Laois candidate claims ‘families borrowing from Peter to pay Paul’ in Portlaoise

A strong campaign for no votes in the recent referenda has seen support for Aontú jumping to its highest level of 5% among voters nationwide.

Alongside high-profile appearances on media by its leader Peadar Tóibín, the party is hoping to reap a dividend at the Local Elections.

Aontú is running just one candidate in Laois and has chosen the Portlaoise District as the battleground.

A Registered Mental Health Nurse (RPN), Ms Ryan says she has 20 years experience as a mental health nurse. She is also a qualified Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist. She says she is a four-time graduate from Trinity College Dublin.

Originally from Dublin, she moved to Laois two decades ago to, as she puts it, “ enjoy the lovely community spirit that can only be experienced in local towns in Ireland”.

She met and married a local man from Portlaoise and has been living here since. Ms Ryan says she decided to run for local election having lost faith in the current Government.

Martha says she has been moved by what she terms “needless challenges” for the people of the town and has been “especially touched by parents of children with additional needs who cannot access essential services locally”.

She said an issue that is close to home is her nephew with Autism who has benefited significantly from receiving the necessary supports in a timely manner from his local area.

“The same not afforded to children with similar needs in Portlaoise,” she said.

Ms Ryan says she has been helping people for over 2 decades working with a wide variety of mental health difficulties. She says she knows the value and need for essential services that are accessible on time as well as “the absolute detriment” to a person's life when those services are not available.

She says the cost of living crisis has had huge impact and distress to families across the country and across every income level and every working background. She says she has spoken with individuals in Portlaoise who worked all their lives to now be faced with the reality that they have “unfairly” been forced into a poor retirement due to rising costs on fuel, electricity and food.

She said some members of the community have told her that they can “barely afford to put food on the table” and a “grocery shop doesn’t last between pay days”.

She said families are being forced into tough cutbacks.

“Families are cutting corners, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, and terrified that a broken fridge or an unexpected car repair will leave them with no choice but to miss rent or mortgage payments. This is a distressing cycle that no one deserves to be in, in 2024. Needless stress only adds to health and wellbeing challenges. Families are paying more and more on rising costs. It is unsustainable, stressful and absolutely wrong,” she said.

She said that while Portlaoise has a strong community spirit, some residents of that town have described a sense of this dwindling due to the needs of infrastructure, services and amenities failing to meet the volume of people and variety of needs of the people in this town. She highlighted the campaign for a sports arena.

“Engagement in sport is essential and has particular benefit to wellbeing, confidence, development and achievement. Portlaoise is in need of a modern fit-for-purpose sports arena. Where our children can develop their talents, achieve their goals, make friends and continue to cherish the local pride of participating in competitions that develop character. Being part of a town club, be it GAA, rugby, basketball, soccer etc. holds generational pride for families.

"Being part of community societies, clubs, and sports has long proven evidence of reducing antisocial behaviour in communities. Nurturing the close-knit community feeling that has made Portlaoise a town to be proud of,” she said.

If elected, Ms Ryan said show would focus on getting solutions to: getting essential supports for families; getting appropriate out-of-hours mental health services; reduce the speeding on the Ridge Road into Ballytegan; modernising Portlaoise hospital; support local clubs in achieving a modern purpose built sports arena; Town school bus service and community sport; additional Gardai resources.

Ms Ryan says Martha says this as time for change and she has decided to run for election to advocate for the individuals of her community who have raised these concerns to her.