BREAKING: Internal email reveals Limerick mayor's call for 'new team' to oversee 'transformation'

MAYOR John Moran has stated it is now “essential” that Limerick City and County Council has a “specific new experienced team” to guide it through the “transformation” brought about by his election.

In an email to council staff - but not councillors - issued on Friday night and seen by Limerick Live - he stated there is a need to “approach things differently” in the local authority, “and ensure we have the right resources in place”.

“This includes having the right people, skills, tools and support to help us navigate the change to a different approach,” he said.

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Mayor Moran’s Friday email came in response to an email sent on Thursday by the local authority’s director general Dr Pat Daly to council staff and councillors.

In that email, Dr Daly highlighted an interview the mayor gave to Live95 on Wednesday last over Christmas in Limerick, expressing his “disappointment” with Mayor Moran’s comments.

In his email, issued on Friday night, Mayor John Moran said he is “disappointed” with the communication sent by Dr Daly, adding: “There are two sides to every debate”.

On Live95 on Wednesday, the first citizen had said: “I believe in looking after public money, as I think everyone does, but it's a question of higher standards”

Mayor Moran said Dr Daly’s email on Thursday has “brought welcome clarity for the people of Limerick that we all here share an ambition to deliver more for them, but we are constrained in our ability to do it.”

He says Limerick City and County Council has not changed into an organisation “capable of maximising the opportunity of having the country’s first directly elected mayor with all the advantages for Limerick that are embedded in the legislation.”

In the latest email from Mayor Moran - issued on Friday night - he has confirmed he has asked leading Government officials to be given “support” to “bring in the help I need”.

“I have long been of the view that a specific new experienced team to guide us through the transformation would be very helpful. Indeed, with the passage of time, I now think that is essential,” the mayor wrote in the email sent on Friday night, to all staff in the local authority, but not his fellow councillors.

“To keep building on our successes - and to learn and grow from the times things do not go as planned - I believe we need to approach things differently and ensure we have the right

In his email on Friday ahead of the October Bank Holiday weekend, Mayor Moran has insisted that he holds the staff and management of Limerick City and County Council “in the highest regard”.

“Like I am sure many of you, I have been brought up by my parents to always try and be the best version of what I can be. I live in a world where continuous improvement is therefore the aim and also possible when we believe in ourselves and have the right supports,” Ireland’s first ever directly elected mayor added

He thanked the “many” people “who welcomed my recent comments and took the time to understand the message I was trying to convey.”

“My main point is the people of Limerick deserve even more from us when it comes to delivering results right across our city and county. There are already many great examples where you all made a difference and I know these efforts have been truly valued by our communities as they are by me,” his email continued.

Mayor Moran said the email is not an effort to “ascribe blame”.

“But I do believe all of us in the most senior leadership (myself included) have a responsibility and a role to to work out what can be done better and to do more to achieve that for you all.”

He signed off on the email by wishing staff all “a restful long Bank Holiday weekend”.

Limerick City and County Council declined to comment, pointing to the fact the email was internal.

The mayor’s office offered the same rationale for not commenting to Limerick Live.