*Sinéad O’Donoghue.
AS PART of its efforts to ramp up housing delivery, Clare County Council have announced the appointment of a new senior officer.
Sinéad O’Donoghue joined the staff of Clare County Council on Monday last (November 10th). She has taken on the role of senior executive officer in the Housing Delivery, Infrastructure Provision and Land Activation Directorate.
A native of Cork, Sinéad joins Clare County Council from the Land Development Agency where she was a senior planning project manager, a role she was promoted to after two and a half years as a planning project manager.
As part of Chief Executive Gordon Daly’s vision to activate the delivery of more housing in the county on top of the Council’s statutory obligations, Sinéad’s addition is among the first signs of the intent at which the Tuamgraney man plans to tackle the housing crisis.
In correspondence to elected members, Daly outlined, “Sinéad will have responsibility for the Housing Activation brief and brings a wealth of experience to this role”.
Before moving to Co Clare, she had been working in England for over a decade. Among the roles held in the UK include a planning enforcement officer with Westminster City Council, a strategic planning officer with Southend Borough Council, principal planning officer and capital/funding manager with Cambridgeshire County Council where she managed a capital fund in the region of £60m, developer contributions team manager and planning policy team manager with West Berkshire Council.
She is a chartered town planner and has held a lifelong involvement in camogie serving as a player, mentor and committee member, formerly lining out with Bishopstown in Cork. She is married to Brendan Troy, formerly of Clare Local Enterprise Office who is now Head of Trade and Investment with Limerick City and County Council, he is a former footballer with O’Currys.
Daly worked alongside O’Donoghue during his time as a Director of Service in Limerick City and County Council when she was working for the LDA. In this time, a dedicated derelict properties team was created, between 2019 and 2024 a total of 326 properties were brought back into use, over 350 applications were approved in Croí Cónaithe while twelve towns and villages in Limerick were included in a pilot project from Department of Housing contributes €2.5m to proposals with the Council providing €800,000 from its own resources. Six sites in Abbeyfeale are currently being brought back from dereliction using the fund.
