There is a new Mayor for the Waterford Metropolitan area.
Councillor Joe Kelly was elected to represent the area comprising of the city, Tramore, Dunmore East, Passage East and its environs.
He was an emphatic winner, defeating fellow independent Davy Daniels by 13 votes to 3 while Tramore's Blaise Hannigan is the new Deputy Mayor.
A former worker at Waterford Crystal, Mayor Kelly is also the Vice President of the Waterford Council of Trade Unions.
In a heartfelt address at City Hall, he thanked his wife Frances and their family for supporting him and said 24/7 cardiac care and WIT's bid for university status would be the key issues of his tenure.
He says wants to use his new position to give support to the campaign for interventional cardiology services at University Hospital Waterford: "450 thousand people are relying on this service that unfortunately only exists from Monday to Friday - which is an absolute disgrace. I think all of us working together on it can achieve that and we have to achieve that for the people of the South East." He questioned "are our lives somehow less valuable than the lives of other people in this country? I don't believe so, but from national politics it would certainly appear to be that, and I'm not prepared to stand for that."
Picture: Noel Browne
