O’Connell tipped to become new Mayor

By Laura Lyne

AS THE annual election of a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor looms, an Independent councillor is expected to take the chains of office with a Labour councillor tipped to become Deputy.

With Cllr Sarah Holland’s year as Mayor and Cllr Francis Noel Duffy’s year as Deputy now ending, a new Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be elected this Friday in council chambers.

Independent councillor for the Lucan area, Guss O’Connell, is expected to take on the role of Mayor for 2016/2017 while Labour councillor for Tallaght South, Martina Genockey, will become the Deputy Mayor for South County Dublin.

Cllr O’Connell is a long-standing member of South Dublin County Council, having first been elected locally in the 1991 to the council chamber as an Independent.

He has been living in Palmerstown since 1980 and previously worked for FAS with responsibility for community-based training.

Cllr Genockey was first elected to South Dublin County Council in 2014 for the Labour party, having grown up in Jobstown.

She has been an elected member of the board of directors and voluntary media officer and programme editor at Shamrock Rovers Football Club, and has also volunteered with An Cosán.