Limerick mayor John Moran discusses clashes, change, and his vision for Limerick City on The Mick Clifford Podcast. Picture: Manon Gilbart
The mayor of Limerick, John Moran, believes his well-publicised clashes with some councillors may be because he has spent longer than them thinking about what needs to be done to improve the city and county.
Tensions between Mr Moran and a select group of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors have arisen and flared into conflict on several occasions since Mr Moran took over his role as the first directly elected mayor in the State in 2024.
Last February, he wrote to Micheál Martin and Simon Harris to complain about councillors who had proceeded with a lengthy meeting to pass the council’s corporate plan, even though he had to leave early for health reasons.
‘I may have been ahead of the thought process’
Mr Moran told The Mick Clifford Podcast that, when he started the job, he knew he had to “pick up the pace on delivery”. He said:
He said: "I probably had a disadvantage in an ironic way in that I had years of thinking about what should [be done] and in that way I may have been ahead of the thought process of the councillors."
Mr Moran added that there is still a problem with communication between him and the elected members, as well as with the public, in terms of what he is trying to achieve.
More recently, a number of councillors attempted to block the mayor’s plan for road closures to accommodate the Summer in the City Festival.
Mr Moran told the podcast the festival was welcomed by most people and that the councillors who were objecting were from wards unaffected by the road closures.
He said the public perception that there is a split involving the mayor on one side and councillors on the other is not accurate.
“Most of the councillors are working very well with the mayor and some are not and they will say that themselves,” said Mr Moran.
“But those who are, I believe, are realising that fundamentally you have to have people working [together] to deliver for the people.”
The new form of government involving a directly elected mayor means there has to be a new way of working, he says.
“When you talk to local government representatives in other parts of the world, you tend to find that the ones that work incredibly well always put place before politics.”
