Bailieborough Cootehill MD Candidate: Cllr Val Smith

Married to Siobhan with two sons (21 and 19) both at college Val is born and bred in Lavey. For work he buys and sells cars in Stradone. He is Fine Gael stalwart having been first elected in 2009 and is now running for a fourth term.

How do you unwind?

GAA plays a big part - I am a Club Breifne member, and a Club Lavey member. I also have a small farm - I like to switch off my phone and head off to the farm to chill out. I do a bit of walking and a bit of fishing. Family plays a big part in my life - the boys play football for the local club, so that keeps us going.

Why should people vote for you?

I'm a community worker. If you go into big political stuff - don't look for Val. If you want your grants, passport checked, SUSI grants looked about, anything to do with medical cards, if you want to apply for a grant for your parents or someone with a disability needing a walk in shower - Val's the man to work on that. I do a lot of work with schools - in the last five years in my own parish of Upper Lavey we got two new astro turf pitches at the national school; we got one recently at Killinkere NS and a set down area with money from Minister Humphreys - Clár funding; Billis NS, five miles away got a new astro turf and new carpark in the last five years; and Laragh community pitch got over half a million in funding.

I played a role in these big time through Minister Humphreys.

What will you do to address housing supply?

For social housing we need more funding. However, saying that, Minister O'Brien built more houses last year than what was built maybe in the past 10.

In my area the problem with housing is planning for one-off housing. The person who is building, he nearly has to build a house he's not happy with to get planning. It's a big issue. I have met with people not getting planning for the type of house they require.

Has Ireland taken in enough refugees?

Definitely yes. It's not right seeing people in tents - that's something I hate seeing, but we let in too many and we couldn't accommodate them. It's not fair on the people who are coming in and the people who have businesses in Dublin. They are trying to do business, pay their rates and employ people and with a tent outside their front door, so I can see where everybody's coming from, but we let in too many.

What is your main campaigning issue?

What I'm getting at the doors obviously is the roads. As a rural councillor I can see the problems - the moral is we need more funding. The councillors on every side are getting it in the neck, but we haven't got the tools - the money is not there. We got funding for LIS - rural lanes - Heather gave funding of €1.2m. I was at a meeting last week and asked the director of services about it and he said we need at least €10m.

Minister Humphreys gave that money from Rural Affairs - it's not from Transport - we need it from Transport.

Minister Eamon Ryan is giving lots of money to other things but we need it for the roads. I can see where he's coming from with biodiversity and cycle lanes and walks but a lot of these paths are in towns - we don't see too many cycle paths in rural areas. We have to stall the digger a wee bit, we're giving too much to that and not enough to the roads section.

Should the biodiversity/climate crises be at the very top of the council's agenda?

The council has a new Biodiversity Plan from 2024-2029. Things have to change, but for the rural part of it, it's maybe changing too much. We're pumping millions and millions into climate work and our emissions is 0.001%, which is crazy that we are sacrificing ourselves and the farmers for what we emit.

Who in the political sphere most influenced you?

It is without doubt Heather Humphreys - as a rural councillor I think she has pumped money into every part of Cavan and Monaghan to help rural people and rural councillors - of all persuasions.

It's about keeping communities together, it's about looking after mental health. Canvassing on the doors and you will get praise once you mention Heather Humphreys for the work she is doing.