Council power moves to South Tipperary
The political balance of power in the newly elected Tipperary County Council has drifted to the south of the county as councillors from Cashel and Carrick-On-Suir have secured the two most influential elected representative roles on the local authority.
Fine Gael's Declan Burgess from Cashel has been elected the new Cathaoirleach for the next 12 months, while Carrick-On-Suir Fianna Fáil councillor Imelda Goldsboro has secured the Leas-Cathaoirleach role on the council.
While councillors from the north of the county miss out this time, it is believed that a political pact involving the main two traditional parties could see councillors from North Tipperary assume the two top roles for the second year term of the new council in 2025. Inside sources say the long serving Newport area Fianna Fáil councillor John Carroll, from Kilcoleman, Nenagh, is the prime candidate to become Cathaoirleach next year.
The newly elected members of the council met formally for the first time on Friday last, electing one of the youngest members to the top political role in the local authority.
Fine Gael councillor Declan Burgess, who was 29 on Sunday last, got an early birthday present, gaining majority support to become Cathaoirleach.
The young Cashel man was the unanimous choice for the leading role.
He didn’t even face a contest as he had the support of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party, who have formed a voting pact to secure a significant overall majority on the council.
The pact gives the three parties control of who gets the top roles during the five-year lifetime of the council, and dominance when it comes down to crunch votes on local government issues.
Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour have a combined 23 councillors on the 40 member council.
Independents, along with the Lowry Group, Sinn Féin and the Workers and Unemployed Action Group have a combined 17 councillors.
This latter grouping do not have sufficient voting strength to significantly challenge the dominance held by the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour grouping.
The various party allegiances at Tipperary level are interesting as they do not align with current allegiances of Tipperary TDs at national government level.
The team of councillors founded by the poll-topping Independent TD Michael Lowry find themselves in the opposition in local government in Tipperary.
This is in stark contrast to the situation that pertains at national government level where Mr Lowry supports the current Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael-led national coalition government.
Meanwhile, the current Labour Party TD in Tipperary, Alan Kelly, sits on the opposition benches in the Dáil, whereas at council level his three fellow party members on the local authority are in a pact with councillors of the two main national government parties.
‘FATHER OF THE COUNCIL’
In other news, the Newport Electoral Area Fianna Fáil councillor John Carroll is now being referred to by other councillors as “the father of the council”.
This is because the Kilcoleman man - who was first elected in 1999 - is now the longest current serving councillor in Tipperary.
This follows the resignations before the local elections of the long serving Nenagh Fine Gael councillor, Ger Darcy, and his party colleague in the Tipperary/Cashel area, Michael Fitzgerald, both of whom resigned just before the local elections earlier this month.
While the new council signalled a vote of confidence in a new generation of councillors in ensuring Declan Burgess got the top job, it also proved to be a good day out for the newly elected young Nenagh Fianna Fáil councillor Ryan O’Meara (28) who was elected along with Nenagh Independent Séamie Moris and Newport Fine Gael councillor Phyll Bugler as the council’s three representatives on the HSE’s Health Forum for the West, which encompasses North Tipperary.
The second most powerful councillor role on the new council, that of Leas-Cathaoirleach, was secured unanimously by Carrick-On-Suir Fianna Fáil councillor, Imelda Goldsboro.
VOTING PATTERNS
The voting patterns emerging at this early stage of the new elected council suggest that the top political roles of Cathaoirleach and Leas-Cathaoirleach will be shared out annually between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael throughout the entire five-year term of the council.
While these two traditional parties continue the domination they enjoyed on the former council, members from the opposition grouping also managed at the council agm on Friday last to get several members elected as the council’s representatives on various organisations operating at local government level and on a number of committees within the council.
Securing these posts means the nine Independents on the council along with the five Lowry Team councillors, two Sinn Féin members and one member for the Workers and Unemployed Action Group had to form their own pact.
But with so many divergent views and political philosophies within this latter grouping, it’s doubtful that they will be able to form a cohesive opposition for the lifetime of the new council.