Minutes:
In Memorium:
The Lord Mayor extended her sympathies on behalf of the City Council to the family
and friends of former Councillor Paddy Byrne, son of former Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne who died on 19th October 2021. Paddy attended the Mansion House 300 celebrations in 2015 and gave a fascinating history of the works done to the Mansion House prior to the 1932 Ecumenical Congress and his memories of living in the Mansion House as a child.
Halloween:
The Lord Mayor expressed her sincere thanks to Dublin City Council Area Offices, Waste Management and Housing Maintenance Sections, Dublin Fire Brigade and the citizens for helping the city have a relatively safe and incident free Halloween weekend.
Hundreds of members of the public reported stockpiles of bonfire materials that allowed DCC staff from across the city to collect them and prevent burning and damage on green spaces.
The Lord Mayor invited Chief Fire Officer, Dennis Kiely to give a brief summary of events. He reported than that Dublin Fire Brigade received 186 Fire Calls from midnight 31st October to midnight on 1st November. Of these 133 were fires related to Halloween. The Emergency Ambulance service received 483 calls during that period. One person was injured by a firework exploding. One fire appliance in the South City suffered damage to its windscreen and none of the crew were injured. The Waste Management Section reported a drop of reports of bonfire material from 729 in 2020 to 468 in 2021. They also thanked all their colleagues around Dublin City Council and An Garda Síochána for their collaboration.
COP26:
The Lord Mayor acknowledged the immensely important COP26 discussions taking place in Glasgow over the next fortnight. She confirmed that Dublin City Council was ready, willing and able to play its role at local and city level in reducing emissions, protecting biodiversity and making Dublin more environmentally friendly and climate resilient. She asked that the City Council is included and supported in doing this by central government.
Staff Changes:
The Lord Mayor informed Members that Deirdre Ni Raghallaigh was leaving her position in the Chief Executive’s Office to lead the roll out of the Voter.ie project at national level. Ruth Dowling will be taking over from Deirdre and will be joined by new staff members Natalie Leonard and Prajwal Annibabu. The Lord Mayor and representatives from all the political groups thanked Deirdre for her hard work and support and wished her well in her new role.
Management of Council Business:
The Lord Mayor proposed that item 7 Oscar Traynor Lands Report 302/2021 and item 8 a) the S183 Disposal Report 303/2021 be dealt with at an adjourned meeting of Council to be held immediately after the Budget meeting on Monday 22nd November. This would allow Members to have additional time to analyse the implications of the reports and to seek clarification on certain elements of the proposals. If this proposal is accepted the discussion and subsequent vote will go ahead on the 22nd November and no further adjournment or deferral will be acceded to. The Members agreed to the Lord Mayors proposal.