This article is from page 2 of the 2008-12-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE mayor of Shannon has been ac- cused of being “malicious, vindictive and politically motivated’, by fail- ing to inform his fellow councillors about a letter from the Standards in Public Office regarding a complaint on a possible breach of ethics.
The accusation was levelled at Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) by Cllr Patricia McCarthy (Ind). The complaint was made by the Wolfe Tones camogie club, after the Shannon Leisure Cen- tre – of which Cllr McCarthy is a member of the board – was allocated €50,000 in funding from the town ott ene
After it was found that she had no case to answer, she responded to the entire investigation at a meeting of the council last week.
She said that the mayor, Cllr Flynn, received a letter from the Standards in Public Office as Méara Baile, but didn’t bring its contents to the atten- tion of the town council.
“Whatever you did, you did for your own personal motivation and further your own ends,” she said to Owe aha
She said she had remained quiet for 10 months and had faith in the proc- ess, even though it was difficult to do So at times, but others did not abide by the same standards.
“Much of what was said over the past 10 months was inaccurate and went unchallenged by me,” she add- ed.
“IT have never sought or obtained any financial reward from any com- munity,’ she said.
Cllr McCarthy said she did not seek to influence the town manger, town clerk, the then mayor or any mem- ber of the town council in respect of a letter from the chairperson of the leisure centre last February.
She said that neither she nor any member of the leisure centre had any prior discussion with the town man- ager or any official of the council relating to the provision of a skate-
board park in the town, as part of a refurbishment of the leisure centre.
Cllr McCarthy said she did have a casual conversation with the town clerk Tomas MacCormaic about the project as she knew it was an objec- tive of the council to provide the fa- UIA
After her words, Cllr Tony Mulc- ahy (FG) then asked Cllr Flynn why he hadn’t informed the town council about the letter. Cllr Flynn pointed out that he did not initiate the com- plaint.
“I didn’t have communication with the Standards in Public Office previ- ously. I did what I thought was right,” he said.