Carroll set to be mayor: Skibbereen councillor in pole position for top job in county

VETERAN West Cork councillor, Joe Carroll, appears to be in pole position to become the County Mayor at today’s Council Annual General Meeting following what sources described as fruitful talks involving his party, Fianna Fáil, Labour and independent councillors.

While remaining tight-lipped on the likely candidates for the role of Cork’s first citizen, Seamus McGrath, the Fianna Fáil leader on the council, said that talks involving his own party, Labour and the independents about the work agenda for the new term as well as positions were going well.

Fine Gael’s lead negotiator John Paul O’Shea spoke to The Echo in advance of a meeting with party colleagues on Wednesday and said his party would continue its talks right up to Friday’s meeting.

Joe Carroll was first elected to Skibbereen Town Council in 1999 and took a seat on Cork County Council in 2004.

He lives in Skibbereen with his wife, Sheila, and has also served as chairman of the Southern Regional Assembly, a representative body which draws together members of local authorities in Cork, Kerry and other southern region counties.

After all the votes were counted from the June 7 election, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were finely poised on 19 and 18 seats respectively. As there are 55 elected councillors, the threshold for a majority is 28 seats, leaving independent councillors, and those from smaller parties, in a powerful ‘king-making’ position.

There are four parties represented among the 18 councillors who hold the balance of power.

Independent Ireland, with four seats, is the largest party grouping, with the Social Democrats close behind on three, Labour on two and Sinn Féin with a solitary councillor.

There are eight other councillors, a contingent which includes former Fianna Fáil member, William O’Leary, who topped the poll in the Fermoy electoral area after splitting from the party over its stance on migration. Peter O’Donoghue, who has campaigned against vaccination and Covid related lockdown, was also elected in the Fermoy electoral area.

Speaking to The Echo this week, Danny Collins, who held the position of County Mayor in 2022/23 and was re-elected as councillor for Independent Ireland in West Cork-Bantry, agreed that the emerging narrative was that Fianna Fáil, Labour and Independents would be able to put a majority together.

“That’s what I believe at the moment, that’s the news on the ground but a lot can change between now and Friday,” said Mr Collins, who was elected Mayor as part of the Independent grouping during the 2019-24 term but stood on this occasion as an Independent Ireland representative.

“I’ve been talking with certain party leaders and I’ve given them my feelings and what not and I’ve told them where I stood so, at the moment, nothing is put down in concrete yet.”

He hinted that a number of independent councillors might not be happy to go get involved in the proposed Fianna Fáil/Labour/Independent arrangement or, at the very least, had some reservations.

Along with Joe Carroll, other names suggested as possible successors to Frank O’Flynn, include Macroom Electoral Area poll-topper Gobnait Moynihan and Bernard Moynihan in Kanturk.

Seamus McGrath secured the highest vote of any candidate in the local authority elections across the country with more than 5,000 first preferences and may also be be keen to take the front line position given the speculation that his brother, Finance Minister, Michael McGrath, may be heading to Brussels to take up the role of Ireland’s EU Commissioner.

This would leave a vacancy on the Fianna Fáil ticket in Cork South Central which the Carrigaline councillor might be tempted to fill.