Election tensions at Tipperary Council meeting as dispute erupts over Budget date change

 Tipperary County Council has put a proposal before its elected members to hike up the commercial rates levied on the county’s businesses by 6% next year, it emerged during a dispute between councillors over changing the date of the annual Budget meeting.

General Election tensions simmered at Tipperary County Council’s Special Housing Meeting in Clonmel on Monday when a proposal to move the council’s annual Budget meeting forward a week from Friday, November 29 to the following Friday, December 6 was tabled due to the original date falling on polling day.

The proposal to change the meeting date was listed on the agenda of the meeting convened to consider measures to tackle the housing crisis. Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Declan Burgess informed councillors the suggestion was to move the date to December 6.

His Fine Gael party colleagues Cllr Marie Murphy and Mark Fitzgerald proposed and seconded the date change respectively.

But Carrick-on-Suir Sinn Féin Cllr David Dunne questioned the motive for changing the meeting date.

“You are pulling strokes all your life,” he accused the Fine Gael councillors.

Cllr Murphy took umbrage at this suggestion and called on Cllr Dunne to withdraw his comment.

He duly withdrew his remark but put forward a counter proposal to have the meeting the week before November 29.

Council CEO Sinead Carr responded it wouldn’t be possible for the council to have the Budget meeting a week earlier for practical reasons from the point of view of getting information together. Independent Cllr Máirín McGrath supported Cllr Dunne’s objection to pushing the Budget meeting forward until after the General Election.

“I am quite cynical for it to be moved to a week after the election,” she said.

She argued that polling day on November 29 was the quietest day of the campaign and it only took councillors five minutes to cast their vote.

Cllr Dunne then proposed the Budget meeting remain on November 29 and Cllr McGrath seconded him.

Clonmel Fianna Fáil Cllr Siobhán Ambrose said she wasn’t on any side in this dispute and putting “politics aside”, she wondered what date suited the council staff best for the Budget meeting?

She surmised November 29 was going to be very busy for them preparing for the General Election counts the following day and asked would council staff prefer December 6?

Council meetings administrator Ger Walsh responded that setting the date for the Budget meeting was a matter for the elected council to decide.

The Cathaoirleach Cllr Burgess noted that some of the Council’s elected members were contesting the General Election and contended it was better to hold off until after the election to have a fair Budget meeting.

Cllr Dunne shot back that he predicted this would happen.

“There is a political element to this. The fact is that we have a very important decision to make whether to increase the commercial rate by 6%.”

He said if the date of the Budget meeting was moved to December, then the councillors running for election didn’t have to make the decision until after the poll.

“This is what it’s all about,” he declared and called on the election candidates to declare how they would vote on the commercial rate increase proposal. It was pointed out to Cllr Dunne that councillors hadn’t seen a full draft budget yet.

Cllr Burgess noted a budget workshop for councillors was scheduled for November 22 to go through its recommendations and requested that the “conspiracy theories” should be left outside the door.

The proposal to defer the Budget meeting to December 6 was then put to a vote and was approved by a large majority of 20 votes to 8.

The eight councillors who voted against the December 6 date were: Sinn Féin councillors David Dunne and Annemarie Ryan, Labour Cllr Louise Morgan-Walsh, Cllr Pat English of the Workers & Unemployment Action Group and Independent councillors Máirín McGrath, Liam Browne, Seamus Morris and Jim Ryan.

Pictured below: Cllr David Dunne of Sinn Féin