Timekeeping sparks heated exchanges in Cork City Council chamber  

Timekeeping was top of the agenda, with heated exchanges earlier in the meeting regarding speaking time, including one between Lord Mayor Dan Boyle and Independent councillor Paudie Dineen, when he ran over his allocated speaking time on a new bus lane.

The meeting ran for four hours until 9.30pm — though they are scheduled to end at 8pm, almost all meetings run at least an hour over this.

The Green Party’s Oliver Moran compiled analysis of the 2024 motions in the contentious section of the agenda and found that 65 out of 78, or 83%, of these motions last year were directly to do with Cork city.

The most frequent reason for a motion was transport issues in the city (22%), followed by a local authority matter (19%), then issues to do with Uisce Éireann (13%).

Motions

Only four motions were to do with national matters, and nine to do with international, of which six were related to Israel/Palestine.

Fine Gael were responsible for 23% of these motions, Labour 21%, Independents 12%, Green Party 10%, Rabharta (party of former councillor Lorna Bogue) 9%, People Before Profit-Solidarity 8%, Sinn Féin 8%, Workers Party 5%, Fianna Fáil 3%, and Social Democrats 3%.

“Thirty-five minutes was wasted by Fianna Fáil debating whether we had time to agree eight motions that took 27 minutes in total when we finally got to them. And half of those were actually carried over from the previous meeting, when Fianna Fáil obstructed that agenda from being completed,” Mr Moran told The Echo.

“There can be motions that may appear outside of the realm of Cork City Council, but that’s the exception, not the rule.”

A solution had been identified by the party whips ahead of the meeting that for the non-statutory items, there would be less speaking time allocated and only one contribution could be made per group — this was voted down.

The party whips are Terry Shannon for Fianna Fáil, Joe Kavanagh for Fine Gael, Kenneth Collins for Sinn Féin, Mr Moran for the Progressive Alliance (Labour, Greens, and Social Democrats), and Independent Kieran McCarthy for Independents and others.

The latter group is made up of Ted Tynan of the Workers’ Party, Brian McCarthy of People Before Profit-Solidarity, Independent Ireland’s Noel O’Flynn, and Independents Albert Deasy, Paudie Dineen, and Kieran McCarthy.

The group would have wildly different political views, with Mr Tynan saying some members of the group “don’t represent me”, and that he thinks the meeting should take as long as needed.

Strong views

“It’s not a talking shop, we have strong views on things at a local, national and international level because the people we represent do. I believe we’re quite entitled to speak about issues of concern to people,” he said.

Fellow member of the group Noel O’Flynn said he was “totally against” the idea of combined speaking time for his group, explaining: “It appears to me that some of us are of like mind and others are not, it’s not fair to any of us to have to be restricted in that way”.

He also said standing orders should be amended to allow five minutes for the proposer of a motion rather than three, saying he felt the Lord Mayor had been unfair in shutting down councillors including Mr Dineen.

“He must be more flexible with speakers, because he’s not shouting over his own crowd as much as the independents. That’s censoring, and it’s not democracy.”

However, he said it is important that the meetings are made shorter: “In the ’90s we’d be there until 12 without a sandwich or cup of tea. We don’t want to go back.

“The meeting shouldn’t go beyond the 2.5 hours scheduled. We had a half hour debate on extending the meeting, and I told the councillors they could continue on ‘but I’m going away now’ and I did. Lots of these motions at the end have absolutely nothing to do with Cork City Council.”

He proposed screening the motions to see if they are applicable or not, or starting the meeting earlier — noting that almost every other local authority conducts meetings during the day.

Fianna Fáil councillors had criticised the non-statutory items and length of the meetings, but party whip Terry Shannon indicated they would not support one speaker per group, as his group was the largest.

Labour’s Peter Horgan was also not in favour of only one response per group, and said it was important not to stifle debates: “Just because something isn’t necessarily in the remit of council, doesn’t mean you should ignore it — people in our constituencies feel strongly about special needs education or public transport, why shouldn’t we vocalise that feeling in the people’s forum?

“Last night, for all the argy bargy, there were four statutory motions to be debated, and three of those came from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.”

Guillotining debate

Cutting off certain motions would be “guillotining debate”, he said, adding: “I’m not in favour of shutting down meetings at an arbitrary time of 8 o’clock without agendas being finished — we’re big enough to feed and hydrate ourselves, it’s one night a month.”

Mr Horgan said they are planning to get a new audio visual set up including a clock, so members can see how much speaking time they have left, adding that keeping to this would help make meetings shorter.

“I think there needs to be a point of conduct introduced after how certain elected members conducted themselves, if they’re intending to continue shouting down the Lord Mayor or other councillors,” he said.

Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan said: “The non-statutory motions are at the end of the meeting, so I don’t see what the issue is, councillors who don’t want to debate them can leave, and they often do.

“The solution is not to stifle debate because the meeting is going on too late, I’ve no problem staying there because it’s an important part of a councillor’s role to raise issues brought up by constituents.”

He added that a motion of his which saw the Michael Collins statue erected in Grand Parade was an example of a motion classed as non-statutory, along with other councillor’s motions which saw the CEO of the National Transport Authority and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris visit the council to answer questions on transport and policing in the city.

“I think it’s bizarre, councilors voting to stifle their own debate is like a bunch of turkeys voting for Christmas.

“It’s absolutely nonsensical, the meeting ended at 9.30 after two sets of non statutory items — were it not for the debate started by people wanting to cut them, the meeting would have finished at ten to nine.”

IN BRIEF

Fireman's hut costs

A Cork City councillor has been told that work on information panels for the Fireman’s Hut, the restoration of which cost €361,446.38, is still ongoing.

Sinn Féin councillor Kenneth Collins was told by chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan: “The project was subject to a competitive tendering process and therefore prices are reflective of the market prices for such skills and experience. The refurbishment of the Fireman’s Hut necessitated a standard of conservation craftmanship that most general construction contractors do not possess. Procurement requirements were followed throughout. The refurbishment is now complete and it will be opened up to the public during scheduled events.”

“The interpretation of the history of the building, including its history as a fire-fighting asset and later as a base for city bus services, will form an important element of the project and discussions have already taken place with stakeholders. At this stage, this is a work in progress and there is no design or format for the content or its final interpretation.”

Foreign travel costs 

Cork City Council spent €244,215.37 on foreign travel in 2024, chief executive Valerie O’Sullivan has revealed.

The figures were provided in response to a question from Independent councillor for the south west ward Albert Deasy, who asked the total sum spent by Cork City Council on all foreign travel in 2024, in particular the cost of the Lord Mayor-led delegation to Shanghai, China, in November 2024.

The total sum expended by Cork City Council for the Shanghai trip, including transport, accommodation, and subsistence, was €25,870.02 — while a further €218,345.35 was spent on other foreign travel during the year.

Ministers invited to council

A motion by Labour Party councillor Peter Horgan inviting three new government ministers to attend a Cork City Council meeting was passed, after a lengthy debate.

The motion “that this council will seek to invite the ministers for transport Darragh O’Brien, justice Jim O’Callaghan, and housing James Browne for engagement on Cork City specific issues in the areas of public transport, infrastructural investment, garda support, and housing provision amongst other areas as a matter of urgency”, was criticized by several councillors.

Some 15 councillors voted in favour, three abstained and nine voted against, including all the Fianna Fáil councillors and Independents Albert Deasy, Noel O’Flynn and Paudie Dineen, meaning the council will now write to the three TDs and invite them to the council.

Call for legal aid fee bump

Cork City Council is to write to the public expenditure minister Jack Chambers and the justice minister Jim O’Callaghan following a motion by Fine Gael’s Shane O’Callaghan.

The council will call on them to increase the legal aid fees payable to solicitors on the District Court Family Law Solicitors Panel so as to ensure that more solicitors are able to do family law legal aid work.

This aims to clear a backlog in family law applications in the district court in areas such as applications for domestic violence orders, disputes regarding custody, and access to children and maintenance applications.