*Gordon Daly. Photograph: Alan Place
TUAMGRANEY native Gordon Daly is to be the new Chief Executive of Clare County Council.
The Clare Echo has learned that that Daly was informed on Wednesday afternoon he was the successful candidate after getting the nod from the Public Appointments Service (PAS). He succeeds Pat Dowling who stepped down from the role in December after eight and a half years. Daly’s post as Chief Executive comes with a seven year tenure.
His proposed appointment will now go before a meeting of Clare County Council’s Corporate Policy Group (CPG) and subsequently a full meeting of the County Council where it is expected he will be ratified to the post at either the April or May sitting of the local authority.
A past pupil of Tuamgraney NS and Scariff Community College, Gordon has worked in local government all his life. He graduated from the University of Gloucestershire with a honours degree in countryside planning and he obtained a masters in town and country planning from Queens University Belfast.
He started his career as a planner with Kerry County Council in 1997 before moving to Limerick County Council and then working as a senior executive planner in Clare from 2003 to 2005. In September 2005, he was appointed as a senior planner with Offaly County Council before returning to Clare County Council where he was a senior planner from January 2009 to August 2015.
Upon leaving Clare, he became a Director of Service with Limerick City and County Council. He currently holds the role of Deputy Director General & Director of Corporate Services, Human Resources & Organisational Development in Limerick. Since last April, he has been Deputy Chief Executive and Deputy Director General.
During his near-decade in Limerick, Daly has been involved in the opening of the 40km Limerick Greenway which has received over 1.5m visitors since 2021 and the €5m Limerick Regional Athletics Hub in Newcastle West which officially opened in September 2023 and boasts world-class standard 8 lane synthetic athletics track, fully-floodlit associated track and field facilities with a surrounding walking path.
Economic, tourism, community and rural development have all come under his auspices in Limerick. He was also leading the Council’s team in preparing for the 2027 Ryder Cup which is to take place in Adare Manor.
Daly has also been to the fore in Limerick City and County Council tackling derelict housing which has included the creation of a dedicated derelict properties team in 2017. In the past five years it has carried out almost 8,000 inspections, served more than 2,800 notices and has or is planning to compulsorily acquire 300 properties in Limerick city and county.
Between 2019 and last year, Limerick City and County Council brought 326 properties back into use. It has a revolving fund where properties are put on the open market and the proceeds used to pay for compulsory purchases if the owners can be found. The vacant property refurbishment grant (VPRG), also known as Croí Cónaithe, has been a big success in tackling dereliction in Limerick, as in many other counties. There have been almost 500 applications received, of which 350 have been approved.
Twelve towns and villages in Limerick have been part of a pilot project from the Department of Housing which 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.
Gordon is married to Feakle native Linda (nee O’Grady) and they have two children. His late father Peadar a native of Ballingarry played minor and senior hurling for Limerick and was a Garda in East Clare and his late mother Peggy was a native of Galway. Gordon’s grandfather Billy Daly and granduncle Christy Daly both won All-Ireland junior hurling championship medals with Limerick in 1935 and 1954 respectively.
His own hurling career with Bodyke was cut short in his late twenties due to a knee injury. At the age of 24, he was elected Chairman of Bodyke hurling club in 1999 aged twenty four. He assumed a second stint in the Chair in 2007 and during his reign the stand was built at the club grounds, ‘The Evicted’.
In June 2010, Gordon was appointed President of the Irish Planning Institute (IPI) becoming the first Clare man to hold the position and at the then age of thirty six was among the Institute’s youngest-ever presidents. He joined the IPI in 1997.
Locally, Daly is a former Chairman of East Clare Heritage and was a member of the Tuamgraney Development Association. He is also a keen amateur photographer.
