Dermot Lacey - Political Career

Political Career

Lacey has been a member of Dublin City Council since 1993 - first representing the South East Inner City area and, since the 1999 Local Elections, the Pembroke area. He topped the poll in the 2004 Local Elections. He first joined the Labour Party in 1977 and has served as a Branch Officer and Constituency Officer for much of that time.

Formerly a member of the National Youth Committee of Labour Youth he was employed as the National Youth Development Officer for a period of ten years. He was Dublin South–East Director of Elections for various referendums and for Ruairi Quinn's Dáil campaign in the 2002 general election.

On the City Council, Lacey has been: Chairperson of the South East Area Committee, the Enterprise and Employment Committee and the Strategic Policy Committee on Arts, Culture Leisure and Youth. He also served as Cathaoirleach of the Dublin Regional Authority.

From July 2002 until July 2003, he served as Lord Mayor of Dublin. In the most controversial period of his officeholding, he cast the deciding vote at City Council to pass the 2003 budget, which included increases to domestic waste charges. This came after several meetings had failed to pass any budget, and the Minister for the Environment & Local Government had threatened to disband the City Council. After the vote, Lacey was expelled from the Labour Party Group on Dublin City Council, and spent the remainder of his term until the 2004 Local Elections as an Independent Councillor. However, he remained a member of the Labour Party, and, when his term as Lord Mayor expired, returned to his previous job as a member of Labour Party staff.

He contested the 2004 Local Elections as a Labour Party candidate in the Pembroke area, topping the poll on the first count, and rejoined the Labour Party Group on the City Council at its first meeting following that election.He was re-elected along with two other Labour Councillors for the Pembroke Rathmines ward in 2009.

In 2011 he published "A Fair City - One Dublin Many Dubliners" which outlined a governance model for Dublin.

In April 2012 he was elected Leader of the Labour Group on Dublin City Council and in September he was elected Cathaoirleach of the Southern and Eastern Regional Assembly.