Councillor unhappy with the pace of investigations into corruption allegations

Donegal County Council is to seek legal advice on what action it can take to deal with corruption allegations made by one of its members.

The issue was raised by Buncrana councillor, Nicholas Crossan at Monday's council meeting during the adoption of minutes from a special council meeting held on July 11 to do with an external review of the purchase of five houses at An Crannla, Buncrana.

The review found the council’s files on the purchase had “not identified any documentary evidence of corruption, systemic corruption or corrupt behaviour”.

At the July meeting, Cllr Crossan had called on councillors who had made allegations of corruption to withdraw their remarks.

At Monday's meeting, he once again called for the allegations made against councillors and council staff members to be withdrawn saying he did not believe the matter had been fully dealt with.

“I'm certainly not happy and we need clarification on where we are at. We have been accused of being corrupt and I certainly do not want that attached to my name. I don't know about the rest of the councillors but I feel very, very strongly about this,” he said

Cllr Ian McGarvey said he wanted to support Cllr Crossan adding he would not like to think there was corruption anywhere and that they needed the respect of the public who elected them.

Cllr Michael McClafferty said an apology was asked for and refused so he was now calling on the council's executive to investigate the matter fully and take action.

“It's gone past the time when action should have been taken. You can't have elected members throwing all kinds of accusations then hiding behind the cover of Facebook, you can't have that.”

Cllr Niamh Kennedy said she also wanted to know if any apology has been given.

“We can't have this cloud hanging over us at every meeting, we expect to get our names cleared, we can't carry on like this.

“This is an allegation not just against the members but the staff and I think something really needs to be done about it.”

Cllr Martin Farren also urged the matter be cleared up. He added the accusation impacted the Inishowen councillors, senior management and staff who “had done absolutely nothing wrong”.

Chief executive John McLaughlin said he believed what they were talking about were comments made by Cllr Michael Choilm Mac Giolla Easbuig.

He explained the matter they were referring to came up at Budget day last November. He confirmed the council did write to the councillor in question before Christmas and gave him a deadline of the end of January to respond or provide supporting information.

“There has been no reply to date. I think what you are asking now is a follow-up.”

Cllr Crossan said an initial deadline of the end of January had been given and now it was the end of September, nine months later and nothing had been done.

“Is this going to go on and on indefinitely? I don't feel comfortable sitting in here. Is there any legal route that can be taken? What can we do to help the executive to speed this on? I don't want to be sitting here in another few months and nothing happening.”

He called on the chief executive to give him what he called “the next piece of the roadmap”.

Mr McLaughlin responded by suggesting they write to Cllr Mac Giolla Easbuig again giving him a shorter deadline of two or three weeks to respond and take legal advice on what to do if not replied to.

“Given it involves an elected member, there is a particular process in the Local Government act that involves yourselves. I suggest you can do that without knowing the advice and what's possible and what's not possible," he said.

Cllr Crossan proposed that the legal advice be sent to all councillors informing them of what was happening. This was seconded by Cllr McClafferty.

This was unanimously agreed.