The New Mayor- Catherine Connolly 2005-2006 By Sandra Bunting

The Galway City Community Forum is a strong voice for Galway

Galway Mayor Catherine Connolly has praised the Galway City Community Forum for providing a much-needed voice for the community. The Labour councillor, who was voted mayor on June 21, said that she looks forward to an even stronger profile for the GCCF. Complimenting the forum on its submission document on the draft Galway Development Plan 2005-2011, she encouraged members of the forum to take their involvement a step further by attending council meetings. This, she said, will make them familiar with the system and allow them to act more strategically.

A role Catherine Connolly would like to see taken on by the Community Forum is the monitoring of the Barcelona Declaration. City Council is reviewing progress every three months on Galway’s commitment. More involvement would be welcome from the community sector.

One of the Community Forum policies that stands out for her is housing. She says we have done great work analysing figures and noting the weaknesses of the strategy. She agrees that public transport, with provisions for safe walking and cycling, is the way forward for Galway. She is pleased that the Forum is taking a stand against incineration.
In response to the fact that one of the strengths of the Community Forum is that it is not political, Mayor Connolly said:
“One should be proudly political. I’m proudly political. When councillors do good work for the community, when they work for a socially just society, when there is an active citizen, that’s all political.”

She urged forum members not to hide behind the a-political banner but rather be non-aligned and support any party on issues relevant to the forum. She recommends testing different party’s policies.
Concerning the forum’s announcement that councillors would be monitored according to their campaign promises and support given to forum policies, Mayor Connolly says this would present no problem. She recommended they be monitored on the basis of issues and would like to see members attend more council meetings, address the council on a regular basis and keep a record of voting patterns on city council.

“It (GCCF) has produced a vision”, she said. “Let’s implement it together”.