I have been chosen as the Labour Party candidate for Lord Mayor for tonight's meeting of Dublin City Council. It's a great honour and I'm very excited. :-)
DUBLIN BIKES PROPOSER COUNCILLOR ANDREW MONTAGUE ELECTED AS NEW LORD MAYOR OF DUBLIN
The proposer of the highly successful Dublin Bikes Scheme, Councillor Andrew Montague, was this evening elected as Lord Mayor of Dublin. Originally from Santry and now living in Ballymun, the new Mayor - who is 43 years old - was elected to Dublin City Council for the first time in 2004 and represents the Artane/Whitehall electoral area.
After his election this evening, the new Lord Mayor, broke with tradition and walked to the Mansion House from City Hall.
In his acceptance speech, Councillor Montague, thanked his colleagues for electing him as Lord Mayor and praised the work of his two immediate predecessors, Gerry Breen and Emer Costello, in helping the city to meet the challenges posed by the economic recession.
"I believe passionately that the country's national recovery will start here in Dublin and there is much that the City Council can do to kick-start that recovery. We can take control and drive the rejuvenation of our capital city by promoting trade and tourism, further developing our transport infrastructure and making Dublin an exciting and safe place to live and work in for native Dubliners and new arrivals."
Councillor Montague said that experience from right around the world has shown that cities that offer a good quality of life, an interesting environment and cultural diversity tend to attract creative industries.
"Dublin has already been successful in attracting global leaders like Google and Facebook and we in the Council will work with the IDA to see how we can further improve our attractiveness to such creative businesses. In addition, we will examine how we can work with central Government to double the number of international students coming to our city by 2015, which, if we are successful, would bring in revenues of €1 billion per annum."
The new Lord Mayor highlighted a number of other initiatives which he - in conjunction with the management of the Council and his fellow councillors - will develop during his term in office:
- Develop new food market in the Fruit and Veg Market off Capel Street, and urban markets in the city's suburbs;
- Bring an additional 1,000 bikes and 40 stations into the Dublin Bike Scheme - including at Heuston Station - and work to complete the premium cycle routes around the city's canals;
- Promote the development of a number of Bus Rapid Transit pilot routes;
- Host a conference on possible solutions to tackle anti-social behaviour including restorative justice programmes that involve those committing offences making amends to their victims;
- Bring improvements to the quality of people's homes in the five regeneration areas and look at how social regeneration can be brought about in those areas too.
Councillor Andrew Montague concluded by saying that the Council - in terms of how it does its business - needs to tie in with the public appetite for reform and renewal.
"There is much that we in Dublin City Council can do to improve the lives of our citizens and we need to spend more of our time focusing on the are as that we're responsible for and reduce the amount of time we're allocating to issues outside of our control. In this context, I, as Lord Mayor, will meet with each group on the Council and the Independent councillors to see how we can work more efficiently and effectively."
You can download my inaugural speech
