Fingal County Council

For the county, see Fingal.

Fingal County Council Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall
Type
Type	County Council
Leadership
Mayor	Gerry McGuire, Lab
Members	24
Political groups	Labour Party (9)      Fine Gael (6)      Fianna Fáil (4)      Socialist Party (3)      Independents (2)
Elections
Last election	5 June 2009
Meeting place
Fingal County Hall, Swords
Website
www.fingalcoco.ie

The area governed by the council

Fingal County council (Irish: Comhairle Contae Fhine Gall) is the local authority for the county of Fingal in Ireland. It is one of three local authorities that comprised the former Dublin County Council before its abolition and one of four councils in the Dublin Region. The county seat is in Swords, with another major office in Blanchardstown. The county administration is headed by a County Manager, leading a team of functional heads and directors of services. The county council is governed by the Local Government Act 2001.The head of the council has the title of Mayor. The Council has 24 elected members who are elected are by single transferable vote in elections held every 5 years.

Administrative area

Fingal covers an area of 452.7 sq.km and is bordered by five local government areas under the administration of Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council, Meath County Council and Kildare County Council. It has 88km of coastline stretching from Sutton in the south to Balbriggan in the north. It is drained by the River Delvin along its northern boundary, the Ward and Broadmeadow rivers in the centre, the Tolka and Santry rivers to the south. The River Liffey forms its southern border with South Dublin. There are three large protected estuaries and salt marsh habitats, with thirteen major beaches. Howth Head and the Liffey Valley are covered by Special Area Amenity Orders.

Legal status

The Local Government Act 2001 established a two-tier structure of local government. The top tier of the structure consists of 29 county councils and five city councils. The second tier of local government consists of town councils. The city of Kilkenny and four towns which had borough corporation status before 2001 (Sligo, Drogheda, Clonmel, and Wexford), are allowed to use the title of "Borough Council" instead of "Town Council", but they have no additional responsibilities. There are 75 other town councils in addition to these five borough councils. Outside the towns, the county councils are solely responsible for local services.

"Local Authorities perform both a representational and an operational role because the Irish system of Local Government encompasses both democratic representation and public administration."

Balbriggan Town Council is the unit of local government responsible for the governance of the town of Balbriggan, in the County of Fingal.

Councillors

Fingal County Council has 24 elected councillors. The county is divided into 5 Local electoral areas (LEAs), each of which elects between 4–5 councillors. They are: Balbriggan (5), Castleknock (4), Howth–Malahide (5), Mulhuddart (5) and Swords (5).

2009 local election seats summary

Party		Seats	±
	Labour Party	9	+3
	Fine Gael	6	+1
	Fianna Fáil	4	−1
	Socialist Party (Ireland)	3	+1
	Independents	2	−4

Councillors by electoral area

Council members from 2009 election
Local electoral area	Name	Party
Balbriggan	Ciaran Byrne		Labour Party
	Ken Farrell		Labour Party
	May McKeon		Independent
	David O'Connor		Independent
	Tom O'Leary		Fine Gael
Castleknock	Peggy Hamill		Labour Party
	Joe Higgins†		Socialist Party
	Eithne Loftus		Fine Gael
	Mags Murray		Fianna Fáil
Howth–Malahide	Peter Coyle		Labour Party
	Alan Farrell†		Fine Gael
	Joan Maher		Fine Gael
	Eoghan O'Brien		Fianna Fáil
	Cian O'Callaghan		Labour Party
Mulhuddart	Ruth Coppinger		Socialist Party
	Kieran Dennison		Fine Gael
	David McGuinness		Fianna Fáil
	Patrick Nulty†		Labour Party
	Michael O'Donovan		Labour Party
Swords	Clare Daly†		Socialist Party
	Darragh Butler		Fianna Fáil
	Anne Devitt		Fine Gael
	Tom Kelleher		Labour Party
	Gerry McGuire		Labour Party

^†Replaced during term, see below for details.

Co-options

Outgoing	Party		Electoral area	Reason	Date	Co-optee	Party
Joe Higgins		Socialist Party	Castleknock	Elected to the European Parliament at the 2009 European Parliament election	June 2009	Matthew Waine		Socialist Party
Clare Daly		Socialist Party	Swords	Elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 general election	February 2011	Eugene Coppinger		Socialist Party
Alan Farrell		Fine Gael	Howth-Malahide	Elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 general election	February 2011	Anthony Lavin		Fine Gael
Patrick Nulty		Labour Party	Mulhuddart	Elected to Dáil Éireann at the 2011 Dublin West by-election	October 2011	Mary McCamley		Labour Party

Governance

Mayor and Deputy Mayor

The Mayor and Deputy Mayor are chosen from among the Councillors. The incumbents are:

• Mayor – Gerry McGuire (Labour Party)
• Deputy Mayor – Ken Farrell (Labour Party)

Management

The County Manager – David O'Connor – is appointed by central government. He has implemented the following structure for his management team:

• Director of Housing
• Director of Corporate Affairs
• Director of Human Resources
• Director of I.T.
• Director of Finance
• Director of Environment
• Director of Transportation
• Director of Planning, Property and Economic Development
• Director of Community, Recreation and Amenities

See also

• Local government in the Republic of Ireland

External links

• Official website