O’Dwyer, who was the Labour Party’s Local Area Representative for the Clondalkin-Rathcoole electoral area has announced his resignation from the Labour Party citing concerns about the direction of the Party and its leadership. O’Dwyer said: “My time in the Labour Party was very busy, I took on a massive caseload of work in the Clondalkin-Rathcoole area and immediately set about working with residents and started smashing through the many queries I received from residents. I was very fortunate to have decent media coverage in local media with nearly one article a week from mid February being published and I was even able to get one or two articles into a few national outlets as well.
“I am delighted, thrilled even, with Ivana Bacik’s win, I was delighted to have been able to get out in Dublin Bay South and knock on doors for her. But I am concerned about the overall direction of the party and its leadership. Despite my mammoth output as a Local Area Representative I never felt appreciated for the work. I set up online public meetings and managed to land brilliant panel members such as Sarah Benson of Women’s Aid and Tony Duffin of the Ana Liffey drugs project but this never seemed to win favour with those running the party. I took over the role during the pandemic, I was also a frontline worker.
“In my resignation letter to the general secretary of the party I stated that the treatment and lack of support for local area reps was one of my causes of concern. “A number of weeks ago following a vote on Palestine and with the Labour Party voting with the Government I was very winded. I formed an immediate response and organised members who, like me, were angry about how the Party voted. Despite promises of change and a meeting to listen to our concerns the Party leadership fobbed us off and that was that. “I plan to remain as a local area rep for the people of Clondalkin-Rathcoole and will continue to work through my casework. I am not actively looking for another Party to join but I am not opposed to the idea but will need to make sure that there is decent treatment of their membership, which let’s face it is the greatest asset and resource a party has.
