SOCIAL Democrats councillor Shane Hickey-O’Mara expressed his frustration with Limerick City and County Council when it comes to putting his neck on the line to seek answers on issues locally.
The first-time councillor confessed at the December meeting of the Metropolitan District of the Council that he has difficulty with questions submitted by councillors on the agenda being taken as read. He hit out that there is no time given to Council members to discuss the matters within the questions and the subsequent replies from the local authority.
“It’s just, I’m not here very long, but asking questions and having them be not answered at all, be half answered, getting phone calls asking for them to be withdrawn. It’s been incredibly disappointing,” Cllr Hickey-O’Mara told the Council executive.
The City North representative went on to say that he gets a sense that there’s a lot of people working in Limerick City and County who are “terrified”.
“They’re terrified of giving any information and it makes me really worried about what sort of culture we’re breeding here, because people are afraid to give any information away. I just really want to comment on that. It’s constantly disappointing,” Cllr Hickey-O’Mara added.