UPDATED: Kildare councillor is set to resign
Naas councillor Colm Kenny (Green Party) is to resign from Kildare County Council.
He told party members that he is leaving “with a heavy heart as it was an absolute privilege and honour to serve my native community as their public representative.”
He added: “I will continue to work for my community, striving for a greener, cleaner Kildare, but no longer in the capacity as a county councillor.”
He said that at the time I accepted the nomination to be a councillor, his professional work commitment as a hospital medical laboratory scientist “was in an entirely different place.”
But since the end of the protracted Covid-19 pandemic “it has proven difficult to balance the demands of both my professional and public representative roles with other commitments.”
In June 2020, he was co-opted on to Kildare County Council, sitting on the Naas Municipal District. He would have faced the electorate for the first time at the next poll, scheduled for 2024.
He was put forward for the role after the nomination of Green Party colleague Vincent P Martin to Seanad Eireann.
Sen Martin was elected to Kildare County Council at the first attempt in the last election almost four years ago.
Sen Martin’s strong performance saw him secure nearly 1,500 first preferences and he was the first candidate elected in the Naas area..
He also performed creditably in the subsequent general election (Kildare North). He received 5,100 first preferences and survived until the fifth count.
The Greens will nominate another candidate after the party holds a selection convection to choose a replacement.