By Claire Corrigan
“Due to Covid, it was quite a different experience in many ways for new councillors in this term rather than people who previously were elected. When it came to engagement with people and the Council, it was so curtailed,” Aoife Davitt said as she prepared to hand over the chain of office as Mullingar mayor – the first woman to fill that role in the district.
Mayor Davitt said there was “huge excitement” and it was an honour when she was given the 12-month term a year ago, but she faced huge challenges due to Covid and the ongoing impact of that.
“There were so many other intricacies at play during that year, the complexity of meeting people. I would be someone who likes to go out and meet people and talk to them and it’s a lot easier face-to-face but with those complications, it really did take away from a lot of those things.
“There was huge uncertainty about budgets and money too as there was a huge loss of income from different streams from the council so we obviously were trying our best to ensure that we provide all the services possible,” she said.
