New Local Representative: Cllr Aidan Lombard

New Local Representative: Cllr Aidan Lombard Writes Jack White Aidan (35) is a self-employed civil engineer, specialising in paving and stonework and lives in Minane Bridge with his partner Irene and two daughters. Aidan, who comfortably won the party convention for the electoral area, says he’s delighted to have the opportunity to serve the locality. “I’m looking forward to establishing myself as a local councillor. Growing up, politics was always around us at home, my father was actively involved with Fine Gael locally. I ran Tim’s first campaign when he was elected to Cork County Council in 2003 and I’ve ran all of his campaigns since so you learn a lot on the road, you see the issues that matter to people and you try to find solutions for them, so I’m really looking forward to doing it all for myself now and to put my own mark on the role” I had to think about if for a while before I decided to run in the convention”, says Aidan, “it was going to be a big commitment with family and work but after speaking to Irene and putting a system in place to manage time, it is going to be possible to manage everything and effectively fulfil my new role”. Given Tim’s recent election it was an exciting tme for the Lombard family, “it was a proud time for myself and my family”, says Aidan, “ My first day in Cork County Council was on a Monday and Tim’s first day in Seanad Eireann was on a Wednesday so it was a special time, especially for my mother”. Not only does his background in politics help him to understand the challenges of the new role but Aidan feels that given his age profile he is well placed to understand the challenges of problems facing many people in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. “I think that because of my age and because of the fact that I’m working full time, I understand the problems that young generations are dealing with, negative equity, childcare, mortgages etc, I can identify with the people I’ll be representing”, says Aidan. Aidan’s background in business and being self-employed is something that he is hoping will help him in his role as a councillor, he says, “I’ll be hoping to continue Tim’s good work as a local representative but at the same time I’ll be a little different. My background in business is something I want to draw on in aiming to improve the pace at which council business moves. I think that sometimes council business can be inefficient and slow. In private industry inefficiency and slowness in operation is not good enough and the same needs to be true for council or government business. I can’t understand when people label something as “an ongoing issue” for years. How can something be on-going for years? I’m organised and if there’s a job to be done, I’ll do it. I won’t be out there looking for every bit of publicity I can get, but I will be working hard to complete whatever tasks are presented to me in my role”. Whilst from Minane Bridge and an elected representative in the Bandon-Kinsale Electoral area, Aidan says he’s keen to work hard for the people of Carrigaline (south side), Crosshaven, Tracton and surrounds, areas that find themselves at the edge of the electoral area since the highly controversial 2014 boundary changes came into place. “ I’ll be going east and not west in the constituency”, says Aidan, “ I’ll be offering representation to the areas that have been unfairly affected by the boundary changes such as the south-side of Carrigaline and Crosshaven. We need to keep pushing for these areas to go back into the sensible boundaries we had previous to the change but in the meantime, we need to create an environment wherby these areas won’t be forgotten whilst in the Bandon-Kinsale Electoral area”. Overall Aidan is looking forward to the challenge of working as a local represntative. He said he will welcome queries from the public and wants to encourage people to contact him with any local issues they are facing. Tel: 086-3620047 Email: aidanlombard80@gmail.com