South Dublin County Council elects new Mayor for 2013/2014

28/06/2013

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

South Dublin County Council elects new Mayor for 2013/2014

At the Annual Meeting of the South Dublin County Council held on Friday 28th June, 2013 in County Hall, Tallaght, Councillor Dermot Looney (Lab) was elected the Mayor of South Dublin County. Councillor Looney is a primary school teacher by profession and is also a member of County Dublin VEC. Councillor Looney’s election marks the final mayoral election in the term of the current council.

Tributes were paid to the outgoing Mayor, Councillor Cathal King and Deputy Mayor Councillor Guss O’ Connell, who thanked their fellow Councillors, newly appointed County Manager, Daniel McLoughlin, Deputy Manager, Philomena Poole, the Management and Staff of the Council for their help and support during their term in office.

Councillor Dermot Looney was proposed for Mayor by Councillor Marie Corr (Lab) and was seconded by Councillor Mick Duff (Lab).

Following a roll call vote Councillor Looney was deemed to by Mayor by a majority vote of 13 – 9.

Accepting his chain of office Mayor Looney stated that ’as Councillors and as a Council we have a task of work to attract and maintain sustainable, meaningful jobs in this community. For the year ahead as Mayor, I am committed to working with Councillors, management and stakeholders across the board to make sure that the decisions we make here continue to prioritise the jobs agenda’.

The themes selected by the newly elected Mayor Dermot Looney for his year in office will focus on older people, young people and the environment. In his acceptance speech the Mayor expanded on his themes reiterating his commitment to maintain and develop continued supports for older people in our community and for the public services on which they rely.

Mayor Looney continued “as a teacher, I am closely associated with education and work with young people in my day to day work. During the coming year, I intend to actively work with agencies and groups which represent children and young people to ensure their voice is heard on the Council. Mayor Looney went on to say that “protecting and enhancing our environment has been a central part of my work on this Council. As Mayor, I will continue to support the ongoing excellent work on initiatives such as the Tidy Towns and the Social Credits programme. I will aim to explore how we can further protect and promote our green spaces and our wonderful natural resources. I have a keen interest in sustainable transport options in the County and I will particularly focus on delivering further improvements for cyclists in our County. Finally I look forward to working with Management, Councillors and others to continue to tackle the scourge of littering and illegal dumping which is damaging to both our environment and our economy”.

Mayor Looney concluded by saying ‘this is a hugely challenging time to be involved in local democracy. I want to ensure the citizens of South Dublin are informed and engaged in the work of our Council. As Mayor, I will be using social media to communicate with new audiences. I want to open up a discourse here in South Dublin on how to enhance and improve our democracy; for example, on the issue of a directly-elected Mayor for the Dublin region.

Councillor Eamon Tuffy (Lab) was elected Deputy Mayor. Deputy Mayor Tuffy was proposed by Councillor Guss O’Connell (Ind) and seconded by Councillor Caitríona Jones (Lab).

The following were elected as Chairs of the Area Committees

Councillor Breda Bonner (Lab) Clondalkin

Councillor Guss O’Connell (Ind) Lucan

Councillor Paddy Cosgrave (Lab) Rathfarnham

Councillor Mick Duff (Lab) Tallaght

Images

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  Mayor Dermot Looney