Waterford councillors clash over ‘Trumpian acts’ as accusations fly over Boston trip

A number of Waterford councillors have clashed over the decision to send a delegation to the United States to mark St. Patrick’s Day.

A Waterford City and County Council delegation visited Boston from March 11 to 16, where they engaged with various stakeholders and attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade.

Mayor of Waterford Seamus Ryan, Metropolitan Mayor Adam Wyse and Cllr Joe Kelly were among those who travelled to the United States.

In their absence, a war of words broke out at the March plenary meeting of Waterford City and County Council.

Fine Gael councillor Lola O’Sullivan sparked the discussion after she complained about remarks made by Sinn Féin councillor John Hearne on social media.

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In a post on Facebook, Cllr Hearne claimed that the council would be spending €50,000 on the trip to Boston.

However, Cllr O’Sullivan disputed this claim and accused her fellow councillor of publishing “fake news”.

She stated: “Cllr Hearne posted on social media and he referenced that the council will be spending €50,000 in attending the Boston parade.

“Is this one of Cllr Hearne’s Walter Mitty moments or is he being Trump-like in publishing fake news?

“Has the councillor received this formal information? I think it’s very unfair because the Mayor is not here nor are two of our colleagues to defend themselves.”

She continued by asking if the figure is accurate and asked that Cllr Hearne apologise and take the post down if it is not.

In response to Cllr O’Sullivan, Director of Services Ivan Grimes explained that the costs would be revealed after the trip is completed.

Mr Grimes said: “Just to say that, as has been the case in any foreign travel, the Chief Executive’s intention would be to provide a detailed report to the plenary council after the trip to Boston. That would set out the costs.”

Later in the meeting, Cllr Hearne raised the issue of the cost of foreign travel more generally.

He stated: “I think we should have a review of our foreign travel. Just in the last year, we’ve been to Montana, Germany, Belfast, Holland and Scotland.

“We should have a review of that, just to see if we are getting value for money.”

Cllr Hearne said that whilst he understood why the Mayor and a number of council officials go on trips, he didn’t think additional councillors needed to go with them.

However, he went on to question if they should’ve travelled to the United States, given the ongoing war in Iran.

“I think we should have a review of should we even go to countries where they are butchering 160 young children there in Iran and supporting a child butchering apartheid state like Israel. Should we even set foot in places like that?”

Meanwhile, independent councillor Joe O’Riordan responded to the comments made by Cllr O’Sullivan by accusing Fine Gael of making false statements of their own.

Cllr O’Riordan said: “Just taking into consideration Cllr Hearne’s alleged post, we’re all kind of prone to hyperbolic comments in politics.

“In 2024, Fine Gael and their parties in government claimed there were 60,000 houses built. Sinn Féin claimed it was only 40,000. The CSO made a complaint saying it was 30,000.

“Regarding Trumpian acts, the leader of the Social Democrats, Holly Cairns, accused Fine Gael of ‘Trumpian acts’ when they directed posts against Catherine Connolly.”

Following on from this, Fianna Fáil councillor Jason Murphy accused the Sinn Féin councillors of hypocrisy when it comes to their position on foreign trips.

Cllr Murphy said: “Just in relation to Cllr Hearne’s comments, I think it’s right that we point out the hypocrisy of Sinn Féin in this chamber on this issue.

“For everybody here, all these trips are done by lottery, by open lottery and anyone has the choice to enter that lottery or competition to go.

“Let me assure you that Sinn Féin have been in every lottery to go on every foreign trip.

“If they have principled opposition to this, maybe they should show it and not enter the damn draw to go.”

At this point, a shouting match ensued in which several Sinn Féin councillors argued they didn’t enter the draw to travel to the United States.

This went on for about 20 seconds before the Deputy Mayor, Cllr John Pratt, managed to quell the noise of his colleagues.

In response to the councillors, Mr Grimes reiterated that a report will be issued once the trip to Boston has concluded.

He continued: “I can tell you that there is a full schedule of meetings and appointments over the course of the weekend.

“My experience of foreign trips is that they’re usually for the basis of looking to inform the elected members.

“I think in particular of our trip to Edinburgh in 2024, which was attended by all parties and was very informative of what is going to come down the line in terms of offshore energy.

“That’s the intention of these things is to go out and get experience and learn about other things that we will be experiencing.”

At the end of the meeting, Sinn Féin councillor Pat Fitzgerald said that he had not received notification of the draw to travel to the United States.

A number of Fianna Fáil councillors responded by saying that the details were circulated via WhatsApp and email.

Deputy Mayor Pratt concluded that the correspondence was sent out but it was not seen by Cllr Fitzgerald.