Town Meeting held the interest

Well, in the end it was about 50 people turned out to give questions and hear answers from candidates in the Naas area for next week's elections, writes Brian Byrne.

And nine of the 16 candidates took the gamble that it was worth spending one of their remaining precious nights of canvassing on the stage of the Town Hall Theatre explaining why each of them should be considered for the Council seats to be decided this day week. Those who made it were Billy Hillis and Darren Scully of Fine Gael, James Lawless and Rob Power of Fianna Fail, Anne Breen and Fergus Carpenter of Labour, Sinn Fein's Sorcha O'Neill, Martin Byrne of Direct Democracy and Independant Seamie Moore.

All in all, it seems to have been a good exercise at least for the community, and it was testament to the content of the evening and the deft chairmanship of Maurice O'Mahony that nobody lost interest.

There'll be a full report later.