Inside Eye......Tara Clarke

Will Maynooth go Green?

Age: 22

Hometown: Dublin

Course: Chemistry

Manifesto Promises: Better waste management system, increase recycling, better communication between students and union, address inadequate resource concerns.

For anyone who’s seen any of her campaign material, it is clear that Tara Clarke’s concerns in this job are environmental. So much so that it’s difficult to distinguish between her presidential campaign and her Green Week campaign. Even her manifestos are recyclable. All credit to Tara, she’s committed like you read about to this cause. But The Observer is concerned that this is all she cares about. In terms of accessability, we’ve seen her twice. Both times she was pimping Green Week and not her campaign. A noble cause indeed, but it’s not the end of the world. Well, yeah, it is technically, but you know what I mean....

A president is supposed to represent, address and attempt to resolve the concerns of the broader student body, and with all due respect, most students don’t give a toss about the environment. Or at least, don’t care sufficiently to allow the president to dedicate most of her time to it. And as a final negative point, at last week’s hustings, Tara was asked about her anti-fees stance, despite the fact that she’s a member of The Green Party. Her response was that she wasn’t a member of the Green Party, but a member of the YOUNG GREENS. Yeah........

But she does have a quality that not all other candidates have. Simon Cowell would call it the “likeability factor”, but that man’s a tool, so I prefer to be without the correct words on this occasion. At last week’s hustings, she had the enthusiasm necessary to tackle the mammoth task that lays ahead. And she believes more in promoting the issues she supports more than she promotes herself as a candidate, and in all probability, this will cost her a lot of votes. As a strong third in the minds of The Observer, we refuse to completely rule her out, and for the sake of competition, we don’t want to rule her out. But it’s an uphill battle.

Student Observer Odds: Tara 8/1 to win

-Pangloss