FF-FG-GP vote for a discretionary fund over a proposal for a new participatory teen budget.
On behalf of Independent councillors Mick Duff, Alan Edge, Liona O’Toole, Eoin O’Broin, Guss O’Connell and Francis Timmons, Labour councillors Pamela Kearns and Joanna Tuffy and Social Democrat Carly Bailey, they wish to make the following statement.
The ruling group in South County Council of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, supported by two independents, have voted to include a €60,000 ‘discretionary fund’ for use by the chairs of the Local Area Committees, themselves appointed by the ruling group. The move met with opposition from independent councillors Mick Duff, Alan Edge, Liona O’Toole, Eoin O’Broin, Guss O’Connell and Francis Timmons, Labour councillors Pamela Kearns and Joanna Tuffy and Social Democrat Carly Bailey who together proposed instead that the money go to fund a participatory budget for young people to be administered by the Council and Comhairle na nÓg. With 30 secondary schools in the county, the funds could have been used to great effect for the benefit of young people who have been among the groups who’ve suffered greatly as a result of the impacts of covid. They were supported in this by PBP, Solidarity and Sinn Féin.
The councillors also sought to stop Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Greens and their two independent colleagues from voting for €20,000 for councillors overseas expenses. The group proposed that instead of overseas junkets, that money should be used to pay for a feasibility study for the County Museum proposed by Tallaght Community Council as agreed in the Tallaght Local Area Plan. Fianna Fáil Mayor Ed O’Brien controversially ruled this out of order. At a time of unprecedented financial uncertainty, the group said, it’s appallingly tone deaf that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party should vote for junkets over a variety of alternatives put forth, including a special social distance-transport fund to benefit community groups such as Active Agers in the era of covid. The discretionary fund has been described by the opposing group as ‘little more than a slush fund’, the very worst kind of Tammany hall style local politics, tone-deaf and ripe for abuse, a return to the political dark ages of using largesse to buy votes.
“That Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens can’t find the money to pay student nurses and midwives for their work but do see fit to allocate €20,000 for overseas junkets for themselves during a pandemic is utterly deplorable and reprehensible” concluded the group of Councillors.
