Changes galore in Cork County Council
There’s barely a month goes by when somebody hasn’t defected from a party, or rumours abound that someone’s about to.
For years Fine Gael were the dominant party on the council, but suffered in the 2014 local elections when they dropped from 22 to 16 seats.
They found themselves one behind Fianna Fáil, who secured 17 seats. But now they’re the largest party again, thanks to the defection to their ranks of Cllr Noel McCarthy, who initially left Labour for a brief spell with the Independents.
Prior to the last election Labour had seven seats. Post-June 2014 they had two and now just one on the 55-seater council.
It’s not so long ago that the longest serving member on the council, Cllr Noel Collins, was the lone Independent voice in County Hall.
At the last election 10 Independents were returned, including the current Mayor of County Cork, Cllr John Paul O’Shea.
In less than 18 months their numbers have been bolstered, mainly at the expense of Sinn Féin.
Following internal wrangling Cllr Kieran McCarthy left Sinn Féin, later followed by Cllr June Murphy and most recently by Cllr Ger Keohane.
Then Cllr Alan Coleman decided to jump ship from Fianna Fáil to the Independents after getting miffed at not being chosen by the party to run as a general election candidate in the Cork South West constituency.
The brief addition of Noel McCarthy gave the Independents 15 seats.
His decision to join Fine Gael leaves the Independents on 14 seats, but rumours are rife that they could benefit from another defection before the year is out.
Cllr Kevin Murphy, who is leader of Fine Gael on the council, said he’d never seen anything like the number of defections being witnessed in all his 28 years as a local public representative.
