SINN FÉIN COUNCILLOR Mícheál Mac Donncha is the new Lord Mayor of Dublin city.
First co-opted onto the council in 2011, Mac Donncha was re-elected in 2014.
He has been a long-standing member of Sinn Féin, and was the editor of the party’s newspaper – An Phoblacht – from 1990 to 1996.
Mac Donncha ran unsuccessfully in the 2016 general election for the Dublin Bay North constituency.
He is a fluent Irish speaker and a founding member of the council’s Moore Street Advisory Committee.
He is also a board member on the City of Dublin Education and Training Board, the Board of the Hugh Lane Gallery and of the National Maternity Hospital.
Mac Donncha was elected this evening at the council’s annual meeting with 35 votes. He is the 348th Lord Mayor of Dublin. The Labour Party’s Aine Clancy was elected as deputy-Lord Mayor.
Speaking after his election this evening, the new Lord Mayor thanked his fellow councillors and laid out his intentions for the office.
He said the focus of his term would be to try to work towards resolving the housing crisis in Dublin.
He said his first act as mayor would be requesting a meeting with Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy as a matter of urgency.
He said he believed the council should focus on “building more council houses on council” land, and called on the national government to release funding to this end.
Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams congratulated Mac Donncha on his election.
“Cllr Mícheál Mac Donncha is an outstanding public representative, a committed Irish republican, and a proud Dubliner with a deep love of our capital city,” he said.
Mac Donncha takes over the title of Lord Mayor from the Labour Party’s Brendan Carr.
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