The elected members of Mayo County Council were forced to vote in a new member of the local authority to sit on the governing authority of the National University of Ireland, Galway this week. The vacancy on the governing authority at the third level institution came about after the council executive received correspondence from the university which informed them that Cllr Henry Kenny who had been appointed to the authority was “deemed to have resigned his seat”.
The council executive then had to ask the members to fill the vacancy on the authority. The Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council was nominated to fill the post by party whip Cllr Joe Mellet, with independent Cllr Frank Durcan proposing former member of the Mayo Vocational Educational Committee, Tony Deffely, for the post. Fianna Fáil whip, Cllr Mícheál McNamara, was also nominated but he withdrew his nomination from the race.
Before the voting on the decision began, Cllr Durcan asked the meeting: “Is it true that we weren’t represented on the authority for the past five or six months?” When the votes were added up Cllr Burke was elected to the post by 15 votes to eight.
