‘I feel more like a junior hurler today’ says outgoing councillor

“I feel like a junior hurler today, the two boys are senior hurlers,” said Cllr John Shaw in his final address to Westmeath County Council.

Cllr Shaw who has been on the council for 15 years and is not seeking re-election, had some parting words of advice for the council. He called for more in-person and fewer hybrid meetings and greater social media presence.

He urged councillors, “if you can at all, attend meetings in person, particularly at budget time or when there are important decisions to be made, everyone needs to be in this room”.

Cllr Shaw suggested that the council should be highlighting on social media the work they do, the small and the big jobs. “There are people cleaning streets, filling potholes, right throughout the breadth of this county, there’s the fire service and the larger projects, the regeneration projects, the great walkways we are doing. We need to promote what we are doing better,” he said.

“Certainly, mistakes have been made, but on the whole, there is an excellent service being provided,” he added.

Cllr Shaw said he would stay involved in “lots of bits and pieces in public life”.

He congratulated Barry Kehoe on his appointment as chief executive, saying that “living in the county, he knows it extremely well you will be able to drive initiatives forward that will better everyone in the county”.

Cllr Shaw applauded retiring head of finance Jimmy Dalton for “guiding the council expertly through the financial crisis, then the pandemic, and the various introductions of local property tax, NPPR, not to mind the smaller little things like the arts centre and other things he had to negotiate”.

“You have left this county in a better place,” he said.

Cllr Shaw thanked the staff and executive for their help and support.

“I certainly enjoyed my term on this council over the last 15 years,” he said, adding that it was “a very proud period” in his life. He thanked Fianna Fáil for their support.

“I was never really into party politics.

Consensus was always my modus operandi in terms of getting things done, but to govern properly, you need the party structure,” he said.

“I started out as a single man, an inter-county hurler with not a care in the world, no responsibilities.

Things have changed over the intervening years, a few more grey hairs than when I was starting off, maybe not as fit as I was back then,” Cllr Shaw said. He thanked his wife Lisa and his family for their support. “You can’t do this job unless you have that support coming from behind you.”

Cllr Shaw thanked everyone who voted for him.

“To put yourself before the people in any election can be a nerve-wracking experience. I know what the members here are going through in the build-up to an election and the sleepless nights,” he said. He wished well all those contesting the election.