New council chairpersons to be appointed this week

New council chairpersons to be appointed this week


Edwin McGreal

NEW chairpersons for three of the four local authority councils in Mayo will be appointed this week.
Mayo County Council, Castlebar Town Council and Westport Town Council will each officially elect their new chairpersons in the coming seven days, although each of the appointments will only serve to be ratification ceremonies.
Fine Gael have control of Mayo County Council and so have the numbers to elect one of their own as Cathaoirleach for each of the five years of this term.
Ballyhaunis’ Cllr John Cribbin filled the post for the past year and he will officially pass over the chain of office to Ballinrobe’s Cllr Michael Burke at the AGM at Aras an Chontae in Castlebar on Monday next.
It is believed that Cllrs Patsy O’Brien, Austin Francis O’Malley and Johnny O’Malley will each also serve a year as Cathaoirleach.
Fine Gael also have control of Westport Town Council, holding five of the nine seats there. That means that each FG councillor will get to serve a year each as Cathaoirleach of the authority. Cllr Myles Staunton is the outgoing chair and he will pass authority onto Cllr Tereasa McGuire at Thursday’s AGM.
In Castlebar, Fine Gael don’t have majority control but their pact with Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne means it is FG’s Cllr Ger Deere who will become Mayor of Castlebar at the council’s AGM on Monday. He will take over from Cllr Kilcoyne, who served as Mayor for the first year of the term in exchange for his support for Fine Gael’s nominees in the remaining years.
Ballina Town Council have already appointed their Meara for the coming year, Cllr Frances McAndrew taking over from Cllr Mary Kelly last Wednesday.