Green Party Councillor Laura Swift has resigned from Waterford City and County Council with immediate effect.
She was co-opted onto the local authority in February of this year, taking the seat of Marc Ó Cathasaigh who was elected to the Dáil.
Laura Swift told WLR News that she recently discovered her work in the Family Mediation Service means she can't work as a local representative.
She says she's very disappointed: "This is essentially a technicality. I took up the position in good faith but I didn't realise that my work as a mediator, which I do two days a week, has meant that I couldn't also work as a councillor. I wasn't aware of that at the time and nobody else seemed to be aware of it either. It was just maybe two weeks ago, somebody said to me there may be a difficulty with that, and when I researched it through Human Resources they came back to me and said actually my job as a mediator eliminates me from acting as a councillor. It's very disappointing but it's probably better that it happened sooner rather than later. I think the Green Party will have a very good candidate as soon as they can."
Waterford Council say the vacancy of Laura Swift on the local authority will be dealt with at a plenary meeting once it's notified of a replacement by the Green Party.
In a statement, Waterford Greens say they thank Laura "most sincerely for her dedicated service and we share her disappointment that she is not able to continue in her role."
They say they will move "promptly" to fill her vacancy to "ensure continuity of our strong Green presence at the Council", and they have requested Head Office to appoint a Returning Officer to oversee all elements of the selection process.
