Thoughts on the Northwest Area

Thoughts on the Northwest Area. Not exactly the bombastic “All the News that’s fit to print!”

There is a change of Area Manager – Charlie Lowe is taking on Northwest as well as North Central. This is a downgrading of Northwest and is taylored to fit in with the intentions of the City Management last year. Councillors rejected the amalgamation of Northcentral and Northwest as an option but now we have a managerial flyover to bridge the elected members moat and battlements. This a clever move but I can see it a mile away even when my glasses are removed.

Michael O’Neill, the current manager is being transferred to South East where they are rich enough to pay the transfer fee! He is a very decent man and will be missed here in Ballymun and Finglas. I wish him the best of luck when dealing with the incinerator’s hot furnaces there – John Gormley, Lucinda Creighton, Chris Andrews, Kevin Humphries, Catherine Noone, Ruairi and the rest of the heavy heaters.

Meanwhile in Northwest, Ballymun sits there as the jewel in the administrative crown. Chief executive Ciaran Murray from Meath is retiring and will be replaced by Philip Maguire. This appintment is very important here in this constituency. Murray did a superb job and learned by his inevitable mistakes. (Everyone makes mistakes)Communications with the local people are extremely important and so is cynicism when dealing with developers, builders etc. Ciaran Murray ran an impressive show in Ballymun and the evidence is there for all to see.

Future.

The Board of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL) should request a full time replacement as Chief Executive as part of their duty of care to the company. The interview panel for a new CWEO should include an elected

councillor(s)

to respect and represent democratic accountability.

Management in a recession.

Appointing two part-time senior managers to parts of a three seat Dail constituency seems unwise even when there is a regeneration programme in place. I believe that any rationalisation should have taken the form of the appointment of an Assistant City Manager to manage the whole of Northwest as part of the changes delineated in the Croke Park Agreement regarding flexibility of roles.

There is one man eminently suited to that role. His name is Joe Bloggs. I know his name, John Tierney knows his name, Philip Maguire knows his name, Vincent Norton knows his name. I believe that Joe even knows his own name.

I think that a competition should be set up to seek candidates for the role. I won’t publish the job description here. But anyone appointed should acquire the rank of assistant city manager which will broaden the pool of potential candidates.