Fianna Fáil regained control of the chamber in Mayo County Council today (Friday, June 6 ) with the election of Ballinrobe based Cllr Damien Ryan to the position of Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council.
Councillor Ryan was elected to the position after a three way vote, with Fine Gael putting forward Cllr Patsy O'Brien and Sinn Féin proposing Cllr Gerry Murray.
Cllr Ryan was elected with 15 votes thanks to the backing of his ten party colleagues and the support of five of the seven independent councillors.
Cllr O'Brien received ten votes, nine from the Fine Gael councillors present in the chamber and one from Independent Cllr Frank Durcan, and Cllr Murray received three votes from the three Sinn Féin councillors in the chamber.
There was one councillor absent from the meeting, Fine Gael Cllr Henry Kenny and Independent Cllr Seamus Weir abstained from the vote.
Independent Cllr Richard Finn was elected to the position of Leas Cathaoirleach when the position was put to a vote.
Fine Gael's Tom Connolly was proposed for the position by his party and Sinn Féin put forward Cllr Rose Conway Walsh.
The pact between Fianna Fáil and the independents was thrashed out in the past two weeks following the results of the local elections which saw Fianna Fáil return 10 councillors, Fine Gael ten councillors, Sinn Féin three councillors and seven independent councillors.
SPC committee chairs appointed
The meeting also saw the election of the chairpersons of the six Strategic Policy Committees (SPC ) of the council.
The chairing of the committees was split three ways with Fianna Fáil chairing two, Fine Gael two and the independents two.
Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil opted to spilt the chairing of each committee in two with one person serving as chair for three years and the other for two years, while the independent's appointed their chairpersons for the full five year term of the council.
The Housing SPC will be chaired by Independent Cllr Richard Finn, the Cultural, Education, Heritage, Corporate Affairs and Emergency Services SPC by Fine Gael's Cllr Jarlath Munnelly for the first three years and by Fine Gael's Cllr John Cribbin for the last two years. The Roads and Transportation SPC will be chaired by Fianna Fáil's Al McDonnell for the first three years and by his party colleague Cllr Paul McNamara for the last two years of the life of the council. The Economic Development and Enterprise Support SPC will be chaired by Cllr Michael Kilcoyne and the Planning SPC will be chaired by Fianna Fáil Cllr Annie May Reape for the first three years and her colleague Cllr Brendan Mulroy for the last two years.
The Environmental Policy and Agricultural Policy SPC will be chaired by Fine Gael Cllr Gerry Coyle for the first three years and by his party colleague Cllr John O'Hara for the last two years.
