IT HAS been almost a year since Alison McCullagh took over as Chief Executive of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.

Ms. McCullagh took over from Brendan Hegarty in February, and it has been an eventful time in office since then.

Brexit was very much at the forefront of Council plans before Covid-19 took over, completely changing the way society has functioned this year.

Dealing with Covid-19’s impact is not a position that she was expecting to be in, but Ms. McCullagh and the Council alike are working towards a more stable future.

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter, Ms. McCullagh believes that recovery from the coronavirus pandemic could take up to two years, but the Council are actively looking at ways of helping the people of the district in this recovery.

She said: “I hope we get to a point where everything isn’t seen through a Covid-related filter.

‘Renewal’

“There is a lot of talk quite rightly around recovery and renewal, but I think we do have to plan for probably the next 18-24 months [before Covid-19’s impact has fully passed].

“What we have done in the Council is to look at our corporate plan, fitting that back into recovery, and how we can actively support the town centres, businesses, communities and the tourism sector to try and get us back.

“[Post Covid, we will all] probably do things in a totally different way, and I think that will mean reshaping the role of the Council in the future.

“I think it would be good to get to a point of stability where life is a little bit more predictable, month on month, where we are, as opposed to the genuine, unforeseen [Covid] circumstances that we’ve had,” she added.

Looking at the current pandemic from a Council perspective, Ms. McCullagh said the extent of the pandemic was not initially fully appreciated, but she praised Council staff for the way they have adapted to the new situations which arose throughout the year.

She said: “I suppose my learning from that would be how completely adaptable people, my own colleagues, within the Council were.

“We had people we needed to redeploy very quickly to meet other service needs.

“Where maybe sometimes we are criticised with moving much too slowly in our decision-making, we were able to because we had to have people working in a much more agile way, away from the office.

“I think, notwithstanding the significance of the change and impact [of Covid], the positive was that people responded very quickly.

“I think it will certainly be three to six months before we have anything like normal business again.

“I think the ideas of lots of people together will probably not happen for some time, and will be based much more around coming in as you need to, getting your files, and working in a more remote way.

“Maybe that change has been needed for government [workings] generally, both local and central, and maybe it makes us that bit more responsive,” she mused.

The Chief Executive believes that while the Council is not necessarily the best-placed to do everything, it is a good place to start to bring the right people together to get things done.

And, looking towards 2021 and beyond, she hopes those partnerships can be renewed and strengthened.

Developments projects for the likes of the Lakeland Forum and the Ardhowen, a £250m growth deal with Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council and Mid Ulster Council as well as the impacts of Project Stratum, mean there is lots for the Council to sink its teeth into.

Ms. McCullagh admits that developments in the Council area will take time. However, she is optimistic for the future.

“It will take a couple of years at least to get the right suite of powers to [be more fully involved with local developments].

“There is always an ongoing role to build the relationship with central Government, that it sees Fermanagh and Omagh District Council as a place of importance in its plans as well.

“I think we are making progress, and I must say – we have a lot of strong, cross-party political support to allow that to happen – but it will be an iterative process to get to that stage.

“I think there is a lot of optimism for the future, and a lot of promise, but we will have to work to achieve it,” added the Chief Executive.