All signs point to a Fianna Fáil-Labour-Sinn Féin coalition with support from Independent councillors to run the Galway City Council for the next five years.
A combination of four Fianna Fáilers with three Labour councillors, one Sinn Féin representative and – it is understood – two non-party councillors, will create a 10-member bloc to run the 18-seat local authority.
Very few members of the new 2024-2029 Galway City Council wished to comment on the record as negotiations are at a delicate stage regarding which councillors will take up various positions, including mayor, deputy mayor and committee chairmanships. These positions come with a financial allowance.
However the Advertiser can reveal that Galway is likely to have its first person of colour as our city’s mayor over the coming five years: Labour’s Helen Ogbu, originally from Nigeria, is understood to be a front runner, alongside her party colleague John McDonagh, originally from Shantalla - also likely to be a mayor.
Members of the previous 2019-2024 city council, comprised of Fine Gael, Labour, Green Party and Independent councillors, are understood to have had a tacit agreement to continue the pact after the elections last week, if the numbers added up. The Greens are gone, but with Fine Gael increasing its seats to four, and Labour to three, the possibility remained. Informed sources suggest it was non-party councillors who changed their minds.
Some high level contact between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil also occurred, and at one stage a coalition between the two civil war parties and the three former Progressive Democrat councillors was in play to make an 11-strong bloc, but this negotiation did not progress past Tuesday.
The long-standing convention amongst the members of Galway City Council is that a mayor is re-elected each year. Fianna Fáil, as the largest party in the putative coalition, is expected to have at least one mayor, with Councillor Peter Keane considered the frontrunner.
Independent councillor Mike Cubbard, who polled an enormous personal vote of 1,486 first preferences, is understood to be arguing for his second separate turn as mayor. Cubbard has the distinction of being the only councillor who has been a two-year mayor, as he was in office from June 2019 to June 2021 during the Covid 19 pandemic.
The emerging green-red-green coalition will consist of councillors Peter Keane (FF ), John Connolly (FF ), Josie Forde (FF ), Alan Cheevers (FF ), Mike Cubbard (Ind ), Declan McDonnell (Ind ), Níall McNelis (Lab ), Helen Ogbu (Lab ), John McDonagh (Lab ), and Aisling Burke (SF ).
