Meaney denies involvement in pre-arranged pact on Ennis Council

GREEN Party Councillor Brian Meaney has claimed that some of his fellow Ennis town councillors are paranoid in alleging that others on the council have a pact on mayoralties and other important roles.
Following last week’s annual general meeting of Ennis Town Council, where Councillor Tommy Brennan was elected as mayor and Councillor Meaney as deputy mayor, questions were raised about Fine Gael Councillor Mary Coote Ryan’s vote against her party colleague, Councillor Mary Howard.
For some time, it has been claimed that there is an informal pact between six of the nine Ennis town councillors, which agrees on who will be mayor and deputy mayor over the five years of a council term.
This week, Councillor Meaney denied his involvement in any pre-arranged pact or any particular grouping on Ennis Town Council. “I’m making it clear, I’m not in any group. As far as I’m aware, there are no groupings on council. I find this extremely contradictory. It’s curious the position being taken by Fine Gael because one of their members, Councillor Coote Ryan defied the whip. They are giving out at some people allegedly being in a group in Ennis Town Council, while still giving out that one of their party broke away from their grouping. It doesn’t make sense, so they don’t want a grouping, unless it’s their own group?” the councillor said.
“The reality is there is no grouping. Nobody approached me to vote in a certain way. However, Councillor Brennan did let me know after the election in 2009 that he would like to be mayor again and I took that on board. I have a lot of respect for Councillor Brennan and I feel he is a good person to be mayor and that’s the only reason I gave him my vote. It displays an arrogance for some people to think that they can come into council without having their homework done and get others to work with them. But to say that there is a grouping on council is paranoia and that’s been claimed to mask people’s inability to work with others,” the Deputy Mayor Meaney said.
Councillor Meaney added he was not going to engage in throwing his weight around about “groups, gangs, pacts or whatever some councillors think there are”.
“People think there’s a gang. I think that the reality is that there is one small gang and they want to be in a bigger gang and are put out that they’re not so they make different allegations which make it look like others are against them. This is playground type stuff – like people are throwing a tantrum. As I’ve said, I’m not in any grouping. I’ll work with anyone who seriously wants to work for the good of Ennis. People have to earn respect, not just gain it by throwing their weight around,” he remarked.
In relation to the vote at Ennis Town Council AGM last week, he said that he was not “one bit surprised” at how it went. “People are entitled to vote for who they think will be the best person for the job. I do not believe that there is any pact to say who gets the job,” Councillor Meaney said.
He said that the only person he knew who was going forward for the mayor this year was Councillor Brennan. “Councillor Paul O’Shea and Councillor Mary Howard did not approach me and ask me for my vote. In saying that, Councillor Brennan would still have been my preferred choice for mayor this time and I was going forward for deputy mayor, so obviously I was supporting myself,” he said.
Councillor Meaney denied he is part of an arrangement with five other town councillors, who will share the mayoralty and deputy mayoralty positions during this council term.
“I am deputy mayor now and I’m honoured to have received the support of council for the position but I’m not looking to be mayor in this term of council and don’t expect to be either. But of course, I won’t rule it out,” he commented.
He added that no other town councillor has approached him about becoming mayor in the coming years. He acknowledged, however, that he is in favour of direct mayoral elections, where the mayor would be the choice of the people, a suggestion proposed in the Local Government Bill 2000, which was not included in the final bill.
Meanwhile, the regional organiser for Fine Gael, Jim McMahon commented that Councillor Coote Ryan’s vote against party lines at Ennis Town Council had been brought to party headquarters’ attention. He declined to comment further on the matter.