Joan Martin, the now former Chief Executive of Louth County Council, bid farewell to friends and colleagues last Saturday marking the end of a 47-year career in local authority.
The Dundalk native joined the local council in 1977 and for the last ten years she has led the local authority having taken up the role of Chief Executive full time in 2014 following a spell as acting manager, replacing Philomena Poole who left after a few months in the job.
The second half of her tenure has been particulary testing with Louth County Council having to negotiate massive changes during COVID as well as the placement of a number of refugees following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to the Dundalk Leader a couple of days before she left office, Joan said the one word she would use to describe her decade in charge of Louth County Council would be ‘satisfaction’.
“When you look back on your career, obviously there are more things you might wish you would have liked to do but I leave my role satisfied I ticked every box that needed to be ticked.
“I think I delivered a lot of what was needed to be done at a time of huge change in Louth County Councils with the abolition of town councils and restructuring of the organisation and most importantly I feel I am leaving with a clear conscience. Every single decision I ever made was with the interests of County Louth at heart.
“I have been with Louth County Council for almost half a century having started in 1977. I headed many sections of the council down through the years and felt I was ready to take on the Chief Executive role when it came up in 2014. I had already some experience in the role having been acting manager for a while when Philomena Poole left.
“The counties finances were not in good shape given we had just been through a recession but I knew that these things go in cycles and if there was no challenge in the job I wouldn’t have been interested in it. Thankfully I had a great team of directors, staff and councillors to help turn things around and help push through budgets. There are about 780 staff in Louth County Council and they are all fantastic at what they do.
“When I took up the role as Chief Executive our rates collection stats where amongst the lowest in the country but thankfully that has improved in recent years. I think rate payers can easily see the amount of work being put in to help make our town centre more attractive for shoppers and they are more willing to pay to help improve the town. Martin McElligot and his team at BIDS have done brilliant work with the murals and paint restoration jobs on our old town centre buildings and I think Dundalk Town Centre is looking fabulous these days,” stated Joan.
Perhaps the biggest challenge during Joan’s tenure was the COVID pandemic which saw Louth County Council having to realign their whole structures and put in place processes which allowed staff to work from home.
“We could see that a lockdown was imminent and as soon as we saw that coming we knew we had to act fast. We provide 1200 services in Louth County Council and we had to look at what was absolutely vital and couldn’t be lost and we managed to pare it down to about a dozen services which we keep going throughout COVID.
“We provided staff with laptops and despite the challenges we were able to get through it. Now we are back and most staff are working a hybrid model now which means they can work from home a couple of days a week.
“Louth is a great County and we have great inter-agency co-operation. I think we are very good at solving problems and that has been seen clearly over the last year with our response to the refugee crisis.
“We have done our very best to help house these people who are coming from a war torn country. I am aware that some people are objecting to refugees being brought into County Louth and I would say they are fully entitled to their opinion. I don’t have a problem with them. But at the end of the day we are public servants and we are giving direction by our government and we carry those directions out as given.
“Unfortunately, people tend to be at their noisiest on social media and it can be a place where public servants are harassed and insulted. Social Media has a lot of positives to offer but unfortunately there is this ugly side to it as well which needs to be policed more I think,” stated Joan.
A keen sports fan and a longtime member of various choirs, Joan says she will have plenty to keep her occupied during retirement.
“Luckily I have plenty of hobbies and now I will have finally a bit of time to engage in them and enjoy them more. I love music and have been in choirs most of my life. During COVID I actually joined an online choir which I am still a part of and I also love reading and knitting and computer games. I’ve had a wonderful time in Louth County Council but now it’s time to pass on the baton.
“To my successor I would tell them that they are very fortunate to work in Louth County Council with a fantastic team and that this is a county of great opportunity. There will be tough days but do try and enjoy the experience. I know I have,” concluded Joan.
