AN old Limerick Council tradition of goodwill at Christmas has been hampered by bureaucracy.
Questions were asked of a kindhearted custom of yore and funding to replace the Mayor’s Coal scheme.
At November’s meeting of the Metropolitan District, Fine Gael councillor Sarah Kiely wanted to know what organisations benefitted last year and were plans in train for a similar scheme this year.
In response, Mayor John Moran said that he replied to a similar question last year and his position hasn’t changed.
“The Mayor’s Christmas coal tradition, once a gesture of goodwill, involved distributing a bag of coal to the needy in Limerick City. This was an unadvertised gesture, offering assistance to the very needy of Limerick City,” Mayor Moran explained.
He informed Cllr Kiely that, over time, due to environmental concerns, this tradition was adapted, and the coal was replaced by a food hamper, but the scheme remained unadvertised.
Funds to purchase the coal, and more recently hampers, sourced at the Milk Market, came mostly from donations by the business community in the city, the Mayor explained.
“Currently, funds allocated by the exchequer to the directly-elected Mayor are subject to strict public sector spending rules. These rules prohibit implementing such a scheme without a fair and transparent process, as this would risk creating a perception of patronage, given that the Mayor is directly elected and the beneficiaries, who are also voters, might appear to receive benefits solely through the Mayor’s arbitrary discretion,” he told Cllr Kiely.
“Furthermore, it would be deemed inappropriate for a directly-elected Mayor to solicit donations from the business community to fund the distribution of hampers to a group of people selected based on unadvertised criteria, while excluding those residing in the county.”
Limerick’s first citizen said he recognised the value of tradition and would be happy to lend non-financial support to an initiative to continue the tradition in some more appropriate form.
“Perhaps led by the Priomh Chomhairleoir, or the chair of the Metropolitan District, or any group of councillors. If so, I would suggest that the councillors wishing to maintain the tradition come up with rigorous and fair criteria for choosing the recipients and funding the scheme,” he told the chamber.
– Local Democracy Reporting Scheme