MAYOR John Moran was strongly criticised by councillors for flying to New York last week to promote Limerick without a representative from their ranks in attendance.
At this week’s full monthly meeting of Limerick City and County Council, Fianna Fáil councillor Kieran O’Hanlon expressed his dismay that Council Príomh Chomhairleoir, Cllr Catherine Slattery (FF), did not receive an invite for the Stateside trip.
Cllr O’Hanlon pointed out to Mayor Moran that, previously, Council members would be represented on events of this nature, at home or abroad.
The Mayor and members of the Council executive visited the US last week to unveil a new-look Invest in Limerick promotional video at a high-profile launch event in New York City, marking a major milestone in its international investment strategy.
The event, hosted by Mayor Moran, in collaboration with the Irish Centre and attended by business leaders, diaspora investors, and public officials, showcased Limerick’s dynamic economic offering, its ‘Atlantic edge and European embrace’.
However, back home, local councillors did not appreciate being left off the ticket at the event, which formed part of a wider itinerary for the Limerick delegation in New York, including a meeting with the executive director of the Irish Centre, George Heslin, a ‘Friends of Limerick’ networking lunch, a meeting with the New York State Comptroller, Tom Dinapoli, and attendance at a Munster Rugby fundraising dinner.
“We’re told here that it’s a kind of three-legged stool we operate with the Mayor’s office, the officials office, and the councillors,” Cllr O’Hanlon told the meeting. “That’s why it is a bit bockety around here.”
He said that “it’s always been my experience that the Council has always been represented at events of this nature and I do think that it is quite important that we’re not allowing a precedent to be set where two of the three legs go off and promote Limerick” while the other is left out.
He demanded “assurances that this will never happen again”.
Mayor Moran responded to Cllr O’Hanlon’s remarks, saying that “the Mayor gets invited to a lot of things all the time, and, as an executive head of the organisation, it is the case that members of the executive travel all the time to do business, both in Ireland and across the world, and don’t necessarily always travel with councillors.”
“In other words, you will do as you wish, and you will ignore the Council,” Cllr O’Hanlon fired back.
The Mayor said that he has “no problem with councillors coming anytime you want to come to participate in the work of selling Limerick”.
“The reality is, the Mayor is an executive mayor who will have lots of things to do when I travel. I’m not just in a representative capacity. I’m actually a member of the executive of the organisation and, therefore, if you wished to call me last week, I invited you to come to my meeting room if you wanted things for the mayoral fund and you said you didn’t even want to come and meet me,” Mayor Moran pointed out.
“And that remains the case,” retorted Cllr O’Hanlon.
Council Príomh Chomhairleoir, Cllr Catherine Slattery, returned that none of the councillors are “mind readers” and couldn’t express an interest to go on the New York trip if they didn’t know there was an invite.
“I totally support what Cllr O’Hanlon has said. I feel sitting in this chair as Príomh Chomhairleoir, I’m being totally overlooked, and I don’t think that’s very fair,” Cllr Slattery told the Mayor.
Fine Gael councillor John Sheahan took the view that excluding councillors showed a dim reflection on the mayoral office and the Council executive. He called for greater discussion on the matter to resolve the issue.
Council Director General, Dr Pat Daly, agreed on the need to look at how the local authority travels in future as an organisation.
“I think the points made are fair. There was certainly no disrespect meant,” Dr Daly concluded.
