run for office. I was delighted to get elected for the South-West ward.

I ran a campaign on changing our view of how we develop society, away from market based economics, where the market does the thinking for us. We really needed to look at the sort of society we wanted to live in, the sort of systems we needed to develop in order to do that.

New Map of South-West Ward

                               

Cork City Electoral Ward Divisions

And aa Green Party candidate, what difference does this make, being Green, that is? And how, do you think, can the Green Party make a difference to what has gone before?

I think the Green party has made a huge difference to the Cork City Council. I think the Executive were actually open to being more green. And then when we got elected, we were able to basically force the agenda, that we needed to get serious about climate change. We needed to stop signing up to international agreements and then making absolutely no effort to make the change that was necessary in order to comply with our responsibilities. I think the Green party has made a huge difference, not without its controversy, in the sense, that to some extent, I think people are very complacent about what's ahead. And I find it hard to remain positive, when you get so much pushback in relation to living a greener life, and really taking seriously the threats that affect us.     

  

Empowering Women in Politics

Working with city councillor Oliver Moran

Now that you're going forward for re-election for the South-West electoral area of Cork city, what does this mean to you? What are your goals as you head towards the election in 2024?

I suppose my main goals for 2024 are to promote different thinking around housing, more cost rental, which is basically local authority housing, which is open to all for rent.

Also, that we would have more compact growth, where we don't keep to developing more greenfield sites, as the city spreads further and further. So that does mean moving up. And also putting in transport links, which are not car dependent, if we are going to do that. So really, supporting the State, being more involved in providing housing, in providing a transport system that isn't so car-centric, so that we either walk, cycle or take the bus.

Do you think you'll get re-elected?

I'm hoping I get re-elected. You just don't know. People may decide that they don't like your message. That's fine too. That is democracy. So it's up to me to make sure that people understand my ideas and I'm hoping that the public will support me.

You've been involved on a local level in various local concerns for some time now, would you talk a little about one or two of those concerns?

I've gotten involved in the community garden, in the Cork cycling campaign, the tidy towns competitions and so on.. So basically that's how I operate.

Being out in the community, as you are frequently, what way do you see that things that concern you are working?

I'm out in the community anyway, and so I try to lead by example.

Walk, cycle and take the bus as much as possible. I do the usual re-cycling. I try not to do unsustainable things, like buying clothes every other week.

I talk to people about their concerns, about biodiversity, and our need to appreciate our green spaces and look after them and understand that we are part of nature.

We don't live separately from Nature.. Ultimately decisions that are made impact ourselves, our children and our children's children. So we do have to pay attention to all of those things.

Working with the Focus Community

And finally, one last question, what are your hopes for the future, other than being elected?

I hope in the future that the Green agenda continues and gets stronger and gets a greater understanding from people

Thank you and best of luck. Hopefully we may catch up with you again and talk about a few more concerns, and see how things are going for you in the community.

Women working together

 

Helping new candidate Louise Jordan

(Written by Celine Spengeman for everyone and everything green).