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More than half a million euro for former Galway politicians
Galway Bay fm newsroom – Galway City and County councils will pay more than 500 thousand euro to 29 former county, city and town councillors who retired or lost their seats in the local elections.
According to today’s Irish Times, almost 420 thousand euro will be paid by the County council while, the City council will pay out almost 100 thousand euro.
Former City Councillor, Tom Costello, who retired receives a payment of just over 53 thousand euro.
His Labour colleagues, Colette Connolly and Nuala Nolan, who lost their seats in the last election will receive 33 thousand 200 and 10 thousand 600 respectively.
In the County council the biggest payments of almost 58 thousand euro go to retired councillors Tiernan Walsh and Jarlath McDonagh.
Tomás Mannion, who also retired, will receive 47 thousand 700 euro.
A figure of 33 thousand 200 euro each goes to Seosamh O’ Cuaig who retired and Bridie Willers who lost her seat at the last election.
16 thousand 600 euro goes to Liam Carroll who lost his seat and a further 10 thousand 700 euro each for Kevin Ryan and Seosamh O Laoi who also lost their County council seats.
Former Town councillors also benefit from severance payments, now that the councils have been abolished.
In Ballinasloe, the biggest sum goes to Pat O’ Sullivan who will get 22 thousand 100, as he also served for a time on the County council.
Almost 12 thousand euro each will go to Johnny Walsh, Carmel Greally and Lucy Lloyd Keighery.
Staying with Ballinasloe and Michael Kelly will receive just over 8 thousand while 4 thousand 100 euro will be given to Aidan McGrath and Jerry Broderick.
The biggest allocation to former Tuam town councillors is 24 thousand 100 euro for Tom Reilly, who also served for a time on the County council.
Just over 2 thousand 200 euro each will go to Mary Loftus, Eamon Kitt and Larry Bane.
Paul O’ Grady will get 13 hundred euro while Pat O’ Hora will get 12 hundred.
In Loughrea, the former town councillor getting the biggest payment is Norman Morgan who will receive almost 12 thousand euro as he also served for a time on the County council.
Gabriel Burke will get 8 thousand 100 euro while the remaining former councillors, Jimmy Curley, Mary Gunther Nix and James Regan will receive just over 7 thousand 400 euro.
The death has occurred of the former Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora Martin Drennan, six years after he announced his retirement on health grounds. He was aged 78.
The Galway Diocesan Office confirmed the death this (Saturday) afternoon of the Bishop and Apostolic Administrator Emeritus, who oversaw the Diocese for eleven years.
Born on January 2, 1944 in Piltown, County Kilkenny, he studied for the priesthood at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, from where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1968. His brother Michael is also a priest.
Following his ordination, he continued his studies in Rome where he was awarded a Licentiate in both sacred theology and sacred scripture. He returned to Rome in 1980 to become spiritual director at the Pontifical Irish College for the next five years.
He became a lecturer in sacred scripture at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he continued to teach until his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin in 1997 with responsibility for East Wicklow and South Dublin.
Following the retirement of Bishop James McLoughlin, Bishop Drennan was appointed Bishop of Galway and Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora and he was installed on July 3, 2005 in Galway Cathedral.
Outgoing Cllr Terry O’Flaherty (Ind) is on course to retain her City Council seat – and top the poll in City East.
With 33% of the boxes tallied, Cllr O’Flaherty is polling strongly, particularly in Renmore.
Michael John Crowe is ahead of his running mate Alan Cheevers for the Fianna Fáil vote, according to the early figures, although that could change when Doughiska and Roscam boxes are opened.
The Green Party’s Claire Hillery is on about 7%, with Fine Gael on 10% and Sinn Fein on 5%.
The opening of boxes for the local elections began at 9am this morning in Leisureland when the tallymen (and women) kicked into gear.
As regards the Galway County Council elections, the smaller areas are being opened first which means that the four-seater Connemara North boxes will be first in the pecking order.
It will be followed by Gort-Kinvara (5 seats), Connemara South (5 seats), Athenry-Oranmore (7 seats), Ballinasloe (6 seats), Loughrea (5 seats) and finally Tuam (7 seats).
The boxes in these areas will be opened and tallied in that particular order before being transferred to the Galway Lawn Tennis Club on Threadneedle Road where the counting will commence around mid-morning.
That is when the fun will really begin – although the tallies should give a good indication as to where most of the seats are destined.
As regards the city, the Galway City East boxes were opened first, followed by Galway City Central and finally Galway City West. These votes will be transferred to the Westside Centre by around 11am for counting.
There are 39 seats on Galway County Council to be filled with 18 on Galway City Council. The City Council count is expected to conclude on Saturday night but the County Council count – with seven electoral areas to be filled – could well go into Monday.
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