*Chief Executive Pat Dowling and Director of Economic Development, Carmel Kirby. Photograph: John O’Neill.
AN INTERIM Chief Executive of Clare County Council is to be appointed at the beginning of December.
Pat Dowling’s exit from the top role of the local authority was announced at Monday’s meeting of the Council with the Kilkee resident bringing his eight and a half year stint to an end.
A permanent appointment is expected to be made in the first quarter of 2025 but in the interval Dowling will hand pick his temporary replacement and collaborate with them on a handover for the month of December.
Currently, the senior management of the Council is comprised of Director of Finance and Support Services, Noeleen Fitzgerald, Director of Economic Development, Carmel Kirby, Director of Social Development Jason Murphy, Director of Physical Development Alan Farrell, Director of Tourism Development Siobhán McNulty and Acting Director of Rural Development, Ann Reynolds.
One of the five full-time Directors will be appointed to the interim Chief Executive post with both Fitzgerald and Kirby anticipated to be those most likely to get the nod.
He told the November meeting of the Council, “At a practical level while I’m retiring in a few weeks, it is important that provision is made for the future”. Dowling added, “None of us can achieve without our people, we’re very lucky to have the people that work towards a common cause”.
Appointment of an interim Chief Executive will come into effect from December 2nd “to ensure effective overlap, secondly, the competition for the new permanent Chief Executive will be run from the Public Appointments Service”.
Dowling continued, “the process will take a number of months but I’ll try make sure it is sped up as soon as possible, the recommendation from the Public Appointments Service is made to the Corporate Policy Group and then it is gone for approval of Clare County Council. Most definitely that will go into the first quarter of next year, we will make sure stability continues until the next person comes in”.
It is the latest exit from the top table of Clare County Council. Liam Conneally was Director of Economic Development until his appointment as Chief Executive of Galway County Council in March 2023, Leonard Cleary headed up the Tourism Development Directorate until he became Chief Executive of Galway City Council in March 2024 and Anne Haugh took early retirement in August of this year leaving her role as Director of Social Development.
