Carthy elected new Chairman of County Council
JUST over 20 years since they were last held by his late father, it was a proud day for Cllr Ger Carthy yesterday as the ceremonial chains were placed around his neck as the new Chairman of Wexford County Council.
The late Leo Carthy served two terms as Chairman of the County Council both in 1979 and 1999 and, having learned so much from him, his son is delighted to follow in his footsteps, having just served a stint as the first Chairman of the new Rosslare Municipal District and having previously served as Mayor of Wexford.
Despite the Fine Gael party opting instead to put forward the longest serving member of the council, Cllr Oliver Walsh for the position, Carthy prevailed with a comfortable majority with 22 votes to Cllr Walsh’s 9, while three independent councillors were not present for the vote.
‘It’s a great honour to be elected as Chairman and follow in my father’s footsteps,’ Cllr Carthy said. ‘I was two years old when he first served as County Council Chairman. I learned the trade at the kitchen table watching everything he did and I suppose he was really my mentor. Between the pair of us, we’ve served 56 years in local politics. As someone who was born into a family where public representation was part of everyday life I’m acutely aware of the honour that’s been bestowed upon me this afternoon.’
Cllr Carthy was proposed by Labour councillor George Lawlor who described him as a man of ‘great integrity’ and noted that, given the crisis we are emerging from and the aftermath that we are now facing, it was fitting that Cllr Carthy, an Advanced Paramedic with the National Ambulance Service, would take the helm.
As Ger received the chains from outgoing Chairman Cllr Michael Sheehan, he’s taking office in times that will be unlike anything that his father would have seen before him.
‘There are many challenges facing us now, there’s no doubt about it,’ Cllr Carthy said. ‘We have a very strong economic development roadmap laid out and I have no intention of deviating from that. We have to drive on. Covid-19 has been a major bump in the road, but Wexford is a resilient county and we’ve proven that during this pandemic and hopefully we’re beginning to come out the right side of that now.’
Cllr Carthy is keen to have a shovel in his hand as Chairman, turning the sod on quite a few projects in the coming year highlighting projects such as the activity centre on Forth Mountain, Gorey Town Park, the Kilmore Access Road, the New Ross Greenway, the Advance Factory in New Ross, Enniscorthy’s Templeshannon Regeneration Project, Trinity Wharf as well as projects in his own area such as the continued upgrading of Rosslare Europort and creation of the new access road there, the construction of a business park to facilitate the development of off shore wind energy, investment in Rosslare Harbour under the town and village initiative, coastal protection at Rosslare Strand and at last a lake drainage solution in his home area of Lady’s Island.
‘I’m looking forward to turning the sod on a lot of these projects and working with my 33 colleagues on the council along with officials to ensure that they are delivered. We have a lot of positive developments on the horizon and I hope that the newly formed government will support local government by providing some kind of bail-out package to make up for the shortfall of income in areas such as commercial rates. It wouldn’t be my intention to cut anything to be honest. It took a decade to get back to where we are following the last recession. We need to borrow and the government needs to step up and support us as we aim to recover from this most recent crisis.’
As well as being a proud day for Ger, it was also a proud day for Ann Marie and their children Michael, Daniel and Erin.
While Cllr Carthy has a reputation for his sometimes animated outbursts in the council chamber, his new role will ensure things are somewhat different for the coming year.
‘I suppose you could say it’s a case of poacher turned gamekeeper,’ he smiles. ‘In the role of Chairman, I intend to be firm but fair and everyone will get the opportunity to speak. I look forward to working with all my council colleagues for the betterment of County Wexford.’