Disappointment with presentation of council motion
Dear editor,
We were surprised to read in last week's Sligo Weekender the account of Sligo County Council’s (SCC) April 8 meeting.
The account in the paper clearly differed from the interpretation that our members placed upon the meeting.
At the SCC meeting 2 motions relating to the Early Years (Childcare) sector were put forward, one by Cllr Marie Casserly, the other by Cllr Declan Bree.
These 2 motions related to an earlier meeting held between a number of Early Years Providers and Sligo County Councillors (Cllrs Casserly, Bree, Gilroy, Walsh, Healy and O’Boyle). At the earlier public meeting we understood that we would work with Cllr Casserly to draft a motion which the attending Cllrs would support unamended.
Therefore, it came as something of a shock when the SCC meeting was presented with an amendment by Cllr Gilroy and an alternative motion by Cllr Bree, both of whom attended the earlier meeting.
While any misunderstanding, no matter how inexplicable, is forgivable what is not understandable or forgivable, is the lack of respect shown by certain County Councillors to Cllr Casserly, and by extension the lack of respect shown to the general public.
We asked Cllr Casserly to represent us exactly as she did, and we asked the other Cllrs to support her motion. What did happen was that Cllr Bree repeated twice “it (the motion) doesn't make any sense” he inferred it was a “daft motion”, “meaningless” and “ridiculous” and that it would “bring the council into disrepute”.
Cllr Gilroy added to the disrespect felt when he inferred that a party political motivation was behind the motion stating: “These people shouldn’t have a say in what we’re doing.”
We had asked for help and this was the response we got.
Thank goodness that some Sligo County Councillors have retained their respect for each other and for the electorate. Cllrs Clarke, MacSharry and Taylor all spoke up in defence of Cllr Casserly's motion while Cllr Joe Queenan correctly identified that this was an attempt to water down Cllr Casserly’s motion.
Cllr Gerard Mullaney demonstrated his fairness and ability in the role of Cathaoirleach in chairing this unnecessarily confrontational meeting.
Yours,
The concerned group of Early Childhood and School Aged Care Providers