Gender balance required for Mayo VEC slot

Gender balance is required for Mayo VEC replacement


Edwin McGreal

The vacancy on the Mayo Vocational Educational Committee (VEC) left by the resignation of Fine Gael councillor Noreen Heston will be filled by a woman, The Mayo News can reveal.
Cllr Heston resigned last week, criticising the ‘highly politicised’ nature of the VEC, and her replacement is due to be decided upon at Thursday’s Castlebar Town Council meeting, the authority which appointed Cllr Heston to the VEC.
However it has emerged that Fine Gael are seeking a female replacement after CEO of Mayo VEC, Dr Katie Sweeney, requested that a woman be selected to replace Cllr Heston.
In a letter to Castlebar Town Clerk Marie Crowley, Dr Sweeney informs her of Cllr Heston’s resignation before asking for ‘gender balance’.
“To ensure the gender balance on the County Mayo VEC Committee I would ask Castlebar Town Council to nominate a replacement candidate being cognisant of the gender balance requirement,” Dr Sweeney writes.
And The Mayo News has learned that the Town Council got legal advice to confirm this stance to be the case. Fine Gael are therefore seeking a female replacement for Cllr Heston. The party have four seats on the Town Council - held by Cllr Heston, Cllrs Ger Deere, Eugene McCormack and Brendan Henaghan - while Mayor Michael Kilcoyne has given them his support for the appointments of positions such as the VEC.
As such Fine Gael should hold the balance in a vote for the vacancy. However Michael Kilcoyne has argued that he is not sure that gender balance should be an issue.
“I will look at who is proposed and will vote on that. But I don’t think that it has to be a woman, despite whatever legal advice may have been obtained,” he told The Mayo News.
Among those believed to be strongly linked with the vacancy is Vicky Rowan, a dentist with the HSE. Ms Rowan, originally from Bofeenaun, is PRO of the Castlebar branch of Fine Gael.