Curraghboy's Ward becomes Mayor of Roscommon
Curraghboy Councillor Tony Ward has been elected as the new Mayor of Roscommon after doing a deal with four other Independent councillors, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin"s Cllr Michael Mulligan.
The Fianna Fáil-Sinn Féin-Independent alliance will run Roscommon County Council for the next five years and the alliance elected Cllr Jimmy Kenny as the Deputy Mayor for the year ahead.
Two Strokestown councillors proposed and seconded Cllr Ward as the new Mayor at last Friday"s meeting. Independent member, Cllr Tom Crosby proposed Cllr Ward as the new Mayor, and it was seconded by Fianna Fáil member, Cllr Eugene Murphy.
'I"ve worked with Tony on the Council since he was first elected in 2004, and he has been an excellent public representative who topped the poll in his electoral area, and got nearly 20% of the overall vote,' said Cllr Crosby.
South Roscommon member Cllr Ollie Moore (FG) was also proposed by Cllr Sean Beirne and seconded for Mayor by local Fine Gael member, Cllr John Naughten, but was defeated in the vote.
Since 1985 Fine Gael with Independents have run the County Council, so there was much disagreement from both sides of the house on the deal which was struck between the five Independents and Fianna Fáil on this occasion. Criticism was levelled at the Independents by Fine Gael"s Cllr Sean Beirne who commented on three of the Independents being from the 'Fianna Fáil gene pool,' and said that they didn"t get a Fianna Fáil nomination in past times.
Mayor Ward took exception to this, and said that he had 'never sought a nomination from Fianna Fáil in his life'.
'I was a member of Fianna Fáil and never denied that, but I went as an Independent Community Candidate in 1999, and was first elected in 2004,' said the new Mayor. 'It was said that South Roscommon would never elect an Independent, and now we have two elected in 2009.'
Four of the South Roscommon members, Mayor Ward, Cllr Kenny and Fianna Fail"s Cllr John Keogh and Cllr Paddy Kilduff are part of the 14 person alliance that will run the Council for the next five years.
Following Friday"s meeting the alliance issued a statement saying: 'The primary focus of the negotiations centred around delivering a modern, efficient, client focused local government package that will improve the services and thus the quality of life of the citizens of county Roscommon. Whilst the county faces difficult times ahead, the alliance has agreed on clear objectives to aim to achieve over the course of the next five years.'
The alliance has agreed not to increase commercial rates for the next three years in a bid to support enterprise in the county, save jobs and create more jobs. It also plans to implement a new five-year tourism strategy for the county and support the agricultural industry.
Among its other priorities are the delivery of better road safety, maintaining health services, youth facilities and the care of the elderly.
The alliance added in the statement that it realises the need to deliver quality drinking water and they will work to endeavour to progress the completion of Regional Water Schemes as a matter of urgency.
The Hospital Action Committee also released a statement following Friday"s meeting, saying its two councillors Paula McNamara and Valerie Byrne were not left out in the cold in the shake-up for power in the Council Chamber.
The two councillors said they had been approached by both Fianna Fáil nad Fine Gael and they had sought assurances regarding the retention of all services at Roscommon Hospital.
'At the end of the day neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael were able to give us written commitments about the future of all services at the hospital,' Cllr Paula Mc Namara stated. In light of this both Cllr McNamara and Cllr Byrne decided to go with neither party in the Chamber. They will remain Independent and will vote accordingly during the duration of their five-year term.
'We were elected by the people of this county to fight for services at the County Hospital and we could not, in all honesty, side with any party who could not guarantee the future of all services at the Hospital,' said Cllr Valerie Byrne.
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