'Blame game': Ken O'Flynn and city councillors clash over controversial cycle lane

A blame game has broken out between local Cork City councillors and Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn over the construction of a controversial new cycle lane in Fair Hill.

While Mr O’Flynn has told constituents that local councillors in the city’s north west ward voted for the Knockpogue Avenue and Knockfree Avenue active travel scheme, the councillors have argued that Mr O’Flynn was present at the council meeting where the project was unanimously approved.

Protests over the removal of trees and parking spaces have been taking place in recent weeks.

The cycle route was approved at a meeting of Cork City Council on April 11, 2023, with the proposal passing without a vote.

Minutes from that meeting show that Mr O’Flynn, who was a councillor at the time, was present.

However, in messages sent on Facebook, Mr O’Flynn said that “all the city counsellors [sic] from the north west voted for it”, naming Fianna Fáil’s John Sheehan and Tony Fitzgerald, Sinn Féin’s Kenneth Collins, Damien Boylan of Fine Gael, and someone he referred to as “McCarthy”.

Brian McCarthy was co-opted to Cork City Council in June 2023 following Fiona Ryan’s resignation.

Several local politicians said privately that Mr O’Flynn was “misleading” constituents by blaming the north west councillors, given that the proposal was passed at a full council meeting where he was present.

Mr O’Flynn denied that he was misleading people, as he acknowledged the decision was passed by a full council meeting.

However, he told the Irish Examiner that when the local councillors in the north-west city region did not raise concerns about the project, he chose to follow their lead and was only made aware of concerns when he became a TD for Cork North Central after the election.

“I'm not misleading people on this, but I think people are trying to cover their own ass,” Mr O’Flynn said.

“I was a councillor for the Cork north central originally, and then Cork north east. I was never a councillor for Cork north west.

“Six councillors for that ward had no objections to it on the night.

“Usually, if I had an objection to something going on in my constituency, in my patch, I'd say, ‘Hold on a second here. I'm not happy with passing this, and I want to speak on this, and this is why we shouldn't pass it’.

“There was no objection from the six ward councillors who had passed it at their own local area committee and said, ‘Yeah, everything is fine. We're happy to go ahead with this’."

Sinn Féin’s councillor in the area, Kenneth Collins, said Mr O’Flynn is his “own man” who “always voted his own way” and that any suggestions that he was convinced by others how to vote are “wrong”.

“I do my homework when the agenda comes before me on the Thursday before any full council meeting,” he added.

Fianna Fáil councillor Tony Fitzgerald said while he understands some people’s upset about the cycle lanes, the €7m scheme involves other measures that are required to improve safety.

“As long as I know Deputy O’Flynn, from a political point of view, he never takes the lead off of anybody,” he said.

“He makes up his own decisions. He didn't consult with me. He did not seek clarity on the proposal. If he had studied it and made an informed decision like we did, that's his job, and that's his role. He has to take responsibility for his actions now, rather than saying ‘Blame [others]’.”