Edwin McGreal
FORMER Castlebar Town Councillor Kevin Guthrie has been voted to replace Noreen Heston on Mayo VEC but it is still unclear if he will be able to take up the new appointment - because he’s not a woman.
Heston, a Castlebar town councillor, resigned her place on the VEC earlier this year and was keen to see Tony Deffley take up the appointment.
However CEO of Mayo VEC, Dr Katie Sweeney, informed Castlebar Town Council that Cllr Heston’s replacement would have to be female to ensure that the VEC met its gender balance obligations.
Mayo County Council solicitor Michael Browne also advised Castlebar Town Council to this effect. So it looked as though Fine Gael would be nominating Castlebar based HSE dentist Vicky Rowan to the position. However, each of the nine Castlebar Town Councillors disagreed with Dr Sweeney and Mr Browne about the requirement for gender balance, with some feeling the problem didn’t arise because the vote was mid-term and not at the outset.
“My interpretation of the (Vocational Education) Act is that the vote was carried out in the same way as Cllr Heston was elected herself - and there was no requirement for us to consider gender balance when putting Cllr Heston forward as a representative of the town council,” Mayor of Castlebar, Michael Kilcoyne explained.
So it was that Tony Deffley emerged back into the race to replace Noreen Heston.
Labour Party member Deffley, a teacher at Davitt College in Castlebar, had been on the previous VEC and there had been much controversy at the beginning of this term when Cllr Heston voted for Deffley instead of the choice of her party, Fine Gael, who directed for Knockmore’s Paddy Naughton to be appointed.
Naughton won the seat, despite Heston defying the party whip - which she was reprimanded for - and that appeared to be the end of the drama.
However, it was only the beginning. Heston resigned her seat, citing the overly ‘politicised’ nature of the authority and had hoped Tony Deffley would be appointed in her stead.
That seemed a possibility when it emerged that Castlebar town councillors were going to ignore the legal advice on gender balance but Heston’s Fine Gael colleagues on the town council sided with former FG town councillor, Kevin Guthrie.
Fianna Fáil’s Blackie Gavin proposed Guthrie’s nomination and the votes of Fine Gael councillors Ger Deere, Brendan Henaghan, Eugene McCormack and Independent Michael Kilcoyne saw Guthrie home.
