Prestigious European role for Trim councillor

Trim Town Councillor Vincent McHugh has been selected as one of four Irish delegates to the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe (CLRAE). Cllr McHugh was selected by the Association of Municipal Authorities of Ireland (AMAI), of which he is an executive member. Two delegates representing town councils and two representing county council are chosen, as well as four substitute delegates, for a two-year term. "It was nice to be chosen. There are a lot of delegates in the AMAI and only two are chosen from the town councils and then two from the county councils," he said. Cllr McHugh will travel to Strasbourg for his first meeting of the CLRAE on 25th October. CLRAE is a consultative body of the Council of Europe. The Council is the oldest European institution which came into being on 5th May 1949 and Ireland was one of the council's 10 founding members. The Congress itself is a political assembly consisting of elected members from all 47 states of the Council, representing over 800m citizens.