Councillors vote to have Cllr Frank McBrearty removed from council meeting
Vote follows adjournments and heated exchanges
Donegal county councillors have voted to remove Cllr Frank McBrearty from a council meeting after repeated adjournments of proceedings.
The Independent councillor was ordered to leave the meeting on Monday following a recorded vote.
Following the third adjournment of the meeting, council cathaoirleach Cllr Jack Murray (Sinn Féin) said he was moving a motion to have Cllr McBrearty leave the meeting at the Aura leisure centre in Letterkenny due to him being "continually and persistently disruptive" and disregarding the chair.
The meeting had already been adjourned three times in a short period following heated exchanges involving Cllr McBrearty during a discussion on allegations of corruption within the council made at November's budget meeting.
Councilors voted by 32 votes to one to ask Cllr McBrearty to withdraw from the meeting. Independent councillor Micheál Cholm Mac Giolla Easbuig was the only member to vote against the removal of the Raphoe councillor.
It’s the second time in recent months that Cllr McBrearty has been asked to leave a council meeting.
Cllr McBrearty made it clear before and after the vote that he would not leave the meeting.
“I have broken no criminal law,” he said. “You have no power to put me out of this building - it is a public meeting."
After Cllr McBrearty said he would not leave the meeting, Cllr Murray called a fourth adjournment.