Long-serving Councillor O’Connell steps down from local politics

THE move from a paper-based system to IT has been “huge” in terms of the changes it brought about for life as an elected public representative, according to Cllr Guss O’Connell (Ind), who steps down from local politics this June, after first being elected to Dublin County Council in 1991.

“We no longer have to write motions, questions and amendments in long hand, and the staff no longer have to produce huge volumes of printed material overnight. But a lot of personal interaction between elected members and staff has evaporated,” said Cllr O’Connell.

“Yes, the executive is still very accessible, and I can have an issue raised by a constituent relayed to the council within an hour, as opposed to a postal or face-to -face system that took days. However, the follow-through to getting action can be tricky as the system, rather than the individual takes over. Staff are marvellous, but most service systems now are IT.”

O’Connell was one of the first Independents on the scene in ’91, and stayed true to this throughout his career, having spent over 10 years as an activist with Palmerstown Community Council, Lucan Planning Council and the Liffey Valley Defence Alliance, prior to being elected.

Proud of his roles as Deputy Mayor and then Mayor in opening some local facilities in his beloved Palmerstown, O’Connell also acknowledges the “turbulent period” of land rezoning controversy and the Mahon Tribunal where he made a submission and was called as a witness.

While happy to see much progress in services and facilities delivered locally, O’Connell is disappointed that the role of local government has been eroded over the past 33 years.

On the plus side, O’Connell believes the introduction of Special Development Zones (SDZ) has given councillors a better and more balanced say in planning and fondly recalls his work with colleagues Cllrs Gogarty, O’Toole and Timmons in the Cloburris and Adamstown SDZ’s .

“It is not perfect but we were able to make it a bit better for existing and future residents.”