*Jacek Kazimierz Kwaśny
AN ELECTION candidate in Ennis who previously worked in a data centre has said the figures mooted for the Ennis Data Centre will not come to fruition.
Polish native, Jacek Kazimierz Kwaśny was the final addition among the thirteen candidates in the Ennis Municipal District for the local elections on June 7th.
Not long after turning thirty last month, he decided to put his name forward for the local election. “Initially I didn’t intend to be a candidate but then I said ‘hey I have some ideas, I’ll give it a go, even if I lose it will be a great experience but it will push me to interact more with the community,” he remarked of his bid for office.
Jacek moved to Ireland in 2007 with his parents and brother, they still reside in Cavan while he has spells living in Athlone and Dublin for college and work before relocating to Ennis in November 2021 to take up a post as a software engineer with Vitalograph. “There was a lot of moving, we moved from Cavan then to college in Athlone, then from Athlone back to Cavan, Cavan to Dublin for work then when COVID happened I went back home to support my family, because I was a software engineer I could work from home so I was the breadwinner for a while. As COVID was finishing and everything was coming back to normal I felt it was time for a new job and something new”.
Among his previous jobs include working in the Amazon data centre in Blanchardstown. Board members of the Ennis 2040 DAC have said there will be 400 permanent jobs and 1,600 during the six-year construction phase.
Such figures are inaccurate according to Jacek. “I worked in a data centre myself, I don’t believe it is going to employ 450 people, when I was working in a data centre, there was six technicians, very little, loads of support maybe. On the best scenario, it will have 300 people maximum employed, it will probably be way less because you have data centres set up where everything is just maintenance, it is going to be way lower”. He added, “I would rather have housing there”.
From a small town in Poland called Sucha Beskidzka, the “small compact” nature of Ennis appealed to him. “We don’t have to go very far to reach a destination, I love that way more than Dublin because it was thirty minutes from bus to get to the city centre, from here it is walking distance. I cycle to work but if I get a puncture, I’m walking”. He continued, “I had another employment opportunity in Cork at the same time, I had a choice between Cork and Ennis but I decided that Ennis was more compact and small so it was something I would enjoy more than Cork. I like it here”.
Although he is not involved with any groups or organisations locally, Jacek maintained he is known among business owners and restauranteurs in the town centre. “I talk to people, I talk to locals, I go from business to business, recently I went through all of Parnell Street entering a good portion of shops, I got really good feedback on the struggles they face”.
His canvassing approach is unique in that he will not be knocking on people’s doors. “I believe that people’s homes are their peace, you shouldn’t bother them at home. In the middle of town is a different story, it is a private space but your home is your own space and people should be left there. I don’t put my face on the posters either so maybe I am the quite candidate, I also believe that genuine interest speaks, if people like what you are saying they will pass it forward and the word will spread”.
On how the public will become aware of him, he said, “I will talk to them, I will try to talk to them at the very least. I had a situation where a woman, a very lovely lady, her son was attacked and nobody did anything, when she heard I was running she said ‘I don’t want to talk to you, you’re the same as everyone else’. I understand that because I had a similar mindset that everyone is the same in politics but as you grow older you see things are not all black and white, it’s all grey”.
“I prefer to talk to people face to face, I will write on social media to expose myself but I would avoid putting myself on a pole, a Polish person on a pole right it’s a funny joke. A few businesses around here said they would put my poster on their door but I don’t want to burden businesses either. You need to expose yourself but you don’t want to affect people either,” he told The Clare Echo.
Ennis 2040, littering, anti-social behaviour and parking are the big issues for the Ennis MD, he felt. “Ennis 2040 was something I looked at and said ‘hey this is a huge thing’ but the small on the ground things are not really addressed. Even now when I was walking down the street there was rubbish on the ground, something that can be easily fixed, the small things need to be fixed like rubbish and anti-social behaviour. What I’m hearing from people in Parnell Street and the Markett is that kids, homeless people and junkies are causing trouble, they are simple things at first which proceed to something bigger. Parking would be nice to sort out, I’ve looked at the site which of the old school on the Kilrush Rd which was demolished and could be turned into very nice parking. In the market centre, it could be revitalised and bring the markets to the market square, I talk to a lot of people who said it was very big, farmers used to come down with produce, it was full, people were very happy with it but from my understanding there was a dispute and the farmers went somewhere else because of the white elephant, my goal would be to bring the farmers back and make Ennis more favourable to visit. Ennis is at its heart a music town and it would be nice to bring some of that back”.
He added, “I went through the Ennis 2040 plan, English is not my first language so some of the words required me to go to a dictionary, you think after seventeen years you will know everything but then you go through simple things like that. I believe there are quite good ideas there but it is poorly executed, if there was more communication with the people it could have been avoided but also direct feedback could have been given way earlier to avoid the protests”.
According to Jacek, a security firm “basically overlooks Ennis Town” and they have a big role to play in assisting a clamp down on crime. “With the security around the town I was thinking about getting Gardaí, even one or two of them to go on patrols, I know they deal with a load of paperwork, maybe we could figure out something that it be delegated to somebody else, I know a security firm basically overlooks Ennis Town but we could delegate the paperwork to them, Gardaí should be on the streets protecting people”.
How a councillor can implement such measures is “difficult,” he acknowledged. “I don’t want to make promises and throw out empty promises. The answer to everything is often money and contacts so asking around and if security firms would be able to do that. We would have to talk with the Gardaí, see what they are struggling with and if we can help them out”.
