William Hay steps down from Council

Citing the Party's stance on 'double jobbing' as well as the change in law which permits co-opting members, which had prompted him to consider taking a step back, he said: "For a long time I have been talking about leaving the Council both privately and publicly about it with my own Party locally and to my other colleagues within the Council, so it has been on the cards for some time.The problem was the law has only been changed in the last while to allow co-options onto local government. What happened in the past was that it was difficult to get a co-option as it only took one member of the council to object and you were looking at a by-election.

"I know Parties say they do deals but we saw in a few Councils where deals were done and some renegade councillor put up his hand and object to it. So that allows me now to free up all of that so I know now that we have it built into the Assembly that we have the law change that allows co-options right across the country, so hopefully, the local Party will put the necessary machinery in place now to look at who might replace me," he said.

Pressed as to who he thought might replace him, Mr Hay said: "We are very lucky in the Party locally that we have a very strong associate party in the City. In fact, we have got quite a number of new members over the past six or nine months and we have quite a lot of young people as well.

Cryptically, he added: "I think that we as a Party locally have a number of young people coming through and certainly I think there is an opportunity especially in local government for young people. Local government gives you a very good grounding for the whole area around public representation, and a good grounding for politics in the future. So, no doubt about it, that for the Party locally as to who replaces me, they are spoiled for choice, I would have to say.

"I am going to miss local government. I enjoyed it and I have been a part of local government for almost 30 years, and you really get down to the coal face of representing your constituency as well."

Stressing that his 'first love' was his constituency work, and particularly representing the people who elected him, he said: "I am going to miss the Council, but I have to say that although I am speaker of the NI Assembly, I am the first speaker to still have a constituency to look after, so hopefully I will still very much be on the ground with my constituency work, because I believe that is the key to success - making sure that the people that you represent are getting the service they need to get and I continue to be on the ground even now as an MLA and be in the constituency and be there represeting the people that elected me. That is the key; keeping your ear to the ground and listening to your constituency that you represent and making sure you represent their views rather than your own.”

Paying tribute to his colleagues on Derry City Council Mr Hay said he particularly wanted to say ‘thank you’ to his Party colleagues, and also the Council officers and the Council staff, who had been “a tremendous help” to him.

Referring to the DUP walk out in 1984, he said: “I joined the Council first with Gregory Campbell, and in the early years it was difficult to be a councillor because it was the years of the Troubles in the early 1980s, and it was very difficult. I look back now and can see that local government has changed very much over the years, adn continues to change.

“There were some horrendous moments in the Council chamber. I remember the night Gregory chained himself to the desk over the protest at the name change. That was one of the biggest issues at the Council that I ever saw debated and the name of the City is still ongoing after all this time. I remember some horrendous evenings within Council but I have some fond memories as well,” he said.

As regards what lies ahead, Mr Hay said he planned to stand for the next Assembly elections, and after that he looked forward to 2015, and at the age of 66 contemplated retiring completely.

“I think in any job you need to know when to get out,” he said.