Tipperary councillor vows to push N24 funding after election as district chair
“Father of the house” councillor Kieran Bourke has been elected to lead the Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District (MD) for the coming year.
At the annual general meeting of Carrick-on-Suir MD, Cllr Bourke was proposed to take the over the cathatoirleach position by outgoing leas vathaoirleach Cllr Mark Fitzgerald.
In proposing the Fianna Fáil councillor to take the chair, Cllr Fitzgerald said he has a wealth of experience.
“He’s the father of the house, but he’s a father in several ways, because of his advice, but sometimes you’d look at him the wrong way. and you’d think ‘is he going to give me a clobber here?’,” Cllr Fitzgerald quipped.
“Kieran has a wealth of experience and knowledge, and he’s always at the other end of a phone call, and I’ve benefitted from your knowledge and advice from time to time,” Cllr Fitzgerald added.
The Fianna Fáil councillor was seconded for the position by Labour Party councillor Michael ‘Chicken’ Brennan.
In taking up the position for the third time, Cllr Bourke said it was a “huge honour” to be chosen to lead his district.
“It’s my third time being chair of the district, so I’m delighted to do it.
“There’s lots of stuff going on in the Carrick-on-Suir Municipal District at the moment. We function very, very well as a municipal district, there’s five members here and we work very well together, and we have a wonderful executive that we have a great relationship with,” he said.
Cllr Bourke said that during his tenure, he will make sure this good working relationship continues, aiming to keep delivering for the people of the district.
“A couple of things that I would like to see happening when I am chair is that I think it is essential that we get the funding for the N24 works going forward, it’s a small amount of money in the context of things to progress this much needed piece of infrastructure for the MD and for the south east. While I am chair, I will be pushing this forward.
“There’s a lot of work going on throughout our district, with an emphasis on the town of Carrick-on-Suir. There’s a lot of public purse money being spent there, and while I’m chair, I’m going to continue to support the executive going forward to make sure that this is done in a timely fashion,” Cllr Bourke added.
Fine Gael councillor Mark Fitzgerald was re-elected as leas cathaoirleach for the coming year.