Rita McInerney reads the 1916 proclamation watched by Fianna Fáil leader, Micheal Martin TD. Photograph: Natasha Barton.
RITA MCINERNEY is determined to maximise her new role as a county councillor over the next six months in advance of the 2024 local elections.
On Sunday December 17th, Rita was given the backing of Fianna Fáil members in West Clare to fill the seat on Clare County Council vacated by Cllr Bill Chambers (FF) who announced his retirement from politics in November.
Doonbeg native Rita will serve on the local authority until the local elections and assume the seat of the Cooraclare man on the County Council. She will be present at meetings of the West Clare Municipal District in January, March and May. She will also take up a role on the Rural Development Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) which is chaired by Cllr Pat Hayes (FF).
Fianna Fáil have yet to hold their final selection convention in Clare ahead of the local elections to decide who they will put on the ballot paper in the West Clare MD. Sitting representatives Cllr PJ Kelly (FF) and Cllr Cillian Murphy (FF) are expected to be joined by Rita and Michael Shannon.
Speaking to The Clare Echo in Kilrush in what was her first interview following confirmation that she was to be co-opted, Rita commented, “I’m absolutely delighted, it is a huge honour and I have big shoes to fill following in Bill Chambers’ footsteps, he was a great man for West Clare and did so much, I’m absolutely delighted and hoping to continue his good work”.
Prior to Sunday’s selection convention, she had canvassed local members for over a month to gain their support. “Going to visit all the members which was great in West Clare, there’s just under 100 members that had votes for today and it was a pleasure to meet with them and hear the issues first hand and they are very engaged as Fianna Fáil members so they were able to raise their concerns and we could debate what was going on in the party and in West Clare”.
Securing their support gives her an invaluable platform ahead of the June elections. “I have to hit the ground running and work hard for the six months, we are coming into another local election in June so it is important to ensure you are doing the work on the ground and you can prove what you are capable of so that the electorate have a better idea of who you are and what you stand for. I am certainly looking forward to that and working within the Council”.
An owner of a shop and café in Doonbeg, Rita also has a strong profile in Kilrush where she had a constituency office prior to the 2020 General Election when she polled 4,136 first preferences equating at 7 percent of the overall vote. She was eliminated on the seventh count and her transfers proved quite helpful to Cathal Crowe’s (FF) election to the Dáil.
Her father Murt McInerney is a stalwart of the Fianna Fáil party but is also a former teacher in Kilrush. She plans to represent the town as much as her native Doonbeg. “When you say you’re ‘going to town’ you’re going to Kilrush so Kilrush is our town, it is where I went to school, it is where my father taught, it is a great community, there’s a great group of businesses in Kilrush, it is a very vital base for West Clare and particularly with Moneypoint next to it as well it has a lot of potential, it has seen a lot of development in recent years particularly with the Marina and the Vandeleur Walled Gardens, it is a great town and a great base for West Clare”.
Had the selection convention been held a week earlier, Rita could have been co-opted at the December meeting of Clare County Council. The extra wait of a month is not a bone of contention for McInerney. “It was very fitting that Bill Chambers’ last term over the last month had finalised the sewerage scheme in Cooraclare which was very important, it was very important to see out the year, he has given us the opportunity to contest this now and go on and do the six months, it was very fitting that Bill was there until Christmas to see that all come to fruition”.
On the items she plans to try get outcomes on during her six months on the local authority, Rita said, “There’s a number of programmes coming out through the Council in terms of community activities and community funding, it is very important for us to continue to work with those and ensure they are fit for purpose in helping community groups, that stuff is constantly being reviewed in the Council. There’s legislation going through the Oireachtas at the moment in relation to planning, that will be vitally important for families and businesses in rural Ireland and West Clare where they can have viable futures and be able to have entrepreneurship and have people giving an opportunity to stay in rural communities, they are things I will be pushing through. The Council does such huge work that it is so important to be constantly involved with that activity and ensure the Council is there to support people and it will ramp up over the next six months, we’re coming into our tourist season so a lot of decisions will be made around that and it is an area I hold dear to my heart”.
