An overdue thank you to the voters in the Templeogue-Terenure
Local Electoral Area who gave me a great mandate on May 23rd in returning me to
South Dublin County Council. I topped the poll with 2,826 votes - well over the
quota of 2,391 - and was thus elected on the first count. It was an
extraordinary achievement for an Independent candidate.
You can see the results at http://electionsireland.org/result.cfm?election=2014L&cons=5030
and view a fantastic animation of the counts at http://www.clairebyrne.ie/counts/animation.php?count=south_dublin_templeogue-terenure
.
Huge thanks to my campaign team, my family and friends for their
support not just during the campaign, but over the past few years. It is clear
that my principled stance on the Council, my hard work in the local area, and
the response to the establishment parties provided the basis for such a
significant vote.
I spent the following two weeks wrapping
up my term as Mayor of South Dublin, another fantastic honour. I have also
spent this time speaking with other Councillors in trying to push a progressive
agenda on South Dublin County Council. I signed up to the Progressive Alliance
of Sinn Féin, Independents, Labour and the Greens on SDCC. The Alliance
In the time ahead, I will be seeking to
work with other Independent Councillors and others on the left, in SDCC and
elsewhere, to develop a more coherent approach to advance left wing politics
both locally and nationally – something which will take both time and effort.
With this in mind, I have also used the past few weeks to examine my own role
on the Council and on external bodies. There are many changes in local
government, some of which will mean that there are more Councillors seeking to
be elected to fewer positions to statutory bodies.
After 5 years on the Dublin/Dún Laoghaire
Education and Training Board (formerly County Dublin VEC), I have decided not
to contest for the ETB again. I have enjoyed getting my teeth into education
and youth policy and operations in the County, and have particularly been proud
of my work on several school boards of management. I also served on the Youth
and Sport Subcommittee of the ETB. There is a huge amount of work involved in
the ETB and I think it is now time for someone else to be given a chance to
serve.
I have stepped down after 3 years of
involvement on the boards of Tallaght Community School
and St Mark's Community
School
I have also decided not to contest for the
Local Traveller Accommodation Consultative Committee for this Council term
following five years of involvement on this important committee. I proposed the
new Traveller Accommodation Plan as Mayor following a lot of work by that
committee.
I do hope to continue my membership of the Dublin 12 Local Drugs
Task Force if I am re-elected onto it by the Council.
At the Annual Meeting of the Council, I
was appointed a Chair of one of the new Strategic Policy Committees of the
Council. The new SPC Scheme is subject to changes but at present I will be
Chairing the new Social and Community Committee of the Council, dealing with
policies in areas such as sports, recreation, community grants, community
centres and social inclusion. I am very much looking forward to this work and
to working on the Corporate Policy Group of the new Council.
Some of you may have noticed that I have changed my Facebook
presence from a personal account to a “page” – please be sure to follow that at
www.facebook.com/VoteDermotLooney
. I am continuing to tweet regularly at www.twitter.com/dlooney
.
I am reviewing my Advice Centre commitments given the makeup of
the new local electoral area and will confirm those details in late August. For
now, please contact me by email should you wish to meet me.
On a personal note, I am looking forward to a break over the
summer, to taking in more of the World Cup, and to seeing St Pat’s play in the
Champions’ League! The past few months in particular have been extremely busy,
so it will be good to take a couple of weeks off!
