Early shots fired in advance of 2019 Local Elections as councillors head off on holiday

MARTIN Baker looked up at the chamber clock i n dismay. It was barely midday on his first meeting as Cathaoirleach and the councillors were already at each other’s throats.

The Fianna Fáil end of the semi-circle (his own party!) were throwing a hissy fit over housing charity Focus Ireland’s request for money to buy a house in Maugheraboy.

They hadn’t consulted with local residents, who were now up in arms, with Rosaleen O’Grady and the might of Fianna Fail right behind them.

Hadn’t Rosaleen warned them about this before? But they obviously weren’t listening.

Seamus Kilgannon couldn’t support it and Tom MacSharry wanted to reject their request outright, seconded by Rosaleen.

A housing official begged them to loosen the purse strings.

The house was badly needed.

But let nobody lecture Rosaleen about social housing. Nobody was more in favour of social housing than Rosaleen. Why, she was reared in a corporation house and “very proud of it”.

Big Mac called for a vote to reject it but hadn’t clever Keith Henry swotted up on the rulebook which said if a motion hadn’t a proposer or a seconder it would fall without having to go to a vote. How brilliant was that? They wouldn’t even get their hands dirty.

The reluctant Cathaoirleach put the motion to the floor and you could have heard a pin drop.

“We have to be careful here,” cut in Fine Gael’s Hubert Keaney, all too aware of the optics (and that Dail seat suddenly up for grabs).

After a hastily agreed recess the Fianna Fáil troops marched back down the hill again. Focus has now two months to talk to the neighbours who don’t want them in or they’re not in.

The hot weather was getting to everyone. Tempers were eroding faster than a Strandhill sand dune.

Big Mac trod on Sinead Maguire’s toes over her motion on dune erosion in Strandhill. Having generously seconded her motion he then had the absolute cheek to respond first to the official’s report, forcing the Fine Gael woman to verbally shove him off her dune.

Sinead called

Car- then for a dio Cath Lab for Sligo Hospital, right after missing a presentation from Dr Fergal Hickey that morning calling for exactly that.

They needed to be making more noise about this, she said, urging her colleagues to use all their political might to support her bid for the Dáil on this.

Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Rosaleen quickly pointed out Sinead’s earlier absence, just in case it was missed on anyone.

Sinn Féin’s Chris MacManus gently pointed out that it was the er, Fine Gael Government that called the shots?

It was an awful, terrible pity, opined Big Mac, that Cllr Maguire wasn’t there this morning, such a pity, she wasn’t there, he repeated, wondering if he had said it loud enough.

Fine Gael had failed Sligo in health and failed miserably, he declared.

“I do attend most of the meetings and wait for them to finish before I leave,” shot back Sinead, prompting a chorus of low ‘oooohs’ of delight.

It’s game on for Local Elections 2019. They were all just warming up for the biggest row of all however.

Seamus Kilgannon wanted the Council to give a few acres of land reserve in Strandhill to some poor developers to build “five or six” houses.

He was lobbied by a developer and didn’t mind who knew it.

Big Mac condemned the Council for the lack of building going on anywhere in Sligo.

There wasn’t a “shovel of cement between here and Strandhill” added Rosaleen.

Well! Sinead had been lobbied by the same developer as Seamus and he wasn’t talking about five or six houses, oh no. More like 80-100. Didn’t anyone remember what happened the last time we listened to developers?

The Council should be strong enough to de-zone land in fact, chipped in Michael Clarke.

There’s a whole generation of people still paying for the “diabolic” planning of the past said Hubert Keaney, his eye firmly on the ball.

Seamus only backed down after Chief Executive Ciaran Hayes promised another debate (row) on it before the end of the year.

Having kicked the can down the road the councillors split for the summer.

The sooner this heatwave was over the better.