Cllr Tomás Sharkey
Louth County Council might have won the Council of the Year Award at the Local Authority Managers’ Assocation (LAMA) awards in Dublin at the weekend but according to Sinn Féin councillor Tomás Sharkey they have lost the confidence of the public.
Despite the local authority’s honour at the weekend, Cllr Sharkey says there are major problems facing the council, which he claims takes the shine off the award.
In a statement to Talk of the Town, Cllr Sharkey said: “The award received by Louth County Council last week is down to the work of ordinary public servants. It’s true that good work is done on the ground but too many questions hang over the work of council management and the Fianna Fáil / Fine Gael coalition that hogs power.
“We are 5 months into an investigation around the purchase of houses from housing section management and still no report is available.
“The local government auditor has raised questions around the valuation of lands bought for housing during the boom with cash reserves.
“Three years after Councillor Jim Loughran requested it, we have no full list of lands bought by the Council.
“Last year Dundalk Women’s Aid Refuge turned away 293 requests for help while the Council cut funding.
“The culture of junkets is alive and well amongst some councillors. Thousands of euro are spent on junkets despite the fact that the council doesn’t have a training plan as required since 2010.
“Up until last week the council management calculated domiciliary care allowances as income for charging rent. Louth was one of the last councils to end this mean practice.
“In 2013, applications for disability grants were accepted for only 5 weeks due to lack of funds.
“Over recent months I have met more and more people who are raising concerns about our council and I cannot disagree with them. We in Sinn Féin have a daily battle to ensure openness, fairness and transparency in Louth County Council. We face resistance at every monthly meeting.
“Though we appreciate the hard work of ordinary public servants, we caution against this award being seen as an endorsement of the culture we see in the council chamber,” he said.
