Alderman Niree McMorris 

Mayor, officers, Aldermen, councillors, family and friends 

Firstly can I congratulate the incoming mayor Councillor McHugh on his becoming Mayor and 1st citizen of our city and district. The role of mayor is a position of honour and public service and I am sure he will carry out this role with dignity and pride. 

I want to thank my colleagues who nominated myself for the role of Deputy Mayor and for  putting their trust in me to carry out this role for the incoming year. 

I pledge to represent everyone from our city and district and I will support our Mayor to carry out all civic duties, both fairly and compassionately. This role is an honour and privilege and I am delighted to be able to serve the good people of both Londonderry and Strabane district. 

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all my colleagues from the DUP, both past and present, who have guided and supported myself through my journey into politics.   I especially want to put on record my thanks to Gary Middleton MLA who has been a constant support from the beginning and who entrusted myself to manage his constituency office and to have the self belief and determination to represent the electorate of the Waterside. 

I am delighted to have my mum, my son Kyle and family members here to witness this proud occasion and I thank you all for your continued support.   

Whilst this is happy occasion, it would be remiss of myself not to mention the disappointment that in this electoral term there will be no unionist mayor.  I recognise that the dehont system is the fairest way to allocate this role but as Alderman Guy rightly said last year, there was always an agreed accommodation, so that the role was representative and inclusive of the unionist community. 

Lastly, I would like to thank the public without whom I would not have had the opportunity to represent and serve them within this Council. Being Deputy Mayor is a great honour and privilege and I thank everyone for this opportunity.