*Mayor of Limerick John Moran at the inauguration ceremony at St Mary’s Cathedral where he was vested with Chains of Office. Picture: Don Moloney
LIMERICK having a Directly Elected Mayor will have implications for neighbouring Clare, the Chief Executive of Clare County Council has cautioned.
Addressing a recent meeting of Clare County Council, Chief Executive Pat Dowling referred to the recent election of John Moran in June as the first ever directly elected mayor in the county.
Moran’s election and subsequent changes to local government in Limerick “has implications on us here in Clare,” Dowling said. He will be serving as Clare County Council’s representative on two steering groups, Limerick 2040 and a transport sub-group.
Dowling explained, “To stress the importance of this for local government and where it is going, the Mayor now elected is the Executive head of the Council in Limerick and serves for five years, he takes on responsibilities for functions previously carried out by the Chief Executive at strategic and policy level including housing, road transport and safety, economic development, he is also Chair of the Council Policy Group and has responsibility for proposing an annual budget to Limerick City and County Council”.
He continued, “the new Director General who was Chief Executive, he will be responsible for supporting the Mayor in their day to day operations, he will retain specific functions like accounting, staffing, managing events, enforcement and legal proceedings, there is no longer a Cathaoirleach in the revised structure, instead there is Priomh Chomhairleoir who is like a convener who only has duties inside the Chamber”.
Knockaderry native Dowling said, “If I have my way we will throw the LNDR into the Limerick Shannon Metropolitan Area Transport Strategy (LSMATS)”. A former Deputy Chief Executive of Limerick City and County Council, he flagged that these are “significant changes on role structures which will impact on our engagement with Limerick City & County Council going forward”.
Cllr Michael Begley (IND) encouraged the Chief Executive to “throw in the SDZ as well as the LNDR” into the discussions.
On the position regarding the South Clare SDZ, Dowling informed the meeting they are due to meet with UL on the matter. “We’re not giving up on this. It is still a live project from our perspective despite all that is going on”.
Cathaoirleach of the Shannon MD, Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) commented, “The LNDR is going through our area, the Green Party leader might have took half of it away with the stroke of a pen, we’re still hoping it will continue”.
Inclusion of the Shannon in the title of the LSMATS is a positive indicator, Cllr Gabriel Keating (FG) maintained. “Having listened to the Chief Executive, will there be a huge funding benefit to Clare, he has a huge pot of money to spend”.
In response Dowling stated, “That is the challenge for us. They have specifically included Clare in this reform programme which has happened in the City and in the road from us, they have included Clare because of the metropolitan plans that they have. Our challenge will be to ensure that our interests are protected, that will be the difficult part of talking about the SDZ and LNDR, I don’t want a situation where we have a directly elected mayor in a neighbouring authority who is not supporting our objectives, it is important the newly elected mayor is promoting the interests of the region as well as the authority that elected him”.
Slow progress of the SDZ was lamented by Cllr Bill Slattery (FG) who as a member of the Southern Assembly with the retired Pat McMahon (FF) up until 2019 fought for its inclusion. He admitted, “I’m getting very worried on the impact this newly elected Mayor will have”. Mayor of Clare, Cllr Alan O’Callaghan (FF) responded, “That is something that we will have to watch with both eyes”.
