SF member becomes Vice-President of AMAI
A Sinn Féin councillor who was recently excluded from key
committees on his council by other parties has this week become
the Munster Vice-President of the Association of Municipal
Authorities of Ireland. Cionnaith O Súilleabháin described the
result as ``a success for the politics of inclusion''.
Last week An Phoblacht reported how rival parties on Clonakilty
UDC combined to keep O Súilleabháin from taking his rightful
place on one or both new Municipal Policy Committees. This week
the Sinn Féin councillor has been representing his local
authority at the AMAI annual conference in Wexford and he won the
nomination of the Independents and Small Parties group to become
one of four vice-presidents of the AMAI. The group represents
independent and small-party councillors throughout the 26
Counties and this year had the nomination of the vice-president
for Munster.
Also at the AMAI conference delegates unanimously backed a motion
from Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín O Caoláin representing Monaghan UDC.
The motion commits the AMAI to ``actively encourage the Irish
government to announce special measures to aid development and
reconstruction of border towns in the six Southern border
counties, thereby harnessing the hope and expectation of the Good
Friday document''. The resolution was seconded by the chair of
Monaghan UDC Patsy Treanor (Fianna Fáil), incoming President of
AMAI.
Stating that the government now has ``the healthiest bank balance
in its history'' Deputy O Caoláin said there has been ``no
commitment for new programmes for the border region''. The
proposal was ``a practical measure to improve towns along the
border from Dundalk to Letterkenny. 76 years of partition have
stunted the economic development of these towns''. Praising
commmunity efforts which have ended the ``Cinderella status'' of
border towns the TD said local endeavour was not enough and
government aid was needed.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)