This article is from page 6 of the 2011-06-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
FINE Gael is the party of government with four Oireachtas members in the county for the first time in its history – now the greatest ever year for its Clare wing is set to be enhanced next Monday when two more party representatives take the mayoral chains of local government office in the county.
Fresh from Cllr Mary Brennan’s election as Mayor of Shannon last week, in the coming week Cllrs Ian Lynch and Elaine Haugh-Hayes are set to be elected as mayor of Kilrush and Kilkee respectively.
The annual general meetings of the two West Clare local authorities are set for Monday evening next, with the power-sharing agreements in place on both councils set to pave the way for the elections of Cllrs Lynch and Haugh-Hayes.
Both were elected to their town councils for the first time in 2009 and two years later will be given the signal honour of being their town’s first citizen for the next 12 months.
“I’d be hoping to get it,” Cllr Lynch told The Clare People this week. “I’ve been Deputy Mayor for the past year and it normally follows that the deputy steps up to become mayor the following year.
“When there’s a party in power, you might find that they share it out, but when you have situation like you have in Kilrush at the moment, with three Fine Gael, three Fianna Fáil and three Independents you have a power-sharing arrangement and it’s spread over the five years,” added Cllr Lynch, who at 33 years of age will become one of the youngest mayor’s in the West Clare capital’s illustrious local government history that stretches back over 100 years.
“We have to wait and see what happens on Monday,” Cllr Haugh-Hayes told