He takes over the reins from Colr Rena Donaghey, who formally stepped down at Tuesday's meeting in Carndonagh.

The new chairman says his main priority, without question, is finding jobs for local people.

Colr McGuinness told the 'Journal' yesterday: "Employment creation is the biggest challenge for us now. We have a very talented workforce, who are prepared to get up and work hard, but times are tough. We can't depend on one main industry, as has happened in the past. We need to look at every type of employment industry and work hard to ensure that jobs are created right across a number of sectors here."The Culdaff-based councillor, who has twenty-nine years' experience in local government, is also determined to improve the situation here with regard to health care.

"I was a member of the North West Regional Health Board and I am a member, albeit a very unhappy member, of the new Health Forum. I believe very firmly that we should go back to the old system of regional boards as the new set-up does not work at all. To have one authority covering from Tipperary to Malin Head is just not on. It's too big and unwieldy, and has no real power. The Forum is only a talking shop as far as I'm concerned."

Colr McGuinness was the first local councillor to speak out against the proposed reduction of services at Malin Head Coast Guard station. "I'm having a hard time putting up with the amount of hollow words I've heard spoken about the station, at the same time as the Minister is in the process of accepting tenders for another location. I've another meeting about it next week, and will keep the pressure on.

A consistent defender of local residents wishing to build new homes, Colr McGuinness plans to keep on tackling that issue head on. "We've been fighting for a review of the County Development Plan for some time, and I believe changes are due. When it comes to building houses in Donegal, it seems that developers have had the advantage over local people. I believe this is a reversal of priorities. Local people in Donegal should get priority I make no apology for saying that. As elected officials with the responsibility to looking after the people we represent, it's our intepretation of the Plan which could be taken into account, not that of officials."

Another key area he will address is bureacracy. "There's just too much red tape. We're going into a recession and I've seen this before. This recession is going to hit even harder because it's happened so quickly. It's going to have a very serious effect on local government, especially local government funding.

"The amount of money coming down from central government is likely to be curtailed and so hard decisions are going to have to be made. The endless red tape just makes it all even more difficult, and something has to be done about this."

The new chairman paid tribute to the skills and tenacity of our local council staff.