Management at Kilkenny County Council’s in for a bit of a shakeup from today.
The upper-tier of the local authority typically comprises a Chief Executive Officer and four Director of Services.
With Colette Byrne now having vacated the post of CEO (more on that here), Sean McKeown’s stepping into the position until somebody’s appointed to the role in about six to nine months’ time.
It takes Mr McKeown temporarily away from his Director of Services portfolio with responsibility for Planning, Environment, Building Control, Parks, LEO/Economic Development, Tourism Marketing & Veterinary Services.
Denis Malone takes on that mantle in an acting capacity today and he’s ready to get stuck in, telling KCLR News “It’ll be a great challenge, looking forward to the challenge, just been briefed by the former Director who’s taking up Colette’s job and it’s certainly quite a wide brief and something that I’ll have to get on top of quickly so looking forward to the challenge”.
Having worked as a Senior Planner with the council Mr Malone says he now wants to focus on bringing himself up to speed on the enterprise and tourism side of his new role, saying “That’s certainly an area that I need to hone up as I said and maybe look at a project that I could do or projects that need to be brought forward there and obviously trying to wean myself off planning is maybe one of the things, not completely but I think I need to be less on the detail and more on the strategic side of it but looking forward to getting stuck into a particular project and bringing that forward”.
While Head of Enterprise with the Local Enterprise Office Fiona Deegan believes she has a contribution to make in a newly created position of Acting Director of Services leading a team to support displaced Ukrainians.
She says “Yes, I’m looking forward to the role, I know that I can do great work, bringing my project management skills, people management, pulling everything together to support the Ukrainian community and hopefully I’ll make my mark in this role”.
Ms Deegan adds “There’s a lot of work but, I mean, we’ve a lot of agencies involved in the whole piece of work so it’s a matter of working with everybody, pulling everybody together just doing the very best for everybody”.
Meanwhile, Carlow County Council has also been tasked by the Minister to create a dedicated Director of Services post on a temporary basis to lead the local authority’s response to the Ukrainian crisis.
A council spokesperson’s told KCLR that they’re in the process of filling the post of Lead Director by internal competition with hopes of an appointment in the coming weeks. A small team will also be assigned to work with them.
Until then, an existing Director of service is managing the duties.
