The election of Cllr Michael Ahern (Lab) as the new Lord Mayor of Cork, under a tripartite agreement between the main parties, triggered criticism of the remuneration the post carries last night.
The 64-year-old lecturer at Cork Institute of Technology, lives in the southside suburb of Bishopstown and is a former chairman of the Cork Corporation arts committee.
Cllr Mick Barry, of the Socialist Party, described the salary of €82,000 a year being paid to Cork's new Lord Mayor as "obscene". The Dublin Lord Mayor is paid €63,000 a year.
By contrast Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's salary is just €50,000 a year, he claimed.
Cllr Barry said it was "scandalous" that the Lord Mayor of Cork was being paid more for a ceremonial position than some European prime ministers.
The office of Lord Mayor of Cork rotates between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour under the mayoral pact. The three parties have a majority on Cork City Council.
In Limerick, an internal Labour Party row did not disrupt the expected election of Labour's Joe Leddin as 810th mayor of the city.
Fine Gael honoured its pact with Labour and Cllr Leddin, who was the only candidate nominated, was returned unopposed.
However, Cllr Leddin (36), who was the Labour Party's official candidate for the mayoralty, had to count on Fine Gael councillors to nominate and second him for the position.
It is believed that Cllr Leddin may not have been able to count on the support of all his Labour party colleagues following an internal party row.
In Sligo, Fianna Fáil's Tom MacSharry, a nephew of former EU commissioner Ray MacSharry, was elected the new mayor.
The 32-year-old solicitor was elected yesterday following the survival of the Fianna Fáil/Labour pact on Sligo Borough Council.
He secured seven votes while his challengers, Sinn Féin's Chris MacManus and Fine Gael's David Cawley, secured three and two votes respectively.
In Waterford, Independent City Councillor Laurence (Cha) O'Neill was elected mayor at the local authority's annual general meeting.
Cllr O'Neill, of Shannon Drive, Avondale, was elected to the council in 1999 and represents the electoral Ward 3 area of the city.
He was elected by nine votes from the Fine Gael-Labour-Independent pact, which has been in place on the council for the past seven years.
Fine Gael Cllr Mary Greene, was elected Chairperson of Waterford County Council at the weekend.
She too was elected with the aid of the Labour councillors on the council.
A UCD commerce graduate, Cllr Greene works as a home school community liaison teacher at Scoil Mhuire, Greenhill, Carrick-on-Suir.
In the west, the new mayor of Tuam, Fine Gael's Cllr Sally Ann Flanagan, who got the chain of office last night, said that as far as she was aware she was the youngest Mayor in Ireland.
The 22-year-old, who works in the administration department of the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, was elected to Tuam Town Council on the first count at the last local government elections.
Tuam, which claims to be the smallest city in the world, selects its mayors on the basis of those who get the highest votes at each local government election, making it one of the few areas which "directly" elects its mayors.