Cllr Frank McBrearty suspended from council after day of disruption
Meeting adjourned after cathaoirleach takes series of actions against councillor
Independent county councillor Frank McBrearty has been suspended from attending council meetings for a month by fellow councillors after a day of disruption in the council chamber.
Business at the January meeting of Donegal Council Council ground to a halt amid heated exchanges as the cathaoirleach took action at what he described as “continuously disruptive behaviour” by Cllr Frank McBrearty.
The meeting saw six adjournments as councillors voted to have the Independent councillor removed. Councillors 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.
The meeting remained in a state of almost permanent adjournment as the cathaoirleach, Cllr Jack Murray, took a series of steps under standing orders after Cllr McBrearty refused to leave the meeting.
Councillors voted to reduce Cllr McBrearty’s expenses and remuneration by 10% for a period of 12 months after he refused to leave the meeting.
At this point Cllr McBrearty said he would “cause a constitutional crisis that country will never forget”.
Cllr Murray pleaded with Cllr McBrearty to adhere to the resolution taken by the council and withdraw from the meeting.
The Sinn Féin councillor said the next process would be to suspend Cllr McBrearty from all council meetings for a period of at least one month.
He said it was “an extremely serious situation” adding that he did not want to take further action.
“The last thing I want to do is be in this situation,” Cllr Murray said.
Members voted to have the councillor suspended from all council meetings for a month after he again refused to leave.
The meeting was eventually adjourned shortly after 3pm until next Monday.
The vote to have the councillor removed came after 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.