FOR the second time in just eight months, a councillor in the Carrigaline Municipal District has resigned their Council seat – becoming the fifth councillor in recent years to leave the political stage.
Fine Gael’s Cllr Liam O’Connor (42), who was elected in 2019 to the newly-created Carrigaline Municipal District, follows in the footsteps of his former colleague Aidan Lombard who also resigned his Council seat earlier this year.
Cllr O’Connor, who is originally from Limerick, but lives in Carrigaline and is chair of the Tidy Towns Group, said that after much consideration and thought, he has decided to hand in his resignation to Cork County Council and will be finishing his tenure on October 31st.
‘I have thoroughly enjoyed the past number of years as a councillor. However, due to fulltime work commitments, I am unable to continue with the role at this time,’ he said.Cllr O’Connor – who works as a scientist in pharma Janssen (J &J) said that at the start of his term he reduced to a four-day week but admitted it still wasn’t enough to manage the Council workload, along with meetings and additional duties.
Cllr O’Connor, who will continue to play an active role in the FG party and in the community, hasn’t ruled out a return to politics down the line.
He joins a growing list of relatively young councillors from the West Cork region who have resigned their Council seats in recent years, including Aidan Lombard, Fine Gael’s James O’Donovan, Sinn Féin’s Rachel McCarthy and Noel O’Donovan (who has signalled that he is returning to politics).
