Youngest ever Tipperary council chair reflects on his tenure and wants more done for rural towns
Tipperary’s outgoing county Cathaoirleach said that it was “one of the deepest honours” of his life to lead the county over the past year, also making history as the youngest ever chair of Tipperary County Council.
Fine Gael councillor Declan Burgess wrapped up his term as chair of the county council this past week with the election of Cllr John Carroll at Tipperary County Council’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was held in Halla na Féile in Cashel.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Cllr Burgess said that there had been many highlights over the last year, while also paying tribute to his colleagues in the council who offered him their support during his term.
“I gave it everything, it was one of the deepest honours of my life to be Cathaoirleach of this local authority, I’ve really enjoyed it, I was the youngest chair ever, so it was nice to make history, but I got great support from my colleagues around the chamber,” Cllr Burgess said.
“Without that, I wouldn’t have been able to take on a position like this, I also got on really well with the staff and developed and built up relationships there, and I’m looking forward now to coming back to the back benches and continuing my work as a local representative in the Cashel area”.
Having recently celebrated his 30th birthday, the Cashel councillor was just 29 years old when he was elected to lead Tipperary County Council, the youngest person ever to be Cathaoirleach of the local authority.
Some of Cllr Burgess’ highlights of the year included the turning of the sod on the new Cashel Town Park, progressing work on Dan Breen House in Tipperary town, the plans for the new library and car park in Cahir, as well as the opening of the Brian Boru Bridge which links the twin towns of Ballina and Killaloe.
However, the outgoing council chair said that Tipperary County Council needed to improve on the basics, while also calling for more affordable housing in the county.
“I believe the local authority needs to improve on the basics, and this is something that I tried to focus in on a lot, an additional €1million towards street cleaning this year in the budget, that was something that I directly ensured to happen. We need to see more of that, we have nearly been a victim of our own success in delivering more and more outdoor amenities, but we need to keep up with the pace in maintaining those because communities, areas, they expect the maintenance, they expect the high standards, and so do we as elected members,” he explained.
“That’s going to be a continuous battle in terms of the basics, the footpaths, the roads, we’re going to have very difficult budgetary conversations around that going forward, and it’s something we need to do better on”.
“As a local authority, we have an accellerated social homes programme, we’re seeing social homes being delivered right across Tipperary, but we’re not seeing affordability coming into the county, and for the likes of myself – 30 years of age – and all my friends and the people around me, my peers, we’re struggling to buy our own homes, it’s the affordability element, young people on good wages, modest wages, and are contributing to society and to the economy, but are struggling to purchase their own homes and dealing with high rents,” Cllr Burgess said.
Calling on more affordable housing schemes to be expanded across county Tipperary, the Cashel councillor said that more than just the major towns needed to be considered.
“As a county, we need to get a grasp on affordability, we need to deliver affordable schemes, right now they’re progressing in Clonmel, and potentially Nenagh and afterwards Thurles, they’re our three large urban centres, but we need to do more for our more rural regional towns as well, the likes of Fethard, Tipperary town, Cahir, Cashel, Templemore and so, they need to have affordable homes as well for the young people to keep them in their own communities who actually want to live in their own communities,” he said.
“This county is a great county, we have a lot to be proud of, but we do need to acknowledge that there is things that we need to do better,” Cllr Burgess added.