'Tough times ahead", first SF mayor warns

'There are a lot of challenges facing the town and the council,' Cllr Joe Reilly, Sinn Fein"s first Mayor of Navan in over 80 years, told members at the first annual meeting of the new Navan Town Council last week. 'There is a tough period ahead for the people,' he added. There will be a tough period ahead for Cllr Reilly, too, if Monday night"s opening meeting is anything to go by. He is heading up what Cllr Shane Cassells described as a 'political coalition of the left and extreme left" in an attack on the newly formed grouping which now holds the reins of power in Navan Town Hall. The new coalition is made up of Cllr Reilly and his Sinn Fein colleague, Cllr Peader Toibin; Labour"s Anton McCabe and independents Francis Deane and Phil Brennan. As well as keeping control of this rainbow coalition, Cllr Reilly will also have to deal with Fianna Fail councillors who are getting used to opposition for the first time in a decade, and who may become closer to their two Fine Gael colleagues in the months to come. The meeting had opened up on friendly enough terms, with commiserations to those who had lost their seats, Tommy and Christy Reilly and John Duffy, and welcomes to the new councillors, Deane, McCabe, and Suzanne Jamal of Fine Gael. Early in the meeting, Cllr Jim Holloway proposed an adjournment to discuss the distribution of the various jobs on offer at the annual meeting, to bodies like Meath Tourism, the Municipal Authorities Association, Meath Partnership and the County Development Board. He got an adjournment, but very little crumbs from the table went to the opposition. 'I"m astounded at what happened here tonight,' Cllr Holloway said later. 'There are four people here tonight, treated as if we didn"t exist.' While he didn"t particularly want to be a delegate to the Municipal Authorities Association or such body, as he was already busy enough, he felt that the meeting signified something he didn"t feel comfortable about. Cllr Reilly was proposed as mayor by Cllr Toibin, who described him as a man of calibre who had worked hard for the people of Navan and Meath over 15 years as a councillor. He was a republican activist for 40 years, Cllr Toibin added. During his time running for election, his vote increased from 80 to 6,500 in a recent general election. Cllr Reilly was seconded by Cllr Phil Brennan, who was elected deputy mayor. Phil Brennan and Anton McCabe got the AMAI roles; Joe Reilly, the Library Committee; Peader Toibin, the Mid-East Regional Tourism Authority and Meath Tourism; Joe Reilly and Francis Deane, Navan Enterprise Centre; Anton McCabe, Meath Partnership; and Francis Deane, the highly sought-after Eastern River Basin District Advisory Council. There was one concession to the opposition - Cllr Cassells" role on the Irish Public Bodies Mutual Insurances Ltd, while Cllr Padraig Fitzsimons almost had the nod for the Navan Enterprise Centre, until Peader Toibin decided Francis Deane was the man for the job. Cllr Cassells was high in his praise for the new mayor, describing him as extremely hard-working and pragmatic when dealing with issues in the town in recent years. 'However, I cannot say that about the political coalition of the left and extreme left that you have joined forces with,' Cllr Cassells added, describing it as an unstable grouping which now stared the council in the face. 'There are irreconcilable differences among those gathered in this coalition. Take, for example, the development of the town, which, Mayor, you have always been pragmatic about.' Cllr Cassells said that it was not doorstep politics, but real time politics that the council was now dealing with. 'You mentioned the development plan in your speech. It"s not about colouring in parts of a map, as we all know - it"s about dealing with the investors and those who own the property. Good planning is needed but money and private investment is also needed. I"m sick to the teeth of talk of golden circles from one side of people"s mouths and job creation from the other. You have to deal with the realities to make it work.' He predicted the run-up to Christmas would be 'fun', when the new powers will be trying to reconcile a budget. 'The honour of mayor is a great one - but it"s more than the photoshoot outside the door. I wonder how much policy was discussed. I will be pursuing the best agenda for this town, and will be closely marking anybody who threatens that,' he said. Cllr McCabe said that the door had been open to anybody who wanted to talk to the group, and that they found no common ground with Fine Gael, as there was an issue over a particular candidate. 'We did talk to Sinn Fein, and there was common ground. I would expect that Cllr Cassells shows no confidence in the alliance, but I"m confident we can go ahead.' Mayor Reilly said there are many people of different viewpoints, but that councillors have always got around their differences on behalf of Navan. Cllr Fitzsimons echoed the comments of Jim Holloway, saying it was a pity that no olive branches have been stretched across the table. 'It"s very narrow-minded when we have to work five years together.' Town manager Eugene Cummins had a positive outlook on the new council, however. 'I"ll tell you here and now - we"ll all get on the finest,' he said. 'We might have our rows, but we"ll all walk out that door talking to one another.' Nobody rushed across to Boylesports to bet on it....