Co-opted councillors take their seats in Fingal

FOUR new councillors were co-opted as members of Fingal County Council at a special meeting held in Swords last week. 

The vacancies occurred following the election of four councillors to Dáil Eireann in the recent general election.

Cllr Aaron O’Rourke (Sinn Fein) replaces Deputy Paul Donnelly as a councillor for the Ongar Local Electoral Area (LEA). He was proposed by Cllr Natalie Treacy and seconded by Cllr Ann Graves.

Cllr Pamela Conroy (Green Party) replaces Deputy Roderic O’Gorman as a councillor for the Castleknock Local Electoral Area. She was proposed by Cllr David Healy and seconded by Cllr Ian Carey.

Cllr James Humphreys (Labour) replaces Deputy Duncan Smith as a councillor for the Swords LEA. He was proposed by Cllr John Walsh and seconded by Cllr Mary McCamley.

Cllr Joan Hopkins (Social Democrats) replaces Deputy Cian O’Callaghan as a councillor for the Howth Malahide Local Electoral Area. She was proposed by Cllr Paul Mulville and seconded by Cllr Dean Mulligan.

Mayor of Fingal Cllr Eoghan O’Brien and Fingal County Council chief execvutive AnnMarie Farrelly as well as Cllr Adrian Henchy, Cllr Jimmy Guerin, Cllr Tony Murphy, Cllr Dean Mulligan, Cllr Anthony Lavin and Cllr Mary McCamley, welcomed the new councillors. 

Speaking afterwards, Cllr Hopkins said: “Having grown up in Baldoyle, I’m really excited to be able to represent the community on the council.

“I feel strongly that Baldoyle has a great capacity for community development, it’s just such a beautiful place to live and work.”

Cllr Hopkins founded Baldoyle Tidy Towns in 2019. 

The group already has a number of successful projects under its belt including Power Plant which aims to plant one tree in Baldoyle for every resident, and also the Street Art project which was carried out on the Bayside DART station tunnel.