Limerick council to hold special meeting on housing following councillor's legal challenge
LIMERICK CITY and County Council will hold a special meeting following a legal challenge from a councillor.
Councillor Sharon Benson had initiated a legal challenge against the council following a special meeting held on April 5 discussing the end of the eviction ban.
During the meeting, Councillor Benson alleged that the council "blatantly disregarded standing orders and refused to have the motion heard".
The emergency motion was submitted by Cllr Sharon Benson, Cllr PJ Carey and Cllr Tom Collopy who were supported by Social Democrats councillor Elisa O'Donovan and Independent councillor Eddie Ryan.
The motion, which was not discussed, called on the local authority to note the comments by tenants' charity Threshold which predicted that "unprecedented" numbers of adults and children could become homeless as a result of the end of the moratorium. The motion also called on the council to write to the government to urge it to reconsider the ending of the eviction ban.
Following the news that a special meeting will now be held on the topic, the Sinn Fein councillor said she welcomed the opportunity to discuss the "very important motion".
"The course of action the council took unfortunately left me with no choice but to pursue legal avenues to ensure that not only this special meeting was held but that the local democratic processes were protected.
"If fair process was followed from the start, I would not have had to pursue legal action. An action that has left Limerick City & County Council facing legal costs. But here we are and I am delighted to see that both common sense and due process has won out.
"I would like to thank both my party colleagues and fellow councillors who stood by me during this process and of course my legal team who worked tirelessly to get this matter addressed".
Confirming the scheduling of the special meeting, a spokesperson for Limerick City and County Council said: "Following the Special Meeting on the 5th of April relating to a requisition on Housing, Limerick City and County Council received legal advice and a decision has been made to rescind the notice of motion and schedule a special meeting to allow for a full debate on the topic.
"A date and time for same will be confirmed in due course".