Council votes against hearing emergency motion despite significant public attendance
COUNCILLORS VOTE AGAINST DISCUSSING CETA TRADE DEAL
WHILE ordinarily there is little interest from the public in attending meetings of Wexford County Council, most people preferring to get the highlights in their local newspaper, last week saw a significant attendance of 11 in the virtual public gallery at the monthly meeting which took place via Microsoft Teams.
The first time that there’s been such an attendance since meetings moved online due to Covid-19, the members of the public, it seemed, were all there to see the outcome of an emergency motion tabled by Independent Cllr Leonard Kelly.
While the deadline for submitting motions had already been and gone, Cllr Kelly tabled the emergency motion in relation to a controversial CETA trade deal between the EU and Canada. The deal has been causing a significant rift in the Green Party in particular and some of those in attendance in the public gallery had associations with the Green Party.
As protocol would have it, in order for a motion to be heard on an emergency basis, it would have to obtain approval from at least 18 council members. However, those in attendance specifically on this matter faced a long wait as it was the last piece of business following a three hour council meeting.
County Secretary David Minogue undertook a roll call among members to see who was in favour of hearing the motion. It fell by the finest of margins with only 17 members voting to hear the motion, the required majority being 18. Those who voted against said that they hadn’t had time to familiarise themselves with the intricacies of the deal and wouldn’t be capable of debating it.
The majority of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors voted against hearing the motion, while a cohort of Sinn Féin, Labour and Independents pushed for it to proceed.
Not garnering enough votes, the County Secretary suggested that it be brought before the next monthly meeting. At this stage, members of the public breached protocol using the chat features on Microsoft Teams to say ‘It’ll be too late in March’. This came despite warnings at the very start that they could not address the meeting in any way and could only observe.
Tempers flared when Sinn Féin’s Cllr Tom Forde suggested that councillors ‘ should be better educated by their own parties’ in relation to the trade deal.
‘I’d call on you to withdraw that comment Cllr Forde,’ Chairman Cllr Ger Carthy said. ‘I’m looking at a screen full of well educated and experienced people here. I think that comment is highly unfair and I’d urge you to withdraw.’
‘I won’t withdraw it,’ Cllr Forde replied. ‘I’ll rephrase. I’d ask that the members go back to their parties and ask to be educated in relation to this issue.’
Party colleague Cllr Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin added: ‘I find it incredible that so many representatives would claim to not know about the trade deal despite the fact that we’ve received a whole host of emails.’
The Chairman cut the Sinn Féin councillor short saying: ‘That ship has sailed. The motion is not being heard, we’re moving on.’
However, before they did, Cllr Jim Codd stressed that ‘the small beef farmer will soon be extinct if tonnes of Canadian beef starts flooding the market.’
Fine Gael’s Cllr Jim Moore was unimpressed by the whole situation.
‘I don’t want to start another argument,’ he said. ‘But some remarks were made about councillors needing to educate themselves. I would suggest that councillors need to educate themselves on the basic format of a council meeting and how motions are brought onto an agenda before giving out about anything else!’