Sheahan set to become new mayor

COUNCIL AND DISTRICTS WILL ELECT CATHAOIRLIGH AT THE END OF JUNE

FINE Gael’s Cllr John Sheahan is expected to be elected Mayor of Kerry when Kerry County Council holds its AGM at the end of June.

On June 30 Kerry County Council and the county’s four municipal districts will hold the AGMs and each will elect a new Cathaoirleach or Mayor.

While the outcome could change on the day Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour and a number of Independents are expected to follow through on voting pacts agreed after the 2014 Local Elections.

Based on these post election deals Cllr John Sheahan from Rathmore will succeed Cllr Michael O’Shea of Fianna Fáil as new Cathaoirleach of Kerry County Council, the position typically referred to as ‘Mayor.’

Tralee is the only Municipal which officially has a Mayor due to the town’s population being over 20,000 – and in the county capital the chain of office will pass from Labour’s Cllr Terry O’Brien to Cllr Norma Foley of Fianna Fáil.

In the Killarney Municipal District Fianna Fáil’s Cllr Niall Kelleher will succeed Independent Cllr Brendan Cronin as the new Cathaoirleach.

Fine Gael’s Cllr Seamus Cosaí Fitzgerald will take over the Cathaoirleach’s role in South and West Kerry from Fianna Fáil’s Cllr John Francis Flynn.

Based on the agreed voting pact in Listowel Municipal District Cllr John Lucid of Fianna Fáil – who was co-opted onto the council after John Brassil’s election to the Dáil in 2016 – is expected to succeed Fine Gael’s Aoife Thornton.