Sun 20th June 2010

Youghal Town Council AGM 2010 – by Youghal Town Councillor Donie Daly

This Tuesday 22nd June 2010 is a big day in the calendar of Youghal Town Council, not only is the AGM being held at 2.30pm, which elects the Mayor & Vice Mayor for the coming year, but the Standing Orders Sub committee is also meeting at 2.00pm. The agenda for this sub committee meeting is as follows:-

1.    Union Restrictions/Work to Rule in relation to meetings outside of normal hours.

2.    Amendment of Standing Order No. 1 & Standing Order No. 5.

In effect there will be a vote to return the times of the meetings back to 7.30pm on the 2nd Monday of each month. As most of you may know I have been unable to attend Youghal town Council meetings since March, due to the changing of the meeting times from 7.30pm to 10am, as I work in Limerick. There have been suggestions in some quarters that I didn’t try hard enough to make these meetings and that all other avenues were exhausted and the ‘nuclear option’ of changing the meeting times to 10am was the only course of action.This is false. No other alternatives were explored or offered when the vote was taken to change the meeting times. My options, which were so gratefully offered by the other members, were among others:-

a) Why couldn’t I work flextime or work up the hours on some other day? b) could I not get ½ days holidays? c) arrange meetings near Cork so that I could attend council meeting first?

These were my options!

Let me put the record straight. I work for a company in the Private Sector on a 6 month contract, which is due to end in August. I leave for work at 6.30am and return home at 7pm, Monday to Friday. I meet clients of the company, not on my timetable but at the discretion of the clients, 100% of whom are based between South Limerick & North Galway. I am entitled to 10 days holidays, for my 6 months contract. I can choose to take these before my contract expires or alternatively if my contract is not extended and I finish in August, I can choose to be paid for these untaken holidays. This is a much more prudent approach as come August, if I don’t get another job, I will have plenty of time on my hands, but no income.

That’s the reality, I face!

Some have said that other councillors have to take time off work as well. Well as far as I know, and I may be wrong, we have 4 full time ‘public representatives’, 2 self employed, 1 retired teacher, 1 student and myself. I’m not working to supplement my benefits, or in addition to my pocket money, and I can’t take time off from my part time job, cutting grass or doing my paper round. This is a real job, with real responsibilities, in order to pay real mortgages and feed a real family. But, as I have been told, that is the small sacrifice I should take for being a public representative.

But enough of that, hopefully my colleagues will vote to return the meetings to 7.30pm and we can all get on with our jobs, both real & imaginary!

Last year when it came to the vote for who should be Mayor, I supported Councillor McLellan. Not because, as it was suggested I may have been part of some Sinn Fein/ FF/ Labour pact, but because as the councilor that garnered the highest number of 1st preference votes in the local elections, she had a mandate from the people to be Mayor. And I respect that mandate. Being Mayor shouldn’t be about what party you are with or what pacts have been formed, it’s about who the people of Youghal want to see represent them. That is why I voted last year for Sandra to be Mayor.

This year, if I could be at the AGM, I would have voted for Cllr. Micheal Beecher, again I certainly do not agree with his or Fine Gaels views on a lot of issues and we have been on opposing sides on a number of topics this past year.

Michael received 508 first preference votes, just 16 less than Sandra.

At the time of writing, I do not know who will be elected Mayor, although I have my suspicions. Michelle Hennessy (168 first preferences) is currently Vice- Mayor, and logic would dictate that she would step up this year to the chair, however I feel that even with the experience of assisting Mayor McLellan for the past year, it may be too early for Michelle at this stage in her Council career and maybe she will feel better equipped for the position next year.

I feel Councillor Linehan Foley (289 first preferences) will get the nod on this occasion.

Next year, for what it’s worth, if I’m lucky enough to be able to attend the AGM, I will be voting for Cllr Eoin Coyne (414 first preferences). Cllr. Sammy Revins (294 first preferences) will probably wait till the final year (2013/2014) to bow out of local politics as Mayor.