Council boss pulls motion on GAA land sale
Plans for the sale of 8.93 acres of land to Louth GAA for the development of the county grounds at a site just off the Inner Relief Road at Marshes Upper, Dundalk failed to advance when Louth County Council Chief Executive Joan Martin withdraw a section 183 motion from the agenda at yesterday’s meeting of the local authority.
Had the motion been passed by councillors it would have paved the way for the sale of the site to Louth GAA for €400,000 to be paid in equal installments over five years.
However, Ms Martin told councillors that she had withdrawn it from the agenda and that it would now come before the November meeting. She indicated that councillors could email any queries regarding the matter to the council before that meeting.
A number of councillors complained that they had already sent emails and Cllr Colm Markey called for a workshop to be held before next month’s meeting so that members could be briefed on any issues.
Ms Martin said that one of the reasons she was withdrawing it from the agenda was because of the emails she had received.
She told councillors that while the decision to approve a section 183 was a reserved function of the members, the bringing of a section 183 motion to a meeting was an executive function and she was withdrawing it from the agenda.
Cllr Tomas Sharkey said it was now on record that the Chief Executive had withdrawn the item from the agenda due to queries brought to her attention by members.
‘I also had a meeting with members of your party on Friday,’ Ms Martin told him.