McDonagh elected as Fingal County Council Mayor

Labour councillor Brian McDonagh has been elected as the new Mayor of Fingal County Council.

First elected in 2014, the Howth-Malahide councillor said he is “extremely proud to represent a country as culturally diverse as the one we have, particularly as it continues to be one of the fastest growing regions in the country in terms of population and the economy.”

“As a group of Councillors, we all bring different life experiences and a healthy mix of professional backgrounds and skills to the table. I am looking forward to now getting to work to help ensure we are delivering the services that the people of Fingal deserve.”

McDonagh is joined by Fianna Fáil’s JK Onwumereh as Deputy Mayor.

Labour secured their best set of election results on Fingal County Council since 2009, tying with Labour on 7 seats.

Early exploratory talks between centre-left to left-wing parties collapsed, which resulted in Labour, Fine Gael, Fianna Fail teaming up to run Fingal County Council with their combined 20 seats.

With a majority of 21 needed, the path to a left-leaning Fingal County Council government would have lacked the necessary majority, as the combined seats of Labour, Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Greens, Solidarity and Independents4Change would have fallen short on 17 seats, and would have required support from independents.

As reported on Friday, talks were held for a progressive alliance to be formed on Fingal County Council, which would have resulted in Labour securing 2 of the 5 Mayoral slots over a 5-year gap, with Sinn Féin, the Social Democrats, Greens and/or independents given one each.

Labour withdrew from the talks, much to the annoyance of the Social Democrats.

Councillor Paul Mulville said “for the first time in Fingal County Council’s history, there was an opportunity for transparency and openness for the people of Fingal, who rightly demand the very best of their councillors, as to what the basis of the political groupings in the Council Chamber taking decisions.”

He confirmed that Labour did take part in initial informal discussions to form the grouping on Fingal County Council and gave “some consideration” to the draft policy document, but said that Labour “balked” at holding a more formal meeting with potential partners to discuss policy details and work towards a joint agreement.

“There is no question that they had a great election in Fingal, however does another pact with establishment parties meet the expectation for Labour voters? It appears that the public pleas from Labour leader, Ivana Bacik, calling for greater cooperation between centre-left parties, has been further exposed as empty rhetoric when put to the test.”