BREAKING: Anger as Castlecomer councillors vote to halve their number of meetings
By SHANE DORAN
THE newly elected members of the Castlecomer Municipal District have voted to halve the number of meetings they will hold for the next 12 months, KilkennyNow.ie can reveal.
The controversial proposal to reduce the monthly meetings to bi-monthly meetings was put forward by Fine Gael’s Mary Hilda Kavanagh at the municipal’s first meeting at Kilkenny County Council today.
It was seconded by Councillor John Brennan, also of Fine Gael, and supported by Fianna Fáil’s Michael Delaney and Michael McCarthy.
Only first-time councillor Denis Hynes (Labour) and local poll-topper Pat Fitzpatrick (FF) opposed the proposal, which was carried by a four to two majority.
Cllr Hynes (pictured), who is also his party’s General Election candidate in Carlow-Kilkenny, said he was “terribly disappointed” at the move to halve the number of local municipal meetings to just six over the next 12 months.
He told KilkennyNow.ie: “I regard this as a worrying development, particularly in light of the recent decision to exclude the public and press from the Strategic Policy Committee (SPC) meetings.
“People voted for us to attend these meetings. The Chair and Vice-Chair retain their full salaries for having half the meetings – this is not sending out the right message to the people who elected us.”
