Fresh war of words erupts between mayor and a number of Limerick councillors

LIMERICK City and County Council descended into fresh chaos this Thursday amid claims of "deeply personal" remarks and "victim blaming" towards councillors from Mayor John Moran.

Across 90 minutes of warring words, the mayor expressed apologies to councillors Michael Collins and Olivia O’Sullivan over comments he made.

During today’s meeting, Mayor Moran accused Cllr Collins of “shouting” at him over an issue of funding in Newcastle West.
All this comes as the executive mayor attempts a “reset” of relations under his premiership.

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It comes nine days on from a special meeting of the local authority, which saw councillors take Mayor Moran to task over comments he made on Live95 over Christmas in Limerick, and express their support for director general Dr Pat Daly, members were again left criticising the first citizen.

Councillors were meeting in Dooradoyle to discuss the mayoral fund.

But for the second time in a row, this failed to be addressed as the meeting was adjourned in acrimony after 90 minutes.

There were calls for “respect” from both the mayor and local councillors during the meeting.

In this vein, Cllr O’Sullivan said: “If we are clearing the air today to attempt a reset there is something I need to say.”

The Fine Gael councillor claimed that Mayor Moran had said to her ahead of last year’s local budget meeting: “Hurry on, you’re late. I’ll have to dock your pay”.

“I am a twice elected councillor, former cathaoirleach of the metropolitan district and a person in a place of work, equal to every other public representative, equal to every other person in this room. I cannot understand how the mayor felt it was OK to speak to me in that way,” said the northside councillor. “No council official, no director, would ever speak to me like that.”

Mayor John Moran responded by saying: “I'm sorry if you took offence. I'll remind you it was at a time when one of your own party colleagues was at a meeting suggesting I should have my expenses removed if I didn't come to a meeting at all. That is a very important context on that. If you took offence at a joke in the corridor, then I apologise for that.”

Following Cllr O’Sullivan’s statement, two of her party colleagues in the metropolitan area rallied around her.

“This really sets out the issues we are dealing with in this organisation. That we have brought elected members to tears in this chamber,” said Cllr Dan McSweeney.

He urged Mayor Moran to “take a long reflection on what you have said. You wanted a reset: nothing has changed.”
Current metropolitan leader, Cllr Daniel Butler criticised the mayor for what he felt was a “callous and cold” response to Cllr O’Sullivan.

“I know her sharing that is something she has not done lightly and without due consideration. She is not a person who gets easily upset. It's hard to see a colleague get upset like that in the chamber, in such a public forum. I want to acknowledge the strength and bravery she has. I know it's difficult to hear somebody not apologise, but say, ‘if you took offence’, which is a form of victim-blaming. It's not anything I did wrong, but your fault for getting offended.”

Earlier in the meeting, Mayor Moran and Fianna Fail’s council leader, Cllr Collins had an exchange about a funding issue in his Newcastle West district.

“We can have conversations without shouting at each other,” Mayor Moran said.

The mayor suggested it is in Cllr Collins’s personality “to shout backwards and forwards”.

Priomh-chomhairleoir Catherine Slattery accused the directly elected mayor of being “totally out of line” and asked him to afford an apology to the Newcastle West councillor.

“I have every right to challenge you on money you are wasting and that's what I am doing,” Cllr Collins added.

It was this exchange which sparked the first of three adjournments to the meeting.

Upon the resumption, Cllr Slattery - who had accused Mayor Moran of “making snide remarks” to her when his microphone was not switched on - said to the mayor she would no longer accept his behaviour.

“Your interrupting me without having your microphone on, and saying things to me so other people can’t hear. Going forward, I am not accepting it,” she said.

Almost immediately, Mayor Moran then requested another 10-minute adjournment to “consider” what Cllr Slattery had said.

Following the second resumption, the first citizen apologised if there was any “misinterpretation” in what he said to Cllr Collins.

“I was feeling upset about being shouted at. Some people I have noticed in this chamber have shown sometimes they feel in order to make a point they need to raise their voices. I'd prefer that didn't happen. I react badly to that. It upsets me, I'm hearing it upsets other colleagues. I will reflect on it, I will reflect on it that I don't have that kind of interaction either,” said the mayor.

Addressing Cllr Collins, he said he didn’t mean to make reference to “anything in your personal life”

“Frankly, I don't know anything about your personal life, and I hold you in the highest regard in terms of what you are doing.”

But Cllr Collins said he was “deeply offended” by the comments, adding: “You have set a new low in this organisation. After our meeting last week, where you were looking for a reset, I think in actual fact it's gotten worse.”

At the start of this Thursday’s meeting, Independent councillor Elena Secas had attempted to get members to move on from last week’s stormy meeting, saying what happened then “was totally unacceptable”.

“It's time for us all to take a step back, reflect on ourselves, on what we say and how it affects other people. As an organisation we are undergoing a significant transformation and there has been huge resistance to this change since day one.

And no one seems to be able to manage this resistance, so we either need to change our practices and behaviours or else we need to bring in someone from the outside to manage it for us, as otherwise we are doomed to completely fail,” she said.

A number of other councillors tried to have the former Labour councillor name names - but she refused.

Her intervention was praised by Mayor Moran, who said: “I applaud Cllr Secas for being brave enough to say what a lot of us feel. I think it was not ever her intention to have a witch hunt and name people. When someone goes to the trouble of raising serious concerns in a legitimate way, it's not right to force them under pressure as a whistleblower to ask them to name people.”