Fianna Fáil’s Peter Keane elected Mayor of Galway city

The new Mayor of Galway has said dealing with the city’s traffic problems will be a central aim of his term in office.

Fianna Fáil’s Peter Keane was elected to the role at the first meeting of the new City Council this afternoon.

It is the first time he has held the position in what is his fourth term as a Councillor.

Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party agreed a pact with a number of Independent members, to share the office over the next five years.

Cllr Keane said Galway could not continue to be disadvantaged by the infrastructural issues that limit the movement of people, goods and services around the city each day.

He said that the ruling pact would be prioritising the delivery of the proposed Galway city Ring Road and expressed confidence that it could be brought to fruition.

An Bord Pleanála is due to consider a remitted application for the project this autumn, after initial approval for the route was cancelled, due to its failure to consider how the plan would impact the State’s Climate Action targets.

The new council will have increased female participation with women comprising a third of the 18 representatives. Among them, the authority’s first member of African heritage, Labour’s Helen Ogbu.

She said her election showed Galway to be a welcoming, multicultural place, that lived up to its reputation as the ‘City of the Tribes’.

Cllr Ogbu is expected to serve as mayor during the lifetime of the authority, under the terms of the pact her party has signed up to.

As well as reflecting the changing nature of the city, there are constants too.

The re-election of Cllr Terry O’Flaherty in the east of the city continues a family tradition, started by her mother Bridie, in 1974.

This evening, Cllr O’Flaherty said she had learned the importance of that service over the decades in which her mother was an elected representative and that she had been proud to follow in her footsteps.

She said the secret to a successful career in local politics was to always deal with the concerns of constituents in an efficient and effective manner.

“That’s what my mother did and it’s the example I’ve always followed,” she said.