Councillors mark retirement of Joe McGuinness from Louth County Council

Councillors at the Dundalk Municipal District May meeting last week, marked the retirement of Director of Services, Joe McGuinness, who was retiring after 41 years of service with Louth County Council.

Congratulations and well wishes to Mr McGuinness were led by Cathaoirleach of Dundalk Municipal District, Cllr Seán Kelly, who opened by offering “a massive thank you on behalf of Dundalk councillors” after “41 years of hard work and dedication to the town”.

Cllr Kelly said that he found that when, as a new councillor, Mr McGuinness always steered him in the right direction, and gave sound advice.

Cllr Kelly added that Mr McGuinness always took the approach that in local government, they were all a team, saying “it wasn't officials against councillors, we always worked together, you always took that approach. You'll be sorely missed by us all here.”

Cllr Robert Nash congratulaed Mr McGuinness on 41 years of service, saying that it was a “wonderful achievement.” Cllr Nash added that the overwhelming feeling was that Mr McGuinness “always had the interest of Dundalk at heart, a true Dundalk person. We shouldn't underestimate the importance of having someone at the top table.”

Wishing him well, Cllr Marianne Butler said that it has been “an absolute pleasure to work with you over the past 16 years”, to Mr McGuinness, and said that he had a “huge amount of stand out successes”.

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Highlighting his work in the CPOing of vacant houses and bringing them back into use as social houses, Cllr Butler said that he was “completely and utterly ahead of your time in doing that” and that he got national praise and recognition for the work, which has made “a huge difference to the families who are [now] living in the houses”.

Cllr Antóin Watters congratulated Mr McGuinness on his 41 years service and said his work had a huge effect on the county.
Wishing him well on his retirement, Cllr Ciarán Fisher said that Mr McGuinness was very welcoming to new councillors and was very knowledgeable and personable.

Cllr Maeve Yore also brought up his work on CPOing houses, saying that they "were groundbreaking, you led that".

Cllr John Reilly also wished Mr McGuinness well on his retirement and also on his birthday which was that day, and hoped that he would enjoy life and his retirement.

Thanking the members for their kind words, Mr McGuinness said that his best three years in local government were from 1999-2001 when he was in Dundalk Town Council, saying that “we had some great achievements down there.”

Joking that he got a reputation as Joe 'Bye Law' McGuinness because they introduced “a load of bye laws, outlawing all sorts of pleasures”, he mentioned in particular the introduction of pay parking to the town.

He said that he would never forget 1 March 2001, the start date of pay parking, and when walking down the Clanbrassil St, “there wasn't a single car parked, I said to myself 'what am I after doing'.” But by that afternoon, he added, motorists had started to come back and noted that pay parking is still a money spinner for the local authority”