THE Greens in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have suffered another blow, as Ciarán Fallon has become the third of the party's councillors in a year to resign his seat on the local authority.

Fallon, who tendered his resignation last Friday, is also the latest in a succession of councillors in the Dublin area to commit himself to a full-time job at the expense of his council seat.

During his time as a councillor, Fallon studied for a PhD in sociology at Trinity College, Dublin, but he has now decided to take up a position as an engineer with Dublin City Council, working on a project to promote cycling in the city.

"Being a councillor is a tough part-time job and I wouldn't be inclined to do another term of it. I was working full-time as an engineer before and I now need to go back into full-time employment," he told the Sunday Tribune.

"If you look at the chamber in Dún Laoghaire, the vast majority of people are not working in nine-to-five jobs and I don't really see how you could."

In August, Nessa Childers, the daughter of former president Erskine Childers, resigned her Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown seat, citing the pressures of balancing her full-time job as a psychoanalyst with her council duties.

But then last month, she decided to accept an invitation from Labour leader Eamon Gilmore to join the party. She was recently chosen at a selection convention to contest next year's European parliament elections in the Ireland East constituency for Labour.

In December last year, former Green Party councillor, Kealin Ireland, also resigned her seat on Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

Tom Kivlehan is now the only sitting Green Party councillor who was elected to the council in 2004.