AT the close of a second fractious meeting with councillors to discuss his future plans for Limerick, Mayor John Moran raised serious concerns about some of the tones and accusations that fly around the hallowed Council chamber.
At last Friday’s meeting on the draft mayoral vision for the next five years, which had previously been adjourned from August, one councillor walked out of the meeting after accusing the Mayor Moran of playing politics while many others came down hard on the first citizen.
Before bringing the meeting to a close, the country’s first directly-elected mayor spoke out on some of the behaviour he has witnessed in the chamber over the last four months.
“What I see or hear when I’m sitting in this chair is a lack of respect for the other people in this room,” he told the Chamber.
“Particularly officials who have put in hours and hours of work into doing what they and others believe is the right thing for Limerick.”
Before the chamber, Mayor Moran called on councillors and Council officials to “spend the next five years trying an appropriate level of respect to each other”, suggesting that he would do the same himself.
“Let us not be shouting at each other in this chamber. The people that were being criticised by some people here today are no longer even up here,” he added.
Mayor Moran said that he believes it is possible for Council members to have a conversation around strategic issues for the benefit of Limerick.
“We all share, I think, a common desire to get what’s best for Limerick. Sometimes we’ll be restricted by our party allegiances. Sometimes we’ll be restricted by our electoral mandates. But above all, let’s just start showing a bit more respect and not shouting at each other,” he told the meeting.
“Let’s just pause and think about what the people of Limerick might be thinking as they’re looking onto this chamber.”
