Call to review standing orders after council’s 'unbecoming of politics' municipal district spat

Fianna Fail Councillor John Hogan has called for a review of Standing Order for the Templemore Thurles District stating that the tension which was evident at the previous meeting was not conducive to the good workings of the council.

The previous meeting had ended in controversy and acrimony with a Notice of Motion on parking in Thurles being proposed and adopted against the advice of management that it could not be applied.

Sinn Féin Cllr David Doran responded to Cllr Hogan's remarks and said that he has been submitting Notices of Motion for fifteen years as a public representative and they all go through the same process. Some are returned as being unsuitable and some are allowed to go forward. The Notice of Motion in question was allowed forward and was dealt with in good faith, he said.

“I acknowledge that there was acrimony and the meeting descended into something I did not like. There were jousts thrown and remarks which were unbecoming of politics,” he said. However, he insisted that his motion was valid, had gone through the proper channels, and took grave offence to the suggestion that he was misleading the people in relation to parking charges in Thurles, as had been suggested on local radio.

Cllr Jim Ryan agreed that a review of Standing Orders was necessary. Such a move had been undertaken at town council level previously and it worked very well, he said, but he pointed out that no rule had been broken.

Cllr Seamus Hanafin said that he believed the particular Notice of Motion in question should not have been taken as they had been informed that it could not be implemented. He added that a review of Standing Orders had already taken place in 2015, but agreed that an exercise in familiarisation would do no harm at all for all members.