'Tá áthas orm an curan seo a glacadh! This is a phrase I hope we will be hearing in more familiar circumstances next September! Mar Tá gráth agam don teanga dúchas agus úsáidfidh mé mo cúpla focail có-minic agus is féidir liom.
It is an honour and privilege to be elected Mayor of our great town. It is our first time under the Local Government Act that we have elected a Mayor. While the Act brought in some very good changes in the way we do our business there is a BUT!! And that is, under this Act, we are to lose our Sanitary Services to the County Council. The changeover has been put back until 2004 - Why?!!
Is it that, by putting the changeover back until 2004, the year of the next Local Elections, the powers-that-be believe that it will be easier for the incoming Council to accept a greatly diminished Urban Authority? We have to stop this takeover of our services now, because if we don't, it will be only a matter of time before this Council is subsumed into the County Council.
Borough Councils are not going to lose their Sanitary Services and if you take it that we are a bigger Council with a bigger electoral area than four of the five Borough Councils in the country, we should be allowed retain the services we already have. It is my intention, with the Council's permission, to seek a meeting with the new Minister for the Environment to change our status from a Town Council to Borough Council.
Under Section 56 of the Local Government Act we could extend our town boundary by agreement with the County Council. This is something we should do before 2004. Tralee is getting bigger and bigger and we are very proud of its growth. But, like all things that grow, the bigger they get, the more service they require.
More Gardaí are needed to patrol our streets. (I believe) the Community Garda Project is a great success and I must pay tribute to the Gardaí that I have experience of in that capacity, and say that they are a credit to their profession. We should have a quarterly meeting with the Gardaí to iron out our mutual problems.
Litter - our image is of a dirty town. I read in this week's Kerryman that, in 1962 (40 years ago) the town was in line for the county's untidiest town! We have to change this image and we cannot do it alone. We will have to get help in tackling it. We need to get everyone in town involved. For a start, I intend to meet with the new President of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Michael Daly, to see if we can work together to improve the image of our town.
What could be done in the immediate future? We could ensure
- That refuse bins are not left out overnight on our streets.
- We should talk to the school authorities to see if we can discourage students from dropping chewing-gum on our streets.
- That our Christmas lighting is put in place in time and not have it as a discussion topic on the national airwaves.
- That this Council will facilitate the Chamber in every way to bring employment to our town.
Unemployment could be a problem again in the future and if we are to have any chance in avoiding that problem and possibly creating work, we have to get our infrastructure right. L.U.T.S. (or Nuts), we have to get our ring road in place - we have to open up new land for development and housing. Our housing programme is falling behind due to lack of space in the urban area. We need to identify land for our future developments and purchase it as soon as possible.
In relation to tourism: With the aftermath of Sept. 11th, not alone the bad weather, tourism is going through a tough patch at the moment and the trade is going to need a boost in the coming year to try and get it back up to pre-2001 numbers. I would hope that our good ship, the Jeanie Johnston, would play a big part in any promotion that the Tourist Board might get involved in.
The coming year is going to be a tough one on this Council. I can see it having to take one hard decision after another, but I have every confidence in the Councillors and officials to make these tough decisions in the best interests of our town and its people.
At the moment our colleague, Cllr. Ted Fitzgerald is touring the country seeking votes for the Seanad Election on 16th July. I wish him well and I'm sure we will all support him in every way we can. It's a shame that a Council as big as Tralee has no vote in the Seanad Election. This is something we should also go after.
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